REVIEW: Splinter Cell: Conviction.

You waited four years for this. Four years after Double Agent, after Spies vs. Mercs, Sam Fisher is BACK, y'all! And big surprise-he's pissed off. I mean, this guy never seems to catch a break. Can't he just mourn the loss of his daughter in relative* peace?
*-"relative" meaning killing like everyone who could have been responsible.

So here is the latest Splinter Cell that you've all been waiting, and waiting, and waiting and waiting for. Now, I need to admit that I've never been the biggest fan of stealth games. Just call me Han Solo; I always get too impatient with all this sneaking around, (also shooting out lights, choking people, etc.) I've always been the "run and gun" type. So I decided to give it a chance with the new Splinter Cell. 

As William Shatner says in Airplane II, "Irony can be pretty ironic sometimes". Ubisoft took all my issues with the series in the past, tinkered with it, changed some aspects of the gameplay, repackaged it and spit it back out at me. And you know what? I don't like it.

Let me start back at the beginning. Forget the story of the Single Player; you won't really be enthralled by it, and will leave that disucssion to someone else. There are some gameplay changes: first off, there is an ongoing tutorial when you first start the game that continues throughout. Mission objectives are displayed on the face of buildings, story elements play like film shorts over head. Gone is the little meter that shows you whether you are properly hidden behind cover, the screen will go black and white when you are concealed, and back to the Land of Oz when you are exposed. Whenever you encounter an obstacle, there is an indicator to press a button to climb up the pipe or wall, jump a box, or look under a door. I thought there was a way to turn those constant indicators off, and tried in the settings menu, but they never did switch off. After you go through the tutorial mission, and having played like four previous Splinter Cells, you get the picture that you hit the A Button to hang from the window, or jump a grouping of boxes. It got a little annoying after a while.

At first I liked the idea that the palette turns black and white when you get into cover. However, for some reason, it make things problematic when the scenery got too dark especially when you are trying to elude bad guys and the camera doesn't quite keep up with the controls. This is especially true during the multiplayer missions, but I'll hit on that later.


When going through other reviews of this game, I got the impression that the single player campaign was the weakest element of the game, and therefore the most dismissable; that the longevity and the enjoyment of Splinter Cell shines through the multiplayer/co-op. My question is this: why? You're Sam Fisher, a bad ass lone wolf stealth operative. Why isn't the single player campaign the driving force behind the game? You aren't Sam Fisher in co-op or multiplayer, why not focus the game on your star and most recognizable character? I ask this because the single player campaign does not do any justice to past Splinter Cell games. Yes, it starts off in classic style, Sam sneaking around, knocking out lights, evading the bad guys using shadows and using gadgets to get the drop on unsuspecting disposable henchmen.

In past Splinter Cells, progressing through missions undetected was key. You didn't want to tip off the bad guys as to where you are otherwise you'd be in a world of hurt. Sometimes it would even mean you'd have to restart the checkpoint. This time, you can just gun your way through the bad guys. The only crutch to that is that you aren't really given a good interface in which to mow them down. Aiming is difficult, even with the mark and execute system (which requires you to first take out someone to earn the marks, then mark guys Rainbow Six style), especially with any weapon that's not the pistol. This becomes even more problematic when you are faced with a level early on in the game where stealth isn't even needed. I'm going to repeat that: There is a level early in the game where stealth isn't needed. I got there and had to even wonder if I was even playing Splinter Cell or some iPhone version of Rainbow Six meets Call of Duty. Thankfully, it returned to "normal" after that, but then rears its ugly head near the end of the game, for a completely un-entertaining experience.

Strolling through co-op is more "stealthy", requiring some actual teamwork to get through the story, but it really didn't make up for the letdown of the single player. Adversarial multiplayer is fun; I played some 1 on 1 hunter mode where you have to not only take out bad guys but a player opponent as well. That gives you your best opportunity to put your inner ninja to use. One thing that supremely pissed me off, though was the lack of Spies vs. Mercs. That was such an entertaining game mode in Splinter Cell: Double Agent that I was sure Ubisoft would bring it back for Conviction. As much as I enjoyed playing 1 against 1, I'm a much bigger fan of team games and would play them more. Judging about your reaction to the game on Xbox Live, you would too.


Now, you can read through all of the above and think that I just hated Conviction. I don't. It was just a letdown compared to my expectations. Yes, the visuals of the game are strong point, and a vast improvement over Double Agent, but that's not a fair comparison, considering Double Agent was a first year 360 title and Conviction had been in development for four years. I was honestly hoping for more; well maybe not more, just better. I said at the beginning that I wasn't the biggest fan of sneaking around, waiting in dark corners, but what funny is the more I played this game, the more I was hoping to do those sorts of things, and what I ended up getting was a feeling that I need to go back to Chaos Theory or Double Agent to get my fill of stealth. Ubisoft had set me up, and let me down. 


I'm very likely in the minority of mainstream fans because the overall critical reception has been overwhelmingly positive. I have to ask all the critics out there whose expectations were surpassed what about this game made them jump for joy. Was it the fact that they had missed Splinter Cell all this time? Was this their first exposure to the series? Of course it looks good as a stealth game, but at times its not trying to be a stealth game, and its piss poor if its going to be a third person shooter. To those that were blown away, and aren't graphics whores, I suggest going back to the game's roots and maybe you'll see what I mean.

TL;DR- Don't drink the Kool Aid, hard core Splinter Cell fans, you won't like the taste.