Splinter Cell: Blacklist Game Director Discusses Challenges of Stealth Genre

Splinter Cell: Blacklist is the latest game from the fabled stealth action series, and the team at Ubisoft Toronto has used that legacy to make what they consider one of the best stealth action games of the current generation of consoles. While speaking to Gamespot Patrick Redding, game director of Splinter Cell: Blacklist, elaborated on certain aspects of stealth games that he is hoping to bring a new level of polish to. 

One thing Redding emphasized was level design and enemy AI. Redding calls a stealth environment an "ecosystem," and says that players choice and ability to understand that ecosystem is critical for stealth games.

"There's a lot of depth in using gadgets in combination, understanding how sound will attract the AI, knowing where to hide bodies, and so on. By giving all these tools to the player, and offering multiple paths in the environment, you're reinforcing that they have the ultimate choice in how this is going to play out," he said. 

Death in Splinter Cell:Blacklist is also very important to Redding and his team. The team believes the balance between difficulty and having flexible ways to complete a mission is critical to the game.

"If you look at the original Splinter Cell, that threshold was set very, very tightly. If you made a mistake, you either died or the mission was aborted. With every subsequent entry in this series, that threshold has been made a little more forgiving to permit the player more options and prevent there being just one solution to a situation."

Finally, delivering an experience that allows players to engage in observation before action that does not bore or frustrate players is another critical component of the new Splinter Cell game. Finding the right amount of timing is always in the mind of the Ubisoft Toronto team, as players usually want to observe the enemies before engaging them.

"As long as it can be done in a reasonable amount of time, asking the player to engage in observation and planning is totally acceptable. That was a very interesting lesson in understanding what the tolerances are for typical players that we needed to learn."

Splinter Cell: Blacklist will release August 20 for Xbox 360, Wii U, PlayStation 3, and PC.