Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Blacklist

I tried to play the game it crashes every time now when I am reaching out steam for refund after trying to play the game for 3.7 hours they denied a refund now with the new update the game does not open

Game still crashes after about 45 minutes to an hour of game play. It's a great game from back in the day, but it's kinda hard to stay interested whenever you randomly crash in between a few missions. No error code, just kills the game. At least they have the option to start your mission at a checkpoint.. UBISOFT just needs to revive this franchise to save them from this hole they've been digging.

Do not purchase this game, it no longer works. It will not boot anymore, and all multiplayer functions are shut down. It was awesome while it worked.

Wow, a single player game that is older than 10 years..
Still need an account to just play this.. oh yeah, wanna mod it to work on modern systems. sorry Ubishits removes the product from your account?
All for what, the reiviting multiplayer?
"Notice: Multiplayer and online features are no longer available for this product.":

i will never buy a game from you guys ever, and even trying to go back and play an old game that i have had for years, solidifies that.

Great game, but can no longer recommend as some content has been no longer playable for a while with no way to restore or play. DLC content is also no longer redeemable due to implementation, even if previously purchased.

It's impossible to play the game because it crashes every 15-20 minutes. Thanks, Ubisoft!

DO NOT BUY! As of 2025 Ubisoft is closing accounts or being sanctioned as far as I've read. It's not really clear what that means. They've been making games, requiring online access to play, and shutting down online access on their end, and that's what they did with splinter cell blacklist unfortunately. Multiplayer has been shut down almost since the beginning of its release. It requires Ubisoft Connect to work. Last year in 2024 you could still play it by logging into Ubisoft connect, even though online play wasn't available. Now Ubisoft connect won't let you log in at all. DO NOT BUY! It won't let you play it and you'll have wasted money. REALLY GOOD GAME THOUGH IF YOU CAN FIND A PHYSICAL COPY!

the greatest shame about this game is that the multiplayer is no longer available. One of a kind. Fun chill game
9.5/10

Ive played this game on multiple computers and it constantly crashes

A great game with bad code.

Blacklist has aged very poorly in the technical department having lots of issues playing nice with modern hardware. While there are community fixes and patches you can go find Ubishat hasn't seen fit to include any of them here and simply let the game rot much like they did with Conviction (another great game)
The game crashes regularly, whenever i finish a mission, restart a mission or sometimes even load the main menu its not great folks.

If you can get past all that and make it stable the game is pretty good with excellent mechanics and a really fun Co-op mode to be enjoyed and is probably one of the best stealth action experiences you could have outside of a Hitman game.

This is a great game, super fun, the story is kinda cheesy but it is really good in terms of gameplay and how the world listens to your playstyle, but... DO NOT BUY IT. Ubisoft doesn't give a damn about this game port, and you shouldn't either. Get a console version instead, believe me, the port is a pixel away from being unplayable. Here are two reasons why you shouldn't buy it:

Stability: This game refuses to be played. It closes 30 minutes after you boot it up. I've done everything and I only have 2.5 hours registered. You know why? Because I can't launch it from Steam—it crashes. You can fix it with a YouTube tutorial, but you shouldn't have to. That's not your job. You paid to own a functioning product. You need to do what Ubisoft couldn't and disable the online features, because...

Lost functions: Now that Ubisoft openly says "We don't give a damn about our products," they removed all co-op and competitive features. Remember all the stuff that was only playable online? Like all the Briggs missions, the co-op actions in the Grim missions, and all the Spies vs. Mercs stuff? Well, Ubisoft doesn't—because they shut it all down!

Now, the game is great. It's not perfect, but it has the best gameplay (to date) the series ever had. It's a great combination of stealth and action. It's not as focused on stealth as Chaos Theory or Double Agent (Xbox version), but it's a good one, so...

TL;DR: Play it on console edition.
And Ubi... I hope you close soon enough.

