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[Sober]

I replayed Conviction recently, and here are my thoughts on the game after a second time through.

Alternate titles:

• Hobo Sam Fisher Panther as Jack Bauer in (almost)24: The Game
  Spoiler

  yes the game almost entirely takes place within 24 or so hours after the opening levels
• If this were an Arkham game and Batman were bloodthirsty and wasn't a wuss about shooting a gun
• Conviction is to Splinter Cell as Absolution is to Hitman
• Stealth can still be fun even if you viciously murder everyone and occasionally get spotted

Unmarked spoilers ahead, but if you cared enough about Splinter Cell, you would've already played this game or read the plot somewhere, and if you didn't care, you won't care anyway. Anyone caught in between take heed.

The single player story is something you want to play through once and be done with it. Sam Fisher comes out of hiding because he hears some rumours about his daughter's death in the previous game (Double Agent) and pretty much just sees red the entire course of the game. It turns out this was to lure him out force him to help an old friend, Grim, in preventing your old employers from assassinating the president and playing kingmaker. It never really feels like a traditional Splinter Cell game other than you are Sam Fisher, there is a voice in your ear and there is stealth involved.

If you've followed Hitman: Absolution, it essentially runs in the same vein as Conviction. Splinter Cell: Conviction was not a traditional Splinter Cell game, but a game staring Sam Fisher. Hitman: Absolution was a game staring Agent 47 rather than being much of a Hitman game. In a way, old fans might slip back into the familiar patterns from older games, but the game was something more of a personal, rather than a professional story. So instead of trying to strike a good balance between being cinematic and having a large breadth of interactivity, it felt more like the mechanics of previous games were forced into a narrative that didn't mesh well with what the previous games offered. It happens to be ironic or poetic in a way, since Chaos Theory/Blood Money also happened to be the games in their respective series where they seemed to finally understand what their fans wanted, struck the right balance between interactive and cinematic and accessible.

Alright, so they ruined ghosting but that was because the story informed the game's tone, so most of the encounters reflected that. Everyone knows Sam is coming for them except for a handful of moments, so you can't actually actively ghost through environments where people are literally expecting you at any second and curse you out at every opportunity you can get. If you look on youtube, you can find plenty of people trying to 100% stealth the game, but this usually involves cheating the AI (using plenty of flashbangs or shooting bullets as distractions) and and to avoid actively being detected before they have a chance to see you (also using plenty of flashbangs), and when the game requires it, you have to kill everyone to continue. Occasionally you will see some legit sneakiness, but the actual concept of being a ghost is not long-lived while playing the story mode. There literally have been times where I try to be inconspicuous but it seems like after a certain time limit, the guards stop doing their song and dance and 'turn on' and start to chatter about how they know I'm here even if I haven't even shown up even as a dot on someone's periphery. The guards don't really patrol in any sense of the word and are more actively searching for you; i.e. they are almost always in a certain state of alertness.

In my first run of the game, I didn't take much care in using most of the gadgets (in fact, I was rarely a gadget guy even though that was the whole crux of the series), but if you shift your focus on the fact that you're pretty much stuck having to kill guards to proceed rather than finding some insane method to get past certain guard combinations (short of making a youtube video of it), this game/most encounters can be seen as a predator room/sequence from Batman: Arkham Asylum/City except you can shoot dudes in the face and blow them up with your almost entirely explosive arsenal of gadgets. The game felt much more fun when I used explosive sticky cameras to lure guards towards another environmental explosive and then detonate, or flashbang/emp a group then take a hostage or use it to sneak away. Yes, I even used Mark and Execute to not only track guard positions but also to do some 'play the game for me' laziness. In all honesty though, Mark and Execute was hardly the most offensive thing in the game and I don't really mind that it will be included in the next game. If you don't like it, don't use it. There are equally creative methods to coax stubborn enemies out of their spots without being detected if you have the patience.

So black and white while hidden was a terrible idea and even the director of the game admit it. It definitely wasn't great the second time through because it ruined all that work they put into the game by taking all the colour out of the world because you were skulking in the shadows. If anything, it occasionally made it hard to know the context of your surroundings other than knowing that unless you are in a guard's face, you're safe. At least they let you turn off night vision if you needed to. Here it definitely felt forced on you. Other than that though, I did enjoy the projected text as a way to show objectives or other information without cutting away too often.

