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The demo starts off with a video clip displaying Fisher’s skills and explaining how he went rogue three years prior and has improved upon the skills they taught him as the first Splinter Cell and now uses many more improvised techniques. We’re then treated to what appears to be a short cutscene; a man is chucked at a urinal in a dingy bathroom. Now, this particular scene was one of my favourite moments in the demo as it showcased a very interesting design feature. First things first, the game flawlessly transitions from cutscene to player control; you won’t even notice the change until you notice a button prompt to interrogate the suspect. Ubisoft has also chosen to display all text and objectives onto the backdrop. So while interrogating the enemy, and say they’re talking about a target, you’ll see a video of said person on the walls around you. It offers a whole new level of immersion, and all of this is happening in-game and you have control of Fisher. This control allows for something special, you can move your suspect around to different objects which when you click the button to interrogate the suspect Fisher will use his surroundings to do so. These interrogations look to be quite brutal, Fisher isn’t taking any prisoners, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how they’ll incorporate this mechanic.

The demo then skips to much later in the game and you are tasked with infiltrating a warehouse. You are given a chance to practice the marking technique; you first take out an opponent up close by sneaking up and silently taking them out with the B button. After that you can “mark” your enemies and have Fisher perform an automatic execution with his pistol, but the execution can only be done if you took out said previous enemy. This is a life saver and will force you to think tactically when assessing the layout of a level. Who can I silently kill? Who has to be executed? Who do I take out first? Now once you enter the warehouse this is when things really start to heat up. Now unlike in previous games, you cannot pick up bodies and hide them, Conviction is more stealth/action then the previous entries. This isn’t a bad thing though, you will be despatching enemies much quicker and when an enemy is killed patrolling enemies will often run up to investigate. But no alarms or anything will be triggered, so killing an enemy can distract the others while you reposition yourself.

You’ll mostly be using your pistol to dispatch your enemies but you also have a submachine gun. This is where the action element comes into play, when you are detected you’ll enter a firefight with the enemy. I know, most of you are thinking “what?! A firefight? Splinter Cell is about stealth not action!”. Well bear with me, it’s not as action as you may think. Splinter Cell has this system where when you’re detected you’ll see a “ghost” you in the spot where the enemy thinks you are and that’s where they’ll shoot. This allows you to sneak away from that position and flank them, or escape from them. So while it may appear very action oriented don’t be fooled, there is still a huge emphasis on stealth. Not to mention if you are detected, it's your fault anyways so be careful and the game will remain a stealth game.


Having lost interested in the Splinter Cell series long ago, the new gameplay changes showcased in this demo have me quite intrigued. The baiting of enemies reminded me of the stealth sequences in Batman: Arkham Asylum, waiting in the shadows and picking off enemies. Speaking of shadows, in Conviction when you are hidden in the shadows the screen will go black and white which creates a stunning visual image. It also was the cause of my only gripe. At one point I was in a shadowed corridor and there was an enemy directly in front of me, staring at where I was. But because I was in the shadows he had no idea I was there, even though I just shot his partner. At some points the AI seems to be somewhat lacking, they never seem to go check the shadowed areas after one of their friends is killed. Maybe they shouldn’t go check the shadows on normal, but they definitely should on realistic difficulty. Still, it is only a minor gripe and one that certainly did not hamper my experience.

That is another thing, I have replayed the demo now at least 10 times and each run through has been different. The amount of approaches one can take to dispatch your enemies is staggering. If this demo is any indication to how good the final product will be, then I believe it’s safe to say that it will be one fun experience. I encourage everyone to download the demo and pick up Splinter Cell: Conviction when it hits the Xbox 360 April 13.

Written By: Alex Donovan