Trivia / Splinter Cell: Blacklist

• Dummied Out: A playable "torture" sequence used in the Abandoned Mill level was cut prior to release due to negative feedback from testers and journalists who demoed the scene.
• Follow the Leader: Blacklist taps into the same "Occupy Wall Street is coming to get you" zeitgeist that The Dark Knight Rises and Call of Duty: Black Ops II did. By the time the game was released (late 2013), Occupy had already fizzled into obscurity.
• Franchise Killer: The game sold the least out of any game in the series, and as a result, outside of a mobile game and Sam Fisher having cameos in the recent Ghost Recon games starting with Wildlands, the series hasn't seen a new installment since 2013. While Blacklist tried to Win Back the Crowd who were turned off by the more action-focused gameplay of Conviction and succeeded to an extent, it's still a divisive entry due to things like still being more action-focused than the first 4 games with scripted combat sequences (which Chaos Theory and Double Agent removed), Michael Ironside being replaced by Eric Johson who sounds 30 years too young for the role of Sam Fisher, lack of humor, a lackluster soundtrack and Spies vs Mercs and aggravating dogs which are a nightmare to sneak past (there's a reason dogs were removed as enemies after the original Splinter Cell and Pandora Tomorrow until this entry). A remake of the first game has been announced in 2021, though even that doesn't seem to be going forward.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Eric Johnson replaced the series' veteran Michael Ironside as the voice of Sam Fisher, which caused some uproar. In an interview for his return as Sam Fisher in a DLC mission for Ghost Recon Wildlands, Ironside reveals he left the franchise due to undergoing treatment for cancer.
  • Kate Drummond replaced Anna Grímsdóttir's first and most recurrent voice actress, Claudia Besso, for Blacklist.
• What Could Have Been: The reveal cinematic trailer for Blacklist shows Vic Coste providing sniper support to Sam during a mission in Mirawa. For unknown reasons, this idea was scrapped. Vic is severely injured in the opening mission and spends the entirety of the game's campaign in an incapacitated state.

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