First thing to do is install an HD texture pack, which is 3gb in size. It also takes a good ten minutes to install.
The initial cut scene shows a group of soldiers storming into a military base. They are shooting other soldiers, who appear to be wearing similar uniforms. They enter a control room and kill everyone inside. A general is last to die, he tells the commander of the invaders that America will find them. The bad guy tells them not to worry as they are coming to America. The scene flicks to Sam Fisher, who is about to fly a recon mission.
Back with the invaders they are stealing what they call a Blacklist. The scene cuts back to Sam who takes off in his helicopter. Back with the bad guys who are leaving, they have left a bomb. It blows up and Sam's helicopter is downed by the blast.Sam gets free from the wreck. A call from his hacker friend tells him that he has to stop a signal jammer that the bad guys are using to prevent the base calling for help.
Control is given to the player, I start in a drainage ditch, there is the sound of gunfire all around. Vic, Sam's friend is with him.
Controls
Left analogue stick Movement
Right Analogue stick Camera
Left trigger Aim
Right trigger Shoot
Left bumper Throw grenade
Right bumper Mark enemy
Y Execute marked enemies.
X
B Enter cover.
A Climb /Run/Move to next cover
dpad select weapons, hold to bring up weapon wheel.
Start Pause
Select make noise to attract enemy
Clicking right stick Reload
Clicking left stick Crouch
I move though a pipe, then climb up and enter the base. The bad guys are shooting anyone that moves. I then choose whether to kill the bad guys I sneak up on or kill them.
I move into an area where enemies are stealing things and placing more bombs. I have to take them out stealthily or go in guns blazing. Sam doesn't take much punishment so stealth is the preferred option. I find the jammer, a cut scene starts, a solider is injured, Sam drags him beside the jammer truck, Vic appears as Sam is trying to turn the jammer off. The soldier is revealed to be one of the bad guys and he sets off a grenade. Vic is injured.
The mission ends and a cut scene starts. News reports show that the terrorist group is called the Engineers. They are planning to attack American targets each week until all American troops are recalled from foreign soil. With Vic out of action Sam is put in charge of fourth echelon. His hacker, Charlie, a man named Briggs and Grimm are put on a new plane which is a mobile headquarters. Their mission is to stop the engineers any way they can.
I find myself on the plane, this is the hub of the game. I can speak to the staff and upgrade my gear and the plane, which gives better tactical support in the field. A main console called the SMI is used to launch missions when ready.
Mission 1
Benghazi
An arms dealer called Kobin, who featured in a previous game has handed himself in to the CIA in Benghazi. Sam wants to extract him to question himself. I start in the streets, crowded, Sam is in civilian gear. I move through a street, into the plaza, there are militia blocking the way. Sam moves through some shops into a back street and then in a disused room puts on his gear. I am to meet with Grimm's contact in the area. I move through the alley and knock out a guard. This fills my execution meter. I can tag enemies and then Sam will kill them for me when I press Y. I move inside and kill three more guards. I climb some stairs On this floor there are a lot of enemies. I am advised to climb out of a window and sneak around a lot of them. I do this, then get back inside. I find the room where the contact is and find he is being held by enemies. I take them out and find that he is dead. Sam is looking for Kobin, he is being held in a police station, it seems that the militia are attacking it. I have to make my way from my present location to the police station. I cross many roofs and take out many enemies on the way. A guard dog barks at me, They can smell you, so you have to keep your distance. I reach the police station. The courtyard is swarming with around five enemies and a dog. I eventually get inside and have to make my way up to where Kobin is being held. I find him upstairs being tortured. One of the the terrorists is using electricity to find out why Kobin tried to turn himself in to the Americans. I kill the men holding him and free Kobin. I now have to escape the area with him. Three soldiers are in the room and must be avoided or killed. I reach the window and Sam makes Kobin use a cable as a zip line then follows. Briggs has a van and Kobin is piled into it. Back on the plane Kobin reveals that he supplied weapons to the engineers. He learned what they were planning and turned himself in so that he would not be killed as they were taking care of loose ends.
Kobin side mission one, opium farm.
It seems that there are side missions that can be done in any order. I take on a mission that Kobin gives us. He gives up a drug operation to show that he is serious about being good. I arrive at an opium farm in Afghanistan. A small building, walled with a big courtyard. I have ten enemies to take out without being detected. I then have to move on through some tunnels to a second bigger area. The same process is needed here, take out ten guards without detection.
Grim side mission data fort.
