History YMMV / SplinterCellBlacklist

** The Secretary of Defense in ''Blacklist''. Being tortured by having his hand cut off and then having to be executed by Briggs before he can provide Sadiq with national security files. Government bureaucrats aren't usually shown with much sympathy in this series, but you just feel for the guy.
* WTHCastingAgency: Sam Fisher's voice in ''Blacklist''. Eric Johnson, a twenty-years-too-young bit player, voices a nearly 60 year old grizzled, charismatic, and cool-sounding hero... It's later explained that Michael Ironside kept quiet about the casting due to his cancer treatment.

* WTHCastingAgency: Sam Fisher's voice in ''Blacklist''. Eric Johnson, a twenty-years-too-young bit player, voices a nearly 60 year old grizzled, charismatic, and [[BadassBaritone cool-sounding]] hero... It's later explained that Michael Ironside kept quiet about the casting due to his cancer treatment.

* ScrappyMechanic: Unlike ''Conviction'', which allowed players to run through the co-op missions on their own if a co-op partner wasn't available, ''Blacklist'' restricts the co-op (Briggs) campaign to a two-player setup, and cannot be played solo. This is despite the fact that several other missions (including those found in the DLC, like "Dead Coast" and "Billionaire's Yacht") are expressly set-up to be available to both single-player and co-op setups.

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: Fans of the slower-paced, [[SpyFiction Dirty Martini]] earlier games were not impressed by ''Conviction'' and its redesigned Predator style gameplay, DarkerAndEdgier tone, and more linear level design. While ''Blacklist'' isn't a complete pivot back to the original games, it ''is'' a strong step in that direction. The stealth gameplay has been readjusted to accommodate different approaches, including a complete Ghost playstyle and a nonlethal playstyle, while still including the Predator gameplay from ''Conviction'' and expanding upon it dramatically. The game even includes a more aggressive "run and gun" cover shooter style of play for people who just enjoy the shooting, and each playstyle can be switched to depending on what the mission calls for, creating replayability. The tone is moved back to being lighter than ''Conviction'' too, with more humor and Sam mellowing out. Lastly, while the levels aren't completely nonlinear like they were in ''Chaos Theory'', they still allow for far more approaches than what ''Conviction'' offered and the aforementioned loadout customization means missions can have quite a bit of variety. Thus, a lot of fans who despise ''Conviction'' genuinely enjoy ''Blacklist'' for what it offers, even if it doesn't reach the heights of the original trilogy.

* {{Narm}}: The phone calls between Sam and Sarah are hard to take seriously because, despite it supposed to be an exchange between father and daughter, they sound the exact same age. Which isn't far from the truth. Sarah's voice actress is actually older than Eric Johnson.

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: Fans of the slower-paced, [[SpyFiction Dirty Martini]] earlier games were not impressed by ''Conviction'' and its redesigned Predator style gameplay, DarkerAndEdgier tone, more linear level design. While ''Blacklist'' isn't a complete pivot back to the original games, it ''is'' a strong step in that direction. The stealth gameplay has been readjusted to favor of different approaches, including a complete Ghost playstyle and a nonlethal playstyle, while still including the Predator gameplay from ''Conviction'' and expanding upon it dramatically. The game even includes a more aggressive "run and gun" cover shooter style of play for people who just enjoy the shooting, and each playstyle can be switched to depending on what the mission calls for, creating replayability. The tone is moved back to being lighter than ''Conviction'' too, with more humor and Sam mellowing out. Lastly, while the levels aren't completely nonlinear like they were in ''Chaos Theory'', they still allow for far more approaches than what ''Conviction'' offered and the aforementioned loadout customization means missions can have quite a bit of variety. Thus, a lot of fans who despise ''Conviction'' genuinely enjoy ''Blacklist'' for what it offers, even if it doesn't reach the heights of the original trilogy.

* WTHCastingAgency: Sam Fisher's voice in ''Blacklist''. Eric Johnson, a twenty-years-too-young bit player, voices a nearly 60 year old grizzled, charismatic, and [[BadassBaritone cool-sounding]] hero...

* HarsherInHindsight: The hack on Colonial Pipeline in May 2021 strikes hard when you consider that the Engineers has targeted fuel pipelines in Louisiana.

** Given how ''Conviction'' went to the effort of implying that Fisher had definitively ended his working relationship with the U.S. Government and wanted nothing more to do with that life anymore (after doing something similar in ''Double Agent'', where he functionally leaves Fourth Echelon after the New York debacle), the time was right for a new point-of-view character to pick up where Fisher had left off, and would have thematically made sense with the decommissioning of Third Echelon and the activation of Fourth Echelon. Instead, Fisher is brought back again, this time working as a field operative ''in tandem'' with his role running Fourth Echelon, a notion that doesn't particularly lend itself well to the plot, particularly because ''Briggs'' is set up as the character who will take over from Sam ([[spoiler:to the point that he is the PlayerCharacter for most of the final mission]]).

