New Splinter Cell: Less Stealth, More Accessible

[Cucipher]

New Splinter Cell: Less Stealth, More Accessible

In an effort to make it more accessible, Max Beland of Ubisoft Montreal says the studio decided that the best way to improve the stealth gameplay in Splinter Cell: Conviction [http://splintercell.us.ubi.com/conviction/] was to get rid of the stealth gameplay in Splinter Cell: Conviction.

Accessibility is almost as important as gameplay these days. For every hardcore gamer willing to blow an entire night in a marathon gaming session, there are many more who just want to fill in a half-hour while they're waiting for Lost [http://abc.go.com/shows/lost] to start. For game publishers who want to play in the big leagues, that's the holy grail: Not a small following of devoted fanatics but a broad, mainstream audience who thinks a game is kinda fun.

So it is that Beland, the creative director on Splinter Cell: Conviction, joined the project in early 2008 with a mandate to "fix the things that weren't happening." Chaos Theory [http://www.ubi.com].

"Although Chaos Theory was an amazing game, I think the issue that Ubisoft identified was that, out of everybody that is attracted by the fantasy of playing Sam Fisher, when they actually get to play it, we lose a lot of people," Beland explained to Edge [http://www.edge-online.com/news/ubisoft-felt-splinter-cell-was-too-hardcore]. "Stealth, I think, has always been delivered as very hardcore gameplay."

"We did a lot of playtesting, a lot of consumer research, we talked to a lot of gamers and there were a lot of themes that were coming back all the time: Stealth is punitive, stealth is slow," he continued. The obvious solution? Kiss that hardcore stealth goodbye.

"Sam's back as the guy that he should have been all along. Sam is a guy who's fast, he's quick on his toes and he can run without making a lot of noise. He can be hanging on a ledge and not have to be moving at one centimeter per minute," Beland said. "Sam is a panther, not a grandmother."

It's impossible to argue with his assertion that stealth gameplay is inherently slow and not particularly appealing to a wide-ranging audience. But I still feel a little sad at the prospect of losing one of the few, and first, "true" stealth games available to fans of the genre. Sam can still shoot out lights and skulk through shadows but when you can just shoot people in the face, what's the point?

Splinter Cell: Conviction was released today for the Xbox 360 and comes out for the PC on April 29.


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Wow! This is terrible journalism!

This is not news. This is an opinion piece. An unsubstantiated, unqualified, subjective piece of writing. If that was what was intended, then that's cool! But dont for the love of god call it news.

Who is the writer to claim what is and is not a "true" stealth game?

I really enjoy most of the content created by the Escapist but since when did sweeping generalisation and opinions become part of a news article? That's for comments surely?!?

I had to go back and check if it was the same guy who wrote the article about the kid who spent all the money on Farmville/Facebook - and indeed it was! Another article full of unwanted, unnecessary and finger-wagging opinions. Andy Chalk - either you need to get funnier and get a review column or check back and see what the definition of "news" is.

I for one am looking forward to the game, and I have enjoyed stealth titles for years. Obviously there will be controversy when things are changed, but games have to evolve and improve through experimentation just like anything else. Who says stealth has to be a game of tiny steps? Can this new approach not lead to some excellent developments in the genre in years to come?

 

[Interference]

Splinter Cell never really cut it all that well with me. I played 1 - 3, tried the demo of 4, finally tired of the franchise and reinstalled Thief 2: The Metal Age, a game that the Splinter Cell series has never quite bettered. A game that was stalking the shadows when Sam Fisher was still in his Action Man underpants and has fewer polygons in a whole level than Splinter Cell: Conviction has in one character mesh.

Making stealth faster does seem to be missing the point somewhat. Stealth done right basically boils down to:

1. Spatial and personal awareness. Knowing how visible you are, who can be taken out without anyone noticing and where the next sneaky way around the enemy is
2. Interesting things to watch while you wait for that vital gap in the patrol route. Guards talking, artwork, the moonlight dancing across the waves in the bay. That sort of thing.
3. Baffling the hell out of the guards. Knocking them out, distracting them, putting the fear of buggery up them, or simply getting away with your mission objectives while they remain none the wiser.

