Eurogamer Splinter Cell Conviction review

The irony in calling the reinvention of a long-established series Conviction, only to flip-flop on what exactly that reinvention should look like, is writ large across Splinter Cell's recent history.

[Natsu X FairyTail]

"eurogamer is biased"

[raztad]

nope that's EDGE. LOL

Conviction makes me want to replay Chaos Theory, amazing game.

[Chris399]

Maybe the cheque bounced? :P

I kid, I kid. The games industry is a mess nowadays, and you can't trust reviews for beans.

I won't be picking this up (the demo was a bit rough, for me - as in quality, not 'amount of skill required). But I liked WKC and tonnes of other games that reviewers panned. The moral here is to abide by your own tastes. People need to stop worrying about what "professionals" think they should or shouldn't play.

Isn't part of being an adult being able to make your own decisions?

[MexicanAppleThief]

The meta score for this game is really taking a hit right now.

http://www.metacritic.com/g...

Still, Heavy Rain was a 87 and I loved that game. We shouldn't always trust reviews.

Edit: First of all I couldn't give a rat's arse is this game was a 99 or 10 on metacritic. I merely showed the metacritic score just in case other people wanted to know, after all they're spending thier hard earned money on it are they not?

And what part of my comment showed that 87 is a bad score? You assume too much. I gave Heavy Rain as an example because I love that game. I personally think that people should only read the text on these reviews rather jump right to the score, its a poor way a judging a game in my books.

[StanLee]

@ MexicanAppleThief

What concerns me about this entire generation of gaming is reflected in your post. You say 87 metacritic like that's a bad thing. Like it's reflective of a mediocre game and you were pleasantly surprised you enjoyed it. I don't get that.

[BeaArthur]

MexicanAppleThief...it's not that you should trust reviews, it's that you shouldn't treat them like they are the gospel.

[Pennywise]

87 metascore is damn good. You can't expect everyone to like a game.

[StanLee]

The problem is more than just about review scores and more about Metacritic. If Metacritic did away with scores and just used the color system they have, we wouldn't have this problem. If they quantified the scores but only put green for General favorable reviews and so on, people wouldn't dwell on scores. The difference between a game with a 90 metacritic and 80 metacritic isn't 10 points, it's 1 point. It's an 8/10 review over a 9/10 review. A 4/5 star review doesn't reflect a game only marginally away from being great, it's 80/100, 20 points away from a game that got 5/5 stars when in reality there isn't that great a disparity in quality between the games. We need to do away with metacritic and scores.

Edit @ BeaArthur

You're so right. The perceptions of scores changed when aggregate sites became popular. Never in my gaming life did I care what 87 people though of a game I was interested in, neither did most, but all of a sudden a 7.9/10 from ActionTrip should matter? That's ridiculous. Splinter Cell Conviction has 19 review scores 90 or above, 41 total reviews of 80 or above but somehow, the 3 scores of 79, 70, 70 are the reviews that aren't biased but the 19 over 90 are?! That's the problem I have with fanboys, they're irrational.

[BeaArthur]

StanLee...It's not an issue with the score, it's an issue with peoples perception of a score. All of a sudden an 85 isn't good anymore. Also, as you pointed out, every site grades them on a different scale. A site that only has an X out of 5 can only be a 20, 40, 60, 80 or a 100 while an IGN can give it a 9.3. I personally like metacritic because it allows me to do better research. All the reviews (or at least most of them) are all in one spot so I can read as many or as few as I choose. People just need to relax and stop flipping out because they think a score is too high or too low. I mean I don't even understand why they care in the first place since it doesn't effect their level of enjoyment of a game.

[nycredude]

I really don't understand how people think 80 to 90 is somehow a bad game. IMO these days IGN, and other big name sites give out 90+ WAY too often and easily. Bring back the days when a game gets 95 it was like WOAH!!!! I mean look at Just Cause 2, it's at low 80s and damn that game is awesome!!!

