X’09 – Splinter Cell: Conviction

When Splinter Cell: Conviction debuted at E3, we were floored. The level of immersion and the intense action sequences were almost too good to be true. It seemed like it would give you all the tools you needed to become the baddest badass of all badasses. Maybe even become bad enough to save the president. Ubisoft was kind enough to show us a demo, and thankfully everything the trailer had promised is delivered.

The demo started off with Mr. Fisher approaching a gang of enemies hanging out in front of a building full of terrorist types. As the demonstrator eagerly pointed out, Sam’s goggles are back due to popular demand. Using stealth and cover, Sam approached and scouted around. Finding a lone guard off to the side, he performed one of the various stealth kills that a badass is capable of doing, and this activated the marking mechanism that we saw in the trailer. Making the player perform a stealth kill before letting them use such a powerful tool for an encounter was a really smart way to balance it. Sam then proceeded to mark his targets in order of execution from his cover, and then popped out and executed them in a sleek sequence.

Then we were treated to the interrogation scene. After a brief scuffle, Sam ended up with his hand around the neck of some scallywag that had information he wanted. Ubisoft tells us that there will be several targets throughout the game that the player will be able to interrogate. Sam dragged his victim around, and using the environment, “convinced” the villain to talk. For example, he dragged him to the side of a car, and with the press of a button, started smashing the side of his head into the hubcap. The same button near a tree stump resulted in a slow-motion fight that ends up with Sam slamming a knife through the victim’s hand. While all this is happening, the voice-acted interrogation is ongoing, matching up with the violence that’s taking place. It was all really cool and I can’t do it enough justice with my meagre words. If you’ve ever seen Jack Bauer interrogate someone in 24, you get the idea.

As the guy starts spilling his guts, a video is played across the wall of the building as a sort of cutscene. The whole thing has an oldschool movie projector and home movie type feel and kept us immersed in the game. After the video, a mission objective is projected on a wall. Again, it is all very cool and immersive. The Ubisoft employee explained that there were different ways of entering the building, and instead of entering through the front door he snuck around and found a way up a pipe and in through a window on the side.

Once inside the warehouse, there were several ways to navigate, but of course Sam chooses the most badass way possible. He climbed a pipe and shimmied across the ceiling, looking for a lone guard to stealth kill. But first, he takes out a hanging crate that crushes three opponents. As the other bad guys go to investigate, they don’t see the devious Mr. Fisher hanging upside down from the ceiling, and I can’t help but feel like I’m watching a movie – say, any of the Bourne trilogy. Since Conviction is a personal story of vengeance, the comparison is even more apt. As things calm down around the area, Sam sneaks along and enacts a Death from Above maneuver on some poor guard. Then using the marking mechanics, Sam proceeds to take on a group of enemies. However, this sequence (involving three enemies) took too long to carry out, and he manages to only take out one of the bad guys before being attacked. At this point the fight resumes manually and the player is forced to take out the enemies by himself.

Being the ultimate badass, Sam doesn’t need many gadgets. But the ones he does have are really neat. He has his sonar goggles so that he could see and mark his enemies through walls, which is a nice twist on an old gadget. The flashbang was also demonstrated and this works as you expect. However, the best thing that was demonstrated was the sticky camera. You can toss the camera at a wall and then see what it sees, and mark your targets and plan your execution through it. Additionally, the camera doubles as an explosive when you’re done with it.

Since somone spotted Sam earlier, the guards around the hostage were on alert and Sam had to resort to a flashbang to eliminate the myriad of opponents in the small area. After this there was plot exposition through an in-game cutscene, and that was the end of the demo. To me, Conviction was the best game of the show. The ease with which you can perform amazing close quarter combat moves, as well as the variety of stealth kill animations and interactions, seem unparalleled. The level design was clever and allowed multiple ways to navigate and attack each area.

Most of all though, the game made me feel like a complete badass, and I was just watching it. When all is said and done, Splinter Cell: Conviction could do for the stealth action genre what God of War did for action: push it to a whole new level.