At this point, a brand new Splinter Cell game would probably be considered one of gaming’s worst kept secrets with rumors flying around for well over a year. Whether or not there is a new Splinter Cell game remains to be seen, but Ubisoft has decided to deflect some of those rumors by revealing they are remaking the original Splinter Cell “from the ground up” in the Snowdrop engine.
By using the publisher’s proprietary Snowdrop engine, the team can update the game’s graphics as well as bring the gameplay into the modern era so that it can “match player comfort and expectations”. Seeing as the last Splinter Cell title was released on Playstation 3, the team will be trying to make use of the console generation gap “to explore what this means for us, for light and shadow, for animation tech, for gameplay, AI, even audio”.
Details on the game are scarce right now, although the team emphasises it will “be modern, but built on the foundation of the brand’s rich history”. The fundamental elements of the game will remain intact, meaning it will not be turned into an open world game. The linear game will still reward players “who observe the situations, make their plan, use their gadgets, and outsmart the enemy creatively”.
Ubisoft Toronto is the studio tasked with rebuilding the 19-year-old game, which has just entered the “very earliest stages of development”. They’re the studio whose first title was Splinter Cell: Blacklist and they have a lot of team members who have worked on the franchise previously. The studio is currently recruiting for a number of positions as they build up their team.
The remake is likely to be the reason for the recently refiled Splinter Cell trademark, although a brand new mainline game is also believed to be in development too. Jeff Grubb had claimed testing had taken place for a “Splinter Cell-style” game that “combined familiar Splinter Cell action with elements of the 2016 Hitman reboot.” Ubisoft has said the remake is “building a solid base for the future of Splinter Cell” but it’s likely to be quite a while before we find out exactly what that means.
[Source: Ubisoft]
