Tom Clancys series games

Tom Clancy’s

— a series of games primarily from Ubisoft, mainly featuring tactical and stealth shooters set in modern and near-future settings (though there are other genres, including strategy and arcade flight simulators). It consists of several subseries. Despite the name, most games have a very distant (if any) relation to the works of the famous political thriller author Tom Clancy; and little is known about his personal contribution to the creation of various games. The only subseries based on Clancy's original novels is Rainbow Six, while the other games share only a common atmosphere with the books.

Rainbow Six is actually one of the most well-known and extensive subseries in the Tom Clancy’s game family. As of 2019, it includes 14 main titles (with the 15th expected in 2020), not counting add-ons; the newest game in the series is Rainbow Six Siege from 2015, which uses an online multiplayer format. All games are tactical team-based first-person shooters focused on the operations of the multinational counter-terrorism unit "Rainbow"; the action mainly takes place in urban environments at close quarters.

Another popular subseries of a similar genre (team-based tactical shooter) is Ghost Recon. Here, the characters are closer to reality: the player controls a squad of U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers. Unlike Rainbow Six, battles mainly occur in open terrain and at fairly large distances.

Another relevant subseries in our time is The Division; as of 2019, two parts have been released along with various expansions. The game is a multiplayer action-RPG in an open world, where the player acts as a special agent investigating mass outbreaks of smallpox in major U.S. cities — New York in the first part and Washington in the second. As a result of these outbreaks, the cities have turned into disaster zones, and the agents' tasks are to investigate the sources of the epidemics, restore order, and fight crime. The main format of the game is cooperative, but there is also a special PvP multiplayer mode.

In addition to these subseries, the Splinter Cell line deserves special mention — 7 main games in the stealth-action genre, which have been critically acclaimed and have received numerous high awards. However, the newest game in the series as of the end of 2019 dates back to 2013, and information about the continuation of Splinter Cell is limited to unconfirmed rumors.