Splinter Cell Double Agent 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 Double Agent.

Now proven as an asset by stealing secrets, capturing a freighter single-handedly and murdering a pilot, Dufraisne had returned with Sam to the New York stronghold of the JBA…

Colonel Lambert himself met with Sam close to the John Brown’s Army facility for a quick meeting. The two exchanged little more than pleasantries, but Lambert told me to get into Dufraisne’s office and find out what he was planning.

I like to imagine what they really said was all in the eye contact...

Sneaking back into the building, I was accosted by Enrica who wanted me to make some mines, and get rid of the pilot’s body because “he didn’t make it”. I had assumed as much when I shot him in the face, but nevermind. She showed me to the mine making machine, but I quickly got into the shadows and recorded her as she spoke the password to enter the door behind me.

She bumped into Dufraisne on the stairs and the two chatted, so I recorded both of them before starting to create mines. After 10, I decided to carry out my other objectives, firstly by using the recording to access the door and sneak upstairs.

There was a camera to the left, so I hung right and managed to avoid a couple of sentries and sneak into a room where I searched through a filing cabinet. I snuck back the way I had come, and avoided the guard who was walking side-to-side whilst facing the wall. There was a barred door which I picked, then turned off the lights before hacking the door behind it and gaining entry to Dufraisne’s office.

I had no idea where the man himself was, so I tried to work quickly, going behind the desk and going to turn the light off. I accidentally accessed the computer, so decided to hack it - and Dufraisne came in.

"Just ignore the sound of a safe opening!"

Somehow, he didn’t see me crouched behind the desk, and sat down on a sofa while I continued my hack and accessed his files. I then opened his safe and scanned the documents before trying to decide how to exit without being spotted. He stood up and I ducked under the desk while he went out, then riffled through his filing cabinet before exiting and heading back to the mine machine.

There were still several objectives, so I headed for the medical room to dispose of the pilot’s corpse. I kept an eye on people’s patterns as I went, and after dumping the body in the furnace room, I managed to record Moss speaking to some poor schmuck.

Back in the main room, I followed another JBA member up a staircase where I recorded him chatting to a guy fixing a voice lock. Back in the main room, I couldn’t get a good angle on Jamie, the final voice I required, so with my remaining time I decided to head to the firing range. Once more, I broke the record, then headed to the obstacle course.

I was here the whole time, honest!

Unfortunately, with time running low, I messed up and had to head back to the mine machine. I jogged up as Enrica was opening the door, literally just in time, and she apologised for making me wait. At some point between her wandering off and my seeing Dufraisne in his office, they spoke and decided that I should be sent on another mission - to test the detonator they were going to use with the very volatile Red Mercury…

A couple of weeks later, I was on a cruise ship off the coast of Mexico, with Enrica in my ear. A quick report to Lambert and I was off out through the window, as the coastguard was checking on guests in their rooms, and shooting anyone not in them.

"Just chillin'. You?"

I clambered across the side of the ship, and was about to grab a guy who was on a balcony when someone came and told him to get back to work. Following them in, Enrica created a distraction by activating the jackpot on a nearby slot machine. I quickly made my way across the casino to an office, and shot the light out to avoid detection.

Lambert wanted me to pop a smoke grenade in the ventilation system, so that the ship would be evacuated before the bomb went off, so I shot the watching camera with an EMP. Enrica complained that “something” was wrong and she couldn’t see me, so I dropped the grenade and picked the lock on a panel next to it. Before turning out the lights, I opened the safe and took a couple of things from it. I had to deal with a nosy guard who came in to find out why the light was off, but then I hacked the computer, turned the lights out and vamoosed.

"I'm just looking for the cabana, help a guy out!"

Four men came to investigate, each moving exactly the same and muttering the same foreign phrase as each other. I snuck past the sports car on a pedestal, and left through the main doors to head upstairs. Someone spotted me and shot me, but I belted him and continued on my way.

Having read an email that said the aquarium had a crack in it, I was overjoyed to find the room I entered had said aquarium in it. Unfortunately, given the amount of men ready to shoot me, and no guarantee I could take any of them out with the water from said aquarium, I had to avoid a firefight and went right through the middle of them unaccosted.

There was a door at the end of the hallway, leading to the elevators, and two men. I waited for the first to come through, and grabbed him, however the second was caught behind a second door. After I knocked the first one out, I tried to use the door as a weapon, but ended up having to knock his lights out manually, before using the elevator.

"Ding-dong, this automatic elevator has now arrived"

Enrica told me to hide, so I hopped up through the access hatch to keep out of sight. Someone came in, so I dropped down on them and knocked him out cold. Now on the main deck, I ducked behind something covered in a tarp, and Enrica activated the swimming pool fountains to distract the men guarding the area. I took down one quietly, but someone spotted me as I was making my escape, and opened fire. I shot him with a sticky shocker, then the one who came behind him.

There was a third, but now out of sticky shockers, I had to resort to lobbing a wine bottle at him, which knocked him out. Heading back into the ship via the spa, I knocked out a guard before asking Enrica for some steam in the steam room. Whilst the two guards in there with me flirted, I ripped a grate off of a wall and crawled through.

One of the command staff was in the room I entered, so I knocked him out when he turned his back to me, then also knocked out the guy outside the room. The first guy had told me the door code to get out, so I did so and observed the two men in white uniforms doing ship-related stuff for a moment. I dropped down, trying to repeat my elevator trick, but missed and alerted both of them, plus the guy who was outside. Now out of non-lethal options, I had to murder them before I could leave.

"WEEEE! So happy I remembered gloves!"

Zip wiring down to the foredeck, where Enrica told me I had to plant the bomb due to the coastguard, I tried to sneak around to take out two people, but had to gun them down instead. I planted the bomb, then copied the codes for Lambert, and dived out of the exit point, into the sea. Dufraisne wanted me back at base before he blew up the ship…