A Hands on with Splinter Cell: Conviction

Thanks to the great people at Ubisoft, Myself and Tim headed down to the Reading Gamerbase for a taste of Splinter Cell: Conviction before it hits stores next week.

As soon as we had the chance, we hit the singleplayer campaign; we really enjoyed the opening tutorial to the game, it was slightly less subtle than some games, and got you into the action very fast; making you feel as though you were actually already playing Splinter Cell: Conviction, and not just a tutorial.

Having more time to get used to the game than you did in the demo we did pick up on a few points fairly quickly that we had not noticed before; the regenerating health system works fairly well, in a way you are punished for playing the game gung-ho, and it is easy to die if you get caught in a firefight with a few enemies.

The Weapon Stashes littered throughout the game are also a very nice addition; these work together with ‘Challenges’ basically in-game achievements that reward you with challenge points for doing things like vanishing without a trace after a kill; these points that you receive can be spent on upgrading any of the guns or gadgets in your arsenal; the stashes work in a similar vein to Hitman 47’s hideout; any weapons you pick up in game will be stored for any future use when you take them to a weapon stash, this feature works quite nicely when there are certain levels that just cannot be completed without a heavy firing weapon.

Follow up:

After playing for over an hour and a half we found when you are invisible from the enemy and your screen turns black and white, it can get somewhat irritating, and in certain parts of the game; after knocking out all of the lights rendering yourself in darkness, the black and white effect made it almost impossible to play, especially in the levels when you do not have sonar goggles.

We also got a play of the Deniable Ops co-operative story, where you take control of two shadow operatives; Archer and Kestrel. Deniable Ops follows the story that takes place before Sam’s singleplayer campaign, as a co-op the levels and mechanics all complimented the mode very nicely; the first mission had you hunting down a Russian guy for a contacts list. However what worked so well was the level design; with them all containing variable high and low heights, which made flanking enemies and achieving silent takedowns across the board without either levels finding out. It also required co-operative players to interact together through carrying out tasks such as dual door breaches, interrogations, executions and generally to look after one another. Tim assumed the role of Archer and Critical Gamer’s Luke Kemp took up Kestrel, and there was a fair amount of team work going on; shooting lightbulbs and the like, as Tim adopted an obsession with it after trying it out in the singleplayer, and subsequently from then on had to shoot down every light possible. If only their lightbulb shooting was transferred to the taking down of enemies, then the teaming would have worked really well, all due credit of course, they were doing a far better job than when I assumed control of Kestrel, but it obvious that they were enjoying the co-operative aspect.

After playing the demo, and now the first few levels and Deniable Ops, it’s straightforward to say that Splinter Cell: Conviction is a very well thought out, and polished game, however if you look at it another way, and take away a few of the big changes that they’ve added into it, inevitably it is still the same as the other Splinter Cell games, which of course is not a bad thing, it just isn’t a complete evolution of the series, nonetheless the new mechanics that they have added into the game make it a very enjoyable experience, and it still deserves all of the praise that it is getting, if you like games full of action, and espionage, and don’t mind a dabble in stealth then Splinter Cell: Conviction is definitely the game for you.

As usual, we will have a video showing Tim's exploits in the game, but he did so much it's still being edited, watch this space for the hilarity to ensue.