Splinter Cell Blacklist Officially Comes Out of the Shadows

As rumours have suggested over the past week or so Ubisoft Toronto have in fact been working on a new Splinter Cell game, subtitled Blacklist.

While not much about the story or game overall was revealed a lengthy (and all kinds of action packed) campaign demo was shown, taking place near the Iran-Iraq border:

The gameplay shown is very much an evolution of the previous entry in the series – Conviction. With the action taking place in the broad daylight, we see Sam Fisher donning his now legendary tri-lensed goggles in a bright daytime setting.

Returning from conviction is the ability to mark and execute enemies, an ability that is pretty much an automatic kill on several targeted foes earned by having previously performed a melee takedown. However, the twist now comes in that Sam is able to perform the execution stage while in motion, and in certain situations can pull off insanely cinematic kill streaks, like his use of an enemy as a human shield during the.

More agile movement is also available to the super-spy, with his new ability to scale cliff faces like Nathan Drake, allowing for quicker traversal of more varied and larger environments.

Ubisoft, and the Tom Clancy franchise, also seem to be continuing there Kinect integration introduced in the recent Ghost Recon Future Soldier. Rather than having the gunsmith mode this time, though, Blacklist instead opts for Mass Effect 3 style voice commands, with the uses shown so far involving luring a gaurd to a certain position and calling in air support. Though I wouldn’t be surprised to see gunsmith make a return as well, as well as yet unannounced features (motion controlled interrogation sequences anyone?)

Overall what was shown was a very much more action based Splinter Cell than even Conviction, showing a fast paced brutal sort of stealth where killing an enemy before they spot you is better than not being seen at all. While many will complain that its an even further departure from the original entries, and even a departure from Conviction, it should still be something to keep an eye on, and I myself and personally excited to see more.

Oh and did I mention that we’ve been promised the return of co-op, which Splinter Cell always manages to excel at in regard of crafting a separate but intertwining story to the main campaign based around levels designed specifically for two peoples. Oh and the return of a certain Spies Vs Mercs mode everybody missed from the previous entry.

Yeah, colour me all kinds of excited. Tom Clancy games, Ubisoft games and action games are three things I like. This is all three and as such I am very much hyped indeed.

Splinter Cell Blacklist will be available Spring 2013 for Xbox 360,PS3 and PC, with a free limited edition pre-order upgrade.