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What's going YouTube, my name's David, and welcome to my review of Splinter Cell Blacklist,
the newest chapter in Sam Fisher's career. The Splinter Cell series' iconic crown jewel
game, Chaos Theory, is one my favorite games of all time. I'll be in the minority of Splinter
Cell fans when I say this, but I actually enjoyed 2010's Conviction, however, its more
action oriented direction just wasn't the experience I look for in a Splinter Cell game.
In Conviction, you are an empowered action hero. Stealth options to complete an objective
were less appealing and more tedious than killing everything in sight. Blacklist improves
upon all of Conviction's shortcomings and gives us the best Splinter Cell game of this
generation. Before talking about gameplay specifics, I
want to make a mention of the game's development. When the game was first revealed at E3, gamers
collectively anguished over Michael Ironside not making a return as Sam Fisher. His voice
is very strongly tied to his character. As per the industry standard, Ubisoft used motion
capture for their character movements, so they chose Eric Johnson, an actor who could
physically fit the role. I'm curious as to why they didn't retire Sam Fisher entirely.
Sam is biologically getting up there in age, and he seems to be pulling a Benjamin Button,
becoming more physically capable as he ages. There are definitely more stories to be resolved
in Sam's life, but I would have liked to see him take on a more mentoring role instead
of doing the fieldwork. Maybe I'm too strong of a traditionalist, but Johnson's voice acting
as Sam Fisher just isn't convincing enough. Graphically, Blacklist manages to impress.
The gameplay in this video is on PC with all settings maxed out with super-sampling antialiasing.
As with most games in the late lifecycle of consoles, you are doing yourself a disservice
if you don't play this game on PC. Blacklist is Nvidia optimized, showing off exclusive
tech such as TXAA and HBAO+. TXAA is anti-aliasing that makes your gameplay look like cutscenes.
Some may prefer that style of anti-aliasing, but I personally don't, and opt use super-sampling.
HBAO+ by itself is definitely a step up from generic ambient occlusion, but all the lighting,
reflections, and shadowing effects in Blacklist are arguably the best in any game, even Metro
or Crysis 3. The lighting and shadowing are far from just eye candy- they are a critical
element to stealth gameplay. Outside of the effects, the player and guns are only average,
and the environments are a little disappointing when analyzing the graphics critically. Blacklist
is great to play on 3 screens at 5760x1080, but playing it in 3D is not recommended, which
is disappointing for an Nvidia GeForce optimized title.
For its gameplay, Blacklist returns to the deep stealth origins of the series. Accomplishing
objectives by planning and innovating using new gadgets at your disposal is extremely
rewarding. There are endless possibilities for how you can proceed. If you can think
it up, you can probably do it. Missions can be completed by sticking to the shadows entirely,
by striking as a hidden predator, or by engaging in head on encounters. For each play style,
you receive Ghost, Panther, or Assault Mission points, which you need to complete challenges
and earn in-game currency to spend on weapon, suit, and gadget upgrades. As mentioned previously,
there are wide range of weapons and gadgets for each playstyle. New to the series is the
tri-rotor drone, which you can use to scout ahead and knock out enemies. Light and shadow
are critical in adopting a stealth playstyle. You can shoot out lights to create your own
paths to stay hidden from enemies. Looking for vertical routes through areas gives you
a big advantage and literal drop on enemies. The mark and execute mechanic featured prominently
in Conviction makes a return, but it isn't so overwhelmingly strong anymore. The maximum
number of targets you can mark is 3, and you have to fill up your execute gauge with 4
takedowns before you can hit the execute button to instantly eliminate your 3 marks. The range
at which you can execute has also been reduced. I am very impressed in how the game is balanced
so that no one playstyle is more favored than the other outside of player choice. There
are some segments in the game that you must complete without killing or even getting detected.
For all other parts of the game, I personally feel that the assault style is the most difficult.
