The Real Folk Blues

Crowbars are only for geeky scientists,

Splinter Cell: Conviction is being revealed next Friday and I am interested to see where they take the series. I really enjoyed the original game but feel like the series has lost its way a bit. Disclaimer: I have only played the first and Pandora Tomorrow.

For me, SC is all about being a modern, high-tech, plausible ninja. Unlike Snake, Sam Fisher is a tool of the government and it was fun carrying out clandestine missions for Uncle Sam. You are only privy to a small portion of the games story, forced to piece it together from what little you need to know and the news snippets shown before each mission. The plot wasn't some far fetched, conspiracy driven giant robot tale (I love you, Metal Gear) but a believable story of near-future terrorism. Though it had its problems, there was a lot of potential there to make an awesome, realistic stealth game.

However, Ubisoft seems to have other ideas for the series. I've heard that in Chaos Theory you have to infiltrate the bad guy's underwater hideout. Honestly? This does not fit with the universe I had enjoyed in the first two games.

Double Agent takes this further by making the environments/missions more spectacular, like scuba diving under a glacier or rappelling down a building while fire works explode all around. I argue that this detracts from realistic tone set forth by previous games. It is as though they are trying to turn Sam into a globe-trotting adventurer. Additionally, why did they turn into a mole? He is not an actor, he is a black-ops veteran. These attempts at characterization are completely unnecessary and only serve to distract from the gameplay.

Honestly, my main problem with DA is that from what I have seen, it plays exactly the same as the last generation titles. Enemies are still relatively stupid and unperceptive. The animation has not been improved to look less disjointed and awkward. Sam still wears giant glowing objects that are completely out of place when the main mechanic is hiding in shadows. You can't use enemy weapons. You still absorb more damage than is humanly possible; this is even worse now as your health magically regenerates with time. Thanks, Halo.

Blech, such a sloppy post. Sorry for complaining so much, but I was really hoping that Ubisoft would make Splinter Cell more realistic, not less so.

I alone have the fifth freedom,
Lambert