Eight years after the franchise’s last installment was released and 19 years after the launch of the series’ very first game, Ubisoft has finally announced that the beloved Splinter Cell franchise is getting a remake.
Announcing the news over on its website, the company says that the upcoming remake will be led by the Ubisoft Toronto team, which is currently looking for new talent to join the project. With almost a decade of technological advancements to play with, the title will now tap into the developer’s very own Snowdrop engine, the same tech behind both the upcoming Ubisoft Star Wars game as well as the long-awaited Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
In an interview with the company’s creative director Chris Auty, producer Matt West and technical producer Peter Handrinos, the three shed more light on what fans can expect for the remake. “To me, a remake takes what you’d do in a remaster and goes a little bit further with it,” West began. “Although we’re still in the very earliest stages of development, what we’re trying to do is make sure the spirit of the early games remains intact, in all of the ways that gave early Splinter Cell its identity. So, as we’re building it from the ground up, we’re going to update it visually, as well as some of the design elements to match player comfort and expectations, and we are going to keep it linear like the original games, not make it open world.”
“Splinter Cell was a breakthrough in stealth – as Matt mentioned, it was “stealth redefined” with a huge focus on getting that core gameplay right above all, and delivering on an ideal: be a ghost,” Auty added. “It’s important for us to preserve the sense of mastery by supporting players who observe the situations, make their plan, use their gadgets, and outsmart the enemy creatively to deal with the challenges they are presented with. Ideally, they end up coming out on the other side with no one having realized you were even there. That’s the essence of Splinter Cell.”
There’s currently no release date yet for the Splinter Cell remake, but fans of the franchise can check out the interview in its entirety over on Ubisoft’s website.
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