Splinter Cell Blacklist is probably one of the best games
I’ve played in a very long time. I’m a huge Splinter Cell fan and I have to say
that it is equal to the quality that Chaos Theory brought to the table. I’ll admit
that I was at first a little disappointed at the way the game played but in the
end I was proven wrong. This is Splinter Cell at its finest. It takes best of
worlds, Conviction’s fluid gameplay and Chaos Theory’s emphasis on stealth.
Splinter Cell Conviction was a great game but it was not a great Splinter Cell
game. It lacked a lot of the features that made the original Splinter Cell
games so fun. However Ubisoft has learned their lesson and made an outstanding
game within the Splinter Cell Franchise. This review is mainly going to focus
on only single player aspects since I haven’t had a chance to play online yet.
At first the lack of a light meter and sound meter had me
worried about whether or not Ubisoft was trying to bring the Splinter Cell
franchise back to its roots. The Splinter Cell franchise has evolved into a
quick and action oriented stealth game. Blacklist
has three distinctive play styles, Ghost, Panther and Assault. Ghost (my
preferred style) grades the player based on avoiding enemies or knocking out
enemies without being detected. The player receives extra efficiency points for
every guard they leave untouched. Panther style awards points to players who
kill enemies without being detected. Assault is your typical guns blazing
approach and doesn't rely on stealth at all.
I actually went through the entire game as a Ghost on Perfectionist. Perfectionist
is the hardest difficulty which prevents the player from seeing through walls
in sonar vision and removes the ability to Mark and execute. I was extremely
satisfied with this difficulty since mark and execute was a simple "I win" button.
The stealth works different in this game. The player can
still be detected in the shadows but they have a certain amount of time before
they are detected. The time is influenced by how dark the environment is around
the player. I believe higher difficulties also reduce the time available before
detection. The old splinter cell games worked differently. The darkness would
provide you with cover for as long as you were still covered in shadows.
However in Blacklist, the player must stay out of line of site, similar to how
Metal Gear Solid series operates. This is fine because it keeps the player from feeling safe in the darkness. It forces them to become more proactive.
Blacklist provides a huge arsenal of weapons for Sam to use
and upgrade on his journey to stopping terrorists. Honestly I didn't see a need
for all these weapons for a stealth play through since I barely shot any
bullets through the main campaign. The weapons are more for the Panther and
Assault play styles which depend on killing foes. Sam Fisher also gets to
choose different sets of armor that suit either a stealth or combat play style.
The player gets to choose from 3-4 stealth suits and 3-4 combat suits. The
stealth suits make less noise and provide higher stealth rating but very low
armor. The combat suits are the exact opposite of stealth. The difference
between each of the stealth suit is just a higher stealth rating. The combat
suits work the same way with progressively higher armor rating. The higher
quality suits require the player to purchase the previous suits except for the
ultimate version. The ultimate version of each can only be unlocked through
finishing the specific set of side missions.
The Splinter Cell series isn't really known for having an amazing storyline but I did enjoy the campaign’s story. A group called the
Engineers are planning to attack the United
States unless the United States removes all soldiers
from every country around the world. Sam Fisher has to find out who the
Engineers are and stop all attacks. Blacklist’s campaign missions alternate
between stopping the Engineers’ attacks and gathering information about the
Engineers’ plan. The side missions are more about gathering general intel on
the Engineers and other enemies. Almost every mission in the game has some
extra objectives such as gathering data drops, capturing high value targets and
hacking laptops. The player is awarded cash to upgrade armor if these extra
objectives are completed.
I honestly don’t have any real problems with Blacklist. I
think it’s a well designed game with a variety of enemies in each level. I did
think the game was a little on the easy side since I was able to complete it
with relative ease on the hardest difficulty as a ghost. The only thing I
really didn’t like was the way they portray Sam Fisher in this game. However
Ubisoft has been constantly changing his personality with each new Splinter
Cell game so this is nothing new. I think I would appreciate them giving Sam a
break and introducing a new protagonist for the Splinter Cell series. Splinter
Cell Blacklist is tied with Chaos Theory as the best Splinter Cell game. If you
only had time to play one game from the Splinter Cell franchise, Blacklist
would be that game.
