Rebel FM
Rebel FM Game Club: Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory -- Episode 1
Welcome to the first (and delayed) episode of our Chaos Theory Game Club. Join the regular crew as we discuss chapters one through four. For the next episode, please play through chapter eight. Enjoy!
(upbeat music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) - Hello and welcome to Rebel FM Game Club for Splinter Cell. - Cast Theory, episode one. - Playing all the episodes one, it's really episode one and two mashed into one. - Oh, I thought we were just gonna split it in half. Say goodbye and then come back and say we're back. - Oh, we can do that too if you want. - Yeah, we just have to re-record the whole intro. - Now fuck it, we're doing it all in one shot. - Damn, I'm off. - Fuck it, we'll do it live. - We're just doing, it's the first six levels. - It's just six levels. - Unless you're Tyler, then you only do one level. - Yeah, 15% Tyler is what we started to call him. (laughs) - So yeah, so you should have played through Hokkaido. - Although, to be fair, I didn't finish about five minutes. - Well, Arthur's about five minutes away from finishing Hokkaido. - Me too. - And that, so let's just, I may think I guess. Arthur Geese is the other person that's been speaking about having played it and calling 15% Tyler. And then there is 15% Tyler. - Yeah, I have an alternate name we could name. - 30, 15. - Splinter Cell. - Yeah. - Chaos Theory. Should be like Tom Clancy's, "Oh God, there's a face!" (laughs) - 'Cause that's who you are, you're just like a face that comes out and kills people. (laughs) - Yeah, yeah, it is true. - We can get into it later, but God damn the faces in this game look creepy as fuck. - Yes, they do. - Like this is a case study of the uncanny valley. Anyway, I have much more I would like to say on it later. - And then there's, and then laughing in the background is Matt Chanternay. - Back from South by Southwest. - Yeah. - We're happy to have you, sir. - I'm happy to be back. - I'm happy to be you guys. - You're on all stomping grounds. - We're happy to take you as well. - So yeah, let's just jump right into it. Before we even get into the levels, that's a good point to make Tyler. That's actually one of my favorite moments in this game so far is for all its little frustrations that come from it being made when it was made. I love when a guy thinks he sees you and then you're just sitting in the dark and he starts slowly walking towards you. Like, I think someone's there. And then he has that moment where he's like, "Oh God, there is someone there." And then you're just like, "Murder." I love doing that. - Or you just run out of the darkness and slam them in the face. Or, I mean, the thing that KS3 added was the knife and the melee attack in general. - I didn't know that. That's why before you just broke their necks or something. - You grabbed them from behind, otherwise you were pretty much boned. - Oh, there was no like-- - No, you had to grab them from behind or you had to shoot them. - Yeah. - Which is why if you grab some people, sometimes he'll say, "Hi, do you like my new knife?" Which is a joke because that was the first time he said hi. - I see, but that's what I was talking to you about, Arthur, is that I've never once grabbed anyone so far. - Oh yeah, that's, he was watching me play. I was trying to play some more at work to try to get it caught up. And he was like, "How do you do that? How do you grab people?" I always walk up behind people and hit the left trigger. - Yeah, I just walk up and I'm just like, I've done nothing but like instant put downs. - So you've never interrogated anybody? - No. - Oh my God, you're missing out on an awesome part of the game. - It's an objectives that I've missed out on because of that. I didn't know, I was just like, left trigger 'cause I don't wanna kill you, oh. - And you don't. - Okay, so now I didn't realize that there was like an option to engage people up close once you've been spotted. So like every time someone spots me up close, it's just like they pull up the gun. - It's hard, I mean, you better be really close. - Yeah. - Because if you try and close a gap, you're not gonna make it. - I mean, it's like guys in front of me, like he's touching my balls. - You can just tap left bumpers. He goes like, palm 'em in the face. - Or if you do the right bumper, you'll either stab them in the gut or just like-- - Slit their throat. - It's a vicious slap, you just slash straight across and cut their throat. Which is, yeah, that's totally new. All the melee stuff was new. It's one or so chaos theory. - It's weird the-- - He was totally missing from the other games. - I'm playing the PC version and using my 360 controller. It's weird they have fire on the bumpers. I think fire your gun is bumper. - Well, he's strange. - Yeah, I got to reset it. - I'm just playing it with the mouse. I really enjoy the mouse control in that game. - I heard it was good. - I heard the PC version was actually good. - I've heard that people who play on PC are worthy of ridicule. That's what I've heard. - Interesting. 