Splinter Cell: Conviction is Flawed Yet Fun

JudoChinX

April 29, 2010

Espionage: the word invokes a sense of mystique and wonder. We've all wanted to be James Bond and to use fun little gadgets to gain the upper hand in a situation. Game developers heard our demands and the stealth genre was born. From that time, there have always been those who felt that the learning curve in these games was a little too steep; that the genre was less inviting than they'd have liked.

There was a very obvious effort to make the next title in the Splinter Cell series more palatable to the casual audience who may have been weary of entering this side of gaming. That's not to say that the game has been dumbed down to an extreme, but there are some compromises that have made this game appeal to a larger number of players.

It seems that too often, games start with a slow and tedious tutorial that pulls you out of the narrative experience. Splinter Cell: Conviction does not commit such a crime. The tutorial is presented as a series of flashbacks that demonstrates the numerous new features that you'll be using throughout the game, many of which are in place to make the game easier to pick up and play. The flashback is presented in an interesting way by giving the player a bit of back story on the relationship between Sam and his daughter as he explains how she shouldn't be afraid of the dark.

My favorite change in gameplay deals with how the player determines where enemies will be looking for them. This feature, called the last known position, leaves a silhouette of Sam where he was last spotted. This allows you to take control of a situation, and use this visual information to better prey on your enemies. Once your enemies begin searching for you, you can come up from behind them and quickly (and silently if you wish) end their tragic lives. If you do choose to dispatch them quietly with a hand-to-hand kill, you'll be rewarded with the ability to mark and execute targets. This involves marking enemies (the number of which you can mark depends on the gun you're using, and how far you've chosen to upgrade it), then tapping the right bumper to perform the execution: a stylized and glorious display of violence that instantly terminates any targets previously marked. This is an option best used when getting the drop on a group of enemies. Peek under a door to see where enemies are placed and mark those furthest away. Once in the room, silently take down a guard away from the rest of the group, then execute. You'll clear an entire room in a short moment that is sure to leave you satisfied.

Many stealth games show how visible your character is to his enemies by having some sort of indication on the HUD. Instead of having a meter in one of the corners of the screen to show when you can or cannot be seen, the entire color pallet changes to black and white. Some might complain that this reduces the visual variety found in the game, but I think it creates a great mood, and is a quick and easy way to get the information you need without having to look away from the action.

One of the most frustrating concessions made for the sake of making the game more accessible is having unlimited ammo for your main weapon. This is an odd choice in a game where conserving ammunition would normally be required. I would have expected to have been forced to save my precious bullets for moments when I needed them the most, but because there's an endless supply, I often felt encouraged to run and gun instead of using the many stealth abilities at my disposal. It was at that point that I felt the game had fallen apart to an extent. There are many moments where you're better served firing your weapon like a madman than being a spy.

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