There are some minor story spoilers throughout this post, but the main spoilers are marked below. If you don't want anything spoiled. Stop reading now. You have been warned.
I finished Splinter Cell: Conviction over the weekend. It was a lot shorter than I thought it'd be, but it was all quality. The story was very well paced, any longer and it might have started to drag. It was a fairly large departure from the prior instalments in the series. You really had to look for the traditional 'Splinter Cell' gameplay. There was a lot more emphasis on getting your gun off. Early in the game it felt less stealthy, but as you progress it settles down a bit and becomes a "faster and more intense" version of Chaos Theory.
All said, I really enjoyed it. I missed the spy-stuff (lock picking, hacking, etc) and non-lethal take-downs, but it fit the mood better to have the 'gloves come off'. The execute moves were cool. It really helped bolster the action hero feeling being able to walk into a room, grab a guy and shoot all his buddies in a fluid movement. My main complaint is the auto-save system and unskippable cutscenes. Sometimes failing a segment meant re-playing more than what was causing problems. In one scenario I was trying to defeat a security laser puzzle and the auto-save was in the middle of two battles. So every time I failed I needed re-play the second battle, organise my weapon loadout again, and then travel to the puzzle. After a couple of attempts it started to get a bit frustrating. In another scenario, failing meant walking across a large room (you couldn't run), watching a 20 second cutscene, and then failing shortly thereafter, only to do it all over again.
I'm going to be trying out the Co-op soon. From what I've heard about it, that should be cool. I picked up the limited collectors edition from Game (which included a Steelbook, some DLC, the soundtrack and a Sam Fisher statue - It was £59.99, but I'm a sucker for that kind of thing) as well as a second copy from Amazon.co.uk for Co-op. Amazon had a Limited Edition that had an exclusive pre-order pack - not that I pre-ordered it from them - which included a making-of DVD, a comic book and some more DLC (a silenced shotgun - wtf?). I still need to watch the DVD and read the comic. I ended up I paying regular price for it (£39.99). I see now that it's actually up to £43.39 - looks like I dodged a bullet on that one. I managed to luck out on my Alan Wake collectors edition pre-order a couple of months back too, Play.com had it for £39.99, it was over £50 elsewhere (although it seems to be out of stock now).
Mild Story Spoilers follow. It was mentioned in an interview that James Bond and Jason Bourne where influences in re-imagining Sam Fisher for this game. The one that struck me most in the story and character was a dose of Jack Bauer (and 24 in general - especially from the earlier seasons). The main similarities I noticed were: You've got a major crisis where you're trying to minimise the damage (rather than actually prevent it). You have a mole in a government organisation. Your protagonist is working outside the support structure of his organisation. He is rather forcefully extracting information from people. He deals directly with the president on occasion. There is even a scene in an airbase where people are restrained for interrogation. I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing, it's just an observation.
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