Something you may have not considered at the time of writing this blog: you are just terrible at this game, and many of your frustrations stem from your inability to think outside the box to complete missions in a stealthy fashion. Consider watching some YouTube walk-throughs to see how others are managing to ghost through just about every mission/scenario you've just described (outside of the train sequence, which unfortunately needs to be "cheesed" on Perfectionist mode).
A bullet-point style list of counter points:
- The side missions are shit, and fairly ancillary to the main plot (aside from the "Briggs" missions). You are right to be underwhelmed by them, but putting them at the very top of this blog is just silly. They are SIDE missions...and should be weighted appropriately against the main missions of this game.
- You're complaining about a progression/upgrade system? What? These missions are able to be fully Ghosted (undisturbed hostiles when able, stealth knock-outs if unable to leave undisturbed) without any upgrades...
- You say "in Blacklist, with the weakened stealth due to the equipment system, it feels very clunky and unsatisfying for stealth play" but I'm not sure what this means...hell I'm not even sure if YOU know what it means. How is stealth "weakened" and how is it "due to the equipment system?" There is nothing given to support your claim. Ironically, in the next sentence you complain about the AP rounds not being able to one-shot an enemy in the head. Why are you trying to shoot people in the head if you're trying to be "stealthy" and stay true to the way that older installments of this franchise played?
- Dogs: they are one of FOUR different types of enemy in this game (standard hostiles, NVG hostiles, Heavies, and dogs)...that is not a whole lot of variety. The only thing different about the dogs is how they can smell you within a certain range. This, once again, just feels like you don't know how to properly navigate the levels to circumvent the dog's patrol pattern.
- If you're getting bum-rushed by guards when extracting Kobin, you fucked up and got spotted by one of the 3 guards on the way out. This section is VERY easy to ghost. The section where you get bum-rushed at Nouri's estate can be "stealthed" by getting out of combat knockouts on the soldiers. It is forced action, but you can still remain undetected rather easily.
- Re: the forced action on Abandoned Mill where the NVG soldiers rappel in to stop you during extraction...you know that you have a taser which will one-shot KO those guards, right? This sequence can be easily completed with getting stealth knockouts by climbing the surrounding wall and making use of line-of-sight. Something tells me you haven't even considered using the entire map on that sequence.
- On "Transit Yards" during the train sequence: you're right about this and the devs fucked up with the last part (shooting the window to bust into the last car). If you don't cheese this part, you will get frustrated. The best way to cheese it is by firing sleep gas bolts (from your bow) on top of the train car directly over their heads while you're still hanging from the side, which will clip through the ceiling and knock them out. This was poorly designed on the part of the devs, but there is your new strat if you ever play it again.
- The chase @ the end of LNG Terminal: you can just move quickly and fire sleep gas bolts/tasers or use tear gas grenades + melee or just sleep gas grenades to KO them. It's not hard. Make sure to deal with the guy under the zip line BEFORE you use the zip line.
- The FPS/Briggs section of Transit Yards can be passed without killing ANYONE. The first sequence only requires you to KO the guards directly surrounding the area of the van, which is a grand total of 4 dudes. Guess what Briggs has? Sleep gas grenades, proximity shockers, and noise makers. Proxy shock the guys with gas masks, and gas grenade the guys without it. If you miss a proximity shocker, use a noise maker to lure the guard into it. The second sequence can be passed without disturbing anyone and without using any gear, but sometimes using a noise maker on the last guard (wait for the heavy to patrol away) right before you reach Briggs' second bomb helps. You seem to feel forced into a particular method without giving a second thought and re-approaching, which seems to be the theme of this particular blog.
The game's ending sequence can be completed in about 30 seconds if you develop a decent strategy. Idiotic tropes aside (The pistol Sam procures is empty? Sam leaves the AR with Briggs? The snipers are suddenly not providing over-watch after the initial volley?) this sequence demonstrates core Splinter-Cell gameplay: sneaking around a better equipped enemy, getting behind them, and taking them down with finesse. Sam is out-gunned by Sadiq, and has to use the environment and his wit to come out on top. You must have gotten shot up quite a few times to be this frustrated by a simple (almost quick-time-esque) sequence. Show me on the doll where Sadiq touched you.
- Fifth freedom doesn't just mean "license to kill." It means circumventing international law in order to complete missions critical to our national security. By using "Fifth Freedom" in this case, Sam is essentially straight-up kidnapping Sadiq and "killing him on paper" by telling the world he has been slain and mostly likely altering any paperwork to reflect the same outcome. They will then use Sadiq however they can to further their intelligence on The Engineers, having circumvented official standards for prosecuting an international terrorist. Semantics arguments only work when you fully understand the intended meaning of a given phrase.
You are greatly misrepresenting the ratio of "actiony garbage" in this game. Perhaps you would be better suited to blogging about a game you have done more than just scratch the surface of.
aCynicalMind's comments