Since it's announcement at E3, "Splinter Cell: Blacklist" has had minimal buzz. Many people were convinced that Sam Fisher had hung up his night-vision goggles for good after rescuing his daughter and storming 3rd Echelon in the last "Splinter Cell" game. Clearly Ubisoft isn't done with Sam, as this new game indicates - but he's not alone in his mission now.
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| Can he be stealthy in daylight like that? |
The game trailer shows other individuals working alongside Sam in the field. While he's always had a handler or a mission consultant, much like Solid Snake of "Metal Gear Solid," Sam's been a lone wolf when taking care of business.
The previous installment in the series, "Splinter Cell: Conviction," was quite possibly the most brutal and visceral game to date and featured Sam going to town on his enemies with very few resources aside from those he acquired in the field. This meant that sneaking around and patience was imperative to his operations. Without the normal amount of 3rd Echelon gear, Sam was out-gunned, out-manned, and out-matched. But he out-spied the spies.
The previous installment in the series, "Splinter Cell: Conviction," was quite possibly the most brutal and visceral game to date and featured Sam going to town on his enemies with very few resources aside from those he acquired in the field. This meant that sneaking around and patience was imperative to his operations. Without the normal amount of 3rd Echelon gear, Sam was out-gunned, out-manned, and out-matched. But he out-spied the spies.
Ubisoft has been releasing some videos as of late with developer commentary about the game to the fans. Their latest segment talks about being a "ghost" in stealth games. This is just a little funny since the "Ghost Recon" games address about this all the time, but they're more about being a ghost and placing yourself in the proper spot to avoid conflict or ambush. "Splinter Cell" has a different definition as being a ghost could mean avoiding conflict altogether. Check it out:
Stealth games have come a long way in the past couple of years, but this does raise a good point. What is good stealth and how do you define that in a game using gameplay elements? Obviously in games like "Splinter Cell" there's a quality to how stealthy you can be based purely off of how many firefights you get into or how many times enemies notice you. Games like
"Assassin's Creed" portray stealth as just being seen less until you need to make the kill or being sneaky. You don't really have the same options as toying with the enemy or complete avoidance at times.
"Assassin's Creed" portray stealth as just being seen less until you need to make the kill or being sneaky. You don't really have the same options as toying with the enemy or complete avoidance at times.
But those are made by the same company, what about other games with stealth. "Deus Ex: Human Revolution" had a prominent stealth element. For that game, finding alternate routes and hiding bodies was crucial to staying hidden. It was also more difficult through a first-person perspective, but Adam Jensen had x-ray vision and cyborg augmentations to aid the player in exchange for the sacrifice of spatial awareness.
"Skyrim" does the same thing with the ability to hide in almost plain sight and muffle your movement. They also up the damage of stealth attacks to help players maintain secrecy while hiding as opposed to having to duke it out with every guard.
"Skyrim" does the same thing with the ability to hide in almost plain sight and muffle your movement. They also up the damage of stealth attacks to help players maintain secrecy while hiding as opposed to having to duke it out with every guard.
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| Sam Fisher practiced parkour before it was cool. |
On the flip side, there are games that tout stealth but are really not stealthy at all. They merely add an element of silent movement to a desired location to get the drop on the enemy.
Example? The "Uncharted" series. Nathan Drake will always having to fight his way out of a situation, there is almost no avoiding conflict at all in his sections. While he can certainly stealth kill enemies, that doesn't mean you can actually go around all of them and advance. Maybe this is a design choice because Drake isn't a master assassin or spy, but the lack of the option is glaringly present.
Example? The "Uncharted" series. Nathan Drake will always having to fight his way out of a situation, there is almost no avoiding conflict at all in his sections. While he can certainly stealth kill enemies, that doesn't mean you can actually go around all of them and advance. Maybe this is a design choice because Drake isn't a master assassin or spy, but the lack of the option is glaringly present.
Even other role-playing games suffer from this. "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic" said you could sneak around enemies in the game, but there was no avoiding conflict at all. There was just back stabbing and tactical stealth as opposed to practical stealth.
Unless your team was made up of Mission Vao and just yourself and your class was Scoundrel and you could both sneak around enemies, there was literally no way of avoiding a fight. Even with that example I'm not sure you could avoid fighting.
Unless your team was made up of Mission Vao and just yourself and your class was Scoundrel and you could both sneak around enemies, there was literally no way of avoiding a fight. Even with that example I'm not sure you could avoid fighting.
So the question still stands: what does it mean to be a "ghost" in a game? Does it mean being completely invisible and completing an objective without killing a single person? Does it mean toying with your enemies to manipulate them to your advantage? Does it mean taking each person one by one and ensuring that there are no survivors while no alarm is sounded? Give us your opinions and definitions of a "ghost."
