Splinter Cell: Conviction Gamersworldbd Reader Review

This is a Gamersworldbd reader review by “Sng 425” and has been edited by me.

Sam Fisher is back and this time he has gone rogue like never before in Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell : Conviction.

Yes, folks, Ubisoft’s critically acclaimed third person stealth action shooter series is back with a brand new sequel.

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell : Conviction is published by Ubisoft and developed by Ubisoft Montreal and has been released for PC and Xbox 360.

SC: Conviction is the fifth installment in the series and is a direct sequel to its predecessor SC: Double Agent, which was released back in 2006.

After three years of development and almost four times of delaying, SC: Conviction eventually arrived in stores at April 13, 2010 for the Microsoft Xbox 360. The PC version of the game was released few days after the Xbox 360 version’s release. A handheld  version of the game was also released for the iPhone OS by Gameloft, shortly after the main game’s release.

Story/Plot: SC : Conviction’s story follows up the story of its predecessor Double agent where it took off. In the previous Splinter Cell games, Sam fisher was better known as an agent employed by a black-ops division of the National Security Agency, dubbed Third Echelon. [Spoiler warning] At the end of Double Agent, his daughter was killed in a car accident. Fisher, overcome with grief and sorrow, left Third Echelon without a trace.

And now in SC: Conviction the story takes place three years after Sarah Fisher’s (Sam Fisher’s Daughter) death. After having disappeared for 3 years, Sam fisher learns that his daughter’s death wasn’t an accident, She was killed to take revenge on him, And a drug runner called Andriy Kobin was responsible for his daughter’s death. After knowing the fact that his daughter was killed, Sam isn’t going to let it go that easily, He plans to take revenge by killing the man who is responsible for his daughter’s death. No matter what comes in his way or whoever comes in his way. [Spoilers end]

Great storytelling makes this “short” single player campaign both fun and entertaining. But if you are thinking this over-too-soon but yet entertaining single player campaign is the only game mode that SC : Conviction has too offer, you’re wrong. Conviction also comes along with a co-operative multiplayer campaign mode as well the single player campaign mode.

However, the story of the co-op campaign isn’t based on the series’s main protagonist Sam Fisher. Instead, the players get to play as two new characters in the game and they are the “Archer” and “Kestrel”.

Both of the single player and the co-op campaign contain a lot of unexpected surprises, which makes both of these campaign a lot more exciting. But most of these surprises are retained within the co-op campaign, And will only get unleashed if you play this awesome co-op campaign mode.

Game modes and other key Features: The Co-operative Campaign mode can be played either online or offline with a friend with the help of the split-screen system or through the system link between two consoles. Both Single Player Campaign and the co-op multiplayer campaign mode can be played within three different difficulty levels named as Rookie, Normal and Realistic.

Apart from the Single Player and Co-op campaign mode, The game also features a multiplayer game mode known as “Deniable Ops”. In the Deniable Ops mode, The players get to play as either selecting Archer or Kestrel within 3 difficulty levels (as above mentioned) with 4 different game modes throughout various maps. And those game modes are known as “Hunter”, “Infiltration”, “Last Stand” and “Face-Off”. However, the first 3 game modes can be also played as single player as well.

And Face-Off is the only actual competitive multiplayer mode, which gives you the ability to kill the opposing player. But the bad news is, you won’t be able to play it with a group of friends since the multiplayer mode of SC : Conviction only supports upto 2 players.

Unlike the previous games, this time, the game features a new and unique feature called “P.E.C Challenges”. By unlocking the P.E.C challenges, the player gets P.E.C points, which allows the player to buy weapon upgrades and some other items in the game.

Graphics and Sound: Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell : Conviction uses the heavily modified Unreal Engine 2.5, known as “LEAD”. In spite of the fact that the game engine is quite old, it still does show-off some great graphics. They may not be “top-notch” in comparison to all those modern games that are out now in the market. Nonetheless, The game’s lighting effects and textures don’t have the look you expect from a modern release. But in overall, the graphics that are shown in the game isn’t that bad at all and can be good enough to attract the gamers.

The superb voice acting really sucks the player right into the game. The soundtracks and sound effects are pitch-perfect and can be good enough to keep you immersed in the game from the start to the end. In overall, The whole audio experience of Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell : Conviction is quite good.

However, except some repetitive dialogues by the enemy AI. Most of these warnings by the enemy quite doesn’t seem to fit the situation and can really get repetitive after hearing them for a while.

Gameplay: The single player campaign is only 6-7 hours long and the co-op campaign is only 4-5 hours long. Both of these campaigns are just too short and can be finished within a few hours.

This time around, A lot of new core gameplay elements like “Mark & Execute”, “Last known Position” etc. are introduced in the game, And the game developer itself has brought in a massive change into the gameplay. This makes the gameplay of SC : Conviction a lot more “unlikely”, “different” and “unique” than the previous games.

The new mark and execution is a great new feature that allows you to kill 2-4 enemies at a time within a single execution. But it doesn’t come for free, A hand-to-hand execution gives you the ability to mark and execute. So, unless you don’t kill your enemies through hand-to-hand execution, you’ll certainly miss out the opportunity to perform a mark and execution.

Sam’s Mission objectives are no longer shown in his Opsat, Instead they are shown in the environment around him. You’ll see that the current mission objectives are displayed in the certain surfaces around the environment as you move across the levels. And occasionally you’ll see that some cinematics are projected onto the walls, These cinematics will not just only work as mission reminders, but you’ll see that they also appear to be Sam’s thoughts as you got them along.

