Having played all the Splinter Cell games to date, there is something missing from the most recent entry in the series. Although Conviction is an action packed game, it is missing some of the qualities that made the first Splinter Cell so interesting.

In the first game, it revolved completely around stealth. You had one pistol throughout the whole game. If you even thought about attracting a guard’s attention, you would be bombarded and stood very little chance of escaping. In Conviction (on realistic), I have little problem escaping from guards or simply taking them all out. This leads me to my next point, stealth.

Conviction employs a fair amount of stealth, but isn’t the game Splinter Cell used to be. In the original, you had to do a few things which I consider more ‘accurate’ than Conviction. First of all, you had to hide bodies or else you’d have the whole base after you. In addition, while Conviction uses a simple light/dark system, the original had a slider that displayed exactly how much light was hitting you. Finally, the mouse wheel to control your speed was great, especially in rooms that you had to control your exact sound output.

Although I am having a lot of fun playing through Conviction, there is still a part of me that wishes the game play mechanics were more similar to the original. What do you guys think about the shift to a more action oriented game?