Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent
Encyclopedia
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent is an action-adventure
stealth game, developed and published by Ubisoft
. The series, endorsed by American author Tom Clancy
, follows the character Sam Fisher, an agent employed by a black-ops division of the National Security Agency
, dubbed Third Echelon.
Double Agent was released for the Nintendo GameCube
, PlayStation 2
, Xbox
and Xbox 360
in October 2006. The Wii
and Microsoft Windows
versions were released in November 2006. A PlayStation 3
version was released in March 2007.
Originally the game was set for a March 2006 release, but Ubisoft moved the release date to October 2006 in order to have more development time. Ubisoft then released their fiscal quarter results for Q1 2006 and announced that Splinter Cell Double Agent would be put back at least one month in order to boost Q3 2006 income.
There are actually two separate versions of Double Agent. One version (Generation Seven version
) was made by Ubisoft Shanghai
, who developed Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
and was released on the Xbox 360, Windows, and PlayStation 3. The other version (Generation Six version
) was made by Ubisoft Montreal
(Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
) and was released for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube and Nintendo Wii. The version for mobile phones was developed by Gameloft
. The Generation Seven version features a completely custom engine while the Generation Six version plays more like the classic Splinter Cell games. The games share the same general plot but feature different storylines, plot twists, and levels. Even the levels they share have completely different level designs. They do however, share the same background music and a few cut scenes.
Shortly after the events of Chaos Theory, Sam Fisher must deal with the recent loss of his daughter to a drunk driving accident. But he has little time to mourn, as he soon has to go on an undercover assignment which requires him to pose as a criminal in order to infiltrate a terrorist group based in the United States. This new mission forces Fisher into a new and very dangerous gray area, where the line between right and wrong is blurred even beyond what Fisher is used to, and thousands of innocent lives are in the balance.
as Sam Fisher and rookie John Hodge are being flown to Iceland
to investigate suspicious activities at a geothermal
plant. After he averts a missile strike by insurgents during which John dies, he is met by Colonel
Irving Lambert aboard the Osprey
to deliver bad news. Sarah Fisher, Sam's only child, has been killed by a drunk driver. Overcome with grief
, he is unable to concentrate on his work and is pulled out of active service.
Shortly thereafter, Lambert offers him the rank of a NOC (nonofficial cover operative), hoping that it will help him refocus. NOCs are operatives with backgrounds from both the CIA
and NSA
, trained to infiltrate organizations for HUMINT
purposes. The government denies any involvement in their activities. The NSA stages multiple bank robberies
and killings to set up Fisher to infiltrate a domestic terror organization known as John Brown's
Army (JBA). He is sent to Ellsworth Prison in Kansas
where he is placed in the same cell block as Jamie Washington, a JBA member, and begins digging a tunnel for escape. By February 2008, Fisher helps Washington escape, and is welcomed into the JBA.
At their compound, Emile Dufraisne, the leader of the JBA, gives Sam the order to shoot Cole Yeagher, the pilot of the helicopter used to escape the prison. If Fisher kills him, he will earn JBA trust and lose NSA trust. If he misses his shot on purpose, Jamie will kill Cole, and Sam will lose a little bit of trust with the JBA. This decision does not affect the rest of the storyline, unlike later decisions. He is then sent on a mission to take over a Russia
n oil tanker in the Sea of Okhotsk
, while receiving radio contact from Enrica Villablanca, the JBA's weapons expert. Sam needs to take over the tanker so that JBA ally Massoud Ibn-Yussif can use it to deliver one of Emile's bombs.
As soon as Fisher is finished, he is quickly flown to the Jin Mao Hotel in Shanghai
. CIA agent Hisham Hamza orders him to record a meeting between Emile and a Pakistan
i nuclear scientist, Dr. Aswat. During the meeting, Aswat sells Emile several kilograms of red mercury
, a fictional explosive material that can detonate with the force of a thermonuclear bomb. With Third Echelon on high alert, Fisher is told to collect a sample from the safe in the meeting room. While he does this, Carson Moss, the JBA's head of security, radios in and orders him to steal notes from Aswat's hotel room. The NSA then orders the assassination of Dr. Aswat.
