Recent reviews by EbolaRamen

Great dialogue. Meaningful choices. Big parasite space worms. The ability to kill off Lae'zel early on in the game. Feels about as close as you can get to a real life D&D game (minus the socialisation aspect and the odour).

Somehow much more enjoyable than the average Total War game. Not that I don't enjoy those either but the added fantasy elements make this a much more compelling offering. Runs very well too - even the enemy turn cycles don't drag on forever unlike some of the other TW titles (EMPIRE). Would recommend.

I actually played Blacklist back when I was primarily using my PS3 (hence the low play time on Steam). I must have sunk a good 100 hours into it - not a ridiculous amount of time but enough to consider myself a big fan of it. Like Hitman: Absolution, it gets a lot of stick from longtime fans for not staying true to the original formula and, as a longtime fan of both myself, I was afraid I wasn't going to like them.

Thankfully (and surprisingly), I was mistaken in both instances. However, on further reflection, I began to think that perhaps change wasn't necessarily a bad thing in this case. It's not like the Splinter Cell formula was infallible after all - there were some definite issues present in the other games. It wasn't like Blacklist came along and tried to screw with perfection; it came along and tried to do things a little differently in a series that probably could have done with a little revitalisation anyway. To that end, I think it did a bang-up job of refreshing the series.

There are a lot of great features in this game. The fact that it rewards you for approaching each mission differently is a nice touch. For once, I didn't feel like a stealth game was guilt tripping me for going the "Screw stealth - let's go nuts" approach. Going in guns blazing is now a viable option - even if it's not what Sam Fisher would conventionally do. Actually, plenty of the equipment on offer is directed at precisely the type of people who prefer that distinct lack of subtlety. The little mini-missions given out by your team members are also a good way of breaking up the main missions. They also help you to unlock better equipment for Sam to use in the main missions, so they're well worth doing.

Long story short - it's not a conventional Splinter Cell game, but don't let that put you off. Convention is overrated anyway. There's plenty of things to like in Blacklist as long as you don't get hung up on how different it plays to previous games. Enjoy it for what it is and you'll walk away happy with your purchase.

Poorly described. The implication is that you'll have access to unlimited combat finishers, but the description fails to mention that it merely unlocks the ABILITY to get unlimited combat finishers but in a very small window of time. What's worse is that I'd already unlocked the ability to have this small window of unlimited combat finishers already. So I paid money to get something that I already had access to. I hate DLC.

Surpsingly in-depth but seems a bit amateur in some ways. The tutorial is kind of...cheesy? A lot of this game sounds like it's been written by non-native English speakers. The 3D animation of your advisers is a bit 90s as well. In terms of gameplay, the game is decent though. 7/10.

So addictive. So many missions and ways in which you can make your islands grow. Not much has changed in comparison to Tropico 3, but that was a great game too, so that's nothing to be ashamed of. The reoccuring characters are also quite amusing.

There are a couple of gripes I have with the game, however. Firstly, builders are ridiculously lazy. Honestly, you're better off accumulating some wealth and then just quick building anything that doesn't cost you too much to quick build.

Also, as each mission progresses, you often find yourself at a point where you're simply playing whack-a-mole with workers refusing to work (particularly in the uneducated jobs). I don't know whether thar's because all your citizens end up going to college but it's a real pain trying to keep my garages, docks, construction offices and teamster offices filled with employees. It seems like they constantly leave those jobs, despite the pay and job quality being on par with college and high school educated workers.

Other than those two things, I absolutely love the game and would recommend it to anyone. I also recommend downloading the DLC if you can because it adds a lot more stuff, which really completes the game.

8.5/10