One major annoyance is that when aiming with a mouse, the game caps your turn rate. When
the game detects mouse acceleration to a certain magnitude, it prevents your aiming reticule
from moving any faster. A lack of 1-to-1 mouse-cursor input may be the dealbreaker for many in deciding
to play this game with a mouse. The Blacklist campaign is backed by a thrilling
story, where the terrorists hold the entire nation of the United States hostage. I do
feel that the campaign could have been a little bit longer, though. I played on panther-style
on Realistic difficulty, which is the second hardest. I beat the game in two power-gaming
sessions, taking breaks to do side missions, so the core campaign clocks in at slightly
under 8 hours playing panther on Realistic. However, there is an abundance of extra content
after you beat the game. There are co-op story-based missions where
Sam and another agent Briggs team up. Many maneuvers can only be executed with coordinated
actions. It goes without saying that it's better to go into the missions with a partner
selected beforehand rather than allowing the matchmaking to pair you. Available at anytime
are a variety of side missions that include infiltration without getting detected and
wave defense modes. These are possible to do solo or paired. Finally, there is the multiplayer.
The legendary Spies vs Mercs mode returns after a hiatus during the Conviction era.
The spies are more agile, can climb up ledges and through vents, and they have gadgets good
for distraction and incapacitation. The mercs, however, play the game in first person, have
stronger armor and weapons, more lethal gadgets, but are not as mobile as the spies. The multiplayer
has a classic, barebones mode, which is played 2 versus 2. The spies have to hack intel,
while the mercs have to defend it. This is the closest mode to the modes of Pandora Tomorrow
and Chaos Theory. Back during when they were released, not as many people played the multiplayer
as played Halo 2 or Counter-Strike, but the original Spies vs Mercs had a very strong
and dedicated playerbase. Many traditionalists won't like the modernized feel of Blacklist
2v2 Spies vs Mercs, but the mode is polished and deep enough that the playlist should remain
fairly active. The 4v4 Spies Vs Mercs extraction mode, which is capture the flag, plays competitively
as well. The other multiplayer modes in Blacklist are another story entirely. I really don't
know where to begin to start ripping it apart. Game balance is a problem. There are modes
where you choose your loadout and spies and mercs can play on the same team. Spies have
the sonar vision ability, which allows you to see through walls. I can't think of anything
in any video game that is more overpowered. The time between sonar pulses is very quick,
you can walk around in sonar vision without disorientation, and the range is ridiculously
long. Deathmatch is a mess, and doesn't work with the type of game Splinter Cell is. Having
custom loadouts is the industry standard because of the Call of Duty effect, but it just failed
extremely hard in the case of Blacklist. I am reminded of another Ubisoft game, Assassin's
Creed's multiplayer, where the original design of the game was nothing like how the players
ended up playing it. The developers designed the game to be a very tense, stealth-based
game, but each game just ended up being players running running in full sprint along the rooftops.
It may be that some of the game's balance issues are due to a metagame not envisioned
during playtesting. It is possible that after the first few weeks, when those who are just
testing out the multiplayer stop playing, that the game will be naturally more balanced
with people really intent on learning the multiplayer making the proper counter classes
and learning how to play around cheap tactics that we see now. What's unfortunate is that
game balance may be the least of the multiplayer's problems. Even on PC, the game doesn't use
servers, it uses a host connection. If the host quits in the middle of the game, the
host migration kicks everyone to the lobby, and you lose all your progress. The amount
of lag is insufferable. I won't be playing much more Splinter Cell multiplayer until
the game client stabilizes. To me, there is nothing more gamebreaking than lag in a modern
game. On PC, even if you buy the game through Steam, you have to launch it through uPlay,
which Ubisoft wants to rival steam as a software distribution platform. I really don't understand
the logic. If you want us to use your service, you should at least give it something to offer
that's competitive with other services. Launching a lag-ridden game through your client is not
the way to do it, Ubisoft. As it stands now, the only bigger joke than Blacklist multiplayer
is the Oakland Raiders team or Mark Sanchez. When I review games, I score them based on
the sum of their parts. Blacklist had superb campaign and side missions, went back to the
style of gameplay that made the early Splinter Cell games great, and added modern gameplay
elements while still staying its own distinct game. However, the bulk of the multiplayer
experience diffuses disaster, and is a blight upon what would have been a top-flight title.
Splinter Cell: Blacklist, earns a B.