After many delays, Ubisoft teases gamers even more by releasing a short demo of Splinter Cell: Conviction. When I said “short demo”, I meant it. The demo lasts roughly 20 minutes, but boy what a 20 minutes it is.

For those worried about whether or not Ubisoft completely changed the Splinter Cell series for the worst, worry no longer. This is Splinter Cell at its heart, except this time Sam Fisher is more of a Jason Bourne type character. What I mean is, Fisher is pissed and wants answers and revenge, just like Jason Bourne. He is a lone soldier with years of experience, very similar to the movie “Taken”. If you’ve seen that movie, that should give you a good idea as to what Splinter Cell: Conviction will be about.

Enough about the story, let’s get to the gameplay. As I mentioned, Fisher is pissed. He pretty much kills first and asks questions later. In this demo you feel his anger as you’re controlling him. The opening portion of the demo has you bashing a would-be assassin to death to get answers about why he was trying to kill you. Let me tell you, the Unreal 3 Engine is mastered in this game. The scene feels real, almost too real. The coolest addition to Conviction is how objectives and key story elements are shown in the game. Instead of hitting pause to see your objectives, it is projected on the walls inside the game. For example, while you are interrogating the killer, he mentions a name. That particular name is shown along the bathroom walls with a film-like look. If you remember film projectors from back in the day you will understand what I mean. But let me emphasize more about this interrogation process. I mean you really are beating this guy silly! I smashed the guys head into the bathroom sink and then punched him through it. Yeah, this game is badass.

After you beat this guy senseless the demo skips ahead to not give away too much of the story. The meat of the demo happens here, when you have to infiltrate a warehouse. A brief tutorial shows you the ropes and also introduces you to the Execute command. This is not as automated as you think, because although Sam does kill the enemy instantly you still have to plan your attack very carefully. You can only use the Execute command after a melee kill and you can only target three things/people. So if there are 5 people in the room, you still will have to do some manual shooting, or remain in stealth and melee kill. The choice is yours.

I like that in Conviction being spotted is slightly more forgivable than previous Splinter Cell games. If you are spotted, however, you can only take a few shots before you die. So you better shoot really fast or run to cover.

As I mentioned, the demo is unfortunately very short, but definitely convinced me that the wait was well worth it.

Rent Splinter Cell: Conviction From GameFly