The Splinter Cell Retrospective reaches its climactic, gooey conclusion with RazörFist's review of BLACKLIST. See Razör's review of the first 5 Splinter Cell games here: • Splinter Cell Retrospe...
They should get a new protagonist. Ironside WAS Fisher, he can't be replaced. It's also getting more and more ridiculous how a 56-year-old guy is supposed to be one of the best field agents with great acrobatic abilities.
Spot on, other things that annoy me about Blacklist: *The visibility is inconsistent, sometimes the game tells you you're "hidden" (according to the stealth meter in Sam's back) but enemies can still spot you, in older games and even Conviction when you were hidden, you were really hidden. It favours cover-based stealth as opposed to light/shadow stealth, which goes against the series roots. *Too many cutscenes in the middle of missions, that IMO break the flow and take away freedom from the player by making Sam do stuff the player may not agree with or forcing a certain playstyle (like Sam stupidly exposing himself to some toxic gas without any precautions, or engaging in an open firefight on a crowded train), it was really frustrating to be ghosting a level on regular gameplay then having Sam expose himself to the enemy in some way during a cutscene ruining it. In the older games you had control of the player from start to finish of missions with very few exceptions, without any cutscenes or on-rails segments. *On that subject, some strange design choices that I don't feel belong in an SC game, such as the turret/UAV segments, a sniper segment and specially those FPS segments with Briggs on the Transit Yards mission, completely jarring and out of place. *Story and characters are pretty bland and uninteresting, in previous games they were more nuanced and subtle, here it feels like just another generic action thriller rather than a proper espionage behind-the-scenes plot; the banter and humor between Sam and supporting characters of the previous games is completely gone, in BL he's just a humorless ass
I can't for the life of me understand why you aren't more well know/popular. You have a fantastic use of vocabulary and humour, even when I don't agree with what you say I love hearing you make such well researched/written arguments. There's no reason you shouldn't have a far bigger audience of at least jim/yahtzee numbers. Yeah I know you dislike them but having watched you all(and become a big fan of all 3) it is impossible to ignore the very similar grievances with the industry that you share. I really hope you gain more recognition because quite frankly every gamer in the world should be watching you!
Well the fact is, is that he has good taste in games, in a market overflowed by shitty FPS cookie cutter "Games" operated by Fanboys spamming hate and thumbs downs.
disney era power rangers Yeah, I've accepted him as the new Sam Fisher at this point. He's still no Michael Ironside but what the hell, he wasn't that bad.
Ironside apparently couldn't play Sam again for Blacklist due to having cancer at the time. Thankfully he came back as Fisher for a few missions in Ghost Recon Wildlands. There's even a rather poignant moment when references to both Syphon Filter and Metal Gear are made and Sam realizes he's the only one left of the 3 series.
The fact that people are calling this "a return to form" or "the best game in the series" kind of baffles me. Binary shadow based stealth, no lockpicking, no hacking, and no interrogation weren't factors from previous entries besides Conviction, so it definitely isn't a return to form. The level design can't seem to decide whether it wants to be non linear or a straight line, and on top of that they have the same section by section level design copied and pasted from Shitman Abomination with the same pointless score system. Take a shot every time this game has a "take out everyone in the area" objective shoved in. A forced choice system which is rarely used and adds nothing to the game. Frequent cutscenes in the middle of gameplay ruining all sense of immersion. An outright FARCE of a Spies vs. Mercs multiplayer game mode. Laughable voice acting that tries WAAAAAAY too hard to be tough and intimidating. The list truly goes on. If you like the game that's fine (hell I enjoyed it at times), but please tell me why anyone would think it's great or even excellent 'cause I don't see it.
Jack Stryder "The fact that people are calling this "a return to form" or "the best game in the series" kind of baffles me." Stupid moron youtube comment 2016. GROW UP
***** So me stating an opinion that doesn't attack anyone directly or indirectly while providing evidence that supports my claim (while you make up lies) makes me a moron? I assume you're talking to yourself on those last two lines of the comment. I'm bored of you, hit the bricks scrub.
