Splinter Cell: Conviction -- First Impressions

As I mentioned in my previous post, I like the Splinter Cell series. I also mentioned at the end (basing the statement on just the first two missions) that if you were looking for a good stealth-action game, you should probably go elsewhere. Now I'm a little further in and I'm pleased to report that my opinion has completely stayed the same.

You see, Conviction isn't really a stealth game. I know, I was surprised as well. But it's true -- Sam Fisher the "greatest stealth operative in the world" is apparently losing his touch.

In the previous games, Sam was never the all-guns-blazing action hero. He was the grey man, staying in the shadows and using diversionary tactics and his surroundings to isolate his enemies. He was a specialist, granted, but his speciality was keeping out of sight and out of reach.

In Conviction Sam is a completely different character. Now he has no allegiances and no rules to follow, so he has no qualms about killing everyone that stands between him and where he needs to be. To make matters worse, he now has the tools to be able to do that without the need for stealth, which breaks the concept of the Splinter Cell series altogether.

Ubisoft have put a few too many tools at Sam's disposal which don't conform with traditional stealth mechanics. As a starting point, the default weapon is a silenced pistol with unlimited ammo, so the question must be asked: why would I use anything else? Well, so far I haven't. You have the option to carry a secondary weapon and upgrade each firearm you pick up but it's all completely arbitrary when you remember that you have a silenced pistol with unlimited ammunition that is pretty much always available to you.

Then you have various creative ways of using the pistol. You can fire the pistol from behind cover, and Sam can blindfire 100% accurately without exposing himself at all. He can fire when hanging from a pipe, he can fire when dangling from a window ledge (which is bollocks, by the way), he can fire whilst using a human shield, and a lot of the time if you angle the camera in the right way he can fire through solid objects.

Sam can also now "Mark and Execute" targets, which essentially means selecting a number of enemies you particularly don't like and pressing a button to make Sam shoot them for you. Each weapon permits a certain number of "marks", and guess which one allows the most? Yeah, the silenced pistol with unlimited ammunition.

To earn the ability to perform this new manoeuvre you must kill an enemy using a melee attack, which is getting in close proximity and pressing the B button. It doesn't matter where you approach from, what type of enemy you're dealing with, how much health they have left, how much health you have left, just one press of the B button and the person dies, granting you the ability to have Sam play the game for you as they do so.

I imagine all this is Ubisoft's method of trying to convey Sam's superior abilities, but it comes across as false. I always liked the character because he was a man sculpted from training and experience rather than just a sprite with semi-supernatural talents; in this game, he has been de-humanized, relegated to just another unbelievable videogame character.

However, just because Conviction is a bad stealth game that doesn't mean it's a bad game overall. To be honest, I'm having quite a lot of fun with it. It has some neat aesthetic quirks, the mechanics work well when you play the game like an action game rather than a stealth game and it has some great new interrogation scenes. It does have some interface design issues which I'll be covering when I get around to reviewing the full thing, but it's still functional enough to provide an enjoyable experience.

I'm not sure how near the end I am, but hopefully before the conclusion there will be at least one level in which I'm not allowed to kill everyone or set off as many alarms as I like. Hopefully they might strip me of the pistol as well, but I suppose even then I've still got the one-button-kill Sam Fisher Special.

In summary, so far it's an enjoyable action game with stealth elements and some careless design issues. It isn't a great entry to the series in my opinion, but if you judge it on it's own merits it isn't all that bad. Definitely not a classic, but definitely not one to completely ignore.

I'll be back with a full opinion when I've beaten it completely.

Sneaking Into The Stealth Genre

I've always had a particular fondness for stealth games, and I think at this point (two levels into Splinter Cell: Conviction, to be precise) I've worked out why.

In my mind there are two different types of stealth experience, or more accurately two different ways of using stealth to your advantage. Lets use two hypothetical scenarios to illustrate this.

Example 1

In the first instance, we are using stealth to remain essentially invisible. We are a shadowy figure deep behind enemy lines, skulking through a fortress full of twitchy mercenaries toting automatic weapons. We are outnumbered and outgunned; we feel a little bit insecure, and we know that should we draw attention to ourselves then we have very little hope of survival.

Our objective is to retrieve some sensitive information from a particular room in the fortress and escape with it undetected. For the sake of argument, lets say that the target is on the top floor, and we're currently on the bottom. All the way up, our hearts are beating uncomfortably fast and our palms are sweating. If an enemy catches a glimpse of us moving from cover to cover, him and his mates are going to be bearing down on us within seconds. If we fail to hear the gentle whirring of the security camera, it's going to set alarms blaring and we've essentially failed.

