He might be a bad-ass, but he's still only human.
Previous Splinter Cell games pandered to the most hardcore of stealth game fans with noise meters, light meters, gadgets galore and more night vision modes than you could shake a stick at. Conviction was originally set to take this to the next level by giving Sam a crowd to hide within and interact with rather than the shadows he's used to lurking in, but either Assassins Creed beat them to the punch or that idea got swept away in favour of more action orientated gameplay long ago. It's almost as if the team over at Ubisoft had the Bourne trilogy out on loan from Blockbuster the weekend that they were tasked with rethinking Conviction, because it's not so much about sneaking around your enemies like a ninja, pouncing only when the time is right. Now the gameplay has been distilled right down to focus on killing enemies in the quickest, most stylish way possible rather than spending hours in air vents or hanging from pipes waiting for that perfect moment.If you've seen any trailers for Conviction you probably already have some idea of what I'm talking about, because at some point they all focus on the same gameplay mechanic, mark and execute. Admittedly, the first time you use it mark and execute feels a bit cheap, like Ubisoft have given you a special move that kills a room full of bad guys with a key press and in a way, they have, but you have to work for it. You have to complete a hand to hand combat kill to earn a mark and execute move, so you can't just run into every room guns blazing and you still have to pay some attention to the enemy patrol patterns when you first enter an area. If there are more than five enemies in any given area you'll have to think beyond the one hit wonder anyway, because apparently the number of guys Sam can head shot at once is limited to four, two if you're using a rifle. He might be a bad-ass, but he's still only human.
Continued overleaf...