10 Iconic Video Game Features Needlessly Cut Out Of Sequels

6. No Knife Or Hiding Bodies - Splinter Cell: Conviction

While there were a lot of great ideas in Splinter Cell: Conviction, which was intended to be something of a soft-reboot of the classic stealth franchise, in their effort to make the gameplay more streamlined (which is a common design philosophy behind many of the games on this list), Ubisoft ended up reducing the tactical options players had to complete levels.

Sam Fisher's knife was one of these casualties, a close-quarters weapon that aided ammo conservation and taking out guards silently. Conviction didn't really need a weapon like this - here, Sam was more of a predator than a ghost - preferring to headshot guards with silent pistols or bash their heads into toilets to take them out.

This, alongside the inability to hide the bodies of victims so they couldn't accidentally be stumbled upon by other enemies, made it clear that Ubi's new version of Splinter Cell had an entirely different approach to "stealth", and wasn't concerned with giving players a bunch of items and gadgets to get through levels undetected.