Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist
Developer(s)	Ubisoft Toronto
Publisher(s)	Ubisoft
Director(s)	Maxime Béland Patrick Redding
Producer(s)	Alexandre Parizeau Andrew Wilson
Designer(s)	Laurent Malville Nitai Bessette
Artist(s)	Scott Lee Joshua Cook Patrick Ingoldsby
Writer(s)	Richard Dansky Matt MacLennan
Composer(s)	Mike Zarin Tony Hajjar
Series	Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
Engine	Unreal Engine 2.5[1]
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows PlayStation 3 Wii U Xbox 360
Release	NA: August 20, 2013 AU: August 22, 2013 EU: August 23, 2013
Genre(s)	Action-adventure, stealth
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist is a 2013 stealth action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Toronto and published by Ubisoft. The game is the sequel to Splinter Cell: Conviction and the seventh installment of the Splinter Cell series. Players control Sam Fisher, a highly trained operative working for the Fourth Echelon, in a mission to stop the Engineers, a group of terrorists which is trying to coerce the United States into recalling all of its troops stationed abroad. The gameplay is similar to its predecessors, with players tasked with completing objectives and defeating enemies. Blacklist marks the return of the asymmetrical multiplayer mode Spies vs. Mercs, which was introduced in Pandora Tomorrow.

Blacklist is the first title developed by Ubisoft Toronto, a studio founded by Ubisoft in 2009. The game was directed by Maxime Béland, who had worked on Conviction. The game endeavors to combine elements of its predecessors, including the action focus of Conviction and the stealth focus of the older games. To prepare for this game, Béland studied reviews and feature lists of the latter. Blacklist is the first Splinter Cell game starring Eric Johnson as Sam Fisher, since Michael Ironside, who voiced the character in previous games, was unable to reprise his role after being diagnosed with cancer. The later-announced Wii U version was developed by Ubisoft Shanghai, which also developed the game's multiplayer.

Announced at E3 2012, Blacklist was released for PlayStation 3, Windows, Wii U, and Xbox 360 in August 2013. The game received generally positive reviews from critics when it was released, with praise for its level design, story, gameplay, combat, soundtrack and multiplayer mode. However, criticism was directed at its graphics, lack of challenge, and ending. Further criticism was also directed from some fans toward the choice to cast Johnson as Fisher instead of Ironside. The game underperformed commercially, selling two million units within three months of its release.