Splinter Cell Conviction PC is a sell out
Posted on 16th Jun 2010 at 16:38 by Harry Butler with 43 comments
When Joe reviewed Splinter Cell: Conviction on the Xbox 360 he thought it a highly entertaining spy stealth ‘em up that was, like main protagonist Sam Fisher’s victims, stunningly executed. On PC the game has also received plenty of similar acclaim but after playing it through myself, I can’t help but disagree.
For me, Conviction is Splinter Cell dumbed down to an infuriating degree with much of the stealth and careful approach of its predecessors chucked in the bin for a bodycount that even Jack Bauer would be impressed with. In short, I think it’s sold out everything that made the franchise special. Here’s why - with spoilers.
1) Ze Goggles, zey do nuzzling: Sam’s iconic night vision/infared goggles have been dumped. Instead, in the dark the screen is just black and white. This means that you can ALWAYS see in the dark, reducing much of the sneaky feeling I used to love about Splinter Cell. Now it’s either colourful for 'you’re about to get lit up' and monochrome for 'hiding.' However, if seeing in the bloody dark unaided isn’t enough, later in the game you get magic see-through-wall sonar goggles too.
2) Marked and executed: Shooting people in the head is one of gaming’s many joys. Lining up the shot and watching your foe go down in one is always satisfying. With Conviction though Ubisoft has taken even this simple pleasure away, thanks to the game's mark and execute feature. This system allows you to mark enemies (even through walls!), placing an arrow over their head.
Perform a Melee kill and you get the chance to execute, hitting one button that prompts Sam to automatically headshot any marked enemy in range. This might feel great for console users used to clumsy joysticks and for whom a headshot is a rare occurrence but on PC where we have that handy mouse thing, pointing and clicking on bonces is something I’m perfectly able to do myself without the all-powerful magic execute button.
3) Killerman Slaughtermaster: In previous games Sam has been up against North Koreans, Russians and all manner of terrorists but the emphasis of the game was always on stealth. You were encouraged to incapacitate enemies rather than gun them down, or just to sneak past entirely unnoticed. Arguably one of the previous Splinter Cell games’ most satisfying moments was making it through a level unseen, undetected and having left a trail of guards none the wiser to your presence.
However, clearly Ubisoft decided that players today have no patience with this stealth stuff and instead want a pile of corpses because trying to play through Conviction without actually killing anyone is impossible. Want to sneak through a section? Nope, you’ll have to slaughter the staff on duty first. Want to interrogate that gun runner? You’ll have to massacre his army of bodyguards. Sure, have a few levels where all the bad guys have to die but Conviction plays more like a run and gunner than it does a stealth ‘em up.
4) Tools of the trade: In his review Joe commented on the drop in Sam’s gadgets and I’ve little problem with that. It does make for a more focussed game. What I do have a problem with is the removal of basic abilities like being able to move the bodies of enemies you’ve taken out. This means that wherever that terrorist whose spine you snapped falls, that’s where his mates will find him. And then come looking for you. Even if there’s a cupboard or ledge in/over which you could stash the body. This is just plain lazy.
5) Uplay: The Ubisoft save game/DRM system is pretty controversial, but as I have a reliable internet connection, the online sync isn’t really an issue and isn’t one I want to discuss. What does infuriate though is that the game uses universal checkpoints to log your progress, not unique individual save games.
Things that these save games won’t record are which lights you’ve shot out, or where enemy corpses are, or which windows you’ve smashed. This means that at points where you retread your steps, you’ll run into a corner expecting it to be bathed in darkness only to find the guards going nuts, or jump back through a window you’ve opened earlier only to dive through glass - mind you, it's not that this has too many consequences with the new murder-a-thon gameplay.
Right, I think that’s the rant out of my system. To its credit, Conviction wasn’t completely lacking in fun, and as to be expected from a high profile release with Michael Ironside the presentation, voice acting, and writing are all top notch. I just feel that with this game the developers and Splinter Cell have sold out to the run and gun action crowd, and forgotten the game's shadowy roots.
