While Sam Fisher may have had a few cameo appearances in recent years including Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, and even an Easter Egg in Far Cry: New Dawn, the Splinter Cell franchise has been dormant for quite some time. When the original Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell released in 2002, taking inspiration from big-name franchises such as Thief, Deus Ex, and most notably Metal Gear Solid, critics praised its approach to third-person stealth gameplay, as well as its lighting, audio, and focus on suspense. Stealth games are few and far between, particularly these days, and it felt like Ubisoft had just released the next franchise that players had to keep an eye on.
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A Splinter Cell Remake
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell was a huge success, managing to sell six million copies worldwide for a brand new IP, and spawning a number of sequels including Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow in 2004, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory in 2005, and Splinter Cell: Double Agent in 2006. However, like many franchises in the late 2000s, after the success of games like Resident Evil 4 and Gears of War and the ever-growing multiplayer market, sales began to drop with each entry and the series quickly put its focus on action over anything else. While Splinter Cell: Conviction and Splinter Cell: Blacklist both sold over 2 million copies each and received positive reviews from critics, neither came close to the sales of the original or Ubisoft’s juggernaut Assassin’s Creed franchise, and fans were left wondering what happened to the series they loved. They left a mark on the franchise and Ubisoft moved on to other things.
In order for Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell to make a real comeback and get the revival that it deserves, Ubisoft needs to work its way through the franchise’s identity crisis and work out what direction it wants the series to go moving forward. Making stealth games is difficult and costs a lot of money, likely a major factor as to why Ubisoft put the series on the back burner for as long as it has. On top of that, even with brand recognition, it’s still a financial risk to spend millions on a brand new game in the series and have it be considered a failure because fans didn’t like the direction chosen. Instead, Ubisoft should look at Capcom’s success with the Resident Evil franchise over the past two years and emulate it by remaking the original Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell (there’s an argument for Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory but the original makes more sense) from the ground-up for next-generation consoles.
By remaking the first game, Ubisoft has the ability to take the series back to its roots and use it as a testing bed for how Splinter Cell would perform with modern audiences, both critically and commercially. After Resident Evil went about as far as it possibly could from what fans wanted with Resident Evil 6, Operation Raccoon City, and Umbrella Corps, Capcom came back with a soft-reboot in the form of Resident Evil 7, and a complete remake of Resident Evil 2. Both games ending up being a huge success for Capcom, proving that millions of players were still interested in traditional survival-horror games and that Resident Evil was still relevant to modern audiences.
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Splinter Cell on the PS5, Xbox Series X
Taking cues from Resident Evil 2 Remake and Insomniac Games’ Ratchet & Clank (2016) soft-reboot, the PS5 and Xbox Series X are an ideal way to reintroduce players to the Splinter Cell franchise. Ubisoft should remake the original game for next-generation consoles and use it as an opportunity to reimagine how stealth games should work today. Flesh out the story and characters if there’s room to do so, expand locations to add more variety, incorporate new mechanics from other games in the franchise or that help the experience feel more modern, and cut out any unnecessary content for pacing. Fans have wanted to see the return of Sam Fisher and Splinter Cell for a very long time and this could be a great way to bring the series back and course correct past games.
While a number of companies including EA, CD Projekt Red, and IGN will be holding EA 2020 replacement events over the next two weeks as part of Geoff Keighley’s Summer Games Fest, Ubisoft’s showcase is still a month away. Due to take place on July 12, Ubisoft Forward promises an “E3-style showcase with plenty of exclusive game news, exciting reveals, and much more.” While there’s absolutely no guarantee that Ubisoft will be showing anything related to Sam Fisher or the Splinter Cell franchise, Ubisoft Forward is going to be a great way to get fans excited for upcoming games coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell is available on PC, PS3, PS2, Xbox, and GameCube.
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