Sam Fisher is here to kick ass and take names again, and it'll definitely be worth your time... again.
The game begins with an attack on a U.S. military base in Guam, where Sam Fisher and Victor Coste are at. As they're leaving the base, their chopper gets knocked out of the sky, and after some slinking around and clearing a path to escape, you come across a wounded soldier who leaves you with a warning: "you can't stop the Blacklist...", before brandishing a grenade, and blowing himself up- and Vic and Sam, as well. After you board the Paladin (your airborne base of operations) you learn that a terrorist group known as the Engineers is threatening to attack America every 7 days via cryptic messages such as "American Consumption" and "American Blood", unless the U.S. withdraws ALL of its troops from the 153 countries they're stationed in. And you that its about that time for Sam Fisher to throw on his goggles, grab a five-seven pistol and kick some ass. What I like most about this game is the relative freedom, reminiscent of Chaos Theory, my personal favorite of the series. Want to play this game old school, Splinter Cell style by being a ghost and non-lethal? You can do that. Want to go in guns blazing and kill anyone who breathes the same air as you? You can also do that. Remember the Mark & Execute feature from Conviction that played such a huge role in the game's combat? Well, you actually don't even need to use it this time around (though you can still mark enemies and track their moments, which is very useful), because playing the "Ghost" style i.e. the old school Splinter Cell way, earns you the highest scores and greatest benefits of the 3 playstyles. The mission design allows for those multiple styles, but what also helps is the multitude of guns and gadgets at your disposal, though trying to get them all can be somewhat tedious thanks to having to progressively purchase upgrades: for example, the last pair of goggles combines all the other goggle upgrades into one; why in god's name do I have to purchase all the lower upgrades before that one, even if I've saved up enough money? It's a little annoying, to be honest. But that's just a rather insignificant annoyance in an otherwise nicely designed game, with a good story and some tense moments to boot. And guess what makes its triumphant return after being gone for quite some time? You guessed it, Spies vs. Mercs! And its great; you have the basic 2 on 2 matchup of Spies vs. Mercs, but you also have a team deathmatch where if you die, you come back as the opposite of what you were before (if you die as a Spy, you come back as a Merc, and vice versa). Also, some of the missions in the campaign can be played cooperatively, from basic missions to seeing how long you and a teammate can survive multiple waves of enemies. There's definitely alot of longevity in this game.
Overall, this is a very good game, with some minor glitches and blemishes, such as some button prompts being unresponsive, and where the game puts you in a situation where you have to restart from a previous checkpoint, such as getting stuck in an unescapable elevator. I actually had my game data erased because my 360 froze 3 times within a span of about 20 minutes, which was frustrating, but that unexpectedly added to the replayability (though I hope that wasn't designed purposely lol). With a good story, multiple weapons & gadgets, and several ways to play, Blacklist offers alot of freedom and greatness. Sam Fisher is here to kick ass and take names again, and it'll definitely be worth your time... again.