Cant Launch the game anymore, it rarely works

Best linear stealth game for me. I understand the Ubisoft crap as well as performance issues but it ran fine for me tbh. Give it a try if you like stealth/espionage games in any capacity.

bought this game, played it for a few hours, decided to wait until i get a controller, re-download a year later, completely inaccessible. my old "ubisoft connect" account does not let me sign in, or recover from the email associated. I only made an account with their service to access the game i already paid for on steam. when creating a new ubisoft connect account it allows me to fill all fields, and then hits me with "account creation is not available at this time"

I researched this pretty in depth to see if it was something i could work around because, its a single player game why would i need an online account when im pretty sure the online server doesnt even work in this game...?

I didn't get very far other than seeing somebody on reddit or something with a super similar problem, and they told them that they had been IP banned buy and large from ubisoft which i guess happens semi frequently. this isnt really a review of the game at this point its just the people who own it. definitely gonna pirate this some time soon along with all of my subsequent single player titles from ubisoft. im sick of being treated like all i bought was a ticket to a movie

also, id like to mention, i played this game for about 2 hours of real game time. I remember bc it was so close to being under 2 hours that I tried to get a refund from steam hoping the staff would forgive play time that was only there bc the timer runs when youre in the ubisoft window too. the other 4.7 hours is me trying to get past the ubisoft connect window for reference

The story had a cool concept but is still somewhat s***.
The gameplay is SO MUCH BETTER than Conviction, but still somewhat s***.
However, the most important thing that defines a stealth game is being able to beat it without alerting anyone. This game (mostly) does that.

Unlike Double Agent and Conviction, this actually has night time missions and missions you can actually stealth. They actually make use of the level design to provide alternate routes and uses for the goggles. And because there are actual night missions, that means nightvision actually has a point.
The concept and execution is 100x better than Conviction, but that's not saying much.
Overall, I think I enjoyed this more than Double Agent. It is still worse than the first three.
My Ranking: 3 > 2 > 1 > 6 > 4 > 5

Story r*tardation

-Fisher would not be the leader and also go on missions. That was why Lambert getting himself killed in Double Agent was f***ing r*tarded. You don't send the literal highest ranking person into missions to die, but they didn't use their brain cells and made the same mistake again.
-Fisher makes r*tarded mistakes that he would never make. One of his defining traits is his professionalism (until Conviction). He wouldn't force himself to go after a guy when he is clearly dying. He wouldn't lose his s*** at Briggs when he made the right choice. Fisher also establishes that the Engineers are only letting them find info to trap them, then somehow forgets that a few levels later.
-How the hell did 4th echelon become 5 people on an obese plane, when they had an entire massive base in Conviction. The solution to a corrupt agency is more oversight not less, but again the writers are geniuses.
-They didn't even try to make the finale make sense. They got all of the hostages killed and didn't even acknowledge it.

Gameplay r*tardation

-Light and dark literally mean nothing. I am convinced they added it as a placebo in an attempt to trick real fans of the series. If it affects anything, it only reduces the speed at which they detect you (slightly). And shooting out lights is almost pointless. Sometimes enemies won't even notice shot out lights, if you shot them out while they weren't around, but other times they'll do a little bit of a search. Ironically they are more upset by a light switch being turned off or a door being left open than light bulbs being shot out around them. Also, they do not notice massive vent covers being open, but if a door was left open, they lose their minds.

-An enemy that detects your drone suddenly gains 100% accuracy and determines the location you are piloting it from. I cannot stress enough how violently angry that makes me. Whoever made that decision wins the f***ing r*tard of the year award. Even if they shoot your drone, it should put them in a searching state like when they find a body, but no, it instantly ends your stealth run and turns into a crappy third person shooter.

-The developers somehow do not understand the concept of peripheral vision. If I am sitting still in the shadows and only seen in peripherals, an enemy walking by should not notice me. If I am running across a doorway, AN ENEMY SHOULD NOTICE ME. How hard is that to understand? We notice movement, we don't notice still things as much. How did they get it so backwards?

-The sound mechanics in this game are the shallowest they've ever been. Walk fast as you get close, and they'll hear you, but use cover dash 2 inches from them, and they don't hear a thing. We still have no sound meter because noise is apparently too hard for the masses to understand. As far as I could tell, there is no environmental sound masking like in the first three games.

-Enemies will detect bodies instantly, with barely part of it visible, even in the dark, even when many other bodies are present. Thankfully it doesn't hurt much, but it is still infuriating because it can cause them to roam.