The whole trip from bottom to top and back down again is almost unbearably tense and exciting. We reach the exit with our intel in hand, disappearing off into the night, picturing the enemies we left none-the-wiser staring slack-jawed at the open safe. We feel relief, we feel pride, we feel accomplishment. We took on a huge force of enemies as just one guy and we succeeded. There's more achievement in that than shooting down a hundred waves of enemy soldiers.

Example 2

Here we are using stealth to remain anonymous. It sounds like a very similar task to the first example, but in actuality it's measurably different. Here we have a big, open-ended environment full of not just guards but also civilians, respectively going about their patrols and their daily lives. We're no longer infiltrating a closed-off environment full of bad guys, but rather we're breaking the law in a real piece of human society.

Our objective is to assassinate someone. It's rather simple in theory, but there are different ways we can approach it. First of all, getting close; do we sneak in the back door, covertly incapacitate one of the guards and stroll casually through the front, or nip down the chimney dressed as the sweep? Our choice entirely, but one way might be exponentially more successful than the others. We need to take a risk and do what we feel is right, which isn't always what's most obvious.

Once we get close, then what? Do we do him with a double-tap to the head and risk exposure? Or do we slip some cyanide in his cup of tea and watch him keel over from the relative safety of the closet? Our choice again. Then we get on with deciding our method of exfiltration. Out of the window and down the drainpipe, maybe?

The point is that if you succeed you actually feel like a contract killer. You made your own choices, you approached the situation as you saw fit and you were successful. You feel intelligent and powerful.

Tying them together

What we have here are two examples of how stealth can be applied in different ways to generate different emotional responses. You might try and argue that Example 1 is describing a linear experience while Example 2 is simulating that of a sandbox structure, but that isn't the case, and Splinter Cell can prove it.

The Splinter Cell series is the one I point to when someone asks me what I feel provides the most complete stealth experience. This is because, while essentially linear, SC splices elements from both of the above examples to leave the player feeling relieved, intelligent, proud and powerful, all in equal measure. While one mission may require you to remain invisible, keeping alarms and body count to a minimum, the next level may give you fifth freedom to eliminate whoever you like in order to get to your target, with remaining in the shadows the most effective way of evening the odds.

You see, this is why I like stealth games -- because they provide a range of different ways to stimulate the player. While it could be argued that all genres do this to some degree, it's far more evident in a game such as Hitman or Thief than it is in, say, Black or Max Payne. 

I think more people should buy stealth games and give their somewhat slow pacing a chance, because the rewards at the end of the experience are more than worth it. So my recommendation to you, fellow gamers, is if you haven't already, get involved in the stealth genre. It might not be what you're used to, but sticking with the same thing all the time makes you thick, according to science. I'm paraphrasing, obviously.

Incidently, if you're looking for a good stealth experience stay away from Splinter Cell: Conviction.

I Run Faster With A Knife

If you want a pretty accurate idea of how I tend to behave when I perform particularly poorly in a multiplayer game, look no further than FPS Doug.

A Human What?

Centipede, apparently, to answer the question posed in the title. If you're wondering what a human centipede is and haven't yet had your attention drawn to the film of the same name, I suggest you take a look.

Seen it? Yeah, I had the same reaction. If you didn't watch the trailer or didn't quite get the jist of the plot, then here's a quick summary: two women get kidnapped by a German scientist who is trying to create an organism comprised of three different people who share a single digestive tract. Thankfully, I couldn't possibly make that up. This film is real and it genuinely exists. Why? Who knows.

I'd never actually heard of Tom Six (the guy who wrote, produced and directed this shower) until I looked him up on imdb after a friend of mine pointed me towards the trailer. I haven't watched the full film and I refuse to do so; I even wish I could unlearn about it, but unfortunately that isn't possible.

Anyway, I mention this film because it's the source material for this -- a flash game that takes the original Centipede arcade title and splices it with elements from the movie.

Why anyone would want to create a fan-product about a movie which focuses on conjoining people via mouth to anus is beyond me, but it's a game and therefore it deserves mentioning, if only to serve as a reminder that you shouldn't go on holiday to Germany.

An Obligatory Welcome

Hi, welcome to Inexperience Points.

Have a poke through the links at the top of the page to browse some of the things on offer. You might also want to subscribe via the wonders of RSS technology, or become a follower. You can do both of those things over to the right.

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If you have a question, complaint or suggestion then you can find my contact details here. If you have a comment to make about a particular post then please, do it on that post. I consider everything on here, regardless of how old it is, to be "active", so I will get back to you when I can.

I don't like the word "blog" because I think it sounds like some sort of Tolkien-esque creature, so from here on I will be referring to this as, albeit incorrectly, a "website". Just thought I would clarify that to avoid people thinking I don't know my arse from my elbow, as it were.

Other than that, have a look around, have fun, and let me know what you think. Comments are always welcome.

Regards,

-Jay.