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Posted November 15, 2013 by Ryan Villanueva in Gaming
 
 

GAME REVIEW: Splinter Cell: Blacklist (PC)

Splinter Cell: Blacklist is the latest installment from the Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell series published by Ubisoft. I’ve been a fan of this series ever since but its difficult to play this game on the PC because of the high graphics requirements (which is explainable and definitely worth which I would explain further on this review). The last Splinter Cell game I was able to play prior to  this game was Spinter Cell:Conviction which also happens to be a good thing since Splinter Cell: Blacklist is a sequel to that game. Splinter Cell: Blacklist also happens to be the last Tom Clancy inspired video game released prior to his passing earlier this year (which you can know more about here).

Like the earlier games released before this, Splinter Cell: Blacklist is still a third-person action shooter game. In Splinter Cell: Blacklist you play again as Sam Fisher and you are forced to return from retirement to save the world from a possible world war. Being a Tom Clancy inspired video game one of the strengts of Splinter Cell: Blacklist is the story. Whenver you play any game from the Splinter Cell series you get hooked on the story, you’re excited to finish the level or even the game just to know what happens next and Splinter Cell: Blacklist continues that legacy.  Like how most games are today, games are like movie video games where cut-scenes are already part of the gameplay.

splinter_cell_blacklist_fisher_briggs

Sam Fisher and field teammate, Briggs.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist is about Sam Fisher trying to stop a group of terrorists known as The Engineers. The Engineers are trying to start a world war by launching different attacks on the US if they would not comply to their demands. Its up to Sam and his team to put a stop to this threat. In Splinter Cell: Blacklist you are accompanied by team, Charlie, resident hacker, Grim,mission specialist and Briggs, field back-up.  One new feature to Splinter Cell: Blacklist is the gameplay, you get more of a stealth game compared to an action game. You need to blend in the shadows to complete your objective than shooting around people. In this game you are actually graded/rewarded on your game style. There are 3 grading systems in Splinter Cell: Blacklist, first is Ghost style,you get points from completing the missions without alerting any hostiles, second Panther style, its almost the same as Ghost however in Panther you get to be lethal, you could kill enemies while in stealth and the last one is Assault style where you just shoot anything that moves. Once a level is complete you get to know how many points you earned and this points are converted into game cash that you could use to purchase gadgets or upgrade your base, Paladin. So far you get to earn more cash by playing Panther style, Assault doesn’t give you a lot of points plus most of the time that’s the reason why you get to fail the mission.

Another good thing about  Splinter Cell: Blacklist is the visual, I love the graphics on this game. I know understand after playing Splinter Cell: Blacklist why it has a graphics requirement. If you want to be technical, the minimum requirement for Splinter Cell: Blacklist for it to run on your system would be:OS: Windows XP (SP3) / Windows Vista (SP2) / Windows 7 (SP1) / Windows 8,Processor: 2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 or 2.80 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ or better,Memory: 2 GB RAM Graphics: 512 MB DirectX 10–compliant with Shader Model 4.0 or higher.  While the recommended settings are  Processor: 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 or 3.00 GHz AMD Phenom II X4 940 or better,Memory: 4 GB RAM,DirectX: 11.

splinter_cell_blacklist_gameplay

This is how pretty Splinter Cell: Blacklist is.

I was able to run Splinter Cell: Blacklist on the recommended settings and I was amazed. I was my first time being able to run a game like this on the PC and the visuals are pretty great specially on locations wherein Sam is hiding in the shadows with one light source plus its raining, you even get to see rain drops on your screen or like a smudge of a snow flake on your monitor. Splinter Cell: Blacklist has done an excellent job on its attention to detail.

splinter_cell_blacklist_gameplay2

Another gameplay screenshot from Splinter Cell:Blacklist.

Of course there is no perfect game, Splinter Cell: Blacklist has some minor flaws as well. I don’t know if its just me but some of the missions are difficult to complete like you really need to play at pure stealth to complete. Like you I always wanted an action packed game and that’s where Splinter Cell: Blacklist failed to deliver. Its more puzzle in figuring out how to complete the mission rather than exchanging fires with terrorists. Splinter Cell: Blacklist gives you  a ton of cool gadgets but you only need to use 2 or 3 of them to complete the game. This is the only action game that I never run out of bullets since you seldom use it. Its more of a puzzle game in figuring how to complete the mission rather than exchanging fires with terrorists.

splinter_cell_sam_fisher

My actual in-game screenshot from one of my favorite levels in the game.

Overall Splinter Cell: Blacklist is a great game. It’s a game that visually pretty, great story backe with solid gameplay. If you’re a fan of this genre or a fan of the Splinter Cell series then Splinter Cell: Blacklist is definitely worth playing.

RATING: 4 gamepads out of 5

I also included a funny review by Conan O’Brien of Splinter Cell: Blacklist. If you haven’t seen his Casual Gamer review of different games you should, its hilarious!