* CompleteMonster: [[RogueAgent Former MI6 agent Majid Sadiq]] is the leader of the Engineers and the [[BigBad mastermind]] behind the Blacklist attacks. He introduced his group to the public by blowing up an Army base and kidnapping one of the soldiers, later [[SlashedThroat cutting the man's throat]] while recording a video message. Future attackd involved trying to [[TamperingWithFoodAndDrink poison the water supply]] of Chicago with a deadly biological agents; an attempt to unleash [[DeadlyGas nerve gas]] into several trains in Philadelphia and setting the largest gas terminal on the gulf coast on fire. He also tried to goad to US government into declaring war with the Iran by creating some false evidences that made it look like they were behind his attacks. While he publicly claimed that the terrorist attacks would stop as soon as the USA called back all their troops stationed abroad, this was just another ruse. His true goal was to cause so much chaos that the US government would enact an emergency protocol and transfer all their sensitive data to a secure bunker beneath Denver. Once that happened he and his men stormed the bunker, where Sadiq had his men [[ColdBloodedTorture torturing the Secretary of Defense]] until he would give them access to the data. Notably he only became a terrorist after an US drone strike wiped out the Iraqi village he was stationed in, yet he [[ForgottenFallenFriend himself never mentioned the villagers even once or showed any kind of sadness about their deaths]]. In the end [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist his atrocities outweigh any justification he may once had]].

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Okay, the graphics are cleaner and state-of-the-art, the gadgets have improved, and the Mark and Execute function returns, so ''Blacklist'' is going to be awesome, right? One major problem: Creator/MichaelIronside is being replaced by [[http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/06/04/splinter-cell-blacklist-video-michael-ironside/ Eric Johnson]] from ABC's ''Series/RookieBlue''. Crying over the series being ruined and anger towards Ubisoft ensue.
** Granted, they did have a legitimate reason to replace series mainstay Ironside. The voices are to be done in-scene using the motion capture so as to get a realistic, visceral feel, and Ironside is possibly too old to keep doing that (although he did help train Johnson for the part and gave his blessing). Recent information has Ironside explain that he wasn't sure if he can do the role due to being treated for cancer.
** There's also the fact that Sam seems to be bizarrely aging in reverse. ''Blacklist'' is the most recent entry in the series yet Sam not only sounds 20 years younger, he looks it too (keep in mind that Sam is a veteran of the first Persian Gulf War who also has a college-age daughter; he was 47 at the start of the series).

** ''Blacklist'' would have been a perfect time to retire the character of Sam Fisher (who is already in his fifties which stretches the believability of him still doing covert field work) and bring in a new protagonist, which have thematically made sense with the decommissioning of Third Echelon and the activation of Fourth Echelon. It also could have lessened the backlash of bringing in a new voice actor for the main protagonist. Instead Fisher is brought back again, despite ''Conviction'' being a definitive end to his working relationship with the U.S. government.
** Alternatively, ''Blacklist'' would have worked great as a prequel to the series without having to change the final product massively. RetCon Fisher being headhunted during his Navy Seal days for a pre-Third Echelon operation, and retain the same villains and their motives albeit around an older Middle-East conflict (e.g. the Gulf War). You get a younger, more agile Fisher with an explanation for his voice change, all the "future tech" packed into the game only needs slightly adjusting to make it dated, and all of the problems are explained away down to the controversial [[TheOtherDarrin actor swap]]. The only problem would be that Kobin, Grim, and [[spoiler:Kestrel]] couldn't return, but none of them are so indespesible that a replacement couldn't fill their role (e.g. replace Grim with a younger Lambert, again with a different VO).

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: Fans of the slower-paced, [[SpyFiction Dirty Martini]] earlier games were not impressed by ''Conviction'' and it's redesigned Predator style gameplay, DarkerAndEdgier tone, more linear level design. While ''Blacklist'' isn't a complete pivot back to the original games, it ''is'' a strong step in that direction. The stealth gameplay has been readjusted to favor tons of different approaches, including a complete Ghost playstyle and a nonlethal playstyle, while still including the Predator gameplay from ''Conviction'' and expanding upon it dramatically. The game even includes a more aggressive "run and gun" playstyle, and each playstyle can be switched too depending on what the mission calls for, adding back in the strategic elements of choosing your loadout. The tone is moved back to being lighter than ''Conviction'' too, with more humor and Sam mellowing out. Lastly, while the levels aren't completely nonlinear like they were in ''Chaos Theory'', they still allow for far more approaches than what ''Conviction'' offered and the aforementioned loadout customization means missions can have quite a bit of variety. Thus, a lot of fans who despise ''Conviction'' genuinely enjoy ''Blacklist'' for what it offers, even if it doesn't reach the heights of the original trilogy.

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