Splinter Cell

Splinter Cell is an action-stealth game franchise created by Ubisoft, born in 2002 under the impetus of Tom Clancy, whose name topped the series for a long time. The first installment, developed by Ubisoft Montreal, laid the foundations for demanding stealth gameplay: light and shadow play, high-tech gadgets, and acrobatic movements. Sam Fisher, a Third Echelon agent, became one of the most recognizable characters in 2000s video games.

The series chained together several major titles that propelled it to the top of the genre. Pandora Tomorrow (2004) introduced a memorable asymmetric multiplayer mode. Chaos Theory (2005) remains to this day the artistic and technical peak of the franchise, with dense level design and a freedom of approach rarely matched in stealth games. Double Agent (2006) attempted a darker narrative turn, before Conviction (2010) radicalized the gameplay toward pure action - a choice that still divides the community.

Blacklist (2013) attempted to reconcile both camps with a partial return to stealth fundamentals, but ran into disappointing sales. Since then, the license has been dormant: Sam Fisher reappears as a cameo in Ghost Recon Wildlands, Breakpoint and Rainbow Six Siege, but no new solo installment has been released. Officially announced in December 2021 by Ubisoft Toronto with the Snowdrop engine, the remake of the first installment is meant to relaunch the franchise - with no confirmed release date to date.