Wings Review: Splinter Cell Conviction, A New Breed of Stealth

If I had my way, you wouldn't be reading this review off your computer screen. It would be projected onto your walls in striking bold font by an ethereal spotlight. Splinter Cell Conviction is masterfully presented; as slick and vicious as a Bourne movie or a Daniel Craig Bond film, with all the gritty bite and blockbuster direction of cinemas best new-breed spy thrillers.

The organic projection of your objectives and other essential information onto the scenery is a clever concept aimed at taking the player away from the detachment of technical wizardry, computerized menu's and optical overlays; gently guiding them without stopping or impeding the minute to minute play. I wouldn't argue it as an attempt to increase realism or tension, but it does act as a strong and defining visual quirk which immediately catches your attention and sets Conviction apart from the throng of similar properties.

Rags to Gadgets: Reboot or Sequel?
Ubisoft's marketing and press releases might have you believe this latest entry to the franchise is a notable departure from the previous Splinter Cell games. Admittedly the game does start grittier and more lo-fi, with a grizzly Fisher adapting a broken car mirror as an early “gadget” to see under doors, but that doesn't last long. His quest for revenge is quickly financed and enabled by a shady double agent recognizable to series fans, and it is not long at all before Sam has access to some of the shiniest toys yet to come out of Q's workshop. Sticky cameras, remote bombs, portable EMP, they all end up as part of Fisher's armory before the halfway point, and by the end of the game, he even has his trademark tri-vision goggles back. Although, they serve a slightly different purpose.


Pitch Black: Lights and Shadows
There is the same focus on the series' principles; most centrally the importance of light and darkness in moving around unseen by enemies. The delicate light meter of old has been replaced by a much more stark system, the screen drenched in a black and white filter to inform the player when they are “in shadow”. While at first this simplification seems intuitive and clean, the lack of distinction between pitch blackness, slight shade and dim light leads to confusion during the games tenser moments. Years of using his goggles and munching carrots have seemingly gifted Fisher the eyes of Riddick, and he can see perfectly in darkness so bleak that it confuses and befuddles his victims. To avoid sharp swaps from colour to B/W however, from the players perspective “pitch blackness” is never very dark, and instead very hard to designate beyond “anywhere and anything that casts a shadow, usually” and the rest of the room. Even in B/W it's hard to tell where the black ends and the light starts, except in extreme cases. The game also suggests you dedicate time to shooting out lights and turning them off, but during my playthrough this seemed a complete waste of time. The only time I had access or time to notice a light switch was when I had already cleared a room, and most rooms had multiple light sources, making shooting them a long winded task that often led to alerting the enemies.


Marked for Death: Mark and Execute Mechanic
The true masterstroke of the Conviction playbook is new mechanic “Mark and Execute”. Sam has to earn the right to use this ability through a good honest hand to hand kill, but once he has it, he can mark several enemies (the number depends on the weapon, ranging from 2-4), and then at the press of a button, eliminate them all in a swift and satisfying moment, punctuated by slow motion close ups. There has been some ill-informed criticism of this concept as overpowered thanks to it “playing the game for you”, or conversely, for being “arbitrarily limited”. Mark and Execute is both those things and yet neither of them, completely essential to crafting the experience Conviction hopes to be.


Violent Dominoes: New Breed of Stealth
Ubisoft set out to create an angrier more aggressive stealth game; SCC is not about waiting out patrol cycles and slinking past guards through ventilation systems. It uses stealth as a precursor to the split second explosion of slick stylish violence that defines the Bourne trilogies action sequences, mechanics new and old combining with the range of weapons and gadgets to form a diverse toolbox of tricks and abilities. Players use these tools to place and plan their approach in the shadows, setting up the events like a game of dominoes; before letting them dramatically fall in a spectacular display of engineered brutality. Mark and Execute is symbolic of this approach as a whole, as it allows players to exploit their hiding spots and gadgets to note the position of enemies and place their marks, a vital compliment to the usefulness of the other mechanics. Using the darkness to choose your targets in preparation for the ultimate reward of the payoff is exactly what the game is about, and the satisfaction of a cleanly orchestrated and executed plan is immense. I treasured several of those moments hours after the console was off.


Fool Me Once, Shame on You: Being Loud, Last Known Position and Enemy AI
Unfortunately, Sam himself seems to miss the good old days when he was an unknown ghost moving only in darkness, and although there is no ranking system to chastise you for letting slip your presence or to remind you how close you came to being a bullet ridden mess; Mr Fisher will make gruff disappointed note of whenever you earn any form of alert from enemies, even during the “end-game” of your best laid plans. This is a little hypocritical as a design decision, seeing as the game pushes you to use occasional tactics of loud misdirection in order to distract and flank enemies. There is even a central mechanic on this theme, entitled “Last Known Position”. This basically leaves a ghostly representation of Sam where the enemies last spotted him, so the player can use that information against them. They make it rather easy, by being utterly and remorselessly dedicated to that ghostly Sam, as if they can see it themselves. They seem to assume Sam is some kind of bizarro world Dr Who villain or reverse Boo ghost who turns to stone whenever they can't see him. Absolutely no chance at all he might have moved left or right behind that wall?... nope, impossible. Ironic, considering the henchmen continuously shout abuse at Sam and assert how “aware of his tricks” they are.

