Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory creative director Clint Hocking has suggested that modern-day advances in video game graphics have made it more challenging to develop stealth games. Thanks to the evolution of lighting over the years–like ray and path tracing–Hocking believes that the more nuanced shade and darkness levels present in games make it harder for players to read the digital room and see just how hidden they are when sneaking past enemies.
“I actually think one of the difficulties with modern stealth games is the sophistication in the rendering has made lighting so much more realistic,” Hocking said to FRVR. “When you think about those old-school stealth games because of their baked lighting, the lighting is very clean and readable and very understandable for the player. “But once you get into this diffuse and ambient occlusion and all of the stuff that comes with it, it gets very hard to tell what’s light, what’s shadow, what’s dark, what’s safe, what’s dangerous, and all of that stuff.”
Early Splinter Cell games had a solution to this issue, as they made use of a light meter to give players an indicator if they were cloaked in shadows or on the verge of being spotted. Fast-forward to Splinter Cell: Conviction, and Ubisoft’s approach was to remove color from the game world as Sam Fisher blended into the monochrome shadows–this was later removed for Splinter Cell Blacklist, replaced with a small light on Sam Fisher’s suit.
Hocking added that artistic direction with the use of lighting also plays a key role in fine-tuning stealth gameplay, and environments featuring a realistic layer of illumination are what make it difficult for players to get a read on the game’s environment. But if a developer were to make their in-game lighting more dramatic so as to complement the nature of a stealth-focused game, that would benefit players in the end.
After leading development on Assassin’s Creed Hexe, Hocking left Ubisoft in February to form a new studio, Build Machine Games. As for the upcoming Splinter Cell remake, development on that project continues in the wake of 40 developers being recently laid off from its studio, Ubisoft Toronto. The Splinter Cell IP is now being handled by one of Ubisoft’s new Creative Houses, alongside competitive and cooperative shooter experiences like The Division and Ghost Recon.
