Splinter Cell Blacklist Diaries Part Five

This is my ongoing exploration of the Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell games, played in release order. I will chronicle my playthrough of each title in turn and discuss any recurring themes and noteworthy events. This time I continue Blacklist.

With only two hours to stop the Engineers’ next attack, we were on our way stateside…
Charlie reported that the trace on Reza Nouri’s phone and laptop had been stopped somehow, but that was fine as the tracker that was attached to the chemical bomb was working. The bad news, however, was that it was in the USA.

Sam forgave Briggs for doing exactly what he would have done, and they both went in to defuse the multiple explosive devices, which were in a Philadelphia transit yard. We somehow arrived ahead of them, and set up an ambush. Armed with sniper rifles, we took out one of the drivers before he kept them pinned from his position, and I went down to disarm the bomb. After a bit of luck knocking out a couple of them, some others spotted me and there was a gunfight, ending in my disarming the bomb.

Briggs went off to look for the other devices, and I took control in a first-person mode. Things did not go well, and many weapons were discharged before I found the van and disarmed the bomb. Briggs wasn’t too pleased that Charlie was talking him through it instead of Grim, for some reason.

"But I want the pretty lady to talk to me!"

Back with Sam, I dodged people, and clambered over trains to avoid them, only to be spotted when I was trying to shoot a guy in the head. Things went south, and I barely made it out of there without being spotted after a bit of a firefight.

Dodging around trains, I spotted a pipe which led up to the sniper nest in a booth. I tagged and bagged the guy as a high value target, then climbed onto the wall behind the booth and slid down the cable to the ground. A sentry stopped to chat to another one as I got into position, grabbing him and knocking him out before dodging a couple of mines and hiding behind a box.

A second guy came patrolling along, and I grabbed him too. Things were going quite well, as I stepped around mines and climbed along the sides of train carriages. There were two snipers, one of which was looking the way I had come from, so was of no concern. I climbed up to a carriage roof, then onto the bridge which the sniper was stood upon, sprinting over and knocking him out.

Onto another carriage, I used my sonar goggles to wait until the armoured guy inside stopped talking and came outside. I leapt upon him like a cat, knocking him out, before sprinting inside and belting the one he was speaking to. The third bomb was disarmed with ease.

Fortunately, Sam didn't inhale this time

The fourth, and final, bomb was being loaded into a train bound for the city, and Briggs was on his way. I avoided a sniper, and a patrolling guard, nipping up a ladder and around to get inside a roundhouse. I stabbed a guy, then the sniper, before throwing a proximity sticky shocker at a pair of goons. Unfortunately, it only tased the unarmoured one. The other, I threw an incendiary grenade at.

Yes, that was an awful idea, though it did kill the guy. I was swarmed by the remaining enemies, and had to gun them down before I could exit the back of the roundhouse, and enter the train which housed the bomb. Briggs joked that he had cut the wrong wire, and everything was safe.

Honestly, these FPS sections weren't my favourite

Except for the fact that Sam was somehow on a subway train, chasing the guy in charge of this operation. Bursting into one of the cars, I had to give chase to a pair of Engineers who legged it. In the next car I gunned them down, repeating in the next one. There was an explosion, and the third car end was blocked, so I went out the window and climbed across the outside of the train.

Shooting a window, I crashed back inside and quickly shot the pair of enemies inside. Into the next carriage, the two grabbed hostages. Luckily, I had an execution to use, and shot them both in the face, the hostages unharmed. Sam chased the boss onto the platform, where he took a hostage.

Sam arrived moments after, with a member of the Philadelphia Police Department aiming his weapon at the Engineer. The cop thought that Sam was with the guy, and shot the Engineer when he made a move, before arresting Sam when his backup arrived.

Later, Sam returned to the plane in time to see a tense interaction between Briggs and Charlie, and took no notice of it. Grim called them in to the command centre, and showed them a video which the Engineers had released. The American Freedom attack had failed, so instead of a week, the American Fuel attack would now take place in three days…