Look at him. LOOK. Look at Sam Fisher. He's friggin' awesome, seriously. I was so hyped when Blacklist's release date dawned closer. First thing I did when I got it was to just stare at Sam on the cover with his new karambit blade.
Sam's cool. Either you love him or you love him lots.
In Splinter Cell: Blacklist, terrorists are launching a series of attacks on the US, and it is up to Sam and his team, Fourth Echelon, to stop them. As the story progresses, you discover that the terrorists' intentions are far more complex than their original demands, and your failure in stopping them can mean the end of US as a nation. Pretty heavy stuff.
Anyway, I played the game and Ubisoft's doing things slightly different this time around. When you first boot the game, you are thrown directly into the game - there is no title screen. This means that it is going to suck horribly if multiple people want to play it on your console.
Instead of having you go through missions one after the other, you are now able to decide when to take on primary missions. In between them, you will be roaming your headquarters, the Paladin, talking to the key people on your ship for side missions. That's right, side missions.
Aside from that, you get to make calls to Sarah, Sam's daughter, for some additional useless conversations. Roaming around the plane after main missions might net you access to some artwork (they're really easy to find, just be patient).
So, side missions huh? We'll get back to that later.
As usual, Ubisoft Toronto delivered. The whole game plays remarkably well and your playstyle can be classified as Ghost (stealth without killing), Panther (stealth kills), or Assault (go Rambo on your enemies). Playing stealthily rewards you with more points, which gives you more money for upgrades.
The whole HUD looks a lot neater compared to Conviction, and the overall mechanics have been improved. Ubisoft also polished up the Mark and Execute (Kill in Motion) mechanic in this game, where you have to charge a meter by dealing with enemies either by knocking them out or killing them, and not by meleeing an enemy like in Conviction. Despite the numerous outcries over how this mechanic "makes the game easier", I have only used it once in the whole game, so perhaps the problem lies with people wanting to take the easy way out? Heh.
Blacklist supports co-op and multiplayer, meaning you can have your friend teaming up with you or fighting against you. Some side missions require you to play in co-op, meaning you can never truly obtain 100% completion without playing with others, which frustrates me because I dislike this sort of gimmick.
Right, upgrades. Completing missions nets you points, which equals money. You can then choose to upgrade your headquarters or your equipment. What I really want to talk about is your equipment. All this while, Splinter Cell has been played as a stealth game. In this game, your upgrades can shift you towards a much more gung-ho approach to the game. You can choose to abandon stealth by buying armoured suits. You can customise your guns for more power or better control. Heck, you can even customise your suits' camouflages for cosmetic reasons.
So... How is the game?
Like I mentioned, the gameplay's interesting, BUT... Yes. But.
*sigh*
I feel so disappointed and empty after the whole game.
The game is really fun to play during missions. I enjoyed planning my engagements and lurking around in the dark to catch some poor sucker who wandered too far from his comrades. I enjoyed running around from cover to cover, immersing myself in the stealth experience which Splinter Cell provides. Yes, I do. I enjoy all those bits. But... The game is laden with a lot of flaws as well.
When you die, you turn into a ragdoll, and there are times when a part of your body clips through objects. Guess what happens then? Enemy soldiers continue shooting you and you never truly enter a "You Died" screen. Like, what? Once the ragdoll is shot in such a way that it no longer clips through objects, then and only then will you get to continue the game from your checkpoint. This was a huge problem for me when I played, since I was playing in Realistic mode, which means I could die in a few shots. This problem occured way too many times for me to enjoy the game.
The game lagged like mad after I played it for a long time. Sometimes, the AI's programming goes haywire and the game will not progress. Sometimes, my HUD went blank for no obvious reason. Also, loading times can take up to a couple of minutes. Certain "decisions" I made in the game felt like it didn't matter at all what I had chosen. The list goes on, but I'm stopping here.
Homing in on storytelling, it baffles me how this qualifies as a Splinter Cell installment. I can sort of see the direction in which the story is trying to go to, but the way it is presented makes it horrible. Side missions did not help at all, and I believe they only made matters worse, since it distracts players from the "main dish". Heck, want to know how badly it is presented? Check out the ending to the game here (no major spoilers). After that scene, it transitions back to me being in Paladin without any fades. HOW TERRIBLE IS THAT?
This is really horrible because I really, really enjoy the series. Sam Fisher's growth as an agent can be seen as the series continue, and everything just fits in nicely as a storybook. Then for no reason, this episode just decides to imitate everything that has been done thus far and be super sloppy about things. Do you know how that feels? That feels bad. Real bad.
*sigh*
Overall, the game itself is fun to play. However, the failure to hit the storytelling home and extensively test out the game before shipping it makes me feel disgusted at the way Ubisoft is treating Splinter Cell. Should you get this game? Yes. Should you wait until it's cheaper? Yes, you owe it to yourself.
With all that said and done, I have not actually played multiplayer. The footages I've seen on the Internet suggest that it's great. Multiplayer revolves around Spies, who have great agility and nifty gadgets to take down enemies, fighting against Mercenaries, who are armour-clad and equipped with heavy firearms. Spies are played in 3rd person, whereas Mercenaries are played in 1st person. There are 1st person segments in the main storyline as well, which I feel doesn't play well compared to other games out there.
Wrapping things up... Splinter Cell: Blacklist?
Great gameplay, horrible implementation. I give it a 7 out of 10.
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