-They give you a ranged taser and it is so broken. You basically don't even need to do take-downs because they give you so much ammo for it.

-Chase scenes and scripted action set pieces. They do not belong in stealth games. Scripted set pieces don't belong in games in general. I should be in control of the character, not the game.

-Instant death quick-time events at the very end of the game when none were present before.

-This is a pet peeve, but it really annoys me when you take enemies down that their lights magically, instantly turn off, and that nobody notices their gun sitting on the ground.

Great stealth game but FUCK UPLAY it's so useless and tedious

liked stealth, missions and customizations, disliked ubisoft and not being able to connect online

If you are the patient type and dont like to go in guns blazing then this game is for you.
Super tactical game.

campaign is fine, with support pulled the game feels lacking if you wanted to do coop. various technical issues you have to find work around. otherwise its ok.

Silk movement. Great mission design. Intriguing story and characters. This is a great farewell for the time being. Hopefully Ubishite sells it to a company that understands the value of this IP when they inevitably go under/sell IP in the next year or so.

the game is super fun but no, multiplayer anymore

The game is really good, but it's pointless if you can't play it... but well, Ubisoft...

Weird that in stealth-focused game you can't transitions 90 degrees around a corner without coming out of cover, hoping you're still crouched, moving around the corner and then entering cover again.

Actually, it's fucking retarded.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist is a great game but this PC version is a mess. Without doing any setup, the game crashes constantly, sometimes does not even start up, and has severe frame rate issues. Now thankfully the community has been real helpful coming up with fixes that are a must to even play this game. The community tab should be the first stop before you even attempt to play Blacklist. Ubisoft really dropped the ball on this PC port and the Uplay launcher is of course abysmal.

Now the game itself is top quality, even though it falls short of the series heights (like Chaos Theory). Blacklist allows for a lot of freedom in how to tackle missions. The diversity of possible playstyles is the best feature by far. It can be played like the classic games (full on stealth, stalking in the shadows, not killing anyone) or the more action, run and gun oriented approach featured in Splinter Cell: Conviction. This makes the replay value extremely high, since there is an end of mission score system that allots points based on your approach. Plus in-game currency is rewarded at the completion of levels to buy upgrades to weaponry, gadgets, and tactical suits. It's very well done overall.

Gameplay is solid, quick and responsive. Sam is as agile as ever. Guns feel good to handle, gadgets are useful and satisfying to use. Not to mention the takedowns both from cover and out of cover look amazing.

Story is a letdown. It's very 24-like. Handicams, terrorism plot, staring at green maps and command centers. It's very one note and predictable military action movie stuff. The biggest letdown story-wise is Eric Johnson's performance as Sam Fisher. No Michael Ironside for the first time in the Splinter Cell series. Eric plays the character like an even more generic Jack Bauer and sounds just way too young for the role. None of the dark humor, wit, or humanity that Ironside brought to the role.

Overall, this PC port is terrible. If anything, I'd recommend getting the console version. If that's not possible, then this is the second best version to get. It can run well, but it will require some additional setup to make it work.

the game is absuloutly awsome, i am a big fan of stealth games but i just get one issue, my game keep crashing after 30-40 minutes

the game crashs or disconnect from ubisoft network for no reason and kick you out of the game like every 15 m if your lucky and for no reason at times the steam key board keep popping up every time i push the crouch button on the x box control and there is not hot key set on my control lay out on the x box control for the steam key board ... is this just one more reason why every one is sick of U.B.S way of makkeing you pay and you dont even get want you pay for well you kind of do i guess if your well to play for 10 t0 15 m before being kick or the game crashing on. what happen to Ubisoft because these days you pay for their game but can never play it because you never get any where and always have to replay the mission you get half way and then your kick from Ubisoft network or the game crashs on you and WHEN YOU RESTART THE GAME YOU FIND OUT it start you off at the beginning or the last checkpoint if you make it to one in a story mission and that only story missions and not side missions???? i love the SPLINTER CELL GAMES BUT IF THE NEXT ONE IS the same as this one where Ubisoft is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bisoft care so much about those people and not the ones buying their games and are people trying to do it the right way so ubisoft get it money but these days it look like UBISOFT FANS NEW IS DEAD...

