Ubisoft laments “knee-jerk, uninformed” reactions to Splinter Cell: Blacklist

Splinter Cell sneakster Sam Fisher regularly sticks to shadows like a cyborg ghost, but his obtrusively unstealthy antics during the E3 reveal of Splinter Cell: Blacklist divided fans over its depicted departure from the franchise’s covert roots. Speaking to Eurogamer, Blacklist director David Footman believed “knee-jerk” and “uninformed” reactions piled too much focus upon the debut’s “pow!” factor.
“Everyone can make knee-jerk reactions to a vertical slice of the game that are really uninformed as to what the whole experience is like,” Footman said. “We really have to be patient as we roll out each item about the game.”
Footman stressed the importance of speedily delivering a playable demo as a temperance for supposed overreactions on Blacklist’s heightened action, saying, “The proof is always going to be in the pudding. Talk is talk, and it is just all talk right now.”
Blacklist contains maps built primarily for ghosting in addition to action-oriented missions, according to Footman. “[Previous Splinter Cell title] Conviction was a pretty big change for the brand to stealth-action,” he explained. “[And] in terms of ensemble cast and everything else about our story, we’re stealth-action-adventure now. We definitely know our roots–being stealthy, realism, having Sam Fisher at the core of it, and so on. But like every branded franchise, it is evolving.”