By Alec Meer on June 2nd, 2009 at 11:34 am.
Sam Fisher’s been off the radar for a little while, Ubisoft having given the old lad some time off whilst they made that bloke in the hood from Assassin’s Creed their stealth-man of the hour. Well, the guy who pays Michael Ironside’s rent is coming back this year, in the long-delayed Conviction. In the CGI and in-game footage below, it’s clear this is an earthier, angrier, more brutal Fisher. Maybe he’s so grumpy because he just heard the Left 4 Dead 2 announcement?
This pre-rendered video sets the scene: Fisher as renegade, seeking revenge for the murder of his daughter, and claiming he’s done with hiding:
Then this in-game footage shows what manner of romp we’re in for: a much more hands-on Sam, eschewing gadgetry for more plausible tools such as mirror shards and, most importantly, those big, beefy hands of his. It’s a mess of familiar, uh, homages: 24, Bourne, Nu-Bond, that Liam Neeson Taken movie, the Manhunt games… Question is, is this Ubisoft actively wanting to take the series in a slightly different direction, or simply a -hey! – conviction that more out-and-out action games bring in the biggest bucks these days?
Looks a lot of fun, in an enormously sadistic way. I do like that he can now hand-shuffle across a ledge at ridiculous speeds. Clearly having a family member murdered makes your arms more powerful.
Splinter Cell: Conviction is due – when else? – this holiday season.
02/06/2009 at 11:39 Jim Rossignol says:
“Tell me who killed my DLC!”
02/06/2009 at 11:43 nabeel says:
I <3 you Alec.
02/06/2009 at 11:45 Jonas says:
Bloody hell that looks great! Hopefully proper stealth and nonlethal moves will still be an option – nothing like holding the power over life or death in your hands (of digital actors, admittedly, but still!). I also hope this will be as open-ish as Chaos Theory or Double Agent, as in that case the option of shimmying along the ledge outside the windows to flank an enemy would be really impressive (whereas it’d merely be neat if it were the only option, see?)
Between this and Alpha Protocol, I think I shall get my spy thriller fix this year.
02/06/2009 at 11:48 The_B says:
So is this still coming to PC then? The 360 exclusive announcement surprised me yesterday, as I thought the series was doing well multiplatform.
02/06/2009 at 11:51 Hermit says:
I took it to mean 360 console exclusive, B. Microsoft are fond of saying things like that. Given that the PC is kind of their platform and it’ll likely as not have GFWL if it is PC bound, it’s not like they’d complain.
Probably developer choice not to try a PS3 port at the same time.
Edit: Game looked rather entertaining, too
02/06/2009 at 11:53 Optimaximal says:
The auto-aim function is… interesting. Whilst the idea of auto-locking whilst hanging from a window then leaping through and capping guards is nice and fluid, it just looks like yet again Ubisoft are automating the game.
02/06/2009 at 11:53 James T says:
Oh awesome, it -is- due for PC, that was conspicuously absent from the big MS presentation, had me a touch worried.
I hope it’s not entirely transformed into Rainbow-Six-style “stealthiness… right up until you have to fire the first bullet, then it’s all shooter” (that ‘pre-aim under the door’ bit is pure R6); I don’t mind a bit of a scuffle, but Seoul (particularly the last bit) was definitely my least favourite bit of CT.
Wonder if they’ve kept the Anna story in there.
(Oh, and that overlaid mission text is pretty shmick, isn’t it, heheh.)
02/06/2009 at 11:56 Nero says:
I wonder how that marking technique works. Do you mark people and then press a button for auto win? Not a big fan of the new direction, faster and more action. Oh well, I’ll always have the old games.
02/06/2009 at 11:58 Jim Rossignol says:
MS said L4D2 was an “exclusive” too. It seems that just means “not on PS3″ these days.
02/06/2009 at 12:02 The_B says:
Oh, I know this part – I’ve never assumed any console exclusive to not have the caveat of “except for PC” – it’s just that as James T says afterwards:
MS didn’t mention anything yesterday if it would be on PC as well, and there don’t yet appear to be any PC logos on the official site anywhere. Whereas Valve clearly said L4D2 was PC & 360.
