With the latest inclusion into the Splinter Cell franchise this is my first foray into the world of Sam Fisher and his perilous missions with the 4th Echelon unit. With this being my first time trying out a Splinter Cell game ever I really had no idea what to expect but I am pleased to announce that I have throughly enjoyed this game for what it had to offer.

Presentation:
Blacklist, while it may not be the most prettiest looking game I've played, it is still a very good looking game nonetheless. In this game you travel the around the world, jumping from sweltering deserts to malls and even to a top secret governmental facilities. Each mission is detailed extraordinarily well each with own little tweaks and specific details that really nail the feeling home that you are actually sneaking through a cliff-side village or slinking around the darkened hallways of a VIP's mansion. The variety of scenery is definitely a very welcome feeling as to make the environments never feel really stale. Sadly though that is extent of the beauty that the game has to offer. The character models of each of the main players in the story are to be honest a bit ugly. Each one of them save for Sam and one of the newcomers, Issac Briggs, seems like they have a layer of gel slapped over their faces and with how many times the cut-scenes thrust the character's face onto the screen it kept just making me think there is something wrong with it. Now that we are on the subject of characters, that is another problem with the game for me was that the character's themselves didn't have any real distinct personality differences or even have any real fleshed out development. Sam Fisher is just another combat hardened military badass that only talks in monotone growl and only very rarely alter's his voice tone in order to speak in a angrier growl when frustrated with the actions of his fellow teammates. The only characters that actually show emotion are side characters that never really got a whole lot of screen time. One of those being newcomer Charlie and then a returning character from an earlier game, I won't say who it is to keep this review spoiler free. I feel like the characters could have shown just a bit more emotion other then rather just a single page of what is very stereotypical character tropes that you would expect from a military story. The story itself also feels like there could have been a lot to be desired for it is very much a typical military based story. America is under attack by new terror force under the name of the Engineers and you as Sam Fisher who is leader of the newly formed 4th Echelon must stop them and that is really it. I will say one good thing about the story is that it doesn't fall back onto the overused trope of Russians being the main baddies and a nuke or two being involved in some way. There is also some very shining moments of the story to where you might think it could be going somewhere really big or add a nice twist but instead it doesn't capitalize on that and just leaves it be.

Gameplay:
While Splinter Cell Blacklist might not hit all the right notes in terms of its presentation, the gameplay however is where the game truly shines. This is by far one of the most fun stealth action game's I've played in a while. The number one thing about this game I really like is that unless you other wise told not to be detected or not to kill anyone, you are never really truly punished with an instant mission failed; the only real punishment is that you will no longer be able to obtain Ghost style points. The game has a scoring system that is used both to award you money in game for you to purchase upgrades for your suit, weapons and also the plane that you use as the main base which is called Paladin. The scoring system itself is broken down into three separate categories depending on what kind of play style you perform while playing a stage. These are known as Ghost, Panther and Assault. Ghost involves you not being detected by hostiles while performing non-lethal takedowns and sometimes just by-passing the enemies in the area all together. Panther involves you remaining undetected but this time killing enemies and using lethal takedowns. Assault is pretty self explanatory to where you go in guns-blazing and give no regard to stealth at all. Each style also has its own point value for each enemy taken down or bypassed with Ghost style netting you the most points while Panther is in the middle range and Assault being the least amount of points. The styles will also switch on the fly depending on how you perform providing a seamless transitions between the different play-styles. In the end though it is really how you would like to the play game and each one works extremely well with Blacklist's controls and cover system, though it is still recommended to play through with stealth in mind though really there is no restriction. That being said, during the times that you do have restrictions on whether you can be detected or not or even knockout/kill hostiles, they are often very short and relatively easy so you won't be pulling your hair out trying to pass by it. Along with the singleplayer missions in which each of them can last up to an hour or shorter depending on how you play you have a variety of sidemissions that you can execute from all of your partners when you are able to walk around Paladin. Each of the missions, except for the Brigg's missions that can only be done in co-op, can be tackled in either singleplayer or co-op with a friend. These missions offer up their own unique awards for you to purchase after their completion. When you aren't performing missions you are able to talk with your partners around the plane base Paladin which acts as the hub so to speak. From there you are able to purchase new weapons for Sam, be able to upgrade his suit and goggles and you are also able to upgrade the plane itself which adds its own little bonus that are applied during missions. Along with all of that the famous multiplayer mode Spies vs. Mercs makes it glorious return in Blacklist. After playing quite a bit of this mode it is definitely a different but very welcomed changed to the multiplayer field. In the gamemode, players are split into two teams of four with one side being Mercs and the other being Spies. It is the Spies job to use their agility and stealth and teamwork to hack three terminals in the map while the Mercs simply defend the terminals at all costs. Gameplay styles differ drastically between the two teams as Spies play just like Sam from the singleplayer game while Mercs take on a first person perspective which grants a very nice feeling of paranoia. As a Spy it is not suggested to take on a Merc in a straight up gunfight as they will often have much more armor aka health then you and will be able to put down a spy in a few rounds. Instead the Spies need to rely on cunning and their agility to close the gap between themselves and the Mercs and kill them with one quick melee move. The gamemode might not be the fastest but the tension it creates when things really heat up is something I haven't felt from a multiplayer experience in a long while. It is definitely worth checking out at least.

The Verdict:
8.5/10
Splinter Cell Blacklist is by far one of the most fun games I've played in a long while. The gameplay is pretty much perfection with the perfect flow between the three different playstyles and the very much welcome back of Spies vs. Mercs, however the story and characters leave quite a lot to be desired seeing as there were so many potential moments that could have been capitalized but were in the end not even touched upon. If you are looking for a fun game to play though to hold you over while you wait for another big release later in the year I would definitely suggest to go pick this game up.

Hope you all enjoyed my review for those who bothered to read it ^^