I just did a little happy dance yesterday afternoon, as I received news that Microsoft had released backward compatible versions of Splinter Cell: Double Agent and Blacklist for the Xbox One. I then stopped in the middle of my dance as I realized I had a running feature that I started last year, then slowly fell away from. So with this revelation comes a renewed vigor to finish what I started. I’m re-posting the re-visits (re-re-visiting? ugh.) that I began last year, and will continue to complete the remaining reviews.
One of my favorite things as a gamer is going back to old games that I loved, and seeing how time has treated them. Splinter Cell Revisited will be a multi-part series where I hit up each of the major console releases in the Splinter Cell franchise. How do they hold up? What worked and didn’t work? Will I be able to see this through to completion? All questions may or may not be answered!
An Introduction
In the days of the original Xbox, PS2, and Gamecube, there were few brands in video gaming that were as consistently awesome as the Tom Clancy brand. It started when Mr. Clancy himself co-founded the development studio Red Storm Entertainment and began developing PC games based on his popular series of novels. Two of these franchises were a tad more popular than the rest; Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six went on to become the flagship titles for the developer. While Rainbow Six and its sequel Rogue Spear appeared on the original Playstation and Dreamcast, it wasn’t until Microsoft introduced Xbox Live that console gamers really had a taste of what PC gamers had been enjoying.
Red Storm Entertainment took full advantage of the Xbox’s online capabilities and released Ghost Recon in and Ghost Recon Island Thunder in 2002 and 2003 respectively. They then followed it up with a customized port of the PC game, Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield.
While Red Storm was cranking away with Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six, Ubisoft Montreal was making a Clancy game of their own, taking a very different route in their approach to international espionage. They released Splinter Cell in 2003, to critical acclaim, and more importantly, huge lunch room debates on who was more of a badass, Sam Fisher or Solid Snake.
The reason for my little (obviously paraphrased) recap is that here we are, in 2017, and I’ve been playing Ghost Recon Wildlands for the past month. Every so often, I’ll boot up Twitch and watch someone play a few rounds of Rainbow Six Siege, which is now an eSports online shooter. Those two series have had a few ups and downs over the years, and have both evolved so extensively that they are nearly unrecognizable to their original debut. And while I do enjoy Wildlands, it is so far removed from what made Ghost Recon, Ghost Recon, that they could’ve damn well named it anything else.
As much as those other two games have changed, Splinter Cell was one series that remained consistent… for a while. As the franchise seemed to grow during the Xbox generation. It peaked with the excellent Chaos Theory, but the transition to the Xbox 360 era was a bumpy one. The Xbox 360 port of Splinter Cell: Double Agent was a stripped down, “inferior” version of its Xbox counterpart, also missing its popular online co-op. The series seemed to be losing steam. It then took an unintentional hiatus, as the game engine was re-built from the ground up for Splinter Cell: Conviction. The problem was, while it was a novel idea, the game engine never saw completion. The mechanics and play style was too far removed from what was considered a staple of the franchise, and the idea was scrapped, sending Conviction back to the drawing board.
The result was a game that focused heavily on action, very little on stealth, and featured an awkward control scheme and cover mechanic that was a huge departure from the series. While the game wasn’t “bad” (it received favorable reviews) it definitely seemed to mark an end of Splinter Cell as we knew it. Having already seen the direction Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six had taken, one couldn’t blame the fans for crying foul, and pouring out a cold one for one of their favorite stealth games.
Fortunately, someone at Ubisoft was listening. When Splinter Cell Blacklist was announced, they introduced an engine that not only brought back stealth, but was flexible enough to reward a player based on their play style. Adding to it were “side quest” -style missions that each fit into a specific category of play. Some were stealth-based, some were action defense, and some could only be played in co-op. It was a great mix of genres and introduced a Splinter Cell that I, personally, would love to see again. And hopefully I will! I did read a rumor while doing research for this write-up that there is a new Splinter Cell game in the works (there damn well better be) and that Ironside himself will be returning to the role of Fisher. While that remains to be seen, if you look at the current trend of releases, Splinter Cell is technically next on the list. Get to it Ubi!
In part two of this series, I’ll begin my (much less formal) write-up of the original Splinter Cell. It’s been a while since I’ve played it. We’ll see how well I do without all the bells and whistles introduced in later games. Back to basics, I suppose. Thanks for reading, stay tuned!
