Splinter Cell Conviction Notes

The intro cut scene starts after  I choose Realistic difficulty.

We see a woman shoot Sam in the middle of a mission, a double crossing.
This is a flash forward as the time on the bottom of the screen tells us that this is happening 72 hours in the future.

We see a man being interrogated in a blackened room. He is talking about Sam Fisher. He tells the men that Sam gave everything for his country and it gave nothing back. Sam's daughter was killed by a drunk in a hit and run. Sam had to kill his best friend in the middle of a mission or risk blowing his cover. Sam is now disillusioned with it all and has lost himself looking for something to keep him from suicide.
This man who is being interrogated tells the men that Sam can be found in the City of Valetta. Seems that Sam has heard from sources that his daughter might have been murdered.
The camera pans down over a street to a restuarant where Sam is sitting. A waiter gives Sam a headest.
A woman from third eschelon speaks to Sam and tells him that people are coming for him. Sam is dubious and asks how third Eschelon found him.

Mission 1
We get control and are asked to look up, there is a hovering camera eye above the street.
We are told the multiple hostiles are inbound. The handler tells us to go to a nearby market stalls for more cover than the street table.
We are told to go to a waypoint 15m away. A set of white letters appears on the side of the market stall telling us to take cover here.
Taking cover is done by pressing the left trigger.
To stay in cover rather than just crouch we must hold the right trigger. While doing this if there are cover points in front of us we can press A to make Sam go to them and take cover automatically.
The handler overloads the city power grid and take out the street lights.

As this happens The scene shifts and we find ourself in a flashback.
Sam is in a house and the projector lettering is telling him to go to Sarah, his daughter.
In her room she can't sleep because she is scared of the dark. Sam tells her in his own inimitable fashion that you can see better in the dark.
We have to turn the light on and off.
Sam is telling her about bringing the mobile down on the monsters heads when there is a noise downstairs. Sam tells Sarah to stay in bed and goes back to investigate.
We are back to the present in the street.
We get to shoot up three enemies.
Right Stick when pressed in is sight mode.
Right trigger is shoot.

Now we are back in the flashback, robbers have entered the house.
Sam goes towards two of them and is surprised by another, when someone is in close quarters pressing B makes Sam do a context sensitive execute move.
He takes the dead thugs gun and we can now mark targets.
Pressing Right bumper when aimed at someone makes a red dot appear above their head.
Pressing Y makes Sam do an execute move where he takes the two of the marked targets out much quicker than the player could.
Sarah comes out of her room and sees the bodies, Sam tries to shield her but she has seen too much.

We are back in the street.
We can now progress forwards. There are more enemies. Using B to stealth kill an enemy allows you to mark targets and use the execute move.
We are now looking for the leader of the gang.
In the next part of the stree we are approaching the leader. The cover points we should use are marked for us, I suppose it is the tutorial.
I manage to screw up though as the stealth kill opportunity i thought i had sees me. This results in a gunfight. I manage to kill the bad guys and I have to chase the gang leader into a toilet.
We are no in interrogation mode.
We grab hold of the man and can shuffle around until we are near environmental object to bash him off until he tells us what we want to know.
Seems a man named Kobin hired them to kill Sam.
Kobin is the one who has Sam's daughter killed.

Mission 2
Sam is going after Kobin, his mansion is huge and built like a fortress with heavily armed guards.
We get control of Sam in the street around the mansion.
He takes the mirror off his car to use as a gadget.
We go out into the street and there seems to be nothing stopping us from walking right up to the mansion's walls.
I climb over a wall and drop onto a guard killing him. This earns me an execute kill which I use to take out the two guards on the main gate.
I climb up a drainpipe and pull another guard out of the window from the ledge and drop him to his death.
Inside the mansion there is a central lobby and balconies and rooms above it. We find ourself on the second floor with lots of guards. I take them out as stealthily as i can, howver when the bodies are found some guards start searching for me.
I manage to kill all the guards and progress to the next area.
When you are spotted in cover a ghost of you appears. This is your last known position, if you move away from it without being seen the enemy continue to converge on that position. This allows you to flank and move to intercept them.
Between areas you come to equipment stations. You earn points for kills and stealth kills. You can spend these points upgrading your weapons.
In the next area there is an environmental trap, shooting a large hanging piece of arts chain brings it down killing a few enemies standing guard under it.
The next room is filled with guards and many places to hide. There are also pipes running around the ceiling for us to attack from above or to move around unseen.
Putting out the lights is given great emphasis.
The next area is a large office/bar area. We can hang around on the ledges surrounding the room and take pot shots at the guards.
I go in and take out all the guards.
I then get to interrogate Kobin. He tells us nothing, more scared of someone else than Sam. It is a trap designed to lure Sam, suddenly the room is filling with heavily armed swat team members. Held at gunpoint with Kobin as a hostage Sam is told to surrender.
He is shot with a tranquiliser dart and Kobin kicks him in the head when he is down.

