Splinter Cell: Conviction Review

Written 05/03/2010

Note: This is for the PC version of the game. Screenshot and video taken on my machine.

I'm sure some of you have followed the ongoing development of Splinter Cell Conviction since its revealing 3 or 4 years ago. You may remember it used to look, feel, and probably play a lot differently than what has recently been shown. The game has gone through countless delays and even a complete overhaul from the ground up. After all of that, it's finally here. Has the wait been worth it?

Visuals and Presentation

Considering that Conviction is made in what I would be willing to bet is Unreal Engine 3, Ubisoft had a lot to work with in the visuals department. Character models, environments, texturing, and lighting are mostly pretty good, with a low resolution texture popping up on very rare occasion. The bullet trail effects, lighting, and general blur effects are particularly nice. The most original concept is by far how the lighting effects tie in to the stealth mechanics of the game. In past Splinter Cell titles, when you entered a dark area, you knew that the enemy could not see you if you could not see Sam Fisher on screen without night-vision being enabled. While this makes for a more authentic stealth experience, it can at times make visibility, and thus gameplay, a serious issue. To resolve this, Ubisoft added a feature that makes the screen black and white when you are appropriately hidden in darkness. As you move into more lit areas the screen begins to fill with more and more color until everything is in full-color. Obviously you are most visible in this state, so it would be advisable to quickly find cover. This makes some areas of the game quite nerve-wracking because nearly every enemy has a flashlight attached to their weapons. You'll be slightly startled at least once when you're hiding in complete darkness and your screen suddenly flashes with color as an enemy's flashlight moves over your general area.

My biggest complaint with the visuals has to be the facial animations. The lip syncing is terrible to the point of there being little mouth movement actually forming the spoken words. Facial expressions are also very limited beyond Sam's serious and cautious glare. Except for those things though, Conviction's visual package is pretty solid.

Visuals and Presentation Rating:

Sound

The sound in Conviction is not what you would expect simply for the contents of the voice acting. The dialog is mostly well written and performed with every applicable voice actor from previous Splinter Cell titles reprising their roles excellently. Weapon and ambient sounds are also done well. The music is a great mix of quiet, suspenseful, and intense tracks that do their jobs very well and can at times be a bit catchy. What drags down Conviction's sound though is the extreme vulgarity throughout the entire game. To put it simply, the language in Conviction makes Grand Theft Auto IV look tame. When engaging enemies, you'll hear something along the lines of “die you mother #^%@ing son of a #%^*)! piece of %*#( mother $!%#er!” every 5-10 seconds. It is so pervasive and unnecessary throughout the entire game that it becomes highly offensive. Seriously Ubisoft...why?

Sound Rating:

Gameplay

This is a Splinter Cell game, and you probably already know what the gameplay mostly entails if you've played any of the previous entries. This is a stealth game at its core, but Conviction adds a great deal of action to the mix typically unseen in the franchise. In previous Splinter Cell entries, the pace of the game was very slow, methodical, and required a great deal of awareness and planning. In Conviction, Sam Fisher's speed and agility have dramatically increased without taking away the necessity of being aware and properly planning how to clear out a room. Sam will need this extra speed to avoid the many bullets flying at him. Like it or not, Sam Fisher is nothing like Solid Snake and can never hope to be. If Sam gets shot three or four times, he dies, plain and simple. Your best options are to sneak and use the environment to get the jump on the enemy.

To help you do just that, Ubisoft has added two new features to the mix. First is the Last Known Position. When Sam is seen, a white, ghost-like silhouette appears at his position. When he ducks behind cover again, the silhouette remains in that same place indicating your last known position to the enemy. They will then quickly move in on that position, but if you're quick enough you can maneuver yourself around them without being seen and ambush them from behind. You could also employ the second new feature, the Mark & Execute, to quickly take care of many enemies at once. To do this, Sam finds a suitable enemy and “marks” him. After marking as many target as your current weapon will allow, position Sam where all of the mark icons you've placed are red and tap the execute button. Sam will then take out every one of your marks in a stylish yet efficient manner within two seconds. You may be thinking right about now “if I can just Mark & Execute everyone that makes the game too easy”, and you would be right. Fortunately though, you can only use Mark & Execute after successfully taking out an enemy with a melee attack; which is not always the easiest thing to do and live to tell about it.

