Splinter Cell Conviction – Review – Xbox 360

What causes a man to lose his temper? Will people push him to the boiling point where he just starts killing anyone and everyone, letting their fake gods sort them out when they pass on? Sam Fisher tempts fate once again in this years newest adventure from Ubisoft.

Story: Fueled by the loss of his daughter, Sam Fisher sets out to find her killer. As he finds the person responsible for it, he learns that the bad guy is just a pawn in the big picture. The REAL enemy is the company known as Third Echelon, the company he works for.

Gameplay: You are playing a third-person shooter, as Sam Fisher or Vic, depending on which level you are on (Vic in 1 level). The point of the game is either to eliminate the opposition or sneak by them to pass levels. The easier way to do this would be to sneak by, but sometimes the path is not that well mapped out. There are many ways to do the same level. Most levels allow you to go guns blazing into a situation, and only 1 doesn’t. There are challenges to complete. When you complete them, you gain points to use towards weapons upgrades. You are allowed to carry 2 weapons, a sidearm and a regular gun, whether it be a shotgun, SMG, or Light Machine Gun. There are 4 levels of each challenge. Points range from 200 to 550, lower level challenges mean lower points. Button configuration is basically the same as the other shooters made by Ubisoft. The upgrades that you can purchase for your guns are scopes and ammo. Some allow you to add a Rifle scope others it is a red dot. The ammo upgrade gives you a bigger clip side, but also allows you to use more “Mark and Execute” targets. The Mark and Execute feature is a new feature to the Splinter Cell series. By doing a melee attack, you gain this ability. To use it, you select your target(s) with the RB, then press Y. Another cool feature is your “Sonar goggles” which are like the ones that were in the Dark Knight. They allow you to find your enemies within a limited range. It is like Superman’s X-ray Vision. If you are confused on where to go, the developers have posted HUGE reminders in the levels, giving you the words of the objectives on walls, etc. The developers also eliminated the seldom used, at least for me, split jump. Also gone is the hang and shoot.  They also eliminated the little sensor at the bottom of the screen that shows you how seen you are. They replaced it with a huge pop-up that says warning or detected.

Sound/Graphics: The voice talents of Michael Ironside reprises his role as Fisher. The text on the screen seems to go slower then the voices in-game are said. Other then that everything seems to go smoothly. The graphics are pretty nice looking. Bringing slow-motion action when you execute someone. Cameras go fuzzy depending on how far away you are from them. The SONAR goggles act just like Night-Vision in light, they get staticy and make you mostly blind. There are laser grids that look cool and hurt when you touch them. The screen changes from black and white to colored depending on how concealed you are.

Multiplayer: There are different forms of multiplayer available for your pleasure. Deniable Ops, Co-op Story, Hunter, last stand, face-off, and infiltration. Each of them can be either on Live/PSN or locally/split-screen. Deniable Ops is just like the terrorist hunts of the Rainbow Six series. The difference between the two is that in this game the enemies will gain reinforcements if you are spotted. As you defeat the enemies, you progress through the level letting you gain access to different parts.  Co-op story allows you play a campaign where you have to find some WMDs, you may play as either Archer or Kestrel.  Hunter is Deniable Ops basically.  In Last Stand, you have to defend an EMP generator against waves of attacking enemies.  In Face-off, you battle an opponent along with waves of enemies.  In Infiltration, you eliminate all enemies without being detected. This mode is only available via Uplay, which is a reward system that Ubisoft uses for doing special  things in the games, such as beating the game on a certain difficulty, finding a hidden crypt in Assassin’s Creed 2, etc.

Overall:  This game is a beast. the story line kicks ass, the graphics are really great, cant really complain. If you love Tom Clancy games and/or Sam Fisher, this game is a definite buy.

Pros

• great story line
• all around good game

Cons

• sneaking around most of the time gets tiring
• sometimes you wonder how the enemies find that you are there
• gets quite tough on some harder difficulties

Score 9.5 out of 10

This game was purchased by the reviewer.

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