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

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

In spite of its uninspiring story, Splinter Cell: Blacklist creates a sense of urgency that few games can match. It gives you the tools - the guns, the high-tech devices, the goggles - to accomplish your mission and then lets you use them as you see fit.

Right from the get-go, Blacklist presses you for time; A countdown to the next wave of The Engineers' attacks is always visible inside the Paladin, a large airplane that serves as your main HQ; Some missions have a time limit.

Despite a small twist or two, the tale of The Engineers and their grandiose plan to threaten the U.S; government quickly lost my interest; It moved at a brisk pace through some good-looking locations around the world, but everything else was just noise.

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

feels like an apology to the fans who took exception to what they saw as a dumbing-down of the series, but the developers have not abandoned their ambitions to capture a more mainstream audience.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist – prior to this entry, I'd only played the first game in the series, on the Xbox, and I didn't quite get it. It had some issues that made it pale in comparison to Hitman 2 , one of my favourite games at the time when it came to stealth titles.

, 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

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

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

More stealth action from Sam Fisher is always a good thing and Blacklist doesn't disappoint