Sam Fisher has (had) the coolest job in the world. Ice cold, unflappable super-spy; saving an unknowing world, ghost-like from the shadows. The first three Splinter Cell games put me in his shoes and allowed me to experience this first hand, and the result was three very special games and one very happy gamer. Then Double Agent happened and things would never be the same again. Gone was the Sam I knew and loved, replaced by some drunken, bumbling, angry mourner. Gone was the dry wit, the banter between agents in the headset, the stealth meter, hell, even the shadows went too. They were replaced by pointless mini-games, the same level repeated again and again, a story that was hard to swallow (even by Tom Clancy standards) and, if you had the PC version, a buggy, sometimes unplayable, mess. It was particularly hard to take for me because Double Agent started out so well, the first level had me salivating as to what might be in store but, like my life after school, it was pretty much all down hill from that point.
It was never going to be easy following Chaos Theory, no-one said it would be. Chaos Theory is something of a rarity in gaming in that it actually has a number of perfect levels. Yes, that word is PERFECT. In its level design, atmosphere, visuals, sound, controls and pacing, Chaos Theory contained a number of levels that I truly believe were, are, the epitome of stealth-orientated gaming. I won't go into too much detail, that's for another day and another blog post, suffice to say that for evidence of this, replay the Panamanian bank level of Chaos Theory, and you'll have your proof. Truly a level from a game developer at the peak of their power.
So here I am, three and a half years after Double Agent, with the new Splinter Cell game. Rumours of butchery, bastardization, stealth sacrificed for action, simplified, commercialised, "dumbed down" and similar have been circulating for months on the Gamespot boards. And with their recent track record (*cough *cough Far Cry 2) I naturally feared the worst. So I installed the game and navigated my way through the hoops the imposed DRM insists you jump through.
And I'm happy to report that it's not as bad as I feared. Infact, I'm going to go as far as saying that the "re-invention" of Splinter Cell has actually been a success of sorts.
Sure I would like a "this gen" Chaos Theory, but what Ubi have delivered here is actually... pretty good. I'm only a few levels in, so this might seem like a premature assessment, but I've seen enough to make these claims confidently. What I'm going to give you now is a quick overview of the evolution Conviction represents. There are no direct plot spoilers as such, the screens I've used are all from the first level. These screens are scaled down full HD shots with the game played with everything maxed out other than AA on my GTX 295.
My first quibble was Sam's voice sounds a little too old for the rather young looking figure he's been given by the Ubisoft artists, closely followed by my annoyance at objectives and clues being given in big letters on the scenery. And no, it would seem you can't turn it off in the options.
However in no time at all those thoughts had evaporated and I had Sam back to doing what he does best - climbing buildings, traversing along window ledges and yanking unsuspecting bad guys to their deaths on the terraces below.
Welcome to stealth meters in the year 2010. The screen turns black and white when you are hidden in the shadows. Personally I'd say if it ain't broke, don't fix it - Chaos Theory's meter worked a treat, but Ubisoft felt the need to tweak it and gave us the simple red, yellow and green system in Double Agent. So, whilst maybe not broke, it was certainly not in a position were repairs would not go amiss. And I'm happy to confirm the new system works well and is an improvement over Double Agent's, in which one set of shadows would provide camoflauge, yet another, seemingly identical set, would not.
A quick note on the graphics - they're excellent. Sharp, detailed and the performance so far has been flawless. It's very much the interactive movie in places. You'll notice several new features whilst playing such as the cover system and the "mark and execute" feature; a sort of quicker and more deadly form of the V.A.T.S. system found in Fallout 3, both of which feel natural and work well.
In case you were worried, you can still climb pipes and perform "death from above" attacks (oh yes!).
New weapons stash crates are left for you to stock up your depleted ammo, kindly labelled by Ubisoft for the less observant gamers.
You now look under doors by holding your car's wing mirror.
Just in case you couldn't work out what to do with the drain pipe, Ubisoft provides a helping hand. Thanks Ubi!
Sam interrogates a bad guy. You can now bash them into the surrounding scenery if they are unco-operative.
And thus ends the first chapter. To summarise, despite my usual impeccable foresight, I am happy to say that I was wrong to have misgivings about Ubisoft's ability to deliver a good Splinter Cell game. Fans of the series - it's not the Splinter Cell we know and love, but it is Splinter Cell; refined and streamlined, and worthy of a place in your games collection.