Interview: Splinter Cell: Conviction

Sam's lost his stealth suit, but he still walks like a cat. Ubisoft's Steven Masters chats convincingly about Splinter Cell: Conviction.

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Kikizo: Are there any flaws in Chaos Theory, the last game, that you're specifically looking to address?

Masters: I'll pass on that one if you don't mind! [laughs] I feel that we're doing a really strong game here, we're really doing a very powerful Splinter Cell experience. So I'm totally happy with the game we're setting up here. And I think our fans will be as well.

Kikizo: Where does the majority of Conviction take place, geographically?

Masters: The latest demo is in Malta, and that's the beginning of the game. After that we'll go to D.C. and the majority of the game will play out there.

Kikizo: Why Washington D.C.? Because it was a key setting for previous games?

Masters: It's the heart of American intelligence. And without going into too much detail about what the story is, because I can't really, you see at the end of this [demo] that Sam's former agency Third Echelon is coming in through the windows and everything. So yeah, we're going to be going back and addressing a lot of old things like that.

Kikizo: Interrogation is one of the newer gameplay features, right?

Masters: Well, it's not really new, we always used to interrogate guards and get information out of them, but we're just doing it in a very different manner now.

Kikizo: So how does interrogation work now?

Masters: Well you have total freedom, you have all the options you want to move around, interact with the environment in different ways. And we do this really cool thing with the audio. So if you bash the guy into the sink and you're asking "Where is my daughter?" or "Where is my daughter's killer?" ... [he gestures, stressing certain syllables as though with the effort of throwing somebody around] - like that. But if you hold them against a door, it'll sound completely different. [he repeats the performance without stresses]

Kikizo: OK!

Masters: So each environment will be completely customised for that interrogation. We're going to have different mechanics depending on the scenario, you're not always going to grab the guy by the throat, there will be different types of interrogation. And however you choose to do it, whichever place you go in the environment, however you interact with it - you could go put his head through the TV, bash him against some chairs, whatever - the experience will be fluid and customised to your actions. So it'll be a very different experience for everyone who does it.

Kikizo: OK. And just out of interest - the last trailer you showed was pre-rendered, right?

Masters: Yeah that is, yeah.

Kikizo: Damn good trailer. Was that in-house?

Masters: Yeah, Ubisoft Digital Arts did it, I believe.

Kikizo: Thanks very much for talking to us, Steven.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction is out in October for PC and Xbox 360.

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