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Splinter Cell Conviction

Thursday, April 29, 2010

So after several years of waiting for the new Splinter Cell game to come out it has finally appeared before us. Splinter Cell Conviction developed by Ubisoft Montreal, developers of Splinter Cell, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and the last generation of Splinter Cell: Double Agent. The game is a stealth-action game with a bad ass main character named Sam Fisher.

Hi my name is Sam, I’m a bad ass

This game takes place two years after the events of Splinter Cell: Double Agent, where Sam had to play a double agent working for JBA & NSA completing objectives. In this game Sam goes a more self-destructive path with vengeance in mind making the game a lot more action-oriented than its predecessors. Sam is contacted by his former Third Echelon colleague Anna “Grim” Grímsdóttir. Anna leads Sam on a trail to find the murderer of his lost daughter, little did Sam know that the situation was “way bigger than his daughter”.

I got a hold of this game and went to my friend Jacob Rastad to play it overnight, going through the co-operative mode of the game. The co-operative campaign mode is the prologue to the single-player campaign and was overall a pretty sweet experience. I’ve always loved stealth-games and this game is a stealth-game indeed even though the game has more action-elements now the game is still a stealth game at it’s core. I feel like the series are going in the right direction, making control-scheme a lot easier to handle even though some have a dislike for the reload button (placed at R3, click right analogue) I feel like it’s an improvement over the last games which were slower and you didn’t feel quite as agile as you do now.

The game is a third-person stealth action game, so there are the typical stealth-elements in place one of which is pretty interesting and it’s called the “Last known position”, it’s a pretty basic concept, it’s a visual representation of your last known location for the enemies, making them careful approaching that position, they might even fire upon that position. However this creates an opening for you to move around them and take them out. Which leads me to the “Mark & Execute” mechanic. “Mark & Execute” let’s you mark your enemies then when with a simple click of a button take them out with your current equipped weapon, you can only perform this action if you previously had done a melee takedown. At first I thought that the game would be too easy and the game mechanic too cheap to be any fun, but sometimes it proves very necessary to stay stealthy. Even though I wish that the the mechanic would be more complex like having Sam turning to his enemy and then going into slow-motion so that you have to aim to take them out. Right now it feels a bit too much “on rails”.

The mechanic becomes more interesting in the cooperative mode however, letting you and your partner mark and execute several enemies together, if done well you might clear a whole room of enemies at the same time, which is surprisingly satisfying. I remember high-fiving my buddy several times during our playthrough. The game let’s you upgrade and use several different weapons, you can only carry two weapons at once, one being a handgun and the other ranges between sub-machine guns, shotguns or assault rifles. Even though I don’t really know why one would need to carry around a big ass assault rifle on a stealth mission it’s pretty sweet to have the option. Gadgets are also a big part of the game, it wouldn’t be Splinter Cell without your usual gadgets, there are several different gadgets in the game: Flashbangs, frag grenades, remote mines, proxy mines, EMP-grenades, portable-emp and sticky camera. Most of you can guess what they do, emp-grenades and the portable emp knocks out electronical devices such as lights in a scene but they also stun the enemy giving you a window of opportunity to take them out. However the lights will switch on after a while. The sticky camera have the same functionality as in previous games, attach it to a wall, let it play a noise then trigger the explosive placed within the camera. There is certainly no need to use the gadgets as often, I mostly used the portable emp and finished the game on the highest difficulty without bigger problems.

The game also features several multiplayer-modes such as: “Hunter” a game mode where you(solo) or together with a friend try to take out everyone on the map. “Last Stand” is a game mode where you and your friend needs to defend certain objects whilst enemies keep on rushing in too destroy it. “Infiltration” is a hardcore splinter cell type game mode, similar to “Hunter” but if you or your friend gets detected the game is over. “Face off” is a competitive game-mode that pits you and your friend against each other, where you get points for killing each other or taking out enemies.

Conclusion

I had a really good time with Splinter Cell : Conviction and it’s probably one of the most satisfying games I’ve played in a while. The game features a solid single-player experience and a solid multiplayer co-op experience that is challenging and fun. It’s too bad that the game doesn’t have all the stealth-features of the previous game but it still feels like an improvement. The graphics are great, great art-direction, music, sounds are spot on. What I loved most about the game though was how brutal it was, Sam has certainly become more bad-ass than he was before and it shows. I can’t wait until the next game in the series. Ubisoft Montreal has done a great job on this one!

Tags: Conviction, Review, Splinter Cell