Deniable Ops felt like something the series was missing. I thoroughly enjoyed terrorist hunts in other Tom Clancy games (yes I even played it Lone Wolf back in the days of Raven Shield/Athena Sword) so I was happy that it finally made a debut in Conviction and did it in the way I felt best represented the concept. In the other games (other than GR which I didn't play much of), the enemies kind of stood in place and waited for you 99% of the time even if you went in loud guns a blazin'. Here, you have semi-random guard placements, patrols and some actual interesting areas that they place you in and just let you tackle it. None of that crap where enemies are instantly alerted to your presence unless you play sloppily. I really only played Hunter mode (which is just murder anyone, detection adds more enemies) and it felt good to just stalk everyone and kill silently, and there is an Infiltration mode where it is the same but getting detected is a fail. There are actual options, like trading out armour for ammo for gadget space before you start a mission, depending on what you want to do. Also, the missing ghosting in the story? You can ghost to your heart's content in Deniable Ops! (Though a real ghost would never kill everyone, I guess). As someone who enjoyed the hell out of what was offered in Chaos Theory, Deniable Ops was the closest it's come to that game in Conviction form.



So why I'm sort of optimistic about Splinter Cell: Blacklist

• We're back to a more traditional mission structure, even if you happen to be onboard the SSV NormandyPaladin and can walk around the mission hub and do Mass Effect-ish things. You go to actually infiltrate places now and seemingly get placed in levels where no one will see you coming rather than being forced to wade through dozens of guards expecting you to come through the front door (unless you want to).
• It looks like the developers know they need to try to hit that Chaos Theory sweet spot even if they are working up from what they had in Conviction. They've piled on (and learned) quite a lot of features, some new or reintroduced from older games.
• Ghost/Panther/Assault support adding to the fact that people on the dev team have to advocate a certain playstyle means that maps, gadgets, weapons, equipment and everything will be tuned so you can do things like play it almost as if were Chaos Theory or Conviction or ... Call of Duty: Splinter Cell edition I guess.
• The directors of the game give me some confidence they know how to make a proper stealth game and know what being a ghost entails rather than appropriating the phrase (From Rock Paper Shotgun):
  
  

  Splinter Cell always featured fairly linear environments, but as the series progressed it started opening up the levels to different player approaches, letting you tackle the objectives in different order and experiment with how that altered the conditions in each section as you completed everything. That meant you weren’t just playing cat-and-mouse with an individual guard in a corridor, but with the entire security apparatus of the map.
  
  Something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently: When stealth games had their “golden age” from Thief and MGS to roughly the first Splinter, it felt like they hit a sweet spot between player accessibility and production values that were possible for that generation of tech. It was okay for the game’s metaphor to be a bit gamey if it was readable and affordant and rewarded exploration.
  
  Somewhere along the line it became too expensive to make games like that because the world needed to be “cinematic” and that’s antithetical to very high levels of interactivity. It became too expensive to create a fully-realized AI that might never know the player was there or a section of the world that the player might never see.

  
  

  In classic SC, the relative vulnerability of the player meant that even a small number of patrollers were a source of tension and a serious threat if the player was detected. Once we expanded the player abilities to include faster movement and accessible weapon play, we needed to reconcile the older AI model with something more action-friendly.
  
  When the player enters a new area of the game, they are by default undetected. As Nels [of Mark of the Ninja] referenced in his first letter, the world and everyone in it is oblivious to this trespasser; and at least in our case, unaware of what the player intends to do to them. By default, the initial state of the world and its AI needs to provide challenge and tension for the traditional “ghost” player, who wants to complete their game objectives while leaving no trace. But from that position, players can reorient tactically towards the complete elimination of the enemy while still remaining undetected. That means the AI behaviour needs to dynamically create windows of opportunity for the player to strike from their hiding place (shadows/cover/concealment) and vanish leaving bodies in their wake. The AI has to flow back and forth between these two roles without seeming predictable.

