Splinter Cell: Conviction Holds Court Tuesday

If Metal Gear Solid is the comic book fantasy version of a stealth infiltration game, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell by comparison has been the real-world simulator. But that’s all about to change with the release of the fifth game, Splinter Cell: Conviction, this coming Tuesday April 13th. Anyone who’s played the available demo knows that Ubisoft has introduced several new mechanics into the newest game. But are these changes enough to revive the franchise?

Sam's interrogations hit harder than ever in Splinter Cell: Conviction.

Covert Operative Sam Fisher remains rogue following the (possible) death of his handler at the end of Double Agent. With nothing left to lose, he is now following up on the one remaining loose thread from the previous game: the death of his daughter, Sarah. Because she was run over and killed, Sam was pulled off an assignment and allowed to grieve for a time. Because his grief provided the perfect “motivation” for Sam to appear to turn against the government, he was the perfect operative to take down Louisianan Emile Dufraisne and his terrorist network as a spy on the inside. But because his usual handler Lambert was captured and killed by Dufraisne, Sam wasn’t able to come in even after the bad guys were dead. Now Third Echelon is hunting their own, but not just to tie up loose ends; it appears members of Third Echelon had something to do with Sarah’s death. Sam launches a personal mission of revenge to find out why his daughter had to die.

New in this installment is the “Execution” ability. Using the crosshairs, the player can mark up to three targets at a time. Then by pressing the Execute button, Sam kills all marked targets in rapid succession. To enable this ability you must first perform a hand-to-hand kill on a single target; you must sneak up behind a lone guard and take them out. So in every area you must strategically take out a lone target first so that the remaining 2-3 guys can be eliminated with an execution.

Sam can now mark several targets and then execute them in rapid succession.

In past games Sam’s concealment in shadow was indicated by onscreen gauges. Conviction indicates concealment by changing the color onscreen: If Sam is concealed, then the screen turns black and white. Therefore you have to worry anytime the screen is full-color. Also, a new warning indicator appears onscreen to let you know that Sam is in danger of being seen. A white indicator tells you to find cover quickly, whereas a red indicator means that Sam has been spotted. If you can find cover quickly enough after being spotted, Sam leaves behind a “ghost” to mark the spot where the enemies think he is. They will move in on that spot to attack. This allows you to circle around and attack from a new position, if possible. Sam has also gained the ability to move from cover to cover quite rapidly. While concealed, you can point the crosshairs to other cover locations. Pressing the Action button while a cover location is highlighted causes Sam to move to that location swiftly. However, you still have to worry about light and concealment; enemies may still spot Sam moving from cover to cover and become alarmed. But letting yourself get spotted can also be a useful tool to draw enemies into a trap.

The demo contains both an interrogation scene and a warehouse level where Sam must stop terrorists from testing an EMP device. If you need any help getting through the demo, I’ve recorded a 10 minute video from start to finish. BE WARNED that there’s a good deal of animated violence throughout:

The new mechanics certainly refresh the game for series veterans, though there’s just enough hiding and hanging and pipe-shimmying left to make it recognizable as part of the franchise. The series also does away with non-lethal take-downs, which means this is set to be the bloodiest Splinter Cell yet. Yet anyone who’s new to Splinter Cell can jump right in without worrying about the story too much. Splinter Cell: Conviction comes out this Tuesday for Xbox 360. The PC version hits on April 27th.

Tags: preview, Splinter Cell, Tom Clancy