Splinter Cell: Blacklist

[sfscriv]

[sfscriv]

I see some Ironman 1, Mission Impossible 3, Crysis, and a lot of Assassins Creed.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist is a third-person action-adventure stealth game from Ubisoft. Blacklist introduces a new gameplay mechanic called killing in motion, allowing the player to highlight targets and take them out in quick succession, with a new fluidity while on the run. The game is set in a third-person perspective so the protagonist and the objects around him are visible. As well, there will be voice integration with Xbox 360's Kinect peripheral, which will allow gamers to say things to distract enemies and then attack. And finally, in Blacklist, you can use the Kinect sensor to control the protagonist by yourself instead of using the Xbox 360 Controller.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist will be released in North America on August 20, 2013

[pershainovitsh]

As expected, I have an opinion on this. I'm a huuuge Splinter Cell fan and SC: Chaos Theory is my favorite game, not just in the series, but of all the games I've played. Nothing beats sneaking around a level, completing the objectives without anyone even knowing you were there. Being a complete ghost isn't always possible, however, and then youa re forced to do something to the guards. This poses a moral dilemma: these guys are just regular guards with families, do they deserve to die? What about a guy who tortured a captured American soldier? You can do whatever you want, but sometimes your boss tells you not to kill anyone. This isn't done in arbitary points, but in sensible situations. If you have to spy on an American agency when trying to find a mole, then that's what you've got to do, but without killing absolutely anyone.

Double Agent was the fourth game, and with it became the downhill. To be honest, I've only played the demo, but it convinced me that this is bad. The pc version is a horrible port, you are sneaking in daylight, it's buggy etc. SC:Conviction was much worse. You basically have to kill everyone, and everyone knows you are there. There is a part where I have to blow up a fuel truck to gain entrance to a facility.... Yeah. Then there are parts where you are running&gunning your way through places. Using non-lethal techniques is not possible, and it doesn't even have the iconial night vision. Instead it has sonar goggles, and the screen turns black and white if you are hiding in the shadows. Both are bad additions; they don't work.

Now there's SC: Blacklist. There seem to be some improvements over Conviction (read: bringing back features from the original three games, like non-lethal gadgets, NVG) but also some drastic changes. You can now use mark&execute (introduced in Conviction, you just mark targets, press a button and the character kills all in slow-motion) on the move and, worst of all, call in airstrikes. The voice actor of Sam Fisher, the main character, Michael Ironside, isn't working on this game. He voiced Fisher in all previous ones. Sam Fisher was an old, yet agile field agent, but now he sounds like he's in his 20's. One more thing: stealth was forced in previous games, because you were just a lone, fragile man on the field. Now you can headshot five people while running and call in an airstrike. I really don't think I'm going to buy this game. Splinter Cell is yet another example of Ubisoft dumbing down a franchise. Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six are other examples.


On a different note, I got SC: Chaos Theory on Steam, so I can finally play it again. Does anyone else have it? I still haven't played through the co-op.

[sfscriv]

[psyco6]

I ordered it and will review it if there is interest.

[pershainovitsh]

There most certainly is interest for a review. Hopefully you have played the old ones so you could compare them to Blacklist. The most important thing is, of course, how good the stealth gameplay is. Can you pass by enemies unnoticed, can you take them out non-lethally, how linear are the levels, how much scripted action is there? That's some things I'd like to know.

[psyco6]

Aug 19, 2013 18:21:02 GMT 1 pershainovitsh said:

There most certainly is interest for a review. Hopefully you have played the old ones so you could compare them to Blacklist. The most important thing is, of course, how good the stealth gameplay is. Can you pass by enemies unnoticed, can you take them out non-lethally, how linear are the levels, how much scripted action is there? That's some things I'd like to know.

I have only played a short time.
The only prior SC game I ever played was on Gameboy many years ago.

Yes there is non-lethal takedowns and gadgets.I found the game very linear but if you explore you can find alternate routes.
It reminds me a lot of GRAW FS.
Also one can go in shooting and achieve the same results.I have found the AI good so far they find a body they alert others.
One thing I didn't like was I was in a firefight and went into a room and the enemy didn't follow and went back to patrolling.
I also do not like being able to aim down the sights of weapons.
There are alot of side missions,ability to customize everything like other games.


I'll post more when I get some more time into the game so I can be more objective and fair in my grading of the game.

Like all Tom Clancy games great storyline so far.

[pershainovitsh]

Thanks for the short review. If I ever decide to buy the game, I'll post about it here. Not going to happen soon, probably.

[psyco6]

Beat it last night.
I found you didn't need stealth to get through it.I just rolled in and shot,burned or fragged everything.
Some missions did require non-lethal force.There was one section that went to FPS.

All in all I enjoyed the story and graphics and voice acting was well done IMO.

[pershainovitsh]

The main character, Sam Fisher, is supposed to be over 50 years old, and a veteran of the Gulf War. He's sarcastic when speaking with his superior and allies, but rather cold when interrogating his enemies.

In trailers and gameplay videos I've only seen a guy who sounds and looks like he's in his 20's-30's, a regular bad-ass we've seen in numerous games and movies with no originality and no resemblance to the Sam Fisher I know. A big part of the Splinter Cell games was the easily recognisable character/voice of Sam Fisher. Now it's gone and you can just shoot everyone in sight. In the original three games, stealth was necessary, as you were outnumbered, and that meant that you couldn't just shoot everyone. Killing one person from the shadows was easy, but more than two would be a nightmare. One man versus a group of terrorists wouldn't stand a chance. That was pretty realistic in a way.

And in some missions, you weren't hiding from the enemies. For example, in the first game, the Splinter Cell team thinks there's a mole inside a governament agency, and sends Fisher to find out his identity and abduct him, if possible. Of course spying on another agency is so forbidden your boss won't even think asking a permission would be wise, so absolutely no killing is allowed, or the mission is over. So it always had a proper story-based reason for not killing anyone.

I have a feeling they have destroyed the character and turned the franchise into something else, and I don't like it. I'm very, very unlikely to buy Blacklist. I don't want to support Ubisoft, and I don't think I would enjou it as a Splinter Cell game. Had they sold it with a different name and different characters, I would've been more likely to buy it.