14 DAY TRIAL // Imagine you have a series of games built around creeping from shadow to shadow, taking out enemies silently and making sure you are never detected before the mission is accomplished. Imagine that after a pretty long wait, fans have the chance to see how the mechanics mentioned above were adapted to the standards of today's videogaming scene. And then ask yourself what violence filled space you would choose to show off the new game. I bet the answer would not be Iraq in the middle of Operation Desert Storm, which evicted Iraq from Kuwait in 1990.
Splinter Cell: Conviction makes this choice. After Sam Fisher, the protagonist of the series, discovers yet another conspiracy, which pretty much only he can stop, he turns to long time friend Victor Coste, who was once a Navy SEAL and all around killing machine, for some information and special operations specific hardware. At this point, players are sent back in time to see a squad of four soldiers in Iraq who seem very much at ease before they are ambushed. The player is then put in control of one of them, presumably Coste, needing to rescue Sam Fisher from the Iraqi forces.
The whole section could actually be interesting, even if the flashback concept is overused in videogames. But the movement from cover to cover and the silent kills concept Splinter Cell: Conviction relies on are not suited at all for the way SEALS inserted deep behind enemy lines fought. The acrobatic forward lunges and tumbles that Fisher performs seem impossible or ridiculous for a character who is wearing full body armor and carries not a compact submachinegun or a pistol but a full on assault weapon.
There also seems to be a small problem with how hit boxes are built around obstacles. As you can make out from the attached screenshot, I managed to find cover behind a blown out car only to find that my character had the unique ability to actually shoot through the carcass. A few moments later, an enemy even succeeded in sending a grenade flying through the metal.