Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction game review

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction

The Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is a RPG stealth action game developed by Ubisoft Montreal released in April 2010.
It is a famous game series that many of my friends like. However I haven’t played the previous Splinter Cell games. So I try to play Splinter Cell: Double Agent (No. 4) , and it doesn’t turn out well. I stopped in the middle of the game, disappointed and I don’t want to talk about it.

So I got some basic background stories from Splinter Cell 4 and started to play Splinter Cell Conviction (No. 5), and I love it! It is much better than Splinter Cell 4 and also different from it.

Background stories: our hero Sam Fisher’s daughter died (which is false info). He hides in foreign country and got hunted. There are people trying to kill the president and take over the country. There is a beautiful undercover agent (female), and an old friend in the army trying to help Sam out. Bad guys die, the country is safe and the main characters are all alive, happy ending, the end.

Good:

The game play system is much better than the previous game. There is better graphics, a little bit better AI (but still….) and better story telling.

Good story telling. I am not saying that the story is good, but at least it is well told. The story is delivered throughout the whole game. From loading page to cut scenes to in game dialogue, plus the memories of Sam will reflect on the walls where you can see, it is easily one of the best story telling games I have ever play.

The stealth system is awesome. You can drag people out of the window or stealth kill them from above. You can also use a mirror to peak under the door to check for safety. When in dark, you can just pretend to be a Predator with the invisibility device on, jumping up and down the building, in the room, from wall to wall.

There is this really cool sonar scope like the one in the movie The Dark Knight. You can see through walls (not concrete) and find the location of your enemies. However, it only works clearly when you stand steel and some of the enemies in the end have it too.

There is Execution kill mode that you can use once you complete a hand-to-hand kill. You can then mark 2 people and the character will shoot them automatically in just a blink without being notice. It is really helpful when there are two enemies standing together and you can take them down quick and quiet. Later on you can even mark 3 to 4 people.

You may think that it somehow takes away the excitement that the computer will do everything for you when you use Execution, but you are wrong. The Execution fits the game play and the story. Sam Fisher is great shooter, a special force. This feature makes you feel like a special force with the fire rate, reflection and accuracy that gamers can’t achieve using a hand controller or mouse during the video game. Also you have to be able to manage your use of the Execution since you have to have a hand-to-hand kill first to get the Execution. So in many situations, you can’t just use the Execution to complete the missions. You need strategy, stealth, relocation, and your shooting skills.

You can have all kinds of different weapons and upgrades. Different grenades can be used to help you finish the mission. Those are just some options for you if you want to turn this stealth game into a third-person Counter-strike.

It turns out that you have the option on how you will complete the mission. You can forget about all those stealth kills and turn it into a war zone just firing machine guns and throwing grenades (In some situation you have to do this). Or you can kill everyone without alert the others, being a total elite spy or a silent sniper. Or if you can, you can sneak through the whole level without killing anyone. (Since there is a award for that, I believe it is doable but I never success) One other option, you can turn it into a Predator game. Since the enemies are stupid, you can shoot all the lights and running around in the dark. The enemies can’t see you in the dark unless it is really close or you shoot someone. So you basically become a Predator. It is pretty cool.

There are extra missions that test you stealth skills (no war zone!). They are different scenarios from the single player mission and brings you challenge.

Bad:

You can’t move the body like in the previous title, so the patrol can see the dead body and alerted.

I agree with Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw on the problem of the computer AI. The enemies are retards. You hiding in the dark (or any shadow) and they can’t see a little bit of you and that just makes this game easier. They will shoot the last place that you were spotted for a long time when you are already somewhere else. Plus the stupid RPG dialog:" Nothing strange to report." Are you sure? cause everyone else is dead!

One most important bug: when you use Execution but then the people have walked behind walls, you can still kill them! The bullet just goes through the walls!!! Fix that Ubisoft! Remember: Missing seasonal dates like Christmas is bad, but shipping a buggy or poorly made product is worse. (2003, Roger E. Pedersen) Fix the bugs is better than sticking to the schedule. One more thing, I threw two grenades and they went through the wall and exploded.

Last:

I think that is all. It is a pretty good stealth game and you don’t have to play the previous series to understand the story.

Serious, try out my Predator mode, it is FUN!