Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist is a third person stealth and shooter game in which your goal is to stop the attacks of an organization called The Engineers. The night vision sonar googles, pipes to hang from and Mark and Execute power are signatures for this game and will sure make you feel like a true special trained agent.
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| Sneaky routes are always an option. |
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| Sonar + Thermal Goggles. |
The gameplay is very characteristic of most stealth games, you have to use cover, shadows and other obstacles for camouflage or subterfuge while keeping an eye on your enemies field of view. After all, your goal is to reaming unseen. You can shoot lights to make new dark paths, attract enemies to specific locations, climb walls, windows and pipes. But when the sneaky arts fails you, and firepower is needed, you will count with an arsenal of different weapons and gadgets to your survival, all very characteristic of any shooter game. What makes Splinter Cell Blacklist very distinct is a very special ability that gives you a capital "S" for special agent, an ability called Mark and Execute. Whenever your "power bar" is filled you can mark three different targets and skilfully put them down with whatever weapon you are current using. All in a very special slow motion cinematographic sequence.
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| How much was that again? |
The progression system is done in a very peculiar way. From the very start you can see all weapons and upgrades available, but in order to use them you have to buy such equipment. Each mission you complete will give you cash based on your mission score, which is based on your performance. We like to think of it as government funding for a well done operation. Although generous six figures amounts are common (and they could have most certainly used digit group separators) you will quickly realize that you will finish the game before even getting a full high-end gear set. Unless you keep repeating missions, in which case you are fine, as every mission can be repeated endlessly and will always give you more cash.
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| Where are the real challenges? |
The tutorial and user interface could also have used some more iteration, as everything is accessible from the start, it is overwhelmingly confusing what everything means. The manual pages were incomplete and far from much help, we ended up just figuring out as we played. It is not that hard after all, just confusing, so we recommend that you access everything through your start menu, instead of going around speaking with NPC's. The challenges are badly balanced and rewarded, as a stealth game expecting you to kill 500 enemies with a pistol and award you 30.000 moneys that barely buys you anything is more of a chore than a challenge, and it also does not provide any incentives to try different play styles or strategies. There is also a bug with the cover system that sometimes you are in cover but when you aim your character will just aim at the cover/wall, not really a top agent skill, but nothing that standing up and breaking your stealth will not solve.
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| Now that's more like Special Agent Skills! |
We also got very, very disappointed when we finished the last mission and the ending cinematic was locked due a UI bug, this should have not made to the final game and definitely should have been patched. If it happens do you, do not pull your hairs out, the game saves when the score comes up. Just watch the ending on youtube and go back to the shadows. Despite falling short for some aspects of game composition, the mechanics of Splinter Cell Blacklist are very well done, topped with great hand-to-hand animation and a plot that will keep you to be on your toes.
Final Score: 8 out of 10.