Home Gaming Splinter Cell: Blacklist is being dumbed down

Splinter Cell: Blacklist is being dumbed down

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The last Splinter Cell game, Conviction, already moved away from the pure stealth focus of the series, turning protagonist Sam Fisher in to your standard action hero. Apparently that wasn’t enough, and the series is set for even more simplification –  because stealth, says Ubisoft’s Jade Raymond, is hard. In fact, the challenge of sneaking is what’s holding the series back.

“One of the things that held [Splinter Cell] back is despite all of the changes that have happened over the years, it’s still one of the more complex and difficult games to play,” Raymond told Eurogamer. “Even though we do have core fans who are like, ‘Oh, I want to have more of this experience,’ when you play any other game that has stealth elements, they’re all a lot more forgiving than Splinter Cell. I guess Splinter Cell stayed with the most pure approach to that stealth experience.”

So how do they fix that problem? by dumbing it down, of course! Splinter Cell: Blacklist will offer more options  to those more action-minded gamers; though they’re trying to keep the balance in tact, allowing stealth players to move about like a ghost. It’ll be a tricky balance to maintain. The default mode though, will be less demanding, offering gamers a more “fluid, modern play-style.”

“You can climb up, do 3D navigation and jump over things without thinking too much or pressing buttons,” Raymond said. “Sam does it automatically. The Killing in Motion, being able to Mark and Execute while moving through the map, makes it much more accessible to more of an action gamer.”

I enjoyed Conviction, but it wasn’t nearly as good a “Splinter Cell” game as the last real one, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory – and I’m of the opinion that gamers have more than enough action games to choose from, so a move back towards the more classic, stealthy style would be rewarded.

What about you? Would you prefer if Splinter Cell went back to its roots, or do you like this new action focus? Personally, I love how rewarding stealthy gameplay is (even though I’m rubbish at it), but if the option to go in guns-blazing is there, I’m probably going to take it – and in a game like splinter Cell, I’d rather not have that choice.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist is out for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U and PC in August.

[Thanks to Daniel Keevy for the tip]

Last Updated: April 24, 2013

37 Comments

  1. Macethy

    April 24, 2013 at 09:49

    Ok Splinter Cell, you now have my permission to die as a series.

    Reply

    • Rincethis: Spellalicious

      April 24, 2013 at 10:33

      I second that.

      Reply

    • Daniel Keevy

      April 24, 2013 at 12:16

      But how could you not love the last one! I sneaked behind a couch and shot everyone in the face with bullet time! It was so cool I just cannot stop crying. Oh god why!!!

      Reply

    • matthurstrsa

      April 24, 2013 at 13:16

      Is it still relevant? I agree, at least release it under new IP.

      Reply

  2. Trevor Davies

    April 24, 2013 at 10:00

    I thought Splinter Cell was already on console trollolol

    Reply

  3. umar bastra

    April 24, 2013 at 10:02

    ….. Why do we see this trend …. Which is why I fear for Dark Souls 2 and games like Shin Megami Tensei 4 which is one of the hardest Rpg series EVAR …. sigh , huge Splinter Cell Fan, have all 3 original games on PC. The stealth is what made the game brilliant. This is just a testament to the state that not only gaming is in but most of the general entertainment media as well. We live in a twitch generation, everything needs to be fast and In your face. Movies need to be big and Explosive. Games need to be dumb and gratifying (by gratifying I mean, you need to be able to shoot everything in sight) … Sad to see SC go in this direction.

    The more money we come across the more problems we see

    Reply

  4. Exalted Overlord Geoffrey Tim

    April 24, 2013 at 10:04

    Darryn says he prefers Splinter Cell: Conviction to Chaos Theory. Should he be whipped?

    Reply

    • Trevor Davies

      April 24, 2013 at 10:11

      Do we need a reason?

      Reply

      • Grimthwacker

        April 24, 2013 at 10:31

        Yesterday’s ION header is enough of a reason……

        Reply

    • Matewis Jubilai

      April 24, 2013 at 10:16

      Only if he doesn’t like it… If he does then make him sit through ‘From Justin to Kelly’ or worse ‘Liefling’ – perhaps the former instead. We don’t want to scar him for life…

      Reply

    • umar bastra

      April 24, 2013 at 10:26

      The stealth mechanics were good and very smooth actually imo … but the Stealth took a big back seat and it wasn’t punishing to mess up being stealthy. But it had good ideas and the gameplay was tight and right for stealth, pity it never had it

      Reply

  5. The Bearded Dutchman

    April 24, 2013 at 10:05

    The whole idea of Splinter Cell is to come and go like a ghost. They don’t know you’re there. Everythings still and peacefull, you hear something drop near the trashcans, you investigate like the good security guard that you are and suddenly a shadow drops on your head and you be dead.

