For a lover of the shadow and a master of ledge hanging, nothing can get as gigantic as Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Sam Fisher is back on board the Fourth Echelon, the American President’s new breed of spy infiltrators, chosen from the previously disbanded Third Echelon (from Splinter Cell: Conviction). He is joined by his ex team mate Grim, a Rookie agent Briggs and a young and convinced Informations Hacker, Charlie. Together they are going to stop an American threat touted to be the next big threat after 9/11, led by a terrorist group who call themselves The Engineers; the threat is classified as Blacklist.
Splinter Cell returns at the right time, with the right blend of action and flamboyance. The whole aura of the Blacklist attack will push the story forward, with a digestible terrorism story and a propelled build up. As Sam Fisher, you will go through several missions, be it solo, Co-Op or Main Story based, in order to crash the terrorist party and stop the Blacklist, one step at a time. The Engineers do not want to hit a building and create chaos like it was in 9/11, this time they are preparing to launch physical, economical as well as biological attacks. A similar strategy that you will see Timothy Olyphant deploying in Die Hard: 4.0. Sam’s strategies and stakes will be different in every mission. Like I said, the story is deeply rooted in the Hollywood big hits, add to it the Tom Clancy aura that makes modern warfare look so special.
Sam Fisher: The Ghost in the Darkness
“Arm yourself because no-one else here will save you,
The odds will betray you,
And I will replace you.”
– You Know My Name by Chris Cornell
Splinter Cell: Blacklist shows how easily you can complete a mission or die trying. The choice is purely up to you, as Sam Fisher, you need to use your previous Splinter Cell experience and take charge of the all new environment. A master of stealth like Sam deserves to shoot out the light up ahead and stay hidden in the shadow, waiting like a panther on its prey. You can choose to just wrap up the objectives without drawing attention, or you may put a few corpses to your accolades. Sam’s physics and movement is better than ever, and you can almost parkour from one objective to another, of course there will be enemies on your way. Sam returns as a 40 year old dad who is doing his best to stop the upcoming American threat, and you will get to see his emotional ties when you’re not on missions. You may miss Michael Ironside big time this time around, but Eric Johnson puts a decent performance in Sam’s shoes. He tries hard at times to be a badass, whereas Ironside’s performance and especially his sarcasm made Sam a natural badass.
The Blacklist USP
“I am more powerful than all the armies of the world,
I am more violent than violence, more deadly than death.
I have destroyed more men than all the nation’s wars,
I am relentless, unpredictable, waiting for your last breath.”
– Prince of Darkness by Megadeth
As spy Sam Fisher, you will continuously infiltrate deadly terrorist camps and sweep them clean or non lethally to stop the Blacklist. The choice is up to you. That’s why the team at Splinter Cell introduces the three styles of Sam Fisher – Ghost, Panther and Assault.
The sandbox of every level in Blacklist allows you to move from one objective to another, with no one seeing you coming. That way you will only complete the objectives, without raising a single alarm, subduing enemies if at all necessary, hiding their bodies and giving yourself an ambrosia of stealthgasm. Sam’s huge spy gadget inventory, that ranges from his goggles, sticky cameras (to attract and emit sleeping gas besides spectating), the remote controlled tri-rotor, sticky noisemakers (to cause distractions), sticky EMP shockers (that malfunctions all electronic elements and lights in its fray) to his stun gun/crossbow will help you get pass the enemies without leaving a trace behind. The non lethal action, the Ghost style, fetches you the most points in your missions.
In the Panther style, you’ll have to master the art of stealth killing. Take cover in the shadow and shoot open the heads of the enemies guarding your way. Or use your Karambit to slit throats from behind. When your adrenaline meter fills, you can perform a three men takedown execution, which the game calls “Mark and Execute.” You can jump onto one of the pipelines and shoot at the enemy from below. The aim increases when you are taking down from a pipeline or ceiling. But make sure to hide the corpses or it may easily alert the guards around.
For those with the hot blood, it’s time to disown stealth and engage in firefights, bring in the Assault style. They may be low scoring as compared to the above two modes, but thanks to the guns that you can buy and upgrade, you can easily bash open a door and shoot the enemies right at their heart. After all, peace sells, but whose buying, right? Show the enemies whom they are messing with, by planting proximity bombs, throwing flashbangs and other hand grenades.
All the previous Splinter Cell editions pit you in situations wherein you will use one style to get through it, but Blacklist’s level design makes you mix it up according to situations. The Marking option (from Splinter Cell: Conviction) makes it easier to track enemies if they wander off from your goggles range. Marking enemies and tracking their location becomes a matter of choice because you are only given 3 possible markers and you may have more than 10 enemies to spot and track at times.
Having said all this, the true worth of playing Splinter Cell: Blacklist is by choosing to play in the Hard mode, wherein bullets cause more damage, health regeneration is slower and you get detected easily. This difficulty setting actually pays homage to the reason why you bought Splinter Cell: Blacklist for, logically playing. You will love getting the Ghost mode on in these settings, as you will continuously hang around ceilings, pipelines and spending hours in cover.