02/06/2009 at 12:03 Cigol says:
I half expected him to push that civilian off the edge of the bridge out of pure simple frustration. MAN RAGE.
02/06/2009 at 12:07 Paul_M says:
Will it be a game better played with a mouse and keyboard or gamepad? I suppose that will determine the appropriateness of auto aim features. Looks awesome.
02/06/2009 at 12:10 Ian says:
Looks like it could be fun. Certainly more interested than I was when the game looked like it should be called Splinter Cell: Angry Hobo.
02/06/2009 at 12:21 PC Monster says:
I LIKED the ultra-spy gadgets and black stealth-camo-fetish gear. Why take Sam away from his roots, you bad bad people?
02/06/2009 at 12:22 Heliocentric says:
Eh, excitement gone. Nevermind, maybe the multiplayer will be interesting, but hiding was splinter cell, take that away whats left?
02/06/2009 at 12:34 James T says:
Heliocentric: Rainbow 6, heh. I’m a bit concerned myself, but we’ll see.
PC Monster:
It kinda looks like they’ve shied away from the early conceptions of ‘Conviction’ (I wonder if the AC-esque ‘social stealth’ is still going to be involved at all), but I remember back then there was talk of Sam having access to SC gear eventually in the game. I can guess where they’re going to conveniently take Sam once they’ve busted him in that clip there… (the Washington Monument’s kind of a hint too)
02/06/2009 at 12:36 Ian says:
@ Helio: Surely your excitement should have been gone about two or three years ago when they were showing stuff that looked even less Splinter Cell than this? Or had you briefly allowed your hopes to be rekindled?
02/06/2009 at 12:42 Heliocentric says:
I got excited when i read they canceled the then current build and added a massive delay. Like they realised they had just guffed and had the decency to stand up and open the window, it seems to be lingering though.
02/06/2009 at 13:12 Captain Bland says:
I miss the Splinter Cell: Roleplay a Terrorist/Hobo we had a couple of years back. This looks fun, but I wanted crowd centric gameplay for this.
Also, I know the hairy beardy look was silly, but what have they done to his face?
02/06/2009 at 13:18 Walter says:
Rather this than Fisher with the long hair and emo-bag living on the street even if it’s not “Splinter Cell.” He is a lot more Jack Bauer. More Jack Bauer is never a bad thing.
Thought his daughter getting killed was just a drunk hit and run?
Anyone else feel like climbing out of their window and “hand-shuffling” across the front of their building?
02/06/2009 at 13:21 Psychopomp says:
But I just want Chaos Theory 2!
Edit:Also, I was really looking forward to Splinter Cell:Hobo edition.
Really, why change it? It looked great, in my opinion.
02/06/2009 at 13:27 Heliocentric says:
His daughter was hit and run by drunken terrorist cia agents.
You mean chaos theory 3, 2 was da on the last gen consoles.
Who is up for some hamachi emulator lan?
02/06/2009 at 13:39 Walter says:
Drunken terrorist CIA agents is never a good thing. I wonder if they had their licenses suspended… After this game they probably will.
02/06/2009 at 13:41 Vandelay says:
Hmm… not that impressed with what I saw and thought the ideas I was hearing from the original Conviction sounded much better. That was still a stealth game, except instead of sneaking around you cause distractions and disappear into a crowd. I would say that is much closer to a Bourne style than this, which seemed fairly like a straight forward shoot bad guys in face type game. I think they should have taken a look at the new Batman game for what they should be doing.
02/06/2009 at 13:53 JKjoker says:
i hope this video isnt representative of the gameplay, because it looks like a long cutscene with 1 button quicktime (shooting button + perfect autoaiming) events, is there any challenge involved here ?
Double Agent was already much crappier than first 3, easier, shorter and cutescenish, with the only challenge being instant death stealth sections (wheeeeee), they seem to be going to same way with this one
02/06/2009 at 13:58 DarthInsinuate says:
It looks pretty swish to me. It reminds me of the Arkham Asylum game in the way that observation is a bigger challenge than the execution, which is effectively just a few button presses.
Sam Fisher is a much less interesting character without the goggles and wet suit though.
02/06/2009 at 14:01 Isometric says:
I’d like to think that ubisoft are changing it for the better.