Whenever you hide in the shadows, the screen will turn into black and white to let you know that you’re currently invisible to your enemies, And that’s a cool new feature. However, some of you may feel it a little bit irritating at first, but that won’t be a problem by the time as you’ll get familiar with the gameplay of SC: Conviction.

In some part of the game you’ll be given the opportunity to interrogate your key enemies and beat the truth out of them. During these scenes you can line your victim up with the environmental objects and use them to get the best out of your enemies. Even though most of these interrogations shows some good dramatic moments, but they’re extremely limited and tightly scripted. And not nearly as fun or efficacious as you’d hope them to be. However, you may like the atrocious interrogation part if you like games that are extensively filled with viciousness and brutality.

However, SC : Conviction also has some deficiencies as well. Being stealthy in SC : Conviction isn’t what it used to be in the previous games. Stealth is somewhat compromised and stripped down in comparison to the previous Splinter Cell games. With the new gameplay mechanism that has been injected into this new iteration of the Splinter Cell series, the gameplay has become kind of “less stealthy” and “more aggressive”. And there’s also been a massive change in Sam fisher as well, Such as, our good ol’ Sam Fisher doesn’t pick locks anymore. He doesn’t hide bodies like he used to in the previous games, And what’s more, he doesn’t even kill his enemies with the knife any more. In fact, players won’t even find the knife as a weapon in the game. Most of the time you’ll only have to use the silenced pistol to stay stealthy & silent in the whole game, Which can be very frustrating for the fans of the stealth-action genre. And unlike the previous games, You’ll have to do a lot of shooting in this game, even if you don’t want to. And not just that, you don’t have to be so careful as you used to be in the previous games. And making too much noise in the game isn’t the “Kiss of death” anymore. All of this components make the gameplay a bit less stealthier than the previous games.

So, If you’re an enormous fan of the old classic Splinter Cell gameplay, then Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell : Conviction may slightly disappoint you. But there’s no need to worry too much, SC: Conviction is still a stealth game at heart. And most of the time the players will find themselves slinking around, sliding around the corners, executing enemies through hand-to-hand executions etc. And you’ll also find some good new stealth techniques that are added in the game, such as “Death from above” “Grab from ledge” etc. Still, none of these endeavors are good enough to make this game a “perfect” stealth action shooter. However, if you don’t like stealth, then you can always go loud by using the shotgun, assault rifles, SMGs etc. that are featured in the game. But that really doesn’t give you the fun of a stealth-action shooter.

This time a great assortment of weapons and gadgets are featured in the game. Unfortunately, you rarely get to use them due to the short campaigns. And the single player campaign is so straight-forward enough that most of the time you might not even remember that you even have them.

However, the co-op multiplayer campaign does have what you’re looking for. There are some challenging moments particularly in the excellent co-op campaign mode. And having a buddy with you in the game, opens up awesome new possibilities that lead to all sort of fun moments. You get to perform double executions by pairing up with your partner, having each others back while being choke-holded by the enemies, reviving your partner when knocked down by the enemies etc. These are some great events that makes the co-op campaign a lot more fun even than the single player campaign mode. And most of the time Archer and Kestrel are going to remind you of your good ol’ Splinter Cell experience and sometime you may even feel that you’re playing one of those classic Splinter Cell games.

But throughout the entire course of the game you’ll often feel like that something is missing or left out. No lock picking, no rappeling down walls, no cans or objects to throw to distract your enemies with. And the overall stealth of the game isn’t good enough as you’d expect it to be.

But thankfully, incredible storytelling, excellent Co-op modes, and the new mark and execute feature help make up some of these deficiencies as well as making the game a lot more interesting and appealing to gamers. Despite the fact that the gameplay has some flaws and shortcomings in its back, but it still gives you a lot of fun and a great new experience of stealth action shooting, that is unlikely to be found in any other game similar to it.

Overall: Till date, SC: Conviction is likely to be one of the best game ever made in the series. Despite the fact that some of the other game components makes the stealth elements of the game a little bit watered-down, This third person stealth action shooter still gives the player a lot of fun and it doesn’t disappoint the gamers or the fans of the stealth action genre at all. In fact, SC: Conviction still looks legitimately great, due to its incredible storytelling and the awesome co-op modes. SC: Conviction is indeed an interesting game with a plenty of great exciting moments. So undoubtedly, SC: Conviction (as of yet) is one of the best top of the line stealth action shooter of this year.

Pros and Cons of the game:

Pros: (+) Great Storytelling makes the single player campaign both fun and entertaining.

(+) The new mark and execute feature is exaggeratedly great.

(+) The great soundtracks will keep the player immersed in the game.

(+) The Co-op campaign and co-op multiplayer modes are awesome.

(+) Superb voice acting and sound effects makes it feel like the player is in there.

(+) The great assortment of weapons and gadgets brings in a lot of variety.

(+) Hand-to-hand executions looks really slick and shrewd.

(+) Interrogations can be fun if you like games that are filled with extensive brutality.

Cons: (-) Both Single Player Campaign and the co-op campaign are just over too short.

(-) Some of the dialogues by the enemy AI can get repetitive after playing the game for a while.                                                        

(-) Stealth is somewhat compromised and stripped down in comparison to the previous games in the series.

(-) No in-game (PC version) voice or text chat makes it harder to communicate with the other the player in co-op if you’re playing online.

(-) The PC version does suffer from some bugs and glitches.

Final Rating:

Graphics: 8.0

Sound: 9.0

Gameplay: 8.5

Overall: 8.5