The idea of a spy turning on the agency that created him is nothing new. It’s a staple of film, TV and video games that goes waaaay back. In the case of Splinter Cell it’s going to draw comparisons to Bourne, especially since the visceral close quarters combat of the movies is something that would translate so well to a video game if only someone could figure out a way to do it right. Fisher aping Bourne would be no bad thing, but it’s got to feel right in the hands of the player.



Splinter Cell Conviction also seems to have had a bit of an identity crisis. The uncharacteristically long development time might have hinted at the difficulties of updating a franchise for the HD generation, but it might also indicate the design team’s desire to keep the character relevant, while taking the gameplay in a different direction. Early screens of Sam Fisher sporting an emo-fringe centre parting had fanboys in hysterics, but I felt a little sad that Sam’s attempts at cultural subterfuge were discarded in preference of a greying buzz-cut.

Ubisoft had made damn sure that Sam’s three-piece night vision goggles were the game’s calling card, a signature of the character that would rival Master Chief’s golden visor, or Snake’s sweaty bandana, so I did wonder if this had been discarded in the wash. There are echoes of it on the title screen with the three red swirls, and the loading icon in the bottom left, but it encroaches on another intellectual property altogether (Predator, anyone?). The music that accompanies the title screen is reminiscent of the Bourne movies.

The demo starts proper with a neat little intro, telling the bad guys (previously the good guys) that Fisher has been spotted in Malta and that they need to bring him in, without him killing them first. This is less of a cutscene and more of a trailer, as it blips through all the new things that Fisher has added to his repertoire. Most notable is the inclusion of the Centre Axis Relock method of shooting, or as you might have called it, “that jiggy way he shoots sideways from his chest.” It doesn’t really do anything for gameplay mechanic, but it’s just one of those inclusions that reminds you that Fisher is better trained and more deadly than anybody in the game.



The demo starts with Fisher ‘interrogating’ a guy for leads in a bar’s bathroom. Both Bond and Bourne have hoofed bad guys in the john before, so here’s Fisher marking his own territory on the convention. Which he does by ramming the guy’s head through the urinal. Once or twice. There are a couple of nice touches here, first is that different parts of the bathroom are interactive. Drag the guy over to the wash basin, and watch Fisher put the guy’s face through the mirror. Second, move the guy over to a wall, and Fisher just jams it right against it. It may be a glorified cut scene, but it’s a nice touch, and flashbacks play out as a projection on the wall.

The demo proper introduces you to a couple of those neat tricks you saw in the intro. There’s an active cover system, where pointing out the spot you want to shimmy to next and hitting A will get you there double quick. You can leap out and take people down by hitting B and doing so allows you to utilise the biggest gameplay mechanic to be added to the series, marking targets for an instant takedown. Tag up to three bad guys Rainbow Six style and then hit Y to watch Sam snap shoot them in the head. Hey, it’s a neat trick, but if you really want to do it yourself, you and the right stick can be buddies.

Sam runs with a nice fluidity, but his crouch speed seems to have taken a hit (he is getting old, and crouching in hard on the knees), which doesn’t sit with just how quickly he can spring up pipes. It wasn’t until I went from a pipe to a ledge that the controls seemed a bit spongey, as Sam just bounces around without much attention to gravity or his sinewy arms. It also made it difficult to line up the insta-takedown of pulling a bad guy out of the window. Also, the soft A button-does-an-action thing appears at first glance to be well implemented - look at something, press A, do it – in reality if there are two things very close one another, you can find Sam accidentally doing the other thing. However, when this hiccup isn’t apparent, there is a lot of grace in Sam’s movements, which benefit from being a kind of military parkour.



The demo places action above stealth, and while it is possible to get from beginning to the end without being detected, it’s not possible to do so without at least alerting them to your presence (or maybe it is, I dunno). I found that I was able to get past every bad guy in the underground section with strategic use of the EMP to knock out the lights, but of course this sends them into a blind panic. It’s not quite as satisfying as leaving no trace, which is what I strived for in the previous games, but Sam is on a revenge trip here, so perhaps he wants to leave a trail of bodies, just to make a point.

I also like the black and white filter that comes in to effect when Fisher is in the shadows, with the bad guys remaining in colour. One of my peeves about the previous games was just how visible Fisher was, with all his glowing green gadgets, but now he’s not quite so luminescent in the shadows. His nightvision/infra red combo has been replaced by the Sonar Vision, which pings out a sonar wave that highlights the enemies, which must have surely been stolen from The Dark Knight (where does he get his marvellous toys?), and will no doubt annoy the SC die-hards.



I can’t imagine that the full game is going to be bad. The demo certainly hasn’t put me off getting the full thing. It's got some nice new ideas, and a snappy visual style. It’s has been on my wishlist now for well over 2 years, and now I’ve had a go on it, it has left me wanting more, but secretly hoping that the gameplay and level design is a bit more varied.