Splinter Cell Conviction, the latest blockbuster from Tom Clancy, plays similar to a mix between Gears of War and Rainbow Six. This game is considered a reboot to the franchise, and it certainly does some rebooting. Anyone with a recent Splinter Cell game on their Gamercard can attest to frustratingly difficult stealth portions and playing entire levels without so much as unholstering a pistol. Conviction is different….in a good way.
Gone are punishments for every time someone sees you, in fact, Sam cannot even move dead bodies anymore. It’s still stealthy, just smoother and quicker. A lot of the shadow creeping has been replaced by extremely quick room clearing. Stealth is still rewarded though, a silent hand to hand takedown earns you the right to mark and execute. Mark and execute involves targeting and then exploding some of the nearest heads, resulting in an amazing sense of accomplishment. It’s exhilarating to sneak up behind someone, grab him as a shield, and then execute his friends. Enemy A.I.’s seem like real people, I would shoot out the lights and someone would come over to investigate, and on realistic they would surround me quite quickly. One fault was their dialogue though; they were constantly yelling the same things over and over. Making a return are cool gadgets like the sticky camera, and other necessary grenades like flashbangs.
In direct comparison to Rainbow Six are the P.E.C. challenges. P.E.C. is a points system that awards you for stealth headshots, sticky camera kills, killing 15 players in a row, etc. The points awarded can then be spent on weapon upgrades and uniforms. These points go across all game modes, from Campaign, to Deniable Ops, to Co-Op.
Something missing from some previous Splinter Cell games is an immerse story. The game delivers here. In the previous title, Double Agent, Sam was forced to murder his best friend Lambert to maintain his undercover status at Black Arrow. That, coupled with the fact his daughter was hit by a car and died, results in one angry Sam Fisher. The voice acting done by Michael Ironsides here is phenomenal. Through a few mind blowing plot twists and betrayals Sam does find something to live for, but I won’t spoil it. The suspense is captured by an ingenious system of illuminating the walls at certain set points with a black and white image and haunting music. I inferred it was to show Sam’s slow progression into insanity. For example, when climbing a pipe the floor under you might have a repeating image of a car crash and a little girl screaming. It ratchets up the intensity as well as allowing the player to get into Sam’s mind. Also neat was how whenever you press the back button your objective appears on what you were looking at, rather a wall or trash can. In between levels is narration by Victor Costes, and I cannot stress enough how awed I was when it all gets tied together in the end.
Deniable Ops is basically terrorist hunt, with a few modes. My one complaint was the lack of actual multiplayer adversarial modes, like a Team Deathmatch or CTF. There were none, excluding face off, a 1 versus 1 with bots thrown in. Co-Op however is plenty of fun, and while not as long as the campaign, it adds more bang for your buck. The campaign was long and when added in with Deniable Ops and Co-Op one could get 30+ hours out of this game, if they do everything. I don’t think most people will do every map of deniable ops for every gametype, unless he or she is a big Splinter Cell fan or achievement lover. This is probably one you’ll want to pick up later after a price drop or just rent.
Overall, the immersive campaign sequence is the real draw of this game. I recommend everyone at least rent the game and play through for that. (Although don’t be expecting easy achievements, I got 360 G’s and beat it on realistic) While the story has an added weight for anyone who has played other Splinter Cell games, I think you’ll get sucked in pretty quick even if you haven’t. If you are looking only for a great multiplayer experience then you might want to pass this one up.
Also, this game is rated M for a reason. 15 minutes into the game Sam has already interrogated someone by bashing the guy’s face into a urinal and yelling at him that he needs answers, then subsequently ramming his pistol into the guy’s face. It’s not quite GTA IV run around kill strippers and pedestrians to score some coke bad, but I wouldn’t let youngsters play it if you are the type who worries about that sort of thing.
Review By: Keifer Williams (Shadowfox789) Comment in the forums or email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it