Players control Sam Fisher, a highly trained operative 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 game received generally positive reviews from critics when it was released, with praise for its level design, story, gameplay, combat, soundtrack and multiplayer mode.

In Blacklist, players assume control of series protagonist Sam Fisher as he seeks to stop a terrorist group called the Engineers.

[14] Blacklist has platform-specific features, including voice integration with Xbox 360's Kinect peripheral which allows players to distract enemies before attacking them or to call in an air strike.

Spies, in third-person perspective, are equipped with smoke grenades and flashbangs and are tasked with hacking computer stations heavily guarded by mercenaries.

[29] The mark-and-execute system works slightly differently in the cooperative mode, with enemies wearing helmets require both players to mark them before they can be killed.

The game also sees the return of Fisher's old ally, Anna "Grim" Grímsdóttir (Kate Drummond), and new characters such as Isaac Briggs (Dwain Murphy) and Charlie Cole (David Reale).

Several supporting characters from Conviction reappear, including Victor Coste (Howard Siegel), Patricia Caldwell (Mimi Kuzyk), and Andriy Kobin (Elias Toufexis), as well as interactive telephone conversations with Sarah Fisher (Victoria Sanchez).

While assigned to a USAF base in Guam, a military force assaults the installation, neutralizing its commander and hundreds of its members, while heavily injuring Coste.

A faction known as the "Engineers" publicly declare their responsibility for the operation, announcing it will launch a retaliation on the United States until it recalls its troops deployed abroad.

U.S. President Caldwell appoint Sam and his colleagues – tech specialist Charlie Cole, CIA operative Isaac Briggs, and technical analyst Anna Grímsdóttir – in to Fourth Echelon, a new top secret black-ops unit which conducts out of a converted military cargo plane known as "the Paladin".

After successfully stopping another operation in Philadelphia, pushing the Engineers to increase their efforts, Sam and Briggs move to the Guantanamo Bay torture camps when Fourth Echelon learns that Nouri is providing misleading information to the CIA to reawake the United States's hostility towards Iran.

Through interrogation and torture of Nouri, he reveals that Sadiq sought to distract the US government from an imminent assault on the Gulf Coast's fuel supply.

Sam is forced to protect the Paladin when Sadiq's groups launch an assault on Fourth Echelon, allowing the Engineers to use a commandeered tanker to capture the Sabine Pass LNG terminal.

Opposing Caldwell's orders, Fourth Echelon breaks into the bunker as Sadiq's sleeper agents take control of the facility and its personnel, including the Secretary of Defense.

Securing the missile and learning that the agents are led by a man named Cherski, Sam and Briggs escape as the building is destroyed and Indian authorities arrive.

Sam and Briggs reach an abandoned naukograd, surviving a drone attack, and find a secure medical facility said to contain an OpSat (satellite uplink device used by Fourth Echelon operatives) with vital Voron information.

[40] Maxime Béland, who had worked on Conviction, was the game's creative director,[39] and in November 2010 Raymond confirmed that her studio was developing Splinter Cell 6.

[46] When players called Conviction's campaign weak and short, the team added a stronger storyline and greater character depth by introducing the Fourth Echelon and Fisher as a leader (a series first).

[50] The team also introduced accessible, action-oriented gameplay segments which would suit new players,[51] crafting open-ended levels which could be reached with different approaches to broaden the variety of play.

[52] The developers re-worked the controls to increase gameplay fluidity, allowing players to automatically leap over objects and traverse a simplified environment.

Game director Patrick Redding compared it to the development of an ecosystem; the team designed a dynamic artificial intelligence which would react differently to players' actions, making levels feel alive and adding randomness.

According to Ubisoft executives the change was made to take advantage of new performance-capture technology to enrich the game experience, and Ironside assisted Johnson with the role.

[63] Splinter Cell: Blacklist was released in North America on August 20 and in Europe three days later for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Wii U, and Xbox 360.

[65] Splinter Cell: Blacklist - Spider Bot, a 2D puzzle game tie-in, was released for Android and iOS platforms on June 10, 2013 and is available on Google Play and the App Store respectively.

[67] Although Joystiq's Mike Schramm praised Blacklist's early screenshots and videos for removing Conviction's monochromatic visuals,[68] its new voice actor was not received well by some fans.

[69] Ubisoft responded with a statement that Ironside was not returning as Fisher because an actor "physically capable" of a motion-capture performance was needed, and Johnson was hired for the role.

Ryan McCaffrey of IGN praised the gameplay's variety and player options, which he thought made Blacklist the best installment in the series since Chaos Theory.

[76] On the Joystiq blog, Xav De Matos liked the game's narrative urgency and engaging plot twists but criticized its rushed ending.

McCaffrey found the visuals unimpressive and most character models to be ugly; he also noted technical problems, such as screen-tearing and frame rate issues.