E3 Impressions: Splinter Cell: Conviction: Too Many Colons: This Time It’s Personal

Splinter Cell: Conviction has been plagued with numerous delays dating back to 2006, so imagine a lot of peoples surprise when Ubisoft brought the game out for a full demo for E3.

For fans of the previous Splinter Cell games, this entry is a huge departure for the series.  An obvious difference between this and the previous games is the stylistic approach to storytelling within the game.  Instead of cutting the action for a cutscene , the story is told by projecting movies onto the walls, while the action still continues.  It keeps the player immersed in the game so there’s a smaller chance of them not being involved while the game dispenses narrative.  Mission objectives are also shown during gameplay, imagine the words “GET SARAH’S KILLER” projected on a wall as you walk down a hallway.  It progresses the story as well as the objective at hand.

Several gameplay innovations have been put in place to keep Sam out of harms way such as the “last known position” feature.  If Sam is involved in a firefight and he hides, an outline will appear where his last known position was.  This is where the enemy will search for him so the player is able to escape, flank or sneak up behind them to get the upper hand.  In the demo there is an EMP grenade where he is able to shut off the lights in a certain area to sneak up on or sneak behind enemy sentries while they search in the dark.

The developers, during the demo, highlighted Sam’s thirst for revenge, which taps into his predatory mode.  That, in turn made him more limber and faster than the previous games.  Sam Fisher actually moves more like Altair from Assassin’s Creed than his previous iterations.  The demo displays this as he dispatches of unknowing guards and pounces on gun wielding thugs when they walk into the shadows.

For a long time, people were wondering if Splinter Cell was even going to make an appearance at any E3 in the past 2 years.  Personally, I was pleasantly surprised at how far along and how different it looks from what I expected it to be.  I’m glad they’ve revamped some of the gameplay elements as well as the storytelling mechanic but a veteran of the SC series can definitely tell that it’s same old Sam with newer tricks at his disposal.

Splinter Cell: Conviction is slated for October of 2009.