Summary
It’s June, and to gamers across the world that means one thing: Game showcases. What was once the month of E3 has now been overtaken by Summer Game Fest, with individual studios hosting their own showcases across their various YouTube and Twitch channels, and this year already has a stacked roster. However, there is one event I am keeping an eye on in particular, and that’s theUbisoft Forward.
After giving players a proper look atAssassin’s Creed: Shadows' characters and story through a cinematic trailer in May, the trailers for the Ubisoft Forward have focused heavily on showing more from the next entry in theAssassin’s Creedseries, with the strong possibility that gameplay will be shown. There has also been confirmation that the previously announcedStar Wars Outlawswill appear at the event, which makes sense as the game is due to be released this August and will likely have some kind of final trailer to remind players of the game’spre-order bonuses and different editions. While I am personally looking forward to both of these titles, the trailers do also tease “more”, however, andthere’s one particular title that Ubisoft announced years ago that I am keen to see more than any other: theSplinter Cellremake.
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Will Splinter Cell Finally Make An Appearance At Ubisoft Forward 2024?
The Remake Was Announced In December 2021
Splinter Cellis one of my favorite game series- particularly the first three, although I have revisited some of the later titles as well - withChaos Theorybeing my personal favorite, and its Bank mission being perhaps one of my most played missions ever, due to just how cool it is. Therefore, when Ubisoft Toronto announced that it was working on a remake of the first game with modern hardware, I was cautiously optimistic. While I was glad Ubisoft was returning to one of my favorite series, remakes can be very hit-or-miss, but I was still keen to see more due to how far development tools have come since the original game in 2002.
When the originalSplinter Cellwas released, its dynamic lighting mechanics were considered to be revolutionary, with Sam Fisher shooting out lights to create shadows and form his own path around levels undetected. Of course, with newer real-timelighting advancements such as ray-tracing, this could look better than ever, and recent rumors have stated that ray-traced reflections and other features add further obstacles for players to be considerate of as they work their way around the environments.
While the Ubisoft Forward reveals have focused heavily onAssassin’s Creed ShadowsandStar Wars Outlaws,Ubisoft Toronto changed its profile picture and banners on social media to Sam Fisher’s iconic green tri-lense night-vision goggles around the time of the showcase’s announcementas well, which gives me hope that the remake could make an appearance at the event. Word surrounding the game has been extremely sparse since its announcement, barring some concept art released as part of the original title’s20th Anniversary celebration in 2022, but with the game being in development for under three years by this point, I’m hoping there will at least be a proper trailer or some gameplay footage, if not a release window of some kind.
Why Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell Remake Actually Might Work
Ubisoft has confirmed that the upcoming Splinter Cell remake won’t be open world, which is a good sign that the project may be on the right lines.
Splinter Cell Fans Have Been Waiting Far Too Long For A New Game
Blacklist Was Released In 2013
The late 90s and 2000s were a great time for stealth games. We had theMetal Gear SolidandSyphon Filterseries, andSplinter Cell, but over the years these have gradually come to an end.Syphon Filterdevelopers Bend Studio went on to develop the open-world zombie titleDays Gone, andMetal Gear Solidfell apart after its creator Hideo Kojima parted ways with Konami during the production ofThe Phantom Pain, with Konami’s ill-fatedMetal Gear Surviveshowing the studio shouldn’t carry on the franchise without Kojima at the helm, which is likely why the onlyMetal Gearproducts that have come out since have been ports of the earlier games in the series, and a remake ofSnake Eater, which will reportedly include the original’s audio and story.
As forSplinter Cell, us fans have been waiting for a new entry since the release of the divisiveBlacklistin 2013, which I would argue wasn’t actually that bad and actively tried to bring the series back to stealth after the more action-packedConvictionby at least giving players more gadgets and equipment and the option to go through levels completely undetected again. I’ll admit I did find the voice change from Michael Ironside to Eric Johnson jarring at first, and the excuse that it was done purely for better performance capture didn’t sit well considering other titles such asHitmaninvolved motion capture, but also brought back David Bateson to voice its protagonist. However, once it was revealed in an interview on theUbisoft North AmericaYouTube channel that Ironside stepped away from the role due to battling cancer, it became clear that this was the only choice the studio had at the time, andIronside has since returned to the role inGhost Recon Wildlands.
Ubisoft has clearly been aware of how popular theSplinter CellIP is, as Sam Fisher has made further cameos in other games, appearing inRainbow Six Siegeand the ill-fated mobile titleTom Clancy’s Elite Squad.However, the series itself has been in limbo, which has been extremely frustrating, likely because its more linear level structure didn’t fit in with the kind of open-world games the company was becoming more well known for. At least all of the titles - including both the Xbox and Xbox 360 versions ofDouble Agent- have been available via Xbox’s backwards compatibility scheme, so I have been able to easily revisit them while waiting extremely patiently for a new entry.
Most of theSplinter Cellgames are also on PC, but with the lighting issuesPandora Tomorrowfaced over the years, Ubisoft has pulled the second game in the series from any digital storefront, meaning it’s incomplete on the platform. Maybe if theSplinter Cellremake is successful, Ubisoft could look toPandora Tomorrownext and finally bring that back to all platforms again.
While it’s unclear whether Ubisoft is using Ironside’s original recordings in the remake, if he is returning to the role, or if another actor like Jeff Teravainen - who voices the character inRainbow Six Siege- or Eric Johnson would take over the role going forward, just the fact Ubisoft is looking to properly revisit the series with a new release that isfollowing the structure of the originalgives me some hope for the future of theSplinter Cellfranchise for the first time in over a decade. Alas, now I just want to actually see the remake in action to see if this hope is justified, and hopefully, this will finally happen atUbisoft’s event on June 10.
