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Splinter Cell: Conviction review

In the past, the Splinter Cell series has been the pioneer of stealth action games, albeit almost unchallenged at first, if you don't quite count a certain reptile of a solid nature. Despite being very popular both for the gameplay and storyline, these major elements of the games were somewhat convoluted, but this has changed for Conviction.

We follow the familiar face of Sam Fisher once again; he no longer works for the NSA's secret branch Third Echelon, and he doesn't want to be bothered. The game begins when Sam's evening in a quiet market restaurant in Valletta, Malta, is ruined with a phone call from an old Third Echelon colleague who gives him bad news; hit-men are approaching, right now.

This is where the player learns of the new control system that trumps all of Fisher's previous adventures, and it is fairly simple. Hide in the dark and the screen will become greyscale; this means Sam is practically invisible, and can freely pick off some wandering henchmen with a silenced pistol or a swift take-down. The latter of the two earns Sam the right to perform a new manoeuvre: Mark and Execute. Using whichever method you can to see enemies, be it by looking at them or using Sam's new infra-red sonar goggles that can see through walls, they can be marked. Then, after a swift press of the Y button, they are executed in one shot kills in very quick succession. This allows for the player to decide between different tactics on how to approach a room full of cronies. All guns blazing, tactical take-downs or a blend of the two, allowing Fisher to do some of the fancy shooting for you. All the while the random henchmen and their predictable walking patterns yell lame 'taunts' at Fisher that don’t even reach the standard of B-movie supervillains.

If Fisher is ever noticed by the men watching out for him, an outline of his last known position is displayed as a ghost. This means the seemingly brainless schmucks will shoot at the white doppleganger, and investigate, allowing Fisher to sneak off into the shadows and vanish from attention. This neat gameplay mechanic allows the player a deeper control of diverting attention and taking out henchmen or passing safely. Alternatively you can lead the men beneath a delicate yet deadly chandelier and then shoot out the cord so it falls on them, which is incredibly satisfying. In fact, any type of successful choreograph of stealth, take-downs and face shooting is incredibly satisfying, and easy to execute with this new system, which other stealth games definitely should take note of.

The key point of the plot involves Fisher trying to learn who killed his daughter, and he doesn’t get there without finding the information he needs. Throughout the plot he gets the opportunity to interrogate key bad guys. This is where he utilises the new interrogation technique whereby, totally under the player’s control, many methods can be used to get the information from the guy on the business end of Fisher's strangling fingers; be that by smashing their head on a urinal or piano or whatever object happens to be in the vicinity. Although brilliant fun and great dramatic effect, its use is sparse throughout the game, but ultimately it is often enough to be completely exciting.

Unfortunately, the game's single player campaign isn't excessive and I managed to finish it within 8 hours. I was surprised when the plot finished (did it really happen this soon? I was expecting more action...), but this is where the co-op campaign comes in. This is a separate storyline that takes place before the main campaign and follows two operatives, Kestrel and Archer, who develop one of the sub plots that forms the main narrative. This is a chance to use some of Fisher's stealth moves in tandem with a friend online or system-link. This campaign is about half the length of the main story, even on the hardest difficulty, but has different aspects that heavily involve your partner, such as guarding a room while the protagonists use a device to steal critical data. If one partner takes down an enemy, both players get a mark and execute between them, and can even share one, effectively doubling the amount of targets available for annihilation with a silenced pistol.

And if that is still not enough for the player, there are online matches too. These are Deniable Ops, and herald the return of Kestral and Archer once again as the two playable characters. There are a few modes to keep any stealth enthusiast going for all of the Achievements. Hunter is like a time trial of killing enemies and Last Stand is wave defence. Infiltration is like Hunter but detection ends the round, and Face-Off is spy vs. spy with AI thrown into the mix. These, except for Face-Off, are all available with or without a friend online, or matchmaking with a stranger. This is enough to prolong the game a little, but not for the casual player. To be honest they didn’t keep the flame going too long for me, and my attention was diverted quicker than a child in an ice cream parlour.

Overall, this is a great boost to the sneaky action stealth genre that was original defined by Splinter Cell in the first place. The smooth graphics and simple, but advanced, controls and skillset of Sam Fisher made it a very enjoyable experience. I have absolutely no idea why there are many loud and powerful guns when you only need a silenced pistol for silent take downs and perhaps a rifle for the noisy antagonists. Either way, the compelling but short story, and the fun ways of killing people, induce an oft gobsmacking and memorable experience that is definitely worth revisiting, despite it being for just a short amount of time.

Ratings

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