Key members of the Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas team, such as creative director Maxime Béland worked on the game.

They praised its gameplay, art direction, and narrative, although there was criticism on the short length of the campaign, and departure from the stealth genre when compared to previous titles.

Mission objectives and key plot points are projected onto walls within the in-game world, in order to keep the player immersed in the gameplay.

Several other features, such as blending into crowds, improvising gadgets, and interaction with the environment, were announced, and according to creative director Maxime Béland would have given the game "a lot of Bourne Identity influence," but were scrapped after the development team decided that going in this direction would be taking too much of a risk.

According to co-op game director Patrick Redding, the stealth in Conviction is designed around new core elements like "Mark & Execute" and "Last Known Position".

The main portion is the game's single-player campaign, which puts the player in control of Sam Fisher three years after the events of Splinter Cell: Double Agent.

The "Prologue" portion of the game, meanwhile, is accessed through the multiplayer co-op mode, which puts two players in control of agents Archer and Kestrel 10 days before the campaign starts.

They interrogate Bhykov, learning that he is working with Major General Kerzakov, who is in the Yastreb Complex, an underground fortress situated underneath Moscow's Red Square.

Private military company Black Arrow interrogates Sam Fisher’s former Navy SEAL squadmate Victor Coste, who begins to recount the events of the last few days.

After quitting Third Echelon, Fisher heads to Valletta, Malta, to investigate rumors that the hit-and-run death of his daughter, Sarah, might not have been an accident.

He infiltrates Kobin's mansion, kills his guards, and begins to interrogate him, but a Third Echelon Splinter Cell team subdues him before he can extract anything useful.

However, Grim releases Sam, revealing that she is working undercover for U.S. President Patricia Caldwell, investigating suspicious circumstances concerning Director Reed, Black Arrow, and the stolen Russian EMP technology.

He hacks a high-security White Box computer and retrieves strategic data about an operation involving EMPs for Grim's analysts to study.

The conversation and the subsequent interrogation of Galliard reveal that a group called "Megiddo" funds and organizes the operation, which is to take place in 24 hours.

Sam then heads to Third Echelon headquarters where he receives a set of advanced sonar goggles from Grim's friend Charlie Fryman, and raids Reed's office for information.

Grim confirms this by playing an audio recording of deceased former director Irving Lambert where he reveals that he discovered a mole in Third Echelon who was plotting to threaten Sarah's safety and use her as leverage against Sam.

Grim urges an enraged Sam to destroy the EMP device in the Michigan Avenue Reservoir, as Sarah's apartment is within its blast radius.

Sam is then extracted by Coste and reunites with Sarah before the two remaining EMPs are activated, destroying most of the electronic defenses in the city and causing chaos.

While Coste takes Sarah to safety, Sam journeys through downtown Washington to make his way to the White House, which has been overrun by Black Arrow mercenaries and Third Echelon operatives.

The existence of a sequel to Double Agent was leaked to the internet on September 21, 2006 through a 2GB rar file containing, among other media, 75 concept art images of as-yet unannounced next-generation games uploaded to Ubisoft's public FTP site.

[18] However, it missed its initial launch date, and on May 19, 2008, Xbox World reported that Splinter Cell: Conviction was "officially on hold," and had been taken "back to the drawing board.

The Collector's Edition was exclusive to the United States and Canada, and featured a USB flash drive, an artbook based on the Splinter Cell series, two decal stickers, a comic book detailing the events leading up to Conviction, and two in-game items: an MP5-SD3 sub-machine gun and a Third Echelon spy suit.

In March 2010, Microsoft announced a special limited edition black Xbox 360 Elite console for Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction.

Developed and published by Gameloft, it featured very similar gameplay, with the biggest difference being a simplification of the story, omitting the entire prologue, and many individual scenes and characters from the main game.

[40] On April 19, 2012, a closed multiplayer beta was made available to owners of Splinter Cell: Conviction on Xbox 360 for the upcoming installment in the Ghost Recon series, as well as people who preordered the game from GameStop or PlayStation Plus members.

On April 13, 2010, Ubisoft Music in conjunction with composers Michael Nielsen and Kaveh Cohen released a 16-track Official Soundtrack to Splinter Cell: Conviction exclusively via iTunes.

[42] On April 20, 2010, a news bulletin was posted on Amon Tobin's website following the release of what is understood to be the majority of his contributions to the Splinter Cell: Conviction's score.

"[50] GameTrailers gave it an 8.9 out of 10 praising the "top-notch voice acting" and the game as a whole, saying "Conviction is a gripping new chapter in the Splinter Cell saga.

GameSpot's Kevin Van Ord scored it 6.5/10, citing bugs, missing features, connection issues and a higher price than a typical PC game.

[49] PC Gamer UK gave a score of 87/100, but wrote "we can't recommend you buy this game with the current DRM.