Review: Splinter Cell: Conviction
by Rob Vicars | Thursday 10th June 2010
The Review
So you may have noticed my previous articles here at GC have largely been filled with me elatedly foaming at the mouth in such vast
quantities I've managed to drown anyone approaching within a metre radius. This was because these days when we're told a game is going to be
good, and the game looks to be really good, it seems like there's no way the game could possibly mess it all up for you. Only when it turns
up low and behold it's a bottomless pit of disappointment, only to actually have a bottom, where, once you land, you're imprisoned and
regularly beaten by Ant and Dec with a sharpened copy of Saints Row 2. Splinter Cell: Conviction seemed like it was too good to actually be
any good. However the demo, as tooth-pick-cautious as I was booting it up, told me otherwise.
Now ,at long last and after several millennia of fabled release dates which saw many of us sinking into belief that Conviction would never actually turn up, the game is finally here to tell me otherwise as well.
The latest instalment of Splinter Cell has you, of course, stepping back into the shoes of Sam Fisher, superawesomeelitedeadlyninjaspy guy, who just got back from a short trip being a double agent and shooting his former boss and friend in the face. It's also mentioned, fleetingly, at the start of the previous game "Double Agent" that Sam's daughter Sarah has been killed. Dropped into conversation rather nonchalantly when you first hear it, it all makes sense a few years down the line as this game pivots on that point. The prospect of which was tantalizing for me, as "Taken: The Game" would have been eyeball-scrapingly dreadful, and this seemed like the perfect substitute. All too quickly however, this is side-stepped and the plot seems to spiral into NSA-SPY-TERRORIST-PMC-PLOT-BETRAYING-SWITCHERY-DOODA, which all had me a little lost until the game's final scene and culmination. Maybe I'm a bit of a thicky in that sense. I love a great plot, in fact I'm someone who places story and the emotional engagement therein to be of paramount importance. However ,unfortunately, I still sort of need to know what's going on. There are a couple of moments in the game though, where your attachment to the characters is really provoked, and therein the story survives a few silly twists and turns.
The gameplay is so fluidly satisfying in its execution that Conviction is actually a joy to play 90% of the time. That's a hit rate far beyond anything I've played recently. The stealth works lithely, making it easy to perform some really excellent looking moves, such as scrambling for cover and playing Hide and Shoot People in the Head with the enemies. It just doesn't get old sneaking around in the shadows popping a couple of confused guards with the silenced pistol, only to disappear up a pipe or out of the window, leaving the other guys irked into random abuse.
Which is entirely something worth mentioning, because your enemies just won't shut up. Even when you haven't aroused their suspicions they're patrolling around yelling for you to come out and play. 'You're gonna die in this museum Fisher!' 'What're you doing Fisher!? Checking out the paintings!?'. In the first few minutes of the game you get the idea of just how vocal these guys are, and no, it doesn't stop. All. The way. Through.
Thankfully, even when the game drops you directly into DickTown and you keep being spoon fed delicious bullets over and over, it's never too infuriating; thanks to the variety of ways you can execute tasks and try new things. Which brings me neatly onto the 'core' gameplay feature. Executing. Conviction gives you the ability to, after you've made a hand-to-hand take down, mark up several enemies and execute them all with a push of one button. It's a brilliant addition to the game which brings a different way of thinking to each situation. Sat outside a room you can mark up enemies to keep an eye on them, and sit and plan with this ability in mind... 'so I can sneak in, punch that guy in the face, dive behind the desk, mark the remaining three and hit Y to send them all a 9mm sandwich to clear the room'. Whilst it's a great addition to your arsenal, it's a little easy to forget. After a few levels where I didn't need to use it I managed to completely misplace the tool for later, until I reached a tricky situation and finally remembered the whole idea of hand to hand, execute, repeat. By which point I'd already died several hundred times.
The only other gameplay niggle I have is the context button. Pushing A does everything depending on what you're looking at...sometimes. Often there's a door light switch and a pipe all next to each other, and so it's a bit of a lottery as to whether you say, peak under the door in front of you or vault over the nearest box, pecking the closest guard on the nose. The reply to which is a punch in the face and a ticket to the load checkpoint page.
Seemingly though, I'm nitpicking, because the gameplay (predominantly the stealthier bits) is sublime and was a joy to play with throughout. There's something about it which makes Sam so easy and fun to control, it pulls together some silky moves and finishes beautifully, leaving no one alive or aware.
The visuals are spot on. Graphically it's not ground breaking, but there weren't any glitches or defects I found. I managed not to disappear through walls or get shot through solid objects, making it a well held-together bit of work from Ubisoft. When you hide in the shadows the screen is bathed in black and white, an effect similar to parts of Pandemic's final effort "The Saboteur". There's been controversy about this, but I felt it only added an extra layer to the game's already well applied stealth, and everything looks better in black and white eh? It's less artsy in Conviction and more for gameplay effect, and for me, it works well. More artsy is the displaying of missions in large letters on walls and floors. It looks pretty and gives the sections an overtone of style. It did make me wonder what the guard's would think of it though...
'Hey Jeff'
'Yeah'
'How long have we had INFILTRATE THE MANSION painted on the side of our mansion?'
Conviction offers a number of opportunities for replay value, besides doing it again on GET DICKED difficulty. These include Denied Ops, a 'horde' type mode in which you get a map and have to simply sneak through and clear each of the enemies to progress. Simple, but it's the entire game in an infinitely replayable format, especially in Co-Op. There's also the prelude Co-Op story, Ubisoft interestingly including a full prequel to the game's events in it's Co-Op mode, something which I've tried but not penetrated, ahem, as of yet. Denied Ops in Infiltration Mode is something worth having the game for in itself.
