Splinter Cell: Conviction – MMOMFG DEMO IMPRESSIONS

Splinter Cell: Conviction

Tom Clancy and Ubisoft’s long anticipated collaborative third person stealth (and for some noobs, action stealth) game, Splinter Cell: Conviction, finally graced us with a demo Thursday. After quite the hiatus, the Splinter Cell series has undergone a serious overhaul on the mechanics of stealth gameplay, and quite possibly could be setting a standard for balance between action and stealth in this genre.

Did he just say something? – I want to go ahead and get my one concern out of the way before I dip your brain in some hot sauce. As soon as I started up the demo, it was immediately apparent that the character animations for speech were below par with a lot of games out there today. I heard words coming out of Sam Fisher’s mouth in a pretty intense scene and I was just sitting there staring at Sam, thinking I was a psychic and could read his thoughts or he was going to pull out a tin can and oil up his mouth so it would work. The words just don’t match people’s mouths in this demo. Ok, done. Moving on.

Did he just complain about graphics and now he’s praising them? - Yup, oddly enough, the rest of Splinter Cell: Conviction’s graphics were very good. It’s safe to say, those who can’t play games because they are ugly (I know you’re out there!) will be able to play this one. The architecture of the buildings, the textures, the lighting, even the flow of the interfaces and hud are spotless. I felt right at home, like this Splinter Cell was already a part of my collection and I had been playing it forever. Possibly the nicest addition is that Ubisoft decided to do what I can only call projective objectives; basically putting a texture with your objective at the moment, over the place where the objective is. It’s a subtle map if you will.

POOF, I’m gone! – Conviction has introduced two things in my opinion that will leave its mark on the stealth genre’s  mechanics forever and this is one of them. Anyone who has ever played a stealth game knows how frustrating it is to get spotted by a guard, dash away, and hide behind a garbage can that you know the said guard couldn’t see in his line of sight, yet to your amazement, he still knows exactly where you are. Well, fear no more, Conviction will visually display your last known position to the enemy so you can make sure you don’t go near it. What you don’t know is how many times this will really save your skin, (a bunch, for you slow guys).

Marked for Death – The number two genre changing feature is Mark and Execute. This is a rather simple feature in plain sight. You basically line up someone, mark them, and when close enough and they’re not alerted, you can click one button and kill them. Sounds nice right? Maybe a little overpowered? Wrong. Mark and Executes can only be done after doing stealth-take down moves. So don’t just think you’ll prance through the game marking every Tom, Dick, and Harry.This not only makes the game more fun, but it makes it replayable, by making each encounter different and stunning, AND most importantly it balances the game out. There are some instances in Conviction where you really would think it would be better to just pray and spray, but that is counterbalanced with M&E. You will be rewarded for playing it like the developer’s intended, stealthily.  Stay in the shadows and you get mini-cinematic death shots that will make you want more.

Mission Control, Operation Successful – Something that had me worried was the possibility of controller functionality being cramped by the new feature M&E. I was surprised how the controls felt, to be honest. It was as if everything was fung shui for my fingers. Ok, maybe that’s going a little far, but the controls were just where they needed to be. I even liked the left thumbstick button as the reload, something I wouldn’t really enjoy with any other genre. Also, since gadgets made their way back in, (where the heck does he get these things, I mean c’mon, an EMP grenade?) the gadget interface was very intuitive and smooth. Operating cameras were a lot of fun too, the distraction sound is hilarious.

I was a huge fan of the original Splinter Cell and more over Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. I played it nearly every day for months in college, just skipping class so I could play co-op with my buddy on the most difficult setting. We had it down to a science, never shot a bullet or even got spotted by the enemies. I’m going to tell you right now, this game is going to really put the hurtin’ on some colleges’ attendance.  Splinter Cell: Conviction might just have what it takes to once again set the standard for stealth games.

Be sure to check out the demo, put down a reserve, and get your wits about you, it’s time to get back in the shadows.

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