Series has been dormant since 2013

It's time to dust off your night-vision goggles - 'Splinter Cell' is making a comeback.

There has been radio silence from the 'Splinter Cell' franchise since 2013's excellent 'Splinter Cell: Blacklist', but Sam Fisher is stepping back into the limelight with a remake of his original 2002 outing on the way from Ubisoft.

'Splinter Cell' is being remade from the ground up using Ubisoft's "Snowdrop" engine which powers its hit series 'The Division'.

The 'Splinter Cell' series were some of the best stealth games of its day, with most critics and fan picks citing 2005's 'Chaos Theory' as the series' highpoint.

There were 6 games in the mainline series starting with the 2002 original, a 2004 sequel entitled 'Pandora Tomorrow', the 2005 masterpiece 'Chaos Theory,' 2006's 'Double Agent' which saw the series flirt with multiple endings and choices, 2010's 'Conviction' which continued the story of Sam Fisher and the most recent entry to date, 2013's 'Blacklist', which served as a swansong for the seventh generation of consoles.

Serving as more of a techno-thriller than Hideo Kojima's brilliantly demented 'Metal Gear Solid' series, the 'Splinter Cell' games had a wide range of stealth options and offered some of the best stealth gameplay on the market.

Protagonist Sam Fisher became an iconic character in the gaming sphere as the series progressed, with his night-vision goggles serving as an extension of the character.

Actor Michael Ironside voiced the spy before being controversially replaced for 2013's 'Blacklist'.

'Blacklist' received positive reviews but underperformed commercially, leading to the franchise sitting out an entire console generation.

In an interview published on Ubisoft's website, series producer Peter Handrinos acknowledged that “enough time to miss an entire console generation">

“We’re going to take the time to explore what this means for us, for light and shadow, for animation tech, for gameplay, AI, even audio,” Handrinos said. “We want to bring [fans] something new, yet still connect them to that feeling that they had two decades ago, playing that masterpiece for the first time.”

Producer Matt West was keen to emphasise the game will strike a balance between old and new.

"There's stuff that simply needs to be redone from scratch to be up to snuff for a modern gameplay experience. With that, though, what do we need to do to absolutely preserve the feeling of early 'Splinter Cell?'

" We’re going to be straddling the line between the spirit of the old, and the comfort of the new, so that we can excite and surprise new players, but also make sure that when our returning players pick up the controller, they have that sigh of relief, saying “Ahhh, they got it.”, he added.

No word yet on a release date, but a 2022 release date is unlikely.

The game was merely announced with no new screenshots, and the developers are still in the process of hiring.

In the meantime, fans can get their Sam Fisher fix in 'Rainbow Six Siege', where he's playable as an operator.