Splinter Cell: Blacklist

Interview mostly about SvM, but features a lot of details about the entirety of the game.

Really nice!

I just recently played through Conviction, and I really missed the ability to be non-lethal - I played through DX Human Revolution non-lethally first time through and it felt really satisfying... dunno if I'm just getting old though I vaguely remember having no issue snapping necks in Splinter Cell 1.

Quote from Alf-Life

Really nice!

I just recently played through Conviction, and I really missed the ability to be non-lethal - I played through DX Human Revolution non-lethally first time through and it felt really satisfying... dunno if I'm just getting old though I vaguely remember having no issue snapping necks in Splinter Cell 1.

I get that a lot as well on my own playthroughts as well. Same for sneaking, if I can sneak through a game, I'll try that first before shooting. I guess we just want a challenge.

How do you guys tend to play stealth games? When I play things like Deus Ex and Metal Gear Solid I tend to try to kill everyone stealthily and kill everyone. Well, enemies. Makes a great challenge rather than just sneaking past everyone, and turns every area into a puzzle. Whether it's lethal or not doesn't matter to me, although I guess I could add that to make it even harder next time I replay them.

What I love about stealth games is you can add your own rules to make each playthrough unique. I've replayed the MGS games like five times now and I'm still having a fresh experience each time.

Yeah, I get what you're saying.

I don't like to 'sneak past people', so my preference is non-lethal takedowns. DX3 was great for this - darts and melee takedowns are pretty much just mechanically replacements for 'shoot with a gun' or 'hold for brutal melee'.

There were instances in Conviction when I'd go out of my way to hold someone hostage just so I could knock them out, because some of them seemed to be mere security guards, and I would've preferred the option to knock them out with a button-press rather than snapping their necks.

One of my friends described his style as "lethal stealth" - he enjoyed playing DX3 with the silenced pistol. For me, that's the old Splinter Cell - maybe they did a good job of making the bad guys Really Evil, or I was just younger but playing lethal stealth didn't bother me as much as it does these days.

I often develop a weird sense of honour in stealth games. I'll generally take people out non-lethally when possibly, but if whoever I'm targeting is an asshole I'll murder them with contempt.

For example, in DX:HR I'd generally let enemies live via non-lethal takedowns. Then those Belltower dudes mowed down all those people in that hotel and from that moment on I pretty much went on a killing spree whenever I saw them — and felt actual satisfaction at bringing justice upon them.

Man I got into that game too much...

I've taken out too many people non-lethally in the first three Splinter Cells, I really enjoyed snapping necks in Conviction.

Btw I don't think I have ever tried sneaking past guards in entire missions without putting anybody to sleep... i'm not sure it was even possible (except with Chaos Theory maybe?), it always seemed far too difficult.

Something to try when I put my hands on Dishonored, they advertised that approach a lot.

In Hitman Blood Money I definitely tried to reduce any kind of "interaction" to the minimum, "in and out with a clean kill of the target" when possible. That game is rewarding.

only iOS ?;/

looks like the staple splinter cell, mad tyte. multiplayer will probably be a blast too, definitely looking forward.

I'm getting a bit sick of my mission in games being to save AMERICAAAA. What's it done to be worth saving anyways

Luckily, most game stories let you lose track of why you're even doing things very quickly, so I don't have to care.

For some reason, that trailer looks slightly less impressive than Conviction is in my mind. Like, graphically at least. I dunno, just Fisher's face seems odd. I'm sure it'll be pretty cool though, I loved the way they went with Conviction.

Quote from Corwin

I'm getting a bit sick of my mission in games being to save AMERICAAAA. What's it done to be worth saving anyways

Luckily, most game stories let you lose track of why you're even doing things very quickly, so I don't have to care.

Same here, I've always been curious to know if people abroad would be interested in playing a game which tells a story about terrorism or mafia, set in Italy.

Just watched this at IGN.

http://www.ign.com/videos/2013/07…fectionist-mode

Gotta say, The Last of Us has me re-re-interested in games with stealth. Blacklist getting more interesting to me because of it. Can't wait to try it out now.

Watched it just now. I immensely appreciated Conviction and always defend that game in discussions against "purists fan" (I played all Splinter Cells trying to be non-lethal). But this makes it just a bit more interesting to excite me more.

Dark, can you tell us if that mode will be available from the beginning? I hope it's not *locked*, it'd be just much more interesting to play it like a stealth-nazi, then replay it with flare.

I don't understand if the video mixes footage from different demos, because I can see the Mark & Execute indicator... is it simply not going to fill up?

I embed the video for immediateness.

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Dark, can you tell us if that mode will be available from the beginning? I hope it's not, it'd be just much more interesting to play it like a stealth-nazi, then replay it with flare.

That is a good question. Don't quote me on this, but I'm 90% sure its not going to be locked. You can change difficulty of the game when playing at any time. If it does become locked, well.. I foresee a lot of people being pissed! Remember 1999 Mode for Bioshock Infinite. The outrage.

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I don't understand if the video mixes footage from different demos, because I can see the Mark & Execute indicator... is it simply not going to fill up?

I embed the video for immediateness.

So the way it works is, you still have the mark target ability indicating enemies around you, if you want to use it or not, but you can no long execute targets automatically when in the right distance.

That's another thing they have not touched on yet either. Distance makes more of a difference this time depending on the weapons you use, making certain situations more challenging.(in all difficulties)

Also wanted to note when they highlighted over "Realistic Difficulty"; it gave some info but was not talked about. Its different this time around. Not only is the game going to be more challenging, and you still have M&E, but the execute gauge fills up slower and it takes twice as many enemy take-downs to get your execute. So if your a player who enjoys the execute mechanic and wanted it to be more challenging, this is for them.

That is all very cool, and the distance affecting the effectiveness of Sam's shooting in the Executions in particular is a very nice addition.

Thanks for the infos

Quote from Dark

That is a good question. Don't quote me on this, but I'm 90% sure its not going to be locked.

Just wanted to highlight I'm in favor of having the Purist Mode unlocked from the start; I must have deleted inadvertently rewriting the sentence.

As someone who has trained a lot in grappling (JJ, BJJ, Silat, Shooto, etc.) over the years I really appreciate good grappling animations in games. Looking to see more of that.