Interesting news on the new Splinter Cell, via the Finnish magazine Pelaaja. Based on their cover article (in Finnish, via GamersReports), the latest title in the stealth series will take place in broad daylight. It’s been in development for over two years and is meant to shake up the franchise. Lead character Sam Fisher will become an outlaw and work with an inefficient intelligence organization, leading to unsuitable equipment, incorrect intel and undecisiveness leading to missed opportunities.
While it’s of course refreshing to see the series cover new ground, I’m mostly interested in this because Sam Fisher has been a completely immoral puppet so far. I hope the writers of the series use this opportunity to broaden the moral horizons of Splinter Cell. The series has so far been extremely cold, taking up the US propagandist, anti-terrorist terminology (“threats”, “neutralize”, “contain” and so on) and making the protagonist kill on command without regrets. To a certain degree I can find that interesting to play, but certainly it’s well beyond time for a change, as this is the fifth iteration of the game.
I expect it to play very much like it always did, but something to look forward to.
Leave a Reply