Hi there! Today I want to present my perspective on game sequels which I am waiting for, but at this point it is pretty clear they will never come out.
For the people who do not know, I am a Prince of Persia fan as can be seen if you read this, but also a big Splinter Cell fan.Both are Ubisoft franchises which have been mostly abandoned, sometimes having their corpses paraded around to promote multiplayer games (in the case of For Honor they had a Prince of Persia event), or mobile games (the recently announced Elite Squad featuring Tom Clancy franchises).
The last prince of Persia game was The Forgotten Sands in 2010 with it's own miniseries of games spanning all consoles of that generation. The game itself was decent, but nothing spectacular. After this game underperformed, especially compared to the juggernaut that was Assassin's Creed II, Ubisoft quietly let the franchise rest, being lost to the sands of time. Then, they started that For Honor event, as if to renew interest in the franchise.
Everyone who was a fan, myself included, thought that this would mean a new game or at least a remaster of the old ones would be announced, but the only thing we got was silence. Soon after, a demo for a game called Prince of Persia: Redemption surfaced somehow. It was posted to YouTube in 2012 (link), but nobody noticed it for 8 years. This only fueled the lust for another game, even though this demo was more of a pre-rendered proof of concept, but we did not care, it was something new, a glimmer of hope that something was happening behind the scenes.
Moving from Persia to the USA, we have Splinter Cell. The series went out with a bang, or, more appropriate, in silence, because Splinter Cell: Blacklist was a very good game. It took the good things from Conviction, like the mark and execute system which now could be used nonlethally and its clambering system and merged it with the classic games in the series, creating a stealth game which could be played fast and stylish or slow and methodically. This was helped by the return of the assymetrical multiplayer mode Spies vs Mercs in which the spies are nimble but vulnerable and play from a third person perspective and the mercs are tanks which move slowly and can dish massive amounts of damage, but are confined to a first person perspective, limiting their visibility. This game did not sell well, as the marketing made the game look like an action game. Also, for a game released in 2013, this game had a major flaw: it was released only on PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii U, with no next generation version, which severely limited its shelf life.
More recently, a DLC for Ghost Recon: Wildlands featured Sam Fisher in a DLC, which also ended with a sad farewell to the MGS series after the Kojima and Konami debacle, Sam Fisher noting in a disappointed tone that he is the only one left. Now, tell me, does this not seem like a tease for a new game in your eyes? Acting like a last bastion and then providing nothing is really heartbreaking to fans, especially nowadays when AAA stealth games are a distant memory, everything having only the crouch to sneak and animated takedown moves, while not providing any other tool or ability to enhance the stealth gameplay (Hitman is indie now, and it kinda shows). I want a game which takes into account nonlethal options and even ghosting through levels, with that sweet AAA obsession for graphics. But, all we got now are dreams, and dreams are not games.
All in all, I hope that my rant was at least entertaining, but this was written more for my peace of mind, venting my frustration linked to the induced coma of 2 of my favourite franchises. I guess I should feel thankful for the upcoming Netflix Splinter Cell series...
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