claviertekky said:
What you described felt like to me the early parts of the game. Later, I couldn't really exploit that.
I thought Chaos Theory was easier in terms of finding the shadows. This game doesn't utilize it at all.
If the game is Jason Bourne, make it feel so, because my Sam Fisher died a lot.
I had to watch that NSA infiltration blowing up cutscene like 20 times because I couldn't just run up to the guy and kill him. When I was aiming, the guy would eat quite a lot of bullets.
What about the military base? The NSA infiltration (fuck those hard to see laser beams)? The sewers and helicopter? Died so many times there. I really did not like it. I saw the loading save-state screen at least 1/5 of the time playing this game. I can hear that 4 (I think) note tune in fixed Do that plays in the background while the screen loads. D -> Bb -> F -> D. That got burned into my mind playing this game.
I didn't like this game as I thought I would.
The problem is, the Jason Bourne style would fit. But Jason Bourne is impressive because he does all those crazy ass plans and actions himself (in the fiction). To translate that into a game the worst thing they could do is to actually take that control away from the player. Instead of letting the player perform those actions they streamlined it away so that the game becomes the badass instead of the player feeling like one. Bourne amazes because of 3 simple things: Speed, thinking and skill. Neither was required or even supported in Conviction at any given point in the game.
Mark and Execute had to be one of the most retarded design choices and one of the poorest implementation of cinematic gameplay ever. Not only that, but the game had unlimited enemy spawn points...
In Conviction, thinking was the last thing you needed to do. Just jump around like a freaking 20 year old, instead of an old disgruntled ex spy, and paint some enemies to later execute them in a boring cutscene.
I am a hardcore fan of Splinter Cell 1-3. But with Double Agent and Conviction, I am not sure if I will spend another dime on this series anymore.
Grisby said:
But the immersion works both ways as well. What happens if I want to feel like a real super spy Bourne guy? Splinter Cell Conviction actually made me feel like I was the predator for once. I love the previous SC's but getting caught and having to run around to a shadowed place in order to proceed again was getting a bit old.
I'd like it if they had more stealth options sure but I wouldn't mind another Conviction.
The problem is, that the old games just were terrible when it came to gunplay or shooting, or any offensive maneuvers at all to be honest. That's actually the only thing that I hold in favor of Conviction. But instead of fixing the controls, adjust the gameplay a bit and fix the terrible hit detection and the clunky ass Item management, they took the entire offensive control away from the player, added some stupid ass AI on top of the game, and made the game a shooter.
Like I said, Bourne uses his wits and muscles to get out of trouble or to hunt people down, not auto aiming MP5s.
)) .. I thought it was over. Well, I'm always welcome for a new Splinter Cell - Sam is back. I played all of them and indeed the last one had huge differences from the trilogy. Was too fast and having too many shorcuts as gameplay, movement, stealth and combat. Double Agent had some similarities too. No more competition in this new gen games anymore, finishing a mission in 20/25 minutes instead of hours. 