Outside of the single-player campaign there are Deniable Ops missions and online co-op. Deniable Ops missions are separated between a search-and-destroy gametype and a gametype similar to a tower defense mini-game. Each are fun, but are a little limited when it comes to map selection. Then there's the online offerings, and part of the biggest issue this game faces. If you want to try out the multiplayer just as much as I do, you can't. You heard me right...you can't! The game will have been out a week tomorrow and the Ubisoft servers are STILL not allowing ANY connectivity to the online portion of the game. Not only is this completely unacceptable, it makes the game a complete rip-off! I paid $60 expecting multiplayer, and I want my multiplayer dangit! Then there's the abominable DRM (Digital Rights Management) measures Ubisoft has put in place to prevent the game from being pirated. Basically, Ubisoft is requiring that you be connected to the internet at all times to play the game; even in single-player. This wouldn't be so bad if the Ubisoft servers wouldn't randomly crash and make your game completely stop until the connection is reestablished. Come on people, I PAID for the game! You don't need a constant connection to verify that I do indeed own what I'm playing! Think of the needless bandwidth you're using to do this too! If anything, this will likely encourage piracy just to avoid your out of hand watchdog tactics! I haven't even touched the technical issues of the game yet! On at least 5 occasions the game crashed to the desktop and completely froze my whole machine twice, forcing me restart it via the power button on my tower. A patch needs to be released to fix all of this very soon, or I may actually consider seeking a partial refund for all of this! I should really make a Hitler rant parody on the topic.

Gameplay Rating:

Story

WARNING: Spoiler Alert!

This is the first Splinter Cell title that I know of in which the story is a direct sequel of the game right before it. If you want the back story of Conviction, read the Story section of my Double Agent review. Conviction picks up with Sam Fisher following a lead on finding his daughter's killer. Without giving too much away, the story quickly moves from a revenge tale to a national conspiracy involving a presidential assassination. While the story is decently written, I did feel like it jumped from point to point with little cohesion at times. This was fairly rare though. I also felt that Sam was very cooperative with whoever was ordering him around at the time given that he constantly asserted that he is an unwilling participant in the events around him. Overall though, this is one of the best stories of the series and worth at least a peek into it.

Story Rating:

Replay Value

Considering that single-player campaign is only 9 hours long, Deniable Ops are limited in their maps and gametypes, multiplayer does not work at all, and the outrageous DRM makes the game unlaunchable at times, and Conviction's replay value is hardly nothing. Deniable Ops are fun, but only prove to be a temporary distraction. The single-player was also good, but not really worth a second replay unless you really enjoyed it. Multiplayer is completely unavailable, but if it was available, it would probably increase Conviction's replay value dramatically. So until a major patch is released...

Replay Value Rating:

Final Thoughts and Overall Score

It's not that Conviction is a bad game by any stretch. It has mostly solid gameplay, but suffers from too many technical issues than I care to think about. The fact that you can't even connect to the multiplayer is a huge turn off for me; especially if a patch that fixes this is not released soon. If you want to be able to play the multiplayer right now, I would suggest purchasing the 360 version of the game. If you want the PC version though, well, you have been warned.

Splinter Cell: Conviction Overall Score:

Minimum system requirements:

OS: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7

Processor: 1.8 GHz Intel Core2 Duo or 2.4 GHz AMD Athlon X2 64

Memory: 1.5 GB Windows XP / 2 GB Windows Vista, Windows 7

Graphics: 256 MB DirectX 9.0c–compliant video card (512 MB recommended) (see supported list*) DirectX®: DirectX 9.0c

Hard Drive: 10 GB

Sound: DirectX 9.0c–compliant sound card

Peripherals Supported: Mouse, keyboard, headset, 12-button gamepads with analog sticks

Internet Connection: Broadband Internet connection

*Supported Video Cards at Time of Release:

NVIDIA GeForce 7800 / 7900 / 8 / 9 / GTX series

ATI RADEON X1800 / X1900 / HD 2000 / HD 4000 / HD 5000 series

ATI HD 3000 NOT supported at time of release.

Laptop versions of these cards may work but are NOT supported. These chipsets are the only ones that will run this game.