A fan of the Splinter Cell series? Played Conviction on console or PC? Think Michale Ironside is badass? Let me know in the comments.
For me, Conviction is Splinter Cell dumbed down to an infuriating degree with much of the stealth and careful approach of its predecessors chucked in the bin for a bodycount that even Jack Bauer would be impressed with. In short, I think it’s sold out everything that made the franchise special. Here’s why - with spoilers.
1) Ze Goggles, zey do nuzzling: Sam’s iconic night vision/infared goggles have been dumped. Instead, in the dark the screen is just black and white. This means that you can ALWAYS see in the dark, reducing much of the sneaky feeling I used to love about Splinter Cell. Now it’s either colourful for 'you’re about to get lit up' and monochrome for 'hiding.' However, if seeing in the bloody dark unaided isn’t enough, later in the game you get magic see-through-wall sonar goggles too.
Sam Fisher is now a Jack Bauer rip-off
2) Marked and executed: Shooting people in the head is one of gaming’s many joys. Lining up the shot and watching your foe go down in one is always satisfying. With Conviction though Ubisoft has taken even this simple pleasure away, thanks to the game's mark and execute feature. This system allows you to mark enemies (even through walls!), placing an arrow over their head.
Perform a Melee kill and you get the chance to execute, hitting one button that prompts Sam to automatically headshot any marked enemy in range. This might feel great for console users used to clumsy joysticks and for whom a headshot is a rare occurrence but on PC where we have that handy mouse thing, pointing and clicking on bonces is something I’m perfectly able to do myself without the all-powerful magic execute button.
3) Killerman Slaughtermaster: In previous games Sam has been up against North Koreans, Russians and all manner of terrorists but the emphasis of the game was always on stealth. You were encouraged to incapacitate enemies rather than gun them down, or just to sneak past entirely unnoticed. Arguably one of the previous Splinter Cell games’ most satisfying moments was making it through a level unseen, undetected and having left a trail of guards none the wiser to your presence.
However, clearly Ubisoft decided that players today have no patience with this stealth stuff and instead want a pile of corpses because trying to play through Conviction without actually killing anyone is impossible. Want to sneak through a section? Nope, you’ll have to slaughter the staff on duty first. Want to interrogate that gun runner? You’ll have to massacre his army of bodyguards. Sure, have a few levels where all the bad guys have to die but Conviction plays more like a run and gunner than it does a stealth ‘em up.
Forget sneaking about, just shoot everyone
4) Tools of the trade: In his review Joe commented on the drop in Sam’s gadgets and I’ve little problem with that. It does make for a more focussed game. What I do have a problem with is the removal of basic abilities like being able to move the bodies of enemies you’ve taken out. This means that wherever that terrorist whose spine you snapped falls, that’s where his mates will find him. And then come looking for you. Even if there’s a cupboard or ledge in/over which you could stash the body. This is just plain lazy.
5) Uplay: The Ubisoft save game/DRM system is pretty controversial, but as I have a reliable internet connection, the online sync isn’t really an issue and isn’t one I want to discuss. What does infuriate though is that the game uses universal checkpoints to log your progress, not unique individual save games.
Things that these save games won’t record are which lights you’ve shot out, or where enemy corpses are, or which windows you’ve smashed. This means that at points where you retread your steps, you’ll run into a corner expecting it to be bathed in darkness only to find the guards going nuts, or jump back through a window you’ve opened earlier only to dive through glass - mind you, it's not that this has too many consequences with the new murder-a-thon gameplay.
Right, I think that’s the rant out of my system. To its credit, Conviction wasn’t completely lacking in fun, and as to be expected from a high profile release with Michael Ironside the presentation, voice acting, and writing are all top notch. I just feel that with this game the developers and Splinter Cell have sold out to the run and gun action crowd, and forgotten the game's shadowy roots.
