Splinter Cell 2018 Listed on Amazon Canada, E3 2018 Reveal Confirmed?

Dr. Caroll · Mar 17, 2018

Sub Level said:
Its the lowest rated mainline Splinter Cell on metacritic. Sales were also disappointing for Ubisoft.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/s...derperforms-with-2-million-sold/1100-6416144/

While this is very much a fair point, the issue of Blacklist's sales is a complex one. Really, 2013 was when the rising costs of AAA development began to truly bite. Max Payne 3 was released in 2012 and it sold just as well as the previous Max Payne games, but it was a huge failure for Rockstar Games because they'd spent over a hundred million dollars with multiple delays while MP1 and MP2 cost a fraction of that. Chaos Theory old sold 2.5 million. Even if Blacklist had matched Chaos Theory, it would still have been a disappointment. Unfortunately this led to Ubisoft moving pretty rapidly away from non-open world titles. To make matters worse, having really good graphics has always been a huge part of the series identity, so it's not like they could make a "cheap" looking Splinter Cell and get away with it.

grmltr · Mar 17, 2018

Maybe a little f'd up for 2018...

Hardhat · Mar 17, 2018

Nothing fucked up with that video. Thought it was hilarious.

prag16 · Mar 18, 2018

gcwy said:
Hot take of the year.

Nah. Might have shit on MGS5 a little excessively, but real talk, Blacklist has the best stealth mechanics of any game in the last 10 years (imho of course), and better level/base design and variety than MGS5 by a long shot (the open world-ness definitely hurt the latter).

Sober · Mar 18, 2018

grmltr said:
Personally, a huge turn off of Blacklist is the sluggish controls and drawn out animations. Also, the whole "press button to move to next cover". What I really appreciate from Chaos Theory and MGSV is the immediacy / agency for your actions.

I will give you that for "cover to cover" since as far as I could tell it is free movement in the sound department. It is basically sprint to cover with no sound whatsoever.

That being said, I played the game on the second hardest difficulty without using it or mark+execute mechanics so if you wanted to just sneak through open space and stick to cover/back to wall (as in the previous games) you can totally do that.

Hazardous · Mar 18, 2018

I would fucking kill for a 2v2 Spy vs. Mercs mode just like in Pandora Tomorrow. Still to this day one of the best multiplayer modes I've ever played. Did Blacklist have multiplayer? Never actually got around to playing it.

bobeth · Mar 18, 2018

Now is a good time, I'm ready for it. Blacklist wasn't even that bad but I guess we'll be looking at a reboot at this point. Very hyped if it truly comes out this year!

Arklite · Mar 18, 2018

Blacklist was hampered by having to accomodate Conviction's play style resulting in many levels feeling like gamey jungle gyms, with AI making obvious concessions more frequently. Somehow it can still manage to be a surprisingly solid traditional stealth game, but if it goes open world it might lose its last ace of nuanced level design. Can't help but compare with Wildlands and that doesn't bring confidence.

ThePunisher · Mar 18, 2018

Hazardous said:
I would fucking kill for a 2v2 Spy vs. Mercs mode just like in Pandora Tomorrow. Still to this day one of the best multiplayer modes I've ever played. Did Blacklist have multiplayer? Never actually got around to playing it.

I agree with this 100%. Pandora Tomorrow multiplayer was one of the funniest experiences in gaming I have ever had.

Koukalaka · Mar 18, 2018

As much as I enjoyed Blacklist, I'd love to see Ubisoft buck trends and bring ito something closer to the classic games.

I think Spies Vs Mercs would do even better now, with the rise in player appetite for more "asymmetric" multiplayer experiences.

Cybersai · Mar 18, 2018

Anyone wonder if this is just a remaster of Blacklist? Why do people think it's a new game?

RedSwirl · Mar 18, 2018

Arklite said:
Blacklist was hampered by having to accomodate Conviction's play style resulting in many levels feeling like gamey jungle gyms, with AI making obvious concessions more frequently. Somehow it can still manage to be a surprisingly solid traditional stealth game, but if it goes open world it might lose its last ace of nuanced level design. Can't help but compare with Wildlands and that doesn't bring confidence.

This is the main difference between Blacklist and the open-ended Stealth games it tries to emulate. When playing it I was shocked at how thoroughly the game accommodated player choice with the tools it had -- sections I expected to be forced combat encounters ended up having stealth and nonlethal solutions, but those tools still kept it from feeling quite the same as Chaos Theory or a Thief game. The missions in Blacklist are also each still just a succession of encounter rooms, not unlike Conviction or a standard modern military shooter. Despite CT's linearity its maps were still essentially built like complete zones to be explored and re-explored. It's like Ubisoft took the basic foundation of Conviction and said "no matter what we need to maintain the possibility to ghost and non-lethal the whole game." And yeah, any singleplayer mode I feel is probably gonna be open-world -- that's the way Ubisoft knows how to make singleplayer live-service games. The only other example known so far for a stealth game is nu-Hitman, which from what I hear would be an excellent template for Splinter Cell.

Sober · Mar 18, 2018

Well, it will be interesting if Ubi decides to go the LGS-style route and how they would tackle an immersive sim with live-SP design.