The enemy AI is actually painfully UNaware of Sam's tricks; falling for them again and again with a disappointing predictability that allows players to run the same gag over and over again and expect similar success each time. Enemies don't even seem perturbed by the mounting corpses, somehow they must think they are the exception that proves the rule. They will also dutifully investigate windows where Sam has shed his ghostly skin, a place where Sam can quite easily perform an instant kill.


Shush Shush Bang Bang: Weapons and Upgrades
Returning to the topic of being loud; there is a wide range of weapons in the game, with regular access to the full selection provided by serendipitously placed “weapon stashes”. But only a small percentage of that selection can be silenced or suppressed, with all other guns giving away your position as soon as you use them. This is fine in a way, lending itself to a slightly different form of “stealth” gameplay reliant on constantly moving and using your ghostly self to keep the enemies confused and misdirected. Even with silenced weapons, I had used similar tactics by revealing myself just long enough to make enemies follow me into a trap or away from another entrance. Alas, Sam just cannot discern the difference between this tactic and accidentally stumbling into a room of armed guards. Using unsuppressed weapons is a surefire way to arise his displeasure; the games way of implying you have done something wrong. You'll end up upgrading all the guns anyway, loud or not, just because you earn points for nearly everything you do, and the upgrades are cheap and only 3 to a weapon. Despite this, a game that offers me a desert eagle it knows I shouldn't use is a cruel, capricious game.


Short of Greatness?: Problems and Annoyances
While I'm complaining, it seems a good time to cast a knowing light on Convictions other niggling flaws and limitations. The minimalist HUD is pleasantly clear and clean, but because commands are projected flat on objects, some of which have multiple possible actions, all of which are tied to the same context sensitive action button, it's really not hard to smash a window instead of open it, or open a door instead of peek under it, or jump a box instead of use a light switch... You can't stealth kill over or around cover, which is a glaring omission to your repertoire of stealth kills, and although the game features some use of Sam's agility in platforming, the paths are extremely linear and not at all freeform. Particularly during a laboratory level which is a veritable web of pipes and cables, it was ridiculous how Sam was confined to bespoke drainpipes and only certain ledges and surfaces. He also lacked the ability to jump from one ledge/pipe/surface to another behind him, an equally frustrating hole in his skill-set. The unpleasant realization of these arbitrary methods of constraining the player reveal where the “walls” really are and jolt the gamer back to the controller in hand. Finally, the game teeters on the border of several other genres, and at times lurches uncomfortably into open combat, something the controls and weapons aren't designed to handle. Thankfully, this is a rare occurrence.

Revenge, Lies, Lies and Videotape: Narrative
So what is the story driving angry Sam Fisher from place to place? Following some unpleasantness with previous employer Third Echelon; our returning hero has decided he wants nothing more to do with the spy game. Lacking hobbies, he decides to start looking for the hit-and-run driver who killed his daughter. Small fry for Sam Fisher you would think, who is basically an amalgamation of the aforementioned Bourne and Bond archetypes, with a touch of Bauer thrown in for good measure and further alliterative purposes. Locate and kill an everyday drunk driver, violence has solved everything once again, take up fishing, the end. But as “luck” would have it, his daughters seemingly random pedestrian death was not as it seemed, and a slightly larger game is afoot. The storyline would remind you of a particularly preposterous episode of 24, skirting on the very edge of believability while still involving a web of political intrigue and betrayal and lies. Lot's of lies.

Essentially Conviction could be seen as a “revenge” story for most of the game, with Fisher on a mission to eliminate everyone connected to whatever it is actually happened to his daughter; but whereas Liam Nielson might have a clean run at the precise perpetrators, Sam has the misfortune of bouncing from target to target, constantly misled, manipulated and betrayed from all angles. Eventually the “projection” method of delivery is used during narrative scenes to reflect the inner processes of Sam's addled mind, splashing snapshots of his thoughts and emotions into the background. Unfortunately, the ultimate execution is far too shallow and overt to be as provocative and ground-breaking as it might sound on paper. During one cutscene, it got so blunt they were just throwing relevant words like “DISTRUST” and “ANGER” at the walls. Laughable. They might as well have spotlighted “SAD FACE” onto the ceiling. The writing is unwieldy and bland, unable to keep up with the quality of the excellent cinematic directing and explosive set pieces. This is painfully obvious when the game tries to employ Tarantino-esque non-linear story telling, but fails to exploit the technique enough to bring the future twists any extra weight or meaning. Or even surprise.


