Review - Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist

By Christopher Money

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell first came to our screens in 2002 and has had a massive following ever since. Thus far, there have been six mainstream releases in the franchise and one handheld exclusive. When it first came into being, while stealth was by no means a new game genre with the likes of Metal Gear and Thief in years past, Splinter Cell learned from both the mistakes and successes of its predecessors, and subsequently delivered a gaming experience that was like no other. That’s not to say it was without its problems by any means – every game has its flaws; in my experience, the game suffered from a tendency to expect utter perfection from the player, which improved as the franchise continued.

Here comes Blacklist, then – a new, "revised" Splinter Cell in the form of another cover-based shooter with some stealth aspects, but its a tried and tested formula.

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Blacklist, with regards to its more recent predecessors, marks a return for Splinter Cell to more stealth based action. It still has a cover system and more elements of a shooter than the original stealth-em-up, but puts more focus on stealth than the previous game. As you are now, again, running ops under handlers from Fourth Echelon (no, really), you are expected to maintain a level of operational efficiency and professionalism, killing where necessary but focusing primarily on a) not being spotted – making the mission deniable – and b) completing the mission’s objectives – rather than its predecessor Conviction’s approach of ‘kill all the bad people in this area and move onto the next one’.

Notably, Sam now has the ability to perform non-lethal takedowns in mêlée as well as the lethal ones, and can be switched between them where necessary. I’ve actually been finding it very interesting (and difficult in some cases) to try to get through levels killing as few people as possible. Knockouts are still fine, and still contribute to the ‘Ghost’ part of your score. Scoring is defined by way of three playstyles – Ghost, Panther and Assault. Ghost points are awarded for knocking out enemies without being seen and evading enemies entirely. As it is arguably the most difficult, it appropriately awards the most points. Panther rewards players for taking a stealthy predator approach, taking enemies out silently. And Assault refers to run-n-gun situations and taking enemies head-on in direct combat. Points are then totalled and have a multiplier applied that is derived from your current upgrade level and difficulty, and the final number is converted directly into in-game cash to spend on gear and weapon upgrades.

It’s a neat system and one that doesn’t majorly discriminate against players who prefer a more direct, action approach. Compare Hitman: Absolution, whose ever-pervading scoreboard constantly reminded the player that their actions were ‘wrong’ with big red negative numbers. Obviously, the stealthier a player is, the more they are rewarded, but the game doesn’t punish you for entering direct combat, and players doing this a lot will not be at a major disadvantage in terms of gear. They’ll just have to pick the upgrades they purchase more carefully.

Speaking of equipment, I was several missions in before I realised I had a crossbow with sleeping gas darts, and even more missions before I realised you could pick alternate dart modes. My favourite is the sticky shocker – a callback to the original, 2002 game, when you could fire an electrified dart into water puddles and knock out multiple connected hostiles. In terms of gadgets, Fisher has been well-equipped with tech suiting each playstyle, including proximity mines, grenades, sticky cameras and even a tri-rotor for mobile reconnaissance and silent knockouts.

Missions are started from the game’s hub and the setting for Fourth Echelon’s base, Paladin. It is a cargo plane converted for espionage purposes, and though most conversations or options can be initiated from the main, central room, it’s also nice to take a breather and go for a run through the ship, Mass Effect style. The detail in every room is astonishing, and every character there looks and feels like a real person. A particular detail I have a great deal of love for is that you can call Sam’s daughter between missions and make sure she’s okay. She’ll also make sure Sam is okay. This small exchange might go unnoticed by those disinterested in the bigger scheme of things, but the little conversations that I was privy to really tugged at my heartstrings.

Missions can be replayed whenever you like – including story missions, which is a first for the series. Gone is the multiplayer mode of Deniable Ops, where two people compete or work together to eliminate hostiles; it’s replaced with a fantastic way of doing side missions – one can play them alone or be matched with someone else, or actively ask a friend to assist. Co-op routes into levels are often different from how a solo player would be able to play, requiring dual breaches and boosts to reach certain places.

The other multiplayer mode is called Spies vs Mercs, and is utterly chilling. The best thing I can compare it to is Aliens Vs Predator. The Spies are one of the two superior races and the Mercs are the disadvantaged, cornered Marines, with each side having sonar and night vision, and a mere flashlight and movement sensor, respectively. There is nothing more frightening than plodding through a darkened, flickering environment with your teammate, looking around for the spies, and hearing the blip-blip of your movement sensor picking up an unknown movement. You look to the shadows and click on your flashlight. Everything seems to be quiet.

And then, out of the very corner of your vision, something moves. Almost a shadow, the spies move with great agility and manoeuvrability, and your flashlight and movement sensors become your best friends. Many a moment I’ve seen the Mercs think they saw a spy, and immediately open fire, spraying bullets everywhere in the hopes of hitting something they thought they saw – only to have the actual spy approach from right behind them. It’s nothing short of terrifying, and I love it.

On the whole I’m actually quite impressed with Blacklist, considering I thought it was going to be mediocre at best. It’s got its own flaws – impossible enemy detection rates for one; I’m not entirely sure how an enemy that came running into the room and caught his foot on an explosive device hidden there ages ago was able to detect me hiding behind a box on the other side of the level, and radio the location to his buddies, considering he’s now lying dead in a pool of blood, but okay! No game is going to be absolutely without faults, and it’s foolish to expect such a thing. Blacklist has been fantastic fun for me thus far and I hope to keep playing it for quite a while.

But I still can’t do a split kick jump.