A more action orientated sam doesn’t look like a bad thing at all.
02/06/2009 at 14:03 reiver says:
Athough the actions in the gameplay footage looked smooth and cool they seemed excessively precise and automated. Reminded me a lot of Assassin’s Creed and the way they allowed you to perform complex manouveres with no timing or skill. Sure it provided a decent spectacle and to, an uninformed, spectator you looked very adept but there was very little satisfaction in performing those moves.
It looks like it’d be better off being rebranded as a punisher sequel than a splinter cell game!
02/06/2009 at 14:08 SpoonySeeker says:
Master Troll
Alec, your writing style is distinctive, but in a way that I just can’t quite put my finger on…
02/06/2009 at 14:20 Psychopomp says:
@Helio
Yeah, but see, Chaos Theory was brilliant, and DA was shit.
02/06/2009 at 14:30 ZIGS says:
Splinter Cell: Gears of War Edition?
02/06/2009 at 14:41 The_B says:
Oh silly me. I assumed the second video was just the same as the stuff they showed at the conference. Well, OK the section itself was the same as that played, but it didn’t have the developer intro and outro, in which he says himself it’s coming for PC. My apologies.
Awesome, then.
02/06/2009 at 14:58 Optimaximal says:
Indeed… Fisher will ensure their licenses FOR THEIR LIFE will be suspended… FOR LIFE
02/06/2009 at 15:16 dash says:
Pretty much everything in trailer looks a way too cheesy and cheap. Gameplay however Looks cool….I just hope it wont be another Double Agent, which i hated.
02/06/2009 at 15:21 James T says:
I know the word ‘cheesy’ doesn’t actually have a meaning, but what form of ‘cheap’ do you mean?
WOAH!
02/06/2009 at 15:28 Heliocentric says:
@Pomp the last gen was made on the chaos theory tech by the same team, da on 360 and pc was the shit shangai team.
02/06/2009 at 15:43 fuggles says:
THIS is bigger than your daughter!
Depending on if she’s toddling or not, that might not be so big.
02/06/2009 at 15:47 The Innocent says:
Color me extremely displeased. This new reinvention makes Sam Fisher look like Altair from Assassin’s Creed with his way-too-fast antics (hey, this might as well be AC3 if they keep going with the later-in-history stories). Last time they “reinvented” Splinter Cell they gave me the dumbed-down mess that was Double Agent, right after they finally came close to perfection with Chaos Theory. Double Agent had a couple moments of brilliance, but overall it just sucked.
The whole reason I loved the series was because I actually liked having light and sound meters, moving at a realistic pace instead of bouncing around like Spiderman, and being totally badass without bullet-time gimmicks. Sam Fisher is like seventy: he’s supposed to be slower and methodical, but totally unstoppable! This just looks goofy, especially when he was climbing hand over hand faster than most people can sprint. I’m not a huge fanboy, but I was a fan, and this looks awful.
@ Heliocentric / Psychopomp
I agree with you, Psycho: DA wasn’t CT2; it was a reinvention. Like reinventing your fine modern bathroom with an outhouse.
02/06/2009 at 16:36 WaitWut says:
How old is Sam again? Is he using Just for Men/ did they make him look younger?
Don’t like the way the “marking” looks also…looks like noob auto-aim.
02/06/2009 at 16:38 Xercies says:
I have to agree that I’m not to excited about it, thought the text and logos on the building looked cool at first but it could get heavily distracting if its constantly there and it looks kind of silly when you think about it. Theres this objective painted on the wall and no one has twigged yet.
I have to totally agree with The Innocent on why I loved Splinter Cell.
02/06/2009 at 16:44 Loki says:
Where are my sticky cams, where are my airfoil rounds, where is my silly remote hacking device! I want my tech and strange black camo + eye wear fetishist called Fisher back :(
(yeah I do realise they said there would be the tech we love. But the trailer is all about auto aim and strange lights from the skies given you missions.
Why make Splinter Cell: Angry Schizophrenic Technophobe when CT was so good?)
02/06/2009 at 17:08 phil says:
“I’m not hiding any more” – Isn’t that essentially like Mario claiming he’s not jumping any more (or at least karting)?
