Ubisoft just lifted the veil off of Splinter Cell: Black List, the newest entry in the long running stealth-action series. The latest game will still see protagonist Sam Fischer return to the business of killing ethnic stereotypes, and while stealth is a key aspect of the new Splinter Cell, Fischer’s new adventure seems to have an increased focused on action.
Ubisoft revealed that Sam’s latest mission takes him to the Iraq-Iran border, where he’s been tasked with stopping a network of terrorists from executing a series of coordinated attacks. Despite repeating implying in earlier games that Fischer was “too old for this shit,” Sam seems more agile than ever: it’s obvious that Splinter Cell has been influenced by Ubisoft’s other big franchise, Assassin’s Creed, as Sam Fisher is now capable of scaling and climbing his environment with ease and speed. The trailer showed that Sam still has access to his old repertoire of stealth kills, and Kinect users can yell into their Kinect mic to lure guards over.
When Sam is discovered, he now stands a far better chance of surviving head-on encounters. The game features a cover mechanic, and in general, the action scenes displayed in the trailer seemed more like they were from a third person shooter rather than a stealth game. Sam can also call in air strikes to take out big targets (such as a mounted gun) that he can’t handle himself.
Perhaps the most exciting part of the Splinter Cell reveal was Ubisoft’s mention that Pandora Tomorrow’s much beloved Spies vs. Mercs multiplayer mode would be returning, and the game would feature a full co-op campaign. The game is currently in development at Ubisoft’s Toronto branch, and will be released in Spring of 2013.
