The game in short
What Is Black?
BLACK is a first-person shooter developed by Criterion Games and published by Electronic Arts in 2006 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Criterion came from racing, and it shows in the best way: this is a shooter built around impact. Cover crumbles under fire, fuel tanks turn rooms into fireballs, and every weapon sounds like it was recorded to be felt as much as heard. Two decades on, players still name it among the most physical shooters of its console generation.
The Black Android port packages that game for modern phones. It is an unofficial fan port, not a release from Electronic Arts, and it arrives in two parts: the Black APK itself, a small launcher of about 22.7 MB, and the Black game ISO, about 1.69 GB of game data the launcher needs before it can start anything. This page is the port's download home: both files checked, the install explained in plain steps, and guides written from actually finishing the campaign on a phone.
What is in the game
Black Features
Everything below is in the game this Black FPS APK delivers, verified in our own sessions on real phones.
- Destruction that changes fights: concrete chips away under fire, glass and fuel go up in chains, and cover you trusted a minute ago may not exist anymore. Shooting the scenery is a tactic here, not a habit.
- Weapons with weight: a focused arsenal of rifles, shotguns, a magnum, a sniper rifle and a rocket launcher, each with a long, deliberate reload animation and a sound that fills the room.
- Slow-motion breach moments: the last enemy in a room falls in slow motion, a signature beat that turns every cleared doorway into a small celebration.
- A full campaign: eight missions following Sergeant First Class Jack Kellar, told as flashbacks during an interrogation, with primary objectives and optional secondary objectives on higher difficulties.
- Two weapons, real choices: you carry two guns at a time, so every pickup is a decision. Health packs and armour are physical pickups too; nothing regenerates by hiding.
- No multiplayer, by design: BLACK was always a single-player game. What you get is a tight, hand-built campaign rather than lobbies and seasons.
Plenty of modern shooters are bigger. Very few hit as hard per bullet as this Black game Android players can now carry around.
From the real game
Black Screenshots
Every frame below is a real screenshot from the game itself: a street fight with a pistol flashing, the sniper scope view, a forest approach at dusk, an industrial yard, a rocket launcher setting a depot alight, a tower coming down, and a foundry skyline. No renders, no artwork, just the 2006 game as the port presents it.
Launcher and ISO
About This Android Port
A launcher plus an ISO can look old-fashioned, so here is what the arrangement actually does. The launcher is the app Android installs: it holds the engine, the touch controls and the menus. The ISO is the Black game ISO: the original game data, the missions, models, sound and video, kept in the format the port reads directly. Splitting them keeps the installed app small and lets the large data file be managed, moved or re-downloaded on its own.
The launcher also gives you an Import game option: open it once and it creates a Black folder on your storage, or point Import game at an ISO you already have and it will register the file from wherever it sits. That one option solves most setup confusion, and our install section below walks through both routes. For a Black Android port built by fans, the arrangement is refreshingly honest: no accounts, no streaming, the whole game sits on your phone and works offline.
Two files, one folder
How to Install Black on Android
The install has two downloads and one placement step. Do them in this order and the game starts first try.
- Get the launcher: download the Black APK from the download page and install it. Allow installs from your browser when Android asks; the launcher needs Android 10.0 or newer.
- Download the ISO: fetch the Black game ISO as well, about 1.69 GB. Use Wi-Fi: a partial ISO will not run, and mobile data rarely enjoys files this size.
- Open the launcher once: start the app a single time so it creates its Black folder at /storage/emulated/0/Black, then close it. You can also create that folder yourself in a file manager.
- Place the ISO: move the ISO file into the Black folder. Or open the launcher, choose Import game, and pick the ISO where it already sits; the launcher registers it from there.
- Launch and play: open the launcher, start the campaign, and spend two minutes in the control settings before the first firefight. The guides on this site cover the layout most players settle on.
If the game opens to a message about missing data, the ISO is almost always in the wrong folder or still carrying a browser-added name change. Put the file, exactly as downloaded, into the Black folder and start the launcher again.
The campaign frame
The Story: Jack Kellar
BLACK frames its campaign as a confession. Sergeant First Class Jack Kellar, a black-ops operative, sits in an interrogation room being told that cooperation is the only version of events that keeps him out of prison. The missions are his answers: flashbacks to an operation against the Seventh Wave, an arms-trafficking group, across border towns, a dockyard, an asylum and a foundry, hunting a leader who turns out to know Kellar's world from the inside.
It is a lean story and it knows its job: give every level a reason and get out of the way of the shooting. The live-action interrogation scenes between missions keep the pressure on, and the ending famously leaves a door open that a sequel never walked through. Part of the affection for this Black FPS APK is simply that the campaign ends the way it ends, unresolved and confident.
How it plays
Gameplay: Destruction First
Moment to moment, BLACK is about pressure. Enemies use cover, so you remove the cover. A room will not clear itself, so you work it: grenade the fuel, drop the sniper first, push while the dust is still hanging. The game helps you in one famous way, focus: while Kellar reloads, the world softens at the edges and time feels thicker, which turns the most vulnerable second of any shooter into this one's signature rhythm.
