Splinter Cell Remake Coming From Ubisoft

Once upon a time, the popular Splinter Cell titles helped make Ubisoft a household name among gamers. Now, the company has officially announced a remake of Splinter Cell.

It sounds like the remake will be a pleasant mix of old and new. For example, it is being developed by Ubisoft Toronto, and they gave us the excellent Splinter Cell: Blacklist. But the game is being made from scratch using the hot new Snowdrop engine that helped power the Division games and will also be powering high-profile titles like Ubisoft’s upcoming (and relatively mysterious so far) Star Wars game as well as Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

Over on the Ubisoft website, producer Matt West dished on why they decided to remake Splinter Cell instead of simply remastering the original. “I think it kind of has to be a remake as opposed to a remaster,” he said. “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.”

And for better or for worse, that means the new Splinter Cell is going to be a linear, stealth-centric adventure as opposed to Ubisoft’s more recent open-world offerings. According to the game’s creative director Chris Auty, the team is really supporting the stealth mechanics. “It’s safe to say a lot of us on the team are stealth purists, and we’re behind that level of seriousness when it comes to those kinds of mechanics, and those sorts of things that we want to see in this game,” he said.

Continuing, he elaborated on a few key elements. “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,” he said. “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.”

According to West, their goal is simple: the team wants to “capture the essence back when we were all playing the original games.” And producer Peter Handrinos insisted there are franchise veterans returning to make the new game alongside newer creative talent, “so we’re going to have a really good mix of people.”

Ubisoft is planning for this game to effectively relaunch the franchise. As Auty puts it, “With this remake, we are building a solid base for the future of Splinter Cell.” That means potentially sequels to this game to go with the Splinter Cell VR game currently in development. 

Are you excited about this remake, or is Splinter Cell’s time over? Let us know in the comments!