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!

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One of the biggest booths lining PAX East’s convention floor this year was the Ubisoft area, which featured the upcoming Prince of Persia to demo, and possibly more importantly, dual stations set up to play the Splinter Cell: Conviction co-op level. Needless to say, this was one of the more popular attractions, particularly given the half dozen or so Frag Dolls walking around and guiding players through the experience.

The basic idea we were shown behind this multiplayer mode was that two people team up to defeat a number of enemies. Stealth should play a factor, but unfortunately did not in my particular playthrough as I was found and shot at within moments of being handed the controller. Each map starts out with a set number of enemies to kill, and if players are seen, that amount doubles. It goes without saying that smarter players, or at least those wishing to finish the map as soon as possible, will try to remain unseen. Sneaking, however, isn’t as easy as we might want it to be. Nor should it be easy because these NPCs have eyes and will use them. If they hear gunshots, they will become alerted. If they watch you gut a buddy, they will become alerted.

The controls are standard dual-stick, third-person fare. One trigger is used for shooting, one toggles the sneak function, one hits cover. It handles well enough, though without any tutorial or without having recently played any Splinter Cell games, I personally found myself very awkward at controlling my ops member. I know my partner at the time, Spawn Kill’s very own The Herp, was shaking his head at my fumbling the entire time. This is embarassing to me as the stealth genre is my jam! Anyway, the mode has a few very cool features. As with past Splinter Cell games, light plays a factor in movement and detection. Players can shoot out the lights and cause near total blackness, which is negated by their own Splinter Cell sonar headset.

To kill the wandering enemies, players can either shoot with the silenced pistol, or perform a melee kill, or if worse comes to worse can bring out the semi-automatic. I attempted numerous times to perform melee kills, and for the most part it just resulted in my character getting shoved back and shot in the face. It also caused detection because when you fail to kill someone from behind, they get pissed off. You also have access to a handful of projectile weapons to throw out that generally cause ancillary effects like an electromagnetic pulse.

As for keeping track of one’s ally, Splinter Cell: Conviction does this ghost thing that I’ve never before seen in a video game. If an enemy discovers a player, the ghost will track a player’s last known position. Enemies will continue to fire at the ghosted area while you or your ally can leave that area and resume your stealthed status. It’s pretty smart actually, considering those eyes I mentioned before that people like to use can not, in fact, see through objects. This is something many games seem to have trouble with. Once detected out of stealth mode, they all suddenly have the uncanny ability of x-ray vision.

The co-op is fairly important as well. As in many co-op games, players have the ability to resuscitate fallen allies simply by walking to them and pressing down a button. It must be too much effort for the enemies to finish off a very dangerous spec ops agent who will likely kill them if given another chance. Whatever. It’s handy, particularly given the fact that I died no fewer than four times in the first five minutes I played.

I honestly wish I’d have had more time with the demo, and maybe in a more private setting. I’m not a public gamer, or at least I don’t have much experience gaming publicly. I also felt that the control scheme was one that needed some getting used to as it never quite did what I expected it to. I have a good feeling about the game though and like that they’ve attempted something slightly different with their multiplayer. The game comes out pretty soon so none of us will have too long to wait.

Unfortunately we have no trailer for the Splinter Cell: Conviction Co-op Demo because the Frag Dolls were walking around quashing any attempts at decent footage. Any that we got was barely worth posting and would have only served to demonstrate our inadequate cinematographic skills. Why they were bothering to quell video footage is a mystery as they didn’t do a particularly effective job, nor could they on an open showfloor, but it did serve to block our own attempts. Nevertheless, the screenshots above combined with the demo now available on Xbox Live should serve to give you a decent idea of how things are shaping up. Look for my own review coming up some time in the near future as well.

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