Renowned stealth spy Sam Fisher is back with a different voice. Gone is the brusque voice played by actor Michael Ironside, in is Eric Johnson. Sam’s voice is still credible and is now smoother than it used to be, but not as great as in previous Splinter Cell iterations.
As Sam Fisher, you still work for the 4th Echelon, but this time you receive missions from a plane based in Greenland called The Paladin. The Paladin is the command center where you meet up with Anna Grimsdottir and the plot plays much like a political thriller. The story focuses on a group of terrorists trying to kill a series of targets in the United States. There’s quite a bit of tension in the plot and some of it is between Sam and his colleagues. Charlie Cole is an expert hacker who can annoy other employees in The Paladin. The story isn’t so much about Sam, but it is more about information warfare. In this game information is power.
The screens in the command center are all digital; there are campaign missions as well as side missions. There are several new gadgets in this game that are very interesting and very useful for both the campaign and side missions. You get to choose your gadgets on The Paladin before you embark on any campaign or side mission. The availability of the gadgets gives you a chance to experiment with them against the various hostiles you will encounter in various countries of the world. One of the most interesting gadgets is the Tri-Rotor, a drone that you can use to scope out a building you are trying to infiltrate. The drone can give you a fairly good idea where the hostiles are located so that you can stealthily get inside a building without being spotted.
Old Splinter Cell gameplay mechanics have returned such as the cover system. You can take cover behind a wall, barricade, or box. You can knock out hostiles by sneaking up behind them like in previous iterations of the Splinter Cell franchise. A new mechanic that is introduced to this game called mark and execute. It is an ability to mark nearby hostiles, then automatically killing them with headshots in slow motion at the press of a button. It feels like an action hero move.
The missions take place in a variety of countries such as Iran, Paraguay, Mexico, United Kingdom, Guantanamo Bay, and Philadelphia, USA. The best mission designs consist of ventilation shafts, rooftops, and cubicles of offices. The A.I. of the guards is for the most part very realistic and increase suspense as they get closer to your hiding location. They will react realistically when they see an unconscious or dead colleague. Seeing an unconscious or dead colleague forces them to change their patrol patterns. A guard also will wonder why a door is now open when it was previously closed. If Sam is spotted by a hostile(s) a shadow is left in the last location where he was spotted.
The side missions are fun, although they turn into trial and error missions. There are no save points, so you will have to go through the mission from start to finish without making critical mistakes. These missions are assigned by Sam’s colleagues such as Grimsdottir, Cole, or Briggs. They can be played in single player or co-op. The side missions are structured so that you would need a co-op player alongside you in order to climb high walls or fences. Many of these missions require stealth, so being spotted means the end of a mission. Side missions may require you to hack into phones, computers, and other devices so that the 4th Echelon can secretly acquire intel from the terrorists. There is enough drama and suspense to justify playing side missions.
Splinter Cell: Blacklist is a gripping thriller of a game that reminds of a political movie thriller centered on spying. The campaign missions are suspenseful and the side missions add replayability to the game if you can get by the frustrations of trial and error. I would recommend this game to anyone who is interested in spying, stealth, and drama.