Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell series goes back to its stealthier roots
Splinter Cell: Blacklist
(out of 4) Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, PC Rated M Sam Fisher has to save the world again from a terrorist threat. That might not be anything new for the star of the Splinter Cell series, but plenty of other things are in the latest game featuring the super soldier. Splinter Cell: Blacklist comes out on Tuesday, but the sixth game in the stealth action series features new voice actors in the starring roles and, more importantly, it is the first game from Ubisoft Toronto, the major game studio that was lured to Ontario three years ago with government incentives. The 300-employee-strong company has been toiling away on this game during that time and, for good or for ill, Blacklist shoulders the weight of first im- pressions for the company. Fortunately, it is sneakily good.
Fisher is up to the tasks of saving the world and starting the Toronto studio off in first-rate order.
The story is basically almost every terrorist cliché out there.
A terror organization called The Engineers starts a series of attacks called the Blacklist with the demand that America bring all of its troops in foreign lands home.
A friend of Fisher’s is hurt in the first attack, which of course makes it personal.
In some ways, it’s unfair to criticize an action game for its plot, although the story is one of the weaker points.
As are the interpersonal relations between Sam and his three-person support team.
The team is called Fourth Echelon and is headquartered on The Paladin, a super technologically tricked-out plane. Their interactions are meant to inspire some sort of cohesive side story, but it’s fairly clichéd grim, tough and gruff stuff that had me clicking through to get back to the action. There are some interesting parallels to real-world security issues, like Fisher’s Fourth Echelon crew answering to no one but the president but going off and doing some questionable things without authorization. This isn’t really explored, since it mainly serves to set up the next sneaky assault. Where the title really shines is in the gameplay, where it moves back to the series’ stealthier roots but in a fairly friendly way.
Stealth is a tricky thing to do well and something that isn’t every gamer’s cup of tea, but Blacklist’s greatest strength is empowering players to take on the bad guys however they like, whether it is skulking past enemies without firing a shot, silently killing all in their path or blasting their way through countless terrorists. The level design plays well into that, giving players many options to deal with the terrorist threat.
After completing a mission, the gameplay is rated in one of three different play styles, Ghost, Panther and Assault, with in-game monetary rewards for how well you performed. Those rewards can then be used to upgrade your weapons, loadouts and even the flying headquarters.
Another good addition is the Strategic Mission Interface, a giant map where missions can be selected. Beyond moving the solo campaign along, it shows all of the co-op and multiplayer missions in a very slick, singular interface.
So whether it is chemical weapons, hijackings, cyber attacks and more, Fisher and crew are ready to take on all The Engineers can dish out.
While there are countless weapons and gadgets to trick out Sam, one of the gadgets that I loved was the TriRotor, a flying drone that he can send ahead for recon and also to take out enemies. There are levels where you can take things from the air with unmanned drones, but the smaller Tri-Rotor was my favourite weapon in his arsenal.
As for the new voices, the main actors did a fine job (Eric Johnson replaces series mainstay Michael Ironside as Sam) although the real standouts were the villains, played with evil glee by Carlo Rota and Elias Toufexis.
Splinter Cell: Blacklist releases Aug. 20 along with Saints Row IV and Disney Infinity, which makes it part of the unofficial kickoff for the big game video release season.
Gamers should be pleased as we are off to a very good start. The same thing could be said about Ubisoft Toronto and its inaugural release.