Some of the engineers data traffic is being routed through a converted sea fort which is used as an offshore data hosting centre for naughty people. To aid efforts, Grim wants Sam to sneak inside and place a tap, this will allow better intelligence gathering. The fort is a circular castle like structure with a jetty attached. I have to find and hack three devices inside. I thought that I would have to do so without being seen, thought the games does not appear to care if I shoot the guards, as long as I do it without raising an alarm it is all good. This is a much easier mission than the previous Kobin one. I wonder if I am missing some kind of difficulty marker for these side missions.
Charlie Side mission Pakistani embassy.
A dead drop at the Pakistani embassy needs to be picked up. As the mission starts Sam has already picked up the package. Extraction is going to take a while and there are enemies swarming. This is basically a cover for horde mode. I have to take out increasing numbers of enemies in a series of waves. Survive 5 and you can cash in the money, there are twenty waves in total. I do five then quit. The only variance is that in one wave there is a high value target which must be captured rather than murdered.
Main Mission Insurgent stronghold.
Kobin's money transfer came from Mirawa in Eastern Iraq. A camp needs to be investigated to find out what the engineers plans are. At the start of the mission I must snipe some enemies so that Sam can parachute in. The mission then starts normally with Sam in a river on approach to the camp. I move onwards and get closer to the camp. Two guards are taken out in a small farmhouse. I then approach a bigger compound. As I get inside I am told to use the tri-rotor, which is a drone type device. I have to fly it inside. I use it to sample voices inside the room. The voice pattern can't be recognized. I have to sneak inside, take out all the guards then enter the main room. Inside a cut scene shows a man trying to break equipment. Sam beats him and the man claims to be MI6. His clearance code is out of date. Sam scans his retina and Grim reveals that he is ex MI6 and has likely gone rogue. A signal is being broadcast by a satellite dish nearby. I am given a choice of killing or sparing the bad guy. I choose to spare him, though he shoots himself with Sam's gun anyway. I now have to reach the source of the signal.
I now have to make my way through the village, which has been turned into a camp by the engineers. There are tunnels and I have to do a spot of mountain climbing. There are also plenty of little houses and buildings with enemies to sneak past or murder at will. I eventually find the source of the signal. A soldier has been murdered on camera and the signal is still being broadcast, suggesting that they are showing Sam. Is he about to be framed. He turns the camera to the wall and asks for the signal to be traced. A tablet has been left, it shows a video. The recording shows a man with a British or European accent. He is talking to the soldier, who tells him that he just wants to go home to his son. We know that doesn't happen and we see him have his throat slit. The man talks of meddling America and wants all the troops to be taken home. He tells the man that he is an example, and then turns to the camera and appears to address Sam. Telling him that he was talking to him and not the man who he has just killed. A drone strike is incoming and we must run through the wreckage of the village as missiles rain down. Sam gets away using a skyhook.
Back on the plane the man from the video is identified as an ex MI6 agent named Sadiq. The other teams at the other camps have all been killed in similar drone strikes. It seems Sadiq wanted to film American special forces attacking in an op that he knew would be disavowed. Footage of the carnage has already been uploaded to the internet. The president calls and tells the team that the best guess as to the attack is that it will take place in Dallas. She asks them to come to Dallas as soon as possible.
Grim Mission Border Crossing Chechnya.
Hardcopy documents are being used to prevent hackers getting a hold of information. Grim found out where these documents are, we need to get to them to find out what they contain.
There are three document locations to find and scan the document that are inside. There are no checkpoints, which makes this mission needlessly annoying. When you collect all three documents you then have to make it back to the extraction point.
Main Mission Dallas American consumption.
Charlie thinks that Dallas is another attempt to misdirect. He has been noticing maintenance of the no fly list, which would allow naughty people to slip about undetected. It seems that six such naughty people took advantage of this to go to Chicago. Sam is convinced and divert the plane. As they get near they get reports of a hostage situation taking place. Sam starts the mission on the roof of a shopping centre type area. I movie inside to a large open hall, which is fitted out with Christmas type fairground rides. There are guards here. Sam seems to think they are amateurs with cheap gear. They have also trapped themselves in the basement where they are keeping the hostages. I find the hostages and it seems that the real bad guys are up to something in the sewer type area under the basement. The hostage situation is to divert the cops and keep the eyes away from the real objective. Sam finds an engineer working on a drone type buggy. Sam interrogates him and finds that the real plan is to put a biological weapon into the water supply. The bombs that are on the hostages are defused by getting a code from a flash drive the man has. We can kill him or spare him. I spare him. We now have to stop the deployment of the biological weapon. The drones are little cars that blow up near you when they see you. If you take out their operator the stop moving. I move on through tunnels and the plant and take out more enemies. Then come out onto the surface. I now find the water plant proper. There are two large areas on either side of a control room. I have to shut of mixers that are putting the poison into the water. The final outflow valve now needs to be switched off. Once the valve is turned the mission ends.
