Sam returns in the 6th installment of the franchise, donning the trademark suit and goggles once more.
Let me get this out of the way: Eric Johnson did a great job acting. He is by no mean at fault. The problem is, he's just not Sam Fisher. The Sam Fisher we all know and love from previous games is nowhere to be found in this game. Gone is the dark humor, along with the old man jokes. Eric should have had his own character to play. At the end of Conviction, Sam didn't care about anything, he now has what's most important in his life, and basically says "Screw it, I'm leaving the spy life behind me." Ubisoft should have said that this was a reboot. Anyways, enough of this, let's get to the game.
We first notice that the graphics are vastly improved over Conviction's. The lighting and water effects are gorgeous. The faces on some characters are really good too. Gone is the monochrome shadow meter, and the lights on Sam's suit now indicate if he is hidden or not. Why didn't they think of this in Conviction?
A bunch of gadgets make their return, such as gas grenades, sticky cameras containing sleeping gas, night vision goggles, sticky shockers, as well as new gadget make their debut. A feature that returns is the choice to knock out or kill people, and to hide their bodies. Whistling is back as well, luring enemies to your location. Not all of the classic features are back, the a good chunk is enough for now to keep you satisfied.
The gameplay is pretty much the same as Conviction's, except for a few remapped buttons. Overall, I preferred Conviction's, as they felt more smoother, and easier. You will eventually get used to Blacklist's control scheme as you play. My gripes about Blacklist's gameplay is the inventory wheel. If you's played mass effect, you'll have an idea. It works the same way, also pausing gameplay. Although the d-pad is used to select your weapons, holding it will pop up the inventory wheel. Through this wheel, you also select if you want to play lethally, putting Sam in kill mode, or non lethal, making him KO everyone while it's active.
It just feels a tad clunky, when in Chaos Theory and Double Agent we chose how we wanted to neutralize someone on the go. The same is said for vision modes with goggles. You have night vision selected, if you want to use the secondary vision mode, you have to bring up the inventory wheel, and select from there. Why couldn't we just double tap the goggles button? It just seems so clunky and redundant when an easier solution could have been thought of.
My other complaint is that you can't holster weapons anymore. It's minor, but it just looks dumb when you sneak around with a weapon in hand, especially when you're planning on not harming a soul.
One of my favorite features is customizing Sam from head to toe, with different suit pieces, as well as different goggles, and the color of the lights on his suit. Want to go head on, throw on some bulky parts to increase your armor rating. Want to sneak by without making a sound? Slap some high rated stealth gear. Want a mix up the pieces? Go right ahead.
SvM also returns, although it is a huge disappointment. If you are expecting the same experience as in Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory, forget it. I really tried to enjoy this, but I had more frustrations as opposed to fun. The only difference between a Spy and a Merc, is if you want to play in 1st or 3rd person view. Spies locking onto Merc with the death from above, with no counter whatsoever, to spawn killing. Add the fact that spies can just run up to a Merc and knife them with ease. There's barely any strategy. It just feels like a cluster----. The Spies and Mercs however are customizable, but Conviction's spy customization is leagues better, due to a bigger variety of appearance options.
The MP modes from Conviction do return, but for SP. They are now basically sidequests given by your team mates, and your optional co-op partner is another 4E member who is with you from beginning to end. I like Isaac Briggs.
Overall, Blacklist improves on almost everything from Conviction. It may not be Chaos Theory, but it's still a pretty damn good Splinter Cell game. It incorporates the best parts from Conviction, and add a good chunk of the classic Splinter Cell elements of the past on top, creating the perfect formula.