[boodybandit]

I think 87 is about right for this game. SCC is a real nice game. Nice graphics, decent story, decent level design (some were great), nice weapon selection and upgrades, some varied missions, and some decent online modes.

It is a very solid title but I wasn't on the edge of my seat while playing it nor was I counting the minutes until I could play it again. Though the more and more I play it the more I like it. All in all I am enjoying the game and will probably squeeze another 20 to 30 hours out of it. Between playing the SP over (realistic. I should have just played it the first time on that difficulty) and trying to complete some of the online challenges.

Besides, it comes with the Ghost Recon beta. That in itself was worth the price of admission for me.

[The Wood]

yeah, definitely as it serves as nothing more than a beating stick for the ****** types

To the rest of ya...Ill take you back to a time when SOME would say that if a game wasn't 90+ it wasn't 'twipple aey' (good enough to scream about)....its called 2007 and metacritic (flawed) and dumb ass terms like 'twipple aey' are what helps fuel fanboy wars and segregate gamers. Not pointing the finger here im just making an observation

On the more sinister side its obvious that some sites have been used/manipulated for their power and influence to sway gamers. How can some of us explain....

http://edgevsmeta.blogspot....

yes its ironic that im posting an article that uses meta c but please look past that. Im yet to see some honesty from a lot of guys on here that used to call some ps3 fans paranoid.

[raztad]

@The Wood

Thanks for the link, +bub. Word about EDGE bias needs to spread out.

I think this is at least the second statistical study showing EDGE obvious bias against PS3 exclusives games. Just the conclusions:

"The consistency of the score differences is remarkable. Whether comparing the top 10,20 or 30 games, the 360 is always scored higher by EDGE, followed by multiplatforms, and followed by PS3 exclusives in the last place. The lines are relatively straight and flat, with no lines crossing each other or switching places after the top 10. If EDGE really scored games irrespective of their platforms, we'd have expected the three lines to cross each other and be all over the place, but this is not the case. There is a strong pattern of discrimination for 360 exclusives and against PS3 exclusives."

There is not such thing for Eurogamer. They are harsh but a lot less likely to be biased against any platform.

[BeaArthur]

StanLee...agreed.

[Inside_out]

Simple really, guys like this play on easy/normal mode and then complain...some of observations make me think he didn't even play the game...First, this game is NOT short, still haven't finished the campaign and I've played at least 6 hrs...on realistic...second...

The " mundane " tutorial flashback was actually, to anyone that cares/knows about Sam Fisher was dramatic, brilliant and pure video game artistry...The flashback starts with a younger, buffer Sam Fisher, super agent, professional hit man and all round bad ass tucking his daughter ( Sarah ), who appears to be around 5/6 yrs old, into bed...She can't sleep, afraid of the dark and things that go bump in the night...asks Dad fisher to flip the light switch ( An interaction you do through out the campaign, doors,windows etc.. )...I don't want to spoil this moment, but Sam explains how darkness can be your friend...coming from Mr fisher, point taken...suddenly, the conversation is interrupted by the sound of breaking glass..." What was that " Sams daughter Sarah says with concern..." oh nothing, get into bed and stay there ok...Ok "...Sam closes the door...3 punks have decided to rob the Fisher house hold, could they have picked a worse house...LOL...they are having a conversation which you here, mention the fact that the lady that lives there is hot, they should have some "fun" with her...One of the guys is close to Sam, Mark and Execute flashes across the screen...tap the B button, Sams Krav Maga moves disable the villain in a split second unleashing a terrific gun loop, instantly, in slo-mo/quick time killing the evildoers...Sarah opens the door, hugs Sam....sounds " mundane' alright...that was a tutorial!!!...

The Iraq level is, in total honesty, the worse graphics I've seen this gen...From a concept point a view, it was a good idea...They wanted to fill in some of the back story with Sams friend Victor Coste....but this game engine just not capable of run and gun game play, not to mention a draw distance that caps out at about 100 ft...seriously...I have no idea why they included that level...PS2 quality...

