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The problem isn’t that the game tries to be a stealthy third-person shooter (an oxymoron if there ever was one), but that it ends up with flaws from both genres and strengths of neither. But it’s not all a waste; there are things that have improved considerably for the series, not the least of which is storytelling. A genuine effort has been made to put a human face to Sam Fisher. It’s not exactly at the Bioware level, and it does feel like the writers overdosed on 24 at times, but compared to the generic tripe we usually get in Tom Clancy games, the story in this one is actually enjoyable. It certainly kept me interested enough to finish it when the gameplay had turned me off.
So changes made to the storytelling work, but changes made to the gameplay are more of a mixed bag. The first thing that strikes you is how much the game now relies on cover instead of darkness to stay hidden from enemies. The whole mechanic is a mixture of Rainbow Six: Vegas cover, and Gears of War-style movement. To the games credit, the whole thing is implemented very solidly. Moving from cover to cover feels slick and after getting used to the controls, you can slide in and out almost instinctively.
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The AI is barely competent most of the time. Then you throw in the ‘last known position’ mechanism and they switch from stupid mode to ‘I will watch this blank spot till you kill me’ mode. Basically, the last known position mode works like this – if an enemy spots you, a ghost of your last known position lights up on the screen. And then all the enemies converge on that position to stare at that ghost until you decide to put them out of their misery. In fact, it skews the odds in your favour so much that in some tough scenarios, being seen and having a ghost on screen is better than being hidden. Another questionable thing in the AI this time is the ability to hear. It’s not entirely missing, but 9 times out of 10, you can simply run up full speed behind the enemies, and take them out without worrying about them hearing you.
To totally mess up any sense of balance, the game hands you a silenced pistol that never runs out of ammo in the first mission. After three or four missions, you will start carrying around 18 grenades in your inventory at any given time. In fact, in the last few missions, you carry around 20 grenades with you. And if you somehow happen to run out of them, there are ammo stashes placed around levels, where you can pick up more. Any firefight that takes places close to an ammo stash is pitifully short because you can just spam grenades till everyone is dead and then refill from the ammo stash.
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In addition to all of that, you have the ‘mark and execute’ ability. If you take out an enemy with a melee kill, you can mark 2-3 targets and Sam will automatically take them all out with a headshot without you even having to aim the gun. About halfway through the game, you get sonar goggles that let you see and mark enemies through walls. With all of that skewing the odds in your favour, you would think that the whole game would end up being a cakewalk. And perhaps Ubisoft realised that too. So they started coming up with ways to increase the difficulty; most of them blatantly cheap and unfair. The biggest one is spamming you with enemies, and the game ambushes you at certain points in every other level. This becomes almost a norm in the last level, where every other room is an ambush waiting to happen.
The developers must also have known that darkness will make things even easier for you, so they put too many lights in almost every area to shoot out. It is a bit disconcerting (especially as a long time fan of the series) to walk into a small area and find it lit up with 15-20 small lights. Do you really have the patience to go around shooting them undetected just to make a path for yourself? It’s far less tedious to just kill every one. And in the most blatantly cheap move to up the difficulty, some of the enemies later on in the game take multiple headshots to kill, while you can barely take a few rounds before you go down.
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But even with the game taking potshots at you (and your patience), you will still easily zip through the single player campaign in under six hours. There are few memorable moments in the campaign, so even though you can finish it in quick time, you’ll still greet the ending with a sigh or relief, so you can move over to the multi-player side of things.
Next page: Multi-player & IVG Verdict
And not a moment too soon, because multi-player is where all the fun is. The game features a separate co-op campaign, which is fairly lengthy and extremely enjoyable. Granted most of the complaints about the single player are just as valid for the co-op missions, but the ability to co-ordinate with your friend, to plan out an attack, and then to botch it all up in execution and blame each other never gets old. The co-op campaign levels also feel better designed than the single player levels. And there are multiple checkpoints throughout each level so that you don’t have to start from scratch if you want to take a break.
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Aside from the co-op campaign, there are other multi-player modes available. Hunter plays out like terrorist hunt from Rainbow Six: Vegas, but it has its own twist on things. You start each part of the level with a set number of enemies to eliminate. However, if you set off an alarm, the number of enemies doubles up immediately. It’s a fairly decent incentive to stay hidden and quiet. Infiltration mode (unlocked from Uplay) is similar to Hunter, the only difference being that you have to eliminate hostiles without being detected. And as with all the other multi-player game types, it can be played with a friend in split-screen or over Xbox LIVE. The last co-op mode is Last Stand. It’s probably the least interesting of them all as its simply defending a generator from hordes of enemies.
Face-off is the only competitive multi-player mode available. Sadly, it’s restricted to two players, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s ridiculously fun. You and your opponent are thrown into a map alongside a bunch of enemy AI. The objective is to rack up points by killing each other and the AI enemies. It’s faster paced than the other game modes and it’s extremely addictive and fun. The only downside to all the multi-player modes is that they share the same maps.
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There are some other minor issues worth mentioning. The game uses a checkpoint save system, and while this works fine most of the time, there are occasionally lengthy segments that you will end up replaying because of the lack of a checkpoint. Thankfully, it doesn’t happen too often and it’s mostly restricted to co op. Also, at times, Sam will shoot people through walls when using mark and execute, which makes it feel a bit glitchy. And there are a lot of sound loops from enemies, especially when last known position comes into play. They will just stand there, staring at your ghost, repeating the same line endlessly. Lastly, the game uses a black and white filter to show that you are hidden. It’s a bit annoying at first, but you get used to it soon enough. However, because of the filter, it can be a bit hard to know when you are about to move into a well lit area.
Visually, the game is just about competent. It doesn’t look great, but it’s not a poor looking game either. It’s a shame, because Splinter Cell games always used to be at the cutting edge of technology, so watching this jaggy, average looking game can be a stark reminder of how things have changed. Things fare better in the sound department. Most voiceovers are good and the music is excellent at times. All in all, it’s nothing exceptional but nothing much to complain about either.
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Conclusion
All things considered, I still think the game is worth a look, but only for the multi-player. As far as the single player is concerned, may be simplified games are the order of the day now, and maybe there is no room today for games that require any sort of lateral thinking or forward planning. But even judged by those absurdly low standards, Conviction doesn’t acquit itself too well. Its shortcomings are too apparent, regardless of its pedigree or which genre you consider the game to be a part of.
But I can’t honestly blame Ubisoft for trying to change things either. Consider this an experiment. It didn’t work, but at least there was an attempt to try something new. After all, without the shortcomings of Assassins Creed, we wouldn’t have had the astoundingly good sequel. So maybe this is a pit stop on the road to better things. But as things stand, Splinter Cell: Conviction isn’t a place you would remember fondly once you are back on the road.
(+) Excellent co-op campaign
(+) Fun multi-player modes
(+) Improved storytelling and presentation
(-) Bland, boring single player
(-) Poor AI
(-) Some cheap difficulty spikes
Title: Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction
Developer/Publisher: Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft
Genre: Action
Rating: 18
Platforms: PC (Rs 999), Xbox 360 (Rs 2,499)
Reviewed on: Xbox 360
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