Splinter Cell Double Agent Diaries Part Three

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.

Having passed an obstacle course, murdered a pilot and helped capture a tanker off the coast of Siberia, the JBA was beginning to trust Sam, and had taken him to Taiwan…

One short 19 hour helicopter flight from off the coast of Siberia to Taiwan (over 6000 km [3800 mi]!), we landed on top of a hotel, and Dufraisne went with Moss inside, leaving me to wait for them in the rain.

Hisham Hamza, a CIA agent, contacted me and told me to spy on the meeting taking place, so off I went. I hopped up onto some pallets and up the wall, avoiding the guard there and heading around to where a pipe was attached to another wall, leading up to a zipwire. I went up and grabbed the guard at the top, questioning him but getting no answers.

Zipping across, and avoiding several more guards, I went over a ventilation duct and across a wooden plank before hacking a crane to turn it on. It activated and I clambered up it quickly whilst someone came to investigate, but I had managed to rappel before he noticed me. I was outside a lounge, and since it was Chinese New Year there were fireworks making people glance out now and then, so I had to avoid their gaze as I snuck along the narrow ledge.

I reached another point to rappel from, and went down. I arrived beneath the window seemingly too late, as when I tried to listen in I was chased off by a helicopter arriving. I leapt down the rope and scrambled along the ledge as the helicopter began to descend, presumably having spotted my rope.

Unfortunately for me, there were some air conditioning vents which blocked my escape, the the helicopter spotted me, calling out an alert. A goon opened one of the vents and the helicopter eventually left me alone, so I hopped through and throttled the bloke before hiding him in a vent. I hadn’t realised that he had two mates, so when I came out of the vent myself, I had a very short gunfight with them. Outside the doors lay two (presumably) dead hotel porters in front of the elevators.

Taking them up to the floor above, Hamza was eager for me to sample the Red Mercury that was the subject of this deal between the JBA and whomever they were meeting with. I snuck into the target suite and took down their IT guy before deactivating the security cameras and continuing through to the next room. Someone came to watch the fireworks, so I knocked him out and dumped him behind a desk and went into the adjoining room.

Moss and Dufraisne were blocking the doors into the next area, but after a few moments moved on. I snuck through and cracked the safe open before scanning the Red Mercury and closing the safe. Moss called me and told me that he was on his way to meet me, and tell me something. Sam got him to just tell him over the comm he was already speaking on instead.

Sneaking out of the suite, I had to get to Dr. Aswat’s suite and get his notes, presumably so they didn’t need to buy the Red Mercury from him. I snuck around avoiding the patrolling hotel workers, and wound up having to fire an airfoil round at one who wouldn’t leave a well-lit area. Into a janitor’s closet and up a ladder, I began to rappel down to a gantry as the countdown to midnight began.

The elevator at the end of the gantry was occupied as I walked over to it, and it descended handily to another gantry. Walking to the other end of it, another elevator came up, then went back down with me riding it to a third gantry, which led to the room next door to the scientist’s suite. I went around and through the already-open door, and quickly hacked his computer.

Voices were discussing various topics, obviously from the people who forced open the door before my arrival. I went into the adjoining room and knocked out one, then his mate who was in the leaky bathroom. I could have hit him with a sticky shocker, but didn’t think of that at the time.

Those two down, I went back through the suite and took down a guy in the second bathroom before shooting a second who was at the safe, with a sticky shocker. I cracked the safe open and scanned his documents just as Moss and Dufraisne told me they were bringing the helicopter down to come pick me up. Also, Hamza wanted me to kill Aswat.

The windows at the other end of the suite burst open and, not wanting to lose any JBA trust, I ran for the zip-line they had fired out for me. I hopped onto it, and off we flew, headed back to New York…