Review: Splinter Cell: Conviction Co-Op Story

He's a tough American ninja spy with a mean attitude and a meaner pistol. He's a stereotyped Russian that is effectively identical to his partner save for red goggles and his accent. They fight terrorists!

Splinter Cell: Conviction delivers a fast, action packed single player campaign that takes you on a rock'n'roll ride through Ubisofts answer to Jack Bauer. But Sam Fishers story is only a portion of the complete story presented on the game disc. Before Fisher, there was Archer and Kestrel.

Archer is an agent of Third Echelon, Sams old unit. Kestrel is Archers Russian double, an agent of Voron. They get thrown together to stop an arms deal going down in Russia in a story taking place just before Sam Fisher is called back into active duty. Their story spreads over four huge chapters, each one divided into three to four large combat areas. Each of the chapters are much larger than the single player campaign chapters, but on top of that, there is now two players trying to bumble their way through the darkness to the checkpoints. Because of this, I have already invested much longer in the co-op story than I did on either of my runs through Sams story, and I've only just finished the third chapter. Chapter two alone took the better part of four hours.

I have an interesting outlook on the co-op story, thanks to the two people I'm playing through the campaign with, and how we play.

Aidonis and I play split-screen. We share a screen, couch, and verbal sparing. When one of us fails, the other sees exactly what we did wrong and can jeer and insult about how they'd never get caught like that. With Rubber Cookie, we play on Xbox Live. We have the full screen to ourselves, and have to rely on much more talking to tell each other who is moving where and what cover is safe.

Aidonis doesn't own the game, so his only practice and experience is playing co-op with me. He doesn't have the best weapons or upgrades, or the experience of the single player game. This made the first chapter particularly eventful, involving lots of running from mobs of guards and restarting over and over. Rubber Cookie owns the game and is going through the single player campaign at the same time as the co-op. He first experienced the trademarked goggles in co-op, but had a fully upgraded Five-Seven from the start. We got through the entire first chapter without a single restart, and the first stage without even being detected.

Of course, it also helps that I'm further on in the story with Aidonis, so we're learning the maps and patrol patterns through trial and error. By the time I get there with Rubber Cookie, I know the place like the back of my hand, pointing out and using all the hidden ledges, convenient shadows and overhead pipes. It helps. A lot. Practice makes perfect, and all that.

The co-op element of Conviction is, in a word, stunning. I could happily leave the review there and hope that you take my word on it. But I won't. To only play Sams story would be criminal. Ubisoft have created a complete set of maps unique to the co-op story, rather than recycling the single player maps. The co-op maps allow for a lot more teamwork, striking from the shadows simultaneously to eliminate hostiles distracted by conversations of their beautiful families and the upcoming vacation time. Foolish guards. Don't they know they can never get a happy ending? We're the heroes here!

Mark and Execute is used to full effect in co-op. A single melee takedown charges both players Execute ability. Two players with two upgraded Five-Sevens can mark eight guards in an area. When one presses Y, time slows to allow the second player to assist in a Dual Execute, taking down any of the eight marks in sight in one flurry of suppressed fire. Even in a situation where one player can see more than just the four marks he has tagged and the second player is not in line of sight to anyone, that one well placed player can execute as many marks as he has sight to by himself. Also, while a single melee kill grants both players their Execute command, using it only exhausts the one belonging to the player that initiated the action, even if the second player joins as part of a Dual Execute. This allows both players to mark four more guards and immediately take out potentially eight more as long as the second player can engage his still active Execute order! In an absolute best case scenario, that's 16 kills in a matter of seconds. But even getting ten kills this way is a rush to the system, and gets the heart pumping with adrenaline.

Along with Mark and Execute, Convictions other new feature gets a vigorous workout in co-op. Last Known Position is in the single player story, but I found it much more important in the co-op. Basically, if you get spotted by the guards, but then duck behind a corner, through a window or into a patch of inky shadow out of sight, a "ghost" image of your character appears where you were last seen, representing the guards belief that you are in that general vicinity. You need to haul ass away from that spot before they descend on you for that time you put a bullet in Kevin's head in the last section, leaving his kid without a father and his wife without a husband, but with an extra ticket to Aruba. With the Last Known Position ghost, you and your counter-terrorist teammate can set up some incredibly fun, clever and hilarious situations making use of Remote Mines and the ragdoll physics engine.

