Video Review: Splinter Cell Conviction

Dear Reader: I give you a choice with this review! You may watch a somewhat amateur video with my somewhat amateur voice and some non-HD game footage, or you can read. As a pre-note, this review covers only the single player portion of Splinter Cell: Conviction. Multiplayer fans will have to look elsewhere for their information!

Sam Fisher is a name synonymous with two things: stealth-based action and being a bad-ass. He ranks right up there with people like Solid Snake, Jason Bourne, and David Stewart in the breaking dudes’ noses and knocking dudes out from behind category. But unlike our other favorite stealthy protagonists, Fisher has somewhat fallen by the wayside over the years. His games never attained the popularity that Snake’s did, and while they always held a loyal fanbase who would see Fisher through the worst of times (think Splinter Cell: Petz), it’s been some time since a game as oriented towards the mainstream audience has appeared.

With Splinter Cell: Conviction, we get such a title. It can be easy or hard, depending on play style, and it’s flat-out fun to be Sam Fisher again.

Central to Fisher’s story is his daughter Sarah. He’d thought her dead, found out she wasn’t, and Conviction sees him hunting for more clues as to what her status really is. There is another plot at work simultaneously that involves the series standby group Third Echelon, a private military corporation called Black Arrow, and nemesis Tom Reed. The plot is often a little murky and really only proves to provide Fisher with an antagonist, though it does also tie in to past games and even could be considered a wrap up to Fisher’s story. Lengthwise, the game is very short. On normal difficulty, I’d gone through it in 6 hours. And an hour of that was pure credits (only half joking, they’re seriously long).

Visually the game looks good; not great. Fisher himself always carries the same stony gaze, so rendering his character model is about as difficult as taking a picture. As with past games, lighting is an important feature in the Splinter Cell universe, and the way it fades into black and white and back to color depending on Fisher’s visibility is a nice touch. The cut scenes are not pre-rendered, which personally I prefer as they keep a player right where he or she is instead of transitioning into this better looking game suddenly. The camera direction is also well done in a definite movie-inspired way with lots of zooms and rotations and the like. One visual/direction aspect much talked about is the way text is overlayed on objects in the environment, which anyone who watches the show Fringe will find familiar. I liked the effect quite a bit. It manages to keep a player in the game while giving them easily visible direction on how to proceed. It’s unrealistic, sure, but just very cool to see.

Fisher is, once again, voiced by Michael Ironsides. It’s not good people. We were all happy to have a somewhat established actor voicing a video game character back when the original Splinter Cell came out, but the guy has lost his charm and his luster. Most of the time he sounds like he’s either drunk, or reading his lines while falling asleep. He has his moments, but he needs to be cut free from this role, assuming they do any more Sam Fisher’ing.

The game is based around stealth, and in stealth do players wisely tread. Like Metal Gear Solid 4, the game can be played with guns blazing and grenades flying, but unlike Snake, Fisher goes down after only a few bullets. It is to a player’s advantage not to be seen. The only issue with this is that often the game will not provide the cover needed to remain unseen. The disparity between one area and the next can often be massive. For example, one area might have multiple paths to take and lights to shoot out and plenty of shadows to sneak in, but the next will nearly force Fisher into the open for all out gunplay. It’s a frustrating mix, and almost feels like some of the levels weren’t polished correctly. However, for the most part it’s smooth sailing, and a smart player can find sneaky ways to improvise the deaths of just about anyone on the level.

Two bullet points that were talked about extensively pre-release were the mark and execute feature and the interrogation techniques. The former is an interesting addition, and one that I think is welcome to the genre of “badassery.” Its use is simple. First, Fisher has to perform a melee kill, which nets him the execute point. A bumper button marks targets, and the Y button kills them. It’s really as simple as that. The number of targets that can be marked depends on the weapon he has equipped. Certain weapons can be upgraded to mark nearly half a dozen targets. Hardcore players might find this option cheap, but it’s entirely optional and not always as easy to pull off as one might think. It also further adds to the feeling of playing a super killing machine.

The interrogation segments are less important than they might have seemed during the initial trailers. For one, they only happen maybe 5-6 times during the game, and while very cool to watch, could have used slightly more interactivity. Players can choose which nearby object to interrogate their hostage with, but generally there are only a few options, and it’s fairly obvious which to head to for the most brutal animation. I don’t want to sell this feature short because I enjoyed the hell out of bashing a guy’s head into a television, but giving players more options or even more control over the techniques would have gone some way towards the experience.

There is also a weapon upgrade system in place that works quite well. Picking up enemy weapons or finding weapons scattered around means that said weapon will be available in Fisher’s weapon stash. Once there, points earned through completing challenges can upgrade these weapons. The weapons also carry over to the co-op portion of the game, making their acquisition very key to customization there. Unfortunately, for a stealth game, there are surprisingly few silenced weapon options. Enemies hear gunfire, and using a non-silenced machine gun for anything but the worst of situations is suicidal. I generally always kept my silenced pistol and silenced semi-automatic (with scope) handy.

Conviction also offers a co-op mode, but given my lack of friends and my efforts at creating a video review to go along with this written one, I chose not to include its benefits and charms. I have played it and it is fun, but I can’t give much more of an opinion than that.

Overall Conviction is a great game. It tells a believable story about a man looking for his daughter, and it’s easy to get behind a tale like that. Even those of us without children can sympathize with such a loss. The tale told isn’t as epic or outlandish as a Metal Gear Solid, but I still feel as though this game could herald in a second coming for Splinter Cell. Whether Sam Fisher remains a part of that second coming is a matter of much debate, but either way, I’m already looking forward to another installment.