Sam Fisher going rogue?

By Tom Bramwell Published 3 November, 2005

Splinter Cell 4 teasers.

Looks like Sam Fisher's next outing might be a painful one. And we're not just talking about the necks that he'll be snapping or the poor crims whose conspiracies he'll be undermining - by the looks of Ubisoft's cryptic promotional efforts, Sam himself's facing up to a bit of inner turmoil.

The Beware Sam Fisher website holds most of the clues - laid out like a pinboard covered in newspaper cuttings, the areas that expand focus on the death of his daughter Sarah in a drunk-driving incident, and his discharge from Third Echelon. There's also a voicemail message waiting on a nearby telephone where the familiar voice of Michael Ironside, Fisher's voice actor, says, "You have no idea what's coming," and, "I'll be the one you're looking for."

Further clues, dredged up by fiddly types on the Gaming Age Forums, suggest that Fisher's gone rogue, robbing a bank - and there's even a "Wanted" poster of a shaven-headed Fisher-like looking rather grim.

Ubisoft, having covered back up some of the clues it hadn't planned for the world to see yet by renaming hidden images, kept up the ruse, telling GameSpot, "[It] looks like Sam is going through some tough times."

Quite what happens to Sam in his fourth adventure remains to be seen then, but it doesn't sound like a world of fun - at least not for him. Fortunately it won't remain-to-be-seen for too much longer. As announced at X05 a month ago, Ubisoft plans to release Splinter Cell 4 on current console formats, Xbox 360 and PC in spring 2006.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (37) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • space_ace #1 6 years ago

    hey what's going on!

    lambert..? lambert...?!

  • malteaserhead #2 6 years ago

    ...chews airwaves....

  • djchump #3 6 years ago

    Sounds a bit like when Ubisoft made Prince of Persia go dark.
    I think they should do urban next.
    Prince of Persia use time travel powers and finds himself in downtown Detroit with Sam Fisher on the run from the Feds, so they have to go all bling and freestyle rap to gain respect from their homies. Then their ride has to be pimped. and how.

  • SirScratchalot #4 6 years ago

    Always thought sam needed a bit of personality beyond the arrr, I´m hard!
    This might be good both for his characterisation and the story itself.

  • Mirkan #5 6 years ago

    I said the bald guy in the SC4 trailer was Sam, but did people listen? Nooo-oooo.

  • HarryB #6 6 years ago

    sam fisher as bad assssssssssssss hes like american so he's god!

  • BravoGolf #7 6 years ago

    Am intrigued :)

  • beep #8 6 years ago

    Splinter Cell 4 sees Sam Fisher become the target and the player will assume the role of Lambert.

  • markypants #9 6 years ago

    Sounds a bit like the development crew have been watching 'The Bourne Supremacy' to me?
    Edited by 1 at 03/11/05 @ 10:51

  • space_ace #10 6 years ago

    when i see a question mark in an eg news title, i almost want to skip it, expecting the usual wild rumour. this isn't like that.

  • Cadence_ #11 6 years ago

    ever since i overheard two mercenaries talking about how good the "new prince of persia game is" splinter cell has really gone down in my estimation. the blatant use of advertising throughout SC3 was appalling.

  • Fatfish #12 6 years ago

    My theories on the new plot::

    His daughters' death is a cover up - she's actually still alive but taken hostage by a terrorist cell. Lambert and 'da crew' don't believe that she's still alive and think Sam's having a 'terrorist war syndrome' (bit like gulf war syndrome, but not) type of mental break down and relieve him of duty. Sam then goes on personal crusade to uncover why his daughters been kidnapped against the wishes of Lambert. Someone from Fishers past covertly supplies him with the necessary arsenal of weapons and comms equipment, and provides intel probably via a Motorola bluetooth headset.......or something like that.

    This is all hypothetical of course! I think it's unlikely they will turn Fisher in to an anti-hero. For one, he's too much of an established character/franchise - they can hardly have him running around gunning down or breaking necks of (what in previous games has been) the good guys. Which means I think we can probably expect lots of missions where 'terminating' the patrol guards will result in 'game over' - so even more emphasis on stealthy, stealthy action and lots of shocker shots and smoke grenades.
    Edited by 1 at 03/11/05 @ 11:19

  • kangarootoo #13 6 years ago

    I thought the Airwave gum placement was pretty damn clumsy, but I thought the PoP conversation was cheesy more than anything else. At least the gun stuff was kept to cutscenes.