Having just finally played though Gears of War 2, frankly this cover based, shoot, hide, shoot, hide nosense
is about as fun as rickets – couldn’t they have gone with something more like Far Cry 2, expansive, open ended, not obcessed with waist high objects, possibly featuring flame throwers?
02/06/2009 at 17:14 Captain Bland says:
I like that UBIsoft (still) seem to be one of the few publishers willing to evolve thier franchise. But at this point it seems as if the Splinter Cell brand, and Sam Fisher are limiting them. They should make up a new ‘stealth-action’ brand and slap the Tom Clancy label on it for their precise shooting and stabbing game. Splinter Cell should be proud to be stealth focused. Seems like the series is ashamed of this, when it really shouldn’t be.
02/06/2009 at 17:30 Nimdok says:
If there was anything in the gameplay video to really like, it was the integrated objective system; light up the side of a building with “Break In HERE!”?
Awesome.
02/06/2009 at 17:33 JKjoker says:
@Loki: as they showed with Double Agent, because they are idiots
02/06/2009 at 18:06 IvanHoeHo says:
Disregarding the roots of the series (was never that into Splinter Cell), this actually looks pretty fun. And if we look at this as an experiment on improving the fluidity and versatility of in-game controls, this could be a very good thing, indeed.
02/06/2009 at 18:14 TheLordHimself says:
Splinter Cell, Ubisoft Montreal, Brilliant game.
Pandora Tomorrow, Ubisoft Shanghi, Meh game.
Chaos Theory, Ubisoft Montreal, Best of the series and probably genre IMO,
Double Agent, Ubisoft Shanghi, Dire game.
On this basis Conviction will be good no matter how the series goes.
02/06/2009 at 18:16 Bhazor says:
Wait, how does he zoom into a picture on a shard of glass? Why was that guy still shooting at the wall after Sam had clearly just jumped through the window? Did the Government have his balls as insurance because he seems to have got them back since he quit working there.
All in all I’m just not sure. I miss the stealth of the first couple of games and thought the second, or whichever game had the lighthouse level, game was definitely the best. This just stinks of GoW style mind mulch. Still, if the levels and objectives are as open as “Enter House” or “Assasinate a Guy” this could be big, but potentially dumb, fun.
That said I do like the way he seems to be taking missions from the Mysterons and that civilian going “Oh my” at seeing the objective flashed up was oddly funny.
02/06/2009 at 18:28 Dreamhacker says:
SC:CT was the best game of the series… I’ve played it once, and I desperately want to play it again, but… STARFORCE. I would frigging buy the game again if they released it without that DRM-insanity.
02/06/2009 at 18:44 Whiskey Jak says:
I’m personally extremely impressed with what they’ve done. Doing the exact same thing as in SC:CT would be just that, an old rehash that people would be quick to trash. I can certainly handle a more action-packed SC.
The on-the-wall objectives effect is sweet, the interrogation gameplay is brutal, the way I like it, and the mark and execute seems fine. Makes Sam look like a true badass.
People need to cheer up and start enjoying games a bit more.
02/06/2009 at 18:50 Funky Badger says:
Which one’s the one with the final level in the hotel with all the guards wearing IR so you have to hide in the light? Because that one was great.
And, for any other faults DA might have had, in contained Ironside’s best performance (in anything).
02/06/2009 at 19:03 Heliocentric says:
Has anyone here played da on last gen? Or the actually rather different pc and different developer next gen title? Last gen was montreal, the guys who made scct and the original splinter cell… Nevermind, lets let the ‘treyarch’ dev ruin the reputation of the ‘infinity ward’ developer.
02/06/2009 at 19:05 Walter says:
@Funky Badger: You mean NODs not IR. Pandora Tomorrow had a level like that but there was only one guard with a sniper rifle.
02/06/2009 at 19:28 Funky Badger says:
It was one of the last two – all the guards had night-sights, so you had to hide in light. Wonderful level – think it was DA, come to think of it.
Also, yeah – finished DA on PS2 and it was great, started again on neXtBox and it was very different, and seemingly more rubbish…
02/06/2009 at 19:40 Owen says:
Well jeez, those Special Ops guys would definitely have their laser sights on his HEAD. I mean c’mon… ;)
02/06/2009 at 20:56 sigma83 says:
Displayed mission objectives are already arbitrary and outside of the universe: Might as well make them FLIPPIN’ AWESOME.
