Pros (+)
+The game has a great story mode, especially the weapon selections and array of attachments
+Nothing you buy with ingame currency is expensive, you get it all by playing the story
+Good fun to play Co-op with a friend

Cons (-)
-Story is short
-Somewhat more unrealistic then I would've liked.

GET THE CHOPPER READY!! *crashes*

Wow this game was amazing as f#ck!
I've played it for 31 hours right now and so far I loved everything of it! This was one of the first stealth based games I have ever played. At the beginning it was pretty hard for my cause I haven't played stealth games that much before so I tried most of the (first) levels over and over until I completed it but I kept loving it. So if you're new to the whole stealth genre this one is perfect to start with.
About the graphics... It was pretty good for a old game, just how everything looked was totaly different than I saw in any other game I've played before. The physics are also pretty d@mn amazing, how you pick up items and people, how people detect you etc. Totally recommend it!

8.8 / 10

this game is racist because all you do is kill mexicans 10/10

Its a great game but I uninstalled it after the campaign because of ♥♥♥♥♥♥ Uplay; no one ♥♥♥♥ing likes you Uplay ♥♥♥♥ OFF. If I buy a game on steam I WANT IT ON STEAM, NOT ON YOUR CRAPPY SOFTWARE.

Terrorists threaten to destroy America for invading other countries, so what does America do? Invade countries more of course! This gripping tale of post-9/11 insanity and antagonists that are almost exclusively middle-eastern will tug at the heartstrings of any American with less than half a brain.

Experience the wondrous world of Splinter Cell: Blacklist, where you get to engage in everything from needless torture, to unauthorized drone strikes, to the overhyped death of one or two Americans that surely outweighs the hundreds of filthy Arabs you just slaughtered because you're too much of a noob to use non-lethal weapons!

It's only unfortunate that my European brain is far too oppressed by vile Soviet communism to fully understand the true value of the storyline.

It's a fun game though, would sure as hell recommend for the sake of gameplay!


EDIT: Lots of people from the US taking this as a personal attack on their country it seems.

Also, sorry about the apocalypse. Here's some free popcorn.

EDIT 2: Given further thought, and to be more serious, i can't for the life of me figure out the direction in which this game is trying to go. It manages to be both pro-USA and anti-USA at the same time.

The plot is driven by both real-life, and in-game American atrocities, which is not something usually seen in a Tom Clancy game. However, towards the end it still manages to bring on the generic "Yay we defeated the evil terrorist" ending, which is more in line with Tom Clancy games.

What irks me is not the "F-yeah America" jingoism itself (let's face it, it's a Tom Clancy game), but the fact that it has the nerve to STILL be that jingoistic after all it's pulled you through. "Oh hey, it's America's fault these bad guys exist" -> "Oh yay, we defeated the bad guys, good job, American hero! Happy end for all!".

OK... given my playtime now, I think it's finally time for my review. No plot spoilers. A proper review would take a look at all aspects, but I don't have much time so I'll be brief.

The game itself is surprisingly good. Of course... it's no Chaos Theory, but regardless, the game is actually fun. By playing on perfectionist, the game's hardest difficulty, you'll find yourself hiding and waiting a lot; examining the guards' patrol routes (which by the way change every few deaths to keep you on your toes). Also you won't be able to use your vision through walls, giving (albeit briefly) you that similar experience in Chaos Theory when you find yourself constantly wondering what's around the corner.

So what else is there? A diverse array of gadgets, guns and accompanying upgrades for starters. I loved being able to use the money earned from missions to upgrades and improve my loadouts. There was a chain of progression, and I could feel my character becoming a 'stronger' spy, equipped with more stuff as the game continued.

The environments are pretty damn awesome. Exploration is the key to achieving your preferred playstyle. There are neat cinematic scenes and unique parts of the story which require you to play out these almost 'mini-game'-like bits; but they're so well integrated into the story and allows you to take a break from all the running, jumping and stabbing.

Now let's switch over to the multiplayer. There's not much to say about coop. It's essentially singleplayer but with a partner. There is a fairly wide variety of missions to choose from. Each of the main characters have varying game modes depending on what you're up for. Nearly all of them can be played solo if you don't have anyone to trust your life with.

Grab a mic, join your friend, and off you go. That's right. A mic. Whilst not completely essential- it will drastically reduce the number of times you die because of silly mistakes. Bouncing information between you and your partner will really help. But... if you're with a random person you might not be able to do that. In which case, you'll just have to grit your teeth and go with the flow.

Spies. Versus. Mercs. It's fun. Believe it or not, it's actually fun. With friends. By yourself... yeah, I'll admit, you can have some pretty decent matches. But seriously, for some laughs and a better chance at winning- play with friends you can talk to. Skype, TeamSpeak- it's all about information exchange. You can better anticipate that ambush if your buddy just saw a spy heading your way. You can let your friends know where the hacker is by utilising the merc cameras whilst your dead.