    Advertising in games doesn't bother me a whole lot so long as it has no impact on gameplay, I just look past it. Games with real world environments always have posters and pictures in the locations. Whether they show made up products or real ones is hardly a major issue surely?

  • kangarootoo #14 6 years ago

    @Fatfish

    There is also the old favourite of the whole discharge thing being a over story, so Fisher can get undercover somewhere. In Hollywood it usually manifests as some cop biffing his superior and going to jail so he can infiltrate some gang.

    EDIT: Although to be honest I would prefer if he had just gone a bit nuts. I doubt this is the case though. Looking at it from a sales point of view, Splinter Cell is a big franchise that has a few versions in it yet. Recovering the story would be harder if Sam actually went off the rails, as opposed to still being a good guy with a clever plan.
    Edited by 1 at 03/11/05 @ 11:24

  • Fatfish #15 6 years ago

    Perhaps it's a 'Splinter Cell' meets Micahael Douglas in 'Falling Down' meets 'GTA' kind of game. On the way to the office one day, Sam stops for a cup of coffee and a doughnut (standard fare for all American enforcement types - covert or not). whilst in the shop, some little punk slashes his tyres, bends his aerial and keys the words "PS2 4 teh win" on his bonnett. Sam finally reaches the limit of his abilities to control and supress his psychotic urges, and instead begins a rampage through the streets of LA, New York, Paris, Luxembourg and any other typical city used in most modern terrorist/covert-ops games these days. Kill frenzy missions with a sniper rifle from the tops of buildings, hanging upside down from street lamps waiting for unsuspecting passers-by to stroll past underneath so he can snap their necks, stealing pimped up rides from steet hoods and taking them to a garage to have them blacked out and all registration and serial numbers filed off. ;)

  • BEAR-ONE #16 6 years ago

    The discharge thing to go undercover does'nt hold: for one Sam Fisher works for a splinter cell of the NSA called third Echelon that basically has no official existence. No one knows about Sam Fisher, for all we know his civilian identity is something else. So discharged or not, people still don't know about him... And I'd imagine that when the NSA discharge someone so covert who has so many secrets (like "well I have been inside North Korea to play around in their missile base";) they'd discharge them with a bullet in the head. Oh well...

  • kangarootoo #17 6 years ago

    "No one knows about Sam Fisher"

    Except ex operatives, high powered super villains and so on. The plot from MI2 is springting to mind here, where Thandy Newton is used as bait under cover of an "arrested by interpol" story. Now the MI team are all unofficial and so on, but obviously some people know about them.

    All speculation of course, but interesting. So we can feel smug/stupid when we turn out to be right/wrong.

  • Artemus #18 6 years ago

    His daughters' death is a cover up - she's actually still alive but taken hostage by a terrorist cell. Lambert and 'da crew' don't believe that she's still alive and think Sam's having a 'terrorist war syndrome' (bit like gulf war syndrome, but not) type of mental break down and relieve him of duty. Sam then goes on personal crusade to uncover why his daughters been kidnapped against the wishes of Lambert. Someone from Fishers past covertly supplies him with the necessary arsenal of weapons and comms equipment, and provides intel probably via a Motorola bluetooth headset.......or something like that.

    Nice theory but it doesn't account for the bank robbings.

  • kangarootoo #19 6 years ago

    "for one Sam Fisher works for a splinter cell of the NSA"

    Geeky point of interest. The "Splinter Cell" in question was originally not Sam or the NSA but in fact the rogue section of the Georgian military that was the enemy in Splinter Cell 1, which makes sense as its a common term for a terrorist subfaction that has removed itself from the original command structure.

    Then the trailers for SC2 came out and the voiceover proclaimed "You are the Splinter Cell", which made no sense at all but sounded cool.

  • kangarootoo #20 6 years ago

    "Nice theory but it doesn't account for the bank robbings."