Luckily, the rest of the game as well as graphics are great...about 1.5 - 2 hrs in, a massive plot twist, sending you and Sam into hyper speed....Who, what, where, when and HOW....really gets you guessing...2 hrs later, another shocking twist...Smooth game play mechanics add to all the fun...

This guy who wrote this article is a hater and a liar...there is no button mashing in the RTE's...your asked to TAP the B button to move the " Interrogation " along...what game is he playing...

The AI has been awesome...They taunt you, and there are many lol moments when they " awaken " to your presence....the game is a stealth/action game, if you want to run and gun, you picked the wrong game...As you upgrade your weapons, they will perform better making all the encounters more enjoyable...Everyone who plays games know the game play changes as the difficulty increases...This guy, Simon Pansy, who wrote the article played on easy, If he played on realistic, you would understand why hanging from the pipes, for example is critical, as is Mark and execute as well as upgrading your weapons,gadgets...BTW, you use goggles ( sonar ) to see in the dark, something this Simone idiot would of known had he actually played the game through and not based his review on someone else's....

On top of last known position, mark n execute and the use of shadows...PLUS all the gadgets, Mirror, flash/frag/emp grenades, snake cam, sticky cam with built in noise distraction, bomb and camera, sonar goggles and portable emp device...there is at least 3 upgrades for all weapons and gadgets...45 achievements PLUS some 30+ P.E C ( persistent elite creation) challenges, which as Simon Pansy pointed out is the " economy " of the game...perform certain moves, recieve points to buy up grades... Not happy yet!...all the co-op modes and multiplayer...AND something called U-play ( to much to write ) which unlocks another game mode....

This game easily one of the best this gen...Is it perfect, no, no game is...trust me, I want to buy this on PC, If I had a PC that could play it....Cheers...

[Official General]

I bought a game called The Saboteur for my PS3, which is a 3rd-person, open-world World War 2-based spy/action/adventure game with varied gameplay elements of spy missions, stealth, sabotage, escapes, rescues, gun battles etc. Now, the Saboteur gained an average score of 7s from most game reviewers - but I really enjoyed it, I loved the storyline, I really liked the characters, gameplay and the theme. I had was crazy fun fighting Nazi's like that in the game. I checked out reviews of the game before I bought it and even though it mostly got 7s, I didn't care. It still sounded interesting to me and I bought it, played it and completed it and I had mad fun. From my personal experience it's not always a good thing to put all your eggs in one basket when it comes to trusting game reviews.

But having said that, Eurogamer normally tend to favour the 360 when it comes to reviews so this is a big surprise. They must have genuine feelings about their issues with the game, judging from their conclusion.

[JokesOnYou]

"OMG the media is biased!"

"Sony paid them off!"

"Gaming Journalism is dead!

"This is BS, I played SCC myself and everybody knows it deserves a 10"

lol, now seriously, I can completely understand Eurogamer giving SCC a 7 if the game differs to much from the classic SC for them, I disagree I think the basic's are there and I really like the gameplay, its better and plenty of stealth to keep me happy along with so many cool elements Ubi implemented, I'm loving the game so far. Only thing I think is subpar is the voice acting, lol they keep swearin' and promising to kill me....the AI is average unless play on the harder mode. Eurogamer's score is just as fair as many of the 9's+ from other sites, it just depends on where you sit.

JOY

[HolyOrangeCows]

He brings up very valid points about the stealth being limited for a game that's supposed to be about stealth and parts being slow (Which is pretty bad when in its entirety it only reaches about 5 hours).
Frankly, I'm surprised he gave it THIS high of a score with the things he said about it.

Try reading the review instead of just making assumptions based on his first paragraph posted in the story description.

[WildArmed]

lol

I love how media works..
game doesn't innovate.. doesn't change things up..
Negative mark off.

Game innovates and tries to change things around..
Negative mark off.

WHAT DO U WANTS ME! *cries*

[execution17]

i'm gonna pass since i've been hearing nothing but negative things about it

[squeeb]

Agreed. When exactly did metacritic become relevant?

