There are many of us who have been waiting for a new Splinter Cell video game for years. The last official installment of the franchise was Splinter Cell: Blacklist from 2013, which means we’ve been waiting 11 years for one of the greatest spies in history to thrill us again with secret operations, infiltrations and a combat style that today reminds us of films like John Wick and Tyler Rake.
It was in 2021 when Ubisoft announced the return of Sam Fisher with Splinter Cell Remake, a new version of the original video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal. We haven’t heard anything since then and the wait hasn’t been easy for many fans. So much silence during a development doesn’t usually indicate anything good… although that’s not the topic at hand.
To say that we have been waiting for a new one for 11 years Splinter Cell It’s a fair statement, but a bit inaccurate. Sam Fisher hasn’t stopped working over the years and has made his presence felt in other Ubisoft video games. Below I want to review his main appearances and tell you what he was up to when he did it, because they are stories worthy of a sequel.
Where has Sam Fisher been all these years?
The Splinter Cell spy has been busy over the past 11 years, appearing in several Ubisoft video games. His most notable appearance came in 2020 in Rainbow Six Siege, where he was added as an attacker operator under the nickname Zero. The character description offers some details about his investigations at the time:
In 2020, Sam was on the run from an unknown enemy. As a cover, he accepted Harry Pandey’s offer to join Rainbow, adopting the codename Zero. He became the first member of the Rainbow Operation Staff division as an instructor for The Program.
Sam was brutal in his training sessions at the Stadium, regularly taking out entire teams single-handedly. To counteract the arthritis of his age, Fisher self-administered the nanobots that Lera “Finka” Melnikova used to treat her neuropathy.
The most recent information about Sam Fisher is from 2022, when he joined the Ghosteyes team of Rainbow Six Siegeled by Caveira, and participated in several operations to take down some arms manufacturers. You can find all this information in the Zero WikiSam was apparently still capable of performing operations, but age was beginning to catch up with him. He is now 66 years old.
Sam’s role in The Division 2 was much more symbolic, but he makes it abundantly clear that all of his iconic tech is far from his own. SHD agents’ technology, commonly known as the Isaac watch, received an upgrade in 2023. Ortiz Robotics used its connections with Home Secretary of Security Calvin MacManus to develop a training program for agents. The game mode is called Descent.
The lore of Descent doesn’t mention Sam Fisher or Splinter Cellalthough it is obvious that it is a reference to the espionage and infiltration franchise. Some theories indicate that the delivery program was developed based on the improvements that Sam’s team received and all the tactical information collected during their operations.
Fighting alongside Sam Fisher in Ghost Recon
His most important and interesting appearances were between 2018 and 2020 in Ghost Recon, first in Wildlands and later in Breakpoint. Unlike the previous ones, Sam Fisher was presented as an ally with his own motivations and objectives. It was our chance to carry out operations alongside a stealth legend. And his missions were certainly not easy.
The most important thing about these appearances is that we participate in their operations and not the other way around, which means that Sam was still active at the time… or at least he had a very clear set of objectives. The stories generated a lot of interest among fans and it was even thought that they would be the springboard to a new installment of Splinter CellNeedless to say, that was not the case.
Sam Fisher dropped by Bolivia in Ghost Recon Wildlands during Operation Vigilante. The missions were stealth-focused and very strict in their requirements. They required not only stealth, but also working hours and not causing enemy casualties. Their target? A CIA traitor looking to sell classified information to the Santa Blanca cartel. Extracting the information ended up requiring a monumental shootout with the base’s thugs.
Another major revelation from Operation Vigilante is that Sam Fisher and Karen Bowman know each other from the CIA, further connecting the Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon universes. He insists on delivering the information himself, and Karen mentions that Grim (Anna Grímsdóttir) requested him for a new mission. Everything seemed to indicate another traitor in the United States. The history of the operation remained open and we never knew how it was resolved.
The Deep State Operation of Ghost Recon Breakpoint was a bit longer and more complex than Vigilante, although it had the same conclusion: an open ending that we never heard about again. Once again, the CIA was involved in the matter and they sent Sam Fisher to set things right. We first encounter Victor CosteSam’s friend and former teammate, and then the legend himself.
On this occasion, Sam’s mission was to recover information stolen by the Wolfs, an enemy faction of Breakpointand find a guy called The Strategist. “He’s been carrying out kidnappings all over the world… All of them military experts. I don’t even know what he’s up to, but we know he’s on the island. If I can get him before Congress, they’ll surely give the green light to invade Auroa,” he said during our first meeting.
The mission was very well connected with Breakpointsince The Strategist kidnapped Midas, a member of Nomad’s group. The operation takes place over several missions in which we have to recover information, interrogate, kill and obviously sabotage. All very much in the style of Sam Fisher. The story ended with Sam taking the villain on his back. However, Ubisoft put an end to it Breakpoint and there was never an invasion or any news about it.
If we look at the dates, we see that Sam Fisher was inactive in video games between 2013 and 2018, but from then on he did not stop working until 2022 thanks to all the appearances I have mentioned in this post. He was very fit during his missions of Breakpointbut in Rainbow Six Siege we knew it wasn’t so good.
In short, Sam Fisher has been very active over the last few years, although never in the way we would have liked. Our only hope is that Splinter Cell Remake is a huge success that Ubisoft will commit to bringing new releases or remakes/remasters of classic video games. Although perhaps the tactical and serious style of this franchise is far from current trends.
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