SHORT VERSION: Underneath the many small flaws and irritations, SplinterCell:Blacklist is still "OK" in the end, and sometimes even enjoyable. I can recommend it at the sale price.
LONG VERSION: Sorry, but I will have to go against consensus and say this is no better than SplinterCell:Conviction, which was average in my opinion. The intro video is great, but the rest of the game does not hold up quite as well.
As with the last game, the campaign story is decent - very much like a typical Hollywood action movie, and most enjoyable if you don't try to think too hard. Gameplay mechanics are OK - fairly solid and very conventional. There are the typical minor issues and inconsistencies, but nothing too bad. As usual you observe the predefined enemy patrols, and sneak past when a gap inevitably appears. If you follow this rule successfully, you are never forced to improvise (unless its scripted). Level design is still too tight and linear, offering no real freedom in how to approach an objective, but this is normal for mainstream console games. I do miss the greater freedom of movement games like IGI 2, Stalker, and ARMA offer though, when you are infiltrating enemy positions. At least the visual detail in some areas was quite good. There is also the usual over emphasis on cover in the level design. Whether you are sneaking or shooting, you will spend most of your time glued to cover and pressing a key to dash to the next conveniently placed cover object. I can put up with this, but it gets repetitive quickly - the market is already saturated with cover based shooters.
Sam's new voice actor and model are less likable. He used to be mature, calm, witty and cynical, but now he comes across like a smug jerk. And they made him younger and heavier - he looks like a steroid-pumped rip-off Commander Shepherd from Mass Effect. He also looks angry all the time and delivers so many lame pep-talk statements with a cold suave voice. I liked the main villain more! The setup of Sam's new team is less believable - A small group of super elite ex-teens with total freedom, subject to absolutely no bureaucracy, with "license to kill", who report directly to the US president? come on! Also, the depiction of technology is so full of BS, even by SplinterCell standards, that it is immersion breaking. The computer interface the protagonists use looks more like gibberish alien tech from Starwars than something from real life. It seems the devs tried too hard to impress gamers who they assume are just as dull-minded and tech illiterate as them. Most video games lack plausibility to varying extents, but Blacklist is one of the worst offenders.
The control scheme has been changed since last game, and for the worse. Who thought binding "Use", "Open/Smash Door", "Climb/Vault" and "Move to next cover" all to 1 button was a good idea? (you cannot change this). This is not a game breaking flaw, but is it really asking too much to let us use separate buttons for everything on our 100+ key controllers (aka keyboards). Controls feel a bit sluggish and sometimes even unresponsive. The 3rd person camera feels wrong - too much randomly changing perspective and mouse sensitivity. Night vision is near useless, might as well turn up gamma on my monitor. Alt-tab no longer works (at least not for me in Dx11). I did not have many of these problems in SplinterCell:Conviction.
SplinterCell:Blacklist is now obsessed with social networking, "unlockables" and "achievements" - I don't want this rammed down my throat all the time, I just want to play the game. There are ridiculous OTT cyber themed backgrounds in the menu that do nothing but irritate and make it difficult to read what is on screen. Pre-rendered cutscenes permanently have an annoying animated "loading" animation in the foreground. As usual there is a rubbish checkpoint save system: If you reload after getting killed, you may get spawned somewhere you never passed through. Want to load from before a cutscene you missed due to a no-video bug? Nope. Watch it over-compressed on youtube. FOV is often far too low, so if you get motion sick easily, don't play this game. Why did they not add a FOV slider like in FarCry3? And why did they remove the black-and-white screen effect to show you were in the shadows? It was much more intuitive than the silly LED that now lights up on Sam's back. As expected, AI detection is quite arcade or inconsistent - if you scramble (loudly) to the next cover object in plain sight, no one sees or hears you, but if a dog barks at you (while you are hidden), everyone in the area instantly telepathically knows where you are. Like in FarCry3, dogs are much more formidable foes than professional bad guys with assault rifles. Unlike in ChaosTheory, ambient noises are not realistically taken into account when AI hear you. With all these things, its all about thinking (without higher thought) like a console gamer and sticking to the scripted and contrived rules of the game even if they go against common sense. The decent orchestral soundtrack of SplinterCell Conviction has been replaced by some bland electronic bass dross - all noise and no soul, like in FarCry3 - there's no accounting for taste.
As for multiplayer: "The Splinter Cell Blacklist service is not available. Please try again later."
Overall this is by no means a 'bad game'. None of the flaws are game breaking, and if you can live with all the irritations I mentioned, you will probably enjoy it. Otherwise, you should put Ubisoft, Uplay, and this game on your blacklist.