A fan of the Splinter Cell series? Played Conviction on console or PC? Think Michale Ironside is badass? Let me know in the comments.
43 Comments
Discuss in the forums ReplyHowever, I still enjoyed it, and even bought the DLC.
I'm sure they'll reboot it with the next game.
The main bit I am massively disappointed by is the infuriating matchmaking system which can never find anyone, almost ever.
Also, an option to swap the B&W effect for a stealth indicator would've been welcome, the B&W effect hurt my eyes a little and the environments were much nicer in colour I thought.
I do agree with some of your points though, but I guess Ubi saw that the old style splinter cell just wasn't selling that well any more. I can see why too, I played the first one, really enjoyed it, but after that the sequels just didn't grab me.
I do wish they allowed for more stealthy gameplay, but I like how they've greatly reduced the trial and error aspect of it by allowing you to run and gun more often.
Well how precise are you with an analog stick? Headshots are a lot easier with a mouse.
2. The quote is: "My eyes, the goggles do nothing."
And the part that this edition is much focused on "shoot'em'up".
What about that sticky camera? It plays a music! That is so strange that even the guards doesn't come close to it! Every time you press c to make the camera "sing a song" makes the guards to walk randomly, and more than 50% of the time they don't even get close to it so you can make it explode.
I also miss that "knock-knock" Fisher used to do in the wall to attract the enemies to a point where we could grab him.
When I was playing, at some point i thought to myself:
"No way they just erased the hide body ability" - and started to press every key in the keyboard (after checking the key config).
To my "half" disapoint, one need to press and hold "c" in order to use the enemy as a human shield and kill him in the shadow.
In the plus side the is those things you can do with a human shield, like throw them (particulary fun when throwing them off edges), bash doors and knock out enemies.
I concur with almost every aspect of this article, but I also agree that the game is great fun and deserves the 8~9 Joe gave to it.
And I am trying to stealth every single stage with hand to hand kills
On a side note "WHERE IS HITMAN?????"
All in all, I'm not sure what the point of your article is. Your site has reviewed the game - you're not even posting a PC review. You don't want to discuss one of the core issues with the game. What a waste of time for you and people who read it.
It's not a review, it's a Blog, and in this case a rant. The point is for other members of BT staff to be able to voice their own subjective opinions on whatever they want. Especially if they didn't do the review. Joe did the review, and Harry is just sharing his perspective for those of us that are interested.
Also the mouse lag this game has is horrible, combined with terrible FPS..
At least, that's what is the problem 99% of the time I get a new game and there's mouse lag (eg Far Cry 2).
Agree with most points.
I thought the insta-kill button was a bit pants and it felt dumbed down. Like the developers didn't think I had the skills or brainpower to take down a room full of people. Not having the goggles at the start was a major no no for me. It's a core part of any splinter cell game. Like the crowbar is to gordon freeman.
The tools and upgrades felt totally pointless too. I always ended up using the same guns as there just wasn't enough variety between them. By halfway through the game I just stopped upgrading as it was getting too easy!
It was still an enjoyable experience and they include some nice features.
Also, the multi-player does look a bit more "stealthy" so i suppose you could get your fix there :/
So if Episode 3 doesn't have a crowbar then it'll be rubbish? Pfft.
Too much weight can be put on this 'iconic' parts of a game. They should be done away with when they are done with. Personally, I'd have preferred Splinter Cell with no goggles and less tech. It would make more sense.
Insult swordfighting is the iconic part of Monkey Island series, because it was in the first game. Still, the best MI game is the one which doesn't have swordfighting at all - Monkey Island 2 - and the worst is the one which attempted to modernise and reintroduce it - Monkey Island 4.
The game suffers from consolitis and Ubisofts DRM.
As for the DRM ubisoft games are now banned in our house. My copy of conviction went to the local game station , I really enjoyed Assassins Creed 2 but it was such pain i will not be playing the next game so Ubisoft have lost my business, i tend to only buy games through Steam
It'll more likely be an ice pick.