Jack Stryder I agree with you wholly, Blacklist and Conviction are really just manifestations of how far AAA gaming has fallen; the drive to place profits and 'broadening the demographic' beyond giving a rat's ass about your core fan base. Splinter Cell defined my childhood and now it has become the victim of yet another rape fest by the big, uncaring publisher suits in charge.
So...apparently no one knows this here, but Ironside wasn't in the game because he was battling Cancer at the time, and didn't have the time or energy to bother with this. He asked Ubisoft to replace him for Blacklist because of this. He wasn't sick of Splinter Cell, he was literally just sick.
"The checkpoint system is down to preference." No, just no. The ability to save at any time, must be given to you. If the number of deaths per mission is important to the player, restart the level. If not, allow the player to go back to a point where he/she feels comfortable. If you can't control your impulses, the rest of players shouldn't have to pay for it.
In Blacklist, the USE key is the same key that lets you switch between cover and climb. You can already tell how much of a shitty idea this is. More than a dozen times i wanted to climb over a convenient chest high wall only to have Sam sprint to a an exposed piece of wall BEHIND him.
I only played Splinter Cell: The Firstification, so Michael Ironside will ALWAYS be Sam Fisher in my head. I cannot even imagine Sam without the terrifying voice that makes Batman shiver.
Ghost Recon Breakpoint is experiencing similar issues. Despite being made by one of the two studios responsible for Wildlands, they somehow failed to make what should have been Wildlands 2.
Blacklist had its problems, but then again it was among the best stealth games in years. I think it had a very respectable amount of depth, freedom of choice and replayability. It does compel to go for at least 2 full play throughs. You don't get to say this about a Ubisoft game too much these days. Really wish it would have sold more copies, so maybe Ubi and the rest would keep investing effort into their titles. Now all their games are the same open world copy pasta.
after how dumbed down the last 2 games were i had pretty much written it off, so that was the first time i heard the new voice actor. i had heard it was really bad, but i never imagined it could be THAT bad... he sounds like hes about 19...
subscribed....omg i never heard of you but its so fucking good to out of nowhere listen to someone who pretty much thought every single thing that i thought when i saw this game..SPECIALLY Hitmann thief and DmC...
Yeah man, I know what you mean, you can wipe a room clean in seconds if you chain up those moves, the stealth may not be nearly as deep as say, Chaos Theory, but it is still really fun. You should try Perfectionist mode, it disables the execute feature, and other features that simplify the game. It gives the game more of an old school feel.
As far as the voice actor change goes for Blacklist, I can work with devs changing a voice but it felt like Sam's writing and character changed along with it. Gone was Sam's dark sense of humour and snarky comments, he sounds angry ALL the time. Sam was suddenly written as a one dimensional character, a noticable step down from Conviction Sam. No personality at all. Having said that, I noticed with the recent Ghost Recon: Wildlands Splinter Cell DLC that all issued mentioned above are completely gone. Sam is back to his good old self, not just because of Michael Ironside but the snarky comments and humour are back too. What the hell?
Conviction was the perfect send off for Sam. Ironside will always be Sam. We should have had a new protagonist by this time. We could holster our weapon in Conviction, but they took that out in Blacklist. Why? It's looks fucking stupid sneaking around with a pistol in hand. And the new Spies vs Mercs... horrible. Nothing will ever beat PT's and CT's.
I'm with you. When I first started seeing stuff for this the plot I had in my head and the one I thought they where going to go with was a reformed group in 4th echelon. Sam is the new Lambert and you played as the new guy/protégé'. Nope.
Fun fact here the brasilian version of the dub they hired the same dub actors of 24h. The studio that did the dubbing in a interview said that Ubisoft headquaters wanted this game to feel like "a great action tv show". Stop trying to emulate movies and TV. PS: I had fun with the game, but I won't lie, the last stealth well designed game I played was Mark of The Ninja. That game and it's expansion were superb.