'Cause I'm worthy of ridicule. - Oh. - I thought there was a legit in my reason. I didn't have my shit detector turned off. - It's just me. - Well, yeah, you definitely don't want that turned off while Arthur is speaking. (laughing) - And while you're busy turning that on, you could turn on your reading comprehension detector as well. - Man. - Yeah, we had an email thread that went around this last weekend where we were saying like, all right, so what are we gonna do for Splinter Cell? 'Cause we haven't had a game club in like three weeks. So what are we gonna do? And so Anthony says, well, we should play the first six stages up through Hokkaido. And I said, well, he said the first six stages. And I sent one back and I was like, so that's Hokkaido, right? Yeah. And Tyler was on all of these. I saw you in the two fields. - Yeah, I even replied to one of you. - And we find out today you're like, what? I thought we were only supposed to play the lighthouse, which is the first stage. - Yeah, and then I was also like doubly confused 'cause I was like, damn, like, that was a really short session. (laughing) Because I, so I got Chaos Theory on Thursday because I had tried to get it on Xbox Live like for two weeks. And I never could get it. I still to this day, you know, can't doubt it. - I know you called Microsoft too and they walked you through router stuff. - Yeah, yeah. And then they told me to call Linksis and then I called Linksis. - The only thing I can think of is that if you had unplugged the 360 directly into the cable modem, that may solve the problem. - But you don't have a problem buying other stuff on Xbox Live, right? - Nope. But yeah, so anyway, so I got it on Thursday and I had been playing, like, I'll play a chunk Thursday, I'll play a chunk Friday, play a chunk Saturday. And I guess I just played one level over those three days. (laughing) - I mean, to be fair, some of the levels, especially when you're getting caught and you're learning the mechanics, especially that first level, it can be pretty brutal. I mean, this is the first game in a long time that I told Arthur, I was like, "Man, I'm about to read the instruction booklet." (laughing) 'Cause I was like, "I have no idea." - This is back in the day. You can tell when you lift up the case if you have a physical copy that like, this was no joke. - Yeah, the instruction book is a manual. It's a manual, how to be a spy. (laughing) And it's-- - I mean, if you'd played the last two splinter cells, you would, it'd be a much easier sort of adjustment period, but it's definitely, I mean, even when I start playing after not playing for a week, I forget some things. - Right, oh, totally. - Yeah. - I still like, like I was watching Arthur, like I've never once, for instance, because I didn't get out the instruction booklet again, I've never once used an airfoil round or sticky cam. - Oh man, really? - I know. - Which is so fun. - Well, I find this sticky cam to be basically useless. - No, I watched Arthur use it earlier today. - Like a fucking ninja. - To great effect. - How so? I mean, like, 'cause all it does is let you see something like this. - It shoots out gas as well. Gas that makes people pass out. - Oh, at least, see, I had the gas-- - Synchronize, no less. They fall together. - Wow. - Yeah, so Arthur shot it in between two guys who were talking, and they were both like, what's that? And then they lean forward, and then I was like, pshh, and they were doing it. - And then a guy came over to investigate, and I nailed him in the face of the North Airfoil round. - Nice. - Yeah, see, that's like all stuff that like-- - Which is sad, like the Airfoil round is like my favorite thing in Splinter Cell. It's like a gun that shoots clothes lines. - Yeah, so far, my tactics revolved around either-- - Killing everything. - Either I sneak up behind you and just put you out, or if you fucking think you see something, well, now you just condemn yourself to a pistol shot to the face. - Yeah, wow. - Like it's like one of the two. - Whereas I have not killed anyone so far. - Me either, and like-- - Except for the people that I've been required. - And I really, I totally pride myself on being able to like, I try to grab everybody from behind, and choke them and knock them out. Like, it's sort of like the game that I play with myself, it's like me versus the level setup and the AI. - That's how he is, too. - Just to orchestrate things, like in the most stealthy, badass, spy way possible. - Yeah, I'm like a dropout of Ninja Academy, where it's like, I'll have like a badass moment, and then I'll suddenly be like, yeah, badass, and I gotta be like, huh? And I'll be like, pah, pah, pah, pah, pah, pah, pah, pah. - Jeez. - You are the Beverly Hills Ninja. - Yeah, I get caught, and then all of a sudden, it's just like, well, machine gun. - Whereas I take the stealth load out most times, because that's me. - Oh, yeah, me too. - I just take the recommended load out every time. - Yeah, I take the stealth load out every time. - The recommended load out every time. - Which is new, that's new as well. - Why didn't I say that? - That's new as well, before like, you just got what you got, and now with chaos theory, what they added was the ability to decide, well, I'm gonna go in with the assault package and just fucking kill everyone, which is why it has a shotgun attachment on the gun now. - Right, so let's jump into the first level. - Start off in the crew, and