The 4E Ship 'Hub' | Forums

[SpaceDesperado]

Who wants to bet someone hijacks it/is a mole or 4E betrays Sam, and so you will have to infiltrate it covertly later on in the game. Possibly taking out the light generators first thing with the help of a hostages intel.

[Om4zd]

I hope when they said you control 4E that they don't incorporate the recruiting assassins thing like in Brotherhood :/

[Daedalus_89]

I hope when they said you control 4E that they don't incorporate the recruiting assassins thing like in Brotherhood :/

Agreed, but I don't think the crew is going to be that big.
Isaac Briggs; Coste, Grim and the hacker yet to be seen, Charlie Cole.
Obviously there will be a mission to rescue Briggs; and probably one to rescue Coste from Black Arrow, but I don't think we'll have to worry about keeping numbers up.
I think the whole idea behind 4E is to serve more as a scalpel than a hammer, and the only reason the president would have allowed it is if she was able to maintain plausible deniability, especially given the attempted Third Echelon-led coup d' etat in Conviction.

[Om4zd]

Right. I wonder if they would incorporate the Mass Effect type story progression system where you are in the Paladin and you look at the map.

You have options of which missions to proceed with. But they all eventually lead you up to a main plot mission or whatever. That actually doesn't seem like a bad idea.

[Daedalus_89]

I could see the appeal, but part of me hopes that they aren't going to give the kind of freedom that we see in Mass Effect.
I've admittedly said this a few times now, but I'd hate for people to start drawing parallels between Splinter Cell and the disaster that was Alpha Protocol.

[Om4zd]

Oh **** you're right man! Forgot about that game for a sec :P lol Will never happen again.

[Daedalus_89]

Ahahaha.
Sad thing is, Alpha Protocol looked really cool at first blush.
Maybe Ubisoft could learn from Obsidian's mistakes and find a way to apply that freedom without jeopardizing the integrity of the stealth-action genre.
That said, I think it's better that Ubisoft sticks with what they know has worked in the past, rather than venture too far from the structure of the franchise.
The game (AP) itself is a bit of a contradiction. Excellent premise, poor delivery.

[Daedalus_89]

The structure of the franchise has already been manipulated. Devs had their agenda with Conviction, and have a great basis to work from.

Now that they don't have to focus on the "new" gameplay elements, they can focus on things that keep us entertained, like customization, and this HUB type gameplay. I enjoy interacting with games, outside of the main story arcs. For example, if there is a shooting range on-board the Paladin, why can't there be an online leaderboard for fastest player time/high score? It's things like that, that will keep people intrigued.

An idea that has been flashed around here was "intel items" having to be decrypted. A "puzzle game" from the comfort of the Paladin - decrypting field intel files. Like Glyphs, from Assassins Creed. SEPARATE from the story arc, but interesting within themselves.

Puzzle idea might be interesting. But I feel like it might detract from the core of the game. Splinter Cell has always been very focused. The closest we've gotten to being sidetracked with extra objectives was in Double Agent.
I think the key would be in truly making it an optional side venture, so that way it doesn't feel like an attempt to pad the length of the game.

[Daedalus_89]

That sounds like it could work then.
A little bit of filler could help bring an extra dynamic to the game.
One thing I miss is getting those little extra bits of intel throughout the mission. Things you'd pick up by hacking into a computer, like door passcodes and accomplishing bonus objectives.
I also miss that electronic warfare aspect of the game, where you had to contend with cameras and lasers. There wasn't a whole lot of that in Conviction, and it had added to the challenge.