Frankly, 2020 has been a bad year for everybody. A virus is ravaging the world, politics are more polarizing than ever, and the west coast is literally on fire in the US.
Now, I’m not saying that what I’m about to discuss is even close to being equal to above, but despite already being on the ropes and nearly down for the count, we now have the audience throwing beer cans at us.
The new Splinter Cell, assumed to come out in 2020/2021, is a VR exclusive for Oculus VR.
First, let me share with you a great review of the new Oculus Quest 2. Short answer: Hard pass.
I don’t get what is going on with Ubisoft lately. They’ve done some cool things with the new Watch Dog Legion game. The new Assassin’s Creed looks interesting. Hell, even the latest update to Ghost Recon Breakpoint has appeased a number of people who have been griping since day 1 about it.
So, when they announced that a new Splinter Cell game was coming as a VR-only title, I just shook my head.
I personally haven’t invested any real time into VR; it’s hard for someone like me to really “do” VR, just because of my limited range of motion and constant pain. However, I don’t see how Splinter Cell will be near as great in VR (along side a new AC title for VR, apparently).
Many of us Splinter Cell fans are older. I myself am 37, and while I’m not full-on crotchety, waving my cane at kids telling them to get off my lawn, I also tend to avoid jumping on tech bandwagons now like I used to. VR may not be new, but it still has a long way to go according to a number of people, and watching VR gameplay just makes me think.. Is that really better?
Here’s where my real complaint comes in: Sam Fisher is an expert operator, who moves like a ninja and practically ignores gravity when it comes to vertical interactions (hanging from pipes, for example). It’s not like we ourselves can do what Sam does, and it’ll be pretty hard to get true VR immersion in the experience and still perform like an expert operator.
I guess we’ll wait and see, but odds are, you won’t see me rushing out to finally buy a VR rig to play the new Splinter Cell.