they make that joke early on about how the levels don't end if you're caught anymore. That's how it used to happen. - Yeah, if you had like three alarms generally, it would be it. - Oh, okay. - And then the more alarms, like they start putting on more and more body armor. Anthony says this, like, the look on his face describes exactly how familiar he is with this concept. - I'd be at least two levels with the four warnings, so they were wearing helmets and full body armor. Jesus, so by the end, I would just have to like, pull up my machine gun and go nuts. - Wow, I mean, the guns aren't that effective even when they're not wearing body armor. - No, like I am emptying a whole clip on a guy. - Yeah, I mean, it's-- - Yeah, one guy, yeah. - Your gun is a piece of utility as opposed to like your primary method of engagement. Usually, although again, you can take a shotgun attachment for your gun, so if that's the way you're playing, you might as well just start taking the assault load out. - I just take the recommended assault. Most of the time, if I play, most of the time I am a pistol guy the whole time. A pistol shoot the light out, or zap it and break a guy's neck. - Do they have the OCP, like the thing on the pistol, the alt-fire in Pandora tomorrow? I think they did, right? - In Pandora tomorrow? - Or did you never play-- You never played in Pandora tomorrow tomorrow? - I never played-- - I only played like the first stage of Pandora tomorrow, so I don't remember it. - The alt-fire in the pistol was pretty new too, although I don't remember if that was specific to chaos theory. - I think that might have been in a Pandora tomorrow thing, but don't quote me on that. - It would be soft-shaying, I did something right. - Yeah, me. - So-- - In Pandora tomorrow. So yeah, you start on a beach on an island in Peru, and you're there to find an agent that was taken who knows a lot about, they're called mass algorithms. - Algorithms. - Yeah, I was like, all right. - Which is a reference to the first splinter cell, actually. - It's a way that you can make algorithms infinitely recursive. - Whatever that means. Yeah, the whole time they say that I'm like Sam, I'm just thinking like Sam, yeah, whatever. What do I need to do? - It's basically like, I think it's like a math problem where you'll get closer and closer to a perfect answer every time you run it, like-- - Again, I'm like, why should I care? I'm just here, whatever. Just tell me if you look at it. - It's a way to crack any security, essentially. Like any electronic security is the premise. It's very time to fancy. And yeah, that's the funny thing is like later on like mission five when you're going into the security like corporation. It's like, you're looking for this guy who is harboring this guy, who is protecting this guy, who killed this guy, and I'm like, are you fucking serious, will you be solved? This is why no one thinks these games have a story. - Yeah, I started stopping attention. - I started to lose track of the story after about like the fourth mission. - Yeah. - I didn't care, I was like, bad things are happening. Sam is here to stop them. I will kill them unless I'm told not to. - And then I will just hurt them real bad. - Especially like at the beginning of the missions, you just sort of get the still pictures of whoever it is talking and yapping in your ear. Like, you know, I've said it before, like when I think of splinter cell and I think of story, I think of last names. Like, everything just told through last names. It's just like-- - Where's his daughter? - Yeah. - Yeah. - Who is in the next one, actually? - Yep. - As we're talking about this, I just keep thinking of moments from other splinter cells and like the only moment that Pandora tomorrow had that this one never has, as you meet a contact in Pandora tomorrow and you're in an elevator together and she's leading you somewhere where you need to be. And just out of nowhere, Lambert comes over your piece and we need you to eliminate your contact right now. Like, don't ask questions, kill her. - Did you? - I think I did and asked why he wouldn't answer me. And like, you never find out why he wanted you to kill her, but you don't have to. - Ah, if you're PB, that's intense. - Yeah, it was a very strange moment, like it was much different than the first one. But anyway, so Lighthouse on a beach in Peru. - Right, and it mostly does, it mostly is just kind of a training mission. It was all pretty easy. - Although I still, this is another one, I finished a three warnings. Just 'cause at first I didn't know what I was doing. So I was like. - Which is funny 'cause they don't have an alarm system on this island, so you really have to fuck up. - But I will like at least three different times where I was. - Oh, okay. - I was definitely caught. Like, and then I just pulled out a machine and then huddled somewhere in the dark and was like, they're all coming. (laughing) - I actually spent longer on this stage than I meant to because I missed one of the alternate objective things. - The crates? - The crates, yeah. - I missed one as well, I never did find it. - I took longer than I had been tended to on this mission because I could not find the door to go to the last part of the mission. - Oh, you need to off the tower? - Yeah. - Like when you go up and there's a guy sitting in a computer screen. