Hanging from a ledge on a balcony, I pressed the Back button on the Xbox 360 gamepad and grizzled superspy Sam Fisher drew an armed guard closer with a whispered a come-hither taunt. Decision time: do I toss an incendiary grenade at his feet and watch the flesh cook off his bones?

Replayable campaign, Spies vs; Mercs multiplayer, Beefy co-op modes, Great story

Dated graphics

Ubisoft hasn't made much of an impact in the realm of stealth/action games with the previous iteration of Splinter Cell – Splinter Cell: Conviction. No matter how much action and excitement they put out, Conviction didn't seem to give the series a push it needed, especially after the project endured...

Terrific and well-balanced gameplay that offers a delicious combo of stealth and action; awesome level design; well-written characters; plenty to do beyond the main story

The cover system doesn't always work as it's supposed to; AI and other technical issues; not all people are going to like the new Sam

After a frankly stupid amount of pre-release trailers and press-baiting teasers, the new Splinter Cell is finally here amidst the weeks where the industry kicks back before the run-up to Xmas. Was it worth the wait? Oh, hell yes.

+Tight controls; +Great story

-Lacks technical polish; -Difficulty spikes

, President Caldwell has shut down the increasingly corrupt Third Echelon and replaced it with the cleverly titled Fourth Echelon. The newly minted Fourth Echelon is a much more streamlined covert team rather than a massive agency like the NSA or CIA.

+ Crisp gameplay; + Beautiful lighting and environments; + Quantity AND quality; + Awesome amount of character customization

- Playing as Briggs during the SP campaign; - Faces look awful during cinematics

The United States has troops stationed in a long list of foreign countries, and not everybody's thrilled about the company. But a terrorist outfit known as "The Engineers" is going a little further than a letter-writing campaign.

+ Rewarding and intense stealth focus; plenty of gadgets means lots of tactical options, + Killer competitive multiplayer; exciting co-op missions; loads of upgradeable gear to buy

- Cover system and context-sensitive environments sometimes behave in seemingly arbitrary ways; ? Sam couldn't bring along some hamburger meat for guard dogs

Splinter Cell slowly begins to circle the drain with this new entry in the series.

Tight controls; great voice acting; wide variety of approaches to most situations; good amount of weapons and gadgets to play with

Different play styles end up constraining the player; Sam Fisher's new voice doesn't fit at all; graphics appear quite dated without the texture pack; feels less like Splinter Cell and more like 24

Andre Kobin goes from being an intensely detestable two-bit thug to the coolest character in the series? How did that happen?

Ghosting through a battleground of enemies shooting at where they think Sam might be hiding - and never once realising their mistake until it's too late

Hello; wildly out of place first person shooting segment

Find out why this is the best Splinter Cell in years in our full review.

+ Level design, + Spies vs; Mercs, + Gorgeous visuals, + Co-op missions

Some frustrating sections; Character models outside of Sam

Thank you, Ubisoft. Before getting into the pros and cons of Sam Fisher's latest outing, it's only fitting to open a Splinter Cell Blacklist review with gratitude. Sam Fisher is back, and I couldn't be happier.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist follows the recent trend of making stealth games more appealing to the masses while still making the core hardcore stealth elements available for those that want them (see , ). This is a good thing. You can go stealthy. You can go Rambo.