Prior to the success of Assassin's Creed and Just Dance, the collective "Tom Clancy's" games were arguably Ubisoft's biggest hits. Rainbow Six revolutionized close-quarters tactical squad shooters with its relentless difficulty and necessitated planning. Ghost Recon took the action into larger areas for a blend of intense action and precision. But it was Splinter Cell that cemented Ubisoft's place as the master of the techno-military thriller game.

The series took the stealth-action concepts pioneered by Metal Gear Solid and improved them to near-perfect levels, even working the tagline "Stealth Action Redefined" into the first game's full title. Splinter Cell evolved and morphed in the years that followed, adding more action elements, a greater emphasis on dark, personal storytelling, and creative new multiplayer modes. For a long time, it seemed like it could do no wrong, and even after needing to switch actors for Sam Fisher when developing Splinter Cell Blacklist--Michael Ironside was suffering from cancer at the time--new studio Ubisoft Toronto delivered a slick mix of traditional stealth and deadly action.

And then Splinter Cell disappeared, only not in a fun way like when Sam Fisher blends into the darkness and becomes the night itself.