The Splinter Cell series is now on its fifth iteration. The first was revolutionary and created its own brand of stealth gameplay. The second and third simply perfected the formula that made the first so popular. The fourth was weird and off-putting.
The fifth, Splinter Cell: Conviction, marks the first true evolution in the series. It’s faster, more aggressive and altogether more accessible to a wider range of gamers out there.
This is a new Splinter Cell with a newly pissed off Sam Fisher at the helm of one of the best stories ever written for a game. Think of it as a season of 24 in a quick but effective six to seven hours. The single-player campaign is short, and as a result, it never misses a beat. The gameplay never gets stale thanks to varying objectives and techniques. There’s even an on-foot chase scene that manages to get the blood pumping in a way most games can’t.
Fisher, a former spy for government agency Third Echelon, is called back into action by his old handler, who offers him some information about his murdered daughter. Needless to say, the espionage background has this story taking many twists and turns, but what truly sets it apart is how it’s told: Fisher’s old military pal narrates a sequence of events that takes place during only a couple of days. The story jumps back and forth between the chronological timeline and clips of the climactic ending, sucking the player in to find out what happens in the end.
In addition to the plotting, words are plastered across the walls and ground as if they are literally projected from Fisher’s head. At times, they may be as simple as mission objectives, but memories from Fisher’s past and words describing his emotional state are often displayed, allowing the player to really get inside his head. It takes the concept of immersion to a new level.
But the most important thing in any game is how it plays. Splinter Cell: Conviction is nothing like its predecessors — which is a good thing. Out are the painfully slow trial-and-error missions, and in are fast-paced, on-the-fly decisions that hit hard when everything comes together.
There are three aspects to the gameplay. First is the new cover and movement system. Fisher can seamlessly move from cover to cover, popping in and out to take down enemies from whatever form of cover he is on. Fisher’s moves make you feel like a hunter, and it doesn’t hurt that the game is animated beautifully. The executions are gracefully brutal, and no character has ever slid into cover with such a sense of control before.
The second aspect — perhaps the most radical change for the series — is the mark and execute feature. Mark enemies with one button and press another for an automatic one-shot kill to all of the baddies in range. This may seem like a “win button,” but there’s a catch. You can only execute when you have taken down an enemy by hand, and you can only mark a certain amount of enemies at once, depending on the weapon at hand.
The third aspect is minor but allows for some deeper strategy. A white silhouette of your character reveals the location of your last known position to your enemies. With this knowledge, getting around the bad guys and flanking them becomes an integral part of the combat.
Throw in the mandatory spy gadgets with these new systems to get some surprisingly deep strategy. Don’t think that you can just run and gun like any other game, though, as stealth is still the name of the game. If you don’t stick to the shadows, death will come quickly.
Every mechanic from the single-player game is brought over to the cooperative modes. There’s a short co-op campaign with an American and Russian agent working together to find missing bombs. There’s also Hunter mode and Last Stand, which allow two players to stealthily take down groups of bad guys together or protect an electromagnetic pulse bomb from hordes of enemies, respectively. Though the latter is similar to Gears of War 2‘s popular Horde mode, the former is better suited toward Conviction‘s style of play.
Doing all the great things from the single player with a friend just makes the experience that much better and extends the game’s replay value exponentially. And the two spies, Archer and Kestrel, are just really cool.
If there are any problems with the game, it’s that the developers put in a couple things that weren’t needed in the first place. There are a lot of weapons to choose from, but 95 percent of the time, the silenced pistols are the most practical choice. There’s also a competitive mode that is out of place.
All in all, though, this game is a near-perfect package. The single-player campaign is thrilling, the co-op is a blast and if you ever wanted to feel like Jack Bauer, the ultimate badass, this is your chance.
diversions@umdbk.com
RATING: 4.5 stars out of 5
