I've been playing SC series since my early teens, ca.2002 and have loved the games to bits. Here's my take on Blacklist.
However, I found myself being frustrated on multiple occasions since Sam wouldn't do what I wanted him to do. Instead of jumping up a pipe he would jump over the railings. The boss fight was a retard mishap of a creation. MASH BUTTON "E". What? Seriously? Maybe this works for console games, but I actually appreciate finesse in my gameplay, especially if I'm playing on "Realistic" right from the start and work hard for my final fight.
The worst aspect of the game is undoubtedly the inability to save, and leaves you replaying missions again and again because of that. Sometimes, I felt like smashing my keyboard and uninstalling the game and giving it a very bad review. It's a good thing that I gave it time though as the game was worth it, as a whole.
Blacklist was fun and caters for any Splinter Cell gameplay style. I read a lot about it not being a stealthy game, but how else would you explain points allocation being the highest on "Ghost" style upon completion of each level. Sure, you can go "Assault" or "Panther" but it is less rewarding. Levels can be completed avoiding ALL the enemies or neutralizing them with frag grenades en mass.
Which leads me to the next point. Crossbow. It is awesome. It has 4 different ammo types and with fully upgraded stealth suit it can hold 15 bolts for each type. EMP chaff for disabling electronics. Shocker bolt which works pretty much the same was a sticky shocker does. Sleeping gas which can knock out multiple targets. Noisemaker bolt to divert attention of your target. This is everything a ninja like Sam Fisher would want.
Every gun has numerous upgrades and special Splinter Cell guns end up being very powerful and precise and easy to control. Over all there are a lot of guns with a lot of variants on how to upgrade them, suiting your style of play. Goggles have around 10 performance-enhancing upgrades and several upgrades for the looks and giggles. Same goes for the armor suit your - either going hard shell turtle or agile stealthy ninja.
The plane you will spend your time during mission debriefings and briefings has 20 upgrades as well, enhancing your radar and tactical in-mission and strategic off-mission supremacy. It at times feels slow going from deck to deck and closing all those sealed doors but it doesn't end up for a lot of gameplay time. All of that is usually made up by solid in-mission gameplay - hectic, well-paced and atmospheric. I would suggest playing this game only at night time, since a lot of missions are dark and it is hard to see during sun-time what's going on. Especially in missions where goggles are not available.
The gadgets include everything we have seen from other series and include a couple of new ones, so the older players should not be disappointed.
Ironside not dubbing Sam Fisher is, of course, a blow. A bit like seeing that spotty teen playing Darth Vader. Nonetheless, the guy does a decent job and in my opinion isn't worth a hassle for.
The game is solid and has very few bugs. Controls are the largest inconvenience. AI will surprise you. I haven't played any missions on less than realistic mode but if you're a Splinter Cell veteran the game will feel comfortably nice, like riding a bicycle. However, the story-line is somewhat of a gibberish tale. I didn't feel caring much for anything what was going on story-wise.
Let us hope that PC games will turn away from being console ports, since in my opinion, it should be the other way around.