For Sam Fisher’s tenth birthday, he’s being given the best present of them all: the fifth freedom. That’s the right to break all four freedoms in order to complete a mission. If you think about it, it’s a lot scarier than James Bond’s license to kill. Splinter Cell is becoming grittier and more action packed, but will it be for the best?

With no more Michael Ironside and a lack of traditional stealth, fans are undoubtedly worried how development is going at Ubisoft. Even though the developer showed a stealth playthrough of E3 2012′s demonstration, it still isn’t shifting the focus of the game. This trailer is packed with tons of action and many scenarios that put the lone spy into open area combat, something that feels divergent of what we’ve come to expect from the series. Splinter Cell: Blacklist will be released early next year, but hopefully fans haven’t already blacklisted it from their anticipation.