He was it ’till they found someone better
After my recent frustrations with Arkham Origins (more on that another time), I was yearning to jump back into a old-fashioned stealth game. Of course it wasn’t long before I was thinking about the Splinter Cell franchise, notably the original outings as Third Echelon’s ninja ghost Sam Fisher. The worry I had was that as much as I enjoyed the most recent installment Conviction, it wasn’t much of a stealth game. There was still some sneaking and pipe-crawling to be had, but the frenetic pace of the story meant that taking your time didn’t feel quite right. As such, I wasn’t sure about Blacklist. Would it be stealth? Would it be run-and-gun action? I had a bad feeling, based on evidence and process.
And as with every bad feeling I get based on evidence and process, I impulsively ignored it and bought the game anyway.
Now my first observation, watching Vic and some dude loading shit into a helicopter, was ‘Where’s Sam?’ Then another guy turned up, and made some tecchie jokes (did he just say ‘Sam’?), and then they talked some more, mentioned Sarah and then- bugger me sideways and call me Flipper, that’s Sam. Right there, in the helicopter.
The Internet, being a nosy if well-informed medium, was of course aware of Michael Ironside’s departure from the ten year role long before the game was released. I, being habitually gormless, was not. Now, I feel I should say; Eric Johnson does an OK job. He doesn’t try to put on the Ironside Husk, but brings his own sound to the character, which is good, though part of this may be due to Ironside returning as the acting coach for Johnson.
The other notable departure from the usual way of things is the game hub from whence all missions begin. As the de facto leader of Forth Echelon, Fisher finds himself with his very own plane, from which he can start side missions, upgrade his gear or talk to his teammates before initiating story missions using the Galactic Hu- Uh- SMI.
The game, from Dave Footman of ‘Need For Speeds’ ‘Most Wanted’ and ‘Carbon’ and written by Matt MacLennan in his videogame debut, follows Fisher and Forth Echelon as they seek to head off a series of highly publicised terrorist attacks by a group calling themselves the Engineers. The mysterious antagonists are lead by Majid Sadiq, played by the brilliant Carlo Rota of 24 fame, and returning to the franchise is Andriy Kobin, voiced and MoCapped by Elias Toufexis (Adam Jenson from Deus Ex: Human Revolution). Along with series newcomer Charlie Cole (David Reale), these two provide a lot of the dynamic energy that can be so difficult to keep going in a game following a bunch of moody professional stealth operatives. The mission environments are nicely varied, as they have always been with Splinter Cell games, although nicely designed though it is, walking around the Normand- uh- Paladin at times feels much like a novelty, largely just setting up for the Collecto- uh- virus attack close to the end of the game.
The departure from the linear mission delivery isn’t one that massively changes gameplay, and I have to applaud the integration of split-screen/online multiplayer that is re-playable and remains meaningful to the rest of the game. One thing that does change gameplay is the way they’ve changed the gameplay. Funnily enough.
Players can now measure their play style through method-specific actions, meaning players aren’t relegated to playing the bulk of missions a certain way, going from invisible and undetected to fearlessly gunning through foreigners like a COD character. Controls are moderately responsive, and the aiming system remains tight and fluid, though Fisher is prone to getting confused about whether he can shoot or not when holding onto certain things, and sometimes getting him to go from pipe to ledge is a pissing nightmare. Ultimately, Blacklist comes off as a game that has been made with the story and gameplay in mind, with little attention paid to the nature of the graphics, though that’s not to say they look bad.
The major gripe I have is that the plot suffers from Russell T Davies syndrome, of which the major symptom is a plot that involves something massive (the safety of the whole of America), and then tries to escalate the threat level to increase tension. Short of a Bond villain eager to blow up the entire fucking world so his fallout shelter and packet seed business will finally pick up, there wasn’t much more that could be done to increase tension beyond the things Blacklist originally stated they would do, and the reveal that they were actually after something other than getting all US troops out of everywhere that’s not America didn’t really come as a surprise.
