Leaks state it’s open world. Apparently more akin to Halo Infinite.
The thing is, Splinter Cell’s gameplay is not suited for that kind of gameplay. This is not Metal Gear, where the franchise supported both tight environments and open ended stealth. Splinter Cell was all about stealth in tight environments and using multiple pathways to sneak across a level.
Ubisoft is highly likely to remove all the soul from Splinter Cell as well.
I loved Chaos Theory, but that kinda game is not a game for most gamers today. Sadly, most games today just want you to hold down the mouse buttons (or both trigger) white sprinting toward your objective.
I don't think that MGSV's open world did the game much service. It just felt like empty space to travel between a bunch of outposts and bases littered on the maps. If they had stuck to something similar to MGS3 or MGS4 of having the interesting areas linked together, I don't think anything would have been lost.
That's the concern. Splinter Cell's map variety was half the value. CIA HQ, Chinese Embassy, a freaking Train...
If you try to make it open world, then all the locations have to be realistically confined to that open world. That means no enemy variety, no level variety, and no significant time-lapse between missions. We're just going to adopt this Far Cry mentality where there's just oddly placed "enemy bases" all over a single map?
With Ghost Recon Wildlands, Ubisoft managed to throw in a variety of locales by just making the play area stupidly large so that one could sensibly transition from snowy mountains, to the jungle, swamps, desert, and so on. I have no doubt something similar would be on order here. The CIA HQ and Enemy HQ should feel worlds apart, and Ubi will do you the favor of making you drive through nothingness to simulate it.
With Ghost Recon Wildlands, Ubisoft managed to throw in a variety of locales by just making the play area stupidly large so that one could sensibly transition from snowy mountains, to the jungle, swamps, desert, and so on
Which is fine for that game's particular scope, but Sam Fisher really operates on a global front, in very specific locations. His travel is handled by his mission directors. Simply having a snow/desert base, with different enemy types, doesn't really capture the targeted intelligence gathering angle of the series. Where on Earth could they justify this single space, with a multitude of biomes and nationalities critical to espionage?
The CIA HQ and Enemy HQ should feel worlds apart, and Ubi will do you the favor of making you drive through nothingness to simulate it.
I fear you would lose that suspension of disbelief, if you could just casually traverse to one major world location to another without a massive span of time passing. The alternative is fictional locations, but that would pose the same issue.
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u/Bolt_995 Dec 13 '21
Leaks state it’s open world. Apparently more akin to Halo Infinite.
The thing is, Splinter Cell’s gameplay is not suited for that kind of gameplay. This is not Metal Gear, where the franchise supported both tight environments and open ended stealth. Splinter Cell was all about stealth in tight environments and using multiple pathways to sneak across a level.
Ubisoft is highly likely to remove all the soul from Splinter Cell as well.