| Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell | |
|---|---|
| Genres | Action-adventure, stealth |
| Developers | Ubisoft Montreal Ubisoft Shanghai Gameloft< />Ubisoft |
| Publishers | Ubisoft Gameloft Aspyr Media |
| First release | Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell November 17, 2002 |
| Latest release | Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction April 13, 2010 |
| Official website | [] |
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is a series of stealth video games, the first of which was released in 2002, and their tie-in novels. The protagonist, Sam Fisher, is presented as a highly-trained agent of a fictional black-ops sub-division within the NSA, dubbed "Third Echelon". The player guides Fisher, who usually has the iconic trifocal goggles at his disposal, to overcoming his adversaries in levels based on Unreal engines that were extended to emphasise light and darkness as gameplay elements. All the console and PC games in the series were critically acclaimed, and the series is commercially successful.
Contents |
| Year | Title | Developer(s) | Platform(s) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sony | Microsoft | Nintendo | Other | |||||||
| 2002 2003 2004 |
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell | Ubisoft Montreal Ubisoft Shanghai Gameloft |
PS2 PS31 |
Windows Xbox |
GameCube GBA |
Mac OS X N-Gage |
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| 2004 2005 |
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow | Ubisoft Shanghai Ubisoft Gameloft |
PS2 PS31 |
Windows Xbox |
GameCube GBA |
Mobile | ||||
| 2005 | Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory | Gameloft Ubisoft Montreal |
PS2 PS31 |
Windows Xbox 360 |
GameCube DS 3DS2 |
N-Gage Mobile |
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| 2006 | Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Essentials | Ubisoft | PSP | |||||||
| 2006 2007 |
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent | Ubisoft Shanghai Ubisoft Montreal |
PS2 PS3 |
Windows Xbox 360 |
GameCube Wii |
Mobile | ||||
| 2010 2011 |
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction | Ubisoft Montreal Gameloft |
Windows 360 Windows Phone 7 |
Mac OS X iOS Bada Mobile |
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| Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell 63 | Ubisoft Toronto | |||||||||
Notes
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Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell was developed in 2 years, after which it was first released for the Xbox in North America on November 19, 2002. It uses an Unreal Engine 2 that was modified to allow the light-and-dark based gameplay.[3]
Pandora Tomorrow was developed by Ubisoft Shanghai and introduced multiplayer gameplay to the Splinter Cell series. In single-player mode, the game AI adapts to adjust to the player's skill level.[4][5]
Ubisoft Montreal was again responsible for the third game in the series, Chaos Theory. It adds a cooperative multiplayer mode.[6] Originally announced to be released in Fall 2004, its initial releases were made at the end of March 2005. Again the Unreal Engine was heavily modified, this time from version 2.5.
Essentials extends the Splinter Cell series to the PSP platform. Through a series of flashback missions, the player learns more about Sam Fisher's back story. The game was critically received much worse than the others in the series: While the graphics were considered high-quality for the PSP, the multiplayer was almost unplayable. The game was also criticized for not being able to be played on the go, because it requires a dark environment.
For the series' fourth installment, two separate versions were created, one for generation six consoles and the other for generation seven consoles as well as PCs. Double Agent features a "trust system"[7] that presents the player with moral dilemmas.
Conviction was officially announced on May 23, 2007 when Ubisoft released a trailer for the game. The game was due for release on November 16, 2007.[8] However, the game missed its initial launch date, and on May 19, 2008, it was reported that Splinter Cell: Conviction was "officially on hold" and that the game had been taken "back to the drawing board".[9] Ubisoft announced that the game had been pushed back to the 2009-10 fiscal year.
At E3 2009, the developers confirmed that the "new" Conviction had been in development since early 2008, commenting that "the gameplay has evolved a lot" and "the visual direction is simply much better".[10] The game's release date was pushed back several times.[11][12] On March 18, 2010, the demo was released for Xbox 360.[13]
Ubisoft wanted to make the fifth game more accessible.[14] so Conviction was designed around the new core elements "Mark and Execute" and "Last Known Position", while stealth elements present in the previous games were de-emphasized. Conviction uses a cover system and adds simple interrogation sequences to the series.[15]
Splinter Cell[16] is the first installment of a series of novels based on the successful video game series. It was written by Raymond Benson under the pseudonym David Michaels. The plot follows Sam Fisher as he investigates a terrorist group called "The Shadows" and a related arms-dealing organization named "The Shop". Members of "The Shop" use inside information to attempt to kill "Third Echelon" members, including Fisher. Shortly after its publication in December 2004, it spent 3 weeks on the New York Times list of bestsellers.[17] It also made it to the list of Wall Street Journal mass-market paperback bestsellers.[18]
In Operation Barracuda, which was released on November 1, 2005, and which also made the New York Times bestseller list, Raymond Benson (again as David Michaels) continues the story of the first Splinter Cell novel.
