Screenshots :.
Splinter Cell: Conviction
360
Kash
28-04-2010
"TOM CLANCY! WOW!"
"An every-day scene in Banbury nightclub toilets."
"This could be a sentimental moment. I've not played Splinter Cell for 8 years, so I have no clue."
"Oh, back to the toilet again,"
"Sam Fisher: Almost as cool as Kash. Almost."
"Someone has had a few too many smokes, methinks"
Stealth gaming has taken quite a journey in the past decade. At the start of the millennium, it generally involved watching enemy vision cones and looking for holes in scripted patrol routes till you inevitably got caught by the one dude in the corner that you couldn’t see. Over time, it morphed into the more ‘fluid’ idea of finding a nice dark spot to stalk your prey and ... inevitably getting caught by the dude in the corner again. In the interim, stealth mechanics got implemented into every single bloody game as the new marketing keyphrase so that everyone could enjoy getting caught by the same dude in the corner over and over again. And then – Poof! They disappeared, replaced by cover systems and QTEs as the back-of-the-box bullet point.
One of the key games in this genre was Splinter Cell; when the first game in the series was released for the Xbox in 2002, it felt like a watershed moment in stealth gaming. It ditched much of the fluff that cluttered games of that ilk and kicked things up a notch. With Sam Fisher as a new funnel for the desires of light-averse gamers everywhere, players were able to create darkness by shooting out lights and use said darkness to take out their foes. Compared to the average spy chap (or chapette) at the time, Sam was quite agile and able to dispatch enemies in new and unique ways.
Fast forward to the present, and things have changed since the release of the first title; watching enemies from a corner is no longer deemed ‘fun.’ Given that Conviction was first announced in 2007, some may fear that it would be a tad behind the times in this regard. Never fear, however, SC:C is a very different ‘stealth’ experience than its predecessors, focused less on the concepts of vulnerability and weakness and more on empowerment and predatory badassedness. Sam Fisher (and, by extension, the player) no longer hide in the shadows because he is the hunted; he does so because he is the hunter.
What makes Sam Fisher so damn dangerous? The new ‘Mark & Execute’ feature. Rather than serving as a fresh alternative to the M&S line of clothing accessories, M&E rewards each close quarter takedown with the ability to mark and shoot up to four enemies with the press of a button. Imagine hanging from the ceiling in a room with 3 bad mofos waiting to die. Mark two of them by tapping the Right Bumper, jump down and insta-kill one mofo, press ‘Y’ and watch as Sam Fisher shoots the other two in his best Jack Bauer impression. Contrary to the opinion that such an empowering system would break the need for stealth, this system just rewards it. Why would you want to go in guns blazing when you could pick off your targets like an evil demigod at play on a Sunday afternoon?
SC:C features a package with three main game modes: separate single-player and co-operative campaigns, and a set of gameplay variants collectively labelled ‘Deniable Ops’. The Single Player story continues where SC: Double Agent left off, with Sam roped into fighting evil once more in order to find out more about the death of his daughter. Players can expect the ‘usual’ Tom Clancy story of political intrigue and terrorist plots, littered with a cast of despicable madmen and dubious allies; it’ll hardly surprise or impress anyone who has played any game with the author’s name in the title. Fortunately for the game, however, it serves as a convenient structure to take the player through a series of interesting locations and place them in scenarios that that keep the gameplay engaging. Sadly, it’s a little on the short side – the average player will find themselves at the closing credits in under 6 hours (with some time added if you play it on Realistic difficulty, as one should).
Bolstering the value of the package is the co-op campaign. Set before the events of Sam Fisher’s adventures, it follows two new characters on their own quest to take some WMDs off the hands of would-be evil doers. Conveniently for them, they too are armed with all the skills and weapons available to Fisher, thereby giving players a chance to double the badassery on show. And, as good as the solo campaign is, this is where Conviction truly shines. With two friends skulking around, it plays out like a ballet of death and mayhem. Marking and executing enemies becomes a co-operative affair where, from different corners of a room, you’re able to take out separate groups of enemies with ruthless efficiency. You’ll quickly find yourselves swapping between constructing elaborate scenarios to kill efficiently and moments of sheer chaos when a plan goes awry. And wonderfully, even when it does take on the shape of a rotting pear, success is always within reach with a quick execute or a dive into darkness.