I mean, more accessible? Gentlemen, have you not heard of this thing called "The Difficulty Setting"? Lightweight gamers have been getting along just fine with "Easy" for years. Except the pretentious ones, who won't pick "Easy" unless it's called something self-delusional, like "Casual".

 

[Tdc2182]

Seems they'll follow the same path of Mass Effect 2.

"We need more sales in the frat boy contingency. Remove some or most of that ridiculous substance and replace it with fanservice and/or dumbed-down game mechanics."

Here is the thing. Sentences like this are said like it is a bad thing, but people never push past what what theses kind of sentences are hiding, "We are going to make our game more appealing to more people." How is that bad thing?

Now I did think that ME2 was dumbed down, but that was because I liked the redicoulously long choice of guns.

As for Splinter Cell, The game rewards you too much for not being stealthy. It needed to incorporate being able to play it more stealth, or more actiony. It aimed too much in the direction of Jack Bower style action

 

[Tdc2182]

snip

Wow! This is terrible journalism!

This is not news. This is an opinion piece. An unsubstantiated, unqualified, subjective piece of writing. If that was what was intended, then that's cool! But dont for the love of god call it news.

Who is the writer to claim what is and is not a "true" stealth game?

I really enjoy most of the content created by the Escapist but since when did sweeping generalisation and opinions become part of a news article? That's for comments surely?!?

I had to go back and check if it was the same guy who wrote the article about the kid who spent all the money on Farmville/Facebook - and indeed it was! Another article full of unwanted, unnecessary and finger-wagging opinions. Andy Chalk - either you need to get funnier and get a review column or check back and see what the definition of "news" is.

I for one am looking forward to the game, and I have enjoyed stealth titles for years. Obviously there will be controversy when things are changed, but games have to evolve and improve through experimentation just like anything else. Who says stealth has to be a game of tiny steps? Can this new approach not lead to some excellent developments in the genre in years to come?

You don't read much news, do you?

 

[Tdc2182]

The stealth is still there, just faster.

I dunno. That's a LOT of killing for a stealth game.

I agree. It has kind of betrayed it's roots a bit. Also, from what I have seen, it rewards you too much for using run and gun technique, even on its hardest difficulty. And you use the Mark and Execute more than you actually manually aim.

 

[digotw]

I played Splinter Cells 1 - Chaos Theory, and I completed them with the leave-no-trace mentality, including the self-imposed kill no-one mandate. I would wait patiently in the darkness memorizing patrol patterns and using my sticky cameras to knock out guys by hitting them on the crown of the head, or grabbing a guy without alarming the man standing next to him and dragging my victim into the shadows. I was a super-spy. And I loved it.
But...
it would be foolish to believe that this is a bad evolution for this series. In story terms, Sam is breaking from the well supported super-spy that he was to the rogue knife in the dark that he is now. The mentality of the main character has changed from calm and collected to pissed off and vengeful, therefore the gameplay should reflect that.
Secondly, who is to say you can't continue patiently waiting for the moment to strike? The stealth aspect has changed from slow and taxing to fast and dangerous. From the videos I've seen, this is still very much a Splinter Cell game, but at the same time it isn't more of the same. Pandora Tomorrow was more of the same. I really liked it, but they didn't start innovating the series beyond what it was until Chaos Theory.
This, in my opinion, looks like what Assassin's Creed should have been.

Yeah that makes sense, and who REALLY wants to play the same thing in 5 games. It just feels wrong with the whole "more accessable" thing.

 

[soapyshooter]

i hate it. Its not what splinter cell is supposed to be. Chaos Theory was the greatest, this did nothing good for the franchise.

 

[The Last Parade]

okay, that's it, I'm making my own fucking stealth game, I can code, model and animate, and UDK is already under my belt

 

[BolognaBaloney]

Personally, I'm loving the new variety of Conviction. I always played Splinter Cell in this manner, so now I feel like I'm being rewarded for it.