Health is carried, not waited for. Health packs and armour sit in the world, often exactly where the next fight is worst, and the two-weapon limit means a found rocket launcher always costs you a trusted rifle. On the higher difficulties, secondary objectives, intel, recon, armament and blackmail targets, reward players who search rooms they have already made safe. It is a short campaign by modern standards, and it is dense in a way longer games rarely manage.
Sound deserves its own sentence: Criterion layered weapon fire, debris and a full orchestral score so that a firefight is mixed like music, with each gun occupying its own space. Play this Black game Android port with headphones once. That is not a suggestion so much as a warning about your evening.
On a touchscreen
Touch Controls and Settings
The port maps the full controller layout onto the touchscreen: left side to move, right side to look, with fire, aim, reload, weapon swap, grenade and interact placed around the edges. Buttons can be repositioned, and ten minutes of tuning before the campaign pays for itself in every later room. Our settings guide on the blog covers the layout our reviewer settled on, including sensitivity for the sniper missions.
Two habits matter more than any slider. First, set aim to hold rather than toggle if you play in short sessions; your thumbs will thank you. Second, lower look sensitivity below what feels right in the menu, because BLACK's firefights are won at mid-range where small corrections count. Players with a Bluetooth controller can use that instead, and this Black Android port reads it as the console original expected.
Checked before listing
Safety and Verification
Unofficial ports attract unofficial copies, so this site publishes its checks. The Black APK we list carries the package identity com.racas.black, the launcher file measures 22,730,089 bytes, and the ISO measures 1,686,306,816 bytes with a verified ISO 9660 structure. If a file you fetched elsewhere does not match those sizes, it is not the file we tested, whatever its page claimed.
Our reviewer installs every listed build on real phones, finishes missions with the exact ISO we serve, and checks that the launcher asks for nothing beyond what a game needs. No bundled installers, no extra downloads hiding behind the button: that is the standard every Black APK file on this site is held to. The rating on this page, 4.6 from 153 published votes, is printed with its source named in our review notes rather than borrowed from a store the game never appeared in.
Storage and requirements
Technical Details
The launcher is a 22.7 MB download, but plan storage for the pair: the ISO adds about 1.69 GB, and Android needs working room around both, so keep at least 2.5 GB free before you start. The port targets modern Android and needs Android 10.0 or newer. Because the game renders a full 3D campaign, a mid-range phone from the last few years runs it the way it deserves; very old handsets may install the launcher and still struggle with the largest rooms.
Once installed, the game is fully offline: campaign, settings and saves all live on the phone. The complete file facts, package name and the one version number we publish, sit in the Black APK details table near the top of this page, which is the only place on the site where a version belongs.
Earlier launcher builds
Old Versions
Earlier builds of the launcher exist, and players occasionally ask for them by name. Our advice is steady: run the current build. Port updates have concentrated on exactly the things older builds got wrong, device compatibility, control mapping and ISO handling, and an older launcher paired with the current ISO is the most common cause of the missing-data message we see.
This page lists one build, the one we have tested end to end, and the download page serves that same build. If a future update changes the file, the Black APK details table changes with it on the same day, so the sizes printed here always describe the files you are about to fetch.
Other ways to play
Alternatives to Consider
If what you want is BLACK itself, the honest alternatives are the original releases: the PlayStation 2 and Xbox discs on original hardware, or the digital version sold for newer Xbox consoles through official stores. Those are the only other legitimate ways to play this campaign, and each has its charm; none of them fits in a pocket.
If what you want is the feeling, big destruction and heavy weapons in a single-player shooter, the modern stores are full of attempts, but most chase live-service models this game never had. Part of why the Black Android port matters is that it preserves a kind of shooter the industry mostly stopped making: short, dense, offline and finished. Start here, and if the campaign leaves you wanting more of the same era, the original hardware route above is the natural next step.
When something breaks
Troubleshooting
Most problems with a two-file install are placement problems. Missing-data message at launch: the ISO is not in the Black folder, or it was renamed by a browser or file manager. Restore its downloaded name, put it in /storage/emulated/0/Black, or use Import game inside the launcher and pick the file directly.
Install blocked: Android is refusing the launcher because installs from your browser are off, or because storage ran out mid-write. Free real space, at least 2.5 GB, allow the install for your browser, and retry. Black screen after the logo: force-stop the launcher, reopen it, and if it persists, re-download the Black game ISO on Wi-Fi; a file even slightly short of 1,686,306,816 bytes can pass a casual look and fail exactly here. Controls drifting: recalibrate in the launcher settings and check for a screen protector lifting at the edge, which this game will find before you do.
Staying current
How to Update
Updating the port is a launcher job, not an ISO job. When a new launcher build is listed here, download the fresh Black APK and install it over the existing one; Android keeps your settings, and the ISO in the Black folder stays exactly where it was, so the 1.69 GB download does not repeat. Your campaign progress rides along with the install.
Only replace the ISO if this page says the game data changed, which is rare, and even then the order matters: new ISO into the folder first, then open the launcher and let it register the file. If anything looks off after an update, the troubleshooting section above covers the three messages players actually meet.