Splinter Cell: Conviction

This is a story about a boy named Sam. Once upon a time, Sam got a job at a nice place called Third Echelon. He spent his days sneaking around the mythical land of Terroristan, flicking mud in the eye of nasty men who’d spent all their pocket money on WMDs. And it was all lovely-lovely happy times until Sam’s daughter was sent to heaven by a naughty man who’d drunk Jesus juice before getting behind the wheel of a broom-broom car.

Fisherman, Fisherman, does whatever Sam Fisher can...

Why are we talking this down at you like you’re four? Because that’s exactly the way we’ve felt about Splinter Cell: Conviction thus far. Its new features (which we don't intend to talkabout in this, our sixth preview of the game) ‘Mark and Execute’, ‘Last Known Position’ and of course ‘Projected Objectives’, are ostensibly there to assist inexperienced gamers. We know this because, before now – before we’ve been handed code to play ‘til our heart’s content – Ubisoft has monotonously beaten on about them while largely ignoring the core experience. Own up; those are the only features you’ve even heard of. Bad Ubisoft.

And worse, we don’t need them, right? Not us. Cut off nine and a half of our fingers and we, sir, would still give you a sound thrashing at a dozen or so games we’ve not even seen before. You’d do well to remember that. We are the hardcore. We’re the types who live, eat and shit games and we don’t want any of your nooby features, thank you very much. Right? Wrong.

Because to make such an assumption would be to dismiss the game’s true hook; that this is a Splinter Cell game. Going out of the way to foist its twiddly bits onto an unassuming gaming public circumvents the fact that before any of the new mechanics were ever revealed, Splinter Cell: Conviction was already very, very good purely on account of its pedigree heritage. Discounting new features entirely, Ubisoft’s move to take Sam back to basics appears to have been a wise one indeed. So the question the supposed ‘hardcore’ should be asking – indeed, the only important question – is whether for us, these new features add anything, and if not, do they in any way divert the core experience?

Blaggin' with shooters.

It’s the answer to that poser which left the biggest smile on our face after a couple of hours with Conviction. So worried were we that projected objectives and the psychic AI-foiling weaponry would somehow make a mockery of Splinter Cell, it came as a genuine surprise that after very little time at all, we were allowed to go hands-free. Off you trot, little Sam, and work it all out for yourself.

The entire tutorial stage was an episode told to us in minutes instead of hours. It showed us how to do the basics – switching off lights, staying unseen, using cover and so on – without once insulting our intelligence. Now, you’re probably thinking what we were at this point; that if the game does in actual fact treat its players like they have had some experience with all of this computer magic in the past, then why the need to uncomplicated things?

… continued