• Michael Ironside may not be voicing Sam Fisher anymore, but it looks like he might be doing narrating (ala Ron Pearlman for Fallout game bookends) and it seems like he still has some say over Sam Fisher not becoming another generic military black ops soldier who spits out jingoistic nonsense. (i.e. probably consulting)

But why I'm a bit iffy on Splinter Cell: Blacklist

• Perfectionist difficulty screams 'appeasement' like it was for Hitman: Absolution and might just be an unbalanced mess and disables mechanics that just makes the game frustrating rather than legitimately challenging (trial-and-error or otherwise).
• There doesn't seem to be any indication they'll include some of the black humour they had in CT and the earlier games and just play everything straight because terrorists and American Lives At Stake.
• There will be things like mandatory shoot-your-way-through-bad-guys segments or Uncharted-move-forward-away-from-the-explosion sequences that might get overplayed in every mission rather than sparingly. Fortunately there also seem to be forced stealth/ghost segments, so maybe they know what they're doing?

 

[NotTheGuyYouKill]

Fun game. Too short. Loved the gameplay. No, not traditional Splinter Cell. I'm looking forward to Blacklist. If they really can strike that balance between action and stealth and they really do allow you to play it your way, then fantastic.

 

[Derrick01]

Conviction is to Splinter Cell as Absolution is to Hitman

I like this one since the similarities of franchise ruining are pretty close. However I'd argue Absolution is much better Splinter Cell game than Conviction and Blacklist look to be. It nails the level design better but it has many of the same dumbed down problems Conviction does.

 

[Soulflarz]

Fun game. Too short. Loved the gameplay. No, not traditional Splinter Cell. I'm looking forward to Blacklist. If they really can strike that balance between action and stealth and they really do allow you to play it your way, then fantastic.

It wasnt traditional, but i was very LTTP so conviction i enjoyed more

 

[EYEL1NER]

That's a pretty lengthy RTTP, especially for a game that a lot of people hate. Impressive.

Anyway, I loved the game. I get why people who were diehard fans of SC would be disappointed but I enjoyed it a lot. I played stealthily the whole game and had a blast.
I liked the black and white visuals, the way information would be displayed on walls and stuff in front of you, the gadgets, the co-op...
I felt like it was solid title.

 

[Median]

Good post. I disliked this game at first, but I really started enjoying it once I stopped playing it like Chaos Theory. Deniable Ops co-op is fantastic too. A buddy and I have lost hours relaying levels and coordinating to get our routes right.

 

[calder]

Fun game. Too short. Loved the gameplay. No, not traditional Splinter Cell.

Agreed. Loved the Deniable Ops, and while it may be a bad "Splinter Cell" in some ways it's a great stealth/action game. Sure the plot was dumb and the series as a whole has fallen apart under the strain of so many twists but I liked the presentation fine. The last area of the game is pretty hilarious though.

One annoyance for me was I was unable to replay the SP completely from scratch like I wanted to. The stupid Ubi account shit remembered my upgrades and they carry over, so I wasn't really able to do it again and focus on new weapons.

 

[NotTheGuyYouKill]

That's a pretty lengthy RTTP, especially for a game that a lot of people hate. Impressive.

Anyway, I loved the game. I get why people who were diehard fans of SC would be disappointed but I enjoyed it a lot. I played stealthily the whole game and had a blast.
I liked the black and white visuals, the way information would be displayed on walls and stuff in front of you, the gadgets, the co-op...
I felt like it was solid title.

I absolutely adore this presentation aspect. It's such a small and minor thing, but I just love how it looks. Very unique.

I loved tearing through the enemies in a combination of melee and gunfire. They made the straight combat really fun.

 

[chickdigger802]

Wasn't this the one that was shit optimized on pc? I don't recall it being too offensive until that one sequence in the end where you had a time limit or something and had to run.

 

[Sober]

Yeah it definitely wasn't optimised too well but that was mostly at the start or certain areas with tons of scenery, which weren't combat areas. The chase segment wasn't much of a chase though, if that's what you were talking about.