[vhero]

Holy crap Eurogamer actually reviewed it?? They used to be biased towards 360 last year but since 2010 I noticed they are giving more reliable scores... This is hard to believe still they used to so biased ah well. Maybe there is still a few good reviewers left around.. but probably not..

[testerg35]

Sony must have paid them off. Eurogamer is biased against the 360 anyways. Ooops.. sorry.

[happy_gilmore]

looks like they were focusing their bribes on USA sites.

yeah, prince of persia in '08 was a 9.3.. IGN said

[Pennywise]

IGN are a bunch of hit hungry Wusses. They need to get lost... POP in 08 was 7/10 MAX. They butchered that series.

[GeoramA]

But IGNXbox said this 5-hour game was a 9.3!

Who to believe???

[unknownhero1123]

don't trust anyone. reviewers seems to have trouble with consistancy lately.

[WildArmed]

I"m pretty sure it can't really be a 5 hours game if you consider the fact that the 1player campaign and 2player campaign both have unique stories.. So, if you can beat the single player in 3 hours and co-op mode in 2 hours, i salute you..

Anyways, I wanna pick this up..
but I used the money i preordered SC:C (orginally planned for Feb) for Bc2! ><

Oh well.. I'll have to wait till the fall to pick this up

[Meryl]

lol oh well one less game for bots to claim that is better than uncharted 2, remaining games: alan wake and halo, good luck bots

[the-warriors]

http://www.eurogamer.net/ar...

thanks for accept the truth fools

[MetalGearBear]

Splinter Cell Conviction is not AAA anymore.
Truth hurt!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[ZombieAutopsy]

It's sad when you are so butt hurt by a stupid review you have to pull up a review of another game just to try and make yourself feel better.

[Meryl]

now you know eurogamer is not ps3 biased, well done for owning yourself once again, well done bot

[GeoramA]

I knew IGNXbox was full of sh*t.

[ActionBastard]

It's all subjective. Play it for yourself, make up your mind and move on.

[Mo0eY]

It's true. It shouldn't take you that long to make up your mind since playing the first hour of the game is 1/5th of the entire thing.

[OutgoingSquall]

I trust this site more then ign that's for sure.

[Socomer 1979]

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

this is a xbot site. a xbot site! a xbot site?
oh boy, now all sony has to do is stop sending this xbot site ps3 games because the vengeance of these pretenders are more focused than ever to fail a ps3 game like they did this splinter cell crap.

[zeddy]

the only reason i would get this game would be a decent single player but 5 HOURS! its rather pathetic. just gimme a 20 hour+ sp and funk multiplayer.

[devilhunterx]

If a well known XBOT site like Eurolamer give such a low score, then this game must really be bad.

[rucky]

Why post a picture of Sam Fisher's crotch?

[HolyOrangeCows]

Why not? {:vD

[chickenlegs9]

see all the other sh*te eurogamer put up on there site.i.e tons of ms adverts,and yet this sites NOW bias towards the ps3???sounds like an over hyped game to me.(again)i dot like it,you may have guessed...but come on,action shooter that feels mediocre,anything over that 7 is questionable if you ask me(which your not),and is stepping into the genre of other great games that do this soooooo much better...so 7 sounds average to me.only on (over hyped)xbox...haha.

[xaviertooth]

why im not surprised at that score? or just my gaming instinct already knew this is a mediocre game?

[Crystallis]

I was about to say the same thing.

lelo2play where were you when ODST had review articles on this site?

[dkgshiz]

I probably would of gave this game a 7.5/10. The game is just way to short to justify a $60 purchase. Just rent it. You wont regret it. Its a really good game. The problem is the length is just insanely short.

[xaviertooth]

since its already a fact that this game is a flop, lets just end this MGS4-wannabe comparison to MGS4 shall we?

[Obama]

META lower than HEAVY RAIN. Bots were saying Heavy Rain is a flop; so what about SCC???

