In spite of Conviction being dreck, this follows it, even leaving in the daughter, although we get good drama from the calls to her. A group known as The Engineers threatens terrorist attacks on US soil if they do not pull out of overseas bases. Thus, the charismatic villain does what he should, and bring up a debate. This is not a personal story, albeit there are flashes of such it never takes over, and they got the Bourne copying out of their system
hey, I love that franchise, but it does not mix with this. The plot moves fast, is highly detailed, not completely avoiding clichés. Tom Clancy(R.I.P.) lived to see the release of this, and it lives up to his legacy: mature, realistic, political spy thriller that follows the current climate.
This is the first of these to not have Michael Ironside, and it is a great loss. Recast(in part to allow motion capture by the same man) is Bland, er, I mean, Sam, Fischer(Johnson, driven, some Jack Bauer going on). While it's not his fault, that is still what we ended up with. No, he does well, albeit sounding too young. We have some cool dialog, with humor, banter, and clear relationships. The characters are archetypes, such as the nerd, who is sometimes annoying as the comic relief. Several return from earlier. Everyone is super-serious all the time, Grim isn't just the name of one of the characters, it's the mood of every one of them. The controls are somewhat stiff and not intuitive or fluid. Problems(a few, yes, still, there shouldn't be any at all) arise because one key can do more than one thing, in the same situation.
No, this isn't on par with the first four. Nevertheless, it is pretty good. The levels are organic and cool(reuse of some areas within one mission, and using someone who worked with the bad guys, gets monotonous), based on actual locations around the Middle East and the West, such as a water plant, a mansion, and, of course, in and on the outside of, a train(if it ain't broke). They allow linear progression through some areas, then opening up to ones that have multiple paths, and you choose whether, and how much to, blowing enemies up and away, or sneaking. You have a number of tools focused on the latter, and the former is enabled via the third-person-shooter elements of this. Go direct or use acrobatics: scale walls and go in through an upper window, or climb through a large room via a system of pipes. From up there, you can use one-handed equipment, unless a nearby foe is countering it(!). That means your pistol, stun gun/crossbow and gadgets, the last-mentioned two allowing use of sleeping gas, noisemakers and sticky-shocker. Of course, not your two-handed. These can be restocked at the relatively frequent boxes, or replaced with those of the fallen.
This retains the mechanics of hiding in the dark and in silence, as premiered in Thief. You note patrol paths and guard posts, keeping in mind that they can change when you return to the most saved checkpoint(yes, those get frustrating) and often intersect, and plan how you approach it. They check *everywhere*, and investigate(even when they don't see you do it) if something is toggled
a lightswitch, the state of a door(open/closed), and this means both that you have to be careful and maybe take that extra second or two to leave things the way you found them, risking being seen as you do
*and* it's a way you can lure someone away from where they were, to bypass them altogether. The sidemissions are samey, and made to be, and thus really feel, skippable. They're there to grind. The coop elements can be awkward. They do also give fun experiences. The graphics look great without requiring too much, and you can almost always turn the camera 360 degrees.
The multiplayer is addictive. There are 5 modes and 6 settings(including a decimated hospital, a Uranium mine and a silo). "Blacklist" and "Classic"(the same, though with almost no light, making it "hide and seek" with lethal results!), the most popular, focus on hacking or defending consoles, the three of which have to be taken one at a time, meaning it gets tougher the closer you are to victory. You have to hide in the area while it's underway, with you and fellow players(teamwork is key!) protecting you. There aren't that many playing today. You are at the mercy of the matchmaking when playing online, unless you set up a private match and/or invite friends. There aren't that many, certainly not enough to keep you around, things to buy and upgrade, unlike something like Assassin's Creed III, perhaps part of why it's less active today. Customizing up to three(in addition to the original 3, so you always have choices) for both sides(and for SP) does enable you to make very different setups, with stats(stealth, speed, armor, etc.), and specific features and counters.
The Spies are fast, agile, climbing walls, hiding and striking from there. Their 10 firearms are largely SMGs. They have defensive, hiding or "tricking" items to use... EMP, smoke grenades, cloaking. Conversely, the Mercs use destructive, revealing or disabling ones
proximity mines, tracking vision that detects electronic signals, and a small, flown drone that can explode. They run around each with an assault rifle, a shotgun or even a light machinegun(!), 15 total. Pitting the two against each other challenges and gives some strength to both. Sections and situations favor one over the other, such as camping, with only minor issues following. And they're not limited to using their own team's type in the dynamic and frantic Team Deathmatch, where diverse abilities are constantly in play, and it can be over in mere minutes.
There is a lot of disturbing content and some bloody violence in this. I recommend this to any fan of the series and of the genre. 7/10
