Splinter Cell used to be built like a Clancy novel; now it’s an action movie. Where a novel can find drama in the smallest moments – a man hiding while a lone guard probes the darkness with a flashlight – modern action flicks are obsessed with spectacle and constant one-upmanship. And so Blacklist has explosions and chases and extended platforming sequences and sniper missions and firstperson missions and missions against the clock and missions upon missions where being undetected feels like an exploit rather than a victory.

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It's fitting that a cumulative collection like Blacklist comes at the end of this console generation. "This is it," the game seems to say, "this is the current state of Splinter Cell." The question of where we might be going remains unanswered. Maybe someday, someone will be able to craft a Splinter Cell game that finally steps outside the often enjoyable but increasingly tired rut in which the series finds itself. Until then we have Blacklist, tying up loose ends before finally—hopefully—moving on.

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Splinter Cell: Blacklist is a sweet middle ground between the Panther-like action of Conviction and the Ghost-like stealth of Chaos Theory. The delightful improbable success of this compromise is a testament to game design that always has choice in mind. It’s well worth replaying the campaign with an alternate playstyle, a different set of preferred gadgets, and/or on Perfectionist mode. And, like the series’ Chaos Theory series peak it can’t help but be compared to, Blacklist’s also packing a pair of multiplayer modes that could stand proudly on their own. Splinter Cell is back on the right shadowy track.

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Spies vs Mercs saves Blacklist from the ignominy of being merely good. Like Hitman Absolution last year, the campaign feels like a fun game bogged down by its desire to look like a stylish action thriller; it's cavalier with its politics and your time, and on occasions you'll wonder why you bothered to negotiate with these terrorists. But when the game clicks, which it does often enough across its many modes and missions, it overcomes the inadequacy of its storytelling and reminds you why Splinter Cell was so appealing in the first place.

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Blacklist lacks the sheer, improvisational panache of a younger rival like Arkham City or even Klei's Mark of the Ninja - the Clancy fiction is a poor imaginative resource, and the need to satisfy several audiences does, at times, trip the game up (there are some shonky "interactive storytelling" sequences, for instance). As an exercise in carrying triple-A bloat gracefully, however, it's among Ubisoft's finest efforts. Fisher might look like the world's grumpiest, most grizzled ninja, but he's proving quite the crowd-pleaser.

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Behind the new coat of paint and a new Sam Fisher, Blacklist represents a return to form for the series. It doesn’t revolutionize Splinter Cell, but it manages a sharp trifecta of achievements — it’s open to new players, accessible to players from the series' major departure installment and a welcome invitation back to series regulars who missed the stealth focus that peaked with Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. Blacklist refines what came before and makes for a great new beginning for the series.

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Splinter Cell’s return to PS3 builds upon a legacy of slick mechanics and crafts an empowering experience whether you choose to pull it in the direction of stealth or action. If you can bear its unironic plot, which gives you the same feeling as watching Fox News, it’s more than worthy of your to-do list.
Sam’s learned new tricks, gained an almighty toybox and feels righteously superhuman to control, but spreads himself thin in an effort to impress.

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Patiently waiting in a room for a guard to move may sound like the opposite of an exhilarating experience, but it's the tension of planning coupled with execution that makes Splinter Cell Blacklist such a winner. Blacklist's multiple methods of enemy engagement brings Ubisoft's grizzled veteran spy to an outstanding new frontier, giving players the best game in the franchise's history.

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Splinter Cell: Blacklist is a beefy game, and its well worth your time to explore all it offers. While a lot of stealth titles reward you for memorizing enemy patrols and choosing your movement carefully, Splinter Cell gives you the flexibly to be the kind of think-on-his-feet spy that Jason Bourne would idolize.

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There's no doubting Splinter Cell: Blacklist's excellent production values. It's a great-looking, great-sounding game that sizzles with the high-tech ambience and language that characterize a typical Tom Clancy product. Sam's solo trek is a very good expression of Blacklist's various gameplay systems. But it's with--and against--others that the game hacks into your pleasure centers, so while Sam Fisher may not be the man you remember, Splinter Cell: Blacklist has too many sweet adventures in store for you to miss them.

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zewone said:

Is the Edge review worth paying attention to?

I'm not familiar with their track record.

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zewone said:

Is the Edge review worth paying attention to?

I'm not familiar with their track record.

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Where Chaos Theory had you sneak through darkened spaces populated by two or three thugs, Blacklist has you sneaking in broad daylight past six, seven, or – in Kobin’s terrorist hunts – up to 20 heavily armed soldiers.

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NaughtyPrawn said:

Wow quite contrasting scores between edge and ign.

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zewone said:

Is the Edge review worth paying attention to?

I'm not familiar with their track record.

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AppleSmack said:

Edge review reads like the guy hated the game before he even played it.

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suaveric said:

I'd like to know how the Wii U version turned out.

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IGN said:

Any character not named Sam Fisher is rather ugly, with very little facial detail and awful hair. That just can’t be ignored in the plentiful pre- and post-mission cutscenes, most of which suffer from rampant distracting screen tearing in the 360 and PS3 versions and framerate stuttering on the Wii U (Speaking of the Wii U, you're able to quick-select gadgets and weapons on the GamePad. It's quicker than the "hold the D-pad" method required on the 360 and PS3). Out on missions the environments look adequate, but Blacklist fails to impress, let alone dazzle.

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AppleSmack said:

Edge review reads like the guy hated the game before he even played it.

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strafer said:

From EDGE:

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Nirolak said:

Platform comparison:

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Edge said:

...and missions upon missions where being undetected feels like an exploit rather than a victory.

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SJRB said:

lol IGN.

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shinobi602 said:

Lol Edge.

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Bloodworth said:

Here's mine. http://www.gametrailers.com/reviews/e06eub/splinter-cell--blacklist-review

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Nirolak said:

Well, Spies vs. Mercs seems to be getting universal praise, so I'm interested at least for that.

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Nirolak said:

Platform comparison:

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