Mission 3
We see sam being taken to a plane and flown back to America. He is taken to a secret hangar somewhere in the Blue Ridge mountains.
There are a few men present here, Prentice, Robertson and Ried who is the new director of third Eschelon. Anna Grim is here, she is the handler voice we have been hearing.
It seems Reid wanted Sam brought in to find out something he knows about EMP's. Anna  is working as a mole inside third eschelon which seems is being used for something dishonest behind the president's back. It may be Reid who is the bad guy here.
When Reid and the rest leave they leave Anna with the task of interrogating Sam. She shoots the guard left with them and tells Sam that his daughter is alive.
Anna tells Sam that her people have Sarah and that if he helps them he will see her alive again.
Sam hits her to make it look like he escaped, and also because he wants to.
She gives us a snake cam and tells us where to get C4. Anna gives us the keys to her car and tells us to get out of the compound.
We go forward and kill a few men to get the C4. Anna tells us that a chopper will blow our car off the road before we get far. We have to disable the chopper before making our escape.
We enter the hanager and take out the guards as messily or as cleanly as we can.
Our next objective is to disable the base power supply.
After that we are tasked with planting c4 on the base satellite dish.
Now we have to lock posts in place at the gate to prevent cars following us.
In cut scene we see same get to Anna's car and trigger the C4 blowing up the dish and helicopter.

Mission 4
Sam calls someone named Vic Costa and asks for help. Seems that Sam and Vic go way back. We see a flashback of Sam, Vic and a few other soldiers on a road in Iraq, presumably during the first gulf war twenty years ago.
The squad are joking around until one of them steps on a landmine.
The enemy arrive and take Vic away leaving Sam for dead.
Sam wakes up, he is told over the radio to wait for evacuation, howver he goes off looking for Vic.
This feels to me like more of a straight forward shooter level. We have an AK47 and a whole lot of enemies to get through.
We progress along the road until we reach a base, through the base with heavy fighting.
I have to say as a first person shooter the game isn't bad.
Through the first base we come to another.
This base is much more heavily guarded, I tired stealth but it seems impossible to get some of the guards by stealth as they are facing each other too closely.
We progress through the base which seems to be an old school. Eventually we come to the place where the person we are rescuing is. The twist here is that we have been playing as Vic, Sam is the one being tortured. After saving him we have a last stand type scene where Vic and Sam are pinned down by mounting numbers of soldiers. There are lots of exploding barrels to shoot and eventually when the time runs out USA planes fly over and bomb the enemies saving the day.

Mission 5
Sam is meeting up with Vic in the present. It seems to be a crowded funfair that they have arranged to meet in.
We are told that Vic is being tailed in the hope of them finding Sam. We are tasked with killing off the tails without any members of the public seeing.
Three markers appear for the tails and we have to sneak up on each one and interrogate them before killing them.
After this is done we meet Vic at the Washington monument base.
He tells us about a civilian contractor named Whitebox which has been working on EMP tech Vic thinks that Reid is working with Black Arrow to do something nasty with this EMP tech. Vic gives sam some new gizmos. A portable EMP which will knock out anything electric in a small area around Sam.We now have to escape the fair as it is evacuated and filled with swat team members. This is a fun sneak fest around the fair taking out enemies as able. There are some nice sneaking around points which let you run rings around the enemies. Lots of stealth kills then using the execute function to take out the groups you can't sneak past.
Eventually I get back to the car and escape.