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - And there's just like this nondescript door in the corner that you can't really see. - I totally missed it right at the beginning too. And then I looked at my map and I found it and I'm like, "Oh, let's go be here." - This is something that happens a lot in chaos theory in particular is that you'll not know where you're supposed to go. - Well, 'cause it'll tell you the objective's like in the room and you're like, "Where the fuck in the room?" - You know, right where you start off on the beach and you're supposed to climb up those rocks, it took me about like 10 minutes to see, "Oh, I gotta climb up these rocks." - Yeah. - And I was like walking around the beach, like, "Where the fuck do I gotta go?" - Welcome to last gen, Tyler. - Wow. - Yeah, I know there's nothing that's like climb on this rock and the rock is shining all the sudden. - Right. (laughing) - Or it's not even like there's a path leading that way that would sort of make my mind-- - Right, right, right. - Yeah, it's, I mean, there are a lot of things in this game where you're like, "Oh, right." - Like, no checkpointing. - No checkpointing? You can quick save what you want. - Right, which I do now all the time. - Yeah. - Learn the hard way. - Yep. - This was the best looking console game I had ever played when it came out. And now it looks a little scary in parts. - I remember I did it on console. - The what you're seeing on PC is what you're seeing on console. - And what you didn't hear is the fact that we just lost like five minutes of podcast and had to stop it and restart it. - Yep. - It's through the magic of editing. - The dist to slower. So let's move on with this first level. - So like in the, there's a part in this first level where you go outside and there's some guys standing on the, standing on the edge of the-- - Yes, there is an edge of a cliff. - The edge of a cliff? And I was like, "Sweet, I'll go push them off "because you can do that." - Is that possible? - No, you can't. - Okay. - 'Cause you can do that in Double Agent. Like every splinter cell, they've added new ways for you to-- - Kill people? - Kill people or to knock people out. Like the one thing that I miss the most from Double Agent is being able to get people around corners. Like, you know, they'll come through a doorway and you're like, you have your back against the wall and like you can like grab them from around the corner and you can't do that. - Oh, I mean, you can still hang around corners. - Yeah, you can, but you can't like, you know, do your attacks from around corners. Like, you can, if they walk far enough through, then it'll do a normal attack, but you can't like grab them before they come around the corner. So like those guys that were on the edge of the cliff, I'm like, "I'm gonna walk up to them "and push them off." And like, no, I just made them mad. - Yeah, I was wondering, is there also like, when you have bodies, is there a way to throw them over things? Is that possible? - No, you don't-- - No, you just hit A and he'll set them down. - Okay, I was like, I was like trying to go hit man at one point. - And you'll wanna be on the boat level. I was like, go over the rail. - You'll wanna be careful too because on missions where you can't kill anyone, if it's like in Pandora tomorrow, there's definitely a part where you're in a swamp. And if you knock someone out and set them down in the water, they'll drown. (laughing) So yeah, don't do that in this, if the event comes up. I can't remember if there's anything like that. It was brought to you. - I remember I threw a guy down a cliff at one point. - Maybe you set him down in there. - I set him down and he fell down a-- - Yeah, that can help. - It was like right there at the beginning where that bridge was. - They're physics, like I definitely hit guys as they're coming downstairs with airfoil rounds and it knocks them down and they slide down the stairs on your knees. - Right near like you would. (laughing) - But like right at the very beginning, like you see a guard crossing a little wooden bridge very slowly. - Well that's towards the lighthouse. Yeah, we're right by the way. That was at that point. - Yeah, we're still, you go into the cave. - Oh yeah, I mean this is like super super rare. - So I know this is near the end of the level. - But there's also a wooden bridge there with the guy crossing it as well that I took out. But I read that as like, okay, shoot out the bridge of all this guys in the middle of it because like the rope connecting the bridge was really thick, but no, those were six. - Tyler. - We're not there. - Yeah, 2005, Tyler. - I know, I know that's what the guy was yelling at me when I alerted him. - 2005, 2005! - I'm sorry. - Actually, technically the game takes place in 2007. - So there you go. - Sure. - I do really like that you're, I'm always coming up on guys that are having interesting conversations that I want to listen to. Like these guys at the cliff again, you walk up there and one guy's talking about how he hates the thunder because the Americans came in and... - Oh yeah, Granada. - And I'm like, wow, that's a really interesting story. Time to knock you out. - Yeah, if