Conviction is still a stealth action adventure

With Splinter Cell: Conviction, Ubisoft made a major tweak to the flavor of the franchise. Sam Fisher is no longer a Third Echelon filed agent, he has gone rogue and become more deadly. With no restriction on lethal force and no requirement to remain undetected, SC5 allows you to take out a good deal of intense action.

I once worried about this change. I watched some of the gameplay preview videos before its release and felt like Splinter Cell is being turned into a TPS. An entire line up of weaponry from Desert Eagle to M3 shotgun? Sam has never gained access to so many heavy and noisy weapons. They might as well add a RPG!

Oh, and they have a new cover system, which basically works the same way as an ordinary cover-based TPS. A cover provides 100% protection during a gun fight. You lean out the cover to shoot your enemies while they are reloading. You move from cover to cover to approach targets and gain tactical advantages.

However, while these ingredients sound very similar to a third-person shooter, the actual gameplay of Conviction is way different from Uncharted or Gears of War. After your first attempt to confront your foes with direct shootout, you'll find out that stealth action is still the rule of thumb in the world of Splinter Cell.

Ubisoft has done a lot to ensure that direct gun fight is a punishing way to eliminate the enemies. Firstly, Sam Fisher is as weak as before in terms of taking damage. In "Realistic" difficulty, 4 or 5 light weapon shots are sufficient to put you into the "near-death" state. Hit by a shotgun or a frag grenade explosion? Well, that's an instant kill. Secondly, enemies are extremely accurate. More often than not, when engaging multiple targets (that's 90% of the cases), you get shot every time you lean out from a cover. Also, AI is often quite aggressive. They will try outflanking you during combat. This is the most significant reason why direct gun fight is punishing in Conviction. You can hardly survive attacks from multiple directions.

By comparison, leveraging Mark & Execute or doing head shots without exposing yourself is far more comfortable. Being stealthy is still the correct action that the game designers encourage you to take. You may not be able to "ghost through" every level in SC5, but Sam Fisher is still more a shadowy ninja than a fearless berserker.