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I will start this off by being honest.  I have never finished a Splinter Cell game before this.  I tried on multiple occasions to get through the first Splinter Cell title, the Pandora Tomorrow title, and even Double Agent.  Most times I would end up stuck in some situation where I was out of ammo, surrounded by tangos and not have a way out of the game short of restarting.  I often found that the level of stealth required to get through the game was almost insurmountable, reminding me of the old PC game Thief verses something more modern with technology on my side.

Needless to say, I was skeptical about yet another Splinter Cell title being added to the franchise.  Overall the Tom Clancy name was being diluted by Ubisoft and the name was being put on tons of IPs.  Was this going to just be another in a line of rehashed titles for Ubisoft?  Obviously I stayed my hand, and waited until well after release to see how the public as a whole reacted.  The trailers had looked interesting, with much more action than previous titles, but I wasn’t going to let myself be swayed into buying Splinter Cell Conviction right out of the gate.

Then of course, I had a free night to play online with a friend, and got a copy of the game off ebay (used).  This revision of Splinter Cell gave me a whole new appreciation for the series.  Gone were the long levels of making sure you weren’t seen, and limited resources.  It was actually FUN.  This game did for the stealth genre what Mass Effect did for RPGs.  SCC gives a whole new take on the one man stealth army, with hand to hand eliminations which load up a meter so you can mark targets and take them down in execution succession, better gadgets and a unique black and white system to show when you are hidden.  I loved it.  We spent a good 6 hours that night playing through the co-op campaigns on normal.  A couple weeks later we went through them all again on realistic and finished it out in about half that time.  The game was good, and I was inclined to play it.

Over the next month or so I finished out the storyline.  The details and fleshing out of the background story were satisfying enough for me, though only borderline plausible.  Let’s not kid ourselves though, this is a superhero action game, who’s really looking for a scientifically correct story?   Throughout the game, you are mostly at the same capability level, with the unlocking of certain skills or gadgets occurring over time.  For the most part, you are just Sam Fisher: Bad-ass extraordinaire.

One aspect I really enjoyed about the game was using the surrounding walls or buildings as a backdrop for cut scenes or objectives.  One time, I was chasing a target through a crowd and he ducked into a tent.  As I passed it a bit of texts over-layed on a truck near me saying “He’s still in the tent!”.  Excellent use of the environment to keep yourself involved in the story and engaged.

There are great challenges within the game that give you point credits so you can upgrade your arsenal or gear, which adds a little bit of RPG mechanic to the otherwise stealth shooter series.  I tried to get the bulk of the challenges (PECs) but lost interest before finishing out any full set.  The amount of time required to complete all sets is fairly intensive and I had other fish to fry with my copy of Crackdown 2 sitting there taunting me (read: orbs).

For me, this was the first Splinter Cell game I actually enjoyed playing.  Even hard core fans of the series have had greats things to say about it.  Though it is a deviation from the previous trend of the series, I feel it is for the best.  Taking in Rainbow Six: Vegas elements into the Sam Fisher universe really helped round out the game and gives a much fuller experience than the previous iterations.  There are many hours of game play available in this game and I’m almost sad to move on to another.  I likely put about 20 hours into SCC, which is pretty good for a modern shooter game.  The co-op elements shine brightly in the Deniable Ops part of the game, while the single-player makes you yearn to solve the mystery around your missing daughter and the conflicting emotions of revenge.  If you are a fan of Splinter Cell in general, this is a shoe-in for you.  If you like semi-stealth shooters and tactics, dive in.  Most shooter fans should enjoy this as well.  However, if you only like car racing games…well…you might want to pass.

- Ben Mazhary-Clark

1 Comment »

  1. nice article, keep the posts coming

    Comment by fenderbirds — October 18, 2010 @ 9:52 am

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