Iceland

03 September 2007

Ah, missiles. They have a pesky habit of being going skyward and shooting down commercial jet liners. Those pesky habits are no longer appropriate in this world of counter-terrorism, though, and it's up to Sam Fisher to stop this particular missile from hitting its target.

In a change to the normal routine of Splinter Cell, though, Sam is bringing along a special friend to the party in Iceland. This rookie is ex-Delta Force, but apparently hasn't been appropriately trained for Splinter Cell field work (at least according to Sam). Don't worry, though; the rookie is going to be controlled by the computer and will stay out of your hair for most of the mission.

At the very outset of the mission, while you're still in the plane, you can turn around and turn on the computer screen behind you. Using it will reveal an email from Sam's daughter...the last one she'll ever write. To get on with the mission, walk towards the open back door of the plane, and you'll automatically jump out.

Into The Plant

Your goal here is to infiltrate and reconnoiter an energy plant where "suspicious activity" is said to be occuring. These nefarious rascals have been TPing all the trees in the neighborhood, dropping sugar in people's gas tanks, and putting dog poop in paper bags which they put on people's porches and set on fire after ringing the doorbell. They must be stopped, at any cost.

Banging on the ice will let Sam draw in enemies and pull them under.

Begin by falling from the plane into the water below. You'll have to follow your teammate as he makes his way into the water intake valve. When you reach the ice above it, John will automatically kill one of the guards there by grabbing him through the ice and pulling him into the water, leaving a single guard for you to deal with. The easiest way to take him out is to glide up the water to the other weak spot in the ice (where some light is softly filtering through), then use your whistle button (the down direction on your d-pad for most console versions). You can't whistle underwater, but you will turn over and bang on the ice, causing the soldier to investigate. When he gets close enough, select the stealth kill icon and perform your own smash-and-grab operation.

When you've surfaced, listen to what Lambert has to tell you, then quietly sneak in to the outbuilding here and cut the power to the electric fence at the breaker box inside the building. Note the terrorist sleeping away the night, though; don't rouse him or he'll open fire on you. You can use the laptop if you wish, although there's nothing important on it. A sonic grenade is on the floor next to the light switch in this room.

With the fence depowered, walk out and give John a lift up and over, then climb it yourself. Maneuver around until you reach the guidewire near where John's standing, then jump up to grab hold and slide across. If all goes well, you'll wind up in the transformer station.

Transformer Station

This area's big, and there are a lot of enemies here, so take your time while moving out. Begin by dropping down to the platform below you; if the soldier there is standing in the right place, you can knock him out by dropping down onto him. From this catwalk, you'll be able to shoot out some of the lights overlooking the lower areas of the transformers. This is optional, of course, since you can disable the lights temporarily with your pistol's alt-fire. Also note that shooting out lights will also affect your stealth score at the end of the mission. There's also a searchlight that pans back and forth over the mechanical equipment below; it'll be annoying to you when you have to pass through, so you might want to wait until it pans as far as it can to the left, then shoot it. You can't shoot out the light at this point, but you can prevent it from panning.

No need to deal with this soldier; just leave him be and hack the computer behind him to open the gate.

From there, walk down the steps to overhear two soldiers conversing; ominously enough, a countdown seems to have started! You'll have to maneuver your way through the gate here to find out precisely what's going on. If you wait until the two soldiers get done with their conversation, you'll see that one of them moves down to stand in front of the shipping container below you. You can hop over the railing, drop down to the container, then drop down onto his head to knock him out.

If you shoot out or disable the lights, you should be able to learn the roaming soldier's movement pattern. He has a flashlight, so it's best to just avoid him entirely, unless you want to hit him with an airfoil or sticky shocker and take him down. When he's far enough away from the small control station here, open the door and head inside. Another soldier will be monitoring the screens inside, but he won't move or turn around, allowing you to walk up to the computer on the desk, access it, and open the gate. Move quickly, though, as the soldier outside will be able to see you through the windows in the light. There's another grenade on the desk by the door if you want it.

With the gate opened, sneak your way back towards it. A guard patrols the far side of it, but if you disable both the lights here, you should be able to get past him while his back's turned. Watch out, though, for the light that pans back and forth over this area. If you didn’t shoot it before, you'll have a hard time getting a good view of it to disable it.