My new project: Tact, a simple chat app.

Splinter Cell: Conviction on iPad

October 24, 2010

Finished Splinter Cell: Conviction on iPad.

Image from guruht.com.

I was sceptical about how the platform would be for this kind of gaming, but I’ve played several games now with great results. The tactile feel of touchscreen controls is lacking, sure, but it gives way to interesting new ways of controls on the screen that were not possible before. iPad is a fine gaming platform.

I’ve played some previous Splinter Cell games. As noted in Wikipedia:

One of Ubisoft’s stated goals for Conviction was to make the game more accessible.

It’s true and the game feels more like a regular FPS and less like a stealth action game. There is still stealth involved and some sequences are easier to do in stealth mode, but if you are good with shooting, “just run in room and kill everyone running at you” is a fine strategy most of the time. Though as shown in the image, there is a stealth element and interesting things you can do. What’s shown is “peek through a door with a mirror and mark guys for automatic execution.”

I originally thought the game would be quite short, but it’s actually long and has a nice variety of settings. The Iraq military sequence felt a little out of place, I did not understand why it was there, but I didn’t mind too much.