02/06/2009 at 21:07 Demikaze says:
@Sigma83
I totally agree. Rather than press select to go to the menu screen, or have a pager pop up, or force the protagonist to ‘think out loud’, this just looks like a very cool way of doing it. Yes, it’s not very diegetic, but do you really care?
02/06/2009 at 21:26 sigma83 says:
HUD of any kind is a nearly necessary evil, we may as well make it as amazing as possible.
The way it’s being displayed in this game makes it look cinematic, obvious without being overly obtrusive, and more importantly, does not ‘pop’ out of the world like normal HUD would. To me, this speaks of the objectives being apparent to Sam Fisher through his investigations and interrogations, rather than being handed over by the developers.
02/06/2009 at 21:43 Will says:
Christ that looks dull. Every tedious cliche going rolled into one uninspiring morass. Yawn.
02/06/2009 at 22:32 Spanish Technophobe says:
When they advertised this as a video-game version of The Fugitive, I was totally on board. The Fugitive is one of my favorite movies.
This doesn’t look too bad, but deep in my gut there will be a jones unsatisfied.
02/06/2009 at 22:48 Tim says:
Yay! more games!
02/06/2009 at 23:49 EBass says:
Meh I’m not a huge stealth gamer, so I could no way call myself a fan of this series. But as someone who played through and enjoyed CT this doesen’t look all that.
I mean Splinter Cell was all about doing things slow and methodically, not shimmying along ledges faster than people can bloody sprint.
Having said that, I doubt if the way the demoer was playing is the way you could play on the PC on the hardest difficulty, with (presumably) no autoaim and little health (and Sam being the worst shot aside from a pre XP JC Denton). He was just trying to make the game look slick for the tards.
02/06/2009 at 23:55 Adventurous Putty says:
I LIKED the ultra-spy gadgets and black stealth-camo-fetish gear. Why take Sam away from his roots, you bad bad people?
“I’m not hiding any more” – Isn’t that essentially like Mario claiming he’s not jumping any more (or at least karting)?
Eh, excitement gone. Nevermind, maybe the multiplayer will be interesting, but hiding was splinter cell, take that away whats left?
OK, I think you guys missed the point of the video.
Let me paraphrase that with this: before seeing the video, having only watched the brief gameplay one from ~2 years ago, I had about the same worries. It seemed incredibly stupid to me to take away what had made the three good Splinter Cells (Original, Chaos Theory, Double Agent old-gen) great — i.e. surgical in-the-dark-sneakiness — and replace it with some weird, Jason Bourne-esque action chase mechanic aping Assassin’s Creed. And, while the developer playing seemed to be rather bad at his own game, there are some clues there that I think indicate Ubi’s done something else.
One of the intended goals of Conviction was to make sure that the gameplay wouldn’t “stop as soon as Sam was caught” — that is, so you wouldn’t have to resort to running back INTO the dark or face insta-death. So they made Sam competent — they gave him that neat auto-attack move and some parkour skills. This is good, but worrisome if not balanced by stealth. The thing is, I think it IS balanced by stealth; notice how the auto-attack thing has a charge time, meaning you can’t just do it in the middle of combat. You need to be HIDDEN in order to do it. Further, there are still plenty of shadows and niches in that video, particularly inside the mansion, and crowd cover is apparently a viable option (as on the market outside, to your right). So, while the developer playing obviously went for ACTION, it’s clear that stealth is still a central part of the game. It’s just not the end of the gameplay.
Watch the video again, see if you catch my meaning. Again, I fostered the same worries, but the potential for what I feel I can do in that level leaves me confident.
Also: story seems like great fun. Looks like Lambert is perma-dead after all. Yay!
EDIT: Ah, I see — this isn’t the full video. Try to find the E3 stream of the Ubisoft conference, where they showed the full demo level. Then you may see what I’m talking about a little better.
03/06/2009 at 01:37 Guhndahb says:
@Putty: I hope you are right, and the action-centric “enhancements” are there for an alternate option or when you screw up. I hope you can choose to do nearly everything with stealth and only need to resort to shooting it out when you err. I especially hope that you don’t have to be sadistic. I like the calm, detached Sam, although I’m glad there’s a good story reason for his rage.
