Splinter Cell: Blacklist Brings In “Bigger Story, Co-op, Spies vs Mercs”

Splinter Cell: Blacklist creative director Maxime Béland labelled Conviction as a ‘rescue job’ and Ubisoft brought him in to save the franchise.

While taking about Conviction Béland told Joystiq that he and another producer were “brought in because it wasn’t going well. We changed the direction and kind of shipped the game in two years. So Conviction is very sweet and sour for me”.

Player feedback suggested Conviction’s single player component “was too short, and the scope of the game wasn’t big enough”, so Blacklist will feature “a much bigger” campaign, plus co-op and the return of the fan favourite Spies vs. Mercs mode. “I think, is going to make this a huge game,” Béland said.

Blacklist is designed to allow much player freedom as possible when it comes to choosing between action and stealth approaches.

“We have these three player profiles, player archetypes in our heads,” he says. “We have the ghost player, that doesn’t want to kill or get detected. We’ve got our action/tank/killer player on the other end of the spectrum, that just wants to throw frag grenades, blind fire, shoot people in the head. And then in the middle, we have what we call the panther.” The panther is what Béland calls “clean, tactical” action: Not full stealth, but smooth and quiet action gameplay. “So we’re building the game with those three archetypes in mind.”

Splinter Cell: Blacklist takes place about six months after Conviction. “At the end of the last chapter, Sam didn’t seem too inclined to go back into government work, but Béland says the team has come up with an appropriately personal crisis to get him back into the swing of things. “You’re going to see in the first half hour of the game where it’s not just the President coming to Sam and saying ‘I need your help yet again’ … We’ve made it very personal for Sam.”

Interestingly, the six months gap will be covered, “we’re going to be also doing some exciting stuff in the gap between the two that’s outside of the game,” Béland added.

He promises “We’re making a much bigger singleplayer story, co-op, spies vs mercs, and blurring the lines between all of these modes, I think, is going to make this a huge game.”

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist launches in March 2013 for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.