History VideoGame / SplinterCell

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/splintercell.png ''Sent where no one else can go\\

* ChevalierVsRogue: One AsymmetricMultiplayer mode in some of the games pits a team of agile, stealthy, but fragile agents against a team of heavily armored and armed but not particularly mobile mercenaries.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Every [[TheSmartGuy technical support team member]] when Sam works for Third Echelon. Vernon Wilkes Jr. had [[DroppedABridgeOnHim getting shot to death]] as an excuse. But D.P. Brunton, William Redding, and Hisham Hamza? Remember those guys? Of course not, because they disappeared after each of their respective games.

* DragonTheirFeet: Every game in the series up to ''Double Agent'' has you mopping up the last co-conspirator in the final level after having already disposed of the BigBad in the second-to-last level. In ''Splinter Cell'' it happens in "Kola Cell", a Xbox-exclusive downloadable level, and in Version 1 of ''Double Agent'' it's a bonus level for achieving the Best Ending.

* JustifiedTutorial: The first game starts with a training mission, with Sam noting that he hasn't been on the field since he left the Navy ten years prior.

** ''Pandora Tomorrow'' averts this. You ''must'' kill all the members of the terrorist group in the final mission. Even if you knock them out, Brunton will contact you on the radio [[ButThouMust and insist that they need to be dead.]] Which means that you then have to [[KickTheSonOfABitch plug a few bullets into their unconscious bodies.]] Justified in that these men were planning to [[MoralEventHorizon detonate a smallpox bomb in LAX]].

* ''Splinter Cell'' (2002, UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance)

* ''Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory'' (2005, UsefulNotes/NintendoDS)
* ''Splinter Cell: Essentials'' (2006, UsefulNotes/PlaystationPortable) [[note]]A GaidenGame set after the events of the then-upcoming ''Double Agent'', and was created to bridge any gaps. It was built on the engine of ''Pandora Tomorrow'' and its plot is based on an internal investigation into Sam's past operations for Third Echelon due to him being considered a traitor (which, in fact, he is not - the files for those cases had been tampered with). While there are new levels, the game is essentially a collection of CallBack and NostalgiaLevel material.[[/note]]
* ''Splinter Cell [=3D=]'' (2011, UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS) [[note]]Port of ''Chaos Theory''.[[/note]]

Due to its enduring popularity, the original trilogy is available as an [[UpdatedRerelease HD re-release]] available on PSN, and all of the main games (including both versions of ''Double Agent'') are backwards compatible on the UsefulNotes/XboxOne. The main games (with the notable exception of ''Pandora Tomorrow'') are available digitally on PC from the Ubisoft Connect and Steam platforms.

In July 2020, Ubisoft and Creator/{{Netflix}} announced they are working on an adaptation in {{anime}} series form.

* HistoryMarchesOn: In 2004, two years after the first game came out, there was a revolution in Georgia in which the corrupt oppressive government was replaced with a more democratic one, pretty much negating the storyline focused on a genocidal Georgian dictatorship wreaking havoc in the Caucausus.

* ShownTheirWork: The final mission of ''Blacklist'' takes place in a large underground bunker under UsefulNotes/{{Denver}} International Airport known as "Site F." This is actually a nod to a lesser-known [[UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories conspiracy theory]] that ''somebody'' [[labelnote:note]]Take your pick: the United States government, TheIlluminati, the New World Order, a ReptilianConspiracy, TheGreys, etc.[[/labelnote]] maintains a secret ElaborateUndergroundBase under said airport. The evidence theorists offer for this is that the airport is the largest one in the U.S. and it has a massive tunnel network of unusual design, high volumes of electromagnetic signals coming from underground and many plaques and engravings at the airport having cryptic messages such as one referring to "The New World Airport Commission."

*** Emile Dufraisne is a CompositeCharacter of several allies from previous games. His status as the BigBad and leader of the JBA who often gives orders personally to Fisher while he's on the job makes him the Lambert expy, but he's also got shades of the various runners (Junior Wilkes, Coen, Redding) in his tendency to transport Fisher to the mission sites, as well as [[spoiler:Douglas Shetland]] for his typical more hands-on approach to those missions, and his plans to essentially restart America by killing a lot of people.

