If you have a buddy to co-op with this is a must have! I Just finished 4 hours of co-op play and I loved every minute!
I played through the first Splinter Cell 10 times over and this new installment has satisfied my appetite for Splinter Cell big time.
I enjoyed playing SC Conviction all day since it unlocked on steam and I had zero problems getting it decrypted and activated.
Graphics are very nice for a DX9 title. Sound is great on a 5.1 surround system...when the fit hits the shan in co-op the tactical espionage music kicks up a notch and I found myself immersed and forgetting that I was just playing a game! Settings have a 2.1 and 5.1 selection for sound.
A few things that make the game fun are, jumping walls to take down enemies with your hands... Taking down an enemy with your hands grants you an execution where you can mark targets, hit the execution button and watch your enemies drop in one fell swoop! Awesome!
There are some really cool scenarios in the game where you may have to kill some guards and capture a prisoner for interrogation... the prisoner doesn't want to talk you say? Fine hold his face to the burner on the stove...Oh... you don't want to burn his face off? Just bludgeon him with your fists or smash his face on one of the many intractable objects! oh look at that he's talking now...Awesome and therapeutic at the same time!
I liked the way that one could choose to be undetected in the shadows by shooting out the light sources and popping enemies in the head with a silenced pistol or, you could have a full on shootout guns blazing!
SC Conviction ran perfect for me and my buddy Matt for a 4 hour co-op sesh at max settings on my ATI Radeon 5870... I had zero crashes, freezes, disconnects or anything of the sort. Of course my chip set, sound, video and network drivers are all up to date. I guess every gamer and system is different but it ran perfect for me.
Finding a co-op game shouldn't be hard assuming you have at least one friend.
If your having connection issues and are behind a router or firewall these ports need to be forwarded for multiplayer...
9103, 9100, 10196 (UDP outbound/inbound)
80, 3081, 3105 (TCP outbound)
22350 - 22380 (TCP inbound)
All in all I am very happy with my purchase of SC Conviction... I don't like DRM or the 65 dollar price tag for the deluxe edition but I haven't had a single problem with the game and I suggest trying out the co-op with a buddy ASAP!
If you have any experience in shooter games I would suggest playing on realistic difficulty from the get go. It adds a lot to the immersive-ness
Who's up for some coordinated tactical espionage with friends? I am!