Splinter Cell: Conviction – Sam Going Loco [Review]

The one Splinter Cell game that, in my opinion, got the most flak. Not totally undeserved, but perhaps the critique was a tad harsh back when it was released. People wanted more of the slow, duct-crawling stealth kind. Instead, we got commando Sam Fisher, who has no problem with murdering people to the left and right for the slightest of reasons. This felt off with a lot of people. However, I think Splinter Cell: Conviction fits perfectly in the Splinter Cell lore. Sam is a loose cannon, and without anyone guiding his actions—he is just a brutal killer, especially when fueled by vengeful revenge. Having Sam go crazy with bloodlust, makes narrative sense in the grand story of Splinter Cell.

Revenge is a dish best served silenced
The Splinter Cell games are all connected, with characters returning, and their motives remaining the same throughout (except when those involved get corrupted). I don’t want to spoil too much of the past games. Seeing as Splinter Cell: Double Agent is directly connected to Conviction, which explains Sam’s reason for going rogue and murderous. Be warned, I will spoil a bit of the story here.

Spoiler:
Sam’s daughter got killed in the former game, with a lot more traumatic events on top of that happening to the poor guy—which is the reason for him leaving Third Echelon (a government spy organization) and seeking out the killer on his own in Malta. And wouldn’t you know, his daughter’s death is connected to something much bigger that also leads to his old crew contacting him. Three years have passed since the incidents of Double Agent. Old allegiances switch or erode, so whom can Sam trust? 

What is cool about the story, besides the more personal touch for Sam, is the grand conspiracy that the game eventually ends up with. You might think the story will be smaller, considering the subject, but no. This one goes all the way to the top (white house), and has serious consequences for the continuation of the franchise. Something that once was, is now no more and corrupted beyond redemption. In classic Ubisoft Tom Clancy style, the story is highly enjoyable, even if predictable at times going by the agenda of the bad guys. It’s not a globe-trotting adventure per usual, as it is more localized to one part of America. Regardless, you get to infiltrate all kinds of environments, from secret labs and city areas to the actual White House building.

100% stealth action
While stealth is still the main ingredient in Conviction, it is no longer the slower, prodding style as it used to be. As mentioned, Sam wants blood, and this has triggered him to go into overdrive super-killer mode. The sneaking is much faster and agile, and when you manage to sneak up on someone, you can’t knock him out—you must kill since Sam’s got to feed the blood god. Another change is that you can’t hide bodies. This translates to a much more stealth-action orientated approach, instead of being one with the shadow. The typical entering and leaving a location without a trail is just a faint memory now. It’s justified by the story, though, and above all, fun.

Like many other Splinter Cell players, I also prefer the style of the past games. But, if you can, and are willing, you can accept the new, and as soon as you make the mental adjustment needed for this game, it becomes entertaining and very slick. There is nothing out-of-place unrealistic here, even if they made Sam much more agile, and this is the reason why I like Conviction despite the change in gameplay. You can feel the rage in Sam through the gameplay. The transformation from the story to how it plays is phenomenal and is one of the reasons why the game works so well. 

However, it’s not without issues, and most of my issues have to do with how certain scripting works, and how confined you are in some specific segments. Conviction has a tendency to throw you into ambushes that give you no time to figure out what is going on. If you go with the flow (which is the way to play instead of reloading when spotted), many encounters will end extremely swiftly, as you will not have enough time to use the different paths before the bad guys open fire. You can enter a room, get into a shoot-out, and when everyone is dead, you suddenly have these large areas to run through unmolested, when it’s clear that these locations were supposed to be tactical. Especially when you discover hidden places where you can climb and crawl through—places that will remain unused because the enemy is so hell-bent on killing you as fast as possible. 

Now, this is mostly a “skill” issue, as you can of course sneak around if fast enough. Yet, these segments come a little too often for my taste. On the hardest difficulty (realistic) you get spotted very fast. So fast in fact that I’m not even sure how you are supposed to move into cover without knowing about the ambush beforehand. Regardless of these issues, the gameplay is great as an action stealth game—when you are not instantly spotted and trapped, that is. For every hand-to-hand kill, you get to use Sam’s special execution ability. This ability allows you to tag a couple of bad guys for a quick takedown, which is perfect for entering and clearing a room full of bandits. It’s always good to take down a few guys in stealth and save this ability for when shit truly hits the fan.