 

[BolognaBaloney]

The stealth is still there, just faster.

I dunno. That's a LOT of killing for a stealth game.

I agree. It has kind of betrayed it's roots a bit. Also, from what I have seen, it rewards you too much for using run and gun technique, even on its hardest difficulty. And you use the Mark and Execute more than you actually manually aim.

No bloody way do you use mark and execute more than manual aiming. When you earn a mark, it's an accomplishment, unless you're playing on rookie.

 

[Korhal]

The stealth is still there, just faster.

I dunno. That's a LOT of killing for a stealth game.

Sam used to have to tiptoe through the shadows or risk starting World War III. Now he's hunting the people who betrayed him with the INTENT to kill. On that note (killing, that is) I prefer Mark and Execute to clunky shooting mechanics. It's not dumbing it down. Sam is a badass spy with years of training and even more years of experience. And I say that Sam moving faster and quieter is an improvement as well. Sam should notice his moment, and dart from cover to cover... the slow waddle you used to have to do was kind of silly: you would only attempt it because you knew the AI was too stupid to look over its own shoulder from time to time.

Is it for everyone? Of course not. But I'm pretty sure the whiners are the ones missing the point, not Ubisoft.

 

[Wolvaroo]

They already killed Rainbow six and Ghost recon. This was the next obvious step in thier corporate vison. This type of crap is percisely why I've given up on gaming for the most part and just stick with the oldies and new niche indie games.

I'd like to know what Tom Clancy thinks of these changes.

 

[The Imp]

Ok, so with Rainbow Six gone down the action highway, splinter cell right after it and ghost recon turned into a run'n'gun fest...is there anything left in the tactical/stealth sector worth to be played?

 

[Layz92]

From what I have seen it doesn't look too bad. I enjoyed the PS2 games but this one is just a different game. It is The Adventures Of Mr Angry Hitman. I'm not saying it is bad, I'm just saying it is quite different. At least the feeling of mortality is still in this one. Splinter Cell is famous in my mind for bullets finding your weak point for massive damage.

 

[Fox242]

I thought that this might be a dumb move until I saw that IGN video. It actually looks like the stealth gameplay might actually have improved. I'm a big Sam Fisher fan (based on the novels, I've never actually played any of the games) and I do want to see the Splinter Cell series succeed, so hoepfully these new aspects will make Conviction a great game, even though I won't be buying it because I don't own a 360.

 

[Souplex]

The stealth is still there, just faster.

I dunno. That's a LOT of killing for a stealth game.

It's noticeably easier to sneak past corpses.

 

[Rhayn]

I'm not entirely sure how to feel about this. Watching the video linked earlier I'm both disgusted and intrigued. Sam looks more like an assassin rather than a spy now, and I like assassins. I don't know the premise of the game, but reading the comments I can draw the conclusion that he is out to kill someone (or everyone). So I suppose the new gameplay would fit in with the story.

But also, having played the older games quite a lot back in the day, I don't like this at all. While this certainly looks better, from a 'cinematic' point of view, I'm not sure if it'll feel better, you know? I for one loved sitting around in the shadows, watching every move the guards made, and when I had a plan down, I executed it and mostly got through perfectly. I doubt I can get the same out of Conviction. But I suppose that's nostalgia for you. I recently bought the first SC from Steam, and I couldn't get anywhere due to me wanting to take it at a different pace than was intended. Granted, with a bit of training I could probably get into it again, but I don't feel like doing that anymore.

That said, I'm not buying any Ubisoft products anyway, so all this is irrelevant.

Still, I wish they hadn't done this.

 

[Bat Vader]

I rented Splinter Cell: Conviction and it is pretty good. The stealth element is still there and is still necessary. Running in and trying to gun down all the bad guys like in Modern Warfare 2 isn't a really viable option as it will get you killed, quickly. Yes, it is more of an action game now but stealth is still a necessary thing to use in the game.

I would advise renting it and trying it out first before passing judgment on it. Change is not always a bad thing.

 

[Mucinex-D]

No Spies vs Merc = pointless to buy.