Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory Diaries Part Three

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.

Having just pulled a job in a Panama bank, Sam returned to Third Echelon in time to see the power go out across New York City and Japan…

Since it was obviously a cyber attack along the lines of what President Nikoladze did in 2002, I had been sent in to check it out. A guy called Abrahim Zherkezhi was an associate of Morgenholt before his death. Evidence from the bank showed that it was Zherkezhi who bought the kidnapping of his former associate, and was apparently working with a “Dvorak” to utilise the Masse Kernels. Of course, with rioting going on, the National Guard were out in force, and seeming to know what kind of mischief I would perform, Lambert told me not to kill anyone.

Now, which button was it to knock out, again?

I left the cover of the dumpster I was behind and grabbed a soldier, interrogating him to find out how many other troops were around. I creeped into cover behind another dumpster and picked up a bottle to throw it and create a distraction, however the bloke somehow spotted me in the pitch black.

Shooting him and his three mates with sticky shockers regrettably used up all of the ones I had brought. I ducked into a building and came across another man working on repairing an elevator. Lambert came over comms and told me to wait for the guy to finish, otherwise it would be a long climb. A second guy began hassling him over how long it was taking before wandering off to patrol the building. I explored the option of taking down the second one, and in the process shot out a bulb, but decided to hang out and observe the first.

Once he had finished, he walked past me and spotted that the light was out, as did the second. Whilst they investigated that, I slipped inside the elevator and up to the roof, via a storeroom with a single sentry. I hid him in the shadows before going up some stairs to the roof where a helicopter and three more troopers were.

Complete mission, or go on joyride...? Choices...

After shooting out a light, I hopped over some pipes and knocked out two of them, waiting for the third to turn his back before clobbering him as well. My objective was in the building opposite, so I had to zipwire across to the billboard decorating it.

There was a mercenary guarding the entrance, and upon interrogating him, Lambert identified the company he was with as Displace - run by Douglas Shetland. I knocked him out and went inside where someone was fixing an elevator. As I began to approach his mate came over to complain about how long it was taking. Yes, this happened twice. Once the doors were open, the fixer went to relax against a wall. I didn’t realise he was going to turn around, and I had to slit his throat when he spotted me, alas alerting the other merc.

I shot him a bunch and continued along my way, finding another merc snoozing at a computer. I throttled him and dumped him in a corner before checking out the computer, which turned out to belong to the architect of the building, and detailed a panic room. I went back to the elevator and climbed inside, and up to the next floor since it had no power.

~Everybody was hacking cameras~

William Redding came over comms and warned me about the security cameras as I was getting out of the elevator shaft. Equipped with infrared sensors, they would be able to see me even in the dark. However, if I could hack them it would help Third Echelon keep an eye on Zherkezhi. I accidentally got spotted, which brought three mercs down on me, only to fall to a hail of bullets.

I hacked the two cameras before heading upstairs to the bedroom. I hacked the camera, then the computer that was also in the room, though it didn’t have anything useful on it. I went through the room and overheard a couple of mercs talking about how great Shetland was, and waited for one to come into the hallway where I had turned off the light already. He got shot in the head, and I opened the door to shoot the other guy before hacking the camera in what I now saw was a greenhouse.

Back through the bedroom and downstairs, I cleared the penthouse and hacked cameras as I went, eventually finding a magnetically sealed door. I had to locate the panic room to unlock it. I hacked the final camera and checked the bedroom I had just left, but no sign of the panic room. Then I remembered the other bedroom upstairs, and went back to it.

There was a door I hadn’t noticed last time, which held the panic room. I accessed the computer which allowed Grim to unlock the sealed door as it led to the rooftop, and gave access to the neighbouring building where Dvorak was. I went back and opened the door, carefully scanning around before ducking into the shadow.

A floodlight illuminated the area, and left me little room to sneak. So when I shot the light, four mercs rook offence and started shooting at me. I took out two with little trouble, ducking into a fenced area and turning off what turned out to be a generator. It made the other two completely lose me, so I took my time to shoot one through the window.

The final merc was still inside, so I went in to take care of him. I checked under a door with my optical cable, and spotted the merc heading for it. I bashed the door open, knocking several shades out of him and almost sending him down an elevator shaft.

Free to operate, I began searching the area. I easily found a locked room, which I had obtained the code for earlier, and went inside. There I found what I was looking for - once I spoke to an old guy who revealed that Dvorak was a server operated using punch cards.

He was watching a very familiar TV show...

We turned it on, at Grim’s request, to get an output stack. She needed it to work out what code it was operating on, so once I had it Lambert told me to exfiltrate. I went back to the second elevator, and headed out. The next stop was Displace International, so I could find out what Shetland was up to, or at least what he didn’t know...