The third and final part to the experience comes in the form of ‘Deniable Ops’ – a set of 4 smaller game modes, playable solo or co-operatively with slight variations in rulesets:
- Hunter, the goal of which is to kill all the enemies in a level,
- Last Stand, a Splinter Cell take on survival modes (ala Horde, Firefight, etc.),
- Infiltration, where you are tasked with killing all enemies without getting spotted, and
- Face-Off, in which two players kill enemies (and each other) for points in Spy-v-Spy action.
It’s worth noting that ‘Last Stand’ and ‘Face-Off’ are pretty much the highlights of the Deniable Ops options. Given the stealth ‘leanings’ of the game, holding off waves of enemies may not seem like it would really work, but it ends up playing out like a frantic high-wire circus act as you try to juggle your kills with staying hidden. ‘Face-Off’ offers similar oscillating tension levels as you try to kill the enemies that populate a level as well as the other spy. Your mileage with these will, of course, vary depending on how much you enjoy the mechanics that Conviction has on offer. Played on the maps from the co-op campaign, they don’t really offer much new in the way of play spaces and sometimes feel like the game modes have been shoehorned into locations in which they simply do not work.
Wrapping all these modes together is the ‘Persistent Elite Creation’ system in the game, which is just a fancy way of saying: Complete challenges to earn XP. These range from easy (Pull 30 guys out of windows) to bastardish (Complete an entire level without getting spotted and without retrying), but the XP earned can be used to upgrade your weapons, gadgets and armour – quite handy – and offers a consistent set of micro-goals to aim for in any and all modes.
Which brings us to the question of whether this is all ‘enough’. Even with the modes on offer, Splinter Cell: Conviction feels like a rather ‘small’ game with not a whole lot of variety in terms of mechanics, level design or tasks you’ll perform. It’s undeniably polished and fun to play, yet the absence of the brutal, but excellent, competitive Spy vs Mercs modes from the previous games feels odd. Some may also find the action-heavy gameplay not to their tastes, in which case a recommendation would be difficult to proffer. For those that do enjoy what’s there, how long the fun lasts will depend on how aggressive Ubisoft is with offering fresh content.
There is no doubt in my mind that SC:C is a bloody good game. The ability to take out a group of guys with a stealth kill followed by the press of a button doesn’t get old and the chance to do that with a friend is just plain awesome. If you’ve played and enjoyed the previous titles in the series, then you know what you’re in for, with a few tweaks and changes. Alternatively, if your idea of stealth in games involves a Snake of the Solid variety (don’t get this reference), then you should definitely give Splinter Cell: Conviction a shot to see the other side of the modern stealth-gaming coin.
One of the key games in this genre was Splinter Cell; when the first game in the series was released for the Xbox in 2002, it felt like a watershed moment in stealth gaming. It ditched much of the fluff that cluttered games of that ilk and kicked things up a notch. With Sam Fisher as a new funnel for the desires of light-averse gamers everywhere, players were able to create darkness by shooting out lights and use said darkness to take out their foes. Compared to the average spy chap (or chapette) at the time, Sam was quite agile and able to dispatch enemies in new and unique ways.
Fast forward to the present, and things have changed since the release of the first title; watching enemies from a corner is no longer deemed ‘fun.’ Given that Conviction was first announced in 2007, some may fear that it would be a tad behind the times in this regard. Never fear, however, SC:C is a very different ‘stealth’ experience than its predecessors, focused less on the concepts of vulnerability and weakness and more on empowerment and predatory badassedness. Sam Fisher (and, by extension, the player) no longer hide in the shadows because he is the hunted; he does so because he is the hunter.
What makes Sam Fisher so damn dangerous? The new ‘Mark & Execute’ feature. Rather than serving as a fresh alternative to the M&S line of clothing accessories, M&E rewards each close quarter takedown with the ability to mark and shoot up to four enemies with the press of a button. Imagine hanging from the ceiling in a room with 3 bad mofos waiting to die. Mark two of them by tapping the Right Bumper, jump down and insta-kill one mofo, press ‘Y’ and watch as Sam Fisher shoots the other two in his best Jack Bauer impression. Contrary to the opinion that such an empowering system would break the need for stealth, this system just rewards it. Why would you want to go in guns blazing when you could pick off your targets like an evil demigod at play on a Sunday afternoon?
