conviction is kind of a mixed bag. there's a lot to love here but unfortunately there's just as much, if not more, to hate. ironside kills it better than he ever has this time around and victor is a welcome addition to the cast, but everything else is borderline character assassination for all characters living, or dead.

the game is notably more cinematic which works heavily to its favor, giving some of the best moments in the franchise, but the story it's telling via this style is honestly the worst in the series so far. tom reed is not as outlandish and fun as sadono, otomo or emile, but he's also not as threatening or cool as grinko, soth or shetland. he is a by the numbers boring espionage villain.

the gameplay here is fantastic, genuinely feels buttery smooth and wicked stylish, the mark and execute system is genuinely so cool and i wish more games had it. but the trade off here is that the game strips away all of your choice, strips down all the mechanics from the last 4 (or 5) games, and just turns it into an... well, an assassin's creed game. it's fun, sure! but it's not splinter cell.

visually this is a huge downgrade from the last game. i had plenty of negative things to say about both versions of double agent, but it's undeniable how gorgeous those games are and that they still hold up visually today. here the lighting is worse, the sonar vision is a hideous replacement for the Night/Thermal/Electronic visions, the mechanic of the color palette turning grey in darkness is absolutely no replacement for the light meter, for another TPS in 2010 this would be fine, but this is a splinter cell sequel so it is not.

i wanna love this game, i really do, but sadly there's just no comparing it to the first three entries and it hardly even surpasses the fourth. sorry, ubisoft montreal, this is just a sad note to go out on. hopefully ubisoft toronto can bring the proper next gen splinter cell experience you guys wanted to bring so badly