Splinter Cell: Conviction Hands On + Interview

The latest in the Sam Fisher-starring series, Splinter Cell Conviction, was originally set to be released back in 2007. A number of delays have plagued the title, with the game now scheduled for a February 2010 release. It was our luck then that we were able to sneak over to Sydney to get our hands on the upcoming title.

Taken through the same demo as was available at Tokyo Game Show by Emile Liang (Associate Producer of Splinter Cell), I was able to play through the mission available a few times, each time seeing how I could change things up and attempt different techniques. It’s safe to say that I wasn’t disappointed, and while many of my ideas were obscure, they “worked” in the sense that the guards acted as expected – usually spotting me and opening fire.

Stepping back a little from my attempts at vanquishing the guards with various methods, I was first shown a run-through of the mission fro Emile, who took great care in pointing out some of the new gameplay additions and showed off the new level of immersion. When asked, Emile pointed out that there are no traditional cut-scenes; instead, the actual gameplay and in-game dialogue take precedence. One nifty addition to keep you from needing to hit the start button to view your objectives is that the tasks you need to complete are projected onto the real-life surfaces in the game. This means as creep around a corner you may see “rescue the scientist” with stenciled light on the wall next to you, and while it breaks the realism, it is very cool.

Splinter Cell Conviction revolves around the central gameplay loop known as P.E.V – Prepare, execute, and vanish. You’ll commonly find yourself completing this loop repeatedly – you’ll examine the surroundings, the placement of guards, the walls you can hide behind, and the extra objects the area presents. You’ll work out how you plan to take out the guards with minimal disruption, and you can mark guards for use with the ‘mark and execute’ system. This consists of selecting the guards that Sam will automatically take down in quick succession.

From here, you’ll be looking to execute your plan. You can unleash your planned mark and execute, provided you have earned the ability. To do so, you’ll need to first perform a hand-to-hand takedown, which will give you the opportunity to use a mark and execute. Hitting the Y button will let Sam Fisher loose, shooting each of the marked enemies in quick succession. It feels a lot more action than stealth, but nobody forces you to use it, and it is, again, quite neat.

The vanish mechanism introduces another new feature – the ‘last known position’. This is a fun way to escape from your foes once you’ve been spotted. As you attempt to get away, a white outline of Sam will appear when you successfully lose the line of sight of your enemy. It gives you a visual indicator that wherever you head to after this will not be known by the guards. It means you can jump over some railing to display your last known position, then creep around the environment to sneak back up on the guard who is still oblivious to the fact that you’re no longer there.

While I played through the same mission two or three times, it managed to stay fresh thanks to the variety of ways you can complete each task, or clear particular rooms. And while I may have embarrassed myself in front of the Associate Producer by blindly running into a room with guns blazing, I was able to see that you’re not constrained to do things in one exact way.

Splinter Cell is looking to release 26th February 2010, and we’re looking forward to trying to find even more ways to sneak up on guards between now and then.

Emile Liang, the Associate Producer of Splinter Cell, explains a little more about the game in our interview below: