Since I couldn't find anyone talking about Splinter Cell Blacklist at E3 I guess I would do it.
If you ask me, this game feels like it will bomba hard. A year ago when it revealed, it showed us that they were going to be like DR3 and start chasing the CoD crowd. Fast forward a year later, I've been keeping my eyes on it inbetween. It looks like the dev team know what they are doing to bring it back to that Chaos Theory style of play (albeit faster) but they seem to be doing a piss poor job of telling everyone else that.
But hey, first stealth game released to feature a long-standing franchise replacing their main character's VO, that's got to count for something (and probably the first to reveal and stick to its guns on it).
Hey, looks pretty good, though it spends most of the time on the main story and flashes some SvM on the way.
Anyways, moving on, it seems like the Ubisoft Toronto team are really only showing two things off to the press outlets, London and Sabine Pass.
At least for London, a very classic-y dark-at-night SC map was shown off for the billionth time, except they showed a little bit more at the start of the mission, and some alternate paths that differed in previous showings of "Abandoned Mill"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kWVWp5-uJ5A
Not much talking is done and it pretty much plays non-lethal though I'm sure someone will chime in and mention how X at timestamp mm:ss is totally a violation of the Ghost playstyle because Y and Z.
They do show one cool thing, which was doing non-lethal ledge takedowns: Instead of throwing them off the ledge, you just smack them unconscious against the edge and go on your merry way! Also sticky shocking someone with your flying drone gives you a mark and execute token. :lol at its finest.
Either way, that was a decent showing and it almost looked like it was running on a PC with 60fps (or my eyes are terrible and I can't tell the difference)
I don't even know what to say. I mean, unless for some reason the dev team is editing gods and somehow snipped out only 1/3 or 1/4 of the mission, then that is a really short mission. I don't mind the "chase" sequence at the end (and evidence points to it being not a chase sequence but you can probably sneakily tail the guy to the end of the level) but it seemed like there was a bunch of busywork just trying to platform towards an objective, then one small sandboxy room with some guards before the final segment. It might make more context in the game if it were a one-off or one other those missions connected to one of the characters as a sidequest (though mostly probably not). But mostly, it really seemed really short-lived and linear, not that it isn't a familiar thing in the series. Hopefully an odd one-off mission.
One thing I also took from this video (or a similar demo of the same level) is that you do get awarded ghost points if you don't raise the alarm at the end of specific segments. Even if you murder everyone efficiently beforehand. Just some food for thought (though you probably also get bonus awards for leaving them untouched).
If you ask me, this game feels like it will bomba hard. A year ago when it revealed, it showed us that they were going to be like DR3 and start chasing the CoD crowd. Fast forward a year later, I've been keeping my eyes on it inbetween. It looks like the dev team know what they are doing to bring it back to that Chaos Theory style of play (albeit faster) but they seem to be doing a piss poor job of telling everyone else that.
But hey, first stealth game released to feature a long-standing franchise replacing their main character's VO, that's got to count for something (and probably the first to reveal and stick to its guns on it).
Let's start with their tepid trailer that aired during the Ubi conference. Must be a heck of a lack of confidence or the greater focus on next-gen that they decided a trailer was all they needed. I guess the game just got caught at a bad point between gens. Perhaps if next-gen wasn't dropping so soon, maybe this would've gotten a fair shake. I honestly think they could've made up for their stumbles from last year if they somehow got a few minutes to demo on stage properly, with real stealth and not kinect airstrikes. I won't even link to it because it was pretty meh and you can only find a recording of it played on the stage.
And then we have the more official E3 2013 trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C17M2Ccw4MY
Hey, looks pretty good, though it spends most of the time on the main story and flashes some SvM on the way.
Hey, at least Sam Fisher looks old again, right? (No one cares because Michael Ironside isn't the voice anymore, said everyone ever 365 days ago and also today)
Anyways, moving on, it seems like the Ubisoft Toronto team are really only showing two things off to the press outlets, London and Sabine Pass.
At least for London, a very classic-y dark-at-night SC map was shown off for the billionth time, except they showed a little bit more at the start of the mission, and some alternate paths that differed in previous showings of "Abandoned Mill"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kWVWp5-uJ5A
Not much talking is done and it pretty much plays non-lethal though I'm sure someone will chime in and mention how X at timestamp mm:ss is totally a violation of the Ghost playstyle because Y and Z.
They do show one cool thing, which was doing non-lethal ledge takedowns: Instead of throwing them off the ledge, you just smack them unconscious against the edge and go on your merry way! Also sticky shocking someone with your flying drone gives you a mark and execute token. :lol at its finest.
Either way, that was a decent showing and it almost looked like it was running on a PC with 60fps (or my eyes are terrible and I can't tell the difference)
And the other level they showed off, all new was in Louisiana: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPogJvAXQ3s (the same previews to other outlets are all the same, really)
I don't even know what to say. I mean, unless for some reason the dev team is editing gods and somehow snipped out only 1/3 or 1/4 of the mission, then that is a really short mission. I don't mind the "chase" sequence at the end (and evidence points to it being not a chase sequence but you can probably sneakily tail the guy to the end of the level) but it seemed like there was a bunch of busywork just trying to platform towards an objective, then one small sandboxy room with some guards before the final segment. It might make more context in the game if it were a one-off or one other those missions connected to one of the characters as a sidequest (though mostly probably not). But mostly, it really seemed really short-lived and linear, not that it isn't a familiar thing in the series. Hopefully an odd one-off mission.
One thing I also took from this video (or a similar demo of the same level) is that you do get awarded ghost points if you don't raise the alarm at the end of specific segments. Even if you murder everyone efficiently beforehand. Just some food for thought (though you probably also get bonus awards for leaving them untouched).
So where was co-op? SvM? Arguably the stronger of their two game modes and something to keep people away from the supposed travesty that was the single player "America is innocent, why are you so mean, everyone" story and "No Ironside = no sale" haters can latch onto and show stuff, say, the stuff people want for people over the internet and can't attend E3 to see?
Oh that's right, it's on the show floor, almost tucked away like the perfect Splinter Cell instead of being show-y off-y and getting people excited even if they know in the back of their minds that they've committed light treason for not having Michael Ironside or keeping Mark and Execute.
