In commemeration of the series’s twentieth anniversary, Ubisoft released a teaser for the upcoming remake of Splinter Cell. The studio also released a new Splinter Cell 20th-anniversary video honoring one of gaming’s top spies.
The video features Ubisoft’s Creative Director Chris Auty, Technical Director Christian Carriere, Senior Game Designer Andy Schmoll, and Associate Level Design Director Zavian Porter in a round table discussion about their favorite aspects of the original game, as well as them teasing us with details about the new game. Part of the discussion revolves around the lighting, visuals, player agency, and other interesting aspects of the upcoming remake. The original Splinter Cell was an Xbox-exclusive title at the time of its release, which was then ported to PC and other platforms. The second entry, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, introduced a multiplayer component to the franchise. This multiplayer service was a precursor to the Xbox live service that we enjoy today - just one of the many lasting marks Splinter Cell has left on the hobby. “It’s not simply a remaster,” creative director Chris Auty reveals in the anniversary video. “It’s being built from the ground up. We get to do all the content from scratch, fresh and ready to go.” “Yeah, we’re aiming to create this top-tier remake and push quality as much as possible. This should help us set a good foundation for the franchise going forward,” Zavian Porter adds. “We’re very early in production. We’re still prototyping. We don’t want to rush anything. We want to make sure that we absolutely nail the game, we actually do everything in the right way, and produce an absolutely stellar-quality experience. And we will be going dark for a little while, so we can focus on making the absolute best game possible,” Auty explains. Ubisoft announced plans for the Splinter Cell remake last December. According to the developers, the remake will use the Snowdrop engine, which powers several others Ubisoft titles such as The Division, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and an upcoming Star Wars game. Ubisoft also revealed that the story for Splinter Cell will be rewritten to “appeal to a new generation of players.” This makes sense, as the game relies on “futuristic technology” that might seem obsolete twenty years later. The remake hit a bit of a snag when its game director David Grivel left Ubisoft and moved to EA’s Ridgeline Games to be Design Director there. Ridgeline games is one of the studios working on the Battlefield franchise. Ubisoft is yet to announce a release date for the Splinter Cell remake. In the meantime, gamers can grab a copy of the original Splinter Cell for free at the Ubisoft website. This freebie is also part of the 20th-anniversary celebration of the game.