you grab him and interrogate him, like he says, I knew you would come from it. - Yeah, exactly, exactly. And they do stuff like that all throughout, all throughout this split or so on. I really like that it gives the game and the people that you're up against a lot of character. - They also do a lot of product placement. Like there's definitely a point in like the fifth level where I was sitting in an event and these two guys were talking and the guy's like, man, I can't wait to play Prince of Persia. - Oh yeah, that's nothing. Like if you look at computer screens, you'll see fucking Nokia. - Well that's some things, but it was like, but the Prince of Persia thing was like, yeah, I can't wait to play Prince of Persia. That's gonna be game of the year. - Yeah, it was like the most blatant thing ever. - For real, my friend Michael pointed out to me that there's a brand of gum in the UK that in the very first CG scene, you see Sam Fisher pull out this gum, like nothing else is going on. He pulls out the gum very slowly, takes it out and puts it in his mouth. And it's like there's a logo and everything on the box. Yeah. - That's hilarious. - And Matt, can you pull the mic closer to your face? - Product placement. - Yep. - You gotta be kidding me. I'm never wide on these podcasts. - You looking at the waveform? - I was listening. - That's okay, I'll just eat my microphone. If there's any consolation, you sound fantastic. - Well. - Always. - Yeah. - Especially with something in your mouth. Moving on. (laughing) So yeah, ads, lots of ads. - Yep. - I have a question about one of the views that he pulls down. - Uh-huh. - The electromagnetic one. - It's only useful for very few instances. Like sometimes if you're trying to see a camera, that you're not quite sure if it's there. - Okay. - Or if like you're trying to find bugs in one level in particular, it works really well. So I was doing shit like, well if I shoot the cord, that's supplying power. - You can also use it, I think, to see light sources that you can hit with the OCP that you can disable. - You can, and you can also use it to, you can like radios and stuff like that. Your OCP can overload them. - Oh. - And then that, I just, I haven't done this. I actually saw it in one of the loading screen tips. And so I'm like, all right. So maybe if I'm using that electromagnetic vision, then I can see objects that I can overload. And when you do that, they create a lot of noise. And you know how, I really like how you have your light meter and your noise meter. And the noise meter is environmental dependence. So like, when you're in noisy areas, you can walk faster. - Yeah. - And so like you could, I think the idea is that like, you overload somebody's radio and it gets really loud. And then you can sneak up on them because like the environment around you is so loud. - And you'll notice later that sometimes they'll do extended sections that are more well lit than you'd like, but they're next to very noisy objects. So the point is that you need to run more quickly through that. - Banger. - Good level design. - Yeah. Which, you know, is the thing that it has up on double agent. Like we talked about double agent before and you and Ryan have really liked double agent. - Yeah. - But for me, the thing that separates the two games in particular is the level design. - See, I feel like there is good level design in this game, but at least so far, up until really the Hokkaido level, I felt like the levels in this game are very linear. - Yes. - And all the splinter cell levels are linear. I don't want to make it sound like that these fast open worlds or something like that, but I did feel like there are levels in double agent that I can think of right off like the cruise ship that you can attack from so many different ways. And so far, the only one that I feel like I really had a lot of options with was Hokkaido. - I felt that way about this place actually. - Which one was that? - Like the security. - That's the sixth level. - Yeah, that's the fifth level. - Fifth level. - Sixth level. - Oh yeah, this place. When you go right into this place, yeah, that was a good one too. - I think that they do a good job implying a certain hugeness and sense of place within a very linear sort of experience. - True. - Yeah, once you have a lay of the land, you realize that at all these levels, that it's usually actually pretty small, but when you're going through it and you don't know what's around the corner, it feels like a fuck man. - And you're going so slow because you're like afraid of being heard or seen. - Right, but then if there's ever a time where you have to run back, you're like, oh, that was just around the corner. - Yeah, right, after you've knocked everyone out and you're running through with confidence. - Right, yeah. - You get a two minute jog. - So, I mean, the first level is sort of designed to introduce you to all the same skills. Like I don't remember if we talked about the knife, but you've got the knife and all the stuff you can do with the knife, like cutting holes and stuff in material, puncturing holes in generators. - Right, that was when you showed me, 'cause I actually didn't know. - I didn't know you could do that yet. - Yeah, so they can't turn it back on. - Wow. - 'Cause you leak the gas out. - That's awesome. - But they'll notice it's broken. - Right. - You can break locks instead of picking them. - So, is that just really noisy? Is that the-- - It's noisy and some of them will notice that it's broken if they come by it. - The hacking games took me a little while to figure out it first, 'cause I had no explanation. - Yeah, something weird that's sort of, I think a backwards compatibility issue is that in previous splinter cells, the vibration for the lock picking game was really strong. So basically, I would pick locks on the splinter cells on Xbox with my eyes closed. 