Mission 6
A flashforward again and it seems that Anna has betrayed us, she is holding Sam at gunpoint and urging him along a corridor.
back in the present Sam is heading for the Whitebox building to see what he can shake loose from a visit.
The way in is by clambering up the side of the building in a very Uncharted like fashion. There is an air exchanger high on the side of the building which gets us in.
We then climb down through the buildings duct system and into the security system control room.
Inside the control room we can use the security cameras to listen in the the scientists.
They are talking about the buyout by someone named Gallagher?
Another group are talking about the results of the EMP gear.
The last camera shows a bad guy, possibly Robertson, holding scientists working on a huge bomb type device at gunpoint. He shoots one of the scientists who backchat him just to show he is a badguy. He then takes a female scientist away, presumably to rape her. We have to rescue the scientist.
I take out the group of enemies and get to question a scientist. He tells us that they are working on EMP countermeasure equipment for Darpa. Robertson has all the data kept to himself, which also means that the individual groups of scientists don't know exactly what is being made here. The scientist lets Sam into an elevator using his passcard.
When the elevator doors open we find lots of shot up scientist either dead or dying.
We get a sticky camera here which we can use to see where we aren't and also mark targets.
The scientist as being killed in what looks a coverup of what was going on here. We are heading for Robertson in hsi office.
Anna calls and lets us speak with sarah, Anna wants the data from the whitebox emp project.
I make it into Robertsons empty office. We are told that we will need a good five minutes to get all the data and we will have to defend the link while it is working.
Basically we are in a smallish room and will have to stay alive through waves of enemies.
After this is accomplished, by the way it's hard as hell. Use the box of grenade refills in the middle of the room and try and lob one through the doors they come through, of course at the end they come through all doors at once.
We have now to stop a trace that is finding Anna. Setting off the EMP bomb inside the building will do the trick.
We have to make our way down to it.
At the bomb we are ambushed.
We have too fight to the controls to set it off then fight to get out of the building.
Anna is interested in Galliard's names, she knows that he is someone who deals with Reed.

Mission 7
Reed is up to something at the Washington monument, he is meeting someone there and Anna wants us to try and record the conversation.
There are television crews there and it may be possible to hack their equipment and use it to record the conversation.
This looks like another large real world type environment.
I make my way unhindred to the tv control booth which is handily empty. Hacking seems to be done with one button press these days and Sam is in control of the cameras. We have to watch the scene in the distance using the three cameras and keep the speakers centred.
Galliard and Lucien meet and discuss plans, without actually giving too much away. Something is going to be happening in Paris it seems. Blackarrow have disappointed them both. Fisher is mentioned. There is also a mention of the overall controller of the operation, someone named Maghito.
Anna tells us that we have to interrogate Galliard. Galliard is the senator type from the conversation. Anna calls him up and stalls him while we sneak up.
The usual interrogation technique which is to beat the person within an inch of their life is employed.
Galliard tells us that Maghito is in control of the world. The EMP's are set up in washington, 3 of them. In a few hours they will be set of and after that Reed has something planned in the powerless aftermath.
As Galliard is about to tell us too much he is shot by a man in police uniform.
We then have to chase him through the enviroment.
Police get in our way and we have to knock them down with melee without killing them.
The chase is long and filled with people running around screaming as the man takes pot shots at Sam. There is a bit of quick jumping and climbing. The man eventually gets to a car on the main road and as he does it explodes when he starts it.
have to say the you can talk all you want about interactive movies, but that chase sequence was one of the best bits of cinematic style gameplay I have ever played.
We are told by Anna that Third Eschelon are on their way and the normal police have been pulled back. We have to hold out until the agents sent to extract us arrive.
We have a cafe to hide in to survive a few waves of enemies.
Once done a car arrives for us to get in and get away.

We see another Flashforward, Anna is leading Sam into the oval office and Reed has the president at gunpoint. Sam is made to kneel in front of Reed.