With both the red mercury and Dr. Aswat's notes, the JBA constructs a bomb which they wish to test. Emile sends Fisher to Cozumel
to blow up a cruise ship. The success of the bomb is determined by the player and is therefore the first of the three major events. Fisher can choose to either let the bomb detonate, maintaining his cover with the JBA, prevent the explosion by jamming the signal, or framing Enrica by using her disarm code, if the player acquires it from her office during the third JBA HQ mission. Jamming the signal makes player lose JBA trust, while framing Enrica maintains both NSA and JBA trust. In both of these cases, non-detonation causes Dufraisne to kill Enrica in a fit of anger.
Emile then goes to a meeting in Kinshasa
with Alejandro Takfir and Massoud Ibn-Yussif, allies of the JBA. Fisher bugs the meeting and finds out that the three terrorist leaders each have Red Mercury bombs. They plan to destroy Mexico City
, Los Angeles
and New York City
. During the meeting, Hisham's cover is blown.
Emile orders Fisher to kill Hisham, who has fled to the Congolese presidential palace in Kinshasa
. Fisher makes his way through Kinshasa, which is an all-out war zone between government forces and rebels. Fisher takes up a position from the top of a radio tower with a sniper rifle
. Fisher may shoot Hisham, but if he spares his life, another section of the level is unlocked where Fisher extracts him from the palace. Fisher saves Hisham from the rebels, who took control of the presidential palace and rigged it with explosives.
When Fisher returns to the headquarters, he is ordered to shoot Lambert, who was captured sneaking around the complex. The player can decide to either shoot Lambert or Jamie Washington (the player can also miss their shot on purpose, but this causes Washington to shoot Fisher in the head, killing him instantly). Shooting Lambert will maintain the JBA's trust, while shooting Washington will send the JBA into high alert and reveal Fisher as a traitor. Enrica, if she is still alive, discovers Fisher's NOC status, but allows him to pass into the labs underneath the HQ, even giving him his equipment if he does not have it already. When Sam arrives at the labs, he manages to kill Emile (and Washington if he did not kill him earlier) and disarms the bomb. A SWAT
team then storms the compound, crashing in through the ceiling.
as Sam and CIA agent Hisham Hamza are being flown to Iceland
to investigate suspicious activities at a geothermal
plant. However, the mission is aborted, with Irving Lambert activating a two-man Splinter Cell team to destroy the plant. Sam is met by Lambert aboard the Osprey
to deliver bad news. Sarah Fisher, Sam's only child, has been killed by a drunk driver. Overcome with grief, he is unable to concentrate on his work and is pulled out of active service.
Lambert offers him the rank of a NOC (nonofficial cover operative), hoping that it will help him refocus. NOCs are operatives with backgrounds from both the CIA
and NSA
, trained to infiltrate organizations for HUMINT
purposes. The government denies any involvement in their activities. The NSA stages multiple bank robberies
and killings to set up Fisher to infiltrate a domestic terror organization known as John Brown
's Army (JBA). He is sent to Ellsworth Prison in Kansas
where he is placed in the same cell block as Jamie Washington, a JBA member. With indirect assistance from a Splinter Cell team, Fisher helps Washington escape, and is welcomed into the JBA.
At their compound, in New Orleans, Sam finds an e-mail written by JBA member Cole Yeager describing his intentions to take over JBA. If he chooses to send this information to the NSA, they will extract Yeager for interrogation; the information can also be sent to JBA, in which case Yeager is killed by the terrorists.
Sam is then sent to hijack a train in Grand Central Station, carrying a large sum of money, gold, and jewelry. Because Lambert pretends to be an arms dealer, Sam has access to his NSA equipment.
