‘Splinter Cell Blacklist’ Trailer Shows the Transformation of Sam Fisher

He’s climbing in your windows, he’s snatching your people up: Sam Fisher is back and he’s tooling up for Splinter Cell: Blacklist, the latest installment in the popular stealth action series. This time around, the threat is a mysterious terrorist organization called the Engineers, who have vowed to commit a series of escalating attacks (“The Blacklist”) in order to achieve their ultimate goal of bringing death to America.

Along with Fisher’s transformation from the average man about town into a hardened Fourth Echelon solider that is shown in this trailer, Splinter Cell: Blacklistalso brings a change behind the scenes, as long-standing voice actor Michael Ironside has handed the reins over to young whippersnapper Eric Johnson, who was more physically capable of handling the movement required for the new performance capture technology being implemented by Ubisoft in the game. A similar change has been made to Sam Fisher’s brother in stealth, Garrett of theThief series, who has also had a change of voice actor for the upcoming reboot.

Speaking of stealth, there have been a few concerns from fans of the series about the gameplay trailers for Splinter Cell: Blacklist, which showed Fisher engaging in run-and-gun assault rifle battles and leaping over cars in a manner that seemed a bit unwise for anyone attempting to keep a low profile. Then again, Fisher has been granted the “Fifth Freedom” by President Patricia Caldwell in Splinter Cell: Blacklist, which grants him the right to pre-emptively kill, torture and spy on people in order to prevent them from killing, torturing or spying on people that he’s fond of.

For example, this trailer shows Fisher using his expert stealth skills to… blow a hole in someone’s ceiling using explosives and then drop down onto their head. Admittedly, a trailer showing the character squatting in a shadow waiting for a guard to pass by probably wouldn’t be as thrilling. He does also promise to “become what you fear most” and “make you believe I am everywhere,” and since the combat style is being left up to the player, there will assuredly be plenty of options for stealth fans to explore.

Based on the gameplay, the voice acting from Eric Johnson, and the pieces of exposition about the story, does this trailer leave you excited or apathetic aboutSplinter Cell: Blacklist?

Splinter Cell Blacklist will be available on PC, Wii U, Xbox 360 and PS3 from August 20, 2013.