One problem I do have with the co-op story is the actual story. I'm hard pressed to tell you anything about it. Why are they in Russia? What type of WMD are they after? Who is the badguy? Mainly, this is because plot and exposition are doled out at the start of each chapter, as in the single player story. But the co-op chapters take much longer to get through, so I've already long since forgotten what I was told in the previous chapters introduction. In the single player story, I could follow the events. I got plot cut-scenes every half hour or so. I knew who or what I was after. In co-op, it can be three hours between these cut-scenes. I have to rely on the projected signposts throughout the maps and the objective marker to tell me where to go.

It doesn't help that I'm also playing a multiplayer experience, and it seems to be human nature to chat with your partner over the bits where we're not actually expected to do anything but sit and watch.

But it is great fun, regardless. I just can't fault it beyond my own inability to pay attention to cut-scenes. Every mode can be played either split-screen or over Live. And besides Story, there is Hunter, Face-Off, Infiltrate and Convictions answer to Gears of War 2's Horde Mode, Last Stand. We haven't even touched these yet. We haven't finished the Story. There is so much gameplay left on the Splinter Cell: Conviction disc. When we get around to trying the other modes, I'll post about them too. But it might be a while. I plan on playing the heck out of Story first.

Review: Splinter Cell: Conviction Single Player Campaign

I never got into the Splinter Cell series before the latest incarnation. Mainly I attribute this slip to not owning an original Xbox, where the series seemed to be most popular, but I also blame a late developing interest in stealth-based gameplay, born mainly out of the excellent and recently mentioned Rainbow Six: Vegas series. In fact, the last Splinter Cell, Double Agent, was released in 2006, the same year as the first R6:Vegas, and Conviction comes two years since the sequel to Vegas was released in early 2008.

The R6:Vegas series drew me into the Tom Clancy shared universe of games, and my game collection now includes EndWar, a Real Time Strategy game played using a capable and enjoyable Voice-Recognition system in conjunction with the controller, and H.A.W.X, a fantastically fun and thrilling arcade-style flight simulator, favouring action and basic controls over a hyper realistic style. So far, I've skipped on the two Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfare games, but the upcoming Future Soldier looks interesting enough for me to look forward to it's release. It didn't take much to pull me into Sam Fishers story as well, and Ubisofts marketing reeled me in, hook, line and sinker.

Because I've never played any SC game previous, I was worried about difficulties following the story. Conviction is strongly tied into the earlier games in the series, and characters and events are key plot points in the newest incarnation. Thankfully, Conviction has a wonderful, visual method of relaying key events, projecting Sams memories onto the surrounding world. It's a neat feature that works really well. This projection system is also used to mark objectives, lighting "Execute These Two Guards" or whatnot onto the nearest building. It is assumed that these projections are a hallucination of Sams aging mind.

The single player experience is accomplished and polished.  Interesting flashforward moments hint at Sams inevitable fate (spoiler alert: it's Alzheimer's). A few levels break from the standard pattern of "1) Infiltrate building, 2) Kill guards, 3) Get to objective". These play out as set pieces, often adding a unique gameplay feature exclusive to that level. The whole experience is cinematic and action packed, and there were times when I really felt like I was playing a summer blockbuster Hollywood movie, in particular, the Bourne Identity.

I loved the twists and turns the plot goes through. The story is engaging, if a little ridiculously over-the-top at times, but I was never lost. In fact, I tore through the eleven chapters in the "Daring Adventures of Sam Fisher, Modern Ninja" in just two days on Normal difficulty. I would have finished it in a single sitting, but at 2am Saturday morning I realized I was a) making stupid mistakes that got me killed time and time again, and b) painfully close to the ending. Saturday morning, I completed the rest of the game in a little over an hour.

Does this mean that the game is short? Well, yes. But is that a negative comment. No. Definitely not. I had a half day from work, collecting the Shadow Edition of Conviction around 2pm and playing it for the entire day. I took a break to head back into town, get some air and enjoy the late afternoon sunshine, and a second break to have dinner and watch Mythbusters. But I did put in probably eight good hours of gameplay, exclusively in the single player campaign. That's a good time for the first playthrough. And it was only the first.

