Splinter Cell Blacklist: the king of stealth is back ?

[J_C]

I haven't followed the game much, but I've just read in a review that you have to earn money in missions and you can only use stuff you buy. Dafukk? Here is an important organization which saves the ass of merica, and you have to scrap together your stuff? Seems legit. Is this how the CIA works in real life? They buy their stuff when there is a discount in the local department store?

 

[Trash]

Well, seeing how many of their agents turned to dealing drugs and so on....

 

[Echo Mirage]

The odd part is why 4th Echelon has to research and discover technology that was standard issue to its agents only a few years before.

 

[Silva]

 

[Silva]

Just correcting a statement I did previously: When I said Chaos Theory wasnt succeptible to full ghosting (aka leaving the opposition undisturbed) and overly dependent on takedowns, I talked from my ass. Im replaying the game right now (Im at the Korean Silo) and not only its prone to full ghosting, but it feels even more satisfying than Blacklist in this way, because the smaller spaces and slower pace make it way more tense and up close and personal.

 

[Silva]

Man, this song from Chaos Theory is awesome. I love how the guard is just relaxing while hearing to it.

 

[Quilty]

Yeah, CT was absolutely brilliant. Been playing the first mission of Blacklist, and I miss the freedom of open levels, though I suppose it might get better later on, this is just the beginning. I dislike the controls, because I never feel I am fully in control of the character, the way he moves feels sluggish and unresponsive, perhaps because it was meant to be played on consoles?

 

[DalekFlay]

Yeah, CT was absolutely brilliant. Been playing the first mission of Blacklist, and I miss the freedom of open levels, though I suppose it might get better later on, this is just the beginning. I dislike the controls, because I never feel I am fully in control of the character, the way he moves feels sluggish and unresponsive, perhaps because it was meant to be played on consoles?

Conviction played pretty rough with a keyboard and mouse, and this is the same engine and core mechanics, so yeah probably. I pretty much default to a controller when I see Ubisoft on the box, unless it's an FPS.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

Yeah, CT was absolutely brilliant. Been playing the first mission of Blacklist, and I miss the freedom of open levels, though I suppose it might get better later on, this is just the beginning. I dislike the controls, because I never feel I am fully in control of the character, the way he moves feels sluggish and unresponsive, perhaps because it was meant to be played on consoles?

Conviction played pretty rough with a keyboard and mouse, and this is the same engine and core mechanics, so yeah probably. I pretty much default to a controller when I see Ubisoft on the box, unless it's an FPS.

What I hate is that if you are walking/running forward and press "q" to enter cover, sam just jumps as if I had just pressed space. And sometimes sam sticks in cover with superglue. And yes, it won't matter if you play with a keyboard/mouse or gamepad. I have a Gamepad, but I rarely use it, I aways feel better playing these new games with keyboard/mouse anyway.

 

[Sodafish]

I dislike the controls, because I never feel I am fully in control of the character, the way he moves feels sluggish and unresponsive, perhaps because it was meant to be played on consoles?

Just started playing this and I agree. The controls feel horribly clunky and have a noticeable lag in response.

 

[DalekFlay]

What I hate is that if you are walking/running forward and press "q" to enter cover, sam just jumps as if I had just pressed space. And sometimes sam sticks in cover with superglue. And yes, it won't matter if you play with a keyboard/mouse or gamepad. I have a Gamepad, but I rarely use it, I aways feel better playing these new games with keyboard/mouse anyway.

It could just be badly done in general, sure. I think I actually played Conviction with a mouse and grumbled the whole time, I just assumed it felt better with a pad but refused to switch because the game has aiming in it. Wouldn't surprise me if it felt shit either way, Conviction reeked of crap developers with crap priorities. Also, for me anyway, the game ran like ass no matter the settings.

Playing Assassin's Creed with a mouse literally feels like trying to mold water though. The original felt fine, but since AC2 it's just impossible for me to enjoy them with a mouse.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

I can't play AC with a gamepad... or the sands of time prince of persia trilogy, or GTA games since 3 (even piloting the harrier jet in san andreas with the keyboard was possible considering you tweak control configuration). The gamepad I have i used just for legacy o kain defiance, resident evil 4, and the prototype games, darksiders. My choices for gamepad in gaming are very random ones, mostly due to lazyness in configuring some buttons. Normally though, I aways go with a KB and mouse. Though If I use an emulator for old arcade/consoles, I use the controller.

In AC case, I never felt any diference in any of the 5 games control schemes since the first one. And I played with default scheme.

One of the problems with conviction and blacklist is that when I played conviction, I reinstalled splinter cell and played both simultaneosly. And now with blacklist I installed pandora tomorrow and chaos theory, and in the old games, mouse wheel adjusted speed, and in convictions/blacklist, I want to run and sam changes the weapons, since speed is now controlled with another key. but these are annoyances I overcome in a few minutes of gameplay.

