Game Review: "Splinter Cell: Blacklist"

- by Ninja Ross, 24 August 2013

Sam Fisher has saved the world many times. He stopped terrorists from releasing a deadly disease, he stopped WWIII, he saved the world from bad guys infiltrating the government and now he’s up against his biggest challenge yet: A new voice actor. But we’ll get to that later.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist follows Sam as he’s dragged back into the world of government espionage in order to save America from a terrorist organisation known as The Engineers.

And that’s... About it for the story. It’s pretty generic and doesn’t have any real substance. It’s compelling enough to keep you watching the cut scenes but it is by no means the main draw of this game.

Good first impressions (picture: IGN.com)

If you haven’t played a Splinter Cell game before, here’s what you need to know about the actual franchise (based on popular opinion): Chaos Theory, the third in the series, is the God of the franchise. It’s the one every Splinter Cell game is judged by. Conviction, the previous instalment, is considered the worst.

Conviction stripped away a lot of the stealth mechanics and left us with what seemed like a half finished action shooter with elements of stealth. Quite a departure from previous games. It wasn’t a bad game, really; the developers were clearly trying new things out, hoping to draw in action game fans. But it was broken and messy.

Conviction had bland controls and gadgets, virtually no real stealth and Fisher had a weird looking face... But, instead of trying to force these changes to the series on the devoted Splinter Cell fanbase, Ubisoft have taken more inspiration from the originals and have managed to find a compromise between the classic mechanics and what worked in Conviction.

It must have been your funny face... (SC: Conviction)

We end up with a game that has smooth combat and controls, better gun combat than any other installment and some great stealth. There’s also much better level design, closer to that of Chaos Theory. You get the opportunity to crawl through vents, climb walls and buildings and find different ways to do away with an enemy.  It’s a perfect example of a developer learning form mistakes and making a better product because of it.

So, unlike Conviction, we have a solo campaign with a pretty bland story but great gameplay. You’ll be sent all over the world, to places like Iraq, Britain and America. While there you’ll have to escort prisoners to safety while not being caught, take down armed enemies with an arsenal of weapons and gadgets (including a little helicopter thingy!) and feel like Batman as you make the enemy question their every move.

Mirawa? I hardly knew her!

In Blacklist, you are ranked at the end of each mission according to which play style you used. If you’re a Ghost, you never trip alarms and you never kill. Panthers leave no witnesses, even if that means killing. Assault players... Assault. Blacklist offers you the opportunity to play all three of these styles with ease; you can play this game however you like, which is more freedom than the franchise has ever offered.

Just hanging with the guys.

And when you’re not shooting people, knocking them out, pushing them off cliffs, landing on them and so on, you spend your time in the Helicarrier Paladin Multi Mission Aircraft. A plane that keeps you mobile while still offering all the comforts of a top secret government base.

Here you can customise your load out; pick and upgrade gadgets, weapons, your outfit and even the plane itself to make your Sam Fisher the best there is. This adds to the ability to play it your way and earn more points and cash to spend on your loadout. Want to be the spookiest of ghosts? Make sure to equip and upgrade your sleeping gas, sticky cameras and sticky noise makers. Panther more your style? Silenced weapons all over the place. Including a neat crossbow. Assault? The black market is as good for you as the official channels; buy all the latest weapons and mods. You can also customise your goggles. Best thing about this? Predator/Robocop vision. You win, Ubisoft.

And this all goes towards replay value which, considering how expensive games are, is never a bad thing.

The biggest change for Blacklist is the replacement of Michael Ironside. That tainted the game for a lot of fans the second it was announced, especially when it was revealed that the new voice of Fisher is Eric Johnson; a younger actor with a softer voice. But Johnson does a darn good job. He lacks the iconic sound that Ironside brought to the table but he does get pretty close sometimes without having to mimic him. Although, it would have sounded much better as prequel, since Johnson sounds more like a young Ironside than anything else.

Besides that, I thought Ironside’s performance in Conviction sounded terrible... DON’T HURT ME!!!

Eric Johnson in Splinter Cell Motion Capture Suit

Overall the game’s very enjoyable. Not for the story, mind, just for the gameplay itself. It’s as close to Chaos Theory as the series has gotten so far. Ubisoft has demonstrated their ability to learn from mistakes and develop what worked. The future’s bright for Splinter Cell. Which is awkward, what with him being a spy, and all... Could make his job difficult...


Have you played Splinter Cell: Blacklist? Are you thinking of giving it a shot? Let us know!

Tagged: video games, Reviews.

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