The infection was a bacillus and would have likely infected the entire city. The engineer plan has been thwarted. Sam now wants to attack Sadiq rather than wait for the next blacklist attack. The fact that they don't have a clue where Sadiq is located it pointed out. Sam has an idea.
Main Mission Private estate Paraguay
Grim has leaked info about Kobin onto the net. The resulting chatter has brought a man called Reza Nouri to their attention. Kobin has worked with him in the past. Sam wants to interrogate him and find out what he knows about the engineers. Kobin reveals that Nouri has a panic room. The plan is to knock out the power and force him inside the panic room. I make my way through the grounds of the mansion taking out guards as I go. I come to the security room and find Nouri. I then have to reach the power breakers. When I get to the shed I have to use the tri roter to move an emp charge into place and fire it. I now need to find Nouri, he will have headed into the panic room. I enter the mansion proper and find the safe room using my new sonar goggles. I go loud and take out the guards. Sam uses explosive to breach the panic room ceiling. Inside Nouri tries to bribe Sam. A group of soldiers have started to assault the building. It looks like the engineers have also connected the dots about Kobin's capture and are trying to kill Nouri before Sam can find out what he knows. Nouri promises to spill his guts if Sam gets him out of the mansion to safety. Nouri tells Sam that there is a secret corridor exit. We have to fight our way out of the mansion and into the secret corridor. Then out through a river area to the docks. At the dock we have to survive some waves of enemies and then escape in a boat. Nouri gives up the names of the manpower he has supplied to Sadiq.
Main Mission abandoned mill London.
The data from Nouri has provided names of Engineer staff. They were distributed as a sleeper cell, though now all of them are mostly in London, Sam heads to the location where they appear to be congregating. We start outside the mill and have to head for the roof to infiltrate the building. Briggs is providing sniper support. I climb onto the roof and then have to find a way inside via a freight elevator. I climb up onto a higher portion of roof them have to make my way across a well patrolled and sniper filled area. Then down the freight elevator shaft inside the building. I then sneak past or murder loads of guards on the way to an office where incriminating papers are scanned. a lorry is being loads. Sam wants to find out what is inside and place a tracker on it. The men loading it are wearing hazmat suits. I sneak into the truck and find that this is a nerve gas weapon. A tracer is placed on it. Grim tells Sam that Sadiq may actually be in the complex. We are now heading to his supposed location. On the way Sam's vision begins to blur, he may have been infected with the nerve agent. I head for Sadiq's location with Sam increasingly getting out of control. He passes out in the middle of the labs. Sam wakes tied to a chair, Sadiq is there. He quizzes Sam, Briggs then barges in and shoots the place up. Sadiq grabs Sam and hides behind him. Briggs is told to kill Sam and Sadiq, he hesitates and Sadiq escapes. I now have to escape with Briggs. I have to fight through two rooms full of enemies with Briggs, then out onto a roof. In cut scene Sam is angry with Briggs for not killing Sadiq when he has a chance. Back on the plane, Grim thinks that Sadiq is feeding them another line of bullshit. Sam doesn't think he would have been there and in harms way if that was the case.
Main Mission Iran embassy
Iran has been implicated in the documents as the supplier of the chemical nerve agent. The world is going crazy and the President is under pressure to declare war. Grim wants to go to Tehran to the embassy. Sam has a contact in the embassy who he thinks will help him get inside. In cut scene he speaks to the general who isn't happy but will help Sam get inside. I sneak along the outside of the building, clambering along the walls, and then into the parking garage. I meet up with the general in the holding cell area and he takes us through the automatic security. The general has lied and Sam is surrounded. I have to fight my way out. I then sneak through ducts to an elevator. I come to a server room and have to get inside. Then insert a device which copies the data. I have to wait a minute and a half, enemies appear to run interference. I then have to make my way out through the alerted guards. I reach the main doors and have to hack a terminal to open them. I am then met with guards and one with a riot shield in the foyer. I reach the garden area outside which is crawling with guards. I make my way through and meet Briggs in a van. In cut scene there are a lot of vehicles chasing the van along the road. The only option is for grim to use the drone to take them out, which we have to do. Back on the plane Grim and Sam argue, she points out that Sam would have done the same to save Vic. He agrees and thanks her. The president is left to explain a US drone malfunction, however there is evidence that Iran had nothing to do with the Engineer's. The tracker on the nerve gas bomb is almost on American soil.