After the JBA constructs a bomb using red mercury
, Emile sends Fisher to Cozumel
, Mexico
to test it by blowing up a cruise ship. If the player chooses to sabotage the bomb detonation, Sam and Enrica are severely beaten. Unlike the other version, this decision does not affect the ending of the game.
Sam is then sent on a mission to take over a Russia
n oil tanker in the Sea of Okhotsk
. Two computers on the tanker have an e-mail to Emile from an anonymous sender who intends to blow Lambert's cover as an arms dealer.
Emile then goes to a meeting in Kinshasa
with Alejandro Takfir and Massoud Ibn-Yussif, allies of the JBA, to buy more red mercury. He orders Fisher to kill Hisham. If the player lets him go, he will receive an adrenaline syringe, which does not make an appearance for the rest of the game. Fisher uncovers information that sets up a mission for a Splinter Cell team to sabotage a chemical bunker owned by Takfir. An e-mail on Massoud's computer reveals that there is a mole inside the NSA.
When Fisher returns to the headquarters, he discovers that Lambert has been taken hostage, and the terrorists are about to send off the Red Mercury. Sam has to choose whether to place information on the JBA server backing up Lambert's cover, or plant information that proves he is with the NSA. At the end of the mission, Moss is shown in a cinematic killing Lambert and Sam disposing his body in a dumpster (or Lambert being beaten but recovering). Director Williams seems strangely indifferent to the death of Lambert, if the player chooses that route. He can also choose to disable two of the red mercury bombs.
Unlike the other version, regardless of whether Lambert is saved or not, the final mission starts with the JBA discovering that Sam is a spy while on an operation in New York. Williams authorizes the Fifth Freedom and orders Sam to kill all the top-ranking members of the JBA while having another Splinter Cell team disarm various Red Mercury bombs in the tanker headed for Los Angeles. Enrica, unable to kill Fisher, helps him by setting off the sprinklers in one room. After Sam kills Emile, and disables the last bomb, Enrica comes looking for him, but is shot by a Splinter Cell agent. Out of anger, Sam hides underneath the snow, then jumps out and slits the agent's throat as he walks by. Sam then removes the subdermal
for his own cochlear implant
using his knife. He accuses Williams of murdering Enrica and vows revenge; Williams says that they will find him first.
If Sam disarms the bombs in Nashville and Los Angeles
, the end newscast will say that a potential terrorist attack has been stopped. If only one of the bombs is disarmed, the newscast will report on a bomb, whichever one was not disarmed, exploding and killing many. If neither of the bombs are disarmed, the newscast will say that two bombs have gone off in Nashville and Los Angeles, killing many people. If Nashville is destroyed, it is also noted that the President has been killed during his visit. He is succeeded by his Vice President
.
Action-adventure game
An action-adventure game is a video game that combines elements of the adventure game genre with various action game elements. It is perhaps the broadest and most diverse genre in gaming, and can include many games which might better be categorized under narrow genres...
stealth game, developed and published by Ubisoft
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries....
. The series, endorsed by American author Tom Clancy
Tom Clancy
Thomas Leo "Tom" Clancy, Jr. is an American author, best known for his technically detailed espionage, military science, and techno thriller storylines set during and in the aftermath of the Cold War, along with video games on which he did not work, but which bear his name for licensing and...
, follows the character Sam Fisher, an agent employed by a black-ops division of the National Security Agency
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S...
, dubbed Third Echelon.
Double Agent was released for the Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
, PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
, Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
and Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
in October 2006. The Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
and Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
versions were released in November 2006. A PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
version was released in March 2007.
Originally the game was set for a March 2006 release, but Ubisoft moved the release date to October 2006 in order to have more development time. Ubisoft then released their fiscal quarter results for Q1 2006 and announced that Splinter Cell Double Agent would be put back at least one month in order to boost Q3 2006 income.
There are actually two separate versions of Double Agent. One version (Generation Seven version
History of video game consoles (seventh generation)
In the history of video games, the seventh generation of consoles is the current generation , and includes consoles released since late by Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony...
