Ubisoft has developed a number of different video game series based on the espionage and military stories of novelist Tom Clancy, including Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon. But it was the Splinter Cell games, the first of which released 15 years ago, that took the Tom Clancy games to a new height.
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell first released for the original Xbox console in November 2002; the game would later be ported to Windows, PlayStation 2 and the GameCube, with 2D ports also releasing for the Game Boy Advance and N-Gage. The game was a stealth action title that put the player in control of Sam Fisher, a member of a black ops division called the “Third Echelon.” Fisher is first dispatched to look into two missing CIA agents, and soon uncovers a far larger plot that could not just jeopardize the U.S. government, but also potentially start a third world war.
The gameplay itself was focused on stealth, with a particular emphasis on light and darkness. Players are meant to travel through shadows, and a “light meter” shows exactly how visible they are to the foes in the area. Fisher is equipped with firearms, though the game is designed with very little ammunition available, meaning that players are encouraged to use other means to take out opponents instead of just using direct force.
Splinter Cell was critically praised upon release, and it sold several million units across all available platforms in the years following its launch. It kicked off what is arguably what is not just the most popular Tom Clancy-inspired game series, but also one of Ubisoft’s most popular series overall. The game has seen six sequels in the years since, with the most recent, Blacklist, having released in 2013. The series also saw a number of novel tie-ins released, written by David Michaels (a pseudonym for several other authors that have included Raymond Benson, Grant Blackwood, and Peter Telep). A film adaptation of the franchise has been in the works for several years, but rights have bounced around and preproduction has seemingly stalled since 2015.
Though it’s now been a few years since anything new has come out for this series, Splinter Cell has proved that stealth gaming can be just as fun as charging in guns-a-blazing.
