How does it feel to smash someone's head through a sink? We get our hands dirty and tell you all about it.
Australia, August 13, 2009 - Splinter Cell: Conviction was far and away one of the highlights of E3, and is definitely one of our most anticipated games of the next six to nine months. We recently had the chance to go hands-on with the E3 2009 demo. You've all seen that level, so instead of going through it blow by blow, we thought we'd tell you how the various mechanics in the game feel to actually use, and how much impact the many new visual flourishes have. Read on…
The interrogation scene at the beginning of the demo, in which Sam smashes his interviewee's face into sinks, urinals, toilet doors and mirrors, is not quite as interactive as you'd expect. There are only a handful of objects that you can actually utilise, which, while disappointing in some ways (and possibly not how such scenes will play out in the final game), is fair enough. Why smash someone's head into a boring old wall or a garbage can, after all, when you could use it to shatter a porcelain urinal, True Lies-style? The system isn't dynamic - you basically move from one object to another until your interrogation guinea pig has given up the information you need. The order in which you do things does have an impact, however. Finish up on the mirror and the game name will be projected onto it, whereas that won't happen if you, say, finish on the toilet door. What, you didn't want your game's name projected on a toilet door? Okay yeah, that makes sense.
This reminds me of the bathroom at our last Black Beta... only cleaner.
In all, this scene isn't really about gameplay. It's basically an interactive - and very cinematic - cutscene. It establishes that Sam can be brutal when need be, and sets the scene for the gameplay to come. There's no way to fail or for the arms dealer you're interrogating to put up a fight. He's there simply to have his head caved in then give up information. Thanks guy!
You've probably all seen the 'mark and execute' system in action, but that's in the hands of people who know what they're doing. For a dev team member demoing the game, it's the work of a moment to hang from a pipe on the ceiling, tag two enemies then drop down on a third to perform a stealth kill, thereby earning the ability to automatically execute the other two with quick precise shots to the head.
For the new player, however, the delicate ballet of death to be played out is less obvious. You need to scope out every situation and think tactically before you act. The ability to mark and execute is a reward for a hand to hand kill, not something that you have at your disposal at all times. Thus, you're always on the lookout for that first melee kill that you can parlay into executions. It's really a very elegant system and feels great to get right. Tagging enemies from under a door before busting in and snuffing them out with a shotgun is just as satisfying – if not more so - as the alternative: opening the door then taking cover and popping out to do your dirty work. And it's certainly more stylish and ruthlessly efficient. You can also mark other things in the environment. Mark a light to drop the room into darkness as part of your execution or mark a chandelier to drop it onto the heads of enemies.
Inevitably, however, things will go awry, so it's a good thing you can still fall back on good old fashioned cover-based gunplay… which we did… on several occasions.
Sam has never been short on physical abilities. This is the man, after all, who is perpetually lurking above corridors with his feet wedged against opposite walls, waiting for unsuspecting victims to stroll by underneath. In Conviction his level of agility is familiar, but robust. We're talking about climbing up many walls, shimmying along window ledges (nothing like hanging outside a window and marking the people inside, or grabbing someone inside to pull them out to their death), diving through windows and into a hang, climbing pipes, dropping onto victims from above, using enemy weapons, utilising cover and engaging in some very sharp hand to hand. Phew! Oh, and using enemies as human shields. And that's just what we got a chance to play with in this one mission demo.
Cool kill, plus you get a mark and execute. It's win win!
While Sam doesn't start out this game stocked with gadgets (he and Echelon broke up, you see), he quickly improvises, snapping off a mirror from a car as he passes, allowing him to use the glass to peer under doors to scope out what lies ahead. This is simple to use – just focus on the bottom of the door and select the option to peer under. Just make sure you're not looking a little higher, because then you'll open the door... which is what we did. Thankfully, you've got plenty of options to evade the guards and turn the situation around.
This game is all about immersion, and to that end Ubisoft has implemented a number of very cool systems to keep you immersed, while simultaneously clued in as to what's going on. The first is the way the colour bleeds from the world when you're hidden/unseen. You may be lurking in a shadow or clambering across a pipe on the ceiling, but rather than having an artificial hud element that you'd then need to glance at, and that would be an imposition on the game world, this system works both functionally and aesthetically.
The second is the doppelganger system. If you're spotted by an enemy then drop out of sight and move away, a stationary shadow person will be left where you were, marking your last known location. This way you're clued in as to where the enemy thinks you may be, and can use that to your advantage. He's not going to just go up to it and start scratching his head, of course, but he'll use that as a reference point and you can too, to try and outmanoeuvre him.
Speaking of AI, the enemies were tuned to be very forgiving in the demo – while they used cover, created cover by knocking over desks and aggressively pursued you, evading them was straightforward, as was earning mark and executes. The team has stated that things will get much more challenging as the game progresses, with much smarter enemies and scenarios that are much harder to wrangle mark and executes from.
Infiltrate the mansion yourself, sky projector guy.
The last immersive element to discuss is the way storytelling is handled in Conviction. Forget cutscenes and flashbacks – in this game when you learn a new piece of information or Sam thinks of something that happened in his past, full motion video is projected up onto a nearby wall – reflecting that this is what Sam is thinking of as he moves through the world. It's very slick. As is the way the game also projects up text to clue you in on locations. You'd think it would snap you out of the reality of the world, but the reality is it does the opposite, working a little like some kind of spy-vision; a reflection of Sam's intense focus.
In fact, all these systems are in place so that you're always in the world – not staring a huds, cutscenes or menus. It really does make a difference, and adds a huge amount to your engagement in the game.
So. Conviction. Just as much fun to play as it has been to watch. More fun, really. Sam is a total predator now - it's still a balance between stealth and action, but he's never felt so efficient and so skilled. We can't wait to see more.
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