TVG gets the extensive lowdown on the return of Sam Fisher...

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, released at the end of 2003, was one of the biggest hits of the year and widely acclaimed as one of the finest stealth action games to date. With such quality, detail and engrossing gameplay, the sequel is eagerly anticipated. We are told that with the return of Sam Fisher there will be more realistic settings and heart pounding action, along with online gaming. Seen as one of the hottest games for 2004 we managed to speak with Domitille Doat, the Producer, to get the first real insight into the game.

TVG: Has the team been surprised and taken aback by the success of Splinter Cell and how do you go about creating the sequel? What, for instance, have you learnt from the making of the first game that you will implement or changed in Pandora Tomorrow?

Not surprised, but extremely relieved. Putting so much effort into a game and then thinking that players may not see or play it would have been painful. The good point also about it being played by a lot of people is that you get a large amount of feedback. The key point for us was that positioning of realistic stealth was something very demanding at all the levels of design but this high level of demand was really appreciated at the end of the day by gamers. Splinter Cell is not a melting pot of many other universes or games. It is a crystal clear type of game: realistic infiltration and stealth.

We are not trying to mix with anything and everything, we are just making everything that is possible to deepen this dense stealth realistic experience with exclusive game play situations, wider setting, diverse NPC behaviour, new athletic moves and enhanced visual effects and off course through a new type of game mode: Splinter Cell multi player.

TVG: Could you tell us a little about the storyline and, how do you go about creating more realistic settings?

JT Petty, the scriptwriter of SC1, is the scriptwriter of Pandora.

This allows the trademark to be recognizable but it also allows for great improvement and evolution. We've clearly established the rules of the Splinter Cell universe: the Tom Clancy style, verisimilitude, insider information, complex patriotism, technophilia, geopolitical intrigue; all the tenets of a techno-thriller.

There are many components for the story:

• HIGH CONCEPT: A much simpler plot than SC1, something that can be quickly and efficiently explained and grasped.
• BROADER AUDIENCE: A more accessible story, more appealing characters.
• CHARACTER-DRIVEN INTRIGUE: We still operate on a geopolitical, worldwide stage, but we make the characters more responsible for the plot. The ambitions of countries pay service to the ambitions of characters.

The base of it starts with a crisis in Indonesia and East Timor, the brand new democracy in East Timor is supported by the American Government against Indonesia. The Indonesian government cannot stand intrusion in what it qualifies as internal affairs and finance terrorist groups to attack any American official buildings in Dili. The leader of the terrorists is Suhadi Sadono, an extremely charismatic and seductive militant whose discourse is based on the fact that no nation however big and powerful has the right to interfere in others national affair.

TVG: The game is being developed over a number of formats. What kind of problems will this create and does it also allow you, without any compromise, to develop each platform to its full potential?

It is not a really problematic situation as long as you have the resources and the talent to develop many formats in the same time. It is not the same team working on each platform or achieving all the platforms potential. We did the same for Splinter Cell 1 and it worked perfectly.

TVG: What new and interesting gadgets will be on view and have you brought in any specialists to ensure even more realism in this area is conveyed? (Will you please highlight one of your fav. gadgets?)

My favourite gadget is the optic cable, I just use the optic cable all the time obsessively. It is a new optic with thermal and night vision included in it. For any of the new gadgets we always have our bunch of experts, ex CIA agent and soldier to advise us.

TVG: Will you expand on the online aspects of the game, what will be on offer, for this is big news in itself? (You will get to choose other Splinter Cells to play?)

Every fan of the original game knows that there is only one Sam Fisher, and he works alone. So no, you won't be playing Sam online. Instead the storyline for the new game features the NSA experimenting with a new type of infiltration operation that requires small ‘shadow net’ units. Those are the people that the NSA call upon when one man is just not enough. We propose you take the role of a Shadow Net spy, which is close to Sam Fisher's gameplay of course, but you can take the role of the opposition as well, namely the mercenaries (the mercs).

What's interesting here is that as we worked on opposite abilities of the 2 teams you can feel two completely different emotions regarding the team you're playing. As a merc, even fully loaded, you will feel uneasy in dark, vertical and narrow places, which are spies' playgrounds.

The game originally offers a 2 vs 2 configuration. This is an open configuration though so you'll be able to play 1 vs. 3 as well. The most important thing there is that we try to keep the integrity of the stealth transposing it to the online. On one hand in stealth games, action is the result of observation through anticipation. On the other hand stealth is all about tension. Tension requires slow pace to settle properly. There is a clear fact: the number of players has a direct influence on the gameplay. The more players you add to the game, the less you control encounters between players and the pace of the action. Putting too many players on the playfield will bring too many random encounters and too fast action and will ruin any attempt of anticipation and keeping tension high. These were the two reasons, which clearly oriented our decision when we opted for a 4-player game.

About the number of levels, there will 8 totally different environments, offering various settings. Since all the action takes place at the same time on different locations the events will occur at different stages of the day. We offer to play different game-modes. Obviously the modes are variations around the notion of objectives.

The main mode is called Neutralization: as a spy you have to reach objectives and neutralized them, meanwhile mercs while defend them. Another mode called Extraction forces movement and cat and mouse gameplay as it incorporates dynamic elements: the spies have first to reach their objective then take it back to another ‘safe’ point, pretty much like the FPS classic mode CTF.

Another variation called Sabotage is oriented towards the tracking tools of the mercenary and the ability for spies to set ambushes to defend one ground: a spy has to disable some device using a remote modem that can be placed in the surroundings of the objectives. Mercs have to find modems and destroy them before the whole process is complete. With the last mode called ID Tags we played a little with the established rules: Spies have lethal weapons and their objectives are ID tags possessed by Mercenaries.

TVG: What difficultly did you encounter having to use the UNREAL engine? Were there any debilitating problems and how will you now extend it?

Actually we do work with the Unreal engine but we are also on the top of this work with our own editor for patterns, our own graphic engine and our own tools. What is important for the production is about the tool you add that makes your production smoother, more comfortable and more productive. These tools are Ubisoft’s and most of them are Splinter Cell specific.

TVG: How far or where do you feel you can go with sneak'em-up games? Are there obvious restraints and are the specs of the machines a big factor? As important - why do you believe SC was so popular?

Popular because they are crystal clear and I can tell you creating crystal clear presentation is probably the most difficult thing to do when it deals with light and shadow. Crystal clear positioning requires enormous effort from everyone in the team, actually it is always easier for the game designer to come up with totally fatasmagoric gadgets, for the graphic artist and engineer to create visually astonishing SFX that have nothing to do with the reality and the license, they are all killed however nice they may be. The specs of the machine are not constraints.

TVG: How has the AI of your opponents been improved?

The AI is divided into two parts in Splinter Cell: the generic AI in the hands of one person only and the level specific events in the hands of the level designers under supervision of the AI engineers. The code is good and enables even more diversity of situations now with civilians having different reactions than guards, with fiends becoming enemies and vice versa. We did our best on this matter because we know it is the key for the final quality perception.

TVG: Are they any really cool locations that are quite unusual to speak about?

On the top of a high-speed train in between Paris and Nice in France: 300 Km an Hour.

TVG: Sum up this experience in a sentence.

Speed and quiet!!

TVG would like to thank Domitille Doat for taking the time to answer our questions.