Blacklist Adds Moral Grey to Splinter Cell

Jeremy Wilkinson

Behatted Physicist
Jun 14, 2012
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Blacklist Adds Moral Grey to Splinter Cell


Ubisoft wants players talking choice, not achievement after finishing Blacklist.

Moral choice systems in video games have come under a lot of scrutiny in recent months, either for being too black and white or for choices proving to be irrelevant in the long run. Now, Ubisoft wants to blow these conventions out of the water in Splinter Cell: Blacklist.

In a recent interview, Ubisoft Toronto's creative director Maxime Béland told Game Informer that morality systems in their current form are redundant in terms of the "morality" they offer. "If you want to have true morality in a game," he said, "you cannot link it to mechanics or to a system. Because the player will play the system; he's not going to play the true world choice."

Béland mainly wants to achieve a system that can't be cheated due to the severity of the game's tone. Ideally, he would like players to experience the full weight of their choices, and to have the impression that in some circumstances there's no right or wrong, just bad or worse. This is especially true in clinch decisions such as where a building has a chance of being either an opposing stronghold or a school. "What if you f*** up?", he asked. "If the likelihood is at 62%, do you blow the **** out of that? Is 65% OK? How about 35%?" Eventually, Béland hopes that discussions of the game will become less a case of bragging about certain achievements, and more a case of reflecting on whether being only 62% certain was enough, adding emotional weight to in-game situations.

Overall, Béland thinks that the problems posed by Blacklist are important to consider, as "we've got some guys everywhere in the world that are making those decisions every day for us." Though the tone here marks somewhat of a departure for the series, it will be interesting to see whether the choices offered by the game prove robust compared to those in other games.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist will be available on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on March 26, 2013.

Source: MCV [http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2012/07/17/directing-splinter-cell-an-interview-with-maxime-beland.aspx]

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Baldr

The Noble
Jan 6, 2010
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Lost In The Void said:
Now it just needs to add stealth gameplay /cheapshot
I don't care if the main storyline has little stealth as long as they include the stealth challenge missions(Deniable Ops) like they did in Conviction.
 

Cowabungaa

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Feb 10, 2008
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Splinter Cell has been there already. Remember that one line "Medals don't help me sleep at night." That's all I need.
 

Kopikatsu

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May 27, 2010
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I remain skeptical. If you aren't tying morality to a system...then how do you make the choices matter? It seems like 'Hey, 60% chance that this is an enemy base. Nuke it?' 'HELL YEAH, NUKE THAT SUCKER.' and then they never tell you if it really was one or not.
 

teh_gunslinger

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. did it better.
Dec 6, 2007
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Just fire the fools who made Conviction and rehire Clint Hocking and make another good game like Chaos Theory. That's all the moral choice they need.

Captcha: case closed. Relevant.
 
Mar 20, 2010
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I have played every single Splinter Cell game ever made, multiple times. Even read 2 of the books. It's my favorite gaming franchise of all time. But I'm having really hard time caring about this game at all. When i get even remotely excited, lack of Michael Ironside turns me off immediately. I really want to get pumped for this, but every singe time i see news about it, I get more depressed. Guess I'm some kind of a elitist now.
 

NinjaDeathSlap

Leaf on the wind
Feb 20, 2011
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My Beland.

Go and play Splinter Cell: Double Agent.

Observe that the perfect moral choice system has already been made, by this very franchise no less.
 

Dogstile

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Jan 17, 2009
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NinjaDeathSlap said:
My Beland.

Go and play Splinter Cell: Double Agent.

Observe that the perfect moral choice system has already been made, by this very franchise no less.
I have the game, buy I can't play it. On the prison breakout there's one bonus for not being seen and it glitchs out at a door every single time I play. I've even tried watching walkthroughs.

Skipped it, went onto other levels, same shit keeps happening. I want to love the game, but dammit they make it hard!
 

jawakiller

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Jan 14, 2011
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Too bad you can nuke the fuck out of enemies when shooting gets boring.

