Quick Look: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist

I gather that the plane landed to load the helicopter, but now that I've thought about the idea of a helicopter landing inside a flying plane, I really want to know if that's even remotely possible. In terms of pure speed, it definitely is (there are helicopters that can hit 400+ km/h), but it seems like it couldn't possibly work once engine exhaust, turbulence, fuselage width, common sense etc. come into play.

Also, it seems that this game constantly wants you to take the hint that the USA is constantly being attacked by arabs or other sandpeople

You made the right choice.

@myslead: I feel like he's just sad with life right now :(

I fucking LOVED those early Splinter Cell games like nothing else.

Bought this essentially for the Spies vs Mercs and have not been disappointed.

@vao: Same here. It's hilarious.

I love going through these games a second time, just fucking shit up. And this one looks great for that.

Jeff just likes to fuck the shit up on the first run through.

Jeff - "HA HA Fuck human rights!!!"

LOL

Also Sam's new voice...ugh. I can accept change, but this new dude doesn't do it at all.

This. What I hear from some of my friends, this is similar to Chaos Theory on Perfectionist, except more challenging even, due to guard dogs and stuff like that.

It's exactly like you said. If you want to play on Perfectionist and go through it purely in Ghost, you can do that. Or well... you can try. It's really fucking hard. But if you are that type of gamer that considers himself 'hardcore stealth' gamer, then go for it.

I am playing on Realistic myself. I like a challenge, but I don't like the classic stealth mechanics (any more) that Perfectionist offers. I don't mind patience, but too much waiting around and it gets annoying. In addition, getting means instant reload checkpoint is tedious as hell. At least to me. That's why I'll just play Realistic.

But you're totally right. Some people are just sad that people who do not like tedious stealth can also play it their way if they bump down the setting. That's pretty sad on it's own.

So glad this turned out well. It was looking rough there for a while, but they actually pulled it off.

While I do not personally agree with Jeff's play style, I'm glad they're accommodating different ways of going about it. The guards in this game seem somewhat threatening as well, so I may end up checking this out.

Remember folks, the best place to keep High Value Targets is next to the Industrial Red barrel.

Who else completely saw that one coming? Hilarious!

If this and Saints Row wouldn't have come out on the same day I might've been tempted to actually pick this up

" Wrex."

"Fisher."

Really fun quicklook. I especially liked to see Jeff still enjoying himself with it despite kinda flubbing all over the place. Never played a Splinter Cell game before, but this certainly looks appealing. The way Sam moves like water throughout the environments looks so awesome, and stealth-coop sounds like it could be a blast.

While Jeff didn't exactly do the stealth gameplay justice in this, reading some of Blacklist's review before hand along with this QL has all but assured me that I'll (eventually) be getting this game.

If Giant Bomb did video reviews again, I'd have no other reason to visit other sites... well mostly.

@pie: Truth. I tried playing Hitmang Absolutely without instinct but it's pretty much impossible because the levels weren't made for it.

Jeff "Fuck You, I'm Going to Shoot That Dog" Gerstmann

That whole game has the best intentions but the systems are just so fundamentally broken that it's hard to get as much enjoyment out of it as you should.

That and all those levels where you just have to get from point A to B - Hitman wasn't ever built for that kind of stealth.

Something about this game really irks me... The lack of Michael Ironside is a big part, but there's something else to it. I think it's the gun fetishism, the lack of actual PLAYING, the pacing of the gameplay and the weird straight faced, yet laughable "MURRICA" approach to storytelling... It all just makes me feel kind of sick. I mean it's clearly very well made from a technical standpoint but I just can't get down with this. Ah well.

Hard to even tell from this if I'd like the game.

Jeff plays is far too fast and loose for me, and seeing the game accept that as a valid playstyle hurts. I really only want to play it as a stealth game.

It's just a dog, Brad.

Yay, quick look.

Also, what the fuck is jeff doing in this stealth game? I mean..

right on.

When is someone going to invent AI in a game which works at least somewhat realistically? In this quicklook Jeff shoots one man as he appears at a window, then followed by two more people in exactly the same place who must have seen their colleagues die. Also the guy who's helmet he shoots of just storms straight up the stairs and round the corner where he knows he must be standing. I know it would make games a lot harder but I would love to see the enemy AI have some care for their own lives and act a bit more realistically.

Also this game looks pretty good, I love good stealth games, but I don't know if I can cope with playing as such an unsympathetic right wing prick. The horrible torture and execution stuff seems really off, especially with what is going on today.

