I know I said that I wasn't going to post on Saturdays, but my laptop ran out of battery and I wasn't able to post, so as I said, here's the Splinter Cell review.
This review is of the game called Splinter Cell: Conviction and personally, I think this game is on borderline great. There's a few things that Ubisoft could have done to improve, but all in all the game is great. First off the campaign review.
The Splinter Cell: Conviction campaign brings us back to Sam Fisher, who is still trying to find out what happened to his daughter. The first mission is played as if a training mission, and you are assisted by a person called Anna Grimsdottir or "Grim". You go through the campaign level, and you slowly get used to the game play, which while its not incredibly complex, it still takes a little getting used to. This game is all about stealth, which is why as you work through the campaign you unlock a variety of gadgets and weapons to add to your arsenal. Compared to other SC games you can equip an assault rifle, a pistol/silenced pistol or an smg. The weapons themselves all have attachments that you can unlock. You do this by completing challenges that you can do in campaign or the small list of multi player modes. You play through the campaign, working out the mystery entangled in Third Echelon. (Sam's previous employers, creators of the splinter cell program)
You get many gadgets throughout the campaign, including different types of throw able cameras, grenades, EMP Devices and grenades, and the sonar goggles. The Remote mine, is pretty self explanatory. You can throw the grenade silently, and when the enemy walks over it, BOOM!! Instant explosion. At first, when you first start, you get something called the mirror. You can use this to search under the door so that you can see who is in the room. To use the mirror walk up to the door and press A which activates the "Peek Under" action. You get a upgraded version of the mirror called the snake cam. The snake cam is basically the same, but it looks good and makes the game feel like a proper espionage game.
The Mark and Execute technique is new to the splinter cell series and it allows you to mark to the amount that your gun allows, so that you can execute the enemy quickly. This is done with good graphics that is like a cut scene that is inter grated to the game and makes the game look alot like a movie.
Flash bangs are useful in this game, this is because when you are spotted, you throw a flash bang and then the enemies are blinded. This helps because this game works using the "Last Known Position" meaning that the enemy will shoot towards where you where before you threw the flash bang meaning you can go around and finish everybody off one by one.
Sticky Cameras are useful when there is no door to use the snake cam to see in the next room. When you approach a room where the door is open or if their was no door in the first place, you can throw a sticky camera and use it to check the room before you enter. The sticky camera has two other uses, it can make a sound to attract enemies. I know what you are thinking, what would be the point of attracting the enemies to that doorway, well... the cameras other function is that when the enemy gets too close, BOOM and he's dead. Meaning that the Sticky camera also acts as a remote mine, cool huh?
Frag grenades. We all know what a frag is, so there isn't much point of going through this. Just so you know the frag grenades dint have a large explosion area, but can still be pretty useful at times.
Sonar goggles, one of the last gadgets you get in the game, but one of the most useful. Using the sonar goggles you can see through walls, and see enemies appear with a white outline, meaning you can set up a mark an execute through the walls. Another use is for when the enemy ( or you) throw a smoke. You can see thought the smoke while the less under equipped enemies can't. (When you get the goggles some of your enemies also use them, so dont think that this is the easiest way to kill/escape). The goggles can identify whether the people are civilians or enemies (There's a bit where there are a lot of civilians) so its easy to make sure you don't kill any innocents.
The EMP Device is a short range EMP that makes any electrical items around you stop working for 5-10 seconds. Thus giving you that chance to make it through a brightly lit room filled with enemies dark and you can deal with them nice and quickly.
The EMP Grenade is a useful device which, even though it has a shorter range than the EMP device, its of a much higher frequency, so the EMP detonation lasts longer. These are useful for entering a larger room that might take a longer time to traverse. The lights stay out longer letting you pass through, either stealthily assassinating enemies, or using the time to set up a mark and execute move to empty the room quickly.
The weapon upgrades include a suppressor for vastly reducing the audible sounds that shooting a gun would usually produce.
The reflex sight provides you with an extra mark for the Mark and Execute move.
The Laser Sight makes aiming the weapon easier.
2xScope adds range to your weapon and also allowing you to see further. This is the same for the 4xScope, which just adds extra zoom.
Hollow Point ammunition adds damage to your weapon.
Match Grade Ammo adds accuracy to a greater range, allowing you to Mark and Execute more distance targets.
Extended Mags add more ammo.
Gun Stock improves the stability of your weapon during long bursts of fire.
All in all the equipment and the weapons upgrades greatly increase the power that Sam Fisher wields.
The Campaign, is very good with a compelling storyline with a twist that not many SC fans would expect, the game also uses a good aiming system and the Mark and Execute adds to the belief of the one man army that is the splinter cell. The campaign gets a 9/10 for me.
The Multi player is also good as there is a whole separate Campaign for two people to play through. A quick synopsis. Four Russian EMP weapons have been stolen and are going to be sold on the black market. Third Echelon and Voron (Russia's Third Echelon) both send one agent to find them. These agents are Archer from Third Echelon and Kestrel from Voron. These are the two characters for the Co-Op story. This is the same set up as the campaign.
The other game modes include Hunter, where you have to eliminate all the enemies in a sweep of the map. Getting detected means that enemy reinforcements arrive increasing the difficulty.
Last Stand is a defence game mode. You defend an EMP Generator over waves of rounds, getting increasingly harder after each level. The EMP starts off with 100% health (obviously) after each round that the EMP keeps more than 75% the health will go back up to 100%, when it go below 75% its health will go back up to 75%, when it go below 50% it will only go up to 50%. When it get to 25%, it would only repair itself to 25%, meaning that not only the rounds get increasingly harder, the EMP takes damage over rounds.
Face off is a one on one between agents, but enemies of both players are thrown into the mix. You earn points for killing enemies and lots of points for killing the other player. The other thing is that when you get detected by any enemies the other player gets your last known position.
This next game mode is a mode that CAN ONLY BE unlocked through UPlay.
Infiltration is what you think it would be. The rules of infiltration apply to this mission meaning you cannot get detected. You have to eliminate all the hostiles without being detected.
In all the co-operative game play you can revive your partner meaning that you can always get your partner back, but only if you can get to your partner in time.
This games very good, the campaign being better than the multi player, but even though I say that the multi player is still very good. The campaign is the one of the best splinter cell's so far as its the only one that I've actually completed in a few days because of the gripping storyline. This game gets a 8/10 and is a must buy for anyone who likes any stealth games.
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