~ GAMEPLAY ~
🔲 Boring
🔲 Rock Paper Scissors
🔲 Entertaining
🔲 Fun
✅ Godlike


~ DIFFICULTY ~
🔲 My grandma could play it
🔲 Easy
✅ Normal
🔲 Hard
🔲 A challenge to be reckoned


~ GRAPHICS ~
🔲 MS Paint
🔲 Bad
🔲 Meh
✅ Normal
🔲 Very Good
🔲 An original artistic direction
🔲 Beautiful
🔲 Masterpiece


~ STORY ~
🔲 This game has no story
🔲 Some lore
🔲 It's there for people who want it
✅ Well written
🔲 Leading to more in-depth researches/thoughts
🔲 A model to get inspired by


~ LENGTH ~
🔲 0 (No story)
🔲 Short
✅ Average
🔲 Long
🔲 To infinity and beyond


~ MUSIC ~
✅ Just filling noises/No music
🔲 Trivial and uneventful
🔲 Good and/or fitting the game's artistic dispositions
🔲 Memorable
🔲 Transcending whispers of a forgotten world


~ INTEREST ~
🔲 I would rather watch paint dry
🔲 Hard to enjoy
🔲 Repetitive and/or uninspired
🔲 A good moment
🔲 Sticking out of the pack
✅ You will remember it long after


~ REPLAYABILITY ~
🔲 A one-time experience
✅ Only for achievements
🔲 If you wait a few months/years (or with mods)
🔲 Definitely
🔲 Infinitely replayable (or almost)


~ BUGS ~
🔲 Never heard of
🔲 Minor bugs
🔲 Can get annoying
🔲 Impacts the player's experience badly
🔲 The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
✅ Ubisoft

This game is fun, but you are lucky if you can get through a mission without it crashing at least 2 times.

The game crashes after 30 minutes max and you have to re open it again... Big issue with no resolution

Trying to play this game again, I am unable to play it for more than 20-30 mins w/o crashing. I tried the tutorials online, either I cannot find the file or items in it to change the properties.

Does not work anymore. Ubisoft is without a doubt the worst game company of them all, even worse than EA, and that's impressive.

game kept crashing every 30 mins i requested a refund.

Fun, until the game crashes or Ubisoft connect decides to have server Issues.

Played 55 minutes and the game crashed twice. The controls are very bad, Sam for some reason has a turning circle like he's a van or something. Very frequent bugs of enemies clipping through walls, pinging off into the distance as well as floating characters including yourself.

if the game doesnt launch, go to your installation folder .../Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist\src\SYSTEM and delete the systemdetection.dll.

for higher fps, set afinity on Blacklist_DX11_game in task manager.. the game only uses one core. remember to do this every launch

Game crashes every 30 minutes on the steam deck which sucks cause this is one of my favorite stealth games to play. Ubisoft or steam needs to fix this quick so everyone who likes this game can play it with no problem.

Este juego forma parte de mi infancia y le tengo mucho amor es muy bueno en todo, lo unico malo es que se acaba

In just over an hour of playtime, this game has crashed on me twice. I don't like losing progress or having cutscenes interrupted. And of course, you need to use Ubisoft Connect to play-- you're lucky if the most annoying part about it is having to enter your password every time. If you were hoping to play this game online, know the official servers have been shut down, and a third-party workaround is your only option.

As for the contents of the game (I've played this once before): the story is generic (standard for the Splinter Cell series) and the game is fun, but the button mapping on controller is bizarre. One of the biggest disappointments in this game, is Michael Ironside not voicing Fisher. Players don't notice and thus do not benefit from the voice and mocap actors being different people, so their reasoning for casting someone else makes no sense.

My advice to you would be to buy this game at a steep discount, or avoid it completely. If you do pick it up, remap your controller before you start playing (RS to reload, seriously!?).

If you want to play this game play it on an PS3 or Xbox 360. Although the game is amazing and I love the franchise, I would not recommend purchasing it from steam. I had the game for about one day before uninstalling and asking for a refund. The port for the pc kept crashing and the only option I saw to fix it, caused the game to no longer work. I even tried uninstalling and reinstalling it and the game wouldn’t even launch.

