Splinter Cell: Conviction Review

The Splinter Cell series continues to re-invent itself while maintaining its stealthy roots, excellent voice acting and incredible story arc.  The game is enhanced by new mechanics for finding cover, a grittier Sam(if you can fathom that), a capable and fun multiplayer mode, an engaging co-op mode, multiple acheivements and some controversial new game mechanics.  The "mark and execute" mechanism was designed to balance the overall game and provide some strategic gameplay.  It allows the gamer to plan a difficult encounter differently and provides a level of replayability.  But, some gamers feel that it makes the game too easy. 

Overall, the gameplay dynamic is much more frenetic than previous titles because Sam is at the end of his patience and the darkness that has overwhelmed him through the death of his daughter and his decision to kill his friend, Lambert has risen to drive him to violent action.  Now, faced with the prospect to not only exact retribution against Sarah's killers but led to believe that Sarah is still alive, Sam is drawn into a conflict with the very agency for whom he had worked. 

This leads to a very engaging storyline with aggressive pacing, several twists and turns, mysteries to solve and villians to eliminate.  The story is contained within the narrative of Sam's old buddy, Victor Coste who is relating the events through an interrogation. 

But, as much as Conviction is like its predecessors, it is also markedly different. In some ways, Conviction will change the way stealth games will be designed in the future.  For one, the stealth is fast.  No more sneaking around for several minutes in the dark.  The AI is aggressive and smart.  Even though Sam can lead his assailants toward his last known position while skulking around, it is more likely an attempt to perform a flanking attack versus that opponent to strike him down. 

The visceral feel of every aspect of the game is satisfying.  An example of "Mark and Execute" that will leave players coming back for more is to mark three targets while dangling from a pipe, drop onto another opponent using "Death From Above" which changes the arrows above the three marked targets to red and then executing them out by pressing "Y" (on the Xbox 360).  Voila!  Four kills in a matter of seconds.  And executed marks are automatically taken out while utelizing a slow motion sequence.

The effect of all this--the voice acting, the fast-paced stealth, the game mechanics, the interactive cut scenes--is to make the game feel like an interactive movie.  You get to star in a big-budget action-adventure.  It is a unique twist on games becoming movie-like art rather than movies becoming lame games.

THE FINAL WORD
RATINGS

Game Play (Single Player) 9(out of 10)

Game Play (Multiplayer)   8

Game Play (Co-Op)         8
Sound                             10

Graphics                          9

Replayability                    7

TOTAL                           8.5