Whilst not without its faults, Conviction engaged me from start to finish, after it seemed like it was going to be only too good to be true. Fans of the series and newcomers (I was, in essence, both) I can only recommend picking it up. Best thing I've played in 2010 so far. I bought the Spec Ed, it comes with an EXCELLENT statue. Get that one.
Boom boom pow. Away.
Now ,at long last and after several millennia of fabled release dates which saw many of us sinking into belief that Conviction would never actually turn up, the game is finally here to tell me otherwise as well.
The latest instalment of Splinter Cell has you, of course, stepping back into the shoes of Sam Fisher, superawesomeelitedeadlyninjaspy guy, who just got back from a short trip being a double agent and shooting his former boss and friend in the face. It's also mentioned, fleetingly, at the start of the previous game "Double Agent" that Sam's daughter Sarah has been killed. Dropped into conversation rather nonchalantly when you first hear it, it all makes sense a few years down the line as this game pivots on that point. The prospect of which was tantalizing for me, as "Taken: The Game" would have been eyeball-scrapingly dreadful, and this seemed like the perfect substitute. All too quickly however, this is side-stepped and the plot seems to spiral into NSA-SPY-TERRORIST-PMC-PLOT-BETRAYING-SWITCHERY-DOODA, which all had me a little lost until the game's final scene and culmination. Maybe I'm a bit of a thicky in that sense. I love a great plot, in fact I'm someone who places story and the emotional engagement therein to be of paramount importance. However ,unfortunately, I still sort of need to know what's going on. There are a couple of moments in the game though, where your attachment to the characters is really provoked, and therein the story survives a few silly twists and turns.
The gameplay is so fluidly satisfying in its execution that Conviction is actually a joy to play 90% of the time. That's a hit rate far beyond anything I've played recently. The stealth works lithely, making it easy to perform some really excellent looking moves, such as scrambling for cover and playing Hide and Shoot People in the Head with the enemies. It just doesn't get old sneaking around in the shadows popping a couple of confused guards with the silenced pistol, only to disappear up a pipe or out of the window, leaving the other guys irked into random abuse.
Which is entirely something worth mentioning, because your enemies just won't shut up. Even when you haven't aroused their suspicions they're patrolling around yelling for you to come out and play. 'You're gonna die in this museum Fisher!' 'What're you doing Fisher!? Checking out the paintings!?'. In the first few minutes of the game you get the idea of just how vocal these guys are, and no, it doesn't stop. All. The way. Through.
Game Images
Thankfully, even when the game drops you directly into DickTown and you keep being spoon fed delicious bullets over and over, it's never too infuriating; thanks to the variety of ways you can execute tasks and try new things. Which brings me neatly onto the 'core' gameplay feature. Executing. Conviction gives you the ability to, after you've made a hand-to-hand take down, mark up several enemies and execute them all with a push of one button. It's a brilliant addition to the game which brings a different way of thinking to each situation. Sat outside a room you can mark up enemies to keep an eye on them, and sit and plan with this ability in mind... 'so I can sneak in, punch that guy in the face, dive behind the desk, mark the remaining three and hit Y to send them all a 9mm sandwich to clear the room'. Whilst it's a great addition to your arsenal, it's a little easy to forget. After a few levels where I didn't need to use it I managed to completely misplace the tool for later, until I reached a tricky situation and finally remembered the whole idea of hand to hand, execute, repeat. By which point I'd already died several hundred times.
The only other gameplay niggle I have is the context button. Pushing A does everything depending on what you're looking at...sometimes. Often there's a door light switch and a pipe all next to each other, and so it's a bit of a lottery as to whether you say, peak under the door in front of you or vault over the nearest box, pecking the closest guard on the nose. The reply to which is a punch in the face and a ticket to the load checkpoint page.
Seemingly though, I'm nitpicking, because the gameplay (predominantly the stealthier bits) is sublime and was a joy to play with throughout. There's something about it which makes Sam so easy and fun to control, it pulls together some silky moves and finishes beautifully, leaving no one alive or aware.
The visuals are spot on. Graphically it's not ground breaking, but there weren't any glitches or defects I found. I managed not to disappear through walls or get shot through solid objects, making it a well held-together bit of work from Ubisoft. When you hide in the shadows the screen is bathed in black and white, an effect similar to parts of Pandemic's final effort "The Saboteur". There's been controversy about this, but I felt it only added an extra layer to the game's already well applied stealth, and everything looks better in black and white eh? It's less artsy in Conviction and more for gameplay effect, and for me, it works well. More artsy is the displaying of missions in large letters on walls and floors. It looks pretty and gives the sections an overtone of style. It did make me wonder what the guard's would think of it though...
'Hey Jeff'
'Yeah'
'How long have we had INFILTRATE THE MANSION painted on the side of our mansion?'
Conviction offers a number of opportunities for replay value, besides doing it again on GET DICKED difficulty. These include Denied Ops, a 'horde' type mode in which you get a map and have to simply sneak through and clear each of the enemies to progress. Simple, but it's the entire game in an infinitely replayable format, especially in Co-Op. There's also the prelude Co-Op story, Ubisoft interestingly including a full prequel to the game's events in it's Co-Op mode, something which I've tried but not penetrated, ahem, as of yet. Denied Ops in Infiltration Mode is something worth having the game for in itself.
Whilst not without its faults, Conviction engaged me from start to finish, after it seemed like it was going to be only too good to be true. Fans of the series and newcomers (I was, in essence, both) I can only recommend picking it up. Best thing I've played in 2010 so far. I bought the Spec Ed, it comes with an EXCELLENT statue. Get that one.
Boom boom pow. Away.
Overall Score:
7.5