Our preview of Splinter Cell: Blacklist by Ubisoft Toronto
I have been a long time fan of the Tom Clancy video game series. Ranging from Ghost Recon, and Rainbow Six series, but where I have sunk endless hours in is the Splinter Cell series. It celebrated its 10th anniversary last year to celebrate the occasion by releasing the Splinter Cell HD collection, however the series is moving forward, which brings us to the newest iteration, Splinter Cell: Blacklist.
I got the chance to play the game last week, and I want to say this right away. Ubisoft only allowed us to play certain parts of two missions to understand the gameplay mechanics, and what direction the story was in. From there I broke down what I thought of the game, which is a mix bag to say the least. I only say this, because when the full game ships I will have a true grasp of the story ark, how smart the AI is, and three different ways you can play. So with that in mind here is the good, the bad, and the ugly SO FAR in Splinter Cell Blacklist.
The GOOD – It’s Splinter Cell Conviction 2
Splinter Cell Conviction is one of my top 25 games on the Xbox 360. The cover mechanic designed then later release in 2008 is still the best use of a stealth games today. Blacklist is everything you remember for that game with a few changes is here as you remember it.
New to the series is the SMI experience. This mode acts are as your general navigation thought the game. Features like Coop, online Multiplayer, single player are layer upon this feature. You can jump in, jump out coop missions, a feature that was unplayable during my visit. There is no traditional main menu where you press start, and proceed to play, but this process is more Sam Fisher like. Where your going use the SMI is on the paladin, which is your jumbo plane (you know that plane that you get in the 170 dollar collectors edition) to travel the world to fight terrorism with.
My favorite part of Conviction was the cinematic direction . Visuals bounce of the walls, the dark nature, and the last minute close ups to make those executions extra satisfying. The newest iteration maintains all of this, while adding little addition touches. For the first time in the series, motion capture software was used in the series, which has skyrocket the quality of the cutscenes.
In many ways Splinter Cell: Blacklist has taken cues from Assassins Creed series, another Ubisoft franchise. When you’re not doing missions, you walk around in the Paladin, and talk to fellow crewmates. By talking to your teammates you can unlock side missions that help complete the storyline. If you’re not interested in talking, and just want to be the silent type you can customize Fishers equipment, which is an extensive collection. You can customize your suit, Gadgets even your weapons to the finest detail your inventory. In order to get these tools you need money, which is built economically to incentivize to keep on playing. When you complete a mission, you earn money on how you perform. You can earn money by finishing a mission in a time objective, or by playing one of the three play styles.