SC:C features a package with three main game modes: separate single-player and co-operative campaigns, and a set of gameplay variants collectively labelled ‘Deniable Ops’. The Single Player story continues where SC: Double Agent left off, with Sam roped into fighting evil once more in order to find out more about the death of his daughter. Players can expect the ‘usual’ Tom Clancy story of political intrigue and terrorist plots, littered with a cast of despicable madmen and dubious allies; it’ll hardly surprise or impress anyone who has played any game with the author’s name in the title. Fortunately for the game, however, it serves as a convenient structure to take the player through a series of interesting locations and place them in scenarios that that keep the gameplay engaging. Sadly, it’s a little on the short side – the average player will find themselves at the closing credits in under 6 hours (with some time added if you play it on Realistic difficulty, as one should).
Bolstering the value of the package is the co-op campaign. Set before the events of Sam Fisher’s adventures, it follows two new characters on their own quest to take some WMDs off the hands of would-be evil doers. Conveniently for them, they too are armed with all the skills and weapons available to Fisher, thereby giving players a chance to double the badassery on show. And, as good as the solo campaign is, this is where Conviction truly shines. With two friends skulking around, it plays out like a ballet of death and mayhem. Marking and executing enemies becomes a co-operative affair where, from different corners of a room, you’re able to take out separate groups of enemies with ruthless efficiency. You’ll quickly find yourselves swapping between constructing elaborate scenarios to kill efficiently and moments of sheer chaos when a plan goes awry. And wonderfully, even when it does take on the shape of a rotting pear, success is always within reach with a quick execute or a dive into darkness.
The third and final part to the experience comes in the form of ‘Deniable Ops’ – a set of 4 smaller game modes, playable solo or co-operatively with slight variations in rulesets:
- Hunter, the goal of which is to kill all the enemies in a level,
- Last Stand, a Splinter Cell take on survival modes (ala Horde, Firefight, etc.),
- Infiltration, where you are tasked with killing all enemies without getting spotted, and
- Face-Off, in which two players kill enemies (and each other) for points in Spy-v-Spy action.
It’s worth noting that ‘Last Stand’ and ‘Face-Off’ are pretty much the highlights of the Deniable Ops options. Given the stealth ‘leanings’ of the game, holding off waves of enemies may not seem like it would really work, but it ends up playing out like a frantic high-wire circus act as you try to juggle your kills with staying hidden. ‘Face-Off’ offers similar oscillating tension levels as you try to kill the enemies that populate a level as well as the other spy. Your mileage with these will, of course, vary depending on how much you enjoy the mechanics that Conviction has on offer. Played on the maps from the co-op campaign, they don’t really offer much new in the way of play spaces and sometimes feel like the game modes have been shoehorned into locations in which they simply do not work.
Wrapping all these modes together is the ‘Persistent Elite Creation’ system in the game, which is just a fancy way of saying: Complete challenges to earn XP. These range from easy (Pull 30 guys out of windows) to bastardish (Complete an entire level without getting spotted and without retrying), but the XP earned can be used to upgrade your weapons, gadgets and armour – quite handy – and offers a consistent set of micro-goals to aim for in any and all modes.
Which brings us to the question of whether this is all ‘enough’. Even with the modes on offer, Splinter Cell: Conviction feels like a rather ‘small’ game with not a whole lot of variety in terms of mechanics, level design or tasks you’ll perform. It’s undeniably polished and fun to play, yet the absence of the brutal, but excellent, competitive Spy vs Mercs modes from the previous games feels odd. Some may also find the action-heavy gameplay not to their tastes, in which case a recommendation would be difficult to proffer. For those that do enjoy what’s there, how long the fun lasts will depend on how aggressive Ubisoft is with offering fresh content.
There is no doubt in my mind that SC:C is a bloody good game. The ability to take out a group of guys with a stealth kill followed by the press of a button doesn’t get old and the chance to do that with a friend is just plain awesome. If you’ve played and enjoyed the previous titles in the series, then you know what you’re in for, with a few tweaks and changes. Alternatively, if your idea of stealth in games involves a Snake of the Solid variety (don’t get this reference), then you should definitely give Splinter Cell: Conviction a shot to see the other side of the modern stealth-gaming coin.
8/10