    Could that not simply be Sam self funding his activities? The arms supplying contact may not be doing it for free.

  • Fatfish #21 6 years ago

    "Nice theory but it doesn't account for the bank robbings."

    ....or didn't have enough change for the parking meter?....

  • PearOfAnguish #22 6 years ago

    Oh golly gosh, I sure do hope it's got more of that super-fun gameplay where you walk incredibly slowly towards a guard, get spotted, killed, then restart. I can't get enough of it.
    Edited by 1 at 03/11/05 @ 12:35

  • Fatfish #23 6 years ago

    @ Pear - Don't blame poor game mechanics for your lack of gaming skills!! ;)

  • Flightrisker #24 6 years ago

    I'd say the bank robbery was to cement his rogue image. Like in season 3 of 24 when Jack had worked under cover and became a junkie.

  • Mashum #25 6 years ago

    I'm with DJChump on this, Sam Fisher looks like he has had a makover to make him a bit more bad attitude - a great pity as he was an interesting character, a bit old and certainly very dark but in a subtle way.
    This will all go the way of Prince of Persia.. we'll see Sam Fisher sporting the same bad-ass tattoo as the lead artist has, fighting women with their arse cheeks hanging out of metal pants. Boo..

  • space_ace #26 6 years ago

    it's hard to distinguish splinter cell 4 from hitman: blood money these days...

  • oerhoert #27 6 years ago

    Perhaps it's just a sign that Ubi is FINALLY trying to make anything at least VAGUELY interesting? I know I very much prefer a bit of actual mystery, like this site hints to, instead of the usual generic terrorism fare of old.

    Still, if they keep to the boringly linear structure, where the layout generates no interest at all in what's pretended to be going on, and where you never really <em>feel</em> like a covert operative, since you just advance along the pre-set route -- well -- it will have a hard time generating any excitement.

  • Lummox #28 6 years ago

    "whilst in the shop, some little punk slashes his tyres, bends his aerial and keys the words "PS2 4 teh win" on his bonnett"

    lol

  • kangarootoo #29 6 years ago

    @oerhört

    You seem to be reading an awful lot into their character changes. Shaving Sam's head and making him an outlaw won't neccessarily provide any orignal gameplay.

    I agree with you that taking him "off the NSA books" could allow for some variety in storylines (something Tom Clancy has always sucked at IMO). But the cynic in me shares the same worries as Mashum, that this transformation will be mostly cosmetic, and not in a good way. I think the Sam Fisher character could have been developed further with a little more thought, not necessarily reinvented. Seems like a marketing hook to me, but like I say I am feeling cynical here.

  • Bitkari #30 6 years ago

    Oh, and I thought that Splinter Cell 4 may be set in one of those secret eastern-european CIA torture prisons.

    Maybe on the DS version, eh?

  • BEAR-ONE #31 6 years ago

    Maybe Sam Fisher sets out to rid the world of Dick Cheney and GW Bush.... that would get his bosses in a pickle would'nt it? Robbing a bank is just a deception plan...

  • keano #32 6 years ago

    hmmm maybe bank robbery for money ie he is going solo. maybe his own version of the punisher. one thing though towards the end u hear the word "President" then "fisher" any clues......

  • tengu #33 6 years ago

    I'm sorry, but I find Splinter Cell unspeakably boring. I tried playing the first and second ones, but they were so fucking tedious I lasted about an hour on each... if even that.

    Say what you like about the heavy story in MGS2, but at least the MGS games manage to make stealth bullshit fun.

  • PearOfAnguish #34 6 years ago

    ^ Seconded.

  • The-Bodybuilder #35 6 years ago

    >"hear the word "President" then "fisher" any clues......"

    My guess is it's to do with sam's other evil clone brother, who was once the president.
    No doubt your gonna be seeing walking tanks, water-running vampires and a blonde heard pussy called "raven" thrown into the mix.

  • The Old Bill #36 6 years ago

    There was a good SC book.

  • AHiFi #37 6 years ago

    The website's really interesting...there must have been some subliminal messaging on there because I really want this game - despite the fact that I'm still only halfway through the original SC and have only played the Chaos Theory multiplayer.