The Drift

A concept art image of a possible representation of one of the floating cities in The Drift. The sign on the banner appears to be in Russian.

"Nothing came of the demo, a shot in the dark 'attempt to impress the license holder,' and Ubisoft put The Drift on ice."

― IGN

The Drift was a video game demo developed by Ubisoft Montreal (known as Ubisoft New York at the time) that would later become Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, the first video game title in the Splinter Cell series.

Overview

Concept art of The Drift's modular pistol.

Development on The Drift occurred in some point in 1999. Little is known about The Drift, other than being a third person shooter concept with different features that would incorporate into the then undeveloped Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, as well as melding into other Ubisoft series in later years. The Drift had a weapon that had multiple different functions such as having a grappling hook, multiple vision modes, and the ability to shoot mini cameras (the modular weapon concept is similar to the SC-20K M.A.W.S. in the Splinter Cell series).

The protagonist, who's name was supposedly 'Buster', was described as a reluctant hero. The setting of the game took place in a 70s retro-futuristic setting where Earth had been destroyed, and the remnants of humanity built civilizations and cities on the chunks of rocks left over.

The game featured a dynamic pedestrian/crowd AI system that dynamically reacted to the player's actions, where if the player were to sprint through the crowd with a gun, the crowd would react with frantic behavior. This is similar to another Ubisoft franchise, the Assassin's Creed series.

A designer within Ubisoft Montreal named Nathan Wolff began adding in spy-elements into the game such as adding in surveillance cameras, and adding in stealth features and non-direct combat that players could utilize. Ubisoft thought about basing the game on the Tom Clancy book The Sum of All Fears before having a mandate for Ubisoft Montreal, to "Make a Metal Gear Solid 2 killer."

This officially ended The Drift's development as Ubisoft Montreal shifted full focus on developing Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell. The Drift would not be mentioned until an interview with IGN between Ubisoft in 2014.