Back in 2007 the 9th instalment in the Splinter Cell series which would see Sam Fisher go from grizzled spy to “Grizzly” in an attempt to reinvent the franchise with having Sam Fisher going rogue and putting an emphasis on the crowd control that Assassin’s Creed was at the time going to bring to the table. About a year and a half later the game went back to the drawing board and took a different yet familiar approach harkening back to the games past instalments and what we find here is a nicely styled spy thriller with streamlined gameplay that unfortunately suffers from some misuse in later stages of the single player campaign.
The story to Conviction branches off from an early point in Double Agent. Sam’s daughter, Sarah, has been killed by a drunk driver and this has driven Sam off the rails. He leaves Third Echelon after he hears that his daughter death may not have been an accident. Before too long, he his contacted by his old friend, Anna Grimsdottir who asks him to investigate what the new director of Third Ecelon, Tom Reed, is up to so that he can find some answers to his daughter’s death. The story is very nicely stylized with projections of flashbacks and mission objectives as well as some decent twists and solid voice work even though it’s 7-8 hours in length it's one hell of a ride that is also bolstered by a separate co-op campaign which is 5-6 hours and acts as a prequel with an awesome endgame and fills in the back story to how Tom Reed’s plans were enacted in the first place.
The gameplay to Conviction has become more streamlined and shooter heavy then previous Splinter Cells especially the Mark & Execute system which lets you tag up to 4 enemies (depending on what gun you’re using) and press the Y button to dispatch them with headshots. The system looks awesome and is nicely balanced due to the fact that to gain another execute you have to make a hand to hand kill. Although unrealistic you can appreciate why this was implemented. The sneaking aspect is still there with new mechanics like the Last Known Position which shows a ghostly silhouette where the enemies last saw you and think that your still there but the main thing that has undergone change is that in previous Splinter Cells it was a struggle to fight back if you were caught, in Conviction this has been addressed but at the same time it causes problems later on in the game because the shooting controls have been improved it gets to the point it is too much of a temptation to just shoot guys in the head when they’re not looking without using the Mark and Execute it’s one of my bug bears of Conviction considering when Sam takes out a group of enemies and comments on his own performance such as a quote ‘And that’s how it’s done’ it feels a bit like cheating. It also becomes a frustrating experience in the endgame stage when the game actively puts you in position where you have to treat it like a 3 person shooter and considering you have Batman: Arkham Asylum health you can see where my frustration is coming from.
Conviction is also sporting a multiplayer mode, gone are the Spy vs Mercs mode from previous games Conviction goes for a different approach. For starters there is a Co-op campaign as mentioned before but now there is Hunter which is the same as terrorist hunt from Rainbow Six Vegas only you and your friend compete against each other for the most takedowns. Face off which is spy vs spy while AI enemies infest the map. Last stand which is has you and you partner defend a generator and if you have some Uplay points available you can unlock Infiltration mode, in which you and a friend have to infiltrate a building without any alarms going off. All of them work fine with the main attraction being the co-op campaign which when played with team tactics can make you feel like the most efficient tag-team ever with the ever deadly double team executions which if both of you unlock a pistol called the Five-Seven will allow you and you friend to takedown 8 enemies at a time.
Conviction’s presentation is decent by today’s standards even more so with the style by using projections of objectives and flashbacks to the screen going black and white when in darkness. The sound is on fine form. Music is used appropriately, echoes in pipelines (especially when enemies are shouting) and some other sharp noises used to let you know when someone is about to see you, when you have an execute ready and when a projection is displayed. Suffice to say it certainly gets the job done and done well.
Although Conviction’s gameplay stumbles a little over the final hurdle, the new style and streamlined mechanics really breathe new life into this franchise and I’m interested in seeing where it’ll go from here. Hopefully the next of Sam Fisher’s adventures will be a little longer but this new framework is a great new direction for the franchise and hopefully a prosperous one.- UKSamwise