For Checkmate, Grant Blackwood took over as author behind the David Michaels pseudonym, Benson having declared that he was "finished with Splinter Cell".[19] Unlike the first two books, Checkmate is not written from the first person perspective of Fisher, nor does Checkmate continue the running subplots that were established in the previous. This novel was released on November 7, 2006. The book starts off with a ship by the name of trego sailing towards the American east coast. Sam Fisher is called in from a training mission to disable the ship. After Fisher stops the ship from disemboweling the American west coast with nuclear waste he is informed that a town by the name of Slipstone has just been radioactively attacked and 5,000+ people are dead. All these events lead to more questions which eventually leads Fisher to Ukraine, Iran, Dubai, and Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. This book is known for its many spelling mistakes and spontaneous scene changes.
On November 6, 2007, Fallout, was published, Blackwood's second Splinter Cell novel and the fourth in the series. The story follows Sam Fisher as he combats Islamic fundamentalists who have taken over the government of Kyrgystan.
Conviction,[20] is the tie-in novel to the game with the same name. It was published on November 3, 2009 and was written by Peter Telep under the name David Michaels. In this book you follow Sam Fisher after the killing of Lambert. Fisher is on the run and has gone rogue. For now. He is being chased by a team of rookie Splinter Cells lead by Ben Hansen. But tales of treason and betrayal are being heard by Sam and he will not let Lambert die in vain.
Endgame[21] is the second tie-in to the Conviction game. It covers the same events as the Conviction novel from the point of view of Fisher's antagonists. It was published on December 1, 2009. This time around we are following the pursuit team behind Sam. Told from the perspective of Ben Hansen and the rest of the team, you can see how close they were to catching Fisher and the events to follow a revelation.
The first game explains that "Splinter Cell" refers to an elite recon-type unit of single covert operatives (such as Sam Fisher) who are supported in the field by a high-tech remote team.
In the first three games (Splinter Cell, Pandora Tomorrow, Chaos Theory), terrorists are planning attacks, usually by use of information warfare, which Sam Fisher, an operative for Third Echelon, a secret branch of the NSA, must prevent. The missions range from gathering intelligence to capturing and/or eliminating terrorists.
In the fourth game, Double Agent, Fisher assumes the identity of a wanted criminal in order to infiltrate a terrorist ring.
The fifth game, Conviction, starts after events in the conclusion of Double Agent: Sam has abandoned Third Echelon. When he discovers that the death of his daughter Sarah had not been an accident (as had been purported at the beginning of Double Agent), he strikes out on his own in search of those responsible.
A device used for seeing in the dark features strongly in the series. Originally, Tom Clancy had rejected the idea of Sam Fisher having these "trifocal goggles", having stated that such goggles (with both thermal vision and night vision) were impossible to make. The creators argued that having two separate sets of goggles would have made for awkward gameplay and convinced Clancy to allow it. This also gave the Splinter Cell series a recognizable signature, a desirable feature.[22] Conviction allows a third module to be accessed, a sonar module that can scan through walls for interactable objects, such as weapons, people, and consoles.
The trifocal goggles however, didn't remain completely fictional. In 2004, Northrop Grumman produced and delivered one such device. The device, called Fused Multispectral Weapon Sight (FMWS) was capable of combining thermal and intensified imaging.[23] Later in 2007, ITT Industries developed another such device, designated AN/PSQ-20.[24]
The characters of the games, as well as the organization "Third Echelon", were created by JT Petty. The main recurring ones are:
The encouraged way to progress through the games is to remain hidden, select non-obvious routes, and utilize diversions to pass guards. The first game in the series only features a single-player mode, Pandora Tomorrow introduces a two-on-two multiplayer mode. Chaos Theory further develops that mode and introduces a cooperative mode. Cooperative mode plays similarly to the single player mode, but adds situations that can only be overcome as a team. The cooperative storylines in Chaos Theory and the sixth generation version of Double Agent parallel those of Sam's actions in the single-player modes, letting players act on information he obtained or provide support in the field.
