9 Polarising Levels That Almost Ruined Great Games

6. The Interrogations - Splinter Cell: Conviction

Talk about your games that had troubled pasts filled with divisive decisions; the followup to Splinter Cell: Double Agent was initially pegged as something of a third-person brawler featuring a Sam Fisher "pushed to the brink" as he tried to recoup his life following the death of both his daughter and fan-favourite boss, Lambert. Following a disastrous showing at E3 2007 (where a bearded Fisher threw tables at guards and proceeded to look about as much like Splinter Cell as Arkham Knight's PC port did a working product), the only thing that carried forward in terms of a more 'hands-on' approach to gameplay were a string of interrogations, whereby you'd batter opponents mercilessly through a string of contextual prompts until they caved. It literally boiled down to hitting an action button and watching many brutal animations play out (a face-meet-toilet seat here, slam through a desk there, you know it is) and despite it upping Fisher's game as an 'effective killer'/psychotic maniac, fans to this day debate whether they fitted the darker tone Ubisoft were going for, or just felt too out of place in a game otherwise focussed on stealth and evasion.