Splinter Cell: The Secret Mission

After watching many playthroughs of my old videogames on YouTube, I was getting more and more anxious to relive my childhood. I decided to head to GameStop to find any games that could help feed my nostalgia.

There it was, the Splinter Cell Trilogy: Splinter Cell, Splinter Cell-Pandora Tomorrow, and Splinter Cell-Chaos Theory. I had found the perfect way to spend my weekend and cure this feeling. When I was about 11, I picked up the first Splinter Cell at a Bargain Store and began my journey into the game of stealth. Being a part of a secret government agency, sneaking past cameras, using the darkness to conceal myself from enemies, and interrogating people for useful information was exactly what caused me to fall in love with this series. Over time, I bought Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory days after their release and they exceeded my expectations. Now here I was, 20 years old and driving home eager to indulge myself all weekend with Doritos, chocolate milk, and Splinter Cell.

This remake was on the PS3, so it took a while to get used to the controls: Triangle to jump, L1 to aim, R1 to shoot, X button to initiate commands...the usual stuff. After going through the training level three times to get myself used to the buttons, I played my heart out. All weekend I completed every mission on every game, went up in difficulty, and even gave myself challenges like: don't kill anyone unless Lambert (your boss) deems it mandatory, go through all missions with no alarms, use the pistol the entire game, etc. Above all, I loved the fact that there were now achievements, since the remakes were on PS3. I was now Sam Fisher, highly trained NSA agent, and I couldn't get enough.

All throughout the weekend I stayed glued to the games. A lightning storm raged on Sunday evening causing power to go out, so I had to cut on the generator. Of course, this didn't stop my indulgence, so I cut on the absolutely necessary things: refrigerator, PS3, television, WiFi, and made sure I had some bottles of fresh water laid out in case I needed to use the bathroom or had to wash my hands. Otherwise, I covered myself up on the couch, picked up my controller and continued playing in the darkness.

I had beaten Pandora Tomorrow on expert difficulty on my previous play-through and as I went back for another round, I noticed it unlocked an Elite difficulty. Excited, I chose it right away, ready to see how sensitive the A.I. was this go-around. After getting about halfway through the game, there is a part where you are on rooftops in Jerusalem and have to rappel down the side of a building and meet up with a woman to obtain information. You have to go quietly, because there is a guard at the bottom of the building with his back turned. Usually, after rappelling down, I sneak up behind him and knock him out in the shadows to easily run to the meeting point instead of being stealthy, but this time I decided to see if I could sneak around him and find an alternate route. I walked to the edge of the building and used my binoculars to scope out the area looking for a route when Sam let out a horrific scream.

I was shocked and jumped a little when I realised I had accidentally walked forward and fallen off the building. Weirdly enough, I landed right on top of the guard at the bottom. Sam did the animation of a takedown from above. Shaken up, but relieved that I lived, I decided to reload my save progress because I was attempting to do a No Damage run. When I got back to the rooftop, my game froze. I was distraught, thinking I had just lost all the progress I had made. Before I turned off the Playstation, the screen's colour went negative and a loud, static sound erupted from the speakers causing me to cover my ears. Suddenly, the noise stopped. Lambert's face popped up on the screen. It seemed to be distorted in a way that caused a disturbing smile in his lips.

I was confused and awestruck. Under his face was a text box with the words, "Yes" and "No." Curiously, I pressed Yes. The game went black.

I couldn't understand what was happening. Eventually, the game snapped back to normal, except Sam was in the woods at night and it was raining. Lambert came over his earpiece and angrily said:

"Sam, new mission, there is a consultant for the terrorists in an abandoned house up ahead and we need you to assassinate him immediately!"

Excited, I eagerly picked up my controller and began running through the woods. Apparently, I had initiated a glitch somewhere in my gameplay and triggered a secret mission. I had never researched secrets for the Splinter Cell series so my fascination fueled me to take in every little detail about this. It also got me thinking about looking up more secrets after finishing this mission.

Lightning flashed and thunder boomed in the game. It was brighter and louder than I anticipated. My heart started to pound faster as it began to feel more realistic, which was amazing. I found the house and looked up at it. The rain was creating a flowing-water animation over the camera making it harder to see. I decided to put on my night vision goggles to get a better view in the dark, but soon realised they had been equipped since the beginning of the mission. It was far darker than I thought.

I soon found some stairs that lead to a front door and climbed them. I walked up to the windows near the door and attempted to see inside. I could only make out a dim light in a corner and a couch. The rain wasn't a problem anymore, because the roof stopped the animation, but it was still darker than usual. I chose the option to stealthily open the door and my noise meter stayed at zero. I had no idea where the consultant was in the house so I needed to be as quiet as possible. I sneaked behind the couch. Using my heat vision, I could tell someone was sitting on it. They seemed to be watching television. Immediately, Lambert came on again:

"That's your target Sam. From our readings on your goggles, the consultant is directly in front of you. Take care of him," he stated in a sharp tone.

It felt strange not knowing much about this mission. I guess it really wasn't thought out too well, as it was just a bonus mission, right? I silently stood up. I pulled out my pistol, aimed at his head, and pressed-