The game itself is good and plays well on the Steam Deck but Ubisoft launcher is a pain.

some of the best stealth mechanics you will ever experience. i hope the IP gets a reboot in a way that it deserves.

Probably the last game released by Ubisoft that I genuinely loved.

At the time, Blacklist represented a very welcome departure from the beating that the franchise received in Conviction.

That game, although not bad in itself, was a depressing simplification of almost everything that made the franchise what it was. Some of its parts, especially things like the interactive “interrogation” cutscenes, aged particularly poorly and were thankfully abandoned in the sequel.

In this light, I consider Blacklist the best game in the franchise by a considerable margin. Not because it’s innovative or extraordinarily fresh, but simply because it’s the most consistent and polished.

Most of the levels exhibit a good sense of aesthetics and visual narrative, they are large and beautifully designed, with clear objectives and directions that eliminate the need for any markers.

Almost all of them are dense with options and opportunities to accommodate all types of gameplay.

The tools you get this time are extremely versatile and allow for all kinds of crazy tactics.

Playing around with the AI is adequately satisfying, with enemies being perceptive and lethal enough for you to pay dearly for any mistake you make, but without losing the window of maneuverability for you to improvise plans and get out of critical situations if you’re quick enough.

You never feel like you’re being unfairly screwed over by the game with an unfair or poorly planned enemy setups. No situation is impossible to resolve elegantly.

This is a game that encourages experimentation and replaying the same levels multiple times. And you’ll get a lot out of it if you do that. The skill ceiling in this game is insane.

Nothing is more satisfying than doing an aggressively “stealthy” run and seeing how far you can get without being seen.

As a 7th generation game, it obviously received solid combat mechanics for the more intense action moments. But despite the gunplay being satisfying (With due lethality and feedback), it’s not reliable enough for you to solve things purely by these means.

Like a good stealth game, you are largely discouraged from shooting everyone you see. You die in a matter of a breath, automatic weapons have very high recoil and little ammo, and the chance of you being overwhelmed by enemies is very high.

But hey, everything is valid. The game even has equipment and customization options for players more interested in playing this way. The bigger point here is that you can do it if you want.

You have occasional set-pieces to make your blood run faster, but except for the final parts of the game, rare are the times when you are forced into problematic situations without much room to move and solve them the way you want. They control the level of tension quite competently, making missions more unpredictable as they develop, but almost never going beyond the acceptable.

Usually, surprises come as an extra narrative spice, adding fun to the game.

The final "boss" could have been a cutscene, though (I always hated that crap).

What else can I say?

The game is still beautiful. The overall presentation is impeccable. The music is excellent. Animations. Controls.

It’s even scary to believe that at that time Ubisoft was releasing things like this. You know, games that seemed to reflect the technical standards of the moment... Or perhaps today's standards have fallen so far that they are just perfectly in line with the times.

Anyway, Chaos Theory may well have broken new ground, be one of the best games of that era, and have an irresistible amount of charm, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the polish in Blacklist.

Blacklist is easy to return to and play. Chaos Theory, I always need to readjust to the game’s problems. Which range from poorly developed features to fluctuating quality level design contrasting side by side with the best levels ever made for a video game.

I miss Michael Ironside’s voice and the interrogations (The good ones), but I would trade that any day for the things in Blacklist. Blacklist offers me a tastier dynamism and versatility that isn’t present in any previous game in the franchise. Even though many of its elements were not exactly new, the simple quality and competence with which everything was assembled makes the game infinitely replayable for me.

P.S.: Or it would be if Ubisoft cared at least about its legacy and ensured that the games they have to sell are working and not with an expiration date.

Fortunately, the fix for Blacklist is easy. You just need to start it in "offline mode". Otherwise, you’ll have constant crashes (Look for the solution in the guides).

Multiplayer is out of the question.

As of 06/2024 they have turned off the online multiplayer. If you intended to buy this to play with a friend, it is currently shut down.

Game is good considering its a decade old, but it crashes every 30 mins and yes this game and many missions cant be played as it need coop and there is no multiplayer now .i'd say its not that worth it now

Great game but crashed alot. To fix it just go to the game in your steam library, right click and go to properties, then general and type in -offline in the box and the game will quit crashing.

a great game locked behind uplay's awful application,if you have any other way to play this game please do that instead of giving ubisoft your money for a game you will not own
9/10 game
but i don't recommend this version of the game just becuse of uplay.

keeps crashing on my laptop even with the on low q any tips maybe my laptop cant handle it.

This game crashes more in 2024 than my girlfriend crashes my car !

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