But I fear my hopes will be unwarranted. I really think that they think we want more over-the-top action, and from the comments thus far many of us seem to want just that. Just look at the crop of upcoming games which all seem to be trying to outdo each other in, well, over-the-topitude.
03/06/2009 at 02:36 FRIENDLYUNIT says:
CT was a masterpiece, which was why DA hurt so much. It pretty much epitomises “Dodgy console port”. There was NO love at all in it.
Honestly I’m really, really scared about Conviction. DA was like biting enthusiastically into an apple and getting a mouth full of razor blade. So, I’m going to require a demo as proof before I shell out for Conviction.
And for gods sake why wont they stop telling me they will release games in “Fall”. Two words: The World. They can say which quarter, if they MUST be vague.
03/06/2009 at 02:52 Radiant says:
I don’t understand the complaints.
Taken on it’s own that game looked a LOT of fun.
03/06/2009 at 03:07 Spanish Technophobe says:
It actually reminded me of a simpler version of The Mark of Kri. Did anyone play that game?
03/06/2009 at 03:12 TheLordHimself says:
@FRIENDLYUNIT
Don’t worry, as I already said, this is made by the same studio that made the only two good games in the seires (the origional and CT). The PT and DA bullshit were made by some chinese studio.
03/06/2009 at 03:49 Jonathan says:
OK Putty, I’m trusting you. I just hope that they’re not taking him and making him “darker” in absence of any real inspiration for the series direction.
03/06/2009 at 04:22 JKjoker says:
I, for one, wouldn’t rent an apartment pointed by a huge sign saying “kill everyone inside!!!”
03/06/2009 at 06:17 Walter says:
http://e3.gamespot.com/press-conference/ubisoft-e3/
60-75 mins.
03/06/2009 at 09:01 Grey_Ghost says:
I’ve never played any Splinter Cell, I wonder how easy it will be to um… ease into it.
03/06/2009 at 10:11 Walter says:
Alot of the time it’s just a question of how easy you want it to be. For example in SC there’s a level where you have to kidnap an CIA bureaucrat, you’re not allowed to kill anyone during the mission but you can knock out as many people as you like. The next level you have to rescue a programmer from the Spetsnaz, you can either sneak around the majority of them or you can kill them all!
Lambert usually gives your ROE and what you’re objectives are. Afterwards it’s really all upto you. But always remember to hide all the bodies.
03/06/2009 at 11:29 Optimaximal says:
@Grey_Ghost
Chaos Theory is the easiest game to get into – the feedback from the interface is the best (with the visibility AND audio meters), the game controls much more fluid than the earlier games and the 3-alarms-and-you’re-out gameplay is gone (including a humorous fourth-wall breaking in-game debate about it not being a game), replaced by each alarm resulting in just more and/or tougher (armoured) enemies.
It also just happens to be the best game in the series.
03/06/2009 at 14:05 Gilgameeshclone says:
I really liked this trailer, i think its a game i can get into, but the trailer didn’t scream splinter cell to me. The neat thing about Fisher in older splinter cells is he wasn’t a super hero, he was awesome but didn’t get in machine gun battles with mutant aliens while riding burning battleships off waterfalls, he was stealthy and careful.
That said, sitting in a shadow for 3 minutes memorizing a patrol route doesn’t sell trailers, and i assume he gets his wetsuit and gadgets back after the black helicopter guys take him back to Washington.
03/06/2009 at 16:26 Heliocentric says:
Interrogate everyone, they are all hilarious. The guy in japan who won’t accept that you are not a ninja, awesome.
03/06/2009 at 19:58 Man Raised By Puffins says:
I didn’t think Double Agent was as bad as some in this comment thread have made out, inferior to Chaos Theory and more than a touch disjointed sure, but not outright shite (I did play it on 360 mind, so I didn’t have to put up with the porting issues). Although the nay-sayers have spurred me to finally pick up the original Xbox version to see what Ubi Montreal came up with, which should be interesting.
As for Conviction, it looks to be shaping up reasonably well although it’s a shame the beard had to go.