The puzzles take charge once again, as there will be tons of landmines, face recognition camera protected doors, laser protected areas and of course the surveillance cameras. One single mistake and you are doomed for the rest of your mission in Blacklist.
Level Design
Blacklist does a tremendous job in testing the patience level and intelligence of the gamer, with each level opening up a Plan B and Plan C. The levels are vividly imagined and then strategically cemented giving you every opportunity to draw fire or just pass by like a ghost. Like I said, each style has its benefits and drawbacks, thanks to the fantastic levels keeping it always mysterious and amusing. You can do loads if you are a wanderer at heart like me, and you would never take the easy road up to your mission. There are plenty of hiding spots in each level and there is plenty of shadow to fit in four Sam Fishers, take advantage of the level to excel. When you breach the terrorist camp in an abandoned mill in London, you can climbs pipes, open service vents or switch from cover to cover in order to avoid a horde of snipers on your way. Mastering each of the styles owes it completely to its brilliant level designing.
Missions, Graphics and Realism
Splinter Cell comes from Tom Clancy, and if there’s something that I always look forward to any Clancy franchise, it is that it’s close to being f***in’ real. In Splinter Cell, the missions plight you or satisfy you with real ambience, real cover spots and real enemies who can track your sound back to you. Even though the frame rate on PS3 isn’t that great, it sure does propel me to take advantage of my surroundings. And that’s because even in pitch black you will know where to go, because of the shimmery light from the hallway that is guiding you. It’s not about depth or graphical orgasm like in Crysis, Ubisoft gives us the most realistic graphics for the most realistic purpose. Staying in shadows will be sharp and rewarding.
Splinter Cell: Blacklist briefs you before a mission in a very cinematic way and it sort of pumps you up for the mission. The objectives before you step into a mission are displayed in an ambient 3D animation, similar to Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. The objectives marker on the map could’ve been much larger as an icon, as sometimes I got really messed up for landing up at the wrong location.
The Paladin, style based pre-mission settings
So much is being talked about Next Gen and its interface, well let’s just say Splinter Cell is doing that since Conviction. The headquarters of the Fourth Echelon, the air carrier called Paladin becomes your menu and office. You can access your Main Story missions, Co-Op missions and Spies vs. Mercs mode all in one go, from the SMI on the plane deck. You can talk to your partners and know what all they have uncovered after your mission, know what all co-op missions they want you to challenge yourself to. And all the mission completions fetch you cash, which can upgrade your aircraft or gear. Your style preference will be crucial when you choose to unlock an upgrade.
There is a mini mission inside the SMI map, wherein you need to stop a terrorist attack by deciphering what your crew members are saying, and simply hovering your cursor over to the location on the map where you think the description best fits.
The Co-Op is one of the best around
The Co-Op mode, or the Fourth Echelon mode, sets you up with an online partner or friend as the second character. Throughout the story we see a teacher and student relationship between Sam and Briggs, the Co-Op sends them on a joint mission and that explains a lot. You are given more points if you and your teammate follow the same Style throughout the mission. Each Co-Op mode unlocks the next one, and there is a wide array of missions to follow. In some you will have to survive Enemy Waves, some want you both to breach undetected (I played one such mission with a random online gamer for 7 hours yesterday, until we finally made it through) and some will test your combat skills wherein you need to eliminate a group of guards. All falling into the Splinter Cell: Blacklist theme. Not to forget, two of your missions are based here right in India, in Kargil and Bangalore.
The Negativities
The first most irritating bit about Splinter Cell: Blacklist is the telephonic calls between Sam and Sarah (Sam’s daughter), which bugged me a lot. She knows everything about her dad’s missions and keeps on repeating the same thing. She becomes a painful everyday act rather than a special father-daughter relationship in this crisis (I’m comparing blatantly to the way Ellie and Joel used to chit chat in between missions in The Last Of Us). And the emotional ballad playing in the back of the screen does not affect my MEH!
The Engineers had these drone controller terrorists in some of the missions, these drones roam all around the level and can expose your position if you’re near to it and on the ground. The only way to stop it is to shoot at the drone. If I was the Drone Operator, I could throw the remote away and beat the sick sadist who dumped my drone, but no, this guy is the epitome of patience. He takes out another drone and sends it for patrolling. He can send unlimited drones for you to shoot at, and we say the world doesn’t put much money into making modern artillery. Doing the same sh*t over and over again, he will do the Vaas’ gang proud in Rook Island.
When you are on the Paladin and walking around your crew, Grim will constantly pester you by informing that Charlie’s got some new gear you should check out.
The daily challenges appear on the SMI screen/Loading screen, and at times your challenge objectives are nothing but incomplete sentences, using dots. This will depress you if you are especially looking at completing daily challenges for extra perks.
The Verdict
Sam Fisher has returned in the most epic way possible, the Tom Clancy way. Splinter Cell: Blacklist is a true successor of Splinter Cell: Conviction and carries the legacy of the franchise by blending the classic bits of Splinter Cell with some refreshingly new levels posing new challenges for you. Mastering the three styles opens your thinking array within the missions. Seamless online and offline modes says hello to the future. This game is sure to last longer than the normal lifespan of a stealth based game.
*This game was reviewed on the PS3
