Ubisoft’s upcoming remake of the original Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell is still in its early production and prototyping phase, creative director Chris Auty said in a newly released video celebrating the Splinter Cell franchise’s 20th anniversary, but its creators offered a taste of what’s to come on Thursday, in terms of new features and concept art for the game.
As previously discussed by the Splinter Cell remake team, Ubisoft Toronto is “look[ing] back at the plot, the characters, and the overall story of the original game,” Auty said, and making some improvements to “things that may not have aged particularly well,” but pledged that “the core of the story, the core of the experience will remain as it was the original game.”
Christian Carriere, technical director, touched on the technical innovations planned for the Splinter Cell remake, highlighting advancements in AI that will simulate different kind of behaviors and reactions from enemies. “Obviously a special forces soldier will be better trained,” Carriere said, “[and] they’re going to breach differently or enter rooms differently to something like a regular security guard would.”
“We can really improve AI engagement, how they’re reacting and what they’re reacting to,” added Andy Schmoll, senior game designer. “And with all of that we can make improvements to the cat-and-mouse gameplay between Sam and the enemies, especially with our enemies behaving like trained professionals.”
Carriere also touted audiovisual updates like ray-traced global illumination for much more realistic lighting effects and better audio simulations, that will help “create some really, really, really compelling and detailed settings.”
The Splinter Cell remake team said they’re “going dark” for a while to focus on making the game, offering only a few glimpses of what players can expect in the form of early artwork. You can see some of that in the gallery below.
Read More: Ubisoft teases its Splinter Cell remake, hints at what’s changing