But seriously, if this had been a stealth-shooter done right, I would be excited. Unfortunately, it's gonna be Conviction 2.
 

NinjaDeathSlap

Leaf on the wind
Feb 20, 2011
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dogstile said:
NinjaDeathSlap said:
My Beland.

Go and play Splinter Cell: Double Agent.

Observe that the perfect moral choice system has already been made, by this very franchise no less.
I have the game, buy I can't play it. On the prison breakout there's one bonus for not being seen and it glitchs out at a door every single time I play. I've even tried watching walkthroughs.

Skipped it, went onto other levels, same shit keeps happening. I want to love the game, but dammit they make it hard!
That's a shame. Overall, I'd say Chaos Theory just edges it as the best game of the series, but both versions of Double Agent are hot on it's heels in my opinion, in no small part thank to it's moral choice system (well, it would be more appropriate to call it a 'trust' system, as that is what is being measured, but it involves moral choices so whatever.)

There's no such thing as a 'good' or 'bad' play through, the aim of the game is to keep your trust with both the NSA and the JBA, meaning that you are forced to so some really shitty things whatever way you look at it in order to maintain your cover. It sounds a little restrictive at first, but where it shines is that it actually forces you to think ahead about the consequences of your decisions. For example, I really don't want to do X Bad Thing. However, if I don't, I may be left with no option but to Y Even Worse Thing later on to restore balance. Then again, if it turns out I could have got away without doing X Bad Thing, then I've just been a total asshole for nothing. It raises some really tough dilemmas, and combined with Sam's emotionally unstable state at that point in the story, it can get to the stage where even you aren't really sure who's side your on anymore.

It's such a kick in the balls that Conviction completely fucks over the best part of it's predecessor by just going with one canon version of the story, so all that turmoil in the end counted for jack shit. "Oh, you mean you chose not to shoot Lambert? You mean to tell me that you were prepared to potentially compromise everything you had been working towards because in that moment, you just couldn't do it? You're saying that you had become so invested in Sam's struggle that you thought 'Screw my cover! Whatever else I have become, I will not be the man who murders his only friend left in the world in cold blood'? Well FUCK YOU THEN!
 

Zing

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Oct 22, 2009
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The Witcher 2 still has the best moral system I've ever seen. Not black and white, completely shapes the plot and future conflicts and relationships. With a little bit more time spent on the moral system, and some depth added it would have been perfect.

Glad to hear they are aware of how much moral systems have been sucking(I blame BioWare/Lionhead). Unfortunately, moral choices were the last problem with Conviction. They need to refocus on the stealth aspect for the games to return to their former glory.
 

Artemis923

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Dec 25, 2008
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Bring back Chaos THeory and my knife, ditch the retarded action blockbuster elements, bring back Sam's whistle...

THen work on morality.
 

Knight Templar

Moved on
Dec 29, 2007
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Cowabungaa said:
Splinter Cell has been there already. Remember that one line "Medals don't help me sleep at night." That's all I need.
That was the best way to handle such a choice. It's not framed as a decision you have to make, they are just there and you are able to help them or just walk away. Same concept for lethal or non-lethal on the missions where casualties were allowed.
More importantly, we already had an entire game about such choices Double Agent. This isn't new, not to splinter cell, or spy games (Alpha Protocol is a good example) or games in general.

I'm not wondering if these guys have played any Splinter cell games anymore, I'm wondering if they have played any game.
 

AJax_21

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May 6, 2011
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Lost In The Void said:
Now it just needs to add stealth gameplay /cheapshot
First comment kills it, Stone cold. Hey Beland, start showing some actual stealth gameplay then BS about whatever the heck you want.
 

Cyrus Hanley

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Oct 13, 2010
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Cowabungaa said:
Splinter Cell has been there already. Remember that one line "Medals don't help me sleep at night." That's all I need.
Not to mention Dahlia Tal in Pandora Tomorrow.

Sam: "Killing unarmed women seems mighty close to terrorism."

They didn't advertise it as a big selling point either. :-/