To prepare for this game, Béland studied reviews and feature lists of the latter. The game endeavors to combine elements of its predecessors, including the action focus of Conviction and the stealth focus of the older games. The game was directed by Maxime Béland, who had worked on Conviction, and produced by Jade Raymond. It is the first title developed by Ubisoft Toronto, a studio founded by Ubisoft in 2009. Mercs, which was introduced in Pandora Tomorrow. Blacklist marks the return of the asymmetrical multiplayer mode Spies vs. Blacklist 's gameplay is similar to its predecessors, with players tasked with completing objectives and defeating enemies.

In the game, players control Sam Fisher, a spymaster working for the Fourth Echelon, in a mission to stop the Engineers, a group of terrorists which is trying to coerce the United States into recalling all of its troops stationed abroad. The seventh installment of the Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell series, it is the sequel to Splinter Cell: Conviction. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist is a 2013 action-adventure stealth video game developed by Ubisoft Toronto and published by Ubisoft.

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