Another aspect that makes Conviction exciting is the high deadliness of the weapons—both for you and the enemies. This makes for some damn awesome fire-fights, especially in combination with the smooth animations. It’s hilarious too at times, as explosions and shotguns will make people ragdoll through the air for several meters. Some mercs come protected in vests and helmets which allows them to take a few more shots—so you go be careful and place your shots when these dudes show up. Luckily, you can upgrade your weapons for higher penetration, but since Conviction does not have any kind of hub area for you to equip yourself, everything is found on-site. You will come across weapon boxes that allow you to buy improvements through XP points, but only for the two weapons you are currently carrying. This system is a bit of an oddity because when you find weapons later on in the game that you have upgraded, they come in that upgraded state when you pick them up from dead bodies. How does that even work? Despite this oddity, the system works even if very rudimentary and a bit magical, but I guess it fits the theme of going rogue (somewhat).

Smooth visuals
Splinter Cell: Conviction runs on a modified Unreal Engine 2,5, which means it’s not running on Unreal Engine 3.0 which was extremely popular at the time. A peculiarity in itself. Nevertheless, it’s looks stunning still 15 years later. It’s not state of the art, but the realistic art style (which seems to be a long-lost forgotten knowledge by now) and the minimum of on-screen effects make for a very clear and good-looking visual style with sharp lighting and shadows.

A major plus here is that classic anti-aliasing (2x, 4x, 8x) works on this engine, which reduces typical modern engine blurriness to just a faint bad memory. Overall, the graphics are just very sharp, and filled with detail, both environmental and character-based. For example, the bodies have wound decals that look pretty authentic (another ancient knowledge lost to time). It adds a certain sense of viciousness and grittiness to the aftermath scenes after a tough battle.

It should be noted that Ubisoft tried something new with the UI in this game, by making it very flashy. The story segments are being presented on the environments around Sam in real time. Objectives also flash on walls and so on, and it adds to the slick agent-like presentation, but it does not work completely. At times, you are forced to spin around and move about to be able to spot these announcements, and every once in a while they even pop up in fire-fights. It can get a bit messy when trying to absorb all this information while playing the game at the same time. However, it’s pretty cool and smooth when it works, and it fits the theme and setting of Conviction.

Sound of battle
What would Sam Fisher be without Michael Ironside providing the voice? Very lame, that’s what. Basically, Ironside is Sam, and he does an excellent job voicing him, making his anger and rage come through with a rare fierceness. The music is very fitting, agent-esque, with an increased tempo shift when you get into combat. General sound and ambiance are also very good, but certain effects, like when spotted, or doing a close combat take-down are just way too loud, and feel artificial. It does not fit that well and becomes annoying quickly.

All the cannon-fodder bad guys seem to be voiced by the same voice actor, and while he does a good job, it does come off as a bit cheap. However, he does provide some funny lines, especially in battle when you start to pick them off one by one. They usually go from confident badass mercenaries out to kill for sport to panic-stricken cowards that refuse to move out of cover. It’s amusing to listen to and adds a lot of personality and humanity to the PMCs.

Conclusion
Splinter Cell: Conviction is a great game that can be bought for really cheap nowadays. It’s also a title from when Ubisoft actually made entertaining games, and not only the open-world bloat they are known for now. Conviction got a lot of flak when it came out, but considering that there is a sequel that goes back to the roots (Splinter Cell: Blacklist) there is no reason to skip out on this game. Sure, it’s not the same Sam, but it works with the narrative, and despite the gameplay changes, it does remain a stealth game at its heart, but with a lot more action. I highly recommend Conviction, and if the campaign is not enough, it comes with a coop-campaign that works as a prologue to the main story, and a few challenge maps to tackle.

Sadly, in Ubisoft’s infinite wisdom, they broke the multiplayer aspect of the game on PC. They killed the servers, which unfortunately makes the prologue unplayable as far as I know. A real bummer. Ubisoft is just a terrible company nowadays, and if that is not enough, every extra for their game on Ubisoft Connect is removed or is just not working, like achievements. I honestly don’t understand these business decisions. Still, the campaign makes it worthwhile!

Thanks for reading

– Thomas