[kenpachi]

flip flop

[Michael-Jackson]

hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.. ....

[JonnyBigBoss]

Bummer. I'll probably download this in a few months when I finally catch up with all of the good games that are out/coming out.

I wasn't really impressed by this game at E3, particularly because of the mark & go ability. It totally detracts from the challenge of stealthing, and Splinter Cell games have never had good shooting gameplay.

[Morbid Bulldozer]

It's because of thieves like you we have to pay 60$ for a game. Thanks a lot!

[ThaGeNeCySt]

To be honest.. I'm not too happy with the game. The gameplay is still solid, but I wish it was slower paced like previous SC's (Chaos Theory especially) and the graphics are a bit "meh" to me (can't believe they opted to use Unreal rather than the engine that powered Assassin's Creed as that game is BEAUTIFUL compared to this one). But... at the same time, I can see what Ubisoft attempted. As a new fan coming into Splinter Cell, they may love the action, pacing, etc.. but I can see a lot of fans of the franchise being a bit disappointed with the changes.

Solid game nonetheless... but me, personally, I'd rather take tradition splinter cell games.

[thief]

I guess, the conclusions are:
1. Buy this game if you a multiplayer junkie, rent if you play single-player
2. Keep expectations low if you are a stealth fan, this game was designed for the Halo/gears crowd
3. While EDGE is statistically proven to be biased against PS3, Eurogamer are jquite likely to score 360 games low as well
4. 5 years for this? What were they doing, exactly?

[AliTheBrit19]

Wow lowest I've seen so far

Ah well, I'm still buying it :)

[ipe]

is that great scores are given like SOS to publishers so their games can sell better.i mean just look at gta 98 and mw2 94?IMO 2 biggest flops of this gen.only good thing in gta4 was story and great characters.Rest is boring as hell.I still have the game and im on about 50% of the game,i just cant force myself.i sold mw2 2 weeks after trying to love frickin game.online is just broken,not just by technical problems but concept is broken,streaks my as*.

having 85 on meta is not bad,but not so great considering how games this gen are getting scores."in old times"this d end on about 60.

luckily any1 interested can rent it and see if ey like it.I almost dont look at reviews at all,if im interested in game i buy it doesnt matter if its 7 or 9 game

[harrisk954]

87 Metacritic.

EDIT: Oops... Down to 86 Metacritic score.

[Chucky2003]

one of the best reviews and sincere,not a payed one,i agree with them because i played the game and i feel the same way

[abmac713]

Meh, score doesn't bother me, I'm still buying the game lol. Don't let it sway your purchase if your were going to buy it initially.

[-MD-]

I've played a few SC games and this to me is the best one by far. The pacing is great, the visuals get the job done and the in-game achievement system is awesome.

I'd say solid 8.5 possibly 9 and that's just based off the single player, I haven't even tried co-op.

[bjornbear]

sucks =/ an 8, fine, but a 7? pff...haven't played it but doubt its a 7

eurogamer FTL

[NeutralGamer]

Is it just me or do I smell butthurt people here?

[NeutralGamer]

Heavy Rain got alot 7's but so what? It was a game of the year contender!

My point is dont let these reviews affect your taste of game!

My advice: Go and buy a random game. Decide what you would give from 1 to 10. Find some reviews site. Find a site that gave the exactly same score. Now do it with some more games and stick with the sites that give the closest score the games you tested as you would give the games.

Now stick with those sites for future reviews so when you decide to buy a game you know that they partwise have same game taste as you.

Sorry for the bad english.

[Michael Scott]

Guess not.

[bjornbear]

thats EDGE

eurogamer just sucks over all, but 360 fanboys denied it, UNTIL NOW

[CobraKai]

I loved this game. The visuals look like last gen x-box or launch 360 games, but the game is fun. I love planning my next move in order to clear out a room as fast as possible. It is short but I have no problems with that. Just means I can play it again without having to commit a great deal of time.