'Cause it's just like, you feel the vibration gets stronger and you know you hear when you're in the right spot. And in this, the vibration is just so-- - Yeah, I'm just watching for the actual physical movement to pick on the screen. - On the PC, it's really interesting. - Well, not interesting, it's really easy. 'Cause you just use the WASDA keys. And then, as you're tapping it, like, it's basically almost like a quick time of it where you're trying to tap the right button. So it's like, you'll tap like D and then you'll see the little hammer start to move up and down. And you have to tap it like three times and then it moves on to the next one and you just have to kind of guess which one is the right one to move. So it's kind of an interesting way around it, but infinitely more boring than using the vibration. - Yeah, it's less immersive. And then the hacking mini game is something that it took me a while to remember how to do. - Yeah. - But once you figure out that like it's, you're not just looking for the numbers at highlights, but you can also-- - The ones that it doesn't highlight. - Right, so it's like, you know which ones are wrong. You can guess it so fast. - Well, you can also follow out three of that shit. Like, if your timer is running out, you just hit B and back out and go back into it. And the timer starts all over. - Yeah, that's true. And I, it's one of the few games where I felt like the hacking mini game actually kind of looks like you might be running some kind of program because it's IP addresses. - It's true. - Which is such a stupid little thing, but it's kind of cool. - I didn't realize there were IP addresses. I just thought it was just random. - And apparently everything has an IP address in 2007. - Exactly. Well, pretty much everything does at this point. - Everything is networked. - Yeah. - Every lock, every scanner, every everything. - So there's not really much description of new security in this mission because they're shittily equipped gorillas. - And your mission was supposedly tried to extract a spy, but you-- - I think it was Morgan Holt. - Yeah, you seem getting murdered. - Yeah, you seem. - I was wondering if that was just me. Like, was I too slow or? - Nope, it's scripted. - 2005. - And then I also, and then I cut them down and they were like, what are you doing? And then I was like, dignity or something. - Yeah, there's always 10 or 15 seconds for dignity. - Yeah. - Well, I didn't do dignity. (all laughing) - You're following orders. - Yeah, I mean, so what happened at the end of this stage? Did they get away or do you just get extracted? - You get to the top of the lighthouse and get extracted. - Right, which actually, that took me two times because I got to the top of the lighthouse and I was like, I don't see anyone. And I was, I didn't turn on my thermal vision. Oh, I did, but it's the light. So it's too bright. And I was like, okay, cool. And the guy was like, you're dead. - Yeah, I got killed the first time I climbed. - I didn't know there was anyone up there. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah. - These things happen. - Yeah. - Especially in Splinter Cell. - Yep. - It's very trial and error, which is, to me, I have a better and easier time thinking of it as an action puzzle game. - See, sometimes it's trial and error, but I feel like a lot of the times they do a really good job of like, if I'm just patient, things always happen so that I can put myself in an advantageous position. Like, there's a lot of times where it's like, I'll walk into a room and I'll be like, crap, there's two guys here. And I'm like, what am I doing? What should I do? Where can I go? And I'm looking around and all of a sudden they have a conversation and then they part ways. And then I'm like, oh, okay, now I can go at them. I just had to be patient. - Right, yeah, usually they do reward patients. You're like, hi, there's three guys. I know if I sit here for a minute, they will split up in some route that'll make sense for me. - Which is sort of how Splinter Cell has always been, but something that Chaos Theory has started to emphasize is creating situations that will separate people and like shooting a sticky cam to an area. - Not just shooting a sticky cam, but like putting out a light with the intention of someone going over there and getting it and taking them or whistling. Whistling, I think, was in the last one. - It was. - And so we're sticky cams. - I can't tell you how many times I've whistled when I accidentally meant to switch my guy. - Holy. - Me too, man. - I'm just like, you too. - Oh shit. - All the time. - Have you done it yet where you like whistle and somebody's coming up at you and