Splinter Cell: Conviction is a different kind of Splinter Cell game. It's more action-packed than the older ones, with a brutal fighting style and a focus on taking down enemies in quick bursts. The story's dark and gritty, and while you can still sneak around in the shadows, there's more emphasis on blasting your way through problems. Some fans might miss the slower, stealthier gameplay, but the new mechanics are fun to use, and the interrogation scenes are brutal and satisfying. If you want a more aggressive Splinter Cell experience, Conviction delivers with a surprising amount of heart under the hood.

O jogo é extremamente simples, estória rasa e que dá continuidade da pior forma possível na franquia (o plano do antagonista é meio confuso até próximo do final do jogo, eles seguem o "pior final" do Double Agent e você fica se perguntando o que aconteceu com o Williams após o Essentials, já que não é explicado nada sobre ele).

Sabe todas as mecânicas que foram desenvolvidas e aprimoradas desde o primeiro Splinter Cell até o Double Agent de PS2/Xbox/GCN? São todas DESCARTADAS em Conviction (cara, o jogo não têm nem a visão noturna e térmica, se não tivesse "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell" no nome, nem seria parte da franquia e não teria a mesma visibilidade). Inclusive, sequer é um jogo stealth de verdade, e sim um jogo de ação com algumas poucas mecânicas stealth. Isso que consegue ser também um péssimo jogo de ação, é todo scriptado e em quase todos os levels ele não te oferece quase liberdade nenhuma dentro do escopo da série.

O level design é péssimo, e somado com o fato de o jogo ter se tornado um joguinho de tiro TPS genérico, a facilidade dele é absurda. Há uns pontos bons na trilha sonora como uma música do DJ Shadow mas no geral é esquecível.

Eu já esperava um jogo meia-boca, por isso só joguei para completar a franquia msm. Mas um dos meus maiores desprazeres foi a câmera que é horrível, ela dá umas tremidas e uns giros que me dão forte tontura e enjoo; sério, eu não sou diagnosticado com nenhum problema que promova isso e nunca tive nada do tipo.

Os gráficos são bonitos, mas não se vive só disso (e porquê o design do Sam parece mais jovem ?).

Nota? 3/10. Só não é pior que o Essentials, que é um desastre técnico. Mais uma franquia que a Ubisoft torna genérica o bastante na expectativa de atrair um público mainstream que banque essa bomba.

There was a point in the 7th console gen where every stealth franchise had to dumb itself down in a vain attempt to nab more sales. Splinter Cell Conviction is probably the attempt that got the most positive reception, but considering it alienated a lot of Splinter Cell fans and is rarely mentioned these days, it's probably safe to say it had a negative impact on the franchise.

There are two ways to play Conviction. The first is the way the devs intended, and it gets old fast. Conviction is a "solved game", where nearly every encounter has one dominant solution. Conviction introduced the "Mark and Execute" system, where Sam can gain Marks by performing a melee kill/grab (the amount of Marks you can hold onto varies depending on the gun you're carrying, but it only ever takes one kill to fill up all your Marks). The player spends these Marks by pressing the Execute button, essentially an automatic win button which lets Sam kill any and all enemies in his field of view (and outside of it, with a little camera finesse). Conviction almost never has enemies patrolling hallways or tiny rooms. Foes are usually grouped together in vaguely disguised combat arenas, and often must all be wiped out before you're allowed to progress. The interwoven paths and open structure of Chaos Theory is long behind us, and killing enemies is now mandatory.

This lack of variety ensures that the player is going into every combat scenario with the same gameplan: Find a straggler, waltzing in some corner of the arena, and kill them with a melee attack. This provides a full set of Marks, which you can then use on most, if not all of the remaining baddies. You'd be surprised just how far this single strategy will take you. Even if there are too many enemies to kill in a single Execute, getting another one should rarely pose a challenge. Enemies have a startled phase in between spotting you and actually attacking, giving you plenty of leeway if you get caught. Maybe if a single melee kill only earned you one Mark at a time, this system would be less subject to abuse. Judging by developer interviews though, I get the impression Executes really are supposed to be this stupidly overpowering. Sam's list of gadgets has shrunken from previous titles, but he still has a fair amount of them, not that you'll ever feel that compelled to use them. Conviction wants you to feel like Jason Bourne, and it wants to accomplish that feeling with a single button, game depth or balancing be damned.

The second way to play Conviction is to just treat it like a third-person shooter. The developers must have thought this was an acceptable way to play, considering there's an entire level where you play as Sam's just-now-introduced war buddy Victor Coste, and he has none of the stealth prowess Sam does, making his short gameplay cameo a full-on cover shooter. Too bad the cover shooting feels pretty bad. On console, there's no aiming sensitivity options to speak of, or button mapping for that matter(I hope clicking the left thumbstick to reload doesn't sound too awkward!), so aiming feels slow and has a hefty amount of acceleration. Feedback isn't anything to write home about either, but I guess not every shooter can be Resident Evil 4. Most bizarrely, moving from cover-to-cover is handled by aiming towards a desired piece of cover, pressing A, and watching Sam automatically make a mad dash to the conveniently placed chest-high wall. I shouldn't have to explain why automating a crucial action, one that's often nail biting in other games, is a bad thing... but a 2010 IGN reviewer said this game has the best cover system that reviewer has ever used so fuck me I guess.

Regardless of how you tackle it, Conviction is a pretty easy game, even on the pretentiously named "Realistic" difficulty. You'll likely finish the story in around 5 to 6 hours, with most levels being blink and you'll miss it affairs. Normally I appreciate a short game, but Conviction manages to get old even before its short runtime comes to a close. More emphasis has been placed on the plot but it's filled with contrivances and characters talking as smugly as they can. It plays out more like a mediocre serial drama than anything of substance. Past Splinter Cell stories were by-the-number political thrillers but they had likable, surprisingly funny characters, with great camaraderie. Conviction is relatively joyless, both in it's characters and in its attempt at "revolutionizing" the stealth genre.

conviction is kind of a mixed bag. there's a lot to love here but unfortunately there's just as much, if not more, to hate. ironside kills it better than he ever has this time around and victor is a welcome addition to the cast, but everything else is borderline character assassination for all characters living, or dead.

the game is notably more cinematic which works heavily to its favor, giving some of the best moments in the franchise, but the story it's telling via this style is honestly the worst in the series so far. tom reed is not as outlandish and fun as sadono, otomo or emile, but he's also not as threatening or cool as grinko, soth or shetland. he is a by the numbers boring espionage villain.

the gameplay here is fantastic, genuinely feels buttery smooth and wicked stylish, the mark and execute system is genuinely so cool and i wish more games had it. but the trade off here is that the game strips away all of your choice, strips down all the mechanics from the last 4 (or 5) games, and just turns it into an... well, an assassin's creed game. it's fun, sure! but it's not splinter cell.

visually this is a huge downgrade from the last game. i had plenty of negative things to say about both versions of double agent, but it's undeniable how gorgeous those games are and that they still hold up visually today. here the lighting is worse, the sonar vision is a hideous replacement for the Night/Thermal/Electronic visions, the mechanic of the color palette turning grey in darkness is absolutely no replacement for the light meter, for another TPS in 2010 this would be fine, but this is a splinter cell sequel so it is not.

i wanna love this game, i really do, but sadly there's just no comparing it to the first three entries and it hardly even surpasses the fourth. sorry, ubisoft montreal, this is just a sad note to go out on. hopefully ubisoft toronto can bring the proper next gen splinter cell experience you guys wanted to bring so badly