Double Agent introduces a morality factor: Fisher may now encounter conflicting objectives between his superiors and the terrorists. For example, the terrorists may assign a mission to assassinate someone, while the NSA simultaneously instructs the player to prevent the assassination. This creates a delicate balancing act between gaining the trust of the terrorists and fulfilling the mission assignments. In addition, Fisher must not do anything to reveal to the terrorists that he is a double agent (such as let himself be seen with an NSA gadget), otherwise he will lose instantly.
Conviction utilizes a much faster and more violent form of stealth action gameplay than previous games in the series. It retains the cooperative multiplayer mode of the two preceding games. The weapons that Sam Fisher uses are based more accurately on current real-world weapons which behave accordingly and all weapons can be upgraded by a points system. This points system is secondary to the main storyline and is achievement based. For example, if you perform 50 total headshots without alerting other enemies, you will be awarded 500 points. These points may be used to add silencers, sights, upgraded ammo, laser targeting and other upgrades, with up to three upgrades per weapon. This game provides an interactive mission update sequence that is built in to the levels themselves. Instead of getting an objective-bar popup, the objective may appear in bold white text on the side of a building or infront of a barricade. This adds to the immersion and keeps the HUD clutter free. The stealth element of the game allows you to hide in shadows and become almost invisible and if there are no shadows, feel free to shoot out the lights and create them. Guards may be assassinated by silenced weapons, gadgets or hand-to-hand combat or the player may simply go for all-out war - though this method is faster it is much harder. After the player successfully completes a hand-to-hand kill, they are provided with an 'execution' which allows the player to tag two to four enemies (depending on the weapon selected) and trigger the execution animation. Fisher will then dispatch all targeted enemies within seconds in extraordinary fashion making this very useful for taking out small crowds of armed guards. Interactive interrogation cutscenes where Fisher beats up a target for information do not require the player to do anything other than press [Interrogate]. Though if the player happens to be near an interactive object like a television or table, Fisher may use that to alter the standard animation.
According to Splinter Cell series producer Mathieu Ferland, the original game was developed so that Ubisoft's Montreal studio could demonstrate its full potential.[3] After Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon, "special ops was the natural next step" for Tom Clancy endorsed games.[3]
The first game in the series modified the Unreal Engine to allow the light-and-dark-based gameplay style.[3] The other games continued this, using updated versions of the engine.
By the release of the latest game - Conviction - the engine had been upgraded to Unreal Engine 3. The game had active shadows on all consoles not simply as a graphical function - as in most games - but as a gameplay enhancer for the sake of the game's stealth features. This meant that more coding for the game was required and overall, required a powerful desktop computer in order to get the best clarity and performance.
| Game | GameRankings | Metacritic |
|---|---|---|
| Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell | (Xbox) 92.59%[26] (PC) 89.98%[27] (PS2) 88.13%[28] (GC) 86.86%[29] (GBA) 76.46%[30] |
(Xbox) 93[31] (PC) 91[32] (PS2) 89[33] (GC) 89[34] (GBA) 77[35] |
| Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow | (Xbox) 92.20%[36] (PS2) 86.74%[37] (PC) 85.28%[38] (GC) 80.27%[39] (GBA) 66.25%[40] |
(Xbox) 93[41] (PS2) 87[42] (PC) 87[43] (GC) 78[44] (GBA) 68[45] |
| Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory | (Xbox) 93.92%[46] (PC) 91.19%[47] (PS2) 88.96%[48] (GC) 80.41%[49] (3DS) 53.91%[50] (NDS) 52.51%[51] |
(Xbox) 94[52] (PC) 92[53] (PS2) 87[54] (GC) 81[55] (3DS) 53[56] (NDS) 50[57] |
| Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Essentials | (PSP) 58.22%[58] | (PSP) 58[59] |
| Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent | (Xbox) 89.31%[60] (X360) 85.09%[61] (PS2) 84.40%[62] (PC) 81.15%[63] (PS3) 78.89%[64] (GC) 64.00%[65] (Wii) 61.36%[66] |
(Xbox) 89[67] (X360) 85[68] (PS2) 84[69] (PC) 80[70] (PS3) 78[71] (GC) 64[72] (Wii) 61[73] |
| Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction | (X360) 86.41%[74] (PC) 82.54%[75] |
(X360) 85[76] (PC) 83[77] |
More than 22 million Splinter Cell games have been sold as of June 2010.[78]
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