Splinter Cell: Blacklist is an experience that delivers on every spectrum of the third-person, stealth-action genre. It takes what fans of the older instalments loved the most and incorporates them alongside features introduced in Conviction to write up another chapter of Sam Fisher's life with elements that we've come to expect from the gaming industry today.
In classic, Hollywood-blockbuster form, terrorists are up to no good and the fate of the world falls into the capable hands of Fisher and his Fourth Echelon (4E) team consisting of the ever popular Anna Grímsdóttir, Isaac Briggs and Charlie Cole. The Engineers, a group of cyber-warfare terrorists, destroy Anderson AFB in Guam and announce that the assault was the first of a deadly continuance of attacks on United States assets, called The Blacklist. Their demand: the United States government is to call back all military troops stationed abroad. Patricia Caldwell, the President of the United States assigns Fourth Echelon to the task of finding and bringing to justice the men responsible and stopping The Blacklist before the countdown reaches zero.
Blacklist reintroduces elements favoured in the original trilogy and mixes them with the gameplay and tactics of Conviction; many were understandably sceptical at first, but the myriad of glory that the combination produces has quelled all cynicism. Blacklist reintroduces the dependency of gadgets and stealth tactics and rewards the player accordingly for their proper implementation. However, engaging in guns-blazing firefights also have their share of rewards as well as a mixture of both.
Blacklist presents three different play-styles for the player to engage in: Ghost, Panther and Assault. The Ghost play-style resurrects the classic Splinter Cell methodology and requires the player to sneak through the map undetected and either leaving hostiles unharmed or eliminating them with non-lethal means. Fisher also has a handful of equipment to assist him on this path including a stun gun, a crossbow with shock or sleeper darts and grenades proximity mines that release knock-out gas and electrical charges respectively. Should the player feel like completing the mission without any technical assistance, the good 'ole fashioned method of 'distract and disengage' with hand-to-hand takedowns is at your disposal as well.
The Panther play-style is a fair balance between the Ghost and Assault methods, requiring you to complete your mission undetected by hostiles, but allowing you to eliminate them with lethal means including headshots and Mark & Execute (from Conviction), stabbing and slicing with a Karambit and snapping necks for that up close and personal feel. Your equipment ranges from tear gas and smoke grenades to crossbows with deadly arrows and any suppressed firearm in Fisher's armoury (pistols, submachine guns, assault rifles and sniper rifles.) Blacklist also introduces a new gameplay mechanic called 'Killing in Motion,' which allows players to highlight targets and take them out in a quick succession while on the run; favoured by this play-style.
The Assault play-style is nearly self-explanatory; get the job done while making as much noise as possible and not giving a hoot about who sees you doing it. Go loud with frag grenades and a Desert Eagle with a shotgun or a carbine rifle and take out everyone in sight.
Players may complete their missions in any manner they see fit and are not limited to a single play-style per mission. If you want to start off as a Ghost and sneak past the hostiles and then start slicing throats from cover as a Panther before going out with a bang with a Desert Eagle and some grenades, you're more than welcome to. You receive points and rewards accordingly, but more rewards are earned through completing the mission strictly as a Ghost, Panther or Assault agent.
Blacklist also introduces Kinect integration which allows players to say things to distract enemies and then escape, evade or eliminate. The player can also use the Kinect sensor to control Fisher with their body instead of the Xbox 360 controller.
As featured in Pandora Tomorrow, Blacklist returns Spies Versus Mercs as the multiplayer component which plays just like the original, but with an upgrade to gameplay befitting of Blacklist's methodologies as inspired by Conviction. It's just as fun, just as competitive...and sometimes just as annoying when you have an overly-aggressive participant on the enemy team. SVM also introduces a training mode which allows new players to learn and experience the component with other new players. It's a nice little feature to allow newcomers to hone their skills before getting themselves into matches with higher-levelled participants. At least it would be if Ubisoft put a level-cap on the training mode. You'll find that it is an unbalanced slaughterhouse where players with levels of 20 or higher will participate for easy levelling, as they'll be paired up with others who are much lower in rank, often bringing an unfair advantage and experience to the table.
Overall, Splinter Cell: Blacklist is an experience that must be...well, experienced by every fan of third-person action, stealth and a mixture of both. It's lengthy, offers a great narrative and has plenty of replay value.
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell has been out of action for a decade, so it's time to look back at 2013's Splinter Cell: Blacklist.
Sam Fisher is evidently the most skilled stealth operative because no-one has seen him in his own game for years
why make an inspired game that takes effort when you can half ass it with multiplayer gaas games and filler filled assassins creed games?
That question up there is the reason you don't see splinter cell games
The entire mark and execute system belonged in another game.
It’s cool, but the polar opposite to how Sam Fisher initially handled.
The original trilogy made shooting very, very difficult, yet a viable option, which ultimately motivates stealth.
The mark/execute system makes shooting stupid easy, to the point of why would you even bother trying stealth as an alternative?
Because Ghost is the method fans of the series actually prefer? IMark and execute is never forced upon the player you liiterally never have to bother using it even once throughout Blacklist.
The sad part is that I actually really enjoyed the last game, Blacklist. It may have lacked the iconic voice but the gameplay was excellent, and blended stealth, action and a mix really great compared to most games, where none of the three options felt like the wrong way to play. I really hope they either produce a remake of the original game or a proper sequel.
The stealth icon has gone too stealthy of late, but the best Splinter Cell games still rank among the best games ever made.
Alex S. from Link-Cable writes: "Ubisoft, we need to chat. Please, have a seat. Thanks. Ok, so I think you know why you’re here. No it has nothing to do with all those game delays, we’ll talk about that later. What? No it’s not about the Skulls & Bones and Beyond Good & Evil 2 falling off the face of the Earth, just listen. We need to talk about Splinter Cell. Don’t give me that look, you know this conversation needs to happen. The way you’ve treated the series, its fans and poor Sam Fisher himself is sad, infuriating and just plain disappointing and it needs to stop."
The Fish!!!
I'd love to see a remastered edition of those games as well as something new. It's about time.
MGS is done, at least as we know it so it's now or never Ubi, give Fisher the reboot it deserves. And for Gods sake, don't you dare turn Splinter Cell into another Division/Ghost reckon online abomination instead of a SP focused steath action game!
I would love a new splinter cell, maybe even a reboot at this point. Sam Fisher deserves it
I think reboot the entire franchise the games were great but every time they try to make him human like a father or something it comes of as unbelievable
They added damn near every SC game to Xbox1X back compat enahnced list. That is a lot of Sam enhanced and I am loving it, but Sam deserves a new next gen game.
"Chaos Theory Meets Conviction"
To be honest, that's the reason I'm not really excited about picking this game up. It certainly has a load of content, but I don't see myself having the same fun either Chaos Theory or Conviction provided with this meet-in-middle appeasement because one is going to outweigh the other. Like in your negative ("Assault play-style is forced in some missions"), I honestly can't stand the idea of playing the good 'ole Chaos Theory way of not touching a single guard and then being forced into Bay 'splosion scenes because of what the plot demands.
Perhaps I'm jumping the gun here.
Nice review. Forcing assault play is not down though because every level actually can be finished with master ghost. I managed to finish all level with master ghost rank.
It is really good but I had to switch to a gamepad very quickly. I played Conviction on 360 and frankly, I really liked it, not as a SC game but just as a game. When I started playing Blacklist I thought it felt sluggish and clumsy but switching to a pad remedied that immediately. Great game and one of the best this year. I expect this will be on a few people's game of the year shortlist. Mine included. Great story as well.