Sam is changing gears. In Conviction, he’s not hiding the shadows anymore. Now, he’s blending in with the crowd.
His daughter is dead. His status as a nonofficial cover operative for the CIA has disintegrated. And now, Sam Fisher is on the run from the NSA. Double Agent’s final “To Be Continued” message was one hell of an understatement.
Last September, Ubisoft made a widely-publicized oopsie when it posted two gigabytes of promotional material (regarding games both announced and unrevealed) on its public FTP. Double Agent hadn’t even been released, but the first hints of its sequel spread across the internet in a feverish blaze. Images of a bearded Sam Fisher, sporting long hair and civilian clothes, sparked rumor and debate overshadowed only by Double Agent’s long-awaited release the following month.
Until recently, talk of the fifth Sam Fisher game was the stuff of wonder and speculation. Now, with facts in hand, Splinter Cell: Conviction is preparing a debut under the revealing rays of the noonday sun. And we do mean revealing-Sam will be stepping into daylight this time around for what looks to be, for him, a very different take on stealth combat.
Like Assassin’s Creed, Ubisoft’s other stealth game currently under development, Conviction will find Sam using crowds as a form of dynamically-shifting cover. In place of a ’shadow’ gauge, the game will sport a ‘danger’ gauge, serving as a visual cue to relate to the player just how much hot water they’re in at any given moment, no matter the time of day. The trick to keeping that gauge low will be to follow the ebb and flow of the crowds, moving at the same pace and in the same manner as the commoners.
With every warm body no longer a potential target, of course, players will need to make use of a new ability Ubisoft has helpfully provided: ‘hero instinct’ vision, which will behave similarly to infrared vision by brightly pinpointing enemies. That’s not to say you won’t be able to freely attack whomever you choose, of course, but you’ll only be able to kill enemies-friendlies and civilians will become incapacitated.
Unfortunately, who those friendlies and enemies will be remains something of a mystery. We know that Conviction’s story will start with Sam learning that his longtime friend and intelligence source, Anna Grimsdottir, is in peril. Intent on saving her, he reconnects with Third Echelon, only to learn that they are the teeth nipping at Grimsdottir’s heels. Once he leaves Third Echelon for the second time, he finds himself under their gun-and as far as we know, he never did smooth things over with the NSA. Whether Sam’s ‘enemies’ and ‘friends’ will switch places from mission to mission remains debatable.
But how Conviction’s plot will tie together with previous games in the series is perhaps the biggest question on our minds. Seeing as the two different versions of Double Agent (current-gen and last-gen) had divergent storylines, it’s unclear exactly what Ubisoft has made canon. Since the player had the option of executing Lambert in Sam’s last outing, for instance, whether or not the aging intelligence head will make an appearance in Conviction is unknown.
And whether Ubisoft will presume that the player made particular choices in Double Agent for the sake of its sequel, or leave the matter ambiguous, is something we’re still working to find out. As soon as we know that, or anything else about Splinter Cell: Conviction, we’ll let you know, so keep checking back with us over the next few weeks. There’s a whole lot of info we can’t wait to learn and share.