The SVM loadouts are different to the singleplayer loadouts, so be prepared to start paying up the big bucks again. This time you'll also need SVM tokens, which allow you to purchase weapons and stuff. You only get a few when you start levelling up and then one token each level after that, so spend wisely. There should be enough to unlock everything, but it's the order you choose that matters. I'll be writing or recording an updated SVM tutorial sometime in the future, to help the new players with how everything works. You'll have fun creating custom loadouts with a combination of gadgets, gear and weapons to your liking and playstyle. The torso abilities are pretty cool. Each side (mercs, spies) get three choices of abilities to aid your plight. Used wisely, you can be a valuable asset to your team.

Since Blacklist is 4 vs 4, it's the perfect number. Every player counts, and when your team mates goes down, you best be prepared for what happens next.

On the face of it though, SVM is fun to dive into for a quick match (I say quick match, it's about 25 - 30 minutes per match). You can just join and start playing straight away. It's fast paced and will require some level of awareness and reflex reactions in order for you to survive. Playing smart is a key skill. Anticipating enemies, knowing your way around the map, always paying attention to the little things that might give away the position of a spy. Classic, Blacklist and Team Deathmatch are probably the only active game modes at the moment. The others could do with a reboot, as they're fun to play... when there's enough players.

I honestly can't really fault the singleplayer. There is one thing though. It can be very easy to speedrun. Grab one of the sniper rifles and just headshoot everyone. Job done. Of course, some armored enemies require a little melee time, but with two or three shots you can drop them just as easily. It can ruin the fun, but it's completely feasible.

Oh, there's also the whole Michael Ironside thing. Yes, Fisher does appear younger. No, it won't stop you from enjoying the game. You'll get used to it. Or perhaps not. It's really up to you.

My negative points reside mostly with the game launcher rather the game itself. Ubisoft only had to go and slap Uplay on its products AGAIN. Why even bother releasing this on Steam if it was going to need Uplay anyway?! For example. I load Uplay (ugh, I know) and click 'Play' on Blacklist. It then says... 'loading Steam. Please wait for your game to load from there'. Like... wut. Then Steam launches Blacklist, then it goes BACK to Uplay and Blacklist opens up. ???

Not only the Uplay interface a pain to reach on a laptop (since it's Shift + F2 and laptop users have to press FN as well...) but it's slow as hell and actually caused me to crash Blacklist once.

Ugh.

Here we go. I'm leaving coop out of this by the way.

Spies vs. Mercs feels like another company developed it and just slapped it onto the main game. Seriously. The sonar vision is completely different to the sonar vision in singleplayer, the way the stun crossbow works is different, there's no crouch sprint... the list goes on. When I first started playing, I got bugs. I mean... BUGS. One particularly game breaking bug was the fact that every time I went into cover and left it, I'd stand up and start sprinting around. It was hella annoying. Ubisoft put out THREE patches and none of them fixed it. It was only after I'd posted a couple ideas and experiments of the forums that someone else picked it up and fixed it. A fix, from the community ._.

If you're buying Blacklist for the SVM, wait for a deal. SVM, in its current state, is just not worth it. Overrun with hackers and the likes, SVM has become a tense community, filled with paranoid players who don't trust each other. And why should they? With Ubisoft turning their back on the game, with no dedicated servers (Host changed. Migrating match.) and no anti-cheat system, you have no idea who could be hacking, or who's just damn lucky. Tired of the hackers? Want to quit the match? Tough. Ubisoft removed the Quit Match button to 'reduce the number of unfair rage quitters'. Uhm, wut.

Seriously, all the more reason to team up with people you trust and can communicate with. You can still beat hackers, because they're dumb. They can whiz around and kill you with one bullet, but they're idiots who can still be killed with Death From Above and unexpected melees. Even hackers bleed.

Conviction was fun, but Blacklist brings more to the table. With new ways to play, and new gadgets to play with, the singeplayer and coop are definitely a must. Just watch out for the SVM, it might not be what you were completely expecting.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist is a 9 / 10 .

Splinter Cell Blacklist combines the best elements of Conviction and its predessors into one fine package. A package that deserved more attention, because even though Splinter Cell is still popular, it didn't manage to sell enough copies.

Anyway, Blacklist lets you play as Sam Fisher (who else ?), but with an all-new voice actor this time. Michael Ironside will be sorely missed, but I have to admit the new voice of Sam did a very decent job.

