The trailer for Spies vs. Mercs was just released for Blacklist and I'm incredibly amped.
Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow contained what is, to me, the single greatest multiplayer experience of all time. It had an incredibly steep learning curve and the upper echelon of players were all well known to each other. I still remember entire matches and how tense and exciting it was. Of the DoA community, only Silent Legend and RyuJin ever really ended up playing with me and they can let you know a bit more about my level of skill, but it'll have to be enough for me to simply say I was very good at both Spy and Merc sides.
Back then it was only 2 on 2 and was incredibly tense. The maps were all very dark, the Spies were supposed to be weak and timid when caught, and the Mercs were supposed to be juggernauts and incredibly lethal. What myself and a few other players started to pioneer was the Rambo Spy who took advantage of some of the skills provided to play the game in a completely different way and the entire community changed because of it. In a time where patches were few and far between the Mercs were actually given protection from a lot of the tactics we devised, including making Spies get electrocuted and stunned if they tried to jump on a Merc as they were rising. That was something that would kill them before if their partner wasn't around to stop it but we'd gotten so aggressive that the devs felt the need to protect the already lethal Mercs.
It was glorious.
Anyway I could rant all day, but after multiple games getting it wrong (and Conviction outright axing the mode), Blacklist appears to have gotten it right. The lighting, the tension, and the gadgets are all true to form and the addition of 4 on 4 looks to have been balanced perfectly to preserve the tension. If you think 4 players removes it because the Mercs can simply stay together, just know that you're wrong. The Mercs can't stay together or they'll leave the objectives completely unguarded. It's a very well thought out system and I can't wait to dig in. The trailer is below!
Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow contained what is, to me, the single greatest multiplayer experience of all time. It had an incredibly steep learning curve and the upper echelon of players were all well known to each other. I still remember entire matches and how tense and exciting it was. Of the DoA community, only Silent Legend and RyuJin ever really ended up playing with me and they can let you know a bit more about my level of skill, but it'll have to be enough for me to simply say I was very good at both Spy and Merc sides.
Back then it was only 2 on 2 and was incredibly tense. The maps were all very dark, the Spies were supposed to be weak and timid when caught, and the Mercs were supposed to be juggernauts and incredibly lethal. What myself and a few other players started to pioneer was the Rambo Spy who took advantage of some of the skills provided to play the game in a completely different way and the entire community changed because of it. In a time where patches were few and far between the Mercs were actually given protection from a lot of the tactics we devised, including making Spies get electrocuted and stunned if they tried to jump on a Merc as they were rising. That was something that would kill them before if their partner wasn't around to stop it but we'd gotten so aggressive that the devs felt the need to protect the already lethal Mercs.
It was glorious.
Anyway I could rant all day, but after multiple games getting it wrong (and Conviction outright axing the mode), Blacklist appears to have gotten it right. The lighting, the tension, and the gadgets are all true to form and the addition of 4 on 4 looks to have been balanced perfectly to preserve the tension. If you think 4 players removes it because the Mercs can simply stay together, just know that you're wrong. The Mercs can't stay together or they'll leave the objectives completely unguarded. It's a very well thought out system and I can't wait to dig in. The trailer is below!