Bear in mind, Episode One didn't have a crowbar until near the end of the game, when Barney gives it to you. By that point it was more of an in-joke than an actual weapon, since you'd already got every other gun you could.
HL games will have a crowbar.
Actually, the crowbar wasn't added into HL2 until the very last minute. As I said, it was an icepick before that and it was used mainly for navigation and climbing in the original versions and betas, which included the overall plot of the episodes.
NO U!
;)
It was indeed more actiony but I had fun with that - playing though I would amuse myself by trying to take out as many opponents as possible utilising a combination of gadgets, execute and environmental factors in a single move.
The additions to the game (such as the cover system and the co-op stuff) I really enjoyed. In fact the one thing I really miss at this moment is Spies Vs. Mercs which I'm holding out hope we'll see as DLC at some point...
Oh and as far as the Ubisoft DRM is concerned, while I'm sure the first time I have connection issues it will royally piss me off, but so far its been no more obtrusive than Steam has been for me, so I have no real issues with it at this point.
I quite like the idea of Mark and Execute though, even on PC. I don't know what difficulty you are playing on, but I kind of had the impression that with the addition of M&E, they would add times when it was really needed to progress efficiently (say there are too many people to kill one by one). If, however, they have kept a similar design, and simply added M&E as a gimmick, rather than a fleshed out feature, well, that sucks.
TBH, the only thing that really looks good to me is the co-op stealthing. It looks awesome.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/1684-Splinter-Cell-Conviction
Setting up a multiplayer game is far more complicated that it should ever be. They even forgot to put any form of communication between the two players (I believe voice chat is now in there, but still not typey chat).
Changing controls every time I load the game, is quickly getting very boring. I sent UBIsoft support a ticket stating this must be a Bug and the response was.. Post in the forums, where we can ignore you there.
The Afgan level to me felt totally un-nessecary and turned what should of been a stealth 'em up into Call of Duty clone. Almost like the developers were thinking "yes we can do a modern warfare as well". I suspect the next splinter cell will have the ability to reverse time and wall running.
You guys should do a "Games I Own" or "Games I Like" on the older Splinter Cell games, I love reading the Blogs, it makes me whip out those classic games, install and play them!
This series lost me at double agent when, much to my chagrin, I was not able to upgrade my hacking tool (and other things) due to PC bugs. I did not see a patch that fixed that when I was playing through and once I finished the game, I never looked back. This seems like another prime example of a company willing to leave their PC fans to appeal to the console crowd.
Fair point Joe. Agree on you with the MI comparison. I didn't explain my point very well. I didn't mean that SC should have the goggles just for goggles sake. As Harry mentioned, instead of relying on your goggles to see in the dark. The developers removed this option by giving Sam owl o-vision. To me this seemed very unrealistic and would have preferred that the goggles stay in the game as a main gameplay mechanic. As IMO, this was an enjoyable part of the previous games. Well up to chaos theory anyway....
No goggles, no stashing corpses/unconscious people, no real stealth, moronic save-game system. I'm staying clear of this game thank you very much.
(1) in my game ( PC ) I'm playing on Rookie, but yet I have like 2 to 3 Bad guys on every level. When I go on the YouTube walk Through they have 1 or none bad guys in the Garage. This tells me even If I picked Rookie,, I'm playing a higher level game.
(2) How do I get my guy to do Roll overs and Slides across the floor ?.
it does not have this in the manual. Is there a site I can get these options ??.
Thanks
(1) in my game ( PC ) I have playing level at "Rookie",,, yet I have bad guys everywhere. When I go to Youtube walkthrough It shows like one bad guy or none ( In the Garage area ) . My game has at least 6 bad guys. So I think,, even if I have it set on Rookie , I'm playing some higher level.
(2) How can I get my guy ( Sam ) to do Roll overs or Slides across the floor?. It says nothing of that in the manual.