Splinter Cell: Conviction Review

20 Apr 2010 at 14:06:17 by
Systems used to review this title: (360)

If you're a fan of the original Splinter Cell series then you might find yourself a little disappointed with the new direction Fisher has taken.

Straight up, Splinter Cell Conviction is not another Splinter Cell game. Instead it feels as though the stealth elements that made the first few games so incredibly addictive have been watered down in favour of making it more appealing to the masses.

You no longer have to painstakingly watch patrols, memorise their movements and strike in a small window of opportunity. Probably most frustrating of all is the inability to hide bodies once you've killed an enemy, meaning it's only a matter of time before another soldier, or camera, or civilian, will find the body and raise the alarm.

And because Fisher's gone rogue, you won't have access to the gadgets and weapons you had while in employment of your former agency (Third Echelon), so you have to pick up what you can, when you can.  It's not until later in the game do you pick up your night vision goggles, which means there'll be a lot of creeping around and shooting of lights to create the shadows you need to operate in.

This game, it seems, is more about Sam Fisher as a character than the game itself. It makes his quest to find out what happened to his daughter more believable, certainly, but it's been used at the expense of gameplay. We're not going to dive too deep into the story as it's not that long, and better played through, but suffice to say that there is the compulsory escalatory twist which drives the narrative.

Once you've figured out the relationship between light, dark and Fisher, things become very easy indeed. Admittedly there are a few places where the game feels slightly out of kilter. There is a Gulf War level in Iraq, for example, which is just an out and out third person shooter. Not very in keeping with the rest of the game.

But it's how Ubisoft delivers information to you which has made this game work. When you're in the shadows your screen will turn black and white, and the darker the screen is, the harder it is for the enemy to see you. Come back into the light, and the screen will bleed its colour back, indicating that you're visible. Your mission objectives and memories are also projected in your environment, stopping all those offensive and annoying pop-ups telling you what to do next. And if you've missed it, or you just like seeing massive white letters on buildings, then all you need to do is press the select button and your objective will be projected directly in front of you. This is, by far, one of my favourite things about the game, and not only does it make it easier to figure out where you're going, it's also really quite pretty.

But none of that helps if Sam can't execute his foes, and he has a few options in the dealings of death. First you could use your silenced weapons to shoot a patrolling enemy. It's a little risky if you don't get your headshot, but kill them in time and your cover is safe until someone finds the body. You could hide in the shadows and use your environment to attract attention (such as setting off a car alarm), drawing your enemy closer to you, and then utilising the stealth melee kill. This is silent and affords you the mark and execute option, which allows you to select a number of targets (depending on your gun) for a one-shot execution, provided they're in your line of fire. Although it's a good idea, I found myself using stealth melee kills more than I did using mark and execute. Finally, you could just run in guns blazing, but it's unlikely you'll get very far. The more time you spend in the dark, the more unlikely it is for the enemy to find you.

All ...

Comment