Main Mission Transit yards Philadelphia USA.
The bomb is being driven in a van on a highway, the van is tracked until it pulls off into a train yard and meets other vehicles. It's is now time to go in and stop the engineers. The mission begins with Sam and Briggs on roofs in the train yard. I have to snipe the engineers as they pile out of the vans. Once done I have to go to the bomb and disarm it. There are three other vans. Briggs is sent off alone to another bomb, there isn't time for the pair to do all of them together. I am then playing as Briggs, heading for the next bomb. Brigg's plays differently, in a firm 1st person view. It seems more like an FPS for a little while. I run along a short tunnel shooting people and then defuse the bomb. Charlie helps Briggs do it and the two argue. Back with Sam for the next bomb. I have to traverse two packed train yards to get to the next bomb. Back with Briggs and I have to fight my way through some rail yard buildings to the next bomb and defuse it. I am then back with Sam and end up on a train chasing the engineer leader. I find him at the end of the train, he is shot by a cop who thinks he is doing a good turn. Sam is taken into custody by the police. On the plane we learn that the engineers have sped up the blacklist in response to Sam foiling their plans.
Main Mission Detention Facility Guantanamo bay Cuba.
Nouri is in Gitmo, he is giving out false information. Sam thinks he knows more than he has let on so far about the engineer's. We are to break into Gitmo to interrogate him.
Sam is taken inside as a prisoner. Briggs is legally there as a CIA operative. I have to walk with him through the prison under his custody. Sam is then take to Nouri's cell. Nouri is beaten, he tells of a ship hijacking. He doesn't appear to know any more. I am given the chance to spare him. I now have to get out of the prison. Briggs cuts the power. I now have to sneak back to my gear which is in a locker. I now have to get out to a boat that Briggs has got ready. There is a lot of camp to cover, though there is nothing new to report. Sneaking and knocking out guards. Two snipers near the end and a dog to find you make the last stage harder. I meet Briggs and leave by boat. This isn't the end I get back to the plane and find it under ambush. I have to fight some enemies at the rear of the plane, then use a drone to take out trucks as the plane tries to take off.
On the plane Briggs suggests that we don't know what Sadiq really wants. The removal of troops from foreign soil is never going to happen. Is it just a cover. We then see that Sadiq has hacked the SMI and is watching what is going on on the plane. His real motives aren't disclosed, though he admits that Briggs is right. He give the commands to launch the next attack. It seems that he intends to have the entire coast of America burning, including Sam's plane.
Main Mission American fuel Gulf of Mexico.
The plane is hacked and taken over, all power is cut. Charlie tries to regain control from the hackers. The pilot is knocked out, the co-pilot asks for assistance. Briggs is told to help him. Sam is going to get Kobin. It appears that Kobin has knowledge that can help here. Sam lets him out, he tells us to lose some cargo from the cargo bay. I head there and meet Briggs. We push the chopper out the rear doors. It jams in the doors which are stuck halfway. I have to climb up and shoot two hydraulic lines to open the doors. I then have to go and cut the power to the computers to allow a reboot. I do this by crawling into an access hatch and getting under the SMI console. I now have to go to flight deck, which is hard due to the plane rocking about. At the flight deck Sam has to pull a switch when Kobin says and the plane is restored to their control. It almost skiffs the water in pulling up but makes it. The computers are scrubbed clean and rebooted. The virus that the engineers planted is gone. Communications are down. Grim tells them that the last communication they got told them that the US leaders had been placed into bunkers, the attack may have taken place.
Main Mission LNG Terminal Louisiana Sabine pass USA.
The engineer virus, based on stuxnet, which took out the plane has also been introduced into fuel plants all along the coast. They will all explode soon if something isn't done.
Sam drops out of the plane at the first plant and has to contain the fires and take out any engineers on site.
When I land I find a gunfight between the engineers and US forces. There is a high value target in the area. My first task is to find and capture him. The men are pinned down, I sneak forward and flank the engineers. The move on through the plant.