) was made by Ubisoft Shanghai
Ubisoft Shanghai
Ubisoft Shanghai is a Chinese video game developer whose headquarters is located in Shanghai. The studio is known for working in various games in the Tom Clancy franchise. The studio is also the second largest Chinese video game studio and the second largest Ubisoft studio.-Games developed:...
, who developed Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow is an action-adventure stealth game, developed and published by Ubisoft Shanghai, while Ubisoft Montreal, creator of the original Splinter Cell, was working on Chaos Theory. Pandora Tomorrow is the second game in the Splinter Cell series endorsed by...
and was released on the Xbox 360, Windows, and PlayStation 3. The other version (Generation Six version
History of video game consoles (sixth generation)
The sixth-generation era refers to the computer and video games, video game consoles, and video game handhelds available at the turn of the 21st century. Platforms of the sixth generation include the Sega Dreamcast, Sony PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, and Microsoft Xbox...
) was made by Ubisoft Montreal
Ubisoft Montreal
Ubisoft Montreal is a Canadian video game developer owned by French publisher Ubisoft.Ubisoft's North American studio is located in Montreal, Quebec...
(Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is a critically acclaimed action-adventure stealth game, developed and published by Ubisoft. Chaos Theory is the third game in the Splinter Cell series endorsed by writer Tom Clancy....
) and was released for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube and Nintendo Wii. The version for mobile phones was developed by Gameloft
Gameloft
Gameloft SA is a major French computer and video game developer and publisher headquartered in Paris, France. The company also has subsidiaries in 31 countries around the world....
. The Generation Seven version features a completely custom engine while the Generation Six version plays more like the classic Splinter Cell games. The games share the same general plot but feature different storylines, plot twists, and levels. Even the levels they share have completely different level designs. They do however, share the same background music and a few cut scenes.
Plot
The two versions of the game feature different plot lines. They share many of the same locations, but with completely different level designs and in a different order.Shortly after the events of Chaos Theory, Sam Fisher must deal with the recent loss of his daughter to a drunk driving accident. But he has little time to mourn, as he soon has to go on an undercover assignment which requires him to pose as a criminal in order to infiltrate a terrorist group based in the United States. This new mission forces Fisher into a new and very dangerous gray area, where the line between right and wrong is blurred even beyond what Fisher is used to, and thousands of innocent lives are in the balance.
Xbox 360, Windows, and PlayStation 3 version
The game begins in September 2007, shortly after the events of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos TheoryTom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is a critically acclaimed action-adventure stealth game, developed and published by Ubisoft. Chaos Theory is the third game in the Splinter Cell series endorsed by writer Tom Clancy....
as Sam Fisher and rookie John Hodge are being flown to Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
to investigate suspicious activities at a geothermal
Geothermal power
Geothermal energy is thermal energy generated and stored in the Earth. Thermal energy is the energy that determines the temperature of matter. Earth's geothermal energy originates from the original formation of the planet and from radioactive decay of minerals...
plant. After he averts a missile strike by insurgents during which John dies, he is met by Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
Irving Lambert aboard the Osprey
V-22 Osprey
The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is an American multi-mission, military, tiltrotor aircraft with both a vertical takeoff and landing , and short takeoff and landing capability...
to deliver bad news. Sarah Fisher, Sam's only child, has been killed by a drunk driver. Overcome with grief
Grief
Grief is a multi-faceted response to loss, particularly to the loss of someone or something to which a bond was formed. Although conventionally focused on the emotional response to loss, it also has physical, cognitive, behavioral, social, and philosophical dimensions...
, he is unable to concentrate on his work and is pulled out of active service.
Shortly thereafter, Lambert offers him the rank of a NOC (nonofficial cover operative), hoping that it will help him refocus. NOCs are operatives with backgrounds from both the CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
and NSA
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S...
