How are you approaching Splinter Cell as a remake? What makes it a remake and not a remaster?
Matt West: To me, a remake takes what you'd do in a remaster and goes a little bit further with it. The original Splinter Cell has a lot that was amazing and revolutionary at the time it came out, 19 years ago. The gaming public now has an even more refined palate. So, I think it kind of has to be a remake as opposed to a remaster. Although we're still in the very earliest stages of development, what we're trying to do is make sure the spirit of the early games remains intact, in all of the ways that gave early Splinter Cell its identity. So, as we're building it from the ground up, we're going to update it visually, as well as some of the design elements to match player comfort and expectations, and we are going to keep it linear like the original games, not make it open world. How do we make sure that new fans are able to pick up the controller and dive right in, and fall in love with the game and the world right from the get-go?
Peter Handrinos: From a tech perspective, if I had to boil it down to a couple of words in terms of the difference, what we're doing is exploration and innovation here. We've got a new engine and a new console lifecycle to take advantage of, so the tech is one area that we don't want stuck in the past.
MW: The phrase "Stealth Action Redefined" from the original game has actually proven to be a really valuable North Star for us. We're able to, for example, apply that to what Peter was just saying, as far as being able to prototype and innovate and test some stuff out. That is very much in keeping with us redefining what stealth action is going to feel like for a modern audience.
Beyond what we've discussed, what is most important for readers to take away from this announcement?
PH: A lot of time has passed since the original Splinter Cell, and even since the last sequel – enough time to miss an entire console generation. So now we're going to take the time to explore what this means for us, for light and shadow, for animation tech, for gameplay, AI, even audio. We're going to ask ourselves, "where does it make sense for us to innovate? What not only fits with the legacy, but brings the game up to a level that will be expected of us, and where can we surprise our players?" We want to bring them something new, yet still connect them to that feeling that they had two decades ago, playing that masterpiece for the first time.
MW: I'll throw this out there: You've got to have a tagline, and one of the things that we're using currently as the tagline, from the very beginning, is the phrase "respect the goggles." I love the goggles as a symbol for Sam. We are making a game that is going to be modern, but built on the foundation of the brand's rich history. The game earned its stripes the right way, by being innovative and challenging, and a really different experience than what was in the marketplace at the time. "Respect the goggles" helps to remind us of the fact that we have to do it justice.
There's stuff that simply needs to be redone from scratch to be up to snuff for a modern gameplay experience. With that, though, what do we need to do to absolutely preserve the feeling of early Splinter Cell? We're going to be straddling the line between the spirit of the old, and the comfort of the new, so that we can excite and surprise new players, but also make sure that when our returning players pick up the controller, they have that sigh of relief, saying "Ahhh, they got it."
CA: It's safe to say a lot of us on the team are stealth purists, and we're behind that level of seriousness when it comes to those kinds of mechanics, and those sorts of things that we want to see in this game. And we're very, very aware of what makes classic Splinter Cell what it is.
MW: We talked earlier about that dense world, where every square inch is important because they're all a consequence of a choice or setting the table for the next choice from the player's point of view. So that kind of density, that packed nature that I think was so palpable in the first trilogy – it's going to be one of our guiding lights as we go forward.
CA: With this remake, we are building a solid base for the future of Splinter Cell.
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