Co-op Story
The four-mission Co-op Story charts the assignments of special agents Archer and Kestrel, two spies involuntarily placed on the same team when four Russian EMP devices are stolen.
The EMP devices in question are related to the main plot of Sam Fisher's mission, making this game mode a prequel of sorts.
Archer and Kestrel must travel deep into the Russian underworld to track down the EMP devices before they are sold to the highest bidders among the lowest people.
Co-op Story cannot be played alone; it must be played with a second person. You can either play Co-Op Story online, via System Link, or split-screen.
You and a friend must work together to dispatch enemy guards, circumvent dangerous security systems, and find those EMPs.
Co-op
When you begin Co-op Story, you must set the mission parameters. If you are just starting Co-op Story for the first time with a particular friend, you must select the very first mission: St. Petersburg Banya.
If your game is interrupted, you may pick up where you left off the next time you play. You can also select the mission difficulty: Rookie, Normal, and Realistic.
The higher the difficulty, the more merciless the hostiles. On Rookie, for example, you may have a few extra moments to take down a guard who has spotted you before your Last Known Position is relayed to comrades.
In Realistic, you have only a second to react to being revealed - and you better be ready for serious incoming fire.
Prior to your mission, select mission settings such as difficulty and gadgets in the set-up menu.
You must also select the weapons and gadgets you take into the field. You can choose two gadgets, such as frag grenades and flashbangs, or sticky cameras and remote mines.
You always have sonar goggles and the portable EMP generator.
You also select two weapons: pistol and alternate weapon. Your weapon choices are limited to those unlocked in the main story or unlocked during previous co-op play successes.
Finally, you select a uniform for your agent. Information about all uniforms, including how to unlock them and upgrade them, is covered in the beginning of the Deniable Ops chapter.
The Heroes
The Co-op prequel to the events of Conviction stars two agents from opposite sides of the Atlantic - Archer from Third Echelon and Kestrel from Voron, Russia's top-secret spy organization.
Each player assumes the role of one of these agents. Each has similar training, so there are no shortcomings to avoid. Both can mark and execute. Both can use all gadgets. Both are ruthless.
Archer
Archer is the code name of special agent Daniel Sloane-Suarez, a former NSA officer with an Economics degree from Harvard.
Sloane-Suarez was a brilliant analyst, but he was not suited for the office. He longed to work in the field and chase down the terrorists he spied on at the NSA.
Sloane-Suarez was eventually recruited by Third Echelon and placed in the agency's physical training program. He passed all training with flying colors and earned the call-sign Archer.
Kestrel
Not much is known about agent Kestrel. His real name is Mikhail Volkov, and after a hard childhood in foster care (his parents were killed in a terrorist attack), he was arrested and placed into conscription with the Russian military.
Finally, Volkov found his place and excelled in the army, soon finding himself in a counterinsurgency unit charged with neutralizing Chechen guerillas.
Volkov was captured and tortured by the guerillas but was eventually rescued. After Volkov recovered, he was recruited into Voron, a high-risk recon agency where he was given the call-sign Kestrel.
Co-op Moves
Co-op Mark and Execute
Both Archer and Kestrel can mark and execute targets, just like Sam Fisher. After completing a close kill, the spies earn executions.
Each player can tag targets independently, but when you share a view of the same marks, you can execute together and expand your range of fire. The player who initiates the execution waits for the other to join in.
Both players then take down the marked hostiles. The player that "joined" the execution does not give up his banked execution.
Revive
If you are shot a few times, you stumble and fall. However, instead of dying right away, you start to bleed out.
Your partner will see that you are down and that there is a time limit to reach you before you die for good.
Your partner must stand over you and hold the Revive button to get you back on your feet.
During this time, they are vulnerable to attacks. If an enemy approaches, they must release and engage. This restarts the Revive meter, though.
While you are down, you may defend yourself. Choose Sit Up to push your torso off the floor and shoot at enemies.
Sitting up makes you an instant target. If you are shot again, you die and cannot be revived. This ends the mission in failure.
Choke Hold
Enemies can grab you, too. However, they cannot execute. Instead, they hold you in a choke hold and slowly squeeze the life out of you. When you are being choked, a warning on your partner's screen points out your location and a timer shows how long before you lose consciousness.
While being held, you can dodge. This move quickly pulls you away from the hostile, giving your partner a clean shot at the target.
However, your assailant does not let go of you while you dodge. If your partner does not kill the hostile while you are dodging, you're pulled back into the choke hold - after getting a good pistol-whipping that saps your health.
Weapons Stash
Each location is split into five sectors. When you make it through a sector, you encounter a duo of weapons stashes your spies may use to replenish spent supplies and change out weapons.
Once both of you reach a weapons stash, you may not backtrack into the previous area.
However, you may return to these weapons stashes as many times as you like before moving on to the next sector.