he kind of stops before he gets to you and then you do it again and you go pssst, hey. - Yeah. - And then the guy goes like, what do you think I'm stupid? You're trying to set a trap for me. (laughing) I'm like, oh my God. - There are other times where they're like, I didn't see anything, I'd really rather not. (laughing) A lot of the dialogue in this game is really bad, but a lot of it is super funny. - Yeah. - Like this is still at the age where it's like really poorly done English dialogue probably by French dudes that are trying to sound American. - Or just done by guys that worked in the American studio. - Yeah. But I, but yeah, for the most part, like I like the audio while you're actually in game and stuff like that. The briefings still suck, but whatever. So like, what was the next stage? - The next stage is the boat. - Yes, the next stage is the boat. - I'm on the boat. - That boat, man. This is the one first one that we had, the ability to get ratings, like bad ratings, and I finished it with like a four. Like shit just went bad over and over again from me on this boat. - Really? I had a really easy time. - I did not kill it. - I did a lot of walking around and finding where to go. - I did not kill anyone on this boat except for Lucerda. - Same. - I tried not to kill people, but inevitably when they tell me I can, there's always pistol shots for convenience. (laughing) - It's totally fair. - I mean, head shots with the pistol though, it kind of is dangerous business 'cause if they're any more than like five to 10 meters away, it's like not gonna happen for shot more than likely. - Right. - Even if you're like dead aimed. - Yep. - Like you'll usually miss and all of a sudden they'll be like, what the fuck? (laughing) I actually, I had to restart this mission several times 'cause I wasn't quicksaving it 'cause I'm an idiot. Because like I'm totally the stealth action player who if I really, if I fuck up my stealth sequence, then I'll reload. - That's you and Arthur both. - Yeah, which is why it ends up taking like two hours. - Yeah, exactly. - It ends up taking me two hours too, but for totally different reasons 'cause I die a lot. (laughing) - Well my problem on this one is I kept turning off lights and people kept going like, huh? What the hell, what's that? And this is before I figured out that like this one didn't have corner attacks or anything like that. So I was always waiting in places where they would come up and go like, what the fuck? And then start shooting me and I wouldn't get the chance to fire it. - They're Johnny on the spot shooting at things. - Yeah, yeah. - It's like the second like they bump in here, they're like, doo doo doo doo. - I know they're like the quickest on the trigger of all time. So yeah, but the first part of the boat's pretty easy, just getting to where you have to find that first crate and identify it. The part that gave me a lot of trouble on the boat is the part where you go into the engine room and they're like, oh, there's fumes. - Oh yeah, I thought you failed that part. - If they shoot, it'll get blown up. - Yeah, yeah. - And that first mechanic that comes down and walks around the bottom of the engine room, he's the one that kept on seeing me. And I was like, fuck who's supposed to do that? - Another thing I've noticed about Splinter Cell is this is a strange world where janitors always have guns. - Yes, yeah, I said mechanically, yeah, he kept on shooting my ass and blowing us up. - Yeah, I fixed cars. Yeah, I carry a gun. What about it? - Janitors and engineers all have weapons. - So yeah, I mean, like that part with the engine room, I still like, I don't know, I'm curious, do you guys ever get through parts without knocking everyone out? Like other times, I will just go through very rarely. - I almost always get everybody. - Sometimes I try not to just because it gets harder and harder to find places to hide the bodies. - Well see, for me, that's where the-- - But I guess that you knock everyone out, right? It's like, eventually you're like, why the fuck do I care? - Yeah, that's where the fun in the game is for me though, is like, like I said, outsmarting the level design and outsmarting the AI through patience and perseverance. - Unfortunately, the sort of manipulation of the environment doesn't really start in earnest in this level. Like this is another semi-tutorial level where it's sort of teaching you some of the new stuff. It's not until the next level where you really start to have some freedom doing things the way you want to. Like there's really only one order to do this in. - So on this level, who are we going after again? - You're going after Lucerda, who's the head of the gorillas from the last one. - Gotcha. - Who orchestrated the kidnapping of Morgan Holt and you're trying to figure out why, right? - And that inevitably leads you to go and need to take the bridge. - Because he's in the crew quarters, he's in the captain's cabin. - Right, and you have to go through the bridge to get to it. - Yeah, which include going through the bridge with the captain. - So yeah, I was going to say, you handle the engine room and eventually you get up to that bridge area. How did you guys do that? I could not do the bridge area without being seen. I wasn't sure, 'cause it seemed