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Written by: David Entin
Before any fans of the Splinter series knew better, Conviction was the next logical step in the franchise’s history. The last title, Double Agent, had popped out just about four years ago, and had been somewhat of a disappointment to the fans. It had felt stale, added little, and lost some of its stealthy edge for the sake of a grittier campaign. The latest foray into the adventures of super spy, Sam Fisher is a bit of a jarring leap. In fact, it’s more of a cavernous leap. This is a title without most of the staples of the former games. You’ve gone rogue, and you’ve lost most of your once indispensible gadgets, your compulsory light and sound meters, and Sam’s trademark play style is MIA. It’s a whole other beast, and as a game, its only true weakness is its pedigree as a Splinter Cell title.
This gameplay is all about speed, and the old purposeful crouched pace of the previous titles is gone. You’ll feel the deceleration of even bothering to crouch two missions in. Sam is faster than before, and rapid guns blazing entrances are no longer a death sentence with the aiming system maintaining tight control of hand to hand and ranged combat.
Both means of dispatch are effective, but close take-downs are the highlight with the multitude of animations playing out brutal Krav Maga and pistol take downs of the unfortunate guards in your path. The newfound agility and brutality doesn’t mean the player is invincible. Far from it, the health hovers only slightly higher than typical enemies, so a semblance of strategy is essential.
“Last known position” is one of the newest features, and it’s a joy. When enemies have lost sight of Sam, a silhouette is left in that location, indicating to the player where the enemy guards currently believe he is. This lends to glorious disappearances and quick, brutal takedowns of flanked foes.
‘Mark and execute’ is a more controversial feature for players, allowing the marking and tracking of enemies across the map and then the instantaneous takedown of all unobstructed, marked foes. Early on, the feature feels somewhat like an automatic win button, but proper use really lends to some impressive planned attacks on the bad guys, and nothing quite makes you feel like a super spy than designating and executing baddies in the blink of an eye.
The sonar goggles are the replacement for the standard night vision of previous titles, and it’s a gadget feature that just doesn’t feel thoroughly vetted. The goggles feel overpowered, allowing the player to see enemies through walls and track their movement. It becomes the only essential tool and instantaneously removes the need to check underneath doors or scout around corners with sticky cameras.
The monochromatic darkness indicator that desaturates the screen when in the shadows is a novel and interesting aesthetic feature, but because of the value of remaining unseen, too much of the game is played out without basic colors, which very quickly begins to drain away the enjoyment of the feature and leaves the player begging for a larger color palette.
One of the scrawnier additions to Conviction is the interrogation system. In essence, the player is asked to obtain information from a target they have grasped in a choke-hold. These scenes play out in tiny, controlled areas with several glaring items allowing for a brutal interaction, somehow involving smashing the victim into the objects to varying degrees of bloodshed. It’s a shocking feature that is an interesting showcase of the title to demonstrate to friends, but as a gameplay element, it degenerates to little more than pressing B to continue the small, interactive cut scene.
The campaign will take about six to eight hours to complete, and although it has many exciting set-piece moments, it’s easy to feel the length of longer pieces of exposition. The story is the standard, conspiracy-ridden terrorism plot on the Capitol, and it’s delivered interestingly enough to maintain interest.
The real joy is the deniable ops and co-op modes available for one or two players using online, system link, or split screen. Players control American Agent, Archer and Russian Agent Kestral. Both agents are equally matched with equipment but sport their own personalities that clash as the reluctant partners play out the prologue to the single player campaign. It is an exciting and joyous campaign to play and replay. Additionally, deniable ops dishes out several unique challenge modes to play out on sweeping maps that are excellent for bragging rights and honing spy skills.
The arsenal of weapons at Sam’s disposal is extensive, and all of them can be upgraded for improved value. Upgrade points are handed out by the game for completing in game challenges that may involve anything from killing three enemies with one grenade to taking out a foe that is currently investigating a car alarm. There’s an extensive range of these challenges and they are enjoyable enough to encourage fresh approaches to combat situations. These bonuses carry over to both the co-op and deniable ops mode, and also allow for armor upgrades to the equipment of Archer and Kestral, as well as customizing their look during online sessions.
Splinter Cell: Conviction is available for the PC and Xbox 360 and is a title truly worthy of a play. It’s sad to see the purposeful nature of the Splinter Cell series is dead and buried, but with the fresh trappings of predatory combat, this is a title that’s a fierce rebirth of a respected, and consistently quality series.
Rating: 4.5/5 Falcons
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