Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory 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.

After breaking into Displace International, the USS Walsh was destroyed and Sam sent to extract Zherkezhi from Hokkaido for interrogation…

Infiltrating from the jungle, I avoided a single guard and gained entry to the complex. I had been asked by Admiral Otomo to keep an eye out for hidden microphones, and Lambert had me going after Milan Nedich before I was to extract Zherkezhi. I had a busy day ahead of me…

Blowing out a candle lured a guard in to investigate, and I grabbed him for interrogation. Whilst doing so, his mate came in on his rounds, stood at the door and wandered off when the first guy finished telling me everything. I went out to find the guard patrolling around two cars, so I left him alone. Redding asked me to scan the license plates to try and figure out the real identity of Nedich.

I'd make a joke about my barber, but Sam beat me to it...

It turned out that his real name was Milos Nowak, AKA The Bosnian Barber. I went across the lot into another building where I overheard a pair discussing the ninja-proof floors. Despite the protestations from his friend, one insisted that an oil rig he was on in 2004 was attacked by a ninja.

After murdering them both, I crept through the rooms searching for hidden microphones. I found another man on the other side of a vent and dumped him in a potted plant, then shot a light with an EMP round. It alerted a fourth guard, but not enough to make him look away from where he was scanning for bugs. I mugged him and he told me that he hadn’t checked the phones yet.

That turned out to be useless information, as the bug was on the painting next to where I grabbed him. And all of the microphones I would find were also similarly placed. Since Otomo had admitted that “normal techniques” would locate them, I was using my the electromagnetic setting on my goggles to locate them.

I continued on, spotting yet another guard wandering around a lit fire. While I was watching from the shadows, he approached me and went into the room I had just left, so I grabbed him and he told me about a medical kit. I left him unconscious and went on to find a duo talking about the bugs.

"I'm just a very discrete bug exterminator"

The one who hadn’t done his job properly left after being told off, and I snatched him in the shadows. I EMP’d a light fixture and he went to investigate, allowing me to get behind him and dump him in the shadows. There was another bug in the room, then a vent to crawl through to reach a garden area. I turned on the sprinklers which alerted the guards, but they didn’t give it much thought. So I turned it on three more times, which got their attention. They approached me in the shadows, so I shot one and nailed the other with a sticky shocker.

Unfortunately, there was a rather loud civilian, so I had to punch his lights out before I headed inside the next building. I could overhear Nowak discussing something over the phone, so snuck around and found another microphone. My thermal vision showed that there were several people in the room with him, so I decided to use a handy vent to sneak past them.

Two men and an Astromech, if I'm reading this image correctly

Suddenly, one of the guards dropped some change. I crawled as fast as I could, making it to the next room, which was completely dark but for the door opening into the hornet’s nest that was the other room. Nowak finished on the phone and told the men that Shetland, owner of Displace, was on his way there. The men left, and Nowak took himself to the hot tub in the next room where he made another phone call.

Watching with a sticky camera attached to the ceiling, the men eventually left, leaving me with no prying eyes. I went into the hot tub room and slit Nowak’s throat, then made my way back through the vent. One of the guards was patrolling, so I shot him with an airfoil round and hopped into another nearby vent set above head level on a wall.

The room I entered was a break room, with an arboretum. I turned on the sprinkler which alerted the nearby guard -- especially when I opened the sides and let it spray him. He came to investigate, but stopped short of my position. I shot him with an airfoil round and snuck around to listen in on a documentary about tree slugs. I shot the guy who was watching it, then removed a hidden microphone before heading into the bedroom.

Much to my chagrin, a guard spotted me whilst I was looking for more microphones. I quickly shot him, completed my scan and went into the adjoining bathroom. A civilian was in there, so I punched his lights out.

Back the other way, there was a glass door leading to some stairs. A guard spotted me, so came to investigate. I managed to hide under the stairs, and fired a sticky camera at the doorway I had just come through. When he got in reach, I gassed him and went upstairs. Sadly I wasn’t paying attention, and had to gun down a second guard when he opened fire on me.

I nipped down a second staircase and found the final bug, then left through a vent. I came out on a rooftop across from where Shetland was chatting to Zherkezhi. As the discussion went on, I wanted to get into a better position in case one attacked the other. I fell off of the roof, alerting Shetland into shooting Zherkezhi -- but curiously not alerting the guard stood in front of the door.

Lambert told me to get after Shetland, so I stabbed the guard and went through the door. I could hear a helicopter, so hurried through a (for some reason very short) doorway. There were three guards in front of me, where I had scanned the number plates earlier. I fired off some smoke grenades, but the helicopter took off before the guards fell down, whisking Shetland to safety...

With all of my objectives complete, apart from the unfortunate demise of Zherkezhi, I was told to extract. With all but the first guard already taken care of, I went and knocked him out before heading back into the forest.

Forests at night are dark - who knew?

There would be no time to go after Shetland -- not yet, at least -- as I was being sent to North Korea. We had to establish whether they fired the missile which sunk the USS Walsh on purpose, or whether it was caused by a Masse Kernel attack...