I find an area of maze like plant filled with enemies. There are the little drone controlled cars as well. I then find another area after that one that is much the same, except the objective is to take out all the engineers rather than sneak past. I have to do this because they are shooting at the fire crews who are trying to put out the fire. Once done the firemen come in, they can't put out the fire due to the way the gas is pumping out into the flames. I have to get to the control room and let Charlie hack the system, clearing out the engineer virus and restoring the fire suppression system. This is a clamber mission to get to the control room, where Charlie gains control. I now learn through the security cameras that the engineer leader has disguised himself as a paramedic. I have to go and find him. I see him with a group of engineers by an ambulance. He is trying to escape. I have to give chase. There are enemies in the way and I have to be quick. Eventually he gets into an ambulance and drives off. Charlie closes a gate on him and the ambulance crashes. In cut scene we see the impaled leader get questioned. He reveals that the plan was to create an incident that would put the American leaders into the bunkers. That was the real plan, to take out the leaders by infiltrating the bunkers. The engineers have been waiting for them in the bunkers. Sam worries that it might be too late. On the plane Charlie wants to confess to Sam that he cut corners and let the engineer virus on board. He also contacted a cartel member who may have been responsible for the attack on the plane at Gitmo. Grim tells him not to, despite being an asshole he is good at his job. She can't afford to have Sam throw him off the plane.
Main Mission Site F Denver USA.
The bunker has been compromised. Grim is trying to speak to the president and being fobbed off. She has to pull rank and eventually gets to speak to the President. The president is going to give in to Sadiq's demands, he has many people hostage, including the secretary of defense. Sam wants to go in, the president explicitly tells him not to. He intends to disobey and asks the rest of the gang to help him. Briggs and Sam are dropped off at an airfield. The plan is finally revealed, when the continuity of government plan is activated all intelligence data is backed up to the bunkers. Sadiq intends to steal this information. Charlie gives us the engineer virus on a stick to use against the bunkers security. This will let us get inside. I sneak into the base and use the virus. I now must sneak into the bunker. The fan shutdown allows me inside, however there is a rats nest of laser tripwires to get through. Quite the little annoying puzzle. Once inside I have to sneak through a guard infested area, then clamber about in an elevator shaft and hack a junction box. I am now in the bunker proper and must hack three points to shut down it's systems. Once those are done I have to activate Charlie's virus at another point under the floor. Grim tells us that Sadiq is now trying to hack the Secretary of defenses account. We must stop him. Sam moves through a vent and gives himself up. I know he is an bad ass, though this reeks of suicidal lunacy. We see Sadiq cutting off the fingers of the secretary of defense until he gives the passwords. Sadiq comes to see Sam, it turns out that it is Briggs under the mask. Sadiq cuts the sub dermal radio from Brigg's neck and tells Sam to leave them be or he will kill Briggs. Briggs is taken back into the war room. The secretary of defense is now minus a hand. He has not given his codes yet. Sadiq tells the torturer to start on his other hand. The secretary caves and begins inputting his codes. Briggs grabs him and kills him. There is some sort of choice going on here, though we are only told to press X. There does not seem to be an alternative. Sadiq has no way to win now. He beats Briggs badly then tells his men that they are going to leave using Brigg's plane. On the way out to the plane each terrorist has a hostage. Sam is one of the hostages. I have to takedown the guard who is escorting me, all hell breaks loose. Sadiq and snipers shoot basically everyone, including Briggs. Sam is left to chase Sadiq, we end up in a one on one battle with him. I flank him and have to try and shoot him during a struggle. Sadiq manages to vanish, Sam begins heading for the plane which is his destination. We end up in a QuickTime knife fight. Sadiq loses and is disabled. He tells Sam that killing him won't end the engineers. Sam doesn't kill him.
In a final cut scene we learn that Sadiq has been declared dead, Vic begins to interrogate him. Same comes back on the plane. Kobin thinks he is part of the team, which remains to be seen. I get control back on the plane as normal and can finish up the side missions.
Fifteen hours
225 Achievement points for one play through on normal.
Side Mission Abandoned city.
Infiltrate a hospital and recover Voron's source of classified intelligence.
I start on a roof filled with snipers, then inside a building for a lot of soldiers to fight. I then have to shut off power. We are detected and have to run along a corridor that is exploding. We then move through more of the building until coming to a a heavily fortified lab like area. Inside is a security door. I need to hack three computers then another while under fire. Then the game crashed and I couldn't be bothered doing all that again.
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