Main aim was to make Splinter Cell Conviction easier

[Kryzantine]

Sure, it emphasizes Sam's badassery, but I would have thought that was already made more than clear by all the crazy stuff he could do in previous games, without giving him aimbot and wall-hack. (the gadget where you see everything black and white, and see enemies through walls). I don't know, it just seems like they turned it into a generic "cover based shooter" with stealth that you can randomly choose to do.

Well, Fisher already had wall-hack with thermal vision (that was used extensively to identify enemies behind walls), so the sonar goggles don't bother me at all. As for aimbot... like I mentioned, the necessity for aimbot comes because the player literally cannot react fast enough to multiple enemies, it's a controller limitation. We're supposed to believe this guy is a top secret agent that can give Jack Bauer a run for his money, yet in every Splinter Cell game beforehand, he aimed so freaking slowly. And that was the only reason firefights were difficult, you'd often lose more health than you'd like simply because you have to wait for Fisher to turn around. And most of us know that if Sam Fisher is supposed to be more lethal than most special ops guys, and people who train for special forces in the US Army (Green Berets, etc) usually have reaction times in the hundredths of a second, then Sam Fisher must have a reaction time somewhere in the hundredths of a second. Since the player cannot react that fast with any remote accuracy, the only other method besides auto-targeting would be slowing down time, but then there would be no strategic or quasi-realistic way to implement this. FEAR could get away with it only because it was an FPS that didn't focus on stealth. We may not think we're badass when we use M&E, but we don't think either we or Sam Fisher is badass when he dies because he takes 5 seconds to rotate his body 80 degrees to his left. It's the lesser of two evils Ubisoft went with.

While I could easily live without auto-moving to cover, I found that not using it was quite awkward with the mechanics of it all. I will assume Ubisoft tested the game with and without auto-movement and merely found that auto-movement was more fluid with the game style. That point, I doubt they included simply to streamline the game, but I still agree with you, and I don't love it myself. But as with the automatic aiming when using M&E, it's simply a lesser of two evils.

Also, I can reveal something about the development mindset of this game. If you haven't already noticed, Ubisoft Montreal was influenced very heavily by Season 7 of 24. They look at Jack Bauer and realize that Bauer is basically the ultimate predator, so they took a lot of his characteristics and incorporated them into Sam Fisher. The interrogation style, the Mark and Execute feature, the new grizzled veteran outlook, that's all taken from 24. It's the reason the game changed so much from the early build, they had to go from normal Sam Fisher mechanics to Jason Bourne mechanics (the table smashing, crowd hiding spy), and while development was stalled, they changed their mind and remade the game with Jack Bauer mechanics. I like what Conviction brings to the table, but only because it's highly experimental. It's just not like the Splinter Cell of several years ago.

 

[Mr. Drood]

Well, Fisher already had wall-hack with thermal vision (that was used extensively to identify enemies behind walls), so the sonar goggles don't bother me at all. As for aimbot... like I mentioned, the necessity for aimbot comes because the player literally cannot react fast enough to multiple enemies, it's a controller limitation. We're supposed to believe this guy is a top secret agent that can give Jack Bauer a run for his money, yet in every Splinter Cell game beforehand, he aimed so freaking slowly. And that was the only reason firefights were difficult, you'd often lose more health than you'd like simply because you have to wait for Fisher to turn around. And most of us know that if Sam Fisher is supposed to be more lethal than most special ops guys, and people who train for special forces in the US Army (Green Berets, etc) usually have reaction times in the hundredths of a second, then Sam Fisher must have a reaction time somewhere in the hundredths of a second. Since the player cannot react that fast with any remote accuracy, the only other method besides auto-targeting would be slowing down time, but then there would be no strategic or quasi-realistic way to implement this. FEAR could get away with it only because it was an FPS that didn't focus on stealth. We may not think we're badass when we use M&E, but we don't think either we or Sam Fisher is badass when he dies because he takes 5 seconds to rotate his body 80 degrees to his left. It's the lesser of two evils Ubisoft went with.

Ah, I can see the point of that. Now I can only hope they remove it for PC, because that is where I have played all the previous games and the one where I would play this one, if I end up getting it. Since PC does not have that type of limitation, can we agree that it would be sort of pointless and sucky if it were also implemented for PC? Should at least be removed in higher difficulties then.

Thermal vision didn't really see through walls, only through things like cloth and smoke, and maybe very thin walls. (Though this only goes for Chaos Theory and Double Agent, I honestly can't remember how it was in the first two.) I guess it just sort of takes away the whole aspect of cautiously sneaking through the level, having to wire cam under doors etc.

While I could easily live without auto-moving to cover, I found that not using it was quite awkward with the mechanics of it all. I will assume Ubisoft tested the game with and without auto-movement and merely found that auto-movement was more fluid with the game style. That point, I doubt they included simply to streamline the game, but I still agree with you, and I don't love it myself. But as with the automatic aiming when using M&E, it's simply a lesser of two evils.

Again, I guess this is mainly a PC / Console thing. I don't know if you've ever played an SC on PC, but I've always found the movement system (scrollwheel to adjust speed in about 6 levels, etc) extremely fluid and that it gave a large degree of control to the player. Again, I hope they remove this feature for PC. (Or at least don't cheaply force players into using it).

Also, I can reveal something about the development mindset of this game. If you haven't already noticed, Ubisoft Montreal was influenced very heavily by Season 7 of 24. They look at Jack Bauer and realize that Bauer is basically the ultimate predator, so they took a lot of his characteristics and incorporated them into Sam Fisher.

Maybe that is what lies at the heart of this issue. In the process of making him more like a "predator", maybe that's where the difficulty got lost. Though in my opinion, the old Sam Fisher was already enough like a predator (although again I'm speaking for PC here). Sure, you had to be more careful and often you were even restricted in your use of violence, but in the end, you were still a badass spy who could sneak past everyone or alternatively shoot his way through in cool and challenging shootouts. (Yet again speaking for PC, I can see how the slow turning on consoles would be annoying). If anything, the difficulty made it feel even more badass to me.

Let me make it clear that I have no doubt that it will be a well made game, although they might mess up porting it to PC. I just feel like with all these new features and making Sam more predator-like, somewhere along the way the original, tense feel of all the previous games that I enjoyed so much will be gone.

 

[Kryzantine]

*giant snip*

I see where all the difference lies. Yes, I've only played Splinter Cell on the Xbox/360, so I didn't know how fluid the game would be on the PC. Ubisoft is having a rather nasty hatred for the PC, they've been shifting over to the console market the last few years, so I can see how the mechanics would make the PC version quite cheap.

As for tension, we'll have to see in the final product. But I think the Splinter Cell games of old are simply done.

 

[HarvesterofSorrow]

I don't see the big problem with mark and execute, you really don't have to use it at all. Just shoot normally/sneak past them like in the old games.

 

[Russian_Assassin]

I like my dose of challenge now and then. Too bad Ubisoft made this choice, along with other choices that render all their new games unplayable for me. Seriously, they intend to implement the fucking DRM on EVERY new game, including PoP Something Sands and also this one.