Splinter Cell Double Agent 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 Double Agent.

Returning from planting a bomb on a cruise ship, Dufraisne wanted me to see the trigger get pulled…

But first, there was a power cut so that Lambert could verify that I had to stop the bomb from going off by using the codes I had copied to interfere. Then, I would have to find out if there was another bomb on-site.

"No, you hang up first..."

Dufraisne came to get me as soon as the power came up, and took me to decrypt an email for him. The puzzle to decrypt it was basically an advanced form of Sudoku, so it took a minute or so, then I was free to explore other objectives. The main one which the NSA wanted me to complete, was record video proof of another bomb.

Quickly scanning Dufraisne’s fingerprints from the table in front of me, I went past the mine making machine, and upstairs to check the one place I missed out last time. I snuck beneath a camera and around to an office to find Enrica hunched over a table. Going around the desks, I hacked into a computer and got her code for the bomb before she came over to check on things for someone. I snuck back out, completely forgetting to scan her fingerprints.

I, uhh, dropped my contact lens?

Back through the other way, I avoided two sentries and snuck back into Dufraisne’s office, turning the lights off and barely hiding in time for the man himself to come out of his private quarters. I went past him as he walked over to turn the lights back on, and checked out his place, having a look in his filing cabinet before leaving. Unfortunately, I wasn’t careful enough and he spotted me, ordering me out of the restricted area.

I went right back in, and went further down the hallway. With Dufraisne’s fingerprints, I could now access the door at the end, and did so, being confronted by an arguing Moss and Jamie. Jamie left through a retina-locked door, so I followed Moss. I snuck under a camera and might have lost the man, if he wasn’t walking down a single corridor. Hacking the door at the end, I followed him into the security room, then into an office at the other side of the room.

Moss needs to wear glasses - or put a lamp on

He alternated between three areas, so I easily snuck around him and checked his filing cabinet, then scanned his fingerprints off of the desk. I hacked the computer, then left the room to check the security room’s computers. Despite the guy sat next to one of the computers not moving, I managed to sneak around him and access the security camera. It was focussed on a hallway without any way to change what it was looking at. Just the shadow of a fan spinning.

With time now rapidly running out, I had to jump out of the window and make my way back to the office, which is where Dufraisne found me when he returned. He checked the email I decrypted, then we went to the main area to see the explosion on the big TV. I had three seconds to make a decision - let the ship explode, stop it, or frame Enrica. Since the threat against her had been made very clear, I decided that if everyone hadn’t evacuated the smoking ship full of dead and unconscious coastguard and crew, then they deserved it.

This documentary has great special effects!

The ship exploded, taking a chunk out of the nearby beach, and the JBA cheered, congratulating me and Enrica. Despite their mood, she seemed disappointed. Maybe she wanted to die?

Dufraisne took me on the next mission, to drink Um Bongo in the Congo. Well, maybe not exactly that, but it involved sitting in a truck in an underground car park, whilst a warzone erupted around the building. Hisham Hamza contacted me, telling me that I had to find out who Dufraisne was meeting with, and what about, so that his cover could remain intact.

Dufraisne really does look like Agent 47...

I casually ran to the other end of the car park, managing to avoid detection until I hopped up onto a ledge to access an elevator. I quickly shot the guy who spotted me, hid the body and went upstairs in the lift. It opened into a kitchen area, so I hugged the wall to assess the situation. Someone came over and instantly spotted me, so I shot him which alerted his mate.

After a brief firefight, I hoisted myself up the remains of a bombed-out stairwell, and proceeded to murder the four or five mercenaries up there. Through a room and out the balcony, I climbed up a sign to the roof, where there were some locals with assault weapons. I managed to get spotted, resulting in yet another firefight.

Once clear, I found my way down to the secret room I needed to bug: a hatch lined with laser trip mines. Luckily I managed to deactivate them, then jumped up onto a pipe, attaching myself to lower carefully down.

I've no idea how he was lowering himself without physically holding the rope...

The way into the room was more than a little convoluted, and involved clambering across various handholds whilst avoiding a cycling grid of lasers. Once more, I attached myself to a pipe and lowered myself down, planting the bug before raising myself back up. Just as Dufraisne and the others arrived.

"That's one weird ceiling ornament..."

Unable to move without causing the light fixture to jingle like a windchime, I was stuck in place whilst the three men detailed their targets very generally. No specifics, just the cities they would bomb. Someone casually mentioned that Dufraisne had a mole inside the organisation. He asked whom, but the next moment was demanding that Sam remain where he was. In the car park, because that’s where he was headed.

Agonising seconds later, once the room had emptied, I lowered back down and legged it. Out through a broken window and rappelling down the side of the building, I could see the others in an elevator at the other side of the courtyard. I spotted a vent and crawled through, ending up in the toilets near to the van. Having beaten Dufraisne, I just had to wait for his arrival.

Actually, he also looks like Norman Soth, from Chaos Theory...

Dufraisne explained that there was a mole, and he knew who it was. He sent me off to murder the one who had betrayed the JBA: Hisham Hamza…