Overall:6.8/10
Purchase Value:3/10
Replay Value:4/10
Presentation:9/10
Gameplay:8/10
Graphics:8.5/10
Audio:8/10
Purchase Value:3/10
Replay Value:4/10
Presentation:9/10
Gameplay:8/10
Graphics:8.5/10
Audio:8/10
Let's start this review out by coining a few terms, which I will describe later on within the review: porcelain punches; fragile interrogations; and in-game flashback integration.
An avid Splinter Cell fan may want to purchase this game, and may as well since the collector's edition is the same price as the original edition (which was the case when I purchased the game), due to a problem with the extra material (the usb content stick). But in all actuality, the game does not have the longest storyline, approximately 6 hours, and the coop feature lacks heavily. I dislike when developers place coop in games and make it have no relevance to the storyline. Games should follow the coop (and even the lengthy storyline) format of Borderlands; that's how all games should be done... it's basically perfection! Although I purchased this game (I traded it in instantly), I would personally recommend renting the game and just pumping through it as fast as possible; that's only if you are skilled and proficient enough at gaming and consider yourself a gaming sharc!
Some positive remarks about this game would be that it has a straight forward narrative for the most part; trying to find your 'told to be' dead daughter who isn't actually dead, which all eventually conspires into a masterful plan to kill the president, all dragging you back into special ops as an agent. The game then uses in-game playable flashback mission in order to advance the narrative, such as seen with the mission in Iraq and so forth. The rest of the game is told through 'in-game flashback integration,' which first of all allows you to have never played any other Splinter Cell game and still know what's going on, and second progresses the narrative in a interestingly aesthetic and visual way. It was really neat to display the flashback on the walls and such, instead of jumping to a cut scene. It was slightly weird though when words would display on the walls which were currently on the mind of Sam (the main character in the game). We already know that Sam wants to save his daughter... it doesn't have to display what's on his mind in a relentless way... we all got those facts clear straight from the beginning. What was very interesting though was the use of location markers. When Sam would visit a new area in the world, it would project the location such as The White House in big writing on the ground or a wall. Now I found this same feature used in the recent movie The Losers (White 2010), and loved how it was done! It was simple, and not overly used, which allowed for it to produce a perfect scene establishment thoughout the movie. Now in Conviction, it did this as well, but when most of the flashback were projected onto the walls, alongside Sam's thoughts, and location markers... it became overwhelming and simply confusing. Not to mention the fact that the wall video flashbacks were hard to make out in the first place.
In addition, the interrogation methods had there ups and downs. It was neat that everything in the confines of your interrogation room, no matter where it be, was usable. Very similar to any new Wrestling game; the entire environment has a certain interaction available. In each interrogation though, there seemed to be a some sort of porcelain in the midst, and sam would always place the victims face against the porcelain and punch their face directly through it. These are what I call the 'Porcelain Punches.' In the beginning they were fun, but then lost their value, once used so many times. Now with the hand to hand combat, Sam would be too nice at times. It was as though he never actually wanted to hurt the victim; "I don't want to hurt you, so I'll push you ever so gently with my gun butt." I want to see the person being interrogated or attacked, be pistol whipped if there is a gun in Sam's hand, none of this skirting around the situation; it's your newly discovered daughter's life at risk here... get with it Sam!
Some other nice features in the game, were the "Mark and Execute," allowing a room to be cleared quickly, as well as the "Last Known Position." With this feature, a white outline of where you last were would appear when no longer visible, but sometimes it would throw off my game plan more than anything. The figure would appear around where I still was at the moment and then I could barely see the enemies which I was trying to attack; really aggravating. This feature did work very nicely when manoeuvring around window sills. I would purposely be seen to draw an enemy to a window, move aside, then crawl back when he arrived, and then pull him out; it worked perfectly.
Now there were some problems with the game itself, where video's wouldn't load and would instantly reset my system, making me fearful of the three rings of death. I eventually got around it by mashing buttons, eventually skipping the video all together. That's okay though because the narrative was simple and easily understood. Also when it got to the part where you had to protect the computer (the massive touch screen panel) from being touched by enemies, the entire game slowed right down, making it hard to actually fight the enemies. I had to redo it a couple times, and each time it had the same problem; that was probably the most challenging part of the game (it was no purposely placed Matrix slow-motion ability... it was just a glitch in the game which I didn't appreciate at all!)
In summation, the game was too short, the narrative jumped randomly to the presidents assassination, the coop lacked, it used similar black and white to colour aesthetics of The Saboteur (but for this it was seen and not being seen in stead of Nazi occupation), and it didn't require that you had any previous knowledge of the Splinter Cell series. So all in all, buy if you have the flow, but it's a recommended rent! I know that the commercial for this game does an incredible job selling it, similar to Gears of War, but just be careful, you may get disappointed.
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