5. Realistic Tactical Gameplay
Flank right, take cover there, breach and clear. All under our control as players through a brilliantly resourceful interface that is pretty much central to the Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon franchises. The ability to direct your team in such specific manoeuvres during combat gives you real tactical power over your game and can make a crucial difference to your mission outcome. Primarily through the exhaustive use of the D-pad, you have complete control over your comrades and, whilst the AI isnt always perfect, it makes you really feel like their commanding officer.
4. Spies vs Mercs
Given as the single best reason to get online by Game Chronicles Magazine, the Spies vs Mercs multiplayer game mode was heralded as the best feature of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, the game on which it first appeared. The premise is basically an adversarial death match but there is that wonderful Tom Clancy twist. You have to play to your strengths depending on whether youre a Spy or a Merc. As a spy, youre better off employing stealth tactics, hand-to-hand combat and a multitude of gadgets. If youre a Merc, be bold. You cant climb a drainpipe but you pack a hefty punch. What results is an entertaining and highly addictive spin on the original multiplayer mode and was brought back by popular demand as one of the multiplayer modes on Blacklist. So grab your mates and pick a side. But beware. A well-known side effect of Spies vs Mercs is a strange temporal disintegration and before you know it, youve lost 9 hours and missed three meals. Youve been warned.