Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow 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.

The true identity of Mortified_Penguin, Norman Soth, had been revealed thanks to his raid on a cryogenic facility in Paris -- now he was on a train, and literally so was Sam...

The Osprey dropped me on top of the moving train, and I had to gain entry. Luckily the car I had been dropped onto had a hatch in the top, so I didn’t have to run along the train. I dropped down into a storage car, and made my way to the next one. There was a conductor here, but I was on a strict no-kill, no-alarm mandate, so lured him out of the light by shooting the nearby bulb. He came over to investigate, and I grabbed him. Strangely, I could interrogate him and he told me that my target was in this carriage -- presumably in one of the boxes, or most likely a strange bug.

The door out of the train car was jammed, so I had to go underneath and shimmy along to a bathroom. No, not for that, it was to get to the next part of the carriage. There was a thug in the room lighting up a smoke, so it’s a good thing I checked with my optic cable. I waited for him to leave, and went up. I shot the light out and pressed a button which unlocked the door which was previously jammed before leaving and turning off the lights in the carriage.

A random passenger came over to turn them back on, so I grabbed him quickly and knocked him out. There were two thugs sat in seats on either side of the aisle. Thanks to the lights being off, I snuck right past them and into the next section, with separate cabins. A conductor was talking to someone in the closest cabin, so I waited for him to leave.

According to Colonel Lambert, an easy way to tell which one was Soth, would be to identify who had a prosthetic leg. Sam suggested using his thermal goggles, which would show anyone who had a cool spot where their leg should be. I attempted to sneak past the open cabin, but the occupant spotted me. He pleaded for his life, but didn’t alert anyone, so I continued along. The next cabin had one occupant, who had the tell-tale “cold leg”. I went in and, thinking Soth might be undercover, spoke to him.

He gave Sam a story about who his handler was, and what he was doing here. There was a knock at the door as one of Soth’s “friends” told him about a phone call. He told me to wait there, and went to take the call in another carriage. Sam confirmed with Lambert that the handler was a lie, and I went after Soth to listen in on the call.

I stayed in darkness as he and the other man left the car, heading for the bar car, before following them. I had my laser mic, so just needed a line of sight, which I could easily get from the shadows at the far end of the carriage. Soth spoke to whomever it was, and said that he couldn’t really talk as he thought his cover might be blown, and they had to get off of the train.

The phone call finished and Anna Grímstóttir began decrypting the information I swiped from Soth’s computer in his cabin. The phone call seemed to not be important, as Lambert didn’t comment on it, but told me that we had what we needed, and that I should get onto the roof of the train.

As I exited the bar car, Soth discovered that I was no longer in the cabin and called an alert. I hid as two men came after me, and Lambert okayed lethal force -- so I whipped out my gun and shot them. I went up the ladder in the front car, up to the roof where a helicopter was waiting to take shots at me. I legged it towards the Osprey, which was swooping in to pick me up, and jumped onto a rope. The helicopter went down behind a tree line in a nice explosion, and Soth continued his journey.

Thanks to the data on the laptop, we knew that there was going to be a deadly demonstration in Springfield (one of the dozen or so), so I had to infiltrate the black market to find out more about the biological agent that was to be used. Despite cooperating with the local authorities, I had to parachute into Geula District Street market, Jerusalem, Israel...