Context and Connection: Narrative and Gameplay, together again
At times however, Conviction achieves an almost Uncharted 2 level of cohesion between the narrative and gameplay; subtle design playing out to affect the players connection to characters and situations, or allowing them to absorb information in a delightfully unexpected way. An easy example is a clever section from the fantastic introduction, which features flashbacks to Sam's somewhat dubious parenting techniques as a way to explain the basics of a core mechanic. Later there is a flashback to Sam's time in the war, which establishes trust in a character using a twist that could only be born from a tried and tested knowledge of gamer psychology. A curious addition is the inclusion of several open populated areas buzzing with civilian life, walking, talking and going about their business. Sam moves through the crowded streets of a city during a festival, throngs of lively tourists at a fairground, past swarms of journalists and construction workers at a monument. So much work has gone into these lively backdrops it seems almost wasted for all you would see of it in a casual playthrough, but it actually goes a long way to establishing a strong contemporary footing for the narrative. Many games completely forget to remind the player they are in a real world; they deliberately place the player in abandoned cities, evacuated buildings, behind hostile enemy lines where everyone has a gun and a scowl. Linking back to it's roots in spy thrillers, letting Sam move through these areas lends the experience a reality and context perhaps missing from the medium.

Despite this occasional cohesion between reluctant blood brothers gameplay and narrative, it is in no way a universal rule of Conviction. The “torture” scenes, one of the trinity of features Ubisoft boasted most highly of in the media, are ultimately as shallow in action as the projection concept. In an ideal world the torture scenes would be an intelligent way to avoid pulling the player out of gameplay for further story exposition. Alas, they play like unskippable cutscenes which pause every few seconds and require a button press to stir them onwards. You have the pleasure and sporadic enjoyment of dragging the victim to the environmental feature of your choice, but Sam rarely does anything more creative than bash their face off it.


Trial and Error: Difficulty and Replayability
Conviction is a pretty easy game; a layman could likely fumble through the majority of the game on all but the highest mode, and most of the gadgets are plentiful enough to be abused; particularly the portable EMP, which is a quick and easy dues-ex-mechana way of escaping pretty much any dangerous scenario unscathed. For those with a little more stubborn pride, replaying a sequence a few times should give way to a handful of suitable solutions; allowing even the challenging rooms to be beaten thanks to trial and error. The checkpoints vary in reliability, but generally won't leave you more than a room behind your last failure. Clocking in at a mere 8 hours though, SCC is alike many “blockbuster” AAA games; short and sweet. In burns brightly or a while, but the campaign can be beaten in just a few days. Deniable Op's picks up the torch at this point, but sorely lacks the staging and context of the story mode; it's just rooms of enemies. In fact, Deniable Op's is a much dryer traditional Spinter Cell experience, harshly punishing any form of alert, and putting gamers back in the goggled leathers. Deniable Op's is immune to the trial and error problem/approach however, randomly generating the AI placement and pathing each time you retry it; play with a friend and this extra mode might just get you your monies worth from the purchase.


Flash and Bang: Visuals
All things considered it's a beautiful game, stylish, confident and polished, with a varied palette of light and darkness, daylight and moonlight. I'm not much of a graphical nut, but for those looking to nit pick; the games brave sweeping shots and close ups are prone to revealing gritty, grainy textures and the fuzzy edges of alpha layer shadows. Meanwhile the facial animation is woefully out of synch with the dialogue, the mouth movements strained as if the characters are all fresh from a mugful of Novocaine. At worst, their gibbering mouths make them look like badly animated puppets. Still, the expansive populated environments and distinctive Unreal engine shading are potent ticks in the “pro” column.


Conclusion:
For long-term fans of the franchise and hardcore stealth nuts Conviction might feel over-simplified or action-orientated, but speaking as someone who has often found the dragging pace of the stealth genre to be frustrating and off-putting, I am perhaps playing the role of the hated “new audience” in this story. I embrace the games sleek presentation and aggressive accessibility with open arms. Conviction is to the stealth genre what Dawn of War is to RTS; stripped down and streamlined, with a refreshing new angle on the Splinter Cell formula. To veteran fans of the franchise, the game might look like a skeleton short of it's meat, but I prefer to think of it has a rough diamond; cut, polished and refined. The presentation is nearly flawless, the gameplay is tight and engaging, while a variety of dynamic set pieces and one-shot scenes - including a thrilling daylight foot chase - bring a pleasantly unexpected diversity to the experience. My complaints are minor and easily forgotten whenever the gameplay hits it's stride, and for those into wish-fulfillment, you won't get much closer to feeling like a Bourne, Bauer or Bond than in those moments.
It's admittedly too short, but that complaint can be lobbied at some of this generations best. An exclusive club where, come to think of it, Splinter Cell Conviction wouldn't look entirely out of place.

[Review originally written/posted April 20th 2010]

.. Stealth has been a bit of a hot topic amongst my friends and followers recently, as well as a recurring talking point in the comment sections of my last few review re-posts. Since I found Convictions unique take on the genre fascinating, I thought it was a good time to archive this review at TLDR. Conviction is also notable for being my first assigned review at If Men Had Wings.