For a very long time, the term “video game adaptation” sounded like a curse. But look at how the scenario has changed. The highest-grossing Hollywood film of 2025 is A Minecraft Movie. The Sonic the Hedgehog trilogy has been immensely successful. Movies like Five Nights at Freddy’s, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and Mortal Kombat have done so well that they have spawned sequels. Netflix has become a hub for amazing animated adaptations of video games. Arcane had a solid first season, and even though the second season was shaky, it was still stunning to look at. Castlevania and its spin-off series have knocked it out of the park both in terms of storytelling and visuals. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was so marvelous that it’s returning for a second season. Devil May Cry was not well-received by hardcore fans, but I loved it. Dragon Age: Absolution was incredibly fun. Pokemon Concierge is so comforting. I am such a sucker for the animated medium that I even loved Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix. How has Splinter Cell: Deathwatch fared in comparison to these titles? Let’s find out.
Derek Kolstad’s Splinter Cell: Deathwatch, with the episodes being directed by Felicien Colmet-Daage and Guillaume Dousse, tells the story of McKenna, an operative of the Fourth Echelon who’s sent to Vilnius, Lithuania, to extract another operative, Lukas, from a building full of Black Arrow mercenaries. But by the time she gets there, Lukas has already been killed. Unable to maintain her composure, after extracting the data, which is stored in Lukas’ tooth, McKenna goes on an absolute rampage, killing every single mercenary that’s in there. She gets injured in the process and is advised by her handlers, Grim and Jo, to go to Suwalki, Poland, and get in touch with Sam, a former Fourth Echelon operative. They are relentlessly pursued by Black Arrow’s Gunther and Freya, but Sam and McKenna manage to give them the slip and reach the secret workplace of the Fourth Echelon. As Grim, Jo, Sam, McKenna, and a newly recruited Canadian hacker named Thunder begin to collect the pieces of the puzzle, they realize that the CEO of Displace, an arms supplier, Diana, and her half-brother Charlie are up to no good. While the situation has a geopolitical angle, it’s a personal conflict as well because Diana is the daughter of Sam’s deceased friend, Douglas.
Despite having a fairly simple plot twist at its center, Splinter Cell: Deathwatch takes its merry time to get to it. I mean, if you have watched enough political thrillers where a billionaire CEO with a chip on their shoulder is promising to change the world, then you’ll figure out where the narrative is heading pretty early on. Yet, the methodical approach and attention to detail that’s displayed by the writers keeps things interesting enough to keep you glued to your screen. Additionally, the writers’ commentary on how arms manufacturers start wars to keep their industry alive and billionaires constantly fool the public with empty promises of creating a better world is relevant. Unfortunately, they lean into the “while every country is destroying the world, a few good Americans are keeping us safe” propaganda really heavily, which really waters down the whole thing. Another problem that the writers run into is the character work. Since McKenna has a generic revenge arc, it’s easy to follow her trajectory and root for her. Sam, Grim, Jo, Thunder, Douglas, Diana, Charlie, Gunther, and Freya didn’t impact me on an emotional level. Everything from the dialogue writing to the voice acting felt lackluster. That said, I’ll say that in an era of first seasons ending on cliffhangers and not getting renewed, I’m glad that the writers haven’t fallen into that trap and concluded the main plot and the subplots in a satisfying fashion.
Liev Schreiber used to be one of my favorite actors. I enjoyed his work in The Manchurian Candidate, The Omen, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and, of course, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. But after that, something changed. He was absolutely atrocious in The Perfect Couple, and he’s not great at all as Sam Fisher. He’s clearly trying to give the character some gravitas and stoicism, but he comes off as tired and bored. Tom Hardy was supposed to play a live-action version of the character, which never happened, and after this casting disaster, I wonder how Hardy would have fared as the voice of Sam. Janet Varney, Helen, Joel Oulette, Kari Wahlgren, Kiff Vandenhuvel, Bella Dayne, and Navid Negahban are alright. Aleks Le is comparatively more memorable than them all, despite his character’s limited screen time. And then there’s Kirby Howell-Baptiste, credited as just Kirby, who just runs circles around everyone in the cast. Sure, you can give all the credit for the effectiveness of her character to the writing, the animators, and more. But I am pretty sure that all of that effort would have been for nothing if Kirby hadn’t delivered the fireworks. She packs a real punch with every word she utters. The way she layers her anger with a sense of duty is really admirable. And I’m so glad that she is building up this amazing roster and cementing herself as one of the best actors out there.
Now, while I may have issues with the character writing and the voice acting, I wholeheartedly loved the animation in Splinter Cell: Deathwatch. The hand-to-hand action sequences were so visceral and tactile that I was in absolute awe. I kept rewinding and rewatching every single fight scene to see how the animators had pulled it off. Is it rotoscoping or just really good frame-by-frame hand-drawn animation? I don’t know, and maybe I don’t even want to know lest the illusion be broken. I love the fact that the fighting style in those combat sequences aptly reflected Kolstad’s live-action projects, like the John Wick movies and the Nobody duology, especially when it came to the knife work and gun fu. The framing, the editing, and the fluidity of the action choreography just felt so immediate and realistic, while maintaining a level of supernatural ridiculousness, that I couldn’t help but gasp and wince along with the characters. This is just a roundabout way of saying that it was an immersive experience. So, yeah, I recommend giving it a watch. How does it fare as a video game adaptation? I don’t really know. I had played Chaos Theory ages ago. So, I don’t really remember anything about it. If you are a gamer who has played the Splinter Cell series and you have watched this show as well, please, feel free to share your thoughts with me in the comments section below.