The game itself is decent - I've played it before. But it's a disaster now. Ubisoft Connect is terrible, making it unnecessarily difficult to just launch the game.

Story is only available and replayable content as well. But no way to get DLC if you bought the bundle. If you wanna play strictly the story: just go into the game's properties, advanced launch options and copy and paste this:-offline -offline_mode

You will play the story with no issue. But it is only the story as they basically disabled uplay and the multiplayer aspect for no f'ing reason. Other than that: solid game, tbh.

The game itself is great, but Ubisoft remains insistent that I re-input my password every time I launch the game. Mind you, I already have "Remember Me" toggled on Ubisoft Connect, but for some godforsaken reason, it doesn't actually work. Even when you DO finally get in the game, the servers have been shut down, so you have to use a 3rd party private server tool just to play coop. Ubisoft is the worst game company.

The game is tagged as having multiplayer, but the multiplayer servers have been shut down for a while - there is no multiplayer. A shame, because the MP was really good back in the day

The game is pretty fun but yeah it totally crashes like every 20 minutes. It's honestly not that bad cause there's a lot of checkpoints and loading into the game is really fast. There are those missions where there are no checkpoints though and it's just like one compound and that can get a bit annoying.

All in all, it's a decent game but it does in fact crash every 20 minutes

i used to love the game but holy. the PC port is not good. crashed instantly when i launched it for 20 mins straight. froze my PC (i have a brand new PC with a 4080 super in it) when i fixed the crashing the fps for the game was attrocious. waste of 30 bucks. its a shame because i loved this game on console.

I got this as part of a bundle, because The first few Splinter Cell games were great. However, this one is unplayable console port garbage. It's not the same style any more. Sam felt clumsy and severely limited instead of the lethal tech-ninja that he used to be. Not gonna lie, I only played for about an hour, but I just couldn't get into it as a fan of the series. The dumb console-style checkpoint system means it's harder to try different approaches. Not that the game gives you as many options for stealth vs loud like there used to be. There's also still a bug that intermittently makes you lose all keyboard control, meaning you need to kill the process and start the level over. They've also added an economy meta game that you need in order to do upgrades.

dont waste your time. ubisoft connect is garbage, and you cant even get your ubisoft games to open, even if you have the connect app and have linked your account. how tf is ubisoft not bankrupt yet? dont tell me that clown show R6 seige is still carrying these dogs after 10 years.

Splinter Cell Blacklist has a great story, allows the player to choose between action-packed or stealthy gameplay, and (relatively short) missions take place all over the world.You work with cool gadgets that give you an advantage over your enemies, such as drones, sleeping gas, and electric shockers. The environment is beautifully designed and allows you to approach your goal in alternative ways.

Bugs are rare. I only had a problem with a certain character getting stuck after a dialog with a guard, but thanks to the swarm intelligence of the Splinter Cell community, the problem was easily solved. The credits video somehow did not display, but I watched it on YouTube instead. Otherwise, a really smooth performance.

Don't worry if you've played all the other Splinter Cells (except for Conviction, which has a similar play style). The previous games are more focused on stealth without the need to knock-out a lot of enemies.
Blacklist, on the other hand, forces you (or at least me, maybe skill-wise) to take out foes more often, especially those damn dogs!

At first, I kept comparing the gameplay to the old games, and I was annoyed by a lot of aspects because I did not adjust my play style and it just felt different. Also the "take cover" mode felt weird at first because it somehow reduces your visibility when you change cover compared to when you are not in "take cover" mode, at least on normal difficulty.

But I realized that its not fair to criticise it this way, because I think that the developers put actually a lot of work and dedication into this game. So I started to appreciate every bit of it as a piece of art (idea inspired by a YouTube video from juanjo_sound "How to enjoy games again") and it helped a lot to stop comparing it to e.g. Chaos Theory and enjoy every detail of it.

Literally borderline unplayable.

Constant crashes, PhyX engine conks out and flings hidden bodies into the path of the people you're hiding from, weird mouse acceleration.

It's criminal Ubi is still charging $30 AUD for this.

Basically the greatest game ever made with weird politics but I like moving fast in stealth games so maybe you are forgiven you be soft.