I want to get this out of the way to begin with – I think Tom Clancy, or rather those who now write using his name, are horrible, predictable hacks. Every story with the Tom Clancy name is exactly the same. Their premises, characters, themes and outcomes are always so similar it’s hard to discern one title from another. I’ve never been challenged by his works, never tricked by the “twists”, and never, ever thought it could be anything but pure fantasy.

The story in Conviction is so predictable as to be almost irrelevant. It opens with a voice over, telling us in flashback style that Sam has changed, and how his actions are a result of many things. Sam is now out of the game, we’re told, but he gets pulled back in by the machinations of his previous employer, Third Echelon. He’s more jaded, more brutal, and even more badass, but the good characterisation stops with Fisher. The other characters are so transparent that you know exactly who is good and who is bad. The twists and reveals are so trite that you simply don’t care about any of it.

And lastly, I’ve got to say the “flashback” presentation style simply does not work for videogames. After all, if you have someone talking past tense about how Sam did this and that, then it flashes back to you as Sam doing this and that, how can he fail? Sure, you as a player can fail the mission, but story wise you know he succeeds, making the plot holes greater and twists more irrelevant!

But honestly, it’s not like something with Tom Clancy’s name is ever going to be as appreciated as high art. And I think this actually works in Conviction’s favour. No, the story isn’t great, but the game is still enthralling. I want to play through again, not to see if the story will play out differently because I know it won’t, but because the game is simply so damn fun.

Like previous Splinter Cells, it’s all about stealth and shadows. Unlike previous Splinter Cells, the darkness is used to hunt, not hide. In previous Splinter Cells, if any trace of you could be found, if you were seen, or left a body under a light to be discovered by another guard, it would be mission over. And it was frustrating as hell. Chaos Theory and Double Agent went a long way to address this, but they were still games of hide and seek. Conviction turns Sam into a cat like stalker, using the shadows to stalk his enemies, unleash terrible fury upon them, and slinking into the shadows for another round.

When you slip into the shadows, the screen bleeds of colour, leaving you in a black and white world. This is a fantastic way to show when enemies can see you and when they can’t without using on screen meters that clutter your view. Another little nicety that keeps you in the world is there are no PDAs or mobile phones to look at to get mission information. Instead, they’re projected onto the walls as if from an old slide projector. As you walk through them, the beams of light wrap around you. Also, when Sam is having a flashback, instead of taking you out of the game and into a cutscene, the walls around Sam become movie screens, and grainy, black and white images play. These techniques keep you in the game world attached to Sam as a character, and create a feeling of immersion I’ve not experienced since Dead Space.

Sam has a variety of methods to dispatch foes from the darkness. He can simply shoot enemies with his pistol or machine gun, with headshots being the quickest way to take them down. Obviously, unsilenced weapons alert guards to your presence. If you get noticed, an on-screen alert tells you who has seen / heard you and where they are, and a silhouette appears at your last known location. This allows you to set up all kinds of scenarios. Use a flash bang or EMP blast to stun them and escape. Drop a mine as you leave to wipe out any guard who comes near. Drop a few remote mines around the place, and kill them all in one big multikill. Sneak off to other shadows to circle around from behind to do melee kills, or climb walls and posts to hover above the unsuspecting guard and rain death from above.

When you do a hand to hand takedown, you get the ability to Mark and Execute. Depending on your weapon, you can tag up to 4 enemies with the right bumper and then execute them with the Y button. Some of you may think this is a game killer, in that all you have to do is take down a baddie and then Mark and Execute any others. However, there are usually more guards than the number of marks, and if they see their mates fall they will become more alert. Also, marked guards have to be within range of your weapon and in line of sight to be taken down.

All this adds up to a faster, more visceral Splinter Cell, and some people may not like this direction. I for one find it much more appealing – I hated the instant fail levels in the early games. But for those who do want to creep about and not be detected, that’s a perfectly viable option for most levels. You can sneak around and complete objectives without killing any guards, and you’ll be rewarded with in-game points you can spend on upgrading guns and gadgets, as well as the ever popular Xbox achievements.

There are a host of in-game achievements, from completing missions without being seen, to taking enemies down with explosives, and so forth, and it wasn’t until I saw these that I realised the freedom players are allowed to complete the game. You have the tools and abilities to approach the mission in a variety of ways, and are only rarely told to proceed in a certain way to beat the level. It’s a fantastic way to get the player to play through again without waving a big “YOU MUST PLAY AS A SNEAKY GUY NOW!” sign like so many other games attempt to do.

After the short but intense single player campaign, there is Deniable Ops. Playing single or doubling up with another player either locally or online, you can play Hunter, Infiltration, and Last Stand modes against the AI, or Face-Off against other spies. Hunter and Infiltration will have you sneak into various locations and alternatively kill or avoid AI guards. With Last Stand, you protect a generator from hoards of guards trying to destroy it. Face Off is spy vs spy with AI against everyone.

Whilst enjoyable, I never found a partner to play with online that I didn’t previously plan to play with. Admittedly Halo Reach Beta and Red Dead Redemption were both released around the time I was reviewing the game, so it’s understandable no one was online. However, the removal of the critically-acclaimed Spies Vs Mercs mode could have more to do with it. I had some of the best multiplayer experiences with Chaos Theory, and the lack of that type of multiplayer seems to have impacted the Conviction multiplayer experience.

It would be amiss to skip talking about sound. As other Splinter Cell games, the sound is excellent. Footsteps and bullets are great indicators of who is where. There is one part where Sam gets really angry and goes on rampage to the wonderful “Building Steam From A Grain of Salt” by DJ Shadow, and it fits perfectly with the action. Sam Fisher is portrayed excellently by Michael Ironside once again, and his deep, gravelly voice is edged with appropriate anger and brutality this time. Other voice acting for main characters is good, but the barks of the guards, whilst not really repetitive are far too vociferous. If you saw all these bodies lying about with head wounds and broken necks, would you yell out “I’m going to get whoever did this!” and let whoever did know you were coming?

Conclusion:
Splinter Cell Conviction deviates from the original series in quite a substantial way, but keeps its soul is intact. It’s still very much a Splinter Cell game, just faster paced and more streamlined. The immersion in the world is fantastic, and the gameplay enjoyable, despite the rather predictable story. The Multiplayer modes are fun, especially with two people in the same place playing together, although the omission of Spies Vs Mercs mode is, I suspect, a big reason for lack of online players.

Pros:
Excellent immersion using light and colour
All the gadgets and fun of previous Splinter Cells
Great new gameplay ideas such as Mark and Execute which are executed well
Michael Ironside brings even more passion to the lead character
Fun Multiplayer

Cons
The omission of Spies Vs Mercs mode
Not many people playing the online modes
Guards dialogue is a little over the top
Predictable and trite Tom Clancy story.

85/100