Spies vs Mercs is back in Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist!

The popular multiplayer mode which pits Spies against Mercenaries will return in Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist, the newest iteration in the long-running third-person perspective stealth-action franchise. Ubisoft has issued the trailer below giving our first glimpse into the Spies vs Mercs portion of the game, wherein the objective of sneaky agile spies is to extract sensitive data from multiple terminals while the opposing well-armed and heavily-armoured mercenaries must stop them at all costs.

For the spy, attaining success in this mode typically means sticking to the shadows an staying quest but deadly, using the various tools at this disposal to confuse the enemy and make his escape if at all spotted. Meanwhile the mercenaries have numerous weapons to dish out damage, but are limited due to their first-person perspective, making the atmosphere all the more rife with tension as each group tries to outwit the other.

The video above shows off a fair bit of gameplay as well as gadgetry each side can employ, whetting our appetite for the game. Fans can pre-order the title to obtain the bonus Upper Echelon pack, which contains a suit providing better protection against bullets and useful for staying in the shadows, the gold sonar goggles which provide tactical imaging to locate those pesky mercs, and the bonus Dead Coast co-op mission.