A part of me likes thinking that somewhere in the Middle East, an
American like Sam Fisher is prowling. Clear and present danger abound,
mind racing with a dozen different ways the next few seconds could play
out. A guard wanders close to his hiding place. Does he take them out
with a silenced bullet to the head? Show mercy and knock them out - or
simply let him walk by?
America’s security rides on these so-called patriot games, this man’s
ability to make the brutal choices correctly, and without remorse. For
this man, at this moment, there is no geneva convention, and are
politics as far away from his mind as Bradley Manning, a Quarterback for
one of those NFL football teams he doesn’t
have the time to care about. In a world of gray, his mission is as black
and white as it gets. This is about us vs. them, and he wouldn’t have
it any other way.
And if “Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist” is any indication,
neither would I. The long running franchise has been a personal favorite
of mine, emphasizing strategy, sneaking, and reality, in a way “Metal
Gear Solid” abandoned long ago. For those who have missed out on the
tactical espionage action of the previous games, the setup is simple.
You are Sam Fisher; soldier, spy, badass, and Dad. You traverse the
world accomplishing a variety of Tom Clancy-ey objectives like securing
valuable intel, capturing POIs, shutting down terrorist networks, and
you even end up at Chicago’s Navy Pier, assaulting a variety of
terrorists in a location that I do believe currently runs a Cirque De
Soleil show.
While the setup is standard super-spy power fantasy faire, its
confident storytelling sets it apart from the James Bonds, Solid Snakes,
and Ethan Hunt’s of the gaming world. Sam Fisher tends to talk almost
exclusively in clenched teeth and shouting, but the rest of the cast
including computer hacker Charlie, tough guy Isaac, mission commander
‘Grim’, and eventually an arms dealer named Kobin, all feel grounded in
the pseudo-reality “Splinter Cell” presents. They don’t have a lot of
depth, but each character is personable and distinct, well acted and
fleshed out enough where you care about their fate in the world.
 Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Blacklist Photo credit: Ubisoft |
You’ll also care about the fate of the world itself. “Blacklist” is
intensely contemporary. Missions deploy all over the world in places
most people are intensely familiar with. Iraq, Benghazi, Guantanamo Bay,
and other locales you’ve heard of in the past decade or so are present
and accounted for, making the narrative all the more immersive as the
names, faces, and places are already familiar to anyone who has watched
the news.
Simply put, Ubisoft has given us a narrative that feels…right. I’ve
read more Tom Clancy novels than I can remember, and “Splinter Cell”
nails it. The tech is cool and plausible, the characters talk and act
like the best of the best in their given field, and the geopolitical
underpinnings feel authentic. Writers Richard Dansky and Matt MacLennan
have churned out a high quality potboiler.
Which is great because Ubisoft Toronto’s 297 other employees churned
out a massively entertaining game to go along with that narrative.
“Blacklist” features incredible visuals (thanks to an installable HD
texture pack) and thrilling gameplay. At its best, “Blacklist” presents
you an open map, a variety of lethal and non-lethal weapons and gadgets
(drones included), and lets you get from point A to point B any way you
want. However your actions will be graded based on three paths. Ghost
rewards you for sneaking through a level non-lethally, using smoke
grenades, hiding in the shadows, and knocking enemies out. Panther lets
you embrace your inner predator, rewarding you for killing your way
through a level silently, attacking from the shadows and the rooftops.
Assault rewards going out, guns blazing. The system is organic and
you’ll get a feel for how you’ll want to play the game within a level or
so, with the consensus among my peers being Panther is the most fun,
and Ghost providing the most challenge.
 Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Blacklist Photo credit: Ubisoft |
A stealth game has never felt so good. While “Splinter Cell” predates
“Arkham Asylum” and “Assassin’s Creed”, it plays like a well refined
combination of those games. The stealth rewards strategy, patience, and
planning, and the verticality and ability to climb terrain, and hang off
various arches, drain pipes, and gutters feels like it’d be right at
home in Ubisoft’s preeminent historical action game franchise. There’s
nothing quite like the thrill of tossing a sleeping-gas equipped camera
into a group of enemies, igniting it, popping out from cover and
shooting the two or three guards who run over to see the commotion via
the assassination system, then sneaking up behind a ‘high value target’
and knocking them out for a bonus-point earning bag and tag before
jumping out a nearby window to safety. This is just one example, and
“Splinter Cell: Blacklist” provides hundreds. If you value the ability
to creatively approach a given situation like in “Arkham Asylum”, or
“Far Cry 3”, you really need to own this game now.
Why? Because the only reason you wouldn’t buy this game is because
you’re worried it’s short. It’s not. “Blacklist” is packed with co-op
missions, the always exciting Spies vs. Mercs, meta games, collectibles,
annnnnd tons of equipment upgrades, side-grades, unlocks, and bonuses.
There’s literally four different kinds of ammo you can put in your
pistol for crying out loud. Hell, the gameplay is so solid that even
non-canon DLC missions would be worth a look based on good faith alone.
“Splinter Cell: Blacklist” achieves the rare feat of blowing me away
and sucking me in at the exact same time, feeling like a truly crafted
experience versus a sequel in a franchise on a soon to be old console.
In a bizarre way, I find “Splinter Cell: Blacklist” comforting like an old Brady Bunch episode. Here’s a
good guy, killing bad guys, saving the country one kick-ass mission at
the time, who still finds the time to be a Dad. Despite all the
technical complexity of our digital age depicted, “Blacklist” harkens
back to a simpler time that maybe never was.
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