With the success of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed series it is easy to forget that they have another widely successful stealth-action series up their sleeve. Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell has been around since 2002 when it caught our attention with those ever recognizable glowing green trifocals. While the series hasn’t had the annual release attention since 2006, Ubisoft Montreal still kept the series strong with the release of Splinter Cell: Conviction and this year Ubisoft Toronto take the reins with Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Promising to deliver the same stealth-action we’ve come to enjoy, it is time to take a look at the latest installment in the Splinter Cell series.
Game: Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist
Published by: Ubisoft
Developed by: Ubisoft Toronto, Ubisoft Shanghai (WiiU)
Review Sample provided by: NVidia
Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, WiiU, PC (Review Sample)
Genre: Action-adventure, Stealth
Release Date: August 20th, 2013
MSRP: $59.99
Written by: Debo
Screenshots by: Debo
Story
Sam Fisher is back again with old friends and some new faces. The President has disbanded what remains of the corrupt Third Echelon and Sam has been getting along moonlighting and doing other spy things since we last left him at the end of Conviction. As the game kicks off Fisher and old pal, Victor Coste are taking off from a military base in Guam for what seems to be a basic mission when the base is unfortunately attacked, overthrown and destroyed by a well-organized force of enemies.
After eventually escaping at the cost of Vic’s health, it is revealed the attack was orchestrated by a group known as “The Engineers” and was just the first in a countdown of attacks aimed at the United States. Like all good hostage takers, the Engineers have demands though theirs is quite simple, call back all American troops deployed abroad. Simple, really.
In response to these threats the President assembles a group, the newly minted Fourth Echelon. From aboard your mobile command center known as Paladin, Sam and team are tasked with using any means necessary to find and thwart the Engineers. Your first order of business is getting in touch with an old friend from Conviction for some possible leads.
Gameplay
Conviction caught a lot of slack from series purists with its turn to a more action oriented approach as is the common progression with most games baring the Stealth-action tag but with Blacklist the stealth has indeed made a return. That is not to say fans of the more action oriented Conviction are left in the dark either. In actuality the game offers a choice of three different play styles, each with their own challenges to complete and rewards to achieve letting you be free to play how you want. Don’t want to sneak around an area and whittle down the opposition one by one? Simply grab the closest enemy and use him as a human shield during your firefight.
The aforementioned stealth aspect of the game is generally accomplished through avoiding the light, recognizing movement patterns in your enemies and moving quickly from cover to cover. The enemy AI isn’t stupid, however, and will change thing up on you from time to time and have a knack for noticing when a few of their own just happen to be missing. Quick takedowns are your friend and it never hurts to move a few incapacitated enemies to a place where their buddies won’t find them.
Another aspect of the game is the sheer amount of customization in your load out for each mission. An array of real world armament and more than a few neat superspy gadgets are at your disposal lending even more to the multiple path, multiple play style design that offers a little bit of something for everybody.
Throughout the game you acquire money which lets you purchase better and better weaponry and armor, more gadgets and even the ability to upgrade your tricked out aerial command center.
Each member of your Fourth Echelon team offers side missions to net you more and more resources. These missions range from solo capture and recovery missions to coop missions that let you play with others to accomplish your goal. These missions are able to be completed how you want but all of them have specific bonus conditions that net you greater rewards for following them. Personally I didn’t get involved much in the coop aspect of the game but I did notice that there were different paths even in solo missions designed for multiple players.
Controls
Being a multiplatform title means robust support for both keyboard and mouse as well as gamepad control. I personally prefer gamepads for these styles of games and was not disappointed with the Xbox 360 standard controller layout. Everything was accessible but I can’t help feeling with all of the options the game presents to you if the keyboard might have been a better fit. Starting the game with up to four available gadgets, a primary and secondary weapon along with two forms of melee combat and what seems like infinite possibilities and ways to down enemies and affect the environment, the gamepad does seem to be a bit crowded.
Cover based shooting has gotten stale over the last few year but for some reason in Blacklist it fits. Having to use the chest high walls as both cover and protection from enemies works on this occasion an while Ubisoft Toronto hasn’t reinvented the wheel, they have cut down on the number of obvious “stuck to the wall and shot to death” occurrences. Jumping from cover to cover feels fluid and while this is only accomplished with a simple button/key press, the unique animations make the presentation seem like so much more.
Blacklist touts a new gameplay mechanic called Kill in Motion and with it, doesn’t disappoint. Similar in a way to Call of Duty’s slow motion breaching or Red Dead Redemption’s Deadeye, Kill in Motion lets you build up the ability as you play and once you’ve reached that point you’ll be given the Execute Ready prompt. Once Kill in Motion is ready simply mark the would-be targets and hit the button letting Sam do the rest. Kill in Motion kills can be executed stealthily behind cover or even on the move while run and gunning.
Graphics and Audio
Officially Blacklist runs on Unreal Engine 2.5 with standard Havok physics but the finished product looks much better then you’d expect. Lighting and shadows are placed well and while the action and pacing of the game don’t offer many opportunities to sit back and smell the roses, the graphics and environment surround you and make each mission seem like its own unique experience.
The graphical options are also robust from all of you tweakers. With five anti-aliasing options, the ability to run in either DirectX 10 or 11 and a load of other options there is a setup available to please you and run on a wide range of gaming systems.
Audio is equally quality in the game as you can wait in cover and listen to enemy conversations for queue and tip to help you throughout. Gunfire is loud and invigorating and the musical score is spot on. To get the most out of the sound presentation Blacklist offers, you can adjust the sound to your setup and your own liking.
Overall and Final Verdict
Freedom and customization permeate every facet of Blacklist and that is a refreshing thing to see as a gamer. Knowing that me and a friend could both play through the game and have completely different experiences is great in this age of carefully crafted set pieces and games on rails. As a fan of the older games I found the transition to run and gun gameplay a sad one but am happy to see Sam Fisher return to the shadows in Blacklist.
I am not entirely sure if saying that there may be too much to do in a game is truly a slight but that is how Blacklist leaves me feeling. The tons of choices and customizability from the jump left me feeling a bit overwhelmed and I simply defaulted to a standard, comfortable load out and rarely bothered to experiment. The enemy AI can seem a bit unfair at times and getting into a gunfight with more than one or two enemies is typically a bad idea unless you are specifically equipped to do so.
With the recent passing of the great Tom Clancy, Splinter Cell: Blacklist will go down as the last game released during the legendary author’s lifetime that displayed his name. With its fluid controls and stealth-action that gets back to the roots of the series, Blacklist is a quality title that will appeal to both old fans and fresh players to the Splinter Cell series. Going dark.
