Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory Diaries Part Two

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 taking out the leader of The People’s Voice, I was being sent into a Panama bank to find out who paid them to kidnap Bruce Morgenholt...

I overheard some guards talking about the “amazing” motion detector lights, and how one of them had a “great idea” about having one on his driveway. I ignored them and made my way towards the bank, though I accidentally activated one of the lights.

One of the guards investigated why the light was on, but it did allow me to slip past him and around the side of the bank. I found a junction box and deactivated it, turning off all of the lights, then snuck back past the three guards to the other side. A camera I hadn’t noticed spotted me, but I managed to get up a ladder and onto the roof before any of the guards made it around.

The bush was hiding the camera to the left

Grímstóttir told me that I had to deactivate the electronic locks on the roof and lower myself inside, which I did. Unfortunately, I landed in the middle of a laser grid. Luckily I had been equipped with a remote hacking gadget, and turned off the lasers without setting them off. There was a guard snoozing next to an optical scanner, so I grabbed him and made him unlock it for me before knocking him out.

Not like he can crawl under lasers...

In the hallway there was a camera right above an Exit sign, so I shot out the sign and continued through. There was a busted door lock sparking every so often, so I ignored the room and considered my options for getting into the small security office outside the vault. With a whistle, one of them booted the door open and came out to find me. Since I’d shot the lights out, he looked around before starting to walk away from me, where I grabbed him and knocked him out.

After repeating that with the other two, grabbing one while shooting the other, I went into the office and checked the computer. After some hacking, I planted a fake email to make this whole operation appear to be an inside job, because I was under orders to also steal some bearer bonds, as well as the information Third Echelon were after. But first, I had to activate three panels in three different areas to unlock the door to the vault.

Subtle

There was a door going outside, so I used it and shot a camera with an EMP round from my pistol, causing it to go on the fritz long enough for me to go past. There was a guard out here, but I ignored him and listened to the bank president complaining loudly to someone on the phone about security. As in, it was tight enough, and he was perfectly safe to shout the code to the security room at the top of his lungs -- which he did.

I went back inside to the formerly-sleeping guard and through the other door there, shooting out the light as usual. After listening to the two guards in this security station, I whistled and one came out. He checked the light before going out towards the unconscious guard, so I had to shoot him in the head. I then went into the security room and turned off the light, clobbering the second guard when he came to turn it back on.

It's not like turning the light off made much difference...

Planting another email, I left the room and went out the second door to a stairwell, and upstairs. There was a guard walking past some lasers without setting them off, so Grim suggested I stick behind him. Instead, I grabbed him and interrogated him to get whatever was causing the lasers to turn off around him. Sadly it was in his uniform, so I knocked him out and carried him as I planted another email on another computer, and left the area.

There was another guard doing the laser trick, so I shot him in the head before carrying the other guy through the kitchenette, and into the hallway. The main security room was between me and the president’s office, so I EMP’d a camera and snuck around to the door. I had the code, so unlocked it and went inside carefully. I turned off the camera system, wiped the data, activated a vault room panel and left the two guards alone with their computers.

In the president’s office I activated a second vault panel, planted another email and went back the way I had come. The only panel I hadn’t activated was in the treasurer’s office: the one with the busted lock. Trying to rule out every possibility, I returned to the hallway with the exit sign, and went outside. I shot a guard with a sticky shocker which alerted the other two somehow, despite being too far to see him in the low light. Despite that fact, I waited for them to get in range before shooting them both with sticky shockers.

At the front door, I checked it out with my optical cable and saw a lone guard wandering around. I whistled to get his attention, and he kicked the door open before I shot him with an airfoil round, knocking him onto his back. I planted another email on the receptionist’s computer before returning to the exit sign hallway. I figured I must be missing something, and went back outside to where I had listened to the president.

After knocking out the guard, I spotted a pole leading up, so went up and into a crawl space. It led me back to the main security room, so while I was there I remotely hacked the computer, turned off their air conditioning and left another email, before heading back to the pole. I dropped back down before seeing a crawlspace beneath the camera, which I went into and finally got into the treasurer’s office.

The third vault panel pressed and a final email planted, I checked a drawer next to the desk and found the suspicious transaction records I was told about. It was finally time to break into the vault.

I'm sure whatever that was is harmless to flesh...

After grabbing an explosive and a telemetric pick from safety deposit box 1024, I went down to the vault and set to work. The pick was able to copy my movements, as there were two locks to open simultaneously. The only caveat was that I had to wait a few seconds for it to catch up -- but it was easy enough before it was done. Setting the explosive in place, it fired off a localised EMP and made the door swing open. I went through to the back of the vault where a computer was waiting. I hacked it and activated everything without thinking, and turned the sprinklers on, as well as opening the cage where the bearer bonds were kept. I planted the final fake email, then grabbed the bonds and left the vault -- activating an alarm.

Thankfully I had spent ages taking out all but three guards in the bank, so casually made my way to the exfiltration point at the gates where I had made my entrance. With nobody awake (or alive in three cases) to see me, I reached the gates without a problem.

However, once Fisher was back with Third Echelon, the power across New York went out. Fearing another cyber terror attack like Nikoladze had pulled, Sam was sent in...