In blacklist, the fact you can't save the game makes for a very frustrating gameplay, since you can make a mistake due to the conltrols, and have to restart the mission from the start.

 

[Quilty]

Uninstalled this shit before I even finished the first mission. Just couldn't endure the unresponsiveness in a game that is supposed to be all about stealth and precise timing of movements and actions.

 

[Silva]

Game controls are fluid and smooth in a xbox gamepad (the way it was meant to be played). And first mission is awesome. In fact, one can argue Blacklist missions are between the greatest of the series ever, because of its openess that allows various approaches sandbox-style (take a look at the Grim ones for example).

Controls and missions design are not the game flaws - Simplistic stealth gameplay, forced popamole sequences, crap story and fake Sam Fisher are.

 

[DalekFlay]

In AC case, I never felt any diference in any of the 5 games control schemes since the first one. And I played with default scheme.

Could be an issue on my PC I guess, but I found the mouse control to be almost unusable in AC2 and beyond. It wasn't smooth at all, it felt like a mouse emulating an analog stick. This really bummed me out because I thought mouse control in the original AC was great and I much preferred to play that game with a mouse.

If there's some secret to make AC2 and AC3's camera feel mouse-driven I would love to discover it.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

Game controls are fluid and smooth in a xbox gamepad

Ha... the worst gamepad ever, with a cock-eyed analog stick, piece of shit controler.

And it's fluid with keyboard and mouse too, but sometimes, it's the fluidity of animations causes some delays, which also happens with any gamepad, since it's a problem of the game, not the controller input. The example I mentioned above occured to me in both controllers, if you ran to a chest-high wall and press the "cover" button, Sam will AWAYS jump over it instead of, you know, get down and hide behind it. that happens in gamepads also. Because of, you know... fluidity. How many times I went to grab an enemy close to a door just to have sam opening the door instead, or peeking under it, or worse, knocking the guy, then opening the door as if the action were queued.

And first mission is awesome. In fact, one can argue Blacklist missions are between the greatest of the series ever, because of its openess that allows various approaches sandbox-style (take a look at the Grim ones for example).

I believe by first mission he meant the military base in Guam, which is the introductory mission, and it's conviction all over again...

But blacklist is well designed and stealth is good, at least in perfectionist as i'm playing.

 

[Silva]

Oh yeah, that first mission in Guam is horrendous.

 

[Sodafish]

I tried to persevere with these fucked up controls but they are just too bad. Shooting mechanics are awful too (enemies can take 10 pistol shots to the chest if they are alerted and greater than 20' away ). Removed from inventory before finishing one level.

 

[Gurkog]

Think I will put a Jade Raymond photon on my notebook with little hearts drawn around her face. She even has a sexy name. *sigh* I need to get out more.

 

[MetalCraze]

So I've been playing original Splinter Cell for a while and decided to give this one a try.

I wasn't wrong. It's just as horrible as Conviction. It's basically Conviction 2.

Starting with health regen which kills any need for careful approach whatsoever and to stupid shit like retarded binary "in shadow/not in shadow", silhouette telling you where enemies think you are and arrows telling you if you are going to get spotted, absolutely atrocious cover-to-cover dash sequences if you want to stay unseen and of course a huge chunk of levels happening at daytime and thus the only place to stay hidden is a sticky cover because casualtards can't handle shadows.

And then there are "playstyles" which considering that unlike in original Splinter Cells you are playing a supersoldier here are nothing but larping. Since why bother sneaking when most of the time you can easily get away by just shooting through enemies and health regen will take care of the rest.

As a little bonus there is a chunk of weapons you cannot use because you have to buy them with the real cash... Even though they are already present in the game.

Whoever says it's anything like older Splinter Cells either have never played them or suffers from memory loss.

 

[Silva]

So I've been playing original Splinter Cell for a while and

Im sorry for you.

I dont understand someone criticizing Blacklist while praising the linear trial-and-error piece of crap that is the first.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

Blacklist is linear trial and error.

 

[Silva]

Blacklist is linear trial and error.

So were playing different games, because the one Im playing here is even more open then Chaos Theory.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

Blacklist is linear trial and error.

So were playing different games, because the one Im playing here is even more open then Chaos Theory.

Yes, we're playing different games, because I'm done with blacklist since a month.

finished already.

It is linear, to the point that when you pass a section you can't return, though it's less linear than the original, but has more trial and error that anyother splinter cell game ever, because of hideous checkpoint system.

 

[Silva]

Bullshit.

Cite one single map in the series thats more open than any of the 4 Grim missions from Blacklist. Or so open as the 3 or 4 campaign Abandoned Mill-like missions.

Just one.

Yeah, Blacklist is popamole. Its the Dishonored of the series. But "linear and trial and error-based" is the only thing it cannot be claimed to be.