Splinter Cell Conviction looks and controls well but its story and missions are lackluster. It ultimately disappoints.
Recent buzz on Splinter Cell Conviction made it sound more my speed: More action, less stealth. That's true, and the game is definitely a straight up shooter, but it also tries to bridge its past by letting Sam Fisher hide in shadows and use a plethora of gadgets. The problem is the game doesn't give Sam enough space to actually use all of the weapons in his inventory.
I know Ubisoft rebooted this game and reworked it into its current incarnation, but in doing so they seemed to have left in elements that just aren't necessary. Some missions allow you to hide in the shadows, take down enemies stealthily, and use all of the gadgets and the new mark and execute commands. Other missions are structered in a game that only lets you run and gun it.
This wouldn't necessarily be an issue but when early missions are structured in a more flexible manner and later missions are more action oriented, with some thrown in that are pure run, mark and execute (except you don't have to EARN the ability to mark and execute by taking down enemies with a melee move first!), you have to wonder what market Ubisoft was trying to address?
This is only the single player campaign, which I couldn't force myself to finish, and I didn't bother trying the co-op or multiplayer game modes. And while the single player campaign isn't terrible, and the game looks great and controls really well, in the end I was put off by the lack of flexibility in the level design as well as a story that just isn't very well fleshed out.