I love the pre-Conviction Splinter Cell games! They were awesome. The stealth gameplay was unparalleled although at times unbelievable. Conviction was alright although it introduced some nice ideas like the quick execute, which, while looking cool, takes the fun out of playing the game in your own style taking care of each enemy yourself like in the older Splinter Cell games. After having spent around 4 hours playing Blacklist , I feel it brings back some of the elements of the original gameplay. Play in Veteran mode if you have played the previous installment(s). One of the things I like about Splinter Cell is the limited loadout, you have to plan what you want for the mission. You can't carry everything you have in your arsenal. This makes for a careful planning and the limited supply (although replenished through carefully placed ammo caches throughout the level) keeps you on edge so you don't go out guns blazing, unless you want to play that style. I am not sure if this is new with Blacklist but you don't have to stick to a certain way of playing through the level. For example, Ghost is a type of play type where you don't kill anyone, Panther is you stalk and kill, and so on. You can mix these types of playing throughout a level and you will get awarded for every move. This way you don't have to feel pressured to stick with "no kills" during the level. There are times when you have to improvise and pull the trigger and there are times when, fun or not, the quick execute is great to use. All in all I think this is a great game. If only the original character model from the old SC games was used for Sam Fisher, I would be thrilled and maybe would have given this a 9. But 8 is well-deserved in my opinion for great sound design, character animation, gameplay variety.
I have not played the multiplayer yet but the multiplayer experience in Conviction was laggy and at times frustrating. Hopefully, that is done up good this time.