 

[The Xtortionist]

Fucking awesome game. Not Splinter Cell at all, but it was amazing regardless. Probably one of the most empowering action games I've played. Cover transitions were bonkers.

 

[Derrick01]

Wasn't this the one that was shit optimized on pc? I don't recall it being too offensive until that one sequence in the end where you had a time limit or something and had to run.

Yup. It came out in early 2010 and I built a very high end PC in december that year and the game runs like shit with most settings turned on. Even with a lot of turning off, the game still can't maintain a stable 60 for me. It drops to 40 constantly.

 

[NotTheGuyYouKill]

Fucking awesome game. Not Splinter Cell at all, but it was amazing regardless. Probably one of the most empowering action games I've played. Cover transitions were bonkers.

Oh yeah, the cover system was pretty fantastic. Very well-implemented.

 

[SammiiDoogles]

I thought the game was pretty good. The co op was excellent, had a lot of fun with that.
Although, it doesn't hold a candle to Chaos Theory - which is easily the best in the series. The mechanics are so tight and polished and it's so focused throughout. Conviction took a lot of that tightness away with it's streamlining. It lost a lot of the fun of experimentation as well due to the levels being more linear.

Still - there was fun to be had with Conviction. The things I disliked about it as a Splinter Cell game are also things I liked about it as a game in a general sense. I love the slower methodical pace of previous games, but on the other hand I still enjoyed the faster paced, more aggressive gameplay of Conviction. For example the cover system was excellent and mark and execute - as easy at it made some parts - could be incredibly satisfying at times. I remember one scenario early on where I tagged up everyone in a room from under a doorway, then climbed around the outside, pulled a dude through the window and executed the 4 remaining dudes in the room. Very enjoyable.

It's definitely a different type of game but that doesn't mean it can't still be enjoyed for different reasons.

 

[ant_]

It was a really fun game, but not in the way I've come to expect from a Splinter Cell game.

 

[antitrop]

A game that mostly overcomes its flaws and triumphs as an enjoyable experience with a great sense of style.

 

[Akvod]

Completely ignoring gameplay (which I think is still terrible. Stealth games should make your character feel vulnerable to add tension, not give you the "option" to stealth), the story in Splinter Cell is ruined beyond repair.

Michael Ironside's own words: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL8aqy1z6c4

 

[Sojgat]

It would be a passable experience, if it wasn't for the constant transitions in and out of black and white. It's just the worst idea ever. The next worst was not even including the option to turn it off. Conviction still has one of the best cover systems in video games though, I'll give it that.

 

[Mileena]

The game that killed Splinter Cell. Horrible, horrible Splinter Cell game and not even a decent action game.

 

[Sober]

I thought the game was pretty good. The co op was excellent, had a lot of fun with that.
Although, it doesn't hold a candle to Chaos Theory - which is easily the best in the series. The mechanics are so tight and polished and it's so focused throughout. Conviction took a lot of that tightness away with it's streamlining. It lost a lot of the fun of experimentation as well due to the levels being more linear.

Still - there was fun to be had with Conviction. The things I disliked about it as a Splinter Cell game are also things I liked about it as a game in a general sense. I love the slower methodical pace of previous games, but on the other hand I still enjoyed the faster paced, more aggressive gameplay of Conviction. For example the cover system was excellent and mark and execute - as easy at it made some parts - could be incredibly satisfying at times. I remember one scenario early on where I tagged up everyone in a room from under a doorway, then climbed around the outside, pulled a dude through the window and executed the 4 remaining dudes in the room. Very enjoyable.

It's definitely a different type of game but that doesn't mean it can't still be enjoyed for different reasons.

Still early, but you might be interested in Blacklist though. It looks like it'll refine the stuff in Conviction, but the story mode was very contrary to traditional stealth where the world exists on its own without you, and you're the one disrupting the system for your own needs.

Co-op/Deniable Ops redeems it a bit.

 

[legacyzero]

I cant say I hated the SINGLE PLAYER portion. Decent story.

However I can say I hate the game, AND UBISOFT, for removing SPY versus Mercenary multiplayer from it. DAMN YOU Ubisoft.