[IHateYouFanboys]

im fine with him going through why he doesnt like the new changes etc, but the final paragraph really irks me.

hes basically saying 'as a stealth game it doesnt work, its more an action game' - but thats the thing, Conviction wasnt supposed to be a slow-paced methodical stealth-only game. it was supposed to be an action game with stealth, more like the show 24 than the older Splinter Cell games. like IGN said, its about showing how much of a bad-arse Sam Fisher is, and how you always feel like hes a kind of tv super-hero. thats what Conviction is meant to be. its not meant to be like the previous Splinter Cells. if they wanted to make it slow and stealthy like the last ones, we wouldve been playing a completely different new Splinter Cell game, and we wouldve been playing it 3 years ago instead of only getting it just now.

its like complaining that Halo Wars is an RTS instead of a first person shooter. it was never meant to be a first person shooter, so by all means have your say on how you wish it was one, but dont then go and review the game negatively purely because its not a first person shooter.

[Michael-Jackson]

Finally an honest review.
This is not Splinter Cell but a watered down version for the xbots.

[Obama]

Graphic - Mgs4 won
Game play - Mgs4 won
Story - Mgs4 won

Mgs4 killer unconfirmed.

[Raoh]

i havent played it yet, and i'm building a new pc just for gaming but man that score seems low, its a good thing i dont trust eurogamer.. their reviews are some of the worst on the internet.. i wish people would stop posting them

[stuntman_mike]

im building a gaming pc too, and conviction will be one of the first games i play on it.

[Silentmerc3nary]

Just beat it. Badass to the MAX. Just started my second playthrough. Extremely addicting. Haven't even touched Deniable Ops or multiplayer yet.

[xxLuckyStrike]

Come here... Meet my Baby...lol

[stuntman_mike]

going on the demo the gameplay is excellent but i thought the graphics were pretty poor, character models full of jaggies they almost looked ps2 quality except for sam fisher.

does anyone know how the pc version is shaping up thats the version i want.

[peeps]

i dunno whether it's my tv or what, but in some 'ingame cutscenes' i.e. where you have limited movement while sam talks to a character, i noticed sam was really blurry. just lacks polish imo and i reckon they could have got much nicer graphics outa the game.

plus a lot of reviews have praised how the colour drains when ur in the dark. i hate this though because for a game where you want to spend as much time in the dark as possible you're basically playing a black and white game

[stuntman_mike]

yeah they should have made the dark areas more visible, it seemed a bit like a random thing when you were in darkness, because the only way you know your in darkness is when it goes black and white in stead of looking at a darkened corner and going to hide there.

[1PC2PS33360]

what I really want to know is this....
Why do people pay $65 dollars to run a standard def or maybe Enhanced Def game on their 1080p TV's? What resolution does this game run at? 570p? It's a Wii game and should be sold as such. Gamers need to demand more from devs and hardware manufacturers. I'll wait till it's in the $20 PC Bargain bin (in like 4 weeks) and play it in 1080p on a 50" Plasma or in 1200p on a 24" Monitor...seriously..my question is sincere...why buy this standard def game at full price?

[IHateYouFanboys]

if youre going to think of it that way (which is stupid btw) then you have to wonder why people would buy a PS3 or 360 at all to play on their 1080p TV, since neither of them have more than a tiny handful of 1080p games in the first place?

people dont buy games for their resolution. i bet if you hadve played the game without being told its resolution you would NOT be able to guess that its less than 720p.

a higher resolution does NOT equal better graphics. if it did, every game would just use sprites and have a framerate of 10fps just so they could run the game in 1080p. would that make them better than a regular game that is 'only' at 720p? no.

[theunleashed64]

flop confirmed poor xbots got no games and a heater for winter lol

[boJABER]

I've already beaten the game and I really think that 9.3 from IGN is too much.

The game deserves no more than 7.5 IMO

[peeps]

the game is good but not the amazing game i was hoping it to be. after waiting so long and so much hype i was expecting a near perfect game. while SC:C is good fun, it's far from perfect and i'm not surprised to see it get scores around 7-8