Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow 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 successfully gathering information from the embassy raid in East Timor, I was following Mortified_Penguin’s trail to Saulnier Cryogenics in Paris…

I began by heading down into a disused section of the metro, adjacent to the still-running portion. As such the occasional train would zoom past, throwing wind and newspaper everywhere. I could have used it as cover for my shots, but since both of my weapons were equipped with suppressors it seemed redundant. One guy was at the rear of the train, so I accosted him and dumped him in the shadows, before climbing on top of the train and walking along.

Looking more like a ninja than in the last game

Some pipes blocked the way, so I had to drop down through the roof after a couple of carriages, and carefully made my way through the rest, until I spotted another guy. I waited in the shadow while he chatted to another one, before they both split up. The one I had spotted came aboard the train, so I grabbed him and knocked him out. His mate was walking along the platform, so I waited for him to come back before shooting him.

Through the tunnel they were guarding was the entrance to the cryogenics facility. It was on fire. I couldn’t help wonder why they were guarding a flaming door, although luckily there was a sprinkler system on my side of the flames. One shot to knock the end off extinguished the fire.

The first room had some storage racks and one guard patrolling. I shot out a light which made him investigate, and I shot him. The next room had a bunch of computers, so I turned off the lights, again making the two guards investigate, before showering them with ammunition. I picked the lock on the next door and entered an auditorium just as the lights were switched on.

Stopping in the shadow, I waited for someone to move, but there was nothing. I snuck around to the rear of the room and turned on my night vision goggles, spotting someone at the other side in the doorway, aiming his rifle at the lit up podium area. I approached and fired a smoke grenade into the doorway, which sent out an alert and one of them ran out, falling to my bullets. The smoke cleared, and I went into the adjoining room to find two unconscious bodies, though the maneuver had earned me a telling off from Lambert and Grímstóttir.

On the upside, they thought it was a gas!

They also told me that it was imperative that I not allow the computers to be destroyed, as bullets began ringing out and into computers. I stood up and shot the two men doing the destruction through the windows into the room, before heading in and accessing the few remaining systems.

Grímstóttir accessed the system but in moments was telling me that the mercenaries had activated a time bomb in the room just down the hallway. I went with haste, but not quickly, and peeked around the corner -- as I suspected, there was a merc guarding the door, just as another one came hurrying out. They disappeared around the next corner, and I went for the door. I stopped short when I spotted the guard peeking down the scope of his rifle at me.

Fortunately he didn’t see me, so I scoped him back and shot him in the face. I rushed to the door which was locked. Fast running out of time, I picked the lock and went in, disarming the bomb with several seconds to spare. In the time it had taken for all of this, the alert level had returned to zero.

Weird how they had to be in the room to activate it remotely...

I followed after the other merc, and spotted a red circle on the wall at the top of the stairs. It was a motion sensor, according to the information in my Opsat, so I snuck past it and went up. Three mercenaries were shooting through windows at a room when I opened the door, so I waited for them to finish and wander off before accosting the one who remained to patrol.

Unfortunately, that set off an alarm somehow, and I got a telling off once more. The guy didn’t see me, so I had no idea why that alarm went, but once he was hidden I picked the lock on the nearby door and went to go into the room which had been shot up. I checked it out with my optic cable first, and saw someone coming right for the door with his weapon raised. I moved beside the door and shot him as he came through, but he had a friend who shot me a couple of times. Moving back, I waited for him to get in my sights before shooting him down.

Since the alarm was still going, I went into the room which had security cameras, and ignored it as I accessed the computer. It turned out that this was the server room, and once Grímstóttir told me where to go, I left the room and went into the next one where a medical spotlight was aimed at the door on the other side. There was a mercenary I could see through the large window, stood watching the door, so I turned off the light making him check it out.

Another motion sensor was on the wall as I snuck past and to a stairwell. There was a camera next to a wall mine, and as I began shooting the lights out I realised I could shoot the camera instead. With that gone, I snuck up to the wall mine and deactivated it, pocketing it for later just in case.

A light illuminated the door at the top of the stairwell, so I checked out the other side with my optic cable, spotting two mercenaries in the lobby of the building. I went out just as one walked past, completely missing me, and he walked to the end of the corridor where a keypad locked door was. I followed and shot him, then went for his friend who was using the receptionist’s computer, grabbing him and dumping him in a dark corner. The code for the door was on the computer.

Yay, a freezer to use my thermal goggles in...

In the back room there were previously-frozen brains scattered about the floor. It seemed that Mortified_Penguin wasn’t CIA, as he had mercilessly killed those cryogenically frozen people. Okay, let’s not debate over whether a frozen brain removed from a skull is still alive or not… I had a security guard to find, who had apparently taken a picture on his phone of the terrorist in charge.

The trail, such as it was, led into the freezer, which meant that I had to don my thermal goggles to see. There was an auto-turret just inside, but I spotted it easily and deactivated it before grabbing a mercenary who was busying himself with the liquid tanks. The next section had some large glass tanks with people inside, as well as two mercenaries at the far end of the gantry. I aimed down my scope and shot them both before moving on.

Now out of the freezer, there was a wall mine just past the door I had to go in, so I ignored that and entered the room. There was a ventilation grate off of the ceiling, so I jumped up there just in time to see three mercenaries unloading ammunition into a vault-style door. The guard was inside, and they wanted him dead. Fortunately the ventilation shaft led into the room, which was for storage.

He literally greeted him with "I'm the phone repair man"

Sam had a chat with the guard, and took his phone, where Grímstóttir ran the picture through the system. The name Norman Soth came up, and I was told to get out of there. Unfortunately, the three outside had found some explosive barrels, and a timer began counting down. I climbed back up into the shaft and shot a valve behind the three, causing steam to blast them and kill them, stopping the timer.

I dropped down out of the vent shaft and straight out the back door of the building, meeting with Coen. Soth’s trail was growing cold, so I literally had a train to catch...