I’ve mentioned my major gripe. Now is the time for the big one. Not a gripe, more a moment. A bad moment. My major ‘Why on Earth did they do this?’ moment. Slightly more significant than an anti-climatic plot (let’s face it; with modern videogaming plot isn’t something we often get to see done right) is the end. Honestly, it feels as though very little attention was paid at all, as though everyone in the Ubisoft office buggered off and assumed someone else was going to stay behind and plug the gap between the end of the last mission and the bizarre controllable epilogue where you finally take down Sadiq.
I say epilogue because that’s what it genuinely feels like; as Fisher you sneak about a Continuity of Government bunker in Denver crippling the security systems in an attempt to save the hostages. Suddenly, we cut to a scene where the Secretary of Defence is being tortured and in comes a captive Briggs just in time to see the old man break down.
This is where it gets messy.
The game gives you an opportunity to ‘Exercise the Fifth Freedom’ and execute the SecDef before he gives the terrorists what they want. As this is a foregone conclusion, asking players to press a button to make it happen feels like an unnecessary break in the action. Shortly after Briggs kills the old man, Sadiq gets pissed and orders his men to fall back to Normand-Paladin with the hostages.
Suddenly, and I mean fucking suddenly in a wrath of God ‘Where the fuck did that rash come from’ fucking suddenly, you are Fisher, dressed as a hostage, at the back of the group being shepherded through the snow whilst Marine snipers watch on. You are then told by Grim to get Sadiq then and there. So I prepared, planning my move, tagging the three guys with hostages so I could then push forward for the nearest cover once I had broken free and get Sadiq-
Game Over. Seriously. Game the fuck over.
Apparently I took too long. Though the plane was nowhere in sight, it seems as though you only have finite space of arbitrary walking room before Sadiq just wins. Maybe the snipers can’t handle the cold and go home after fifteen seconds; whatever happens it’s not clear. Deep breath and try again; tag the nearest three and press the ‘breakfree’ button, and the terrorists I didn’t kill, the watching snipers did. So where was Sadiq?
Well, Sadiq was stood a little further down, with Briggs hostage in his arms like a spring romance. I had time, so I aimed with my pistol and shot Sadiq (who was stationary) in the head. Several times. Each time, the bullets bounced off his bald head as though he’d been waxing it with Kevlar juice and God’s flop-sweat. Walking closer triggers a bizarre cut scene where Sadiq chips it after shooting his budding new lover, and Fisher gives a now injured Briggs his only gun, and chases after Sadiq.
The way you catch Sadiq? Darting from cover to cover to catch him unawares in close combat, whilst his field of vision is dictated by a red laser sight. Sound familiar? Did you play Arkham City per chance? If so then it fucking should! Remember how you beat Deadshot?
It is upsetting that a game this nicely polished should fall so spectacularly at the end, and given the bizarre ‘kill’ or ‘spare’ options that pop up at certain points in the story, the lack of choice in how you deal with Sadiq feels as disjointed as when they did the same bloody thing with the bad guy in the last game.
Splinter Cell: Blacklist still doesn’t quite come up to the level of the original stealth games, but it does a solid job of including new types of players without taking away from the individual play styles. Nice acting, engaging writing and a neat playing experience unfortunately don’t make up for the brutal failings of the last ten minutes of gameplay, but the replayablilty is there and I feel any game that provides an intelligent and enjoyable split-screen experience in today’s Live/Network world is one I can’t be too harsh on. Definitely worth a play, and hopefully Ubisoft will hire a dedicated ‘endings’ writer for future efforts.
Notable Contributors
Voice/MoCap artist: David Reale
Voice/MoCap artist: Elias Toufexis
Voice/MoCap artist: Carlo Rota
Stunt Team: Neil Davison + Stéphane Julien
Never before have I been so quick to gas a dog.
Northern Lytes and Shouting 
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