Mathieu Ferland, I'm Splinter Cell's Producer. I'm responsible of the game in terms of content, of development, of schedule and of budget. Two years ago I was asked to develop a 3rd person action game within Tom Clancy's universe. In one team I've gathered some of the most talented people in the industry (in my opinion). And here's Splinter Cell.

Rogue president Kombayn Nikoladze of former-Soviet Georgia declares war on the United States using techniques of Information Warfare technology empowered terrorism and propaganda. The U.S. military, trained to fight armies on physical battlefields, is powerless against the coordinated, remote terrorism dubbed a `High-Tech Vietnam` by world media. You are Sam Fisher, a field agent for black ops NSA sub-agency Third Echelon, who stands alone on the invisible frontline of battle.

I think that player's initial interest will come from the outstanding graphics and from the cool gadgets Sam can use. For example, when you need to be sneaky, you need gadgets which allow you to observe the surroundings, look behind doors, etc. And believe me, the gadgets are the coolest you've ever seen! Then, once the player will try the game, they'll discover all the action & moves Sam can do and all the interactivity he can have with the environment. They'll also discover a great freedom of gameplay by controlling a free camera, which adds a new gaming experience in the genre. Finally, they will figure out that there are different ways of reaching the same goal - you need to decide the level of risk you want to take in each of your actions, which will make you want to play again to see other solutions.

On top of that, there is more exploration in Splinter Cell than in other stealth games. The environments are wider and it will create intense challenge for the player to deal with enemies in a new context and in an unknown area.

We wanted the game to have its own identity and provide a new game play experience. With the interactive lightings and the free camera, you'll quickly discover that the game play mechanics are quite different. It has all the freedom that a first person game provides with the impressive effects and animations of a third person game.

Clancy is mostly involved in the concept of the game and the story. You can see Tom Clancy as a “seal of quality”. His biggest role was in the beginning of the conception, where we came out with this strong concept supported by this great story. Clancy is also involved in the validation process where he'll double check every phase of the game. His role is mostly to assure that the concept and the story stick together and are tight from the beginning to the end. We needed to agree on the core ingredients of the game to make sure that they were coherent with Clancy universe

What is unique in the case of Splinter Cell, is that unlike the other Clancy games the original concept did not come from a Clancy book or movie, or even Clancy himself. The concept was created by the development team who presented it to Clancy. He was so impressed that he took the ball and ran with it - embellishing the original concept with Clancy-esque details that only he could provide.

It will be really interesting if this game inspires a Clancy book or movie, rather than the other way around.

I like the way you can try different things to make Sam find his way. Sometime, you'll throw a can to create distraction and sneak behind the guards, sometimes, you'll use the distraction camera, sometimes, you'll wait until a guard is all alone to knock him down and hide his body… there is always a clear goal, but I like to try different things to achieve the missions. With all the gadgets and special tricks, it provides tones of possibilities. You must find the best one.

One of the challenges was to make everything consistent. Many moves + many gadgets + breakable lights + an interactive environment + advanced AI = huge matrix of possibilities. It's very hard to allow such a freedom and such interactivity for the player. All possibilities need to be considered, developed and tested properly. To gather all these features while keeping a good immersion and good gameplay was such a challenge. I would not be surprise if players are trying things we haven't thought of. However, our game mechanics are quite robust and i'm confident that the AI will react properly to all possibilities.

We knew that some features of the game were quite innovative and that we'd have a good response. We knew that the 2nd generation of games on a new console are always more impressive that the first year. However, you never know what other developers are developing and you never know if the features developed will be unique or already well used in other games. It turned out that other developers didn't explore the X-box as much as we did, and that E3 2002 has been a very good show for Splinter Cell and Ubi Soft Montreal Studios. We are more and more confident that the game will be well appreciated by many gamers.

There are two things in our mind right now: give gamers what they expect from Splinter Cell, and leave for long, well-deserved vacations :-) But who knows, in fact, those who decide if there is a sequel will be the players. If Splinter Cell becomes a success, than chances to work on a sequel are higher.