Ryan Villanueva

 
Your resident all around Flipgeek, from comics,movies,games,toys,music and even sports. A big Spider-man fan raised in the ways of the Jedi,who listens to punk rock and a sucker for chick flicks.


 
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Posted September 26, 2013 by Ryan Villanueva in
 
 

GAME REVIEW: Splinter Cell: Blacklist (PC)

Splinter Cell: Blacklist is the latest installment from the Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell series published by Ubisoft. I’ve been a fan of this series ever since but its difficult to play this game on the PC because of the high graphics requirements (which is explainable and definitely worth which I would explain further on this review). The last Splinter Cell game I was able to play prior to  this game was Spinter Cell:Conviction which also happens to be a good thing since Splinter Cell: Blacklist is a sequel to that game. Splinter Cell: Blacklist also happens to be the last Tom Clancy inspired video game released prior to his passing earlier this year (which you can know more about here).

Like the earlier games released before this, Splinter Cell: Blacklist is still a third-person action shooter game. In Splinter Cell: Blacklist you play again as Sam Fisher and you are forced to return from retirement to save the world from a possible world war. Being a Tom Clancy inspired video game one of the strengts of Splinter Cell: Blacklist is the story. Whenver you play any game from the Splinter Cell series you get hooked on the story, you’re excited to finish the level or even the game just to know what happens next and Splinter Cell: Blacklist continues that legacy.  Like how most games are today, games are like movie video games where cut-scenes are already part of the gameplay.

splinter_cell_blacklist_fisher_briggs

Sam Fisher and field teammate, Briggs.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist is about Sam Fisher trying to stop a group of terrorists known as The Engineers. The Engineers are trying to start a world war by launching different attacks on the US if they would not comply to their demands. Its up to Sam and his team to put a stop to this threat. In Splinter Cell: Blacklist you are accompanied by team, Charlie, resident hacker, Grim,mission specialist and Briggs, field back-up.  One new feature to Splinter Cell: Blacklist is the gameplay, you get more of a stealth game compared to an action game. You need to blend in the shadows to complete your objective than shooting around people. In this game you are actually graded/rewarded on your game style. There are 3 grading systems in Splinter Cell: Blacklist, first is Ghost style,you get points from completing the missions without alerting any hostiles, second Panther style, its almost the same as Ghost however in Panther you get to be lethal, you could kill enemies while in stealth and the last one is Assault style where you just shoot anything that moves. Once a level is complete you get to know how many points you earned and this points are converted into game cash that you could use to purchase gadgets or upgrade your base, Paladin. So far you get to earn more cash by playing Panther style, Assault doesn’t give you a lot of points plus most of the time that’s the reason why you get to fail the mission.

Another good thing about  Splinter Cell: Blacklist is the visual, I love the graphics on this game. I know understand after playing Splinter Cell: Blacklist why it has a graphics requirement. If you want to be technical, the minimum requirement for Splinter Cell: Blacklist for it to run on your system would be:OS: Windows XP (SP3) / Windows Vista (SP2) / Windows 7 (SP1) / Windows 8,Processor: 2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 or 2.80 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ or better,Memory: 2 GB RAM Graphics: 512 MB DirectX 10–compliant with Shader Model 4.0 or higher.  While the recommended settings are  Processor: 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 or 3.00 GHz AMD Phenom II X4 940 or better,Memory: 4 GB RAM,DirectX: 11.

splinter_cell_blacklist_gameplay

This is how pretty Splinter Cell: Blacklist is.

I was able to run Splinter Cell: Blacklist on the recommended settings and I was amazed. I was my first time being able to run a game like this on the PC and the visuals are pretty great specially on locations wherein Sam is hiding in the shadows with one light source plus its raining, you even get to see rain drops on your screen or like a smudge of a snow flake on your monitor. Splinter Cell: Blacklist has done an excellent job on its attention to detail.

splinter_cell_blacklist_gameplay2

Another gameplay screenshot from Splinter Cell:Blacklist.

Of course there is no perfect game, Splinter Cell: Blacklist has some minor flaws as well. I don’t know if its just me but some of the missions are difficult to complete like you really need to play at pure stealth to complete. Like you I always wanted an action packed game and that’s where Splinter Cell: Blacklist failed to deliver. Its more puzzle in figuring out how to complete the mission rather than exchanging fires with terrorists. Splinter Cell: Blacklist gives you  a ton of cool gadgets but you only need to use 2 or 3 of them to complete the game. This is the only action game that I never run out of bullets since you seldom use it. Its more of a puzzle game in figuring how to complete the mission rather than exchanging fires with terrorists.

splinter_cell_sam_fisher

My actual in-game screenshot from one of my favorite levels in the game.

Overall Splinter Cell: Blacklist is a great game. It’s a game that visually pretty, great story backe with solid gameplay. If you’re a fan of this genre or a fan of the Splinter Cell series then Splinter Cell: Blacklist is definitely worth playing.

I also included a funny review by Conan O’Brien of Splinter Cell: Blacklist. If you haven’t seen his Casual Gamer review of different games you should, its hilarious!