Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

Sam Fisher is back, and he's pissed off.  This week I jump into Splinter Cell: Conviction from Ubisoft.  Been a long time since the last Splinter Cell, will the new one live up to the legacy?

 Story

 Sam has left Third Echelon, the covert-ops agency he had worked for and has become a rogue agent.  He's gone to investigate a rumor that his daughter's death in the third installment, Chaos Theory, was no accident.  The rumor brings him to Malta.  While confronting the man responsible for his daughters death he is captured by Third Echelon.  His former handler, Anna "Grim" Grimsdottir, informs him that a conspiracy involving him, his daughter, Third Echelon, and a threat to Washington D.C. involving stolen EMP weapons. She sets him free to act as an independent agent with her providing support.  In a way she is forcing him back into his old job.
As the story moves along it wobbles a bit back and forth through time.  All of these flesh out Sam more and give him some humanity.  In one Sam helps his very young daughter overcome her fear of the dark.  In another the basis of his relationship with Victor Coste is explained. The story twists and turns and keeps you guessing. 
Certain plot points I'm avoiding so as not to spoil them.

Additionally there is a co-op mission.  Set up as prologue to Sam's story, it tells how the EMP weapons come into the possession of the enemies.  It follows two agents, Archer, an American agent of the Third Echelon, and Kestrel, a Russian agent of Voron, the Russian version of Third Echelon.

Controls

The controls were pretty easy to pick up for anyone familiar with third-person shooters and very tight. I didn't encounter any problems.  The really nice addition to the control scheme is the "mark and execute" system.  The "mark and execute" system allows you to quickly take out multiple foes.  You simply mark each enemy within range (the number of marks depends on the weapon) and then hit "Y" and Sam takes them out quickly and effectively with a single cinematic shot to each one.  While it would be tempting to use it for every encounter Ubisoft wisely balanced it with the fact you have to take down an enemy hand to hand first to make it active. Even so I found myself rarely using it until late in the game.  Most of the time I tried to take out enemies quietly one at a time, hand to hand.  This is a stealth action game after all.

Gameplay

In addition to the "mark and execute" system a couple other gameplay elements are added to the game.  Instead of a shadow meter now the whole screen lets you know when Sam is hidden in the shadows.  When Sam is completely hidden the game goes black and white, and when he's not it's in color.  I really like this because it let you know while you kept your eyes on the action on screen.  The other useful added gameplay element was the "last know location."  If you were spotted, but then were able to hide again, your last know position would be displayed as sort of a shadowy outline of Sam.  This could be used to your advantage as enemies would focus on that location and you could sneak past or take out the enemies.  Otherwise the game was pretty much your standard stealth action game and very well executed.

The co-op mission features drop in/drop out over Xbox Live or same system split-screen.  The multiplayer also features different types of missions; Hunter (clear the level of everyone), Infiltration (automatic failure if you are detected), Last Stand (protect an EMP weapon from waves of enemies), and Face Off (take on another player head to head). 

Graphics and Sound

Voice acting was top notch all around.  Michael Ironside as the voice of Sam Fisher always rocks.  Music did not interfere with the gameplay and helped set the mood.
Graphically the game looked good.  Cut scenes moved well and in some cases blended seamlessly with the game, giving an almost film quality.

Overall

I have a slight bias here. I love stealth action games.  The Splinter Cell and Metal Gear series' have both been the bar setting games that all other stealth action games seem to reach for.  After realizing the slight stumble with Double Agent (and an almost disastrous change in style and possible story direction of the series for Conviction) Ubisoft has come back strong.  The developers wanted to give Sam Fisher more action and less studying of patrol routes, give the game more of a James Bond/Jason Bourne action.  Both of those characters could be stealthy and quickly take out multiple people.  The "mark and execute" system and "last know position" went a long ways in moving the game to that style.  In my opinion it falls more into the Jason Bourne style.
I also really liked the in-game projection of story telling elements.  The mission goals and Sam's inner thoughts would be projected on walls in a way that didn't interfere that helped tell the story and move the action along without stopping everything.
Splinter Cell: Conviction brings a new life back to the series and really does it well.  I'd say it's the best of the series.  I really enjoyed playing through it.  It gets a 5 out of 5.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction is rated M for Mature for Blood, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Strong Language.