What We Know So Far
In this fifth chapter of the Splinter Cell stealth-action saga, government spook Sam Fisher embarks on a personal mission to track down those responsible for his daughter's murder. This time around, the grizzled secret agent can pre-mark an assortment of targets for rapid-fire execution, and make use of a "Last Known Location" feature that highlights his enemies' beeline destination, post-line-of-sight breakage. Fisher's lack of NSA oversight affords substantial freedom with regards to how he gets the job done, and mission objectives and important plot details are "projected" onto the backgrounds in dramatic cinematic fashion, making for a fairly unique narrative angle.
What's New for Penny Arcade Expo
The video below is a Cliff's Notes version of the same presentation we've been seeing since E3 last May, and it trots out all of the details outlined above. The big reveal (and literally the only piece of new information) for PAX: Sam gets his signature night-vision goggles at some point. Next thing you know, they'll tell us the sky is blue.
Why You Should (or Shouldn't) Care
Splinter Cell hit its peak two installments ago -- the unbelievably awesome Chaos Theory -- before nose-diving (in my opinion) with Double Agent, 2006's ho-hum follow-up. The series has lost some steam in both creativity and overall visibility (it's been three years, after all), and it seems to me that Ubisoft's keenly aware of the series' qualitative lapse. Conviction's cinematic sensibilities and badass-super-spy mechanical additions strike me as very cool upgrades to the flagging stealth series; Metal Gear Solid forsook me long ago, and I'm hoping this game rekindles my interest in sneaking missions.