* RareGuns: Sam uses both the Five-seveN and the F2000. Mostly averted in ''Conviction'' where the wide majority of weapons are "common," but [[spoiler:only the few opposing Splinter Cells]] will have the F2000 ("[=SC3000=]").

* OccupiersOutOfOurCountry: Majid Sadiq in ''Blacklist'' takes this UpToEleven by demanding that U.S. forces leave ''all'' foreign countries they are stationed in - all ''153'' countries.

** ''Blacklist'': This game takes it UpToEleven by having ''multiple'' WMD threats occurring across the span of a few days, including both biological and chemical weapons in danger of being used on American soil with potential death tolls numbering in the ''millions.'' [[spoiler: Later subverted; the Engineers' ''actual'' plan is to force the USA into Continuity of Government protocol, so they can capture the codes to the ''American'' weapons of mass destruction.]]

Due to its high popularity, the original trilogy is available as an [[UpdatedRerelease HD re-release]] available on PSN, and all of the main games (including both versions of ''Double Agent'') are backwards compatible on the UsefulNotes/XboxOne. The main games (with the notable exception of ''Pandora Tomorrow'') are available digitally on PC from the Ubisoft Connect and Steam platforms.

* AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent:
** The Iraq level in ''Conviction'' is played as a straight-up, ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar''-esque shooter where you have no access to suppressed weapons and there are little to no stealth mechanics involved, let alone options for stealth. This is because [[spoiler:you're not playing as Sam, but as another SEAL entirely - Victor Coste]].
** In the Philadelphia level in ''Blacklist'', the player takes control of [[spoiler:Briggs as he goes to disarm two of the four Blacklist bombs in the trainyard]]. This segment is played from a first-person perspective. Later subverted when [[spoiler:the hooded character you control in the final mission, "Site F" (who is controlled in third-person) turns out to be Briggs, not Sam]].

Due to the sudden GenreShift of the series, ''Conviction'' naturally resulted in a BrokenBase, with numerous fans crying that the series had [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks become another generic shooter and was irrevocably ruined]]. Of course, things weren't helped when Creator/MichaelIronside, the voice of Sam who openly [[JustForFun/OneOfUs liked Splinter Cell for being a different, non-actiony series]], promptly left the role at the time of ''Blacklist'', due to having been diagnosed with cancer and choosing to take time away from acting to fight it, something he and Ubisoft only revealed years later when a DLC starring Sam and voiced by Ironside was announced for ''VideoGame/GhostReconWildlands''. Despite all of this and the fact that no new installment has been released since 2013, the series still has a strong following, and while it has changed significantly in gameplay, it maintains its defining themes and individuality, and stays the same at heart. A [[VideoGameRemake remake]] of the first game has been announced in December 2021.

* GenreShift: ''Conviction'' and ''Blacklist'' shift the series from full on [[StealthBasedGame Stealth games]] to ThirdPersonShooters with Stealth mechanics.

* GenreShift: ''Conviction'' and ''Blacklist'' shift the series from full on [[StealthBasedGame Stealth games]] to {{ThirdPersonShooter}}s with Stealth mechanics.

'''Fisher''': This page is small, nasty and complicated, and ''[[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife will ruin your life]]''.\\

Developed by Creator/UbiSoft under Creator/TomClancy's license, ''Splinter Cell'' (or ''Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell'') is among the most prominent franchises in the [[StealthBasedGame Stealth]] video game genre.

Due to the sudden GenreShift of the series, ''Conviction'' naturally resulted in a BrokenBase, with numerous fans crying that the series had [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks become another generic shooter and was irrevocably ruined]]. Of course, things weren't helped when Creator/MichaelIronside, the voice of Sam who openly [[JustForFun/OneOfUs liked Splinter Cell for being a different, non-actiony series]], promptly left the role at the time of ''Blacklist'', due to having been diagnosed with cancer and choosing to take time away from acting to fight it, something he and Ubisoft only revealed years later when a DLC starring Sam and voiced by Ironside was announced for ''VideoGame/GhostReconWildlands''. Despite all of this and the fact that no new installment has been released since 2013, the series still has a strong following, and while it has changed significantly in gameplay, it maintains its defining themes and individuality, and stays the same at heart. As of late 2019, [[https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2019/11/08/ubisoft-is-teasing-a-new-splinter-cell-game/#5ee82be44179 a new game might be on the table]].