Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction (Limited Collector's Edition)

The Good
Splinter Cell: Conviction features a single player story-mode as well as a separate story for the CO-OP campaign, while adding some more game modes with the “Deniable Ops” (Hunter, Last Stand and Infiltration mode). So yes, it does not only feature a CO-OP mode which is rightly very popular these days, but also adds a separate story line for the same. As soon as you start to play the single player campaign, you will understand why that is.

Sam Fisher spent the last three years in grief about the death of his only child – his daughter. He has changed a lot since we last saw him in action. While sitting in a café in Malta, he is contacted by an old “friend” – Grim. She warns him about a group of people approaching to Sam as they speak over the phone. This is where the story begins. And besides the story-telling part, this very first level explains the basic controls of the game.

As the Sam progresses through the level, the first flash-back occurs. These flash-backs are utilized both for telling the story, showing a caring and loving father as Sam talks to his young daughter Sarah in her bedroom, as well as presenting a new and very important gameplay-feature – “mark & execute”. While in close combat, Sam can grab enemies to either kill them instantly or hold them as a human shield. Either of these options grants him the mark & execute move. He can now easily mark enemies with the touch of a button. How many exactly depends on the equipped weapon and varies from 2 to 4 enemies or destroyable objects at a time. Once marked, Sam can execute the same pressing only one button performing deadly head-shots.

Back in the present Sam’s personal mission is to get to the people causing his daughter’s death. However there is more to the story to come as Sam progresses through the game. The narration of the game is excellent right from the start: fabulous cut scenes emphasize the change happened to Sam. I can’t help myself comparing Sam Fisher with Jack Bauer while watching at these nicely directed cut scenes.

Methods of interrogation and Sam’s profoundly determination are nothing new in general – but definitely new to the Splinter Cell series. It makes Sam a far more vivid character than he used to be in the earlier games. The story however does not leave room for a second protagonist – which is why CO-OP had to be founded on a whole new plot.

As Sam progresses he will regain some of his old gear and gadgets. Basically the gadgets will allow Sam to approach the game in different ways. EMP gadgets most likely will pave the path to a more stealth-like approach while frag grenades and remote explosives clearly speak for a more action-orientated approach. And this is the very fact I like about this game. I always have the feeling that it is up to me how I progress through the level and what I will do with the enemies to reach there. Most of the time I try to stay in the shadows being invisible to enemies, and I know so as the screen turns black and white while I am not visible. So I wait and study the routes of guards, trying to find a spot where I could either pass through without being seen or I will go to that spot to take out a guard silently without being spotted by others. The game gets very creative about taking out people, while approaching from the back is more like a standard move in Splinter Cell: Conviction. Performing a “death from above” move while hanging at a pipe at the ceiling or pulling an enemy out of the window are only few possibilities. Now and then Sam gets spotted however. While the guards shout out and call for reinforcements, Sam can either take the fight head-on or try to vanish in the shadows.

A good way to vanish is to flash-bang a group of enemies while Sam tries to make his way out of sight. If he succeeds, a silhouette appears at his last know position. This can now be used as an advantage as guards will look around that very spot to find Sam. Either Sam tries to by-pass the situation or flanks the enemies to grab them from behind.

The game features in-game statistics and challenges called P.E.C. challenges. These challenges count towards your account no matter what type of game you are playing. Whether it is the single player or CO-OP campaign of the “Deniable Ops” matches the game saves your personal progress as soon as you execute one of these challenges. These vary from actions like executions (four enemies at a time) to stealth/vanishing (vanish using an EMP device) and CO-OP (reviving the partner). These challenges may encourage players to approach situations differently while not using the same patterns over and over again. Finally, completing a specific challenge will earn the player points that can be spent to upgrade weapons, gadgets and uniforms (for the multiplayer part at “Deniable Ops”).

Most of the in-game content of the Limited Collector’s Edition is not exclusively, which might be good news for everyone buying the standard edition of the game. Besides the Shadow Armor, all items like the additional weapons and the infiltration game mode are only made available from the start with the Limited Collector’s Edition. Buying the standard edition will require to earn these items by playing through the games and in case of the infiltration mode to earn Uplay points in order to unlock this game mode.

Technically Splinter Cell: Conviction surely knows how to impress. The graphic level is very detailed without a single slowdown throughout the game. As stealth is a big part of the game, the lighting technology surely is important to make the stealth become actually a feature. As with the overall graphic level the game does great here as well.

While the soundtrack (which is included in the Limited Collector’s edition as a separate CD) only emphasizes the great narration and thrill the overall sound and voice acting knows how to impress as well. This game contains some serious violence and the voice acting is not anything for the young ones as well. The strong language only supports the dark and serious touch of the game and makes a great fit.

The Bad
Like any other good movie telling an interesting story, the game has to end at some point. As I find the story told in an excellent way I would have loved to see more of that. In my opinion the story ends too soon.

Playing it on the highest difficulty will let you see the title screen in less than 8 hours. However, would the story been extended by a couple of hours I may complain now about the story being diluted to artificially extend the game’s length. That is why I may leave it at this: Nice story-telling!

The Bottom Line
Almost every review out there describes the change that happened to the Splinter Cell Series. That it turned from a stealth game with some portion of action into an action game with some portion of stealth. I will not disagree on that. The series has changes. But while most of these reviews interpret the change as something negative, I don’t.
I like the new Sam Fisher, with all his grief and anger about what happened to him and his family. And I like the new gameplay of the latest Splinter Cell. You will like and mostly probably love this game as much as I do if you like to play games that feature both a solid and thrilling story as well as challenging action from the very beginning of the game until the moment the credits rush over your TV.