Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell-Blacklist : Insurgent Stronghold [Mission 3] {Gameplay/Walkthrough}
Channel: theRedLad
Date: 2017-12-13

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell-Blacklist
Mission 3 : Insurgent Stronghold 
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IGN Review :  Splinter Cell: Blacklist the best game in the series since 2005’s Chaos Theory.

Very obviously an olive branch to hardcore series fans like me who were left dismayed by the franchise’s action-heavy pivot in 2010’s Conviction, Blacklist gets stealth right. (In Conviction, scenarios like the one described above don’t happen and features include built in a win button called Mark and Execute that kills up to four enemies instantly with no stealth or aiming required. Facepalming in your living room is optional.) Blacklist still has the auto-kill move, but it returns Fisher to his rightful place in the dark – though yes, there are some daytime missions. The forgotten Splinter Cell element of verticality is back, too, with ample ceiling-mounted pipes to shimmy along and ledges from which to dangle above bad guys – all the better to rain down a beating. Levels are laced with air ducts aplenty to crawl through and multiple paths to explore, all of which combine to form a sublime stealth sandbox.

Of course, it’s expected that a Splinter Cell game should give us a quality stealth experience, but what’s really impressive is that if you want to play Blacklist the way we were forced to play Conviction, you can. Between its fluid aiming and excellent camera controls it serves as a capable shooter. Silenced pistol shots to the face drop targets with a satisfying “Tss-eew,” while shotguns thud rounds into bad guy chests with authority. On a related note, one particular twist in the campaign (you’ll know it when you get there) feels more jarring than refreshing, but is mercifully short and still able to be played stealthily.

We’re effectively incentivized to play and replay in different ways by a post-mission scoring system – another feature clearly inspired by Chaos Theory – that tracks everything you do and credits you points in one of three categories: Ghost (non-lethal stealth), Panther (lethal stealth), or Assault (loud and lethal), each with associated achievements/trophies.

This multi-prong approach to level design is half of what makes Blacklist both a phenomenal stealth game and a smooth action one. The other half is the character customization, which allows you to spend cash earned by executing stealthy tasks (like stashing enemies in dumpsters) to specialize Fisher’s gadget and weapon loadout to suit your play style. I made a full Ghost variant, decked out with non-lethal gadgets like sleeping gas grenades, sticky shocker proximity mines, and a crossbow that flings disabling darts, but there’s plenty of deadly equipment available as well.

It’d be a better system if cash weren’t handed out quite so generously. Particularly if you mix a few of the co-op missions in with your campaign playthrough, you’ll almost always be able to take the exact loadout you want into any mission. If it’s not going to make us choose between gear and make sacrifices based on budget, why have an economy system at all? Considering that this is a fairly easy campaign by classic Splinter Cell standards (even played on Perfectionist mode) it could’ve used that extra element of making tough choices.

Still, the equipment helps boost Blacklist’s gameplay to highpoints in the tense moments when quick thinking gets you out of a jam. For instance, at one point I was be about to be discovered by a Heavy foe (an armored brute immune to sticky shockers and gas grenades and is only vulnerable from above or behind) closing on my cornered position. I switched to my sticky noisemaker gadget and tossed it behind the Heavy; when he turned to investigate the strange noise I was able to sneak up behind him and choke him out, avoiding a noisy confrontation.

The campaign only stumbles in a few areas – spots where we’re so outnumbered that it’s clear the designers intend for us to use Mark and Execute in order to thin the herd. Completing them non-lethally is an exercise in frustration for Ghost players, though it can be done. Fortunately, these moments are few and far between, and most are friendly to all styles of play.

Between those missions, Fisher’s airborne base of Fourth Echelon operations is cleverly used as the game’s menu. You can walk around the aircraft, talk to your team members – all of whom have new things to say after each level – and see your stats on in-game monitors. If only it were all easier on the eyes.