    Reply

  6. Trevor Davies

    April 24, 2013 at 10:23

    That header image is a very sneaky. You’re staring at it, looking for the ninja, but the whole time he’s right behind you.

    Reply

  7. FoxOneZA - The Chosen One

    April 24, 2013 at 10:25

    Stealth gameplay is the reason why I play Crysis 2 over and over again

    Reply

  8. Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

    April 24, 2013 at 10:34

    You know what I read when I read all this “Oh, our game doesn’t sell like Call of Duty and Battlefield. Let’s emulate them so that we can appeal to the masses”

    Forget the fact that the masses will never move away from Call Of Battlefield 3000 because they have made their choice and you will simply end up alienating your only userbase that you have and then will need to can the franchise because you can’t understand why people won’t buy you product anymore.

    Then the consumer gets blamed for not wanting to buy “original” stuff while back at the ranch it’s because your title was no longer original but rather just Battle duty 7000 with a fancy skin

    Reply

  9. Rincethis: Spellalicious

    April 24, 2013 at 10:37

    Well, I am just hoping that they will cut down on game development expenses by cutting and pasting what they have already done. Also, in order to make it more accessible to the layman(boy/girl/it) perhaps we can just have them running around blowing shit up Baysplosion style. I know! Them what we can do is create a 4 hours liner storyline that has the protag realise the bad guy is in fact his colleague, before he kills him. THEN we can focus on multiplayer! SCORE! Fuck, with a formulae like that, I reccon they could pull a billion in just over two weeks. SPLINTER CELL:CoD Zombie edition (Jade Raymond did say they would add zombies to the new Splinter Cell, right?))

    Reply

  10. Nathan Horne

    April 24, 2013 at 10:48

    Can’t wait for Metal Gear Solid 5 – as it will probably be a great stealth game with a lengthy episode of Days Of Our Lives mixed in…

    Reply

    • Maughansta

      April 24, 2013 at 17:41

      I can’t even play the new “Metal Gear”. It just feels like a ripoff game that had no thought put into it. I’ve never really been a fan of Raiden though either…

      Reply

      • Nathan Horne

        April 25, 2013 at 15:01

        I really loved Metal Gear Rising – not as good as Peace Walker or MGS 4 (or any MGS titles) but it’s a totally different game. I’d rather compare Rising to a hack ‘n slash game. Actually the first game in recent years that I’ve played through more than once…

        Reply

        • Maughansta

          April 25, 2013 at 15:39

          I guess I should have given it more of a try than just the demo. It reminded me instantly of Ninja Gaiden. Is the storyline decent without Hideo Kojima working it?

          Reply

          • Nathan Horne

            April 26, 2013 at 09:17

            Yes, if you really like MGS you will enjoy the story – it’s more basic, but it does have the same MGS cheesiness you’d expect.

            The word ‘decent’ and MGS storyline don’t actually belong together in a sentence – I would have used ‘ridiculous’! : )

  11. OldVideoGamer

    April 24, 2013 at 11:25

    Does not matter what Jade Raymond mumbles. I get my stealth killgasims in TOMB RAIDER. The way she fights the dude to the ground with her bow never gets old.

    Reply

    • Tbone187

      April 24, 2013 at 14:07

      Yeah, but the automatic crouch and cover is irritating to say the least…

      Reply

      • OldVideoGamer

        April 24, 2013 at 14:46

        Is it? shit I never noticed at all. But if you are going behind cover you want to crouch anyway? then pop and shoot. I cant find any fault with that game and you all know how cynical I can get and how I hate today’s videogames.

        Surprisingly Tomb Raider entered my top 5 games of all time at the time I was almost about to give up on the industry and take some time out before GTAV.

        Reply

        • Tbone187

          April 24, 2013 at 14:56

          No doubt, the game’s an amazing experience but I like to have complete control, especially with core actions of this nature… Definitely top 5, agreed…in Fact, i’d say top 3…

          Reply

  12. matthurstrsa

    April 24, 2013 at 13:15

    They might be able to pull it off, give you the choice like Deus Ex. But ROOTS! Stick to yer Roots!

    Reply

  13. Tbone187

    April 24, 2013 at 14:08

    Catering for action players in a stealth game rarely works…Should just leave it like it’s meant to be…

    Reply

  14. Circuitflow

    April 25, 2013 at 09:56

    They must go back to the roots, after all thats what made us like it in the first place

    Reply

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    April 26, 2013 at 02:03

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  16. Danny Dodge

    December 8, 2013 at 18:15

    the first splinter cell was amazing – the last few feel like a kiddy version 🙁 they removed all the best elements and ended up with a pretty generic average game 🙁

    Reply

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