Where did all the strategy go?

Recently I was playing a game of Splinter Cell Conviction with a buddy of mine.  We ran around the map as mighty kings killing the helpless pions below with our unstoppable proximity mines and assult rifles.  The game played more like freekin godzilla crushing the puny american army then the tactical shooter it claimed to be.  This is a far cry from the original Splinter Cell where you where given a short stick and told to take out the fortress of doom.  So what happened?  Where did the stealth elements go?

So that a bunch of three green eyed ninjas don't bust a shurdican all up in here I'm just going to say that this isent saying Conviction is a bad game.  Far from it.  However it has drifted from its roots and I'm wondering why.  Well the answer is simple but the design desitions arn't.  The game was changed because of growing demand for more up-tempo gameplay.  Audiences say 'hey, that was fun but I want more action' and instead of improving the base mechanics of the game we find new mechanics to replace proven working ones.  This becomes agrivating to fans of the series when we have to ask 'I wonder what kind of game I'll be playing next.'  I'm not saying things can't be changed or play it safe UbiSoft but a little familiarity can go a long way.

I'll give an example.  In Splinter Cell you had movement control that tied brilliantly into the game.  On PC that ment you would scroll up or down to move faster or slower in your perspective crouch or stand.  This tied in so well since what you where walking on would make more or less noise depending on how fast you where moving.   If you where running across gravel enemies would be alerted to your position and since you didn't possess the power of Thor you'd enter panic mode.  In Conviction, short of sprinting, standing in front of enemies like a confused elderly person, or running around the map flailing your arms screaming 'come get me coppers,' you would not be detected.  Period.  There was very few times where I felt unsure of my survival odds and I never asked myself 'can I actually get past this?'  This change made the game easier to grasp and took less patiences to progress through.  In the end I'm not sure if thats a good thing since the game was never really ment to be easy.  It's a stealth game after all and the rewards of not being seen in a challenging enviorment are tremendous. At its root, these changes were made to make the game more sell-able and not more enjoyable to the target audience.  To encompass a larger variety of gamers Conviction panders to people who don't know how to remain hidden by making detection a hard feat to accomplish and losses the original core of Splinter Cell in the process.

I can't say I didn't enjoy Conviction nor the mechanics it owns but ultimately the game defeats itself.  Conviction has some sort of identity crisis that claims its a stealth game akin to thief or at least the original splinter cell but in the end your just Marcus Fenix with a smaller gun.  Conviction lacked the one thing that Splinter Cell had.  Fear.  The 'oh fuck I'm so screwed' moment only happened as you waited for animations of Sam Fisher to punch the daylights out of some dude.  I for one miss the older and more challenging game where timing and position where more important than just trigger happy reflex's as you exsiqute entire rooms filled with bad guys.  It takes the fun out of picking off a bunch of clueless bad guys without being seen.  If for some reason a UbiSoft employee reads this than I implore you to return Sam to his roots.  A health bar and a fear of corners.