Slick and Stylish. It's not hardcore stealth, but delivers an experience many games do not.
User Rating: 9 | Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction (Collector's Edition) X360
I'm sorry Kevin, but these are not deficiencies of the game. Most of my friends who play Splinter Cell, don't get on with the precise attention to movements, sound, light, picking locks etc. They want action and the predatory power that comes from being the worlds best stealth operative (as Sam is supposed to be). Messing up 16+ times in a row detracts from that feeling and even Ubisoft said (from their videos, not word for word) this game is more about the experience of being the world's best operative, being a predator, keeping the action flowing. I have played all of the Splinter Cell games to maximum difficulty, but felt there was something lacking, or I wished I could have dispensed my foes with a slickness unobtainable with that generation of tech. Please stop criticising games for not following their lineage. This game was supposed to redefine the franchise and it did; by moving away from the hardcore stealth nature, which is hit-and-miss in gaming anyway, by empowering the player with the feeling you are the world's ultimate special forces operative. I would take Conviction's slickness over Pandora Tomorrow's frustration anytime, because unless I am looking for a masochistic experience and working around the limitations of the game design, it's not for everyone. I had a blast with this game and even though it's not without it's minor flaws, it was a thrill to experience and I will have countless hours of the deniable ops mode to come. This game strikes a nice middle ground between hard-core stealth, which some people don't appreciate and being spoon fed a linear/dull set of sequences like Violet Assassin. IGN gives a much more well rounded account of the experience in my opinion because the game achieves what it set out to do i.e. there is a thrill from sneaking around even though it's not necessary. This is a really fun experience, with an undeniable sense of empowerment.
