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amazon Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Blacklist reviews
Splinter Cell: Blacklist – It can be said that the stealth-action game is the genre most strongly influenced by the simplification trend in the modern game industry.
While the “new” names like Mark of The Ninja or Dishonored have achieved many successes, the majority of “old” series like Hitman, Thief fell, Tenchu ”disappeared”, only remaining each Metal Gear Solid has remained stable for nearly 30 years.
The Splinter Cell series is no exception.
Tom Clancy’s version of Splinter Cell: Conviction is a “transformation” in both the positive and the negative side.
Possessing a more “personal” storyline, more diverse, and more cinematic locations, but in exchange, it is less challenging gameplay and overly simple, with poor quality of the port on the PC.
Although Conviction received a lot of praise from the press and the gaming community “new” to get acquainted with the game series, the game also made many fans disappointed by the change in the direction down.
While Ubisoft Montreal is “busy” with Assassin’s Creed and Watch Dogs series, the development of the next Splinter Cell game is assigned to Ubisoft Toronto, Ubisoft’s “rookie” from Canada.
What will this young developer do with his debut product titled Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist?
The story of Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist begins when a group of terrorists attacks the Andersen airbase in Guam, Sam Fisher, and Victor Coste successfully escape from the place, and shortly thereafter, an organization carrying the name “The Engineers” threatened that they would launch a series of attacks at locations across the United States within 14 days and would not stop until the US government withdrew all existing forces at the site’s country around the world.
Faced with this situation, the US President, Patricia Caldwell, ordered the creation of the global anti-terrorist unit Fourth Echelon, which includes two former members from Third Echelon, Sam Fisher, and Anna Grímsdóttir, along with former CIA officer Isaac Briggs and professional hacker Charlie Cole.
Under the command of Sam Fisher, the Fourth Echelon unit operated on the aerial fortress: C-147B Paladin made transcontinental flights to prevent attacks, and search and destroy the guy behind The Engineers.
Unlike previous games, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist uses Paladin’s “flying fortress” as the main interface of the game.
The game does not have a traditional menu, all gameplay related activities are through the interaction with the SMI (Strategic Mission Interface) system – the “brain” of Paladin.
Here players can receive quests, update information and data about attacks, upgrade weapons and equipment, view achievements, leaderboards …
The removal of dependence on the menu helps the player feel like immersing in a real “underground war”.
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist has returned to the shadows with its predecessors, but the game still hasn’t forgotten the interesting mechanics that appeared in Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction.
Mark & Execute is back and the Killing In Motion mechanism makes each phase “suppress in a seconds” become smoother and faster.
Night vision glasses and the ability to shoot light bulbs are still good companions of Sam.
Besides, the most remarkable feature of Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist is that the gameplay is split into three distinct play styles.
Ghost, as its name implies, becomes a “ghost”, completing the level in silence and not causing “bloodshed”.
Assault, hit on the head of the opponent with raging bullets and highly destructive devices.
Panther is a “hybrid” style between Ghost and Assault, hiding in the dark and eliminating those who are in the way.
At the end of each level, SMI will calculate points for the three branches Ghost, Assault, and Panther depending on how the player completes the level.
The scoring system in the game is very open, it does not weigh and deduct points “crap” like in Hitman: Absolution, if the player is discovered and the enemy is alerted then points will be counted towards the Assault branch.
It doesn’t matter if the player tries to follow the Ghost but accidentally “kills” an enemy with his bare hands, the only difference lies in the number of points calculated for each player’s action.
The splitting of the three play styles is not just for “fun”, but also how Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist encourages players to create their gameplay.
If you want to play the Panther way, you are not required to rely on melee attacks, take advantage of the silenced shotgun and take down your opponents quickly, or “trim” each prey from a distance with a sniper rifle bring an indescribable “high” feeling!
The number of “toys” in the game is very diverse, from the Tri-Rotor (a remote control plane) capable of scanning the enemy’s location and firing anesthesia to cause explosions, to the camera sticking to the wall distracts the enemy and spits gas to make the enemy… fall into a dream.
Personally, the writer is still a bit disappointed due to the absence of the Portable EMP (in the Blacklist there are only EMP mines stuck to the wall) but all the remaining equipment is more than enough to make Sam comfortable “raging”.
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The customization system is also a breakthrough in the series.
Now, players will not only have to choose from weapons and equipment but also modify every part of Sam’s tight outfit.
Individual parts such as gloves, chest armor, pants, and shoes affect the three indicators of armor, speed, and stealth.
The Sonar Googles glasses can now switch between Night Vision and Thermal, players can also upgrade Sonar Googles and get new functions like footprint tracking or increase scan range.
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction version used to make many people feel disappointed by the lack of challenge, at the highest difficulty is “Expert”, the game did not cause any significant obstacles except for the increase in a number of guards.
As a response to its predecessors, Ubisoft Toronto brought in Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist is not just three, but five different difficulty levels.
At the last difficulty level is “Perfectionist”, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist omits all the easy-going elements like Mark & Execute and the ability to see through walls.
Players will have to rely on the radar to locate the enemy and be careful when moving because just one second is enough for the enemy to alert if the player is accidentally detected.
Machine rival (A.I) at the “Perfectionist” level proved much more flexible.
They can see the player while clinging to a wall or water pipe up high, or looking out of a railing or window (in lower modes it is completely “blind”).
Heavy Infantry soldiers are especially difficult to treat as they can only be defeated with a melee attack from the back or in the air, if the player moves at normal speed then the chance of taking them out is only equal to zero.
Therefore, patience and caution should be a priority, and of course, players should also be prepared to… reload the game continuously.
Please note that playing Assault style is completely unwise in the difficulty level “Perfectionist” because just by eating exactly three bullets Sam will “die” instantly!
One thing that Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction works very well is the cinematic nature of the game’s content delivery.
There is a small feature that few people realize that most of the cutscenes in Conviction are “long take” (long shots continuously according to the character), which makes Conviction different from many other titles due to the unique cinematic angle.
It’s not repeated in Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist and more, the game lacks a “unique identity”.
It can be explained that Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist goes back to the “roots” of the work of late writer Tom Clancy, but owning an identity is essential for a game.
A slick graphics background, smooth character movements, and a properly applied “lens flare” effect are not enough, but it is a unique artistic style that makes the design style. The game’s cinematic design stands out.
Even worse, Ubisoft Toronto tried to incorporate intense action-movie-like scenes into gameplay, regardless of the pace of the game in that situation.
If the interrogation scenes were choreographed very well in Conviction, now, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist replaces it with UAV control scenes and… shoots down enemy vehicles.
In “Insurgent Stronghold”, the scene where Briggs used a sniper rifle to kill all enemies in complete silence, but in the “Special Missions HQ”, the writer felt like … poured cold water by The game is forced to use a UAV, shoot down those chasing Briggs and Sam and cause a riot in the streets of Tehran, although the player has previously escaped the US embassy in silence.
The tension is created in a forced and illogical way, stemming from the gap in the plot and the excessive and unsuitable use of cinematic gameplay in the game’s tempo.