Splinter Cell: Blacklist PC Review

I'm going to be very forthcoming with this one: Personally, Splinter Cell has always taken a backseat to Metal Gear Solid. I've never been extremely fond of the series and the last Splinter Cell game played was Double Agent, which came out in 2006. That being said, I needed to fill the gaping stealth action hole that MGS has left in my gaming life and decided to give Blacklist I spin. I was pleasantly surprised.

I picked up Splinter Cell Blacklist on the UbiStore and downloaded it through the UPlay client. I won't get into detail right now about my feelings regarding UPlay, but basically it feels like a low rent version of Origin. I would've preferred this game as a Steamworks title, but Ubisoft is persistent about making us use UPlay to play its games.

Straight out of the gates, I realized this wasn't the same Sam Fisher that I controlled back in 2006. This Sam Fisher is a brutal killing machine, only being held back by my own qualms about killing every hostile NPC in site. The gameplay has changed dramatically, allowing you to choose your own playstyle and rewarding you as such. Want to sneak around and choke the crap out of every enemy soldier? You can do that. Want to climb over them and just reach the objective without alerting anyone? You can do that. You want to turn this game into Splinter Cell/Gears of War? You can definitely do that too. The cover shooter mechanics that have been woven into Blacklist have really changed the formula for me in a good way. Now when I alert enemies, I don't always have to go running to the next dark corner or ceiling pipe. I can hunker down and blast away with an automatic shotgun or non-suppressed MP5. The game rewards different playstyles with points that are converted into currency. The currency allows you to purchase weapons, suit upgrades, gadgets, and other items that you can tailor to your playstyle. It actually feels quite Hitman-esque, with certain upgrades and playstyles reminding me of a watered down version of Hitman Blood Money, which is actually a good thing.

The graphics on the PC version are great. Blacklist employs the Unreal engine, which when done without the giant hulking soldier bodies actually looks quite realistic. The engine rendered cutscenes are also quite a nice, with the closeups of the characters revealing an insane amount of detail. Stuble has never looked this nice.

The story is a pretty decent Tom Clancy yarn. I enjoyed it quite a bit and it ties into the previous installments quite nicely (from what I remember). There are also fun side missions that range from stealth infiltration to a horde mode type of wave survival, which I actually found to be quite fun.

If you have a stealth action itch that you need to scratch, you should definitely give Splinter Cell Blacklist I try. Oh and I haven't figured out how to do the wall splits maneuver yet, maybe they took it out of the game.