PAX: Splinter Cell: Blacklist will have proper stealth...

[Tireseas_v1legacy]

... or so we hope.

So... I few months ago I posted the first footage of the first demo released during E3 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.377421-E3-Splinter-Cell-Blacklist-Demo#14727186]. The same demo using the same tactics was shown off during Gamescom [http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/gki9rw/splinter-cell--blacklist-demo-walkthrough]. Many criticized it for having too much action and not enough stealth in a similar vein as Conviction.

But...


For PAX, it appears they're giving us something special [http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/kprj9h/splinter-cell--blacklist-pax-prime-12--ghost-walkthrough].

Yes, SC:BL will have proper stealth components along the lines of the earlier games for the patient and perfectionist among us, complete with non-lethal kills (not yet programmed into the game), body moving, alternate routes, and Sam whistling while he works.

As a result, we see a merging of Double Agent and earlier with the new high-speed predatory gameplay of Conviction, allowing for multiple play styles and thus expand the potential audience to include the stealth crowd (which includes myself) and the third-person shooter and action crowd that is probably going trough some fairly serious withdrawal without a new Gears of War game.

Sadly, they didn't show us a clip of the ending encounter to see if you're forced to murder those three others or if you can, say, toss a non-lethal grenade and smack them down like fucking Batman. They also didn't show if you're forced to use the UAV to kill the guys waiting outside and could instead sneak out through the back door. But I'll take what I can get.

So, any changes of heart upon this new version of that same demo?

 

[Knight Templar]

So stealth is something of an afterthought for them? They can't even show us it without putting a window of murder on the screen? I mean he when he said "That was killing in motion! But, we're not going to do that." the second part was said with disappointment? This demo is unfinished yes, but it looks like a shooter that somebody managed to sneak through, not a steal game. Because that's what it is, shooting is the focus here.

This is not very comforting. But this is at least closer to Splinter Cell and with time maybe doppelganger fisher will be more than a murder machine.

 

[AJax_21]

Nope. Does nothing for me.

They're adding so many interesting mechanics for the action playstyle but they're not doing anything particularly noteworthy when it comes to innovating the stealth aspects of the game. The sneaking animations are a complete downgrade from Chaos Theory where in that game Sam is able to adjust his body position relative to his speed and the position of the enemy which was incredible for a 2005 game, to nudging awkwardly behind a guard, constantly defaulting to his crouch position. Game design and tech should be going forward, not backwards.

The AI is incredibly basic and has a pretty narrow peripheral vision. The alternate paths are a joke, look at how unconvincing and flat that cliff looked like it was added in last minute or something.

Also, you gotta love the fact that they don't have their non-lethal animations ready this stage of development. It's pretty telling at where their priorities are.

So, yeah. Totally not feeling this game.

 

[Mirroga]

I have only one description of this. Mark of the Ninja has better emphasis of stealth than this. And I'm saying that Mark of the Ninja is a good example of a stealth-heavy game and not the lowest denominator.

It's pretty much still murder focus. There needs to be a time where murder is not the solution and just simply being unseen. So this game's "proper stealth" is not very proper. Actually I just realized they coined that term simply because their Splinter Cell game's stealth isn't a focal point nor does it have a heavy emphasis on stealth gameplay.