..Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist..

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I have to say I was a bit skeptical when I walked into the Ubisoft's Splinter Cell: Blacklist booth at E3. It had been about five years since the last Splinter Cell game, and I hadn't been the biggest fan of Conviction even though it had its charms. Luckily, after viewing a demo of Blacklist, I have to say I got pretty excited. Though Blacklist seems to be separating itself a bit from intense, yet dogmatic stealth gameplay of its predecessors, it looks like it is doing it in a way which will please both old fans and new fans alike.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist begins with our hero, Sam Fisher, disguised as an afghan soldier walking blatantly into the enemy camp. Once the player is in the heart of the wolves den, things quickly turn sour. Suddenly Sam is back to his old ways, stalking and sneaking through enemies, plotting his kills, and executing his action in the slickest ways possible. Ubisoft told me they have brought back a lot of elements that fans were craving for from the past games.

One thing they did show me were the SMI goggles, which enable Sam to see behind walls and cover. This makes plotting your stealth kills easily and sweetly. There is also a mechanic called killing-in-motion which enables you to essentially "mark" your enemies. Once marked, a series of insane and intense take-down animations occur as you blast and slice away at your foes until they are all dead. As cool as it looks, each take-down must be executed by the gamer, so in your flow of killing five guys at once, there will be plenty of opportunity to screw it up. The person playing Splinter Cell Blacklist for us at the booth executed his killing-in-motion perfectly, but we were assured it was a lot more challenging than it looked.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist doesn't skimp on the horrors of war either. A soldier does what he needs to do, and Sam will have the ability to interrogate his enemies, with the player having to decide the level of brutality in which they do so.

Blacklist looks like the type of game that will mix its stealth bits with a good amount of action. It seems like there will be two types of ways to play the game, whether you are running and gunning, or sneaking in the shadows to accomplish your goals. This, I believe, will open the series up to a broader audience of gamers, while still pleasing the fans who have been with the Splinter Cell series for a while. 

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist will be available spring of 2013 for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

Rando Evans   Followtinydinosaurs Three things describe Rando: Good beer, good food, and video games. On occasion, Rando flies a zeppelin through time seeking power crystals.

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