Sam Fisher first honored us with his presence more than ten years ago. Since that time, a lot of water has flowed: winter has become colder, prices are higher, and stealth games are more primitive. Conviction seems to be clear to everyone that the aged Fisher could not avoid the curse of our time: instead of a graceful agent, unnoticed in the shadows of enemies, we received a rude soldier that tears everyone into parts. “Oldfagi” have already managed to bury the series, the newcomers joyfully met the new “shooter”. One way or another, few expected that Blacklist It will turn back the time. And assurances Ubisoft They did not inspire confidence: banal conversations about several styles of passage rather plunged into despair and depression than encouraged.

Our acquaintance with the preview version Blacklist was a pleasant surprise. Of course, it is difficult to compare it with the first parts, but the creators took noticeable steps towards the native to the series of the public.

Born in darkness

One of the main advantages Blacklist is that the game itself pushes the player to secret passage. Lovers of Rambo-style should be sure of their own accuracy of one hundred percent. Otherwise, the period of their stay in open battle will not be longer than the life of a mosquito, which has gone into the foot of a runaway person. Enemies are smart and strong – do not forget to bypass Fisher from the flanks and diversify the monotonous shooting with a throw of a grenade. Some of them are wearing body armor and bulletproof helmets, and several hits are not possible to do with a few hits.

Sam emits the spirit from several shots and has far from endless ammunition. With an increase in the level of complexity, the number of cartridges decreases, and opponents become more well -aimed. In a difficult situation, the Mark and Execute system helps out, but you can not always use it. So you have to run out of one shadow to another in the old fashioned way, crawl through the pipes and quietly eliminate the sentries.

Great level design opens several routes to the player to achieve the goal. Locations are spacious and offer various types of interaction with the environment. Climb onto the roof, crawl along the cornice, quietly slip through the steep rock – the acrobatic skills of Fisher would have impressed even the ancestors of Desmond. Level -design provides a lot of capabilities – at our disposal the system of corridors and ventilation routes, and the open area is filled with small buildings, cars and destroyed walls.

Fear your shadow: Fisher can sit in it

But the visibility indicator in Blacklist never appeared. On the other hand, there is no “casual” effect of the screen darkening, when Sam goes into “invisibility” – you need to do it yourself, may not notice you or not.

A considerable part of the game time will occur in the daytime. Does this mean that Fisher receives a green light to use rifles, grenades and the organization of mass massacre? Not at all. All levels can be passed in an inconspicuous mode, but the approach in each case requires a variety. If in “night” missions, most of the time Sam by default remains in the shade and can safely walk right in front of the nose of the enemies, then in the daytime you have to hide behind numerous obstacles and not fall into the field of view of enemies.

Life boils in each location: someone is repairing equipment, the other sleeps at the post, the third is chatting on the phone. Seeing Fisher or stumbled upon a corpse, the terrorists will raise the alarm, turn on the flashlights and begin to search all the corners. The place of discovery of the agent, as in Conviction, is indicated for us by the projection of the protagonist. By the way, the bodies of stunned opponents can again be transferred and hidden.

Silent Assassin

Before the start of movement, it is necessary not only to carefully analyze the location of the shadows, but also to determine what type of surface you will have to steal. Otherwise, Fisher will give some treacherously creaking parquet. Also, in some locations, dogs who can smell Sam by smell live in some locations.

However, these circumstances sometimes play in our hands. Using various devices to create noise, it is easy to distract the attention of enemies. Blacklist offers a huge number of skills and gadgets for secretive passage. We can kill bad guys or neutralize them for a while, we can work in close combat or use deafening grenades and shockers. New Father devices not only greatly simplify the life of Fisher, but also introduce diversity to the gameplay. We will tell in more detail about the new and returned old “toys” of the agent in

our next article.

As we see, stealth in Blacklist It looks quite durable. It is not known what the original fans will say Splinter Cell, However, compared with Conviction, progress is evident. The most important difference from the previous part is that no one makes us shoot anywhere. Blacklist even sometimes hints that the bullet is harmful to health. One way or another, do not turn the past, and it is better to look at the future with optimism.