Splinter Cell Conviction

At X10, I was lucky enough to get some quality time with Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction. Though it was a small taste of a much larger game, it was enough to convince me that the general excitement about it isn’t going to be wasted. It was a gripping appetizer of a story filled with unique and diverse gameplay, and it looks to both satisfy old fans of the series and bring a lot more new players to the Splinter Cell games. Splinter Cell: Conviction opens on Victor Conte being grilled by agents of the Third Echelon who are looking for Splinter Cell chief protagonist, Sam Fisher. He’s dropped off the map, and they need to find him fast.

“Sam Fisher is dead,” Victor tells them, and it quickly becomes evident why the Third Echelon needs to find him. Victor explains that he “died” when he found out that the car crash that killed his daughter, Sarah, wasn’t just an accident.

Sam was pissed and he went for answers, Victor says. It seems pretty clear that Victor isn’t meaning a literal death but more an emotional and figurative one and that the Third Echelon has something to do with the accident — and that they need to find Sam before his fury and need for vengeance takes it down. The scene flashes back to Sam, two years after the events of Splinter Cell: Double Agent and out to find out who was behind the crash. The game is then played as a retelling of the story of Sam’s mission to discover the truth.

The opening sequence of this sixth installment in the Splinter Cell series sets the stage for a complex tale of loyalty, betrayal and revenge, and it immediately grabs the players by the proverbial nether-regions and launches you into a lithe and crafty gaming. I particularly love the cinematic techniques Ubisoft employs with the look, feel and flow of Splinter Cell: Conviction, —like non-linear storytelling. It gives the entire work a compelling energy that I don’t think it would have if it had been told as a typical beginning/middle/end story. Just ask Quentin Tarantino: Sometimes how you tell a story is as important as what you tell.

I can see the story easily bouncing back and forth from Victor’s interrogation and the story he’s telling about Sam. It just gives the whole thing a nice flow and a lot of gravity. It draws you forward to find out “what happened next.” The first thing that was clear when finally getting into play time is that how Splinter Cell: Conviction develops is heavily dependent on how you choose to play it. Cover mechanics are easy to control and moving about from cover-spot to cover-spot works is nearly effortless. My only complaint, not personally being a big fan of stealth fighters, is that you must keep the trigger down in order to stay under cover. I prefer games that toggle your crouch and cover moves so once you’re down you stay down. But maybe that’s just me, and it didn’t take long to adjust to actively keeping myself hidden when I found a good spot.

However, if you don’t want to bother yourself with sneaking around in darkness, shooting out lights and setting up the perfect silent kills, you can just as easily go in to every encounter with guns blazing. Of course, that will make the game harder. And unlike other stealth fighters like, for example, Metal Gear Solid 4, if you blow it and set off an alarm, you can shoot your way out of any situation. Nothing can’t be fixed with a few bullets.

The most innovative new addition to the Splinter Cell formula is the “mark and execute” feature. If you succeed in a stealth kill, it enables halt the game for a moment and mark up to three enemies to take down. Once you return to gameplay, the kills are executed automatically. This means that, even if you do want to play as a full-frontal assault, you’ll probably want to make a few “sneak and snaps” as well. Knowing when to use your “mark and execute” will be half the fun. It could save you, but if done at the wrong time, it may also alert nearby enemies to where you are.

Speaking of where you are, this is yet another clever mechanic in Splinter Cell: Conviction. When in the middle of a fire fight — in my case, in the multilevel main foyer of a mansion — and when the enemies know you’re about, your last seen location is identified with a shadow. You can use this to your advantage because you’ll know where your enemies will move and double-back on them to take them out.

I found myself using this feature quite frequently to herd gunmen to one spot so I could take them out easier. I’d move into the light, fire off a few rounds, get their attention, and then sneak back to the shadows. This allowed me to move to a safe area and take them out one by one as they approached my last-known location. The strategy of both “mark and execute” and the “last known location” keep you always on your toes and in control of the situation, feeling a bit like a cat playing with the mice before you kill them. It was a hell of a fun way to give you the invincible-assassin feeling without giving you so many superpowers it ruins the tactical part of the game.

Your brain does get a break, though. The prurient fun comes when you need to interrogate. In my hands-on, it was one nasty character I’d cornered in a men’s bathroom. You can use your environment to “help” you get the answers you need. Bathroom sinks, wall mirrors, or towel dispensers are the brute force ways to get your man to talk. Or you can just use what’s at hand — your gun stock or your fists. If you prefer the less violent and more imaginative methods, you can choose to give him a swirlie — always a winner.

Choices are made by grabbing your detainee and listening to the information he gives until he clams up. Moving him to an helpful item and pressing a key will set off a QuickTime event using whatever item you were closest to. I found this to be a little jankey at times. In a later interrogation, I’d wanted to use the open sound-board end of a grand piano, figuring I’d bash his head with the lid a few times. But because my view was turned toward the keyboard end, I ended up making his face play some “chopsticks” on the ivories. Not a bad option, but it wasn’t what I’d wanted. And you have to choose your method wisely. You’ll only get one or two choices per interrogation — only until you get all the info you need. Yeah, it’s brutal. But hey, you’re a killer, and you’re out for justice. What’s a guy gonna do?

Splinter Cell: Conviction will also offer a multiplayer option, which I didn’t get a chance to see. According to lead designer Steven Masters, it will be a four-player co-op campaign. When my demo time was over, I came into it more impressed than I figured I’d be. I was interested but not actively excited about its release, in that I’m not a huge fan of the series. But now I’m actually pretty sure I’ll be picking it up day one. If you’re a fan of the Splinter Cell series, I can almost guarantee it won’t disappoint.