I restarted the campaign on Realistic Sunday, finishing that Monday afternoon. I was going through levels I had seen just 48 hours earlier, but playing them completely differently. Where I had struggled on Normal, I was cruising through on Realistic. I was seeing the ledges I could hang from, the dark shadows I could leap out of, the perfect sport to stand at to Mark and Execute four guys with Sams typical ninja precision. And this time around, I was using my gadgets. During my earlier play, I was sticking to the trusty silenced handgun and brute strength. Head shots and neck snaps were silent, swift, and clean. Loud explosions, regular EMP blasts and the magnesium burn of flash-bangs were the signature of my second run. In general, the bad-guys knew I was coming, but only for the brief few moments they were alive before my silenced automatic rifle perforated their poor, misguided bodies. It was messy, but fun.

Mark and Execute is a new gameplay feature Conviction brings to the table. After performing a melee kill, Sam gains the ability to mark a number of enemies, from two to four depending on the weapon at hand. Once marked, the chevron above their heads can be seen through walls, regardless of how far away they move. If they are gray they are out of line of sight or range, and red means they can be executed. At any time you can press Y to perform an instant, guaranteed kill on all red marks. During development I thought this sounded stupid. I thought it removed the skill from the player, reducing it to "Press Y now". In reality, it is exhilarating to mark four targets, then hang from a balcony while they walk their routes, finger hovering over the Y for that moment all four are standing in that one sweet spot. Or mark targets through a door before kicking in the door, killing the guard behind it, then slamming Y to cleanly execute the other four without alerting anyone. Instead of removing the skill from the player, it moves it. Should I use my hard-earned skill now, or will I need it later? Can I get past these guys without it? Can I use a gadget? Aw, to hell with this! SLAM, pop, pop, pop!

Speaking of gadgets, Sams new goggles are awesome. The ultra-sonic ping that reveals enemies through walls and floors is beautiful to listen to. I love it so much that it's my new text-message tone. The EMP device is fun to use, as it plunges the area into darkness while disorienting enemies, making them easy targets for a melee kill.

All told, Splinter Cell: Conviction is a thoroughly enjoyable single player experience. The varied methods of moving through a map allow for a surprising level of replayability in what is otherwise a railroaded story. Even twice is not enough to see everything a single map offers. The ability to go back and replay individual maps is much appreciated, and I loved replaying some of the set pieces. The reward quickly stops being about just finishing the level, and becomes finishing it undetected, or in some interesting way.

But all that is just the tutorial for what is arguably the true heart of Conviction. The Co-op story, following "The Adventurers of Intrepid Duo Archer and Kestrel". I'm currently playing through this with Aidonis on split-screen at my place or Rubber Cookie over Live. Keep watching for a future post on what I think of this part of the package (spoiler alert: it's Alzheimer's).

My Obsession With Rainbows

Admittedly it's an obsession with the violent, terrorist killing kind, and not the colouredy, "light-spectrum-through-liquid-suspended-in-the-air" kind. Yes, I've started playing Rainbow Six: Vegas. And now it's in my every waking thought, and haunts me in my dreams.

I've never been much of a fan of the first-person-shooter, of FPS genre. In fact, the only time I've really enjoyed myself while playing an FPS was GoldenEye on the N64. Perfect Dark was ok, but just hadn't got the same level of sheer fun I felt playing as Bond. Battlefield I guess is another exception. The ability to drive vehicles, fly planes and crush the opposition beneath the threads of your tank kinda clinches it for me as a fun game. 2142 only goes further with hover tanks and mechs, and that had me sold from the first trailers. But for Battlefield it was always just the multiplayer. I tried the single-player stuff a few times, but I just never got into it. I enjoyed the interaction of player-on-player strategy and the thrill of killing, or being killed by an opponent you know is operating on the same level as you, give or take a bit of skill. We all know the computer cheats. No fog of war, it always knows where you are, precision shooting, perfect tactics. Yawn.

A few weeks back I watched Bob complete a Terrorist Hunt mission on R6: Vegas on the X-Box 360 and I loved it. I watched him die time and time again. From waves of terrorists head on, to sneaky bastards from behind. It was all so cool. My heart was racing just watching him, and if that was the case as a passive observer, I wanted to know what it was like to actually be there, within the playground of destruction, knowing two bullets in quick succession were all that stood between you... well, standing and not!

Last weekend I was over at Bob's place again, and we tried out the split screen multiplayer co-op mode on Terrorist Hunt. The map was Calypso Casino to begin with, the one I had seen Bob playing, giving me a chance to get used to the controls in an environment I (kind of) knew.

