Is it too late to use a new Protagonist?

[CELLGHOST206]

Games take a long time to develop, and story is usually one of the important pillars in modern games. I am all for creating a new protagonist with Johnson and making Sam a Lambert 2.0, but is it too far in the development to make that change? How personal is the story and how interwoven is it with Fisher's life. I hope that the development isn't so far that some story changes can't be made to suit a new protagonist. However this whole idea rests solely on whether or not the story is finished.

To me, Sam's voice is a principle issue here but then again I don't mind the new guy, and I do think that he fits the role well, but as another character. It would be good character development for Sam if he took his best friend's former position.

I sincerely hope that this decision isn't final and a new protagonist can be created and some character models reworked.

Thoughts anyone?

[Sharkey1337]

Well it's 9 months to go before release, so I'm sure it'd be rather difficult to change things without a delay, but honestly I'd rather wait for the chance to see a new Splinter Cell agent and have Sam take on the superior/mentor role. They could easily swap out Sam's head for Eric Johnson's likeness most likely, and then tweak the dialog from there to fix parts that refer to him as Sam and includes personal history. I doubt it's going to happen, but Ubisoft has made drastic changes before, from Conviction's early development to the entirety of Ghost Recon Future Soldier.

[Bugattiboy91]

No, it's not too late, but Ubisoft just plain won't. Simple as that.

[coltcat]

besides that, how the hell they cant even gets Sams face right? it baffles me
its 2012 now, that facial expression capture technology couldnt figure out a way to model a george clooneys face on a character?

well, after all looks lost, absence of Ironside would be the definitive reason for my money stay in the wallet.
becuz his voice is just that important, like Pacino, Freeman or LaFontaine, you recognize it right away.
and the Johnson couldn't give anything special, for a Ironside successor thats bad.
seriously, we needs a distingtive/believable voice to be sort out from other.
Johnson sounds so young. you can even confuse him with any other NPCs.
Sams voice actor can be change, it just need to be special and believable. a calm mid-age men.
I even think Vin Diesel could put it off, at least he got a recognizable tone.

[CovertOwl]

The real question is "Is it too late to dub Ironside over the other VA?"

[Puppet627]

Why didn't they just create a new character -trained by Sam- as the playable character?

That would've been the right way to go instead of forcing this new 'Sam' on us.

[michaelanjello]

Honestly i think changing the story, the cgi and all that is way to much work, time and mulla. All they can do now is maybe do an amazing job at dubbing the character with Michael ironside. which not only will they not do, but no money will make him do it. Unless its a fortune wwhich bisoft will not spend. considering only "hardcore fans" care about tthat. and we're pretty much nobody.

[JasonDaPsycho]

I'd take a customizable mute protagonist over the non-Sam-Fisher. I hate this.

[Dieinthedark]

I'd take a customizable mute protagonist over the non-Sam-Fisher. I hate this.

Extreme but true. Don't try to tell us that's Sam