Splinter Cell: Conviction

Sam Fisher has been out of action for a while. Taking a breather after staying incredibly busy for much of the past decade. Well deserved, but now that he is set to return it seems he finds himself in even deeper trouble than usual.

The death of a loved one, in this case Sam's daughter, is a hard enough to handle, but when Sam realises her death was no accident he leaves Third Echelon behind to find out why she was killed and stumbles onto something much more sinister that threatens Washington D.C. and the world.

I first saw playable code of Splinter Cell: Conviction back at Ubidays in May 2007. It was a different Splinter Cell, with Sam trying to evade capture by his former employers, blending in with crowds and using his environment to dish out pain to those who stepped in his way. It did not look like the previous Splinter Cell titles and the reactions were mixed. The game missed a number of major events and rumours were circulating that Ubisoft were taking a step back to make a more traditional Splinter Cell title out of Splinter Cell: Conviction. That was not true. Instead when the game resurfaced it had gone in a much more interesting direction, both in terms of gameplay and in terms of presentation.

The foundation of the story remains the same. Sam has left Third Echelon, and is attempting to unravel a conspiracy he stumbles upon as he goes after his daughter's killer. There will still be elements of mixing with crowds, but overall Ubisoft Montreal has opted for a more fast paced and action oriented take on the stealth genre. They will provide the player with the tools and paths to solve problems in many different ways.

Caution is still advised, but Sam is a much more powerful and deadly agent this time around. This is evident in some of the new features Ubisoft has highlighted since the game resurfaced at E3 2009. The demo opened up with a popular and much discussed scene where Sam interrogates a man in a bathroom, smashing his face into the porcelain. "Sam Fisher, taking care of the turds of the world." Interrogating someone and using just the right amount of violence is an integral part of the rogue Fisher, and so is a new mechanic called "Mark and Execute", this new feature allows Sam to mark targets and pull off death defying moves.

Another interesting part of the Conviction package is the co-operative mode that was recently announced. It will see the players taking the roles of Archer, an agent with Third Echelon, and Kestrel a Russian agent, in campaign that leads up to the events in the single player campaign. Spanning four maps and an estimated six hours of gameplay, the co-operative mode along with the multiplayer will provide a bit of extra lasting appeal to Splinter Cell: Conviction.

What impressed me most with Splinter Cell: Conviction, however, was none of the above, but the interesting take on storytelling and presentation Ubisoft Montreal had opted for. Using the walls in the game to project objectives, there is never a dead moment in Splinter Cell: Conviction. You are never taken out of the experience, and you can never truly relax. We are not moving from cut scene to scene, but the story is told while we are playing in a most innovative and interesting way. And even though I'm not that into the whole espionage scene, I'm actually excited about the story in Splinter Cell: Conviction and perhaps more importantly how it's presented.

It's been a long road for Splinter Cell: Conviction, but from the looks of it the game has benefited from the extended time in development.