Splinter Cell: Conviction Eyes On

NZGamer recently got a taste of the most anticpitated titles this year from the likes of Sega, UbiSoft, THQ and Warner Bros. at local distributor Monaco's E3 Night in Auckland.

UPDATE: Rivaling Assassins Creed 2 (but not quite getting there) for the spot of Ubisoft's Q4 darling is Splinter Cell: Conviction. First-person shooter/stealth/action-adventure games have been forefront in the hearts and minds of gamers since the birth of the current gen consoles. They really promote the kind of graphical prowess and immersive environments that make these games such fantastic experiences. Between Assassin's Creed 2 and this, the latest Splinter Cell game appearing across PC and Xbox 360, Ubisoft ought to be able to corner a significant section of the market in the tail end of 2009.

Sam Fisher drops away from his working agency to run a freelance seek and destroy mission against the mongrels who killed his daughter. As NZGamer.com watched a skilled pair of hands run the on-screen Sam through a ten-fifteen minute demo code, we found ourselves fairly impressed by what was on show. Like Assassin's Creed 2, a game of this calibre, this distance from release, means that we couldn't get out own mitts on the title, but saw a combo of trailer and live action gameplay instead.

The promotional work on this game means that there's a number of soundbites and... textbites? out there about the game's features. And of course this was another game that got coverage during and after E3. Some of you may have heard about the Mark and Execute and Last Known Position functions available in-game. The first being a sort of eeny-meeny-miney-mo of who gets capped first, and the second being a diversion method. Both add a lot to the game, and we got to see them in action.

Mark and Execute is a device by which Sam can work out ahead of time who is getting taken down, and in what order. Following the decision, the shooting is all over in a matter of seconds, and the body count is climbing. Right before he makes his move, the screen often greys out with a desaturation of colour. This indicates Sam is hidden from all foes, and is an indicator used throughout the game to show when he can be seen. In full colour, well, you get the idea. This is a great feature and looked fantastic on screen.

To keep guards in the various locations Sam sneaks about confused and generally cannon-fodder-ready, players can take advantage of "last known position". We watched Sam getting about in Malta (wonderfully realised, but surely we don't need to tell you that) and keeping the guards guessing. When this feature is utilised, the AI will focus their attention on one spot (the place their enemy was last spotted) leaving you to make a sharpish exit, or flank them and take em down.

The developers have aimed to bring you a "seamless cinematic experience" which means they have left out any trace of a load screen. The slowest it gets is a cut-scene, and often the player will control the action even in these, for example, when interrogating scumbags to get info. Objectives in the game are given by projection onto the sides of buildings or other objects. This was an innovative way of conveying the player's next goal, without breaking from the action to look at a GPS or PDA or other such device.



Combat, a major focus of the game, was high-stress and fast-paced: more or less exactly what you'd expect. The enemies seemed plenty smart, and the code we saw called for the player to use tactics like hiding, climbing, grabbing a human shield (bashing their brains out against a wall when you're done with them) and of course some nifty marksmanship to progress. There will also be a focus on gadgets, like any good stealth game needs. Players can tackle the game in two ways, based on what we saw: quiet as mice, or loud and angry as your uncle Trev after he's been on the beers and curry. The action will progress with subtle differences depending on your approach. Stealth will often mean an easier run of things than going in all guns blazing, but will it always get the best results?

The early code can be forgiven for a few minor graphical glitches and, as with much of what we saw from Ubisoft at Monaco E3 Night in Auckland, we left wanting to see more and with high hopes for the October-ish release of the game. Trailers are available (and have been for a while) so we would encourage you to check things out if this seems like your cup of tea. No one likes to see bad guys get away with killing innocent girls, right?

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