Ubisoft confident of new Splinter Cell direction

Splinter Cell producer Mathieu Ferland believes that Ubisoft's decision to reinvent the famed stealth series - ditching much of its light-and-shadow gameplay - will ultimately be vindicated by player reaction, despite the obvious risk.

"We've been working very closely with the fans from the beginning," Ferland told GamesIndustry.biz. "Their first reaction was, 'What's going on? Where's Sam?' And then they discovered these new possibilities, this new mechanic and they said, 'That looks awesome. I want to play it.'"

However, the producer admitted that Ubisoft could return to past values if things go wrong with Conviction, the fifth game in the series.

"It's not a one-way direction," he confirmed. "You can always go back and do different things, having Sam in a new position, or a different character to explore light-and-shadow gameplay."

Whereas past games were about avoiding detection in highly-charged situations, Conviction puts protagonist Sam Fisher on the run from the law, and forces players to mingle in crowds, overcoming enemies through confrontation and distraction rather than evasion.

It also reduces the number of complex controls players will need to master, using context-sensitive Aggression, Stealth and Interaction buttons rather than a broad range of button combinations.

"To us, it's a nice way to expand the brand," Ferland said of the overall approach, "because Ubisoft is a nice company and you can push it hard with innovation, especially in Splinter Cell, and sometimes when you want to push innovation you need to adapt your creative direction to fit the kind of gameplay you want to provide."

Ferland also said that he had been encouraged by the reaction he received from trade and press during the game's demonstration at the UbiDays showcase in Paris last week.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction is due to appear on PC and Xbox 360 later this year.