Shhh! We’ve played the Splinter Cell: Conviction Demo…

stealthy.

By using the latest in stealth techniques and some outdated technology we were able to get our hands on with the recently released Splinter Cell conviction demo. What follows is the mission debrief of our recent sneak-em-up playtime.

The most surprising thing about the new Splinter Cell is how much it feels like the old Splinter Cell games. Despite the long delays and the garrotting of the early plans for the game it instantly sets the atmosphere of the earlier games and it won’t take long before you settle into your old routines.

The demo begin with Sam Fisher beating information out of a guy in a bathroom and instantly sets the new Jack Bauer/James Bond tone of Sam’s character. It’s here that we get the first look at the cool wall projections that will provide Sam with mission objectives throughout the game. This works well in the demo and at no point resulted in a loss of immersion as it fits in nicely in the new Splinter Cell world.

While the demo is short it does give hints as to what the main story will be about, and it currently looks like it will very much be 24 in the Splinter Cell world. Whether or not this will be able to keep the player involved throughout the game remains to be seen but as 24 appears to have gone to the well too many times so it will be interesting to see if they can come up with an engaging storyline that isn’t too clichéd.

Two of the main new additions to the gameplay mechanics are the new cover system and  ‘Mark and Kill’. The cover system is effectively implemented and while it does to take some control off the player as you snap for one area of cover to the next it also means that you can move around the levels without worrying about getting caught on the corner of a pillar or standing up at the wrong time. The system is like a more complex version of the Batman: Arkham Asylum gargoyle swinging in its application and can be slightly frustrating at times when you are unable to use it on some surfaces but from the small section seen in this demo it is implemented well.

The Mark and Kill is the other main new entry into Sam’s arsenal of skills and again may annoy some by taking the control out of the player’s hands. This requires you to tag an enemy and then Sam will automatically shoot them in the head on command.  The predicate that you have to kill an enemy in hand to hand combat to earn this ability each time will mean that there should be a good mix of hand to hand and ranged combat throughout the game. However from what we played in the demo the game can be played without using this at all depending on how you want to play the game.

One thing that did disappoint during the demo was the one cut scene which after seeing what Rocksteady did with Unreal Engine 3 looked very flat and uninspiring. This isn’t a major issue but after playing Batman: AA which immersed the player into the world and characters so successfully it does take a little off the sheen of the game.

The demo has shown that the heart of the Splinter Cell series is still beating strong within Conviction and when it releases on the 30th April 2010 with the addition of the multiplayer modes and a 2 player co-op campaign will be well worth a sneaky peek.