When a game series reaches the fifth installment, chances are you would have been there, seen that, and done that. It takes a special type of developer to throw everything out of the window and start over, often losing fans because the game changed too much. Developers would far too often rely on the winning formula to release a boring update to a series. Ubisoft Montreal was about to do just that. Thankfully they realized at some point during development that the same recipe will not work. They then started all over again, and rather than baking the same recipe, decided to refine it using the best ingredients. They added a bit more spice and a lot of flair. They added some time and let it bake a little longer. Was the end result worth the wait? Or was this concoction a flop?

Sam Fisher has been off the radar for quite a while. The often delayed Splinter Cell: Conviction follows on from Double Agent, and after Sam had to kill his best friend and lost his daughter, he has had enough. No more spy business and no more assassination business. But like all things spy, you simply cannot hide. While in Malta he is inevitably drawn into a plot that involves his former company, his former colleagues and his former friends. Reluctantly he follows his instincts and saves the world. Again. But this time he, the hunter, becomes the hunted.

Bedtime stories

The story may not be very original, but contains enough moments to make it enjoyable nonetheless. Certain classic set pieces allow for genuinely cinematic scenes, while others can feel a little old and tired. To spice it up a bit it is filled with flashbacks and a few flash forwards. It helps to know the history of the series, but luckily a lot is explained during the game to not leave you completely guessing as to what has happened before.

The Splinter Cell series has always been about stealth, gadgets and Sam Fisher. I am happy to let you know that nothing has changed in that department. This is still a clear cut Splinter Cell game. Sam Fisher is a bit older now. He has fewer gadgets, but uses what he has very well. On top of that he also has a few new tricks up his sleeve, the kind of tricks you can only learn over time on your own. How do you interrogate a suspect now that you don’t report to anybody anymore?

Stealth is still the biggest feature. Staying in the shadows and out of sight turns the game into black and white, yet Sam’s targets remain in colour. This subtle way of letting you know that you are hidden blends really well and never feels distracting. If no shadows are around, it’s advisable to create your own by taking out any lights in the area. You can also take cover behind objects, and the cover system works very well with indicators showing you not only where you can run to next, but also which way you can face when you get there.

The sound of silence

When in the shadows or behind cover you can perform silent hand to hand kills on your enemies. These silent kills are not only a nice quiet way of taking down your enemies, but also reward you with an Execute. Executes allow you to mark a number of targets and then execute them all with a single button. This is the perfect incentive to drive you to take enemies down silently as opposed to using a single bullet to the head from some distance. Some enemies also wear protective headwear so it will take more than one bullet to bring them down.

The amount of enemies that can be marked is determined by your weapon. Weapons can now be upgraded at Weapon Stations, allowing you to spend some skill points on silencers, bigger magazines or more marks. Gadgets like grenades can also be upgraded with a bigger explosion radius. Somewhere along the story Sam is also equipped with sonar goggles, allowing him to see through thinner walls and marking enemies in the next room. Alternatively he can mark them be peeking under doors. Weapons differ in their range and level of damage, but often the difference is minimal and the only factor for choosing a weapon is whether it is new and whether it is silenced. Unsilenced weapons (is that not simply “loud” weapons?) create only chaos and alert all enemies to your whereabouts. In a game where a single bullet can kill, this is not a good thing!

The best weapon in the game has to be Sam’s agility. Climbing up the side of a building, crawling underneath tables, Sam has the ability to sneak up to targets from any angle. Hanging outside a third story window, Sam can grab them and pull them out to their death. Or balancing on a ledge he can jump on them, dealing his effective “Death from Above.” He also interrogates targets to get more information from them. Rather than just threaten them, Sam will now go all Jack Bauer on them with a bit more convincing tactics. He will use special objects in the level to torture them a little. He will use their head to rearrange a desk’s ornaments, or change the television’s channel with their forehead. An interrogation will almost always lead to the targets death.

Leaving bodies will alert the poor henchmen’s buddies to your presence, so choosing when and where to take them out becomes critical. A dead body cannot be interacted with, you cannot move the body or hide it in any surrounding closets or bins. This forces you to rethink a few strategies. A bit of Hitman-style dragging and hiding would have allowed more freedom to develop your own strategies. But then again, Sam is not the garbage man. Instead you can grab a target from behind and move him to a dark and secret spot with a gun to his head. Only then do you have to kill him, thus leaving the body out of site.

The writing is on the wall

Splinter Cell: Conviction uses a very interesting way to point you to your objectives. Rather than having to switch to your PDA or help menu, your objectives will be big bright projections on buildings and other surrounding objects. For instance, if you need to enter a big factory, Sam will see “Infiltrate the factory” written in big projected letters on the side of the factory in question. This artfully ties in with some of Sam’s memories as they play out as projected movies in certain rooms. It feels very cinematic and adds great atmosphere.

The single player game will take you less than 10 hours to complete, even on the hardest difficulty setting. Luckily Ubisoft has integrated a great co-op system that allows you to play a whole campaign with a friend, either via split-screen, Xbox Live or system link. Rather than rehashing the single player campaign with a second player, the co-op campaign is a whole prologue to the events that lead to Sam’s story. Archer, a 3rd Echelon operative, teams up with a Voron operative named Kestrel. The two have some really cool banter during play. With big levels filled with enemies, the two former rivals team up and can either rush through violently and loudly, or decide to go slow and take their time. Both ways are perfectly good options and further expand the play time, but if you and your partner don’t agree the game will be over all too soon.

You can revive your fallen comrade, during which time the fallen character can either remain down, or he can sit up and keep shooting. This will make him a target though, and if shot the mission will be over. You can mark targets for your co-op partner, and this allows for dual execution, a handy party trick when outnumbered and surrounded. A horde mode named Last Stand is also included and has you defending an objective while wave after wave of armed enemies try to take it over. Finally we have a versus mode called Face Off which sees you against not only another agent, but also lots of enemy AI around the level. Combined, these modes add hours of extra fun and should be good to play months after the single player campaign has been finished.

Graphically Splinter Cell is a very good example of what modern consoles are capable of. It is not flashy, and it is not the best feature of the game. But it performs its task so admirably well that you never even notice how good it really is. And so it scores full marks. The animations are smooth, the sound and music is brilliant, and the voice acting leaves you wondering why Michael Ironside is not in more games.

Splinter Cell: Conviction will be more suitable to the patient gamer who likes to plan and then execute. Yet the multiplayer and even some levels of the single player will also cater for the action generation of quick kills and big explosions. It plays really well and has no real flaws that will detract from your experience. It would appear as though this game was baked just long enough and with all the right ingredients. It comes highly recommended for any salted veteran and newbie alike.

The good: Best parts of Bourne movies, 24 and Taken all rolled into one.
The bad: It’s over all too soon!
The ugly: Sam is too good to drag a few bodies into cover?

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