Looked forward to this ql for a while. Sorely disappointed. No stealth or gadets used in a splinter cell game?

XCOM: Splinter Cell?

Anyone else made this connection, or is it just because I've just played a metric shit-ton of Enemy Unknown?

Really looking forward to playing this. The openness of the gameplay appeals to me.

I am not sure if its the compression, but the textures look horrible to me.

Would like to see the PC version.

He's not going go through it really slowly, trying to stealth and restart if he gets caught. He's just showing a look of the game, quickly. Who cares how HE plays it, play it how YOU want to.

2 things, doesn't new Sam Fisher look like default male Shepard in ME? And wasn't Grimsdottir evil in the last game or something?

The Last of Us wishes. While a great game, the stealth was very shallow compared to this. There is so much more depth to the gameplay here and it's a lot more challenging. Also, there is no unlimited ammo in this.

@atwa:

The textures look a lot sharper in the PC version. The shadows and lighting are also better. It makes certain dramatic scenes a lot more appealing.

I'd kind of want to give this a whirl, but not at full price.
The lack of a noise indicator (and perhaps the lack of AI responding to it) really bums me though.

Surprisingly, and on a completely unrelated note, I was able to satisfy my thirst for another stealth game with The Last of Us earlier this year.

Jeff: "I actually didn't like the first three games at all, but that last one was pretty good."

I'm assuming you probably thought that because you could just shoot your way through it without ever, ya know, sneaking? And you'll probably love this one too, because it's the same thing, lol.

Oh, Jeff. Why are you allowed to review stealth games again? You do realize that, ummm, a stealth game that accommodates itself to people who don't like to play stealth games doesn't make it a good game, right? It makes it a shooter. I realize that's more to your personal taste, but objectivity man, comon.

It kinda sucks that with such a small editorial staff, and with all of you guys being close friends with pretty similar taste, certain stuff just doesn't have any voice on this site at all, and stealth games are definitely one of those things. Oh well.

The lights are not green, no Michael Ironside. How is this even a splinter cell game!?

@clubvodka said:

I thought the same thing!

Splinter Cell: there was still some stuff that wasn't completely generic, so we fixed that

Lights are customizable. You can keep the classic green, or go with other colors. Like...hot pink.

For what it's worth, as a diehard Splinter Cell fan, this game is probably the greatest Splinter Cell game since Chaos Theory. There are parts where it straight up feels like Chaos Theory. It is definitely a Splinter Cell game. It's closer to it's roots than the 360 version of Double Agent (because the last-gen Xbox version of DA was amazing), and ConVicton.

Literally, the only negative I've found myself harping on is the lack of Ironside.

It always is.

Yeah damn, Jeff was pretty boss in this QL.

@firecracker22: I almost skipped it because Ironside had left but decided to give it a shot anyway.By the time I was halfway through the Safehouse mission, I had forgotten about the new VA altogether because I was so surprised by how much it felt like old Splinter Cell.

Bad Guy: "We're past planning."

Jeff: "So am I."

Jeff shoots bad guy in face. Jeff is a badass.

screen looks like a giant iphone? doesnt it just look like a giant screen brad?

As soon as I heard the villian's voice all I could think was "I'll have a coke!"

ABS

Shoot the light, then shoot the guard.

No one said this thing was getting a review.

Lights are fully customizable. Jeff is obviously a fan of the color teal.

EDIT: This is also a brilliant game that is very polished (even on PC). I have none of the "won't launch" problems Jeff mentioned at the beginning of this QL. I'm a huge fan of stealth games and while it's missing the gritty feel of Conviction, the amount of gadgets and upgrades makes up for it.

Spies vs. Mercs aside, I think this really solidifies how much I really really don't care about anything to do with story and characters in Splinter Cell. And with this one, I find it that much more off putting how rather unironically they just throw out stuff like the villain plot and the lackadaisical black ops stuff. As I said I was never one to be invested in the story but my guess is that Double Agent was as crazy as it got with the plot and Tom Clancy drama.

Maybe it's just me but modern military storylines as they've been told are almost completely out for me at this point. I wasn't that much invested in fighting the bad guy terrorists in my video games but at this point I'm putting them into the actively uncreative and lazy category from here on out.

Great they managed to make the stealth work and took the right lessons from something like the Arkham series and their other Ubisoft games but I can't get behind who I'm playing and why I should care.

I'm interested in this. Though I'm like 3 games behind as far as story goes.