 

[GAMERG0D]

I've never played a SC game before this one even though I have the first game. I enjoyed it a lot.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

Finally bought it on sale last year. Finished it. It was extremely meh.

 

[antitrop]

Even though I really enjoyed the game, it did pretty much kill Splinter Cell.

 

[TheSeks]

It was a really fun game, but not in the way I've come to expect from a Splinter Cell game.

Splinter Cell hasn't been Splinter Cell since Chaos Theory, I'm afraid.

Third Echelon's methods made use of "classical" methods of espionage powered by the latest technology for the aggressive collection of information. Splinter Cell operatives were recruited from the U.S. Special Forces communities of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force. They were then shaped into the "ultimate covert soldiers": specially-trained individuals capable of not only working alone in hostile environments, but of doing so without leaving a trace. Like a sliver of glass, a Splinter Cell was small, sharp, and nearly invisible. Thus, Third Echelon, a sub-agency of the NSA, consisted of an elite team of strategists, hackers, and field operatives that worked together as a team to respond to crises of information warfare with the highest degree of secrecy humanly possible.

However since Chaos Theory Sam is able to commit a small genocide in a level (with maybe 2-3 instances in 2-3 games where he is specially told "a kill will fail the mission!") with no punishment. At all.

Conviction doesn't punish you for wanting to genocide enemies, it actually WANTS you to do it with Mark and Execute and Sam's movement and the whole story/level. Chaos Theory/Double Agent at least had some stealth choice even if the action route didn't really make the game harder than the stealth route. Double Agent tried to "punish" in a sense by giving you less sticky shockers and "stealth" stuff for going balls-out murder-spree, but that didn't really "punish" players that wanted to go that way.

As it is, I have no faith Blacklist is going to go back to the Splinter Cell/Pandora Tomorrow "stealth no matter what" gameplay with breaking stealth making enemies refortify future areas and generally making the game harder to complete for Sam as punishment for breaking stealth. Yeah, SC/PT were a little too "trial and error"-y with linear halls, but goddamn it the game wanted you to stealth and not commit a small genocide in an IT building.

 

[ebullientprism]

Conviction burned me hard on the series. Upto CT it was probably my favorite series of last gen (up there with Halo). But DA (next gen versions) was a bit of a hit and miss game. And then Conviction pretty much drove it off a cliff.

There was a section where you escape a building thats falling down around you and you get infinite M&E IIRC. Just a long narrow hallway where you run around pressing Y, executing guards without really aiming or even trying and nothing else. Kinda like a perfect distilled micro version of what the game had become.

I would like to think that Blacklist will at least cater to classic SC fans if not make a game targeted towards them but I have a hard time believing that.

Edit I still remember the demo the developers did for SCC where they sneak through the parking garage to pretend that the game still had actual stealth elements. Right up there with 343 showing BR slayer in a Halo 4 MP trailer/vidoc.

 

[Messofanego]

I'll just leave this here

EMP room multikill (Anthony Burch)

Loved the movement and best cover system in a game, some cool in-game story moments like the end of the Third Echelon level. It became more fun when I just thought it was a badass simulator rather than a pure stealth game because not being able to drag bodies, use many gadgets, and levels not designed for ghosting made it more a chore than a challenge.

 

[eternaLightness]

The single player story is something you want to play through once and be done with it

Have to agree there. Found the game to be pretty boring. It had some nice ideas but taking away so much of the stealth element just killed it for me.

 

[AlphaStriker]

If the next Splinter Cell were to just be deniable ops missions, I would still buy it.

 

[moolhy]

Where can I get a sling bag like the one Sam has in the first picture? D:

 

[Messofanego]

Whoah, Nels Anderson, Ralph Colantonio, and Andy Schatz talking about stealth games? Gotta read that RPS column.

 

[cackhyena]

Yeah, this game was redeemed by Deniable Ops. Where the fuck is my SC that is on the bleeding edge of graphics? Guess I'll keep waiting for one of these to top CT...forever.

 

[Net_Wrecker]

Fucking awesome game. Not Splinter Cell at all, but it was amazing regardless. Probably one of the most empowering action games I've played. Cover transitions were bonkers.

