A superbly superb game in its own right but not so great as a Splinter Cell game. You'll love the mark and execute :)
As an action game Conviction is great, the mark and execute never gets old, it's a superbly superb game play feature. Mark far off targets then jump in for some close combat take downs of closer by enemies and at the press of the "Y" button all marked targets in sight will be executed in cool slow motion. It feels and looks good and that on its own is worth the price of the game. The whole 8 score I gave is for the mark and execute. The range of available close combat enemy take downs i.e. deaths from above, pulling guys out of windows, bashing the door, throwing enemies onto other enemies are also superbly done. I mostly avoided shooting and opted for this whenever possible more so that you can only mark and execute after taking down an enemy using close combat.
The story/plot is nothing to write home about but it's ok it's not too bad same goes for the graphics they ok; we'll let this two slide and live with them. My only problem with Conviction is its lack of stealth which I have heard is suppose to be the pinnacle of the Splinter Cell games. The game just can't be played in stealth it forces you into all this action sequences. Yes the action is great but if you have played a Splinter Cell game before (Double Agent for me) you will miss the stealth.
The last thing which I don't know if it's a bad thing or not is that Conviction is a very easy game to play. I first played it in the easiest setting then cranked it up hoping for a challenge but nah it was even easier. On its own as a standalone game Conviction is awesome, go play it and have fun.