I am going back with you 11 years ago using my personal experience to tap into this incredible experience of this legendary Tom Clancy video game released for consoles and windows. We are not late for the party for this action adventure video game but rather want to relive the highlights. Lets find out some of the highlights that make this game standout as Legendary in my view.
Back then games had a soul and on this note let me explain myself here. This game is engraved by a very deep espionage storyline which is its pulse for drawing a loyal gaming audience. It was and still is more than just taking on enemies but taking them down with a reason. You are were you are for a reason according to the story. You get a sense of purpose and not just a long checklist of missions or a generally meaningless mission which has nothing to do with the story so in a nutshell no deviation from the story whatsoever.
Graphics
I could clearly see old gen console limitations here because just by looking you can see that the NPCs, environment and the main character were all done well and did fit the machines of the time however held back but older gen systems. For me this gives room for the chance of having a remake rather than a remaster so as to iron out the jagged textures and noisy image looks, aliasing and artifacts that are easy for the eye to see. In a nutshell it has so much potential to look even much better if there be any considerations from Ubisoft to even at least revamp the old code again. Overall the visuals are very impressive and they hold up in todays terms, you don't feel like you are playing a dated game at all, its just the obvious to the eye elements that remind you that its now an old game. So in its original form is it still great? Absolutely.
Gameplay
A good element to raise up regarding this segment is how smooth the character movement and overall feel of the game is. For an 11 year old game its really good, your character doesn't feel stiff but rather very flexible which is nice. Its fun and very much less complicated, its not a stealth only game as you do whatever you want though the stealth approach is the best because your life is very much limited when taking too many shots making it a bit more unforgiving if you choose to go aggro.
I also love the execution method whereby you first have to do a stealth takedown in order to activate it. Shooting feels very accurate and controlled. Enemy AI is well balanced for the most part and challenging in a reasonable way. Still on this as an example in some games the enemy AI walks in a predetermined way allowing for easy execution whereas in this game there are enemy patrols and when alerted if you try to approach an enemy from behind their movement is much less predictable as they might just turn around and see you which calls for more finesse from you the player and a calculated approach.
It must be mentioned that it took a very different approach from the rest of the other Splinter Cell games that were heavily reliant on stealth. I also liked that in Splinter Cell Conviction you use your environment to your advantage e.g. switching on or off the light (its a common splinter cell technique), putting a mirror beneath the door to see possible hostiles in the next room, indeed its some of the common stuff you could see in e.g. Splinter Cell Double Agent but it becomes more pronounced in a better looking game as this one. So overall the environment is not too static as you can interact with it in clever ways to manipulate your enemies around you.
Back in the days of games such as this one It seemed to be more of not just having a blockbuster game that has a handsome financial drive but you could tell the passion that was expressed in a well written story. Back then I must say there was a really good pursuit for sequels and a purposeful storyline, you literally had something to look forward to. This gave games an identity and clear drawn lines guiding buyer choice e.g. if I choose to buy Splinter Cell I know I will be dealing with the Sam Fisher storyline and an expected style of play, if I am buying an Assassins creed game I am dealing with Ezio etc. You knew what you were getting yourself into.
Some modern games nowadays seem to be driven by profits instead of raw passion and as a result the micro audience tends to be to be ignored in a case were their favorite game has not received a mass reception and financial success upon release debut. While we can only speculate, thumbsuck and assume the efforts and investment that goes behind the scenes we cannot ignore the sort of one hit and no return we have in modern gaming, for example Days Gone which was a very nice game, rumors are that there wont be a sequel. Some said its because the studio is small and budget was not allocated for a sequel. For Returnal its still too early to say but it kind of got unnecessary heavy criticism regarding its upscale 4k presentation and general game difficulty so with that said will the studio be motivated for a sequel? That's just mentioning the two as examples there are others.
Nothing can ever be perfect but efforts can always be channeled towards achieving perfection. So the main drive here is to simply raise awareness to some of the blind spots in the industry and its far from it being a smear campaign or a gotcha tactic. I did not mean to sound like I am deviating but I thought to mention the above just out of concern in some of the games I have observed.
Splinter Cell Conviction is a legendary action adventure game all I want is for it to be remade if possible or at least maybe remaster the visuals because it has tones of potential to even look on par with todays standards. For now that's all.
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