Splinter Cell Remake Still ‘Early,’ Gets New Concept Art & Details

November 17, 2022

While Splinter Cell has been missing for almost a decade, Ubisoft is celebrating the franchise’s 20th anniversary. Part of this celebration has brought in new concept art and details for the upcoming remake of the first game, both of which show what the team is going for.

Ubisoft released a 20-minute video featuring various directors and designers working on the upcoming Splinter Cell remake. While most of the video is them reminiscing about the series as a whole, they also gave some small snippets concerning the remake.

Technical Director Christian Carriere noted that the remake will have ray-traced global illumination, which will be a modern way to pay homage to the lighting that was so impressive 20 years ago. The sound design is also being upgraded and will feature audio occlusion where sounds will more realistically bounce around and get absorbed by the environment. And speaking to that realism, Senior Game Designer Andy Schmoll said that enemy A.I. has also been improved and guards will behave “like trained professionals.” Carriere went on to mention that animation was “one of those big focuses” for the remake because of how smooth the original games were.

The Splinter Cell remake will also be pushing forward and modernizing some of its layout to better match today’s standards. Schmoll said some of the more complicated level design from Chaos Theory will make its way to the original, as well as undisclosed features from future entries. Ubisoft wants to further the sense of mastery players can have over levels, too, and while some of those methods weren’t described, Creative Director Chris Auty said the studio is trying to make it possible to beat the game without killing anyone.

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The first Splinter Cell was also quite harsh, as players could fail a mission if they weren’t being careful. The remake will be a bit less punishing and players will get opportunities to deescalate those alarms. And while some plot and story elements are going to be changed in an attempt to modernize the experience, it will still be the same core game at its heart.

However, the Splinter Cell remake is very early and Ubisoft is still prototyping ideas. Auty said the team is “going dark,” so players shouldn’t expect updates anytime soon outside of the concept art from the video, which is in the slideshow below. Ubisoft is also giving away the 2002 original for free on its Ubisoft Connect storefront on PC.