Splinter Cell Conviction Diaries Part Four

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 Conviction.

Having met with Victor, and pointed towards the White Box facility, I had set off an EMP before heading to the Lincoln Memorial looking for Lucius Galliard…

The secret service slipped me a press pass, and I made my way through the area. The vice president was giving a speech at the memorial, so there was a ton of cameras, equipment and personnel there. Grim told me to get to the camera control booth, to use their directional microphones so that we could listen in on Galliard’s conversation with Tom Reed.

I got into the booth and watched them chat, before Reed wandered off. I went after Galliard to interrogate him, while Grim spoke to him on the phone to distract him. I grabbed him and broke some expensive equipment with his face, getting the name “Megiddo” and that they were in control - but then he was shot by a man in a police vest.

I asked him nicely at some point...

Running after the man, I chased him around equipment, into a temporary office and through a café before he reached his car - and it exploded before I could reach him. Grim sent someone to pick me up, but not before three SUVs with Third Echelon goons eager to murder me. I took them out before my ride arrived, then hopped in the boot and escaped.

Whomever was driving took me to Third Echelon headquarters, though at Sam and Grim’s request rather than against my will. I was to plant some C4 to take out the power, then infiltrate before they brought it back on. I went over to the parking lot office to listen to the good things being said about Sam Fisher, then snuck inside and murdered one of the men. The other had left moments before, so I followed, hopping over the side to make my way along the dark outer side hand-over-hand.

The rest of the parking structure seemed to be full of guards with guns, so I had to be careful. Any hint that I was here, and they would go into lockdown, causing me to fail. I climbed into the first generator room through a ventilation shaft/hole in the wall, planted the C4 and went back outside.

I dropped to the floor and snuck past the sole patrolling guard, but was stuck with another one watching the exact place I needed to go. Hitting the nearest car, the alarm went off and I managed to get into another duct unseen. Once the second lot of explosives were planted, I had to get back across the garage to the elevator. I went up some stairs and opened the door at the top. I grabbed the man guarding the door, dragged him back inside and smashed his face into a wall, then quickly ran towards the lift.

Nice covert street-level organisation you've got going on...

Hopping over the railings, I managed to avoid detection from two men and a camera, before getting into the elevator and heading for the building’s foyer. I greeted the secretary, who said they were closing early today, before detonating the C4. The building went into lockdown as the secretary hid under her desk. I shot a guy and ran under the closing security door. Two more doors were closing on the hallway, so I ran while shooting at the two guards heading towards me.

Safely inside the large building for this secret organisation, I had to make my way to the server room - Grim’s contact was waiting for me with some information or something. Unfortunately, between me and there were a dozen or so guards out for my blood. Through a combination of guile, luck and a shotgun, I reached the server room.

Pretty sure this guy would have been wearing a laptop around his neck like a medallion, in Splinter Cell...

The guy gave me some goggles, which were equipped with a sonar, allowing me to see through walls, and tuned to the building’s laser grid. I murdered more Third Echelon on my way to Reed’s office, only to find Kobin - who I had last seen in Malta - ranting on the phone to Reed.

I didn't question him nicely...

After a little bit of throwing him off of a balcony and into a flat screen TV, he revealed that Reed planned to assassinate the president. That way, Megiddo would run the US through the vice president, who they already had in their pocket. A quick stabbing with a broken flagpole later, Grim told me to “TelePresence” her when I got to her office.

I waded through more goons, using my sonar goggles when I remembered, and reached the office, turning on the TelePresence (powered by Cisco). Grim recapped that Reed’s plan to fire three EMPs was to disguise the assassination. She then revealed via his own recordings that Lambert had orchestrated Sarah’s “death”, due to a mole inside Third Echelon and a “credible threat” against her.

Grim had to calm Sam down, and the only way she could convince him to help stop one of the EMPs was to say that Sarah’s apartment would be hit by it. There was no way to take out all three, but Grim was heading to the White House with Reed to stop him from carrying out the assassination.

I'm sure it couldn't hurt to have backup in the form of an unstoppable former-spy

It was finally time to leave, so I went for the door. Then Reed activated Protocol 2319, which was apparently going to “sterilise” the “data”. Which was weird, because the building was starting to explode. Despite that, people were still trying to kill me directly, instead of standing at the front doors to hold them closed.

I mean, just park a truck in front of that, and you get one dead secret agent

Tense minutes and a number of bullets later, I got out of Third Echelon as it blew up. Next stop, wherever the hell that EMP was set to go off...