Ubisoft reveals 'big announcement' about Splinter Cell

Recently, Ubisoft had announced on the Splinter Cell Facebook page that it is about to make some ‘big announcement’, and gave part of an image as a teaser. Now, according to Eurogamer, it has been revealed that Ubisoft is gearing up to release a comic next year named Splinter Cell: Echoes, that will explain the events that take place between Splinter Cell: Conviction and the upcoming latest game in the series, Splinter Cell: Blacklist.

In an interview with IGN, comic writer Nathan Edmonson said that Ubisoft was working very closely with him “giving input, encouraging ideas, helping us to better understand the Splinter Cell world, but they have never harnessed our creativity”. Nathan also talked about Sam Fisher as a character and the rich history of the game. “Sam is a complicated character with a broken and dark past. His attitude, his technique is all very anti-Bond, anti-superhero,” Edmonson explained. “He’s also something of a slave to his ideals and his country; he’s always been in service - he’s never really been free. What he has ever done, has been done out of duty”.

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They don’t even see it coming

Here is a quick summary of the story of Splinter Cell: Blacklist. In 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave what became known as the ‘Four Freedoms’ speech, laying out the quartet of fundamental liberties that people “everywhere in the world” should hold as a birthright.  Those four, brought forth as the world struggled with unprecedented barbarity, were the freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear.

But it was recognised that noble as the ideal of the Four Freedoms might be, there would be times when they would need to be defended against oppression, tyrants, and terror. Thus was born the Fifth Freedom, the right and responsibility to do whatever it took to protect the other four. The bearer of the Fifth Freedom has a mandate to go anywhere he needs to and do anything he must – kill, steal or destroy – in the interest of the greater good. Only the President can authorise the Fifth Freedom, and only the most skilled and trustworthy operatives America has to offer have ever received it.

And until now, no man has ever received it twice.

Sam Fisher initially received the Fifth Freedom as the prototype for the new Splinter Cell program. At a time when the scope of information warfare was exploding, Third Echelon needed an agent who could combine cutting-edge technology with old-fashioned tradecraft. Using the Fifth Freedom judiciously, Fisher defended the United States against biological attack, against state-sponsored cyber warfare and against domestic terrorism, before walking away.

However, terrorists have now targeted America and people are in danger. Since Sam Fisher is the only badass we know that can handle situations like this, Fisher agrees to take up the power of the Fifth Freedom again to stop the terrorists and their Blacklist.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist is set to be released in the US during spring in 2013.