, trained to infiltrate organizations for HUMINT
HUMINT
HUMINT, a syllabic abbreviation of the words HUMan INTelligence, refers to intelligence gathering by means of interpersonal contact, as opposed to the more technical intelligence gathering disciplines such as SIGINT, IMINT and MASINT...
purposes. The government denies any involvement in their activities. The NSA stages multiple bank robberies
Bank robbery
Bank robbery is the crime of stealing from a bank during opening hours. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, robbery is "the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of...
and killings to set up Fisher to infiltrate a domestic terror organization known as John Brown's
John Brown (abolitionist)
John Brown was an American revolutionary abolitionist, who in the 1850s advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to abolish slavery in the United States. He led the Pottawatomie Massacre during which five men were killed, in 1856 in Bleeding Kansas, and made his name in the...
Army (JBA). He is sent to Ellsworth Prison in Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
where he is placed in the same cell block as Jamie Washington, a JBA member, and begins digging a tunnel for escape. By February 2008, Fisher helps Washington escape, and is welcomed into the JBA.
At their compound, Emile Dufraisne, the leader of the JBA, gives Sam the order to shoot Cole Yeagher, the pilot of the helicopter used to escape the prison. If Fisher kills him, he will earn JBA trust and lose NSA trust. If he misses his shot on purpose, Jamie will kill Cole, and Sam will lose a little bit of trust with the JBA. This decision does not affect the rest of the storyline, unlike later decisions. He is then sent on a mission to take over a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n oil tanker in the Sea of Okhotsk
Sea of Okhotsk
The Sea of Okhotsk is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean, lying between the Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands on the southeast, the island of Hokkaidō to the far south, the island of Sakhalin along the west, and a long stretch of eastern Siberian coast along the west and...
, while receiving radio contact from Enrica Villablanca, the JBA's weapons expert. Sam needs to take over the tanker so that JBA ally Massoud Ibn-Yussif can use it to deliver one of Emile's bombs.
As soon as Fisher is finished, he is quickly flown to the Jin Mao Hotel in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
. CIA agent Hisham Hamza orders him to record a meeting between Emile and a Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
i nuclear scientist, Dr. Aswat. During the meeting, Aswat sells Emile several kilograms of red mercury
Red mercury
Red mercury is a 19th-century term for protiodide or iodide of mercury. It was commonly recommended for use as an antisyphilitic as late as 1913, most notably during the early years of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments. Taken orally, it caused hematemesis...
, a fictional explosive material that can detonate with the force of a thermonuclear bomb. With Third Echelon on high alert, Fisher is told to collect a sample from the safe in the meeting room. While he does this, Carson Moss, the JBA's head of security, radios in and orders him to steal notes from Aswat's hotel room. The NSA then orders the assassination of Dr. Aswat.
With both the red mercury and Dr. Aswat's notes, the JBA constructs a bomb which they wish to test. Emile sends Fisher to Cozumel
Cozumel
Cozumel is an island in the Caribbean Sea off the eastern coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, opposite Playa del Carmen, and close to the Yucatan Channel. Cozumel is one of the ten municipalities of the state of Quintana Roo...
to blow up a cruise ship. The success of the bomb is determined by the player and is therefore the first of the three major events. Fisher can choose to either let the bomb detonate, maintaining his cover with the JBA, prevent the explosion by jamming the signal, or framing Enrica by using her disarm code, if the player acquires it from her office during the third JBA HQ mission. Jamming the signal makes player lose JBA trust, while framing Enrica maintains both NSA and JBA trust. In both of these cases, non-detonation causes Dufraisne to kill Enrica in a fit of anger.
Emile then goes to a meeting in Kinshasa
Kinshasa
Kinshasa is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The city is located on the Congo River....
with Alejandro Takfir and Massoud Ibn-Yussif, allies of the JBA. Fisher bugs the meeting and finds out that the three terrorist leaders each have Red Mercury bombs. They plan to destroy Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. During the meeting, Hisham's cover is blown.
Emile orders Fisher to kill Hisham, who has fled to the Congolese presidential palace in Kinshasa
Kinshasa
Kinshasa is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The city is located on the Congo River....