Mission 8
Sam is going after Reed in the third Eschelon headquarters.
We have to get into the transformer room without detection and we are back to strict old school stealth game rules. Moving cameras with light cones. Guards that once they have seen you end the game.
Killing a guard isn't an option either as their bodies can be seen by cameras or other guards and the alarm sounded.
I manage to plant the C4 in two plant rooms then get to the eleavator. In the elevator Sam has a guilt trip about killing his friend in the line of duty. We come out of the elevator into a reception hall and are told to go up to the desk. Do you mean to say that I have snuck around in the basement only to walk up to the desk once I get in?
Oh it's meant to be a cool moment. Sam walks up to the oblivious receptionist and asks to speak with Reed. He is told to make an appointment, Sam blows the C4 and the building goes into red alert. However he is inside locked in now rather than outside locked out. Why would a super secret organisation have a receptionist and huge foyer anyway?
We now have to get past guards into the secure area before lockdown doors cut us off.
I am sick of this bit already, each time I fail to get into the doors in the time limit I have to talk to the receptionist again, without a skip option.
I eventually make it, not before what was a nice moment became a nightmare of repetiton.
Now we have to meet Anna's contact Fryman in the server office.
I work my way through the office cubicles taking out the guards.
Eventually I make it to the server office and meet Fryman.
He gives me night vision sonar goggles that can see people through walls and in the dark.
I then have to go back the way we came to Reed's office.
There are invisible security beams of light here that we can see with the goggles.
We basically have to pick out a path amongst the confusing view given by the goggles.
In Reed's office we find Kobin. He tells us that Reed is working with Maghito to set off the EMP devices and in the confusion to take out the President.
Anna tells us to go to her office. We have to negotiate another maze of light beams.
After a few rooms full of guards we get to Anna's office.
She tells us that Lambert was the one who faked Sarah's death. Lambert thought there was a mole in Third Eschelon. He wanted Sam to be clear of any baggage that could be used against him. To this end he took Sarah out of the picture by faking her death.
Lambert is the best friend of Sam who he shot in the last game to keep his cover.
Grim tells Sam that the three EMP's will go off, they can't stop it.
However they know where one is and task him with going to stop it.
Anna tells Sam that his daughter lives near the blast. I am not sure why this is relevant as I didn't know an EMP would harm humans??
Anyway Sam has a strop then knuckles down to go and stop the EMP.
Anna tells Sam that she is going to try and stop Reed from killing the president.
We now have an altered gameplay sequence where we have to escape the building before it blows. We get unlimited executes which basically means we just press y when we see an enemy to shoot them in the quickest fashion possible. We use this to run through the building and get to the lift and escape before the whole place goes up.
Vic Coste tells us in voiceover that he is going to go and rescue Sarah, while Sam goes to stop the emp bomb.

Mission 9
We arrive at the site of the EMP bomb to find Blackarrow security in heavy numbers.
Making our way through the factory we eventually find and rescue the scientist taken from Whitebox earlier. She tells us that the EMP is being charged by two generators. However if we shut down one generator the resultant mix up will fire the EMP. We have to cut the power to both generators simultaneously.
Vic is going to come in with a helicopter and blast the generators, we have to find them and tag them for him.
I make my way through some nice set pieces with lots of guards in outdoor factory areas.
The first generator is tagged. On the way to the second A helicopter starts to make things hard for Sam.
Once the generator is tagged Vic comes in with a helicopter and shoots down the enemy helicopter and blows both generators at once. We then get to see a scene where Sam and Sarah are reunited.
This does not last long as they are now on the way to save Anna and stop the president from being assassinated by Reed.
We see the EMP pulses take out the power to the city and start fires all over the place.
On the way to the Whitehouse the chopper is shot down by a surface to air missile.
Everyone survives, Vic will help Sarah get to safety and Sam goes on to the Whitehouse.

Mission 10
We go through the theatre that the helicopter crashed into and out into the streets. Where we fight some black arrow men.
Eventually we get through their outer perimeter and arrive at the Whitehouse.
Reed is using Black Arrow to assault the Whitehouse. If he manages to kill the president before the Army arrive then he will say that Black Arrow are helping to guard the whitehouse. If the Army arrive before he kills the president then Reed will blame Black Arrow and let them fight it out.
We now have to get into the Whitehouse through heavy Black arrow resistance.
Blowing up a handily placed tanker at the gates gets us in. We then meet heavy resistance and sneaking is not much of an option compared to full frontal shoot em up action.
We make our way up to the Whitehouse and inside through a side door.

Mission 11
Inside the Whitehouse it is third Eschelon soldiers versus secret service. Looks like the third Eschelon are winning. Sam now has to find his way to the President.
We fight our way through the Whitehouse room by room.
We are told that the man Reed hopes will be made President is being kept nearby. We go and kill his guards then brutalise him.
Making our way through we get a cut scene Showing Reed and Anna getting into the Oval office.
We then fight our way through the enemies until we come to a room where lots of black arrow are fighting secret service.
In the Press room we meet up with Anna. As all the flashforwards have shown this is where she is going to double cross us. However it turns out that she isn't.
The plan is to tie up Sam and lead him to Reed only to surprise attack him together.
We get into the oval office and mark all the soldiers. Then Anna and Sam Take them out.
The president is greatful. She leaves with the Army who turn up to rescue her.
Then we get to beat up Reed. We get the option to kill him or not. I don't and Anna does it for me.
Sam walks out again quitting. Anna asks him to help take down Maghito.
We see Vic Coste being interrogated as we did at the start of the game. He seems to be waiting for Sam to come and rescue him, and on cue there is an explosion and his guardss rush out of the room to see what is going on leaving him smiling at the camera.

Credits Roll.
Took around 10 hours on realistic. 330 achievement points.

I play out the last level again and this time kill Reed for the achievement.