The "point and click" cover animations were the best thing about the game. Everything else was mediocre. I won't even get started on the never ending unskippable conversations/interrogations.

 

[Messofanego]

After Mark of the Ninja, I would be fine with stealth games dying a quick, swift death in the mainstream market (where publishers don't see the appeal of them) and being relegated to the indie space.

Thief 4 won't likely meet any fan's expectations either even if I loved Human Revolution (not really for its stealth).

 

[Emarv]

This is actually one of my favorite action games of the generation. I loved old SC stealth gameplay, but as an action game, I really enjoy the flow of this one.

 

[antitrop]

BRB re-installing Mark of the Ninja.

 

[Strike]

Should've just been a new ip. Play Chaos Theory.

 

[bndadm]

I originally accepted Conviction as a one-off, being slightly different in tone and approach as Sam was in a different place in life and this was a fast-moving story of personal justice.

Spoiler

and then the whole EMP/White House ending happened

But I never felt I could actually be stealthy enough in Conviction. The way a lot of the levels were laid out seemed primarily to force you into confrontations. So I ended up tackling guards more head-on then trying to sneak around them. I dunno, I just couldn't get a hang of it. I think some of those choices were apparent in Double Agent (both Xbox/360) versions, but I still found ways to really enjoy them (Xbox version).

If we ever lose BC completely and can never play the Xbox version of Double Agent again, I'll be sad, but accept it. Conviction...I'll accept much easier, sadly.

 

[I NEED SCISSORS]

Absolutely dreadful game. Also:

 

[Messofanego]

BRB re-installing Mark of the Ninja.

New Game+, not being able to see behind you, no expanding sound circles, and smarter AI.

 

[LonelyGreyWolf]

I honestly really like this game. I've played through the single-player three times and I'd happily play through it again. Great controls and fun gameplay imo. Story is below average though.

 

[NotTheGuyYouKill]

Absolutely dreadful game. Also:

This actually wasn't too far off the mark.

 

[Beer Monkey]

Co-op in SCCT was the pinnacle of the series.

 

[Neuromancer]

Absolutely dreadful game. Also:

Another good one.

Overall I really liked the game. I wish Deniable Ops had a mode where you could stealth through without having to kill every single guard, kind of like Recon mode from the first Ghost Recon game.

 

[Ephemeris]

I loved Conviction; wish it had even more Co-OP stuff

 

[Ominym]

This game made me really sad. Splinter Cell is one of my favorite franchises in gaming, dating all the way back to the first one. Chaos Theory truly was the apex of the franchise, which is all the more evident with Blacklist this year.

It's a damn shame that we couldn't have kept something unique and instead are forced to endure another brown action game.

 

[Onikaan]

I thoroughly enjoyed Conviction. Friends and I played Deniable-Ops to death.

It's strange, I've played every Splinter Cell game and I wouldn't say I held Conviction in any kind of contempt. It was another Splinter Cell game.

Interested to see what Blacklist can do. Game looks smooth.

 

[Eideka]

Another good one.

This is pure gold.

 

[Ivan 3414]

Good topic, OP. I was expecting a lot more unnecessary bashing, but there are fair criticisms here. Conviction is still a pretty good game. There were just some gameplay choices that undermined the stealth mechanics, i.e. little to no silent equipment, not being able to carry bodies after knocking them out, etc.

Splinter Cell hasn't been Splinter Cell since Chaos Theory, I'm afraid.

I'm assuming you haven't played the original Xbox version of Double Agent.

 

[Alcoholikaust]

it was good, but by no means was it as good as Chaos Theory.

I liked the "speed kills to be stealthy" like a Bourne movie in playable form tho. so I guess I enjoy the gameplay.

but it doesent have my friends great soundtrack (Amon)

doesent really have good level variety (IMO)

and the story is a little lost on me.. no spoilers but in the first few minutes of Conviction I kept saying "really?...REALLY?" for a while.

very similar how I felt when I played the first 5 minutes of colonial marines... you are going to base your story around something people who follow your games/storyline and turn it on its ass for the sale of this game? that's stupid.