Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction Game Review

The Story

Taking place three years after Sarah Fisher’s death, former Navy SEAL Victor Coste is held in a Black Arrow facility interrogation room as he is interviewed by an unidentified group of men. Victor begins to recount the events of Splinter Cell: Conviction in the past tense. This continues throughout the game, with each level being narrated in the past tense as the player “experiences” what happened.

source (spoiler there)

The Gameplay

You play Sam Fisher as the story is being told, the game reminds me of Assassin’s Creed…….. well they’re from Ubisoft anyway.

What I enjoyed about Splinter Cell was the overall experience of the setting created and the cutscenes.

The Mark & Execute feature was interesting, all you have to do is mark the targets and execute them. You must engage in a close-quarter combat before being able to mark and execute.

Seemingly easy, the Mark & Execute requires you to mark first and then only press the Execute button (E). So you’ll need to be fast to mark while not being spotted and hopefully none of them goes out of range. I once marked 3 enemies before executing, haven’t tried 4 at once.

The game also has features allows you to go undetected when you move in the shadows. You have the option to destroy light sources (eg light bulbs) to allow you the opportunity to stealth your way through.

There’s also the feature where the system marks your location where the enemy last spotted you, a reminder for you to not return to that location – just in case.

It took a while to get used to the controls, like learning how to Mark & Execute and learning how to stealth around. By default the left shift key switches between running and walking, which I wasn’t used to since most games are walking by default and only sprints or run when left-shift is held.

Also being a 3rd person shooter, the angle of view is sometimes advantageous and sometimes a hindrance.

Graphics and Sound

Graphically the game is awesome. I love how the background is off-focus (aka bokeh) and I love how the surroundings are blurred during execution.

It was an interesting concept to have instructions and informational clips shown on walls or large surface areas during the course of executing mission.

Sound wise it’s great, conversations were clear and the usual sound effect.

It’s rather funny how the menu for the game sounds like it’s taken from some Samsung phone model with the annoying xylophone like tone for each movement across the menu.

Networking / Multiplayer

The multiplayer option is pretty useless it seems. I like how it was in Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2 where I could find a match easily. Even in Battlefield : Bad Company 2, finding games weren’t that difficult. For SC:C – it’s feels hopeless, I couldn’t be bothered to try. Games should make multiplayer access SIMPLE.

Conclusion

It’s an awesome game, only to be spoiled by DRM (to a certain extent) and the lack of multi-player connectivity, and perhaps the annoying sound effect of the menu.

Otherwise it’s a great single player game that is challenging and has a rewarding storyline, though some may find it short.

By the way – I’ve not been a Splinter Cell gamer so my opinion on this game isn’t influenced by any of the previous installments.

The game is rated NOT SUITABLE for those under 15, due to the violent content, with profanities hurled from time to time.

Game Rating