. Fisher makes his way through Kinshasa, which is an all-out war zone between government forces and rebels. Fisher takes up a position from the top of a radio tower with a sniper rifle
Sniper rifle
In military and law enforcement terminology, a sniper rifle is a precision-rifle used to ensure more accurate placement of bullets at longer ranges than other small arms. A typical sniper rifle is built for optimal levels of accuracy, fitted with a telescopic sight and chambered for a military...
. Fisher may shoot Hisham, but if he spares his life, another section of the level is unlocked where Fisher extracts him from the palace. Fisher saves Hisham from the rebels, who took control of the presidential palace and rigged it with explosives.
When Fisher returns to the headquarters, he is ordered to shoot Lambert, who was captured sneaking around the complex. The player can decide to either shoot Lambert or Jamie Washington (the player can also miss their shot on purpose, but this causes Washington to shoot Fisher in the head, killing him instantly). Shooting Lambert will maintain the JBA's trust, while shooting Washington will send the JBA into high alert and reveal Fisher as a traitor. Enrica, if she is still alive, discovers Fisher's NOC status, but allows him to pass into the labs underneath the HQ, even giving him his equipment if he does not have it already. When Sam arrives at the labs, he manages to kill Emile (and Washington if he did not kill him earlier) and disarms the bomb. A SWAT
SWAT
A SWAT team is an elite tactical unit in various national law enforcement departments. They are trained to perform high-risk operations that fall outside of the abilities of regular officers...
team then storms the compound, crashing in through the ceiling.
Multiple Endings
The ending depends upon completion of the following objectives: saving the cruise ship, Hisham, and Lambert.- Bad ending: If Fisher fails all three, or fails two and NSA standing is below 33%, he initially surrenders to the SWAT team, but immediately escapes using a smoke grenade.
- Standard ending: If Fisher fails two, with NSA standing above 33%; or, completes two or more objectives with NSA standing below 33%, he is captured by the SWAT team, charged with murder and conspiracy to commit terrorism, and pleads 'not guilty'. After trial, however, Sam breaks out of prison and is on the run.
- Good ending: If Fisher has NSA standing above 33% and completes two or more objectives, he evades capture and escapes the compound by incapacitating a SWAT officer and donning his stolen uniform. In the unlocked bonus level, the NYPD pursues Fisher through New York, but he boards a stolen Coast GuardUnited States Coast GuardThe United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...
vessel that Carson Moss is using to deliver the last bomb. Fisher kills Moss, disarms the bomb, and escapes the vessel seconds before it is destroyed. This ending is the only one that finishes with "To be continued..."
Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Wii version
The game begins shortly after the events of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos TheoryTom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is a critically acclaimed action-adventure stealth game, developed and published by Ubisoft. Chaos Theory is the third game in the Splinter Cell series endorsed by writer Tom Clancy....
as Sam and CIA agent Hisham Hamza are being flown to Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
to investigate suspicious activities at a geothermal
Geothermal power
Geothermal energy is thermal energy generated and stored in the Earth. Thermal energy is the energy that determines the temperature of matter. Earth's geothermal energy originates from the original formation of the planet and from radioactive decay of minerals...
plant. However, the mission is aborted, with Irving Lambert activating a two-man Splinter Cell team to destroy the plant. Sam is met by Lambert aboard the Osprey
V-22 Osprey
The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is an American multi-mission, military, tiltrotor aircraft with both a vertical takeoff and landing , and short takeoff and landing capability...
to deliver bad news. Sarah Fisher, Sam's only child, has been killed by a drunk driver. Overcome with grief, he is unable to concentrate on his work and is pulled out of active service.
Lambert offers him the rank of a NOC (nonofficial cover operative), hoping that it will help him refocus. NOCs are operatives with backgrounds from both the CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
and NSA
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S...
