Ubisoft is currently hard at work on bringing three of its biggest IPs to life with remakes of fan-favorite releases. In addition to Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed, Splinter Cell will soon be welcomed by a brand new audience, with Ubisoft Toronto currently leading the development of a remake.
Although this remake appears to be taking a lot longer than initially anticipated, Ubisoft’s original Splinter Cell is still available for those who wish to revisit or play it for the first time. Interestingly enough, this particular title remains an incredible experience to this day, and the Baldur’s Gate 3 publishing director seems to agree.
Larian Studios’ Michael Douse recently shared that he is currently playing Splinter Cell on the original Xbox. The publishing director also made use of RetroTink 4K to upscale the game and enjoy it in full fidelity on an OLED screen.
“The original Splinter Cell is so dope on an OLED.” – Michael Douse
In particular, Michael Douse praised the game’s lighting system. He noted that games seem to have abandoned this style of lighting today, but Splinter Cell has aged incredibly gracefully. For those not in the know, Ubisoft’s lighting system relied on a custom solution based on Unreal Engine 2.
The fact that real-time shadows and volumetric lighting in the game interacted in a dynamic manner with moving objects made Splinter Cell incredibly unique for the time. Many believe that this level of lighting has not been replicated since, with games only now moving toward a similar solution, thanks to the advent of ray-tracing and path tracing.
With Michael Douse and others continuing to praise the game, there’s little doubt that Ubisoft made a classic with the original title. It will be interesting to see, then, whether the remake lives up to the high bar set in 2002.
According to insider Tom Henderson, Splinter Cell Remake is still making solid progress. He recently noted that the project looks good and is still alive at Ubisoft Toronto. Here’s hoping the team will recapture the same strengths that made the original so memorable to begin with.
