So, it’s Thursday morning, 18^th of March, and the Splinter Cell: Conviction demo has been on the Xbox Live Marketplace for just over an hour. Somehow, I’ve managed to drag myself off Final Fantasy XIII just long enough to give it a go. As I am with a lot of Ubisoft’s military based output, I am a huge fan of the Splinter Cell Series and have been following Sam Fisher’s antics since the very first game. I have to admit, as a long time fan, that there were times throughout Conviction’s development that I found myself wary at where the franchise was headed. The game has had something of a troubled development process, and has seen many trials and tribulations since the original teaser trailer, which showed off a distinct (and unpopular) shift in gameplay. Since then the game has been delayed, delayed some more, then totally redesigned and then delayed once again for good measure.

So, with under a month to go until its now concrete release date of April 16^th, does Ubisoft Montreal’s demo show a game that has beaten adversity, or has the uneasy creation period proved too much to recover from? You know how to find out.

Keeping in with the theme of the game, we begin with an informative video created by Sam Fisher’s former employer, The Third Echelon. The video is pretty much an infomercial for Echelon operatives tasked with tracking down Fisher, explaining his many deadly skills. You are informed of Fisher’s status of having gone rogue and how he can strike from anywhere. The video explains that our hero is now using improvised techniques alongside the training he received as the organisation’s first Splinter Cell. This really is a just a clever way to show you some of the moves and abilities you’ll be able to perform throughout the game, but it sets the scene pretty nicely.

When gameplay kicks in, you are oddly presented with two men peeing at urinals in a dingy male toilet (note that Ubisoft took time to use the unspoken men’s room etiquette; one space apart looking nowhere but forward). Suddenly a guy is thrown into the middle urinal by Fisher, who is demanding the name of the man looking for him. The guy is unwilling to spill the beans and upon prompting you are able to smash his face into one of the urinals. During this scene you are first introduced to the ‘background storytelling’ technique, where when key plot points are unravelled, elements of the story might be projected onto the scenery, rather than ripping you away from the action. At first I found it a little visually distracting, but shortly after becoming accustomed to it, it seems that it’s a very smart technique for keeping the action flowing. You are informed that a guy called Kobin wants you dead, and after a little more ‘gentle persuasion’ (walking him around the room and seeing how he erm… ‘interacts’ with certain parts of the scenery), you soon find out why. It also turns out that Kobin is the ‘drunk driver’ responsible for the death of Fishers daughter, something which took place prior to events in Double Agent.

'I can't go while someone else is in the room!'

After disposing of your toilet buddy, you are taken to a scene with two Third Echelon operatives discussing how Sam had made Kobin talk and that he’s already on to them. This is where the game starts for real, as Fisher is stood outside a warehouse that is hiding weapons testing. This level is pretty much a tutorial, and just like the story telling, the instructions appear on the surroundings. The first thing you are taught to do is take cover by running up to any object and holding the left trigger. To stay perfectly in cover you must hold the left trigger all the time. A new cover-to-cover system is employed here and it’s similar to what you might have found in Eat Lead or the Terminator Salvation game. Lean out and you can point to your next piece of cover and Sam will automatically run there. After that you get to take down your first enemy; he’s unsuspecting, so all you have to do is hit ‘B’ and Sam will take him down silently with hand-to-hand combat. Next up, you are shown the ‘tag’ execution system. By aiming at an enemy and hitting RB, you tag them, you can do this on more than one guy, and then when you press ‘Y’ they will both be taken down quickly and efficiently. With both guys down you are advised to reuse these tactics to infiltrate the Echelon’s Warehouse. The controls here are extremely smooth and intuitive; very easy to get to grips with.

Upon reaching the warehouse door, you can revisit one of Sam’s old tricks allowing you to peek under doors using an optical cable and then tag enemies without exposing yourself. Of course, what’s stopping you from simply tagging every enemy? Well you can only do this on a maximum of three guys at any one time, and the ability has to be earned beforehand by performing a hand-to-hand takedown, meaning that you will also have to rely on your aim at some point. Aside from being advised that you can use your new sonar goggles to highlight all enemies within a certain parameter, that is all the tutorial tells you as you work your way around the warehouse taking out the guards. That said, you can play through this demo in an entire multitude of ways. If you’re like me you’ll aim to be super-stealthy, trying to remain almost invisible, but you can have more of a gung-ho approach if you wish. There is more equipment and weaponry than what the tutorial tells you, for example there are sticky cameras that you can throw on a surface to scope the area, make distracting noise and can even be detonated. You can drag people over ledges just like before, and there are multiple ways to dispose of people. Because you do have that bigger arsenal than the tutorial reveals, it is definitely worth playing through this demo a number of times and experimenting with what is presented to you.

The demo is fairly short, however what is prevalent throughout is unquestionable quality in all areas. Everything from this demo’s level design, the voice acting (which I’m pleased to say that Michael Ironside is back on vocal duties after all!), and greatly detailed graphics, you get the impression that there was never anything to worry about. There are some things missing that people might regard as integral to the Splinter Cell experience, such as the ability to drag and hide bodies for example and making noise seems to have less of an impact, but as it stands this is a little taste of what in my mind now is going to be a great game. While it still has much to prove in terms of multiplayer and the much hyped co-op experience, this is now a day one purchase for me.

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