Franchise fans...why do you hate Blacklist?

[Motor]

I'm having trouble understanding why is everyone hating this game so much. Are the issues technical-related or gameplay-related? Is it because of the bugs or the direction the game is taking? I'd like to know your thoughts.

[Strummer]

I think there are many more people who love it than hate it, but it's the latter group that are always loudest on the forums.

[Aegis Kleais™]

You'd think that, but I think sales figures are going to justify this game as a failure compared to the series. Ubi will, as always, attempt to spin this, but no one here can deny how amazingly fast the online community deteriorated, at least from a tally standpoint.

For me, the game failed on many fronts. The SP campaign was fine, even if too Jason Bourne-ish, but it, like the other modes, suffered heavily from not only technical instability, but shortcomings due to a console-centric UI. As I had feared with Ubi's "PC Team" showcasing us before, the networking code in this game is HORRENDOUS.

The biggest let down was what I was single-handedly ready to pay $60 for... Spies vs. Mercs. In the weeks coming to the game's release, we had found it odd Ubi was so silent about the game mode, only nattering on about how "Classic mode was made for the veterans and fans of the series".

When we finally got our hands on this abomination, it was evident that Ubi either did not know what made SvM magnificant, or actively chose to make SvM into something it should have never been.

Ubi has long since had a reputation for hammering in the nails which ultimately kill their own franchises (thus, they are starting new ones like Watch Dogs and The Division), but it really broke my heart to see SvM get developed for the lowest common denominator, and I take no pleasure in seeing its community fall apart because of Ubi's short-sightedness.

If Ubi really cared about the fans, they'd outsource the development of SvM as a standalone title to a PC developer who is renowned from properly supporting the PC platform.

[Sna.ke]

The old school splinter cell games revolved around stealth and using your surroundings to sneak, hide, silently take out (not necessarily kill), and achieve your objectives. They usually required skill and in many cases required thought and planning.

The original concept of Conviction was the same, but on steroids. Then ... they tossed a killer idea aside and went for the COD concept on a steal shooter, and the series went down hill from there.

Plus, Sam Fisher is not Sam Fisher without Ironside. So that is an instant non-sale for me.

I haven't played the game (yet, I might if UbiSoft ♥♥♥♥♥ up again and puts it on for a $0.01 like they did with Conviction), but I know that the different voice, and the direction of Conviction, I'm most likely not interested. I'm not a COD fan after W@W, so I won't be interested in Splinter Cell: Call of Duty Edition

[$hteemeNZ]

I really loved the first half of the game. The missions were interesting, and let you play through the way that you wanted. They based the mechanics around the ghost, panther, and assault playstyles, and you can actually play though the first half or so of the story missions like that. It was the FPS sections, forced combat, awful boss fight at the end, and complete move away from the freedom of choice that stopped me from liking it.

The side missions like the Grim and Kobin stealth challenges were awesome, the embassy defence missions were not that great, because you die very quickly and stealth is very difficult there. The assault playthrough is not that viable most of the time, because even with the combat armour equipped, enemies know where you are very quickly when you fire unsilenced weapons.

The overall gameplay is much better than conviction, but they have made a few dumb changes like making the activate button now the kill button too, so that I'm always picking up weapons instead of taking people down. Sprinting also makes you bash through doors and climb things automatically now, which is only useful ocassionally, and annoying as hell the rest of the time.

Overall, I preferred this to Conviction. If they gave all of the levels the same kind of freedom that the first few had and fixed those few gameplay issues, I would have loved this game. It's just disappointing to see a good game let down by some stupid decisions by the developers.

[Aegis Kleais™]

Originally posted by -|TDB|-Sna.ke:

The old school splinter cell games revolved around stealth and using your surroundings to sneak, hide, silently take out (not necessarily kill), and achieve your objectives. They usually required skill and in many cases required thought and planning.

The original concept of Conviction was the same, but on steroids. Then ... they tossed a killer idea aside and went for the COD concept on a steal shooter, and the series went down hill from there.

Plus, Sam Fisher is not Sam Fisher without Ironside. So that is an instant non-sale for me.

I haven't played the game (yet, I might if UbiSoft ♥♥♥♥♥ up again and puts it on for a $0.01 like they did with Conviction), but I know that the different voice, and the direction of Conviction, I'm most likely not interested. I'm not a COD fan after W@W, so I won't be interested in Splinter Cell: Call of Duty Edition

Exactly. Though the return of gadgets was great, they alone don't make the game the type of Stealth action that you found in the series original and one of the highest hailed renditions, Chaos Theory.

I don't think the game needed the face-mapping ala Avatar; it didn't really come across in the game. I can understand that Ironsides would not be doing stunts; for that, they can use a stuntman; but to have lost his iconic voice... it was one of the main nails in the coffin.

Ironsides IS Fisher. They are in the same.

[Jiggles]

Splinter Cell was originally supposed to be a stealth game. Then it became a stealth game with action elements.
Conviction became an action game with stealth elements.
Blacklist is an action game. That's it.
Hell, even the story's gone to hell. Even Michael Ironside himself said that this isn't the Sam Fisher that he voices. This isn't what I envisioned either.

[Wobb the Great and Terrible!!!!!]