First off: Controls. Perfect. A great use of the controller, with the buttons just being where they should be. I grasped everything really quickly, and was nailing terrorist scum in no time. Simple, yet never lacking, the control method makes this game almost a "pick-up-and-play" concept, despite the stealth and infiltration style of gameplay.

Graphics are crisp and clean, even when played on a non-HD TV. Despite some minor graphical glitches that don't hinder gameplay at all, the models and environments are beautiful. Just watching this game is a joy, particularly in the Calypso Casino level, because everything is so bright. You rarely if ever see a gun poking through a door, or get shot from a bullet moving through the corner of a wall. Collision detection is spot-on, and bullets leave marks on everything, blood spatters across surfaces and explosions throw people like rag-dolls.

Enemy AI is fantastic. They circle around once they know where you are. They call for back-up. They try to ambush you at every given opportunity. There are a few exploits available based on the AI. You can step near a door to trigger a zone of influence, then back away and hide to shoot the terrorist that reacts. But when it works, it's such a rush! You shoot at a terrorist behind a corner, but fail to land the fatal wound. He rushes back down the corridor away from you and you suddenly realise in horror that he's trying to circle around through some other rooms! What do you do?!? You only have a few seconds to react. Race in after him, leaving yourself open to assault, or turn and face the other entrance, again leaving yourself open to assault? Usually a hail of bullets from one side or the other will help focus your thoughts, but by then it's often too late. There are a few problems, but they might just be a "handicap" based on the difficulty level we're playing it at. An enemy will race through a door littered with five of his mates without caution. Instead of just leaning over the balcony, an enemy will join you on a nearby rappel line to shoot you. Just little things. It is possible that the enemies are far smarter on "Realistic" mode. Right now, normal is fine for me, thanks.

As I said, I'm not a fan of FPS in general. But I think that I'm just not a fan of the Doom/Quake style of FPS. I thrive on the stealth and strategy of Rainbow Six. I enjoy the slow pace the game takes, the emphasis placed on team-work and co-operation. I love covering a teammate, or knowing that as I advance, there is someone covering me. I enjoy closing doors, considering alternative routes to the target, doubling back to green-light an area or drawing enemies out. I thrill at using "Enemy on your six", "Sniper on the roof", "Cover me", "Reloading", "Go, go, go" and "Whoa, whoa, whoa" and having them mean something. I excite at pressing against a wall, counting down from three and then tapping "A" to open a door, never sure if there is an enemy on the other side. I quicken at seeing the enemy counter reach 8, knowing that this is where we died last time. And I delight in victory, punching the air and relishing the euphoria.

And I love doing nothing. I love feeling my heart pound in my chest as I keep my gun trained on a door to a room that may very well be empty, all because my teammate is blasting terrorist scum at the other door, and might have triggered an ambush. I love the feeling of my finger going numb, poised over the "R-Trigger", ready to flex at less than a seconds notice and unleash 50 rounds from the clip of my P90 in three round bursts into the chests of oncoming opponents.

I never really considered getting an X-Box during it's life. I didn't think about the 360 as a console I might like to own either. I have always been a Nintendo fan. Not necessarily a fanatic. I own a PS2 and love it very much. But Nintendo is my console of choice. It still is. The Wii is an incredible machine. But sometimes I want something different to play. Not "more", or "better", just different. There are games that make you sit up and think "Hey, I want this". Rainbow Six: Vegas is one of those times. I won't be getting it any time soon, I admit, but I will get an X-Box 360 some time this summer, once my exams are done and I have a job again. And I'll get Rainbow Six straight away. Nothing else. I don't particularly like Halo. I have no interest in Oblivion. Assassins Creed looks nice, but not something I'd get on release. That's not to say I won't get other games eventually, just nothing grabs me like this one.

Rainbow Six: Vegas has single-handedly sold me an X-Box 360. Only a few brief outings to Bob's place and I've already unlocked the achievement for killing 500 terrorists. Oh yes! I'm addicted!

EDIT: Just after posting this Noel and I were rappelling down the side of Calypso Casino and some guards came at us from above. They leaned over the railing and expertly placed a not insignificant amount of buck-shot from a Spaz-12 into each of our craniums. I love good enemy AI.