I thought this was a pretty good game, but am fucking irked by how much better it could have been if it had just a few tweaks to the gameplay (ie: a quick save system and no fucking hand holding- something I reckon Ubisoft could rectify with a patch or two if they actually paid attention to what the fans love about this series). And a better script with a better Sam Fisher played by someone who actually got his veteran personality and wit.. And some better supporting characters to bounce that wit off. I loved the upgrade system, improved hand-to-hand combat and extra missions though.
The quicksave feature works for the splinter cell hd trilogy on the ps3, and apparently it wasn't even on the original first 2 games. Its astounding how these idiots come so close to perfection and they deliberately fuck it up by making stupid little (previously corrected) mistakes.
I opened up my Uplay library today to suddenly find this game perched in my collection which is odd, because I certainly didn't pay for it. I guess Ubisoft decided to give their users a freebee. After seeing it (and confirming through my purchase history that I DIDN'T pay for it), I came to Razor's review to see if this game is even worth downloading and it seems like it might be. I mean, I didn't pay a cent for it so from bargain perspective, that's about as good as it can get.
Saves > Checkpoints. If I want a changeling experience I can do it by not saving entirely & restarting the mission from scratch. The checksystem is bad, not only for limiting your experience, but also, (in a AAA title) it generally means the developers were too lazy to implement a proper saving system, so most attributes are set as default (object & enemy placement, current AI behaviour, etc) at each checkpoint, and thus not having to deal with possible glitches. Let me stealth how i want.
For someone who loves Thief, Splinter Cell, Hitman, along with other select stealth games, Im surprised you never mentioned or talked about Riddick and Manhunt. Any reason why? They aren't perfect stealth games, but they're pretty good ones, especially compared to today's.
Nice Madness Returns reference at the beginning. The creator self-inserted a lot of his trauma into that game to the point where he would get defensive if one questions the main character/story too much. Guess that "work of fiction" might not be as fictional as one thinks.
***** Im pretty sure that's naked snake at 6:32 not solid snake, but its understandable to get confused over kojimas retarded (Liquid) or (solid) or (boss) then (insert already used name here) naming convention lol
sacrisesma MGR was some good fun, but this was not. I'd rather just play Chaos Theory again, or wait until someone fixes the PC version of Double Agent.
5:16 Man Fist, Give my Sincere regards to Terran Gell. He's the best guy for you to work with regarding making the best visual analogy to your words. He truly doesn't get enough credit for the work he does. By this, my sincere respect Terran (not only this video, but ALL. I shat my pants when I saw Raiden flying out of the "passenger seat". Great work!)
I'm glad that somebody is complaining about the checkpoints. Shitty save systems have been creeping back into gaming for at least a few years. Blacklist is just one of many in this regard. The de-evolution of gaming continues.
I think the only reason you had saves in Pandora HD remake was because it was a port from the PC, not a really concious decision by Ubi after years of criticism.
Hey, Razorfist, since nobody else asked this question before, what's the name of the music that plays during the "WE RETURN YOU TO OUR SCHEDULED PROGRAM" part?
Razörfist, I respect your opinions on the Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist, but I'm going to be honest with you, I would rather play this game than Mighty No. 9 because at least this game has good gameplay and more entertaining IMO compared to Mighty No. 9, Final Fantasy XIII Parts 1-3 or any bad Xbox 360 kinect game.
The way you move in this game reminds me of Sonic '06, which at one point I tried in a Gamestop store years ago. It's bad. A step backwards from Conviction. Heck during American Consumption, you have to disable two machines yet the game thinks you're facing towards the fence when CLEARLY, most of your body is turned towards the machine itself.
I see your point, it all boils down to what you're saying about Sam Fisher. Why the hell reboot the whole Thief universe, change the voice actor, the writers and the lore and still choose to use Garrett as a protagonist (especially since T3 ended on the perfect "here, have a new protagonist" note). At any rate, to be part of that small minority of players who will not even notice Orzari's accent is of little comfort after all the negative speculation surrounding T4.
Depends on patience i guess a really patient person could probably deal with being sent back to the beginning but even i have my limits with patience and i can't help but feel like raging when i get sent back to the beginning because a dog saw me right at the end and ruined my ghost.
