12:15 pmTwice The Fun
The co-op campaign follows two spies from rival factions named Archer (US – Third Echelon) and Kestrel (Russia – Voron) who are working together.
This campaign offers four new environments and missions complete with it’s own story that can be played with a friend via system link, splitscreen and Xbox Live.
We played through the entire co-op campaign over Xbox Live on realistic difficulty (which I highly recommend for co-op) which took us a total of around 5 hours to finish. While an easy setting will probably only get you around 3 hours of gameplay, the co-op is a complete blast and also offers features not available in the single player.
In co-op you have some really cool additions to the gameplay that take advantage of the multiplayer mode. When you killed in co-op, you are not really killed but are rather downed, giving you the option to play dead and wait for your friend to revive you, or sit up exposing yourself but have the ability to pop some mofos, clearing the path for your buddy to get to you.
The coolest addition by far is the ability to perform a “double execute”. By working together you can tag double the amount of enemies. When you both have a really good view of your tagged enemies, one can initiate an execute command, which will slow time down and allow your buddy to perform an execute command as well. The result can lead to your team of two taking out 8 enemies in one fell swoop.
Additional co-op modes allow you to play through individual sections of the campaign as well as separate re-playable modes that involve protecting a device from waves of enemies, clearing areas, dispatching all of your enemies without ever being detected and even a face-off mode that allows you to fight each other alongside waves of enemies.
These extra modes can also be played solo and don’t require a co-op buddy (for those of you who prefer going solo) but trust me, I don’t care if you prefer single player gaming, get a buddy and play the co-op because it may just be the best part of Conviction. (there are also rumours of the supremely awesome spies vs mercs versus mode coming as DLC).
So with the main campaign, mini co-op campaign as well as additional modes you are looking at minimum of around 9-10 hours of playtime (and a lot more if you get into re-playing the modes and upgrading all your gear), which in my books is more than adequate and truly caters to just about everybody.
Don’t forget to bag yourself a free co-op DLC map code by registering with us before May 1st.
Conclusion:
Die-hard fans of the original series may not like the new direction, but many will love it, especially for the great co-op game modes once the story is done and dusted.
Splinter Cell: Conviction isn’t perfect, but I really like where the series is headed. The addition of the co-op modes was a stroke of genius and possibly the true reason that the game is completely worth its money.
It is obvious that Ubisoft have spent a lot of time trying to revitalise the series with a new, fresh and fun feeling that keeps up with the interests of our time. What Ubisoft have also done is completely succeed at just that.
For fans of: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Jason Bourne , 24 (TV series)
Scoring (not an average)
Gameplay: 9.0
A more fluid and fun take on the stealth genre. Incredibly rewarding.
Presentation: 9.0
Great looking visuals with superb art direciton, with fantastic lighting, characters and visual effects. Some poor level design and a few bad design choices that arrived with all the really good ones.
Sound: 9.5
Outstanding original soundtrack with talented voice and foley artists.
Value: 8.5
A short single player campaign, plus a short co-op campaign, plus co-op multi and single player modes equals a rather decent amount of game to be played.
Overall: 9.0
Conviction is violent, slick, tense, fun and manages to come across as truly cool without feeling like it was trying too hard.
[Reviewed on Xbox 360]
