Splinter Cell is once again sneaking up behind us, combat knife at the ready. Ubisoft’s Jade Raymond said on Thursday that her team will show off the sixth game in the Tom Clancy-born stealth series soon. Said to be called Splinter Cell: Retribution, the game will explore the series’ “roots.”
Speaking with Computer and Video Games, Raymond said, “It will have all of the action flick elements for sure, but we’re trying to also explore something a little bit more interesting that is actually one of the themes that’s at the root of the franchise historically, but never has been surfaced so much.”
The “action flick” style Raymond mentions is a reference to 2010’s Splinter Cell: Conviction, a game that traded previous entries’ painstakingly slow stealth for faster, more dramatic shoot outs. Exploring the series’ roots would suggest that Retribution would have you inch up behind terrorists over the course of fifteen minutes only to fail and have to run it again, but that’s certainly a theme that’s surfaced in the past.
If Ubisoft is willing to start going on the record talking about the new Splinter Cell, then chances are we’ll get to see it ourselves in the very near future. Fans should temper their expectations though. The action may need to be toned down. Sam Fisher’s 55-years-old! Middle age doesn’t exactly make it easy to quietly break necks.