, trained to infiltrate organizations for HUMINT
HUMINT
HUMINT, a syllabic abbreviation of the words HUMan INTelligence, refers to intelligence gathering by means of interpersonal contact, as opposed to the more technical intelligence gathering disciplines such as SIGINT, IMINT and MASINT...
purposes. The government denies any involvement in their activities. The NSA stages multiple bank robberies
Bank robbery
Bank robbery is the crime of stealing from a bank during opening hours. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, robbery is "the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of...
and killings to set up Fisher to infiltrate a domestic terror organization known as John Brown
John Brown (abolitionist)
John Brown was an American revolutionary abolitionist, who in the 1850s advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to abolish slavery in the United States. He led the Pottawatomie Massacre during which five men were killed, in 1856 in Bleeding Kansas, and made his name in the...
's Army (JBA). He is sent to Ellsworth Prison in Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
where he is placed in the same cell block as Jamie Washington, a JBA member. With indirect assistance from a Splinter Cell team, Fisher helps Washington escape, and is welcomed into the JBA.
At their compound, in New Orleans, Sam finds an e-mail written by JBA member Cole Yeager describing his intentions to take over JBA. If he chooses to send this information to the NSA, they will extract Yeager for interrogation; the information can also be sent to JBA, in which case Yeager is killed by the terrorists.
Sam is then sent to hijack a train in Grand Central Station, carrying a large sum of money, gold, and jewelry. Because Lambert pretends to be an arms dealer, Sam has access to his NSA equipment.
After the JBA constructs a bomb using red mercury
Red mercury
Red mercury is a 19th-century term for protiodide or iodide of mercury. It was commonly recommended for use as an antisyphilitic as late as 1913, most notably during the early years of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments. Taken orally, it caused hematemesis...
, Emile sends Fisher to Cozumel
Cozumel
Cozumel is an island in the Caribbean Sea off the eastern coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, opposite Playa del Carmen, and close to the Yucatan Channel. Cozumel is one of the ten municipalities of the state of Quintana Roo...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
to test it by blowing up a cruise ship. If the player chooses to sabotage the bomb detonation, Sam and Enrica are severely beaten. Unlike the other version, this decision does not affect the ending of the game.
Sam is then sent on a mission to take over a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n oil tanker in the Sea of Okhotsk
Sea of Okhotsk
The Sea of Okhotsk is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean, lying between the Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands on the southeast, the island of Hokkaidō to the far south, the island of Sakhalin along the west, and a long stretch of eastern Siberian coast along the west and...
. Two computers on the tanker have an e-mail to Emile from an anonymous sender who intends to blow Lambert's cover as an arms dealer.
Emile then goes to a meeting in Kinshasa
Kinshasa
Kinshasa is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The city is located on the Congo River....
with Alejandro Takfir and Massoud Ibn-Yussif, allies of the JBA, to buy more red mercury. He orders Fisher to kill Hisham. If the player lets him go, he will receive an adrenaline syringe, which does not make an appearance for the rest of the game. Fisher uncovers information that sets up a mission for a Splinter Cell team to sabotage a chemical bunker owned by Takfir. An e-mail on Massoud's computer reveals that there is a mole inside the NSA.
When Fisher returns to the headquarters, he discovers that Lambert has been taken hostage, and the terrorists are about to send off the Red Mercury. Sam has to choose whether to place information on the JBA server backing up Lambert's cover, or plant information that proves he is with the NSA. At the end of the mission, Moss is shown in a cinematic killing Lambert and Sam disposing his body in a dumpster (or Lambert being beaten but recovering). Director Williams seems strangely indifferent to the death of Lambert, if the player chooses that route. He can also choose to disable two of the red mercury bombs.
