Splinter Cell Essentials 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. This time I continue Essentials.

Having been captured by a governmental agency, after answers to why he joined the John Brown Army, Sam Fisher had been asked to recount the events that took place in Yugoslavia, in 1999…

Sam had been sent in to destroy a missile shipment, to avoid the Serbian militia causing any more NATO casualties. I arrived on a cargo vessel, and carefully made my way along the row of shipping containers whilst I listened to a couple of cousins chat. I dropped down onto one of them, and shot the other before climbing through a container to find one of my targets.

There was a floodlight aimed at it, a guard leaning against it and a second guard watching the first one. Since neither of them were in a moving kind of mood, I decided to climb around to the dark side. The noise must have alerted them, as they both moved into new positions, but I planted the bomb before shooting them both with my silenced pistol.

As I went past more containers, Lambert told me that there was now a secondary objective. Find some information hidden on a PC. I knifed a guy who got too close, then went around some more containers. Despite the hint that one of the next guards gave me, about squashing him and his friend with a shipping container, I decided against doing that and went through said container over their heads.

Despite my stealth thus far, someone spotted me and I had to shoot three guards before going into a mess hall. A guard had just left through the door, so I went through a busted ventilation shaft.

The two guards at the end of the shaft wouldn't quit spotting me, so it ended in a bit of a shoot out. I went through the door to the left and found a laptop, so completed the secondary objective. Back out and around to a second door, I spotted more missiles with a guard patrolling. I climbed a ladder and gave him a stabbing, then went and planted a bomb on the crate.

Back outside, I had two unmoving guards watching the next crate. I had to shoot them both quickly before planting the bomb and carrying on my way. Lambert told me to find the final crate while they worked on how to get me in through a door. Looping around the other way, I slit a guard's throat before spotting the crate with my thermal goggles. I climbed a fence to plant the bomb, then was spotted by a guard. He came to investigate, so I shot him.

Lambert said that a guard would be coming out of the door soon for a smoke, so I should get there soon to sneak through. The guard got a quick stab, and I ducked through the open door. There was a final guard between me and extraction, so I shot him, climbed a container and went over a wall. Lambert told me to get over to an anti-aircraft gun and take it out.

As I made my way into the building, Lambert told me that I had a time limit. In 15 minutes a NATO plane would fly over. I had to take out the radar, the gun and the operator.

There was one guard inside, so I shot him and went through to some stairs. The door was electronically locked, so I quickly went back to cut the power before heading up. Two guards were chatting, but unfortunately I was stood right in the way as one came out. I stabbed him and got shot a few times before I took the other one down. I threw a grenade at the console and made for the closest door.

The console gone, I now had 20 minutes so I went up some stairs and shot two guards. In through a bathroom, I spotted a UN hostage and one of his kidnappers. I shot the guy with the gun and carried on my way, letting him escape on his own. Up a ladder, another window had the SAM site. I shot the missile on the hot spot, and was told to extract as it exploded. Someone burst through the door and got a stabbing for his trouble, and I left the room. Two men were at a flaming barrel, so I threw a bottle and snuck past, rappelling down a wall to extraction.

Although Grímstóttir was apparently restoring the files, Blake still accused Fisher of killing Lambert and another NSA agent. He demanded to be told about what happened in Warsaw, Indiana, in 2006. Advanced NSA weapons had been stolen, and were going to be sold to domestic terrorists, so I had to infiltrate the steel mill it was taking place in.

The keypad-locked door opened and I nipped through behind a civilian. A guard noticed, so I stabbed him and then his friend who ran up behind him. I climbed a pipe and listened to the buy go through inside a ventilation shaft, then got told by Lambert to laser mic the phone conversation that the buyer was having. I exited the vent shaft and had to take care of a couple of goons in a smelting room, then three more in another room. Grim told me to hack a server, so I went left to find it.

One interpreted technician later, I hacked the laptop and someone came running to kill me. I hid behind a wall and stabbed him when he came around it. I went back to the right and up a couple of staircases. The room at the top had a couple of people in, one with a gun, so I waited for him to move before sneaking past. Right in front of me was the buyer, so I laser micced him and was told to extract.

I went out of the room and shot the buyer and his man, then made my way to the other side of the building for extraction. Unfortunately, the guy in charge of doing so was crooked, and wanted to kill me, at least as far as Lambert told me. I shot a diversion camera at the floor near to him, and gassed him to extract him for interrogation. Once I carried him into the van, mission accomplished.

Current day Grim finished decoding, or whatever she was up to, and discovered that Lawrence Williams (current head of Third Echelon) was changing the files, trying to implicate Fisher. Someone chipped in that they knew he hadn't murdered any guardsmen back in 2007. Back in Chaos Theory Diaries Part Three, where I accessed Zherkezhi’s apartment and found out that Dvorak was the name of a punch card computer. The layout was smaller, but the basics of the mission were the same, if you wanted to read about it on the link.

Grim burnt the evidence of Williams’ interference onto a CD, but Williams took it from her. Meanwhile, Fisher was sick and tired of the interrogation going nowhere, so broke free and escaped. Grim told Redding what was going on just before Sam called him, wanting gear. Redding said he would help, but only if Sam explained why he joined the John Brown’s Army militia. Obviously having more than enough time to do so, Sam began with breaking Jamie Washington out of United States Penitentiary in November 2008, which I covered in Double Agent Diaries Part One. Although in that game it was called Ellsworth Federal Penitentiary, and took place in February 2008…

The level was very different to the original, and basically involved stabbing a guy who snitched on Jamie before following him to the laundry room. From there we got to the kitchen, and he wheeled out a food cart with me hidden behind it. We disposed of two guards and made it to the roof, where he set off a flare. I stabbed a couple of guards before the helicopter arrived, and off we went.

Having explained that over the phone, Sam met up with Redding and Grim, and decided to tell them that he had indeed murdered Lambert…