Let me preface this with saying I love(d) the Splinter Cell franchise. The first game was great in it's time, reminding me of the Thief series, and Chaos Theory was spectacular. Pandora Tommorow was alright; and Double Agent was okay if you ignored the rambo missions, but not great. I went in with high hopes on Conviction, trying to ignore as many reviews as possible before hand, which is retrospect was not one of my better ideas. (Oh, and I played the PC version, but will not discuss DRM irritation against the game, that's against Ubisoft)
So, fans of the series, what all has changes? Mostly everything. While you are still Sam Fischer, not much remains the same, other than dying to three bullet hits or so. No more can you control the exact movement speed of Sam, there is one speed while crouched, and two while standing, toggled by a keystroke. Sam's acrobatic prowess has also taken a fair hit, partially due to bad level design that doesn't allow him to use it very often like the older games did. You can only climb if there is a prompt to do so, which most of the time means you're expected to go that way. The way to objectives is no longer a spiderweb of branching paths and methods, it's usually only 2, and numerous cases 1. And the final straw that I could stand was Sam is no longer restrained by the 5th Freedom, so as the player you are tasked with killing nearly everything to continue along.
Story:
I'll keep this short and spoiler free. The story is the better part of the game, as it remains interesting and has some unexpected twists and returns of old faces like Grim. There is one issue though, which is the story is predicated on Sam having killed Lambert for the JBA in Double Agent, meaning that has become the canon and is very much not something Sam would of done.
Visuals & Design:
Graphically the game is alright, though it does show it uses the Unreal engine more than I'd personally like, with stuff like surface reflection going batty at times, most notably when the camera pans around at the start of the 4th chapter. Environmental detail is well done, and character models are well constructed, with the exception that the facial animations are mostly downright bad. The big catch is the level design isn't very good on most levels as I pointed out before, forcing you to play them out like an action game and not a stealth game.
Controls:
(Reminder that I was on PC, but most of these issues remain on console from doing research) Here is where it all starts to fall apart. Movement is fine, as well as aiming and shooting, but everything else has issues. Most commands have been consolidated into a single Action Button key, the spacebar, which includes interacting with any object, climbing, vaulting over cover, etc. Combined with it's screwy prompt system to target things, you may be right next to your objective to plant C4 for example, but you aren't directly aiming at it with your cursor, hit the key and Sam will instead walk over to the nearby door on the edge of your camera, opening it and exposing himself to the enemy.
Gameplay:
And the final nail in the coffin. This is very much not a Splinter Cell game. This is made starkly clear early on, and when you reach the 5th mission where you are constantly killing rooms full of guys to get by, with no effective way to sneak by them, it's about to get worse. The end of the 5th mission is literally Gears of War. You have a few pieces of cover to hide behind, and 7 waves of idiot soldiers keep shuffling in spraying bullets at you.
New to the game are the Mark and Execute and Upgrade functionalities. Mark and Execute, as you've likely already heard many times, has you melee kill one target and then get a free 3-4 man 3 second kill spree. The upgrade system works off of points earned by doing PEC Challenges, which further enforce you are expected to kill everyone you meet. The great amusement is that there are two special challenges of note: Advanced Stealth and Advanced Close Combat. Advanced Stealth is to beat a level without every being detected, like you were playing one of the old games, the catch being having beaten the game I'm still not sure if this is even possible. In almost every level there is a segment where detection is basically guaranteed to happen, even in the level where you are told from the start "don't get detected!" Advanced Close Combat is to beat a level without firing a bullet, which again you will be forced to fire in most levels, and I was only able to do this in the 4th mission.(Likely the 6th too)
In closing, who would I recommend this game for? Not Splinter Cell fans. If you're looking for something akin to Assassin's Creed 2 with guns and even less sneaking about, you'll likely enjoy it. It's not a downright horrible game, but nor is it a very good one with bad design choices abound. It is never a good sign while playing a game that you ask yourself repeated times "How could they of screwed this up so badly?"
So, fans of the series, what all has changes? Mostly everything. While you are still Sam Fischer, not much remains the same, other than dying to three bullet hits or so. No more can you control the exact movement speed of Sam, there is one speed while crouched, and two while standing, toggled by a keystroke. Sam's acrobatic prowess has also taken a fair hit, partially due to bad level design that doesn't allow him to use it very often like the older games did. You can only climb if there is a prompt to do so, which most of the time means you're expected to go that way. The way to objectives is no longer a spiderweb of branching paths and methods, it's usually only 2, and numerous cases 1. And the final straw that I could stand was Sam is no longer restrained by the 5th Freedom, so as the player you are tasked with killing nearly everything to continue along.
Story:
I'll keep this short and spoiler free. The story is the better part of the game, as it remains interesting and has some unexpected twists and returns of old faces like Grim. There is one issue though, which is the story is predicated on Sam having killed Lambert for the JBA in Double Agent, meaning that has become the canon and is very much not something Sam would of done.
Visuals & Design:
Graphically the game is alright, though it does show it uses the Unreal engine more than I'd personally like, with stuff like surface reflection going batty at times, most notably when the camera pans around at the start of the 4th chapter. Environmental detail is well done, and character models are well constructed, with the exception that the facial animations are mostly downright bad. The big catch is the level design isn't very good on most levels as I pointed out before, forcing you to play them out like an action game and not a stealth game.
Controls:
(Reminder that I was on PC, but most of these issues remain on console from doing research) Here is where it all starts to fall apart. Movement is fine, as well as aiming and shooting, but everything else has issues. Most commands have been consolidated into a single Action Button key, the spacebar, which includes interacting with any object, climbing, vaulting over cover, etc. Combined with it's screwy prompt system to target things, you may be right next to your objective to plant C4 for example, but you aren't directly aiming at it with your cursor, hit the key and Sam will instead walk over to the nearby door on the edge of your camera, opening it and exposing himself to the enemy.
Gameplay:
And the final nail in the coffin. This is very much not a Splinter Cell game. This is made starkly clear early on, and when you reach the 5th mission where you are constantly killing rooms full of guys to get by, with no effective way to sneak by them, it's about to get worse. The end of the 5th mission is literally Gears of War. You have a few pieces of cover to hide behind, and 7 waves of idiot soldiers keep shuffling in spraying bullets at you.
New to the game are the Mark and Execute and Upgrade functionalities. Mark and Execute, as you've likely already heard many times, has you melee kill one target and then get a free 3-4 man 3 second kill spree. The upgrade system works off of points earned by doing PEC Challenges, which further enforce you are expected to kill everyone you meet. The great amusement is that there are two special challenges of note: Advanced Stealth and Advanced Close Combat. Advanced Stealth is to beat a level without every being detected, like you were playing one of the old games, the catch being having beaten the game I'm still not sure if this is even possible. In almost every level there is a segment where detection is basically guaranteed to happen, even in the level where you are told from the start "don't get detected!" Advanced Close Combat is to beat a level without firing a bullet, which again you will be forced to fire in most levels, and I was only able to do this in the 4th mission.(Likely the 6th too)
In closing, who would I recommend this game for? Not Splinter Cell fans. If you're looking for something akin to Assassin's Creed 2 with guns and even less sneaking about, you'll likely enjoy it. It's not a downright horrible game, but nor is it a very good one with bad design choices abound. It is never a good sign while playing a game that you ask yourself repeated times "How could they of screwed this up so badly?"
