Splinter Cell: Black List (sequel to Conviction)

Playing it with my brother, loving Perfectionist mode. It's hard even together and the guards don't feel as blind! (though still kinda deaf)

A degree of Artificial Stupidity is needed in stealth games, IMO. If guards had realistic sight and hearing it would be unplayable.

Pretty much. If they went at you in combat formation every time you whistled, it'd be a useless function.

People who have it: how long is the campaign?

Looks like there's 10ish main missions and a bunch of side missions you can do for each of your teammates.

From playthroughs I've seen, it doesn't look too bad at all. I think I'll get this.

@Talby: But... I like stealth in AP

More on topic though, this game is actually a stealth game?

See for yourself

So, what's the deal with the [Redacted] concept art you unlock by beating the game?

Is there another main mission after Site F you have to unlock?

Also, I got a small entry in the database with the name Group of Twelve right below Megiddo with no data on it. I know Megiddo are from Conviction(played the game) and that they are part of the Gone Dark meta game but what about the other entry? They have the same sub title: International Cartel.

edited 1st Sep '13 10:22:00 AM by LordofLore

Just beat the campaign on Realistic Difficulty. Gotta say, this installment has been one hell of a surprise. Is this going to be Game of the Year? Probably not; the story is run-of-the-mill and Eric Johnson's portrayal of Sam Fisher doesn't even compare to that of Michael Ironside. That said, it's great to see the Chaos Theory-style stealth come back. Not only that, but the ability to play most levels however you want (stealth. predator, and 3rd-person shooter) without being scolded by the game is incredible. The spies vs mercs multiplayer is really addicting too. I don't which is more awesome: utilizing stealth to drop doom on your enemies as a spy or to fire satisfying weapons with a sweet radar system as a merc?

All in all, I think this is the Sleeping Dogs of 2013. Thanks to its excellent gameplay and the intense and strategic multiplayer, Blacklist is a pretty sweet surprise. Now if only Ubisoft fixed the Xbox Live servers so hosts wouldn't migrate all the god damn time...

edited 8th Sep '13 1:40:25 PM by sanfranman91

Big necro but the game is on sale on Steam for $10.16, so yeah.

Downloading it now, I missed this game by a long time but I liked Conviction and I've heard good things about this one.

Sorry for the necro and long post, but I have a lot of problems with the game that make me like the first 4 games better. There is too much forced action (Especially in the co-op campaign, where even if you ghost with no kills or alerts at all you are forced to alert and kill a bunch of enemies at the ends of the first and last levels, resulting in assault points. I know the first game and Pandora Tomorrow also had forced action sequences, but they were less common and were all possible to do without kills), dogs and heavies are a pain, the story is very generic (America good, foreigners/terrorists bad!), and Fisher's new voice and look sucks. There are also too many daytime levels (Which is one of the problems I had with the current gen versions of Double Agent), and I hate the new light and dark system (I prefer having a meter showing me exactly how hidden in the dark I am and how well the enemies can see me, rather than having to guess by a light on my back and still being able to be seen even if it is glowing.)

I hate how the second one enemy fires a single shot (Or a dog so much as sees you), every enemy in the entire map is alerted and comes running (While in the other games after the first 2, if you quickly killed or knocked out the enemy who saw you and any other nearby enemies, the rest in the area would be unaware or just suspicious as long as the bodies aren't found and they didn't manage to run to and pull an alarm). Also, I miss the manual saving and hate the checkpoint/autosave system. I know manual saves can be used as a crutch (Though if I got through a very hard and annoying section with no kills or alerts, I want to save so I don't have to do it again if I am spotted), but at least they allow you to back up your save in case one gets corrupted. The game has a annoying tendency to freeze when saving, and there is only one save file, so if it gets corrupted, you have to start the entire game from the beginning. I miss being able to control the speed Sam moves at too. In Conviction and Blacklist, it seems like he is always running at full speed unless I am in cover or going through a crawlspace.

The game is also much glitchier than the other Splinter Cell games with the exception of the PS 3 port of Double Agent. I have seen guards levitate backwards into cover, fallen through the floor, the sky glitch up and turn black, had to restart levels because the scripted events wouldn't activate, etc. Spies vs Mercs, the level design and co-op campaign aren't as good as Chaos Theory or old-gen Double Agent, either, and you can't even interrogate guards in this one. It also lacks the humor that the first 4 games had (What happened to Sam's snarky comments and personality (Now he sounds and acts like a generic military shooter protagonist) and the funny dialogue from the guards? (Though that was helped by the ridiculous accents they had in Chaos Theory, and that you can interrogate them)), and most of Blacklist's soundtrack is just horrible.

edited 25th Jul '16 5:45:03 PM by Bat178

So, I bought the series on Steam (minus Pandora Tomorrow, which doesn't work on modern computers at all. Something to do with the lighting system I hear) last summer and I think I'm going to spend August playing through them. I just cleared the first game's tutorial and it looks pretty good, apart from the cutscenes (which flicker like mad, but that's probably the newer system at work). I think I'll be able to power through the earlier games (which appear to have aged surprisingly well) until I get to the more modern ones (Conviction/Blacklist).