The game has plenty of content, including single-player missions, co-op missions, multiplayer and even a metagame. The single-player portion can be completed in roughly 10 hours. I didn't have a chance to try the other modes just yet. The single-player missions can be played with a stealthy approach, as an action hero killing everyone you see or a mix of those two. Since this is Splinter Cell I'm thinking most of us will play this game in stealth mode and use a more action oriented approach if they're ever discovered.

The graphics look extremely well and the game is a blast to play. It also runs at a solid 60FPS, something I personally adore.

Blacklist looks like a compilation of all previous games and as a result it's, in my opinion, the best game yet, or the more complete one anyway.

[Rating: 93/100]

One of the first good mainstream stealth games in the last five years or so, aimed at general audiences.
Multiple playstyles are supported, from the sneaky ghost, the brutal "lethal stealther", or the tactical "the world must burn" assault-lover, the game doesn't actually go out of the way to punish any one playstyle, since all of them are valid and rewarded.
Difficulties are actually very well encompassing, since you have a nearly hand-holding rookie level, down to a "half of your advantages are handicapped, and you have no mark and execute" perfectionist style.
Above all else, though, the levels are actually well designed 99% of the time, compared to the tripe that most stealth games have these days with simplistic AI; the guards in this game are disturbingly smart, so if you come inside expecting the usual guard behavior you saw in something like Splinter Cell Conviction or Dishonored, you're going to be surprised.
To put it simply, this game pulls off what Hitman Absolution did, tried to, and then goes on to cover even more.
The only complaints I have about the game are the usual "you're on the Unreal engine, so animation errors are practically inevitable" (though to be fair, the game does a damn fine job of hiding the fact that it's ON Unreal), and the story is hilariously asinine, to the point it practically doesn't match up to the quality of the gameplay. Oh, and the usual "Uplay isn't something anyone wants" crap, but that's a given with a Ubisoft game.
Also it's buggy as ♥♥♥♥ and the netcode needs work, but oftentimes the results are more hilarious than gamebreaking.
If you want a challenge, be it loud, lethal, or silent, this game (Splinter Call: BlackopsList, or GI JOE SNEAK SQUAD) actually does a damn fine job of it. Just don't expect an award winning story.

is a return to form for the Splinter Cell franchise after a long 3-year break, and for anyone with doubts, it delivers.

STORY: Set after the events of Splinter Cell Conviction, the president of the United States opens 4th Echelon, a "blacker than black" clandestine special operations and counter-terrorism unit that answers solely to the President of the United States. Our beloved hero, Sam Fisher, is its commander.
A terrorist group called the Engineers are terrorizing America by announcing 5 attacks on major parts of the United States. It is up to Sam and the help of 4th Echelon to stop them. The story is fresh and exciting at first but then takes a huge turn for the worse only to become a very predictable story. There are also a couple of story inconsistencies such as Sam's mid-20s look and moves. Also, why is Sam such a d*ck all of a sudden?

GAMEPLAY: Stealth perfection. Every action you make grants you points in one of the following paths:
1- Ghost (classical SC: hardcore stealth, no kills, and no detections)
2- Panther (SC Conviction style: modern stealth, fast fluid stealthy kills, and no detections)
3- Assualt (CoD playstyle)
The developers made sure that every style feels different and fun to play, I was a Ghost myself, and it was such fun. Each playstyle grants you points that you spend upgrading Sam's gear and his airship, The Paladin.
I had a problem with the unlockables, though. They are very easy to obtain. I maxed out everything almost halfway through the campaign. One thing I liked was that the points you get are shared between the singleplayer and multiplayer unlocks, thus giving a sense of interconnectivity between the modes.

GRAPHICS: Varied environments, fluid animations, lovely color palette. Night time missions look much better than the daylight missions, but in the end, the graphics are good enough, and (mostly) nothing special.

AUDIO: Good soundtrack, but nothing memorable. Cheesy dialogue, bad writing, and forgettable voices.
***** IMPORTANT NOTE ***** The infamous new voice of Sam Fisher, Eric Johnson, isn't bad, he just isn't as good as Michael Ironside, and the poor cheesy dialogue doesn't help.

MULTIPLAYER: Spies vs. Mercs returns, the 2v2 (or 4v4) multiplayer with its various modes is a breath of fresh air from all those heavy action shooters and FPSs. It is slow, stealthy and balanced. When the action rises, you feel the adrenaline pumping in your veins. It seriously is a blast. The co-op is good fun if you have the right friend to play with since the game demands good teamwork and communication.

Overall, I think that SC Blacklist is a great game, the designers had something really special, but sadly the writers took a dump over all that. SC Conviction was the perfect finale for Sam. Had the writers started out fresh with a new, young protagonist and made Sam a mentor, I think it would've been so much better than the mess of a story Blacklist has.