Splinter Cell: Conviction -- All-In-One.

I've been lazy again and haven't updated. After Epic Mickey I went into Splinter Cell: Conviction, spurred on by a $15 sale on Amazon and fifty percent off the download content sale the same week on Xbox Live. I had this game preordered originally, the limited edition even. But then the demo hit and it caused me to cancel. Splinter Cell: Conviction was developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. The series has always had leapfrogging teams developing the games. Montreal developed the original Splinter Cell, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, and Splinter Cell: Conviction. Ubisoft Shanghai developed Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, and Splinter Cell: Double Agent. In my opinion the series took a serious misstep with the fourth entry in Double Agent. Both in story and gameplay. Splinter Cell: Conviction was originally announced in 2007 with a release date for the same year. The reveal did little to assuage the fear I now had for the series because of Double Agent. It featured a longhaired and bearded Sam Fisher on his own being hunted by Third Echelon based on the events of Double Agent. He had the ability to blend into crowds in an Assassin's Creed sort of way. It appeared as a very drastic change, to the point of it not seeming like Splinter Cell anymore. Needless to say the fan reaction wasn't great and it never made its 2007 release date and was put on hold as it was taken back to the drawing board so to speak. The game finally resurfaced in 2009 and made its 2010 release date. The game now looked like Splinter Cell with a focus on action. Which is sort of a shame as Splinter Cell has never really been about action. Splinter Cell was the one stealth game that really was about stealth. It had decent stories and smart characters with great banter and the best stealth based gameplay in existence. All of that changed when Double Agent took the gameplay, story, and characters and drove them over a cliff. I have completed the main game of Splinter Cell: Conviction. I've been through most of the online modes. Magus and I are still working our way through the Last Stand mode for the remaining achievements and then we'll tackle the download content. Graphically Splinter Cell has never looked better. I personally like the black and white representation of being in the shadows. Magus however does not and would prefer the older game's meter on the HUD. Musically I'm not that impressed as honestly I can't even remember the music beyond the pounding full alert theme. And this is for a game I'm currently playing. Michael Ironside has done his normally great job of providing the voice of Sam Fisher. As a story Conviction does a rather admirable job of picking up the pieces from Double Agent although you can see everything coming from a mile away. The gameplay of Conviction is fine for what it is. But it's really no longer classic Splinter Cell. It's way too focused on action. Ubisoft has attempted to ditch the image the series had established with the first three games as being too hard. As being unforgiving. So now if you mess up, you can just blast your way out of most situations. I've resigned myself to the fact that Xbox era classic Splinter Cell is gone forever. Especially now that Conviction has sold as well as it has. I'm pretty sure Magus is a lot less forgiving as I am on this one. I think I might have been far more critical at a $60 price point, but at $20 for game and download content, Splinter Cell: Conviction has been fun enough. I'm giving Splinter Cell: Conviction a 7.5. I still have a few days left with the game for those achievements, and I'll have an entry on what else I've been playing, but as for what's next, that's going to take some real thought...