Conviction Old Build Questions..

[JOEuk91]

So when Conviction was first announced after Double Agent way back in 2006, I was following it for a while as I have done with all the Splinter Cell games, then the game was unveiled in 2007 and I watched the walkthroughs. Then came the news that Ubisoft have 'taken it back to the drawing board'.

So since the original concept was scrapped I am wondering, how much effort and money was actually spent on the original build? Ubisoft must have taken quite a loss by scrapping and restarting a game like that. I remember watching videos at the 'Ubidays' events with the developers doing walkthroughs of levels. So I'm wondering a few things really, just out of interest. http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

How long was the original build actually in development?

How far into development was it?

Has the new build of Conviction been made by a completely different team?

[Andre202]

Originally posted by JOEuk91:
How long was the original build actually in development?
Two and a half years. Actually since SCCT was released.


How far into development was it?
I think it was a Pre-Alpha that was shown to us. They wanted to release the game at the end of 2007. So they were pretty far in the development.


Has the new build of Conviction been made by a completely different team?
It has been made by the original Splinter Cell team that has built SC, SCCT, SCDA old gen.

[Ultimate_Night]

Originally posted by Andre202:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Has the new build of Conviction been made by a completely different team?
It has been made by the original Splinter Cell team that has built SC, SCCT, SCDA old gen. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Different creative director though.

[JOEuk91]

Originally posted by Andre202:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by JOEuk91:
How long was the original build actually in development?
Two and a half years. Actually since SCCT was released.

It must have been a tough decision by Ubisoft to scrap a game which has been in development for 2 and a half years and start from scratch. I feel sorry for the team who put so much effort into it only for it all to go to waste, that is why I think they should release the old build of the game with the final game, so at least their work wasnt for nothing.

[Ultimate_Night]

Originally posted by JOEuk91:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Andre202:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by JOEuk91:
How long was the original build actually in development?
Two and a half years. Actually since SCCT was released.

It must have been a tough decision by Ubisoft to scrap a game which has been in development for 2 and a half years and start from scratch. I feel sorry for the team who put so much effort into it only for it all to go to waste, that is why I think they should release the old build of the game with the final game, so at least their work wasnt for nothing. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
To be honest, I would probably enjoy the old build more, based on what I have seen of both builds.

[JOEuk91]

I'm not sure really, I liked what i saw from the old build of Conviction because it looked interesting, but it didnt seem to have many good ideas if that makes sense. The concept seemed a bit basic but I'm sure thats only because we saw so little of the game. I think the main 'innovative' thing they were promoting in the walkthroughs was the fact you could pick up anything and use it as a weapon, reminded me of Dead Rising. I also agree with the developers when they said the game was starting to bare too many similarities with Assassins Creed.

[Ultimate_Night]

Originally posted by JOEuk91:
I'm not sure really, I liked what i saw from the old build of Conviction because it looked interesting, but it didnt seem to have many good ideas if that makes sense. The concept seemed a bit basic but I'm sure thats only because we saw so little of the game. I think the main 'innovative' thing they were promoting in the walkthroughs was the fact you could pick up anything and use it as a weapon, reminded me of Dead Rising. I also agree with the developers when they said the game was starting to bare too many similarities with Assassins Creed.
Yes, it did seem a bit simple, but Hobo-Sam is better than Sam Bauer.

[newhenpal]

I highly suspect both versions of Conviction to be dolled up installments (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DolledUpInstallment), if they really did get far in developing the 2007 build, their work wouldn't have to go to waste. Have Sam renamed "Jason Bourne", include the voice and likeness of Matt Damon, remove the "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell" part and replace it with "Robert Ludlum's The Bourne".

Bada-bing! A new game based on the Bourne movie franchise.

[Ultimate_Night]

Originally posted by newhenpal:
I highly suspect both versions of Conviction to be dolled up installments (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DolledUpInstallment), if they really did get far in developing the 2007 build, their work wouldn't have to go to waste. Have Sam renamed "Jason Bourne", include the voice and likeness of Matt Damon, remove the "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell" part and replace it with "Robert Ludlum's The Bourne".

Bada-bing! A new game based on the Bourne movie franchise.
They are dolled-up installments, and Ubisoft wouldn't consider changing this game from bearing the Splinter Cell name. They want old fans to by their third person shooters too, you know!

[sammyboy1981]

Great topic, I don't think I've seen many threads asking about the original build.

Ultimate_Night, I too would have prefered Hobo-SAM over Sam Bauer (aka Sam Bourne, aka Sam Bond, aka Sam Panther, aka Psycho Sam), at least as the intro to help explain where he's been since disappearing at the end of SC: DA.

Notice how there has yet to be an actual moderator/developer comment on these direct questions...nobody wants to bring that topic up around here I guess.

While I would agree that the game looked too much like Assassin's Creed, as long as causing diversions and picking up objects wasn't the whole game, I would've been fine with it. Assassin's Creed was nothing but cheap "side-missions" (pickpocketing...c'mon) and running until you found a haystack to hide in. Worst $60 bucks...ever!!!

[Andre202]

This two and a half year actually wasn't a waste. They have now the code for the innovative handle system and the code for Social Stealth. http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[JOEuk91]

Originally posted by sammyboy1981:
Great topic, I don't think I've seen many threads asking about the original build.

Ultimate_Night, I too would have prefered Hobo-SAM over Sam Bauer (aka Sam Bourne, aka Sam Bond, aka Sam Panther, aka Psycho Sam), at least as the intro to help explain where he's been since disappearing at the end of SC: DA.

Notice how there has yet to be an actual moderator/developer comment on these direct questions...nobody wants to bring that topic up around here I guess.

While I would agree that the game looked too much like Assassin's Creed, as long as causing diversions and picking up objects wasn't the whole game, I would've been fine with it. Assassin's Creed was nothing but cheap "side-missions" (pickpocketing...c'mon) and running until you found a haystack to hide in. Worst $60 bucks...ever!!!

You're right, I would have been fine with the game if the core of the game didnt focus on blending in with crowds and causing diversions, but like I said I dont think we were shown enough of the game to really get an impression of what it would have been like. We were only shown one level in Washington and I personally thought it looked pretty shallow and some of the features were pretty ridiculous, I mean they even had 'stealth vision' which allowed you to see through crowds to see where your enemies are, not only is that insanely unrealistic, but also exactly the same as 'Eagle Vision' in Assassins Creed. But I didnt like what I saw from the first level of the new build, but once I saw more I liked what I saw, so it could have been the same with the old build.

Your right about Assassins Creed though, the game was fresh and fun for the first 2 hours, but then it soon dawns on you that what you did in those first 2 hours are repeated over and over throughout the game, ACII looks a massive improvement though. But back to Splinter Cell...I think the reason why fans (including me) reacted so badly to the old build of the game was because we saw so little, but it may have been that the entire game was planned to be that way so they had to scrap it.

[sammyboy1981]

Originally posted by JOEuk91:
But back to Splinter Cell...I think the reason why fans (including me) reacted so badly to the old build of the game was because we saw so little, but it may have been that the entire game was planned to be that way so they had to scrap it.
I think one reason they scrapped the original build was because of Double Agent maybe not meeting their expectations following Chaos Theoy. DA was great IMO, but didn't get the respect of CT, so they feared a full-on rebooting of the series was in order. What was hot at the time?...Casino Royale, Bourne Ultimatum, and the everpresent 24.