Unlike the other version, regardless of whether Lambert is saved or not, the final mission starts with the JBA discovering that Sam is a spy while on an operation in New York. Williams authorizes the Fifth Freedom and orders Sam to kill all the top-ranking members of the JBA while having another Splinter Cell team disarm various Red Mercury bombs in the tanker headed for Los Angeles. Enrica, unable to kill Fisher, helps him by setting off the sprinklers in one room. After Sam kills Emile, and disables the last bomb, Enrica comes looking for him, but is shot by a Splinter Cell agent. Out of anger, Sam hides underneath the snow, then jumps out and slits the agent's throat as he walks by. Sam then removes the subdermal
Subdermal implant
A subdermal implant refers to a kind of body jewelry that is placed underneath the skin, therefore allowing the body to heal over the implant and creating a raised design. These kinds of implants fall under the broad category of body modification. Many people who have these implants use them in...
for his own cochlear implant
Cochlear implant
A cochlear implant is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing...
using his knife. He accuses Williams of murdering Enrica and vows revenge; Williams says that they will find him first.
If Sam disarms the bombs in Nashville and Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, the end newscast will say that a potential terrorist attack has been stopped. If only one of the bombs is disarmed, the newscast will report on a bomb, whichever one was not disarmed, exploding and killing many. If neither of the bombs are disarmed, the newscast will say that two bombs have gone off in Nashville and Los Angeles, killing many people. If Nashville is destroyed, it is also noted that the President has been killed during his visit. He is succeeded by his Vice President
Vice president
A vice president is an officer in government or business who is below a president in rank. The name comes from the Latin vice meaning 'in place of'. In some countries, the vice president is called the deputy president...
.
Both versions
- Fisher is given objectives from two separate parties, the JBA and NSA, sometimes forcing the player to choose between them in order to progress.
- Due to the fact he is "working" for two different organizations, Sam is faced with several choices in the game that affect his trust with the JBA and the NSA, represented by the "trust meter". Trust on either side affects Sam's weapon arsenal: completing NSA objectives will unlock a high-tech arsenal, while completing JBA objectives will unlock a lower-tech lethal arsenal.
- A non-linear storyline that changes based on the objectives the player completes (those of the JBA or NSA).
- Multiple endings are introduced.
- The lock-picking and hacking mini-games return (the hacking method is different from Chaos Theory, and the method is different depending on the version) and a new bomb defusing game is introduced.
- Both versions have the same characters (with the exception of B.J Sykes and Stanley Dayton).
- Online play (except Wii and GameCube versions).
Generation Seven version
- Three alternate single-player missions, eight all-new merged versus and co-op maps and interactive cutscenes.
- Daylight missions, in which Sam does not have his goggles. Also, in the regular areas of the JBA HQ, Sam's only maneuver is walk.
- This version includes a simple three-state (hidden/exposed/alert) stealth meter, as opposed to the past light and sound meters.
- The PlayStation 3 version includes an unnamed female Splinter Cell; in the Xbox 360 version, she is available in a download by Xbox Live.
- The computer hacking mini-game returns, and new mini-games are featured that include decrypting e-mails and defusing bombs.
- A new type of level, where Sam has 25 minutes to complete multiple objectives. He can choose what order to do them, and does not have to do all of them. The more objectives are done for one side (or both sides), the more trust is received.
Generation Six version
- The game's plot is told as a huge "flashback" of Sam reiterating to NSA Director Williams what happened. The Generation Seven version takes place in the present.
- An additional single-player mission with an alternate ending, a new Spies vs. Spies online mode, an extended co-op mode and LANLänLän and lääni refer to the administrative divisions used in Sweden and previously in Finland. The provinces of Finland were abolished on January 1, 2010....
. The story has also been altered almost completely in these versions of the game; one change of note is inclusion of a HUD very similar to Chaos Theory's. - The player receives the SC-303 Compact Launcher in a few missions, which shoots only non-lethal rounds.
- The PS2 version includes two exclusive "flashback" missions: one mission has Sam rescuing his daughter from a cargo ship (the level design is borrowed from the Yugoslavia mission in Splinter Cell: Essentials), and the other has Sam escaping captivity from a German bunker (level design borrowed from the SEALs mission in Essentials).
- The Xbox version has a hidden easter egg where players can find a baby seal named Muffin from putting a hidden coin into a vending machine.