According to the trailer, the specific type of takedown made depends on Sam’s location, his situation, as well as the lethality of the kill, which should add up to a nice range of animations to help close up manoeuvres from getting stale. Kristjan Zadziuk, Animation Director for Splinter Cell: Blacklist states that there are over 90 different takedown animations in the game, with just a short sample shown in the trailer below.
Some gameplay that looks like splinter cell and not an episode of 24
graphically and animation wise it looks fantastic, i just hope for a little more depth in terms of controls.