I think the main reason for "hate" is the lack of Sam Fisher.
Sam Fisher isn't in this game.
We have a 30-something lead character, who doesn't look or sound anything like Sam, and has a daughter who is somehow pushing 30 herself. It makes less than zero sense.
I like the game. I didn't at first, and it still has things wrong with it (Not being able to save during a mission? Double-you-tee-eff is that?), but I am very annoyed that they didn't just spend the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ extra money on Mike Ironside to do the job properly.
Sales might show this as a bit of a failure (then again, they might not), but it will mainly be due to this than anything else.
Aside from anything else, Ironside is a HUGE cult icon, and huge sci-fi/videogame/horror icon, known and loved by everyone who is into those things.
Other than that, the gameplay (Once you get past the lack of a decent suit and decent gadgets at the start) is closer to chaos theory than conviction was. But it is also still closer to conviction than it is to chaos theory, if you get my drift?
Sales have been ok, but many people are boycotting purely on the grounds of the lack of a proper Sam Fisher.

[V I D A L]

The only thing wrong with this game is the actor change. The game is really great, but Sam Fisher is ruined. They change the actor, so they had to change it's personality and looks... You don't feel like Sam Fisher anymore, and for some fans, that counts a lot against the game... including me. I loved the game, but I hate how Sam Fisher is now.. It's just not him.. and I am not only talking about the voice or the looks.. its a completely different character doing things that Sam would not do or say. If Ironside was there... the game would be a much bigger success.

[Wobb the Great and Terrible!!!!!]

It's not the ONLY thing wrong with the game.
It has other problems.
Such as the AI being one second blind and the next second psychic, not being able to save during a mission (that's the worst for me), having a suit and gadgets that aren't even as good as the stuff I had back in the very first splinter cell game, like 10 years ago.
But the voice is the WORST thing wrong with the game. Well, the whole character change is the worst thing rather

[Mashtooth]

You guys are crazy MvS Team Deathmatch is the ♥♥♥♥. The story line is cheesy, but the gameplay is why i play. As far as latnecy I've had no issues, as for glitches not so much as a bad guy's ragdoll getting stuck in a rail. I've had a pretty smooth experice with this game it's been pretty awesome.

[Motor]

Ok, so rounding up the common connection between your comments I see that we all miss Ironsides voice (Personally I felt like Sam was rebooted in this game, but not in a good way). Then there is the AI which seems to have been quite blunt. In Conviction whenever a hostile noticed his dead buddy you could always hear how the man started stressing out, cursing, feel panic and then quickly reporting it via radio. The poor optimization for PC is a no-brainer (for Ubi it's always consoles 1st, PC 2nd). I think the SP and Co-op were awesome and I don't understand why you guys think it turned out CoD'ish since stealth WAS brought back. It was only a matter of whether you want to play like that or not.. What bugs me is why is there so much hate about the Classic Mode of SvM? I have only watched videos of the SvM in Pandora Tomorrow, Double Agent and Chaos Theory, but to me it seems like they did a decent job of returning the game mode. Spies still need to be sneaky and smart, while Mers must always remain vigilant. So why was this game mode a disappointment?

[Wobb the Great and Terrible!!!!!]

I think it was because they made violence an option for spies. They can kill the mercs now, from what I have seen in the gameplay footage (I haven't played it, I don't do competetive MP, people are ♥♥♥♥♥). In the earlier games (as I remember) spies had disorientation devices, such as smoke and flashbangs, as well as chaff for laser sensors and stuff.
Basically the spies were to get in, do the job, get out. Now it can become more of a TDM game, with spies running around killing mercs. This couldn't happen in the early games, and I can see why people would be pissed off about that.
But splinter cell has always been about the singleplayer, and the singleplayer here (gameplay-wise) is far better than conviction. Or rather, it's far more like the original splinter cell than conviction was.
But Ironside being missing just makes it a non-splinter cell game to me.
That won't stop me from enjoying it though, not at all.

[ApertureRiot]

I like the multiplayer. I've put in about 90 hours on it. But balance issues, horrendous UI, the fact there is no leave match button from SvM and so on makes this feel like an uninspired game that barely scratches the potential of what it could have been. And for the record, Ubisoft has never been one to support their games, online or off, aside from one or two patches to fix crippling bugs. So I know what I'm getting into when I buy a Ubi product.

[Aegis Kleais™]

Originally posted by HERO The Law:

You guys are crazy MvS Team Deathmatch is the ♥♥♥♥. The story line is cheesy, but the gameplay is why i play. As far as latnecy I've had no issues, as for glitches not so much as a bad guy's ragdoll getting stuck in a rail. I've had a pretty smooth experice with this game it's been pretty awesome.

That's kind of the issue. Where I can see all the SvM modes out there sufficing as a new game mode and being entertaining to some people, the problem is that they were made with the "SvM" banner on them, so we were expecting a game mode that was akin to SvM from PT/CT; and the game is nothing like that.

The whole SvM was geared towards action gameplay and Call of Duty style mechanics; this naturally would appeal to many people, but many veterans of the series who were expecting the unique experience of a Stealth Action Multiplayer were sadly disappointed in what was made. It was SvM in name only.

[Wobb the Great and Terrible!!!!!]

Aegis is completely right; they even marketed this as proper SvM.
I never got into it in previous games, but even I can see the huge changes made that make it nothing like the original mode.
But I saw the trailers were they said "SvM has made a return, due to fans asking for it, we brought it back, and it's just as you remember, only better". I am paraphrasing, but that is what they said