Splinter Cell: Blacklist

I'm sure it's great if you are a hardcore gamer, but my wife and I played for 5 hours on rookie and couldn't get through a single mission. We aren't pro gamers but definitely aren't noobs either. When I play a game I play it to enjoy it, not to make me want to throw my controller through my TV. I play most games on normal or hard without a problem. Splinter cel conviction we played a lot on hard, and found it to be a lot of fun, and barely ever failed a mission. Gears of war I play on hard, halo, tons of shooters. The AI actually quite stupid on rookie, but that doesn't change the fact that taking out 6 heavily armed mercs with a wimpy gun that takes 10 straight head shots to kill and having no place to sneak behind them is a rather difficult task. Don't get me wrong, some parts of the game are so retardedly easy I could nearly play it blindfolded, but that doesn't really compensate properly. Thank goodness I bought at Costco so I can return this no fun game.

As someone who has followed the Splinter Cell franchise since its inception, I've always hoped it could stand shoulder to shoulder with Metal Gear Solid. While I realized early on that the two are almost entirely different beasts-one focused on narrative depth and world-building, while the other thrives on stealth and tension-I've still stuck with Sam Fisher through thick and thin. The earlier titles, particularly on the Xbox and PS2, were plagued by clunky controls that kept me at a distance, but then came the resurgence with Conviction, and now Blacklist.

In Blacklist, you find yourself hunting down a terrorist group with your trusty crew. The game is structured around levels, offering a somewhat linear experience with the freedom to choose action, stealth, or a combination of both. In many ways, I'd say Blacklist is the best installment in the series, yet it's also the most disappointing for me personally. More often than not, I leaned towards the combo style during my playthrough-because who doesn't love a little chaos alongside precision?

Right from the start, the game pulls you in with a promising tutorial level. For a moment, I was back in the thick of it, feeling like the agent I had long admired. However, as I moved on to the second level, I began to notice a couple of quirks. The optional levels felt more like arenas-some mission types focused on survival while others leaned heavily on stealth. The difficulty in those side quests kept my adrenaline pumping and made me truly feel like a tactical agent. But when I returned to the main missions afterward, I couldn't help but feel they lacked that same intensity and thrill. They almost felt too easy, which was a letdown.

The controls? Major kudos to the developers here-they've made noteworthy improvements. I used to falter with basic maneuvers in earlier games, but that was a non-issue in Blacklist. The AI is decent; nothing groundbreaking, but it serves its purpose. Weapons felt responsive too, equipped with satisfying animations and clear sounds, even though I didn't explore many of them during my playthrough. The main campaign levels were well-designed, but again, after tackling the optional content, they felt a bit lacking.

The audio design enhanced my experience without overshadowing it. The ambient music set the tone well, although character development wasn't the game's strong suit. The new voice actor for Fisher had a slightly grumpy vibe, which worked okay but lacked the nuance I expected. The antagonist? Generic, to say the least. I found the final confrontation a tad anticlimactic, leaving me wanting.

I'd be remiss not to mention the co-op feature, but I skipped that since I prefer to tackle my games solo. I've often found that I want to play at my own pace, with no added pressure from another player.

Upon completing Blacklist, I found myself in a strange place emotionally. While it wasn't a bad experience by any means, it felt like the game never quite soared to the heights I wanted. It's a solid addition to the franchise, but I'm saddened that it didn't meet sales expectations. As a long-time fan, I can only hope for more adventures with Sam Fisher in the future.

**Rating: 7/10**

"You're not going to like what comes next." - Sam Fisher

This game isn't just another stealth action title-it's a masterclass in how to revive a legendary franchise without losing its soul. Splinter Cell: Blacklist delivered everything fans craved: shadows, silence, strategy, and a relentless Sam Fisher who adapts to any threat. It's slick. It's smart. It's the kind of game that makes you feel like a ghost in the night.

Sam Fisher: The Shadow Still Hunts

Let's talk about the elephant in the room first: Michael Ironside, the original voice of Sam Fisher, didn't return. Fans were understandably skeptical. But credit where it's due-Eric Johnson stepped up and brought something different, but still damn good. His Sam was younger, more physical, more hands-on-but still cold, calculating, and ruthlessly efficient. Johnson didn't try to copy Ironside-he made it his own. And in the context of Blacklist's heavier action and motion-capture-driven performance, it worked.

Bottom line? Sam Fisher still felt like a man you don't want to see in the dark.

🎮 Gameplay: The Gold Standard of Stealth

Blacklist absolutely nails the gameplay loop: Ghost: pure stealth, no detection, no kills.

Panther: silent but deadly, a shadow with a knife.

Assault: go loud, blow the doors off, own the chaos.

It's not "play your way" as a marketing line-it's baked into every mission. The movement is fluid. The takedowns are vicious. The level design invites creativity and encourages exploration. From a rain-soaked London street to a Guantanamo infiltration, every location has weight and tension.

Gadgets: Tech for Every Type of Predator Tri-rotor drone? Check.

Sticky camera? Check.

Shock mines, sleeping gas, sonar goggles? You already know.

Blacklist loads you up with tools of the trade and lets you choose how to deploy them. Whether you're disabling security from afar or clearing a room without a single bullet, you always feel one step ahead-because you're supposed to be.

🌐 Story: Global Threats, Real Stakes

The plot is dark, modern, and brutally grounded. "The Blacklist" is a countdown of escalating terrorist attacks, and Sam's new unit-Fourth Echelon-is the only thing standing in the way.

This isn't cartoon villainy. These are real-world stakes: military intelligence, drone warfare, rogue nations, and political red tape. You feel the weight of every mission. Every decision. Every body you leave behind (or don't).

🎮 Multiplayer: Spies vs. Mercs = God Mode Good

Let's not sleep on this: Co-op missions with Briggs? Flawless tactical teamwork.

Spies vs. Mercs? Legendary. One of the most innovative, high-stakes, tension-filled multiplayer modes ever made.

It's a game of cat-and-mouse where you're either a stealthy spy sneaking through shadows or a heavy merc mowing down anything that moves. And both sides are ridiculously fun.

🏁 Final Verdict:

Splinter Cell: Blacklist didn't just live up to expectations-it redefined what modern stealth could be.

✅ Brutal but surgical gameplay ✅ A smart, morally grey story ✅ A worthy new voice for Sam in Eric Johnson ✅ God-tier multiplayer ✅ Pure tactical heaven

10 out of 10.

This is what it looks like when the shadows fight back.

Clearly a good splinter cell, but i still dont like the action part of the game. I prefer to kill nobody and stay completely silent. We can with this game to do this alleluiah!. The story was pretty good too. They have the terrorist story and the story between Sam Fisher and his daughter. I clearly enjoyed to see this "emotion" part of the game and make the story engaging and interesting and want to keep up. This splinter cell is still a very good stealth game for sure.

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