Why didn't they just retire Sam after 'Conviction' and have you play as Ben Hansen in this game? Eric Johnson even kind of looks like how Hansen is described in the 'Conviction' and 'Endgame' books.
i love the god fucking speed part at the end of every video, except that one video where you forgot to say it... we will just pretend like that one doesnt exist though, lol, never lose the god fucking speed part man!
I read ironside is actually a very devote pacifist and did not like the direction the series was taking, I recall an interview years ago where he said he enjoyed the role since in encouraged the choice of ether killing your enemies or sneaking past them.
I'm kind of torn over whether or not I like Blacklist. It has some neat additions; the tri-rotor was pretty cool, the pre-mission loadout menus allowed for a fair bit of customisation, overall the plot was pretty fair and I thought the side missions were decent. But. Why can Sam crouch-walk at 30mph yet somehow remain unheard? Why, when I stand in plain sight of an enemy, do I have a ridiculously large amount of time to walk up to him and put a knife in his throat? Why is pressing myself against a chest high wall and waiting for someone to walk past so I can stealth kill their asses such an effective tactic? Why does my health regenerate in a fucking stealth game, in which the core idea is to punish the player for screwing up and getting themselves spotted? My main problem, though, is that the enemies here just aren't that threatening. in previous titles, the bad guys were something to be feared. Each guard was a genuine threat and could fuck up your day the instant he caught sight of you. Now they're just grunts who- thanks to the mark and kill mechanic, are laughably easy to kill with the exception of the heavy.
In your retrospective video on the other Splinter Cell games I commented (YEARS late to the party) that I whole heartedly agree about Conshition being the absolute worst game of the franchise, and I hold to that. The ONLY improvement over the previous games was making gameplay more streamlined, replacing the goddamn ass blister inducing micro menus on every single goddamn thing you interact with with simple button presses. To me, Blacklist is certainly more like Chaos Theory than it is like the other games. Sam being able to ghost, stealth kill, or tackle his enemies head on like a goddamn former navy fucking seal should be able to. It's...honestly my favorite game of the series, just because the gameplay is less mechanical and more human. Sure, there's elements of Pandora Tomorrow, the seventh generation version of Double Agent, and especially Chaos Theory that're superior, amazingly enough graphics included, and sure the new voice is a FAR fucking cry from Michael Ironside, but between how shitty Conshition was and how they decided to have the voice actor also be the physical actor and him deciding nobody wants to see a seventy fucking five year old man try to be Sam Fisher PHYSICALLY, he was RIGHT to leave.
Man, that is a player option. If someone want to cheat by abusing saving, that is his problem, you shouldn't punish everyone else for that. Blacklist have way more enemies and levels during the day than earlier ones,getting detected is very easy.Prepare for trial and error to extreme.Checkpoints kill players initiative, do you want to try and see if in that corner with three guards over there have something interesting?No you wont because if you are caught,you are going to be punished for that.
I know this sin't the point of the video, but it's the second time I've heard you comment about Romano Orzari's apparently prominent "Montreal accent" and I can't help but ask: How is an American accent better than a Canadian accent? Seems arbitrary to me, plus the dev. team is from Montreal, are they supposed to pretend to be American to be good?
Man, I just tried to play this game and am disapointed already. First you get Setpiece-City for 10 minutes, then you get to take down people with 1-button commands. Lens-flare everywhere, move from one cover to another by just pressing a button, Instant multiple take downs by 2 buttons,... I just turned it off for now. Compare this to the great Splinter Cells Pandora & Chaos, it's going to take me a while to reboot this sucker, and play it liking it, if that even happens at all :-S
Ubisoft sure does like fucking themselves. I wonder where they keep that six foot metal pole? Hell I bet they got off that whole Watch Dogs release date fiasco.
I don't know why Ubisoft always removes cool features from its games. I'm not a developper, is there anything that forces them to do so ? Still, Blacklist was very good and imo very replayable (and can fucking be played 99% ghost)
By the time you make blacklist review. I am already done making good Battlefield 4, AC 4, GTA 5 review. I expect to be hated for writing this. HAW HAW. Nice to see you around razor. We should play cards with asa and emer next time.
