Well its been a wee while since my last post so I thought I would do one on a game for a change and nope it isn't GTA V as I haven't even bought it yet! Instead this one is on the new Splinter Cell game, Blacklist, which sees the first game without Michael Ironside at the voiceover helm of the main character Sam Fisher, but we'll get to that later for now let's get on with the usual....
So the story of the game begins with Sam Fisher (voiced by Eric Johnson) who along with his friend Victor Coste leave Guam airforce base where unknown enemy force destroys the entire base. Sam and Victor manage to escape but in doing so Victor is injured after trying to save Sam from a grenade. Later a terrorist group named "The Engineers" takes responsibility for the attack, and they reveal it will be the first of many "blacklist" attacks they will set on the United states, which will not stop until the American government will call back all American troops deployed in abroad. In response to this threat the President of the United States of America, Patricia Caldlwell, assigns Sam to a new special ops and counter-terrorist unit called fourth echelon, as Sam is teamed up with his old ally, Anna "Grim" Grimsdottir, and a new members consisting of Charlie Cole, a hacker specialist and field agent Isaac Briggs. Along with his team, Sam is put in charge of hunting down the terrorists and trying to stop the attacks on American soil.
Splinter Cell Blacklist is a very solid and entertaining addition to the Splinter cell series, however the departure of Michael Ironside is definitely felt and is the game's single biggest disappointment as for me and I'm sure everyone else, he was the voice of Sam Fisher. And in his place is Eric Johnson, a younger Canadian actor, who to be quite honest is not really well suited to the part and he sounds too young to voice the role of Sam, a middle aged man, but Johnson is in his md 30s and it shows in his voice. Ironside however was on record as saying he felt it was time he stepped down from playing the character and let someone else play the part, but for me its a real pity he didn't stay on. However despite that, what makes Splinter cell so entertaining and enjoyable as a spy stealth game is still very much there, and as far as stealth action games go there are few games their equal. And after the slight departure from the norm in Splinter Cell Conviction, the series get's fully back on track with Sam back in his special ops gear, complete with infrared goggles, sneaking around and infiltrating different surroundings, he's back to what he does best.
As for the gameplay well its pretty much the same as we have seen in previous games in the series and why deviate from a formula that has worked so well, and in addition to the single player campaing there are other modes, such as co-op mode, where another player can join in with you and play
select missions in the game that require two players. Sam can also do
side-missions for his team mates, Grim, Charlie and Isaac, as well as a
prisoner they hold in a cell on the plane, Andriy Kobin and these can be
played either in single or co-op mode. And naturally there is of
course the multi-player mode, however as I tend to find multiplayer
games quite boring I'd much rather immerse myself in the single player
campaign which is pretty entertaining as it is.
The main centre in between missions is set on an airplane which forms as the base of operations for Fourth echelon, and it works pretty well in the game, as Sam can wander around different parts of the plane to chat with his team mates, such as Grim, Charlie or Isaac. And in talking to his team, Sam can obtain different upgrades, particularly from Charlie, who offers Sam some modifications to his special ops suit, as well as his special equipment. Sam can also through Grim (and with the money you gain from passing missions) upgrade parts of the plane to allow further access to the plane's facilities.
And there are many upgrades available to Sam for his weapons and specialised equipment, of which one of the best inclusions is the special alternate weapons, which include non-lethal ones, such as a stun-gun and a crossbow. And with the crossbow Sam can also add a variety of different features, which include sticky shockers, which we saw from the previous games which can be used to incapacitate people as well as sleeping gas, a new feature, which naturally can be used to knock out someone. Sam as the game progresses can purchase different weapons as well such as handguns, machine guns, shotguns, as well as sniper rifles, all of which are upgradeable, and can include different features such as upgrades in ammo capacity, piercing rounds, laser sighting, anti-recoil measures and scopes. Sam's goggles have received some upgrades aswell, as in addition to the usual infrared (or infragreen as it is here, although you can change this colour) he also can access other modes such as sonar or footprint mode in the dark, which detects the prints of Sam's enemies.
In terms of Sam's movement not too much has changed from the previous games as he can still do all the usual acrobatics of running, jumping, climbing, shimmying, as well as dangling from overhead pipes where he can pounce on unsuspecting baddies and knock them out. A new addition however is called killing in motion where Sam can make multiple targets and kill them while on the move. Similar though to Conviction in order to engage the execute mode, where Sam take headshots (i.e. take them out, not take a photograph!) he has to perform a hand to hand take down, but that's the only thing that's the same in this respect. However one welcome aspect that has been brought back to the game that was missing in Conviction was the ability to pick up and hide bodies in a corner where they won't be seen, as in the previous game you couldn't do that you just had to knock them out or kill them where they stand, so it was good to see that back in the game. Also another welcome addition is that Sam can now sprint and he can even run in crouch mode, which is also really good as it allows for some move fast in a low position.
Getting on the game's graphics well overall the presentation is pretty good although what slightly let's them down is the fact that the character models do look a little bit unsophisticated as the most up to date game's are. Sam while he still has his grey hair has almost been made to look a little bit younger, which you could argue was made to fit in with his now more youthful voice. The environments however all look very good and as usual there is a great variety in the mission levels graphics as Sam breaches different areas, such as say an old warehouse in rainy London, or a fuel base in Iran.
As for the level difficulty isn't too bad overall, although some of the later missions can be tricky, especially one where Sam enters a facility and he has to stealthy take out some heavily armed mercaneries. But you should be able to complete the game itself with relative ease and the single player campaign is quite lengthy which is always quite welcome (that way you get good value for money!), and on the Xbox 360 version its comes on two discs, which is something of a surprise although the second contains an HD texture pack, as due to the game's size it would probably account for the need of a second disc.
Voice acting wise the cast are all mostly excellent, but as I already said I felt that Eric Johnson as Sam Fisher was miscast as they really needed someone older to play the part, and his voice doesn't lend to the authoritative or intimidating figure that Sam Fisher can be. However the other voice cast members are very good, particularly Kate Drummond who plays Anna Grimsdottir, who makes her first appearance as Sam's old ally who has been with Sam since the beginning of the series. Sound wise the game also sounds really good and it has a pretty good
music score (not sure who it is who does it however!) as it has a
different sound to the previous Splinter cell scores.
So that's it for my look at Splinter Cell Blacklist, which is a very worthy addition to the series, although the departure of Michael Ironside remains its biggest disappointment, in most other regards it sure isn't.
And with that, that's it for nowww.
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