Is it time for Splinter Cell to retire Sam Fisher?

  It's been a while since I last wrote about Splinter Cell. Shall we write about Splinter Cell? Let's write about Splinter Cell.

  Since playing 2013's Blacklist one thing that's been on my mind is the future of Sam Fisher's character. I think it may be time to retire him. Don't get me wrong, I love Fisher's character. I think he's one of the coolest and iconic characters in the action genre this century. But it's quite clear that his glory days have passed. Let me tell you why.

  The first reason why Sam isn't as cool as before is, you guessed it, Michael Ironside leaving the series. Ironside contributed so much to Fisher, with performances that gave the character intensity, professionalism, and at times dark humour and sarcasm. Without Ironside, Fisher simply wasn't the same character he was before. Eric Johnson's performance in Blacklist, while it wasn't outright awful, robbed Sam of much of his personality. Gone was his cool professionalism and much of his sarcasm. In fact at times he just came off as a somewhat disinterested ass. Also, he sounded too young to be playing the highly experienced 4^th Echelon agent.

  Which brings me to the other point, Sam Fisher is simply getting too old to do field work. Sure Sam was already in his 40's when he became a splinter cell in the original game in 2002. His experience in his middle age is part of what made him so distinctive from other video game characters. But seeing him able to effortlessly pull off so many acrobatic moves in Blacklist was really starting to test my suspension of disbelief, especially when you consider that Sam was born in 1957! Part of Sam's backstory is that he was involved in past historical events like the Soviet-Afghan War and the US invasion of Panama. So unless the next game is a prequel or reboot, Sam will be at least 60 years old!

  The solution to these problems is simple. I propose that Ubisoft have a different player character for the next game. I'm not saying that Sam has to disappear; he still could be an advisor/mentor/boss within 4^th Echelon – perhaps he could be the new Lambert.

  I think it would be interesting to let Briggs take over the mantle of the trifocal goggles. We already played as him in two levels of Blacklist (if you don't count the sniping sections), which could serve as a “passing of the torch”. The first level you could tell he was learning how stealth espionage tactics worked and by the final level of the game he was so skilled at it that he was almost indistinguishable from Sam.

  It seems unlikely that the Sam Fisher we all know and love (from the first 5 games) will be coming back, but we do have the chance to move on to someone else who could prove to be just as interesting. In just one game we've seen that Briggs is smart, is skilled, can work on his own, shows initiative, has a sense of humour and comradeship, and has learned that 4^th Echelon spy work doesn't have to be done “by the book”. Sounds like a worthwhile player character to me.

  Anyways, those are just my opinions on the matter. This isn't related to any new Splinter Cell news or anything; I just wanted to share my thoughts on something that's been on the brain for a while. What do you think should be done to revitalize Splinter Cell?