like no matter which door it came through, there was going to have to be that, oh shit moment where a guy was coming. - Moving very quickly. - Well, I didn't have to go through a door. I came up internal stairs. I came up stairs into the bridge. - Oh, see, I was already outside so I was going around. - I was outside too. - To the either door on the sides and being like, oh, there's guys on the side. - Yeah, I came in through some stairs from like, if you're looking out of the bridge. - Right, there's stairs that go back down. - Yeah, I'm right outside, I came up to those stairs. - In parts like that, guys are scripted to turn around, to turn their back long enough for you to do what you need to do to whoever else is in the room. - Okay, so you open the door real quick, take one guy out and then move to the next real fast. - Yeah, like generally I'll go up behind someone, grab them and walk backwards, somewhere where it's dark. - Yeah, exactly. - And then take them out. - And then take them out. - The funny thing is, is like, I like holding onto a guy and it has the interrogation option and you'll be in the dark, like standing right next to somebody and you do interrogate. - And they won't hear me at all. - And you have a full conversation standing right next to me. - Yeah, see, that part for me was definitely like, well, let's do this. Bashing the door, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. - Which is, I think that might be new. I don't know if bashing the door open is new, but the stealth open I think is new to chaos theory. - I like the stealth open, that's awesome. - Yeah, I can show it. - Ooh. - There was one stage where there was-- - Oh, go ahead. - I'm sorry, there was one stage where there was a guy standing right by the door. - Oh, you bashed the shot out of that. - Yeah, I know, but like, I tried stealth opening it and it like, you open it and it pushes it against him and it doesn't open the door and he doesn't say anything, but if you go normal open, then it tries to open it against and he's like, "Oh, wait!" - That was level four. That was the penthouse one. - Yeah, exactly. - And that specific guy, I know exactly you opened the door and opened the door and he was like, "Mm, yeah." And I was like, "Open," and he was like, "Ah!" And I was like, "Bash!" (laughing) - Yeah, that's the only, that guy is the only time I've batched the door. - Right, because that's, it's almost like the game's telling you you should bat shit. - Okay, we'll do this. - Yeah, it's like, you probably haven't done this for the rest of the game, so we'll give you a clear opportunity to do it. So yeah, so you go and you take out the captain and then-- - You don't take out the captain. - No, you don't want to. The captain is extremely happy to help you. - Yeah, you see, it's especially awesome if you-- - You killed him. - You killed the captain. - Yeah, I interrogated the captain. - I figured he was part of the crew. - No. - You know, he's just, he's down with the bad guys, therefore, when I opened that door-- - No, no one on that ship is happy with Lucerda. He's like, "Shit, the fucking mechanics are pulling gats on you." - Well yeah, but you're a fucking ninja on your boat. What are you gonna do? - Yeah, no, it's whenever you interrogate anybody on this boat, they're like, "Oh, that guy's a madman. "He's an asshole. "He took over the captain's cabin." - Then you guys are cocked with legs. - Yeah, well-- - It's like Kratos' around here. - Well, I'd see, I guess that's my problems that I never interrogated anyone. My Sam Fisher does not speak to anyone. - Is he really-- - You're more snake eyes than Sam Fisher? - Yeah, I got. Now I feel like a dick. I just rolled in and the captain dies. - You really should try to sneak up on people and interrogate 'em, 'cause it's actually really enjoyable. Sam Fisher has some really funny-- - It sounds like it does. I mean, he has some funny-- - And also occasionally they'll let you know where stuff is, if you need a med kit, it's good to interrogate people, 'cause they'll usually tell you where stuff is, although typically you'll find it in the bathroom. - Right. - 'Cause everyone puts drugs and painkillers in the bathroom. - Yeah, I don't know, man. I killed him and then before that, I had also killed everyone in that back video room as well. - Oh, wow, yeah. - So when it told me, like, "Oh, you need to go there now." I was like, "Well, good." - I'd take care of this running around the boat, 'cause there's bodies around here. - Oh, yeah, eventually, like I said, I was like, "Well, I'm taking 'em all out. "I'm not even gonna hide 'em." Shh. - Everywhere. - Terror on the seas today as his boat was found adrift with 47 dead bodies. - That is pretty much 100% right there. - That'd be awesome if that was the news story between missions. - That'd be hilarious. - And like Lambert just looks at you with the scared look on his face. - She shakes his head, yeah. - Honky. - This game reminds me so much of Hitman. - In a lot of ways, there's a lot of points that it reminds me of Hitman too. - Not only that. - Even some of just the animations. - But I think it's like obvious that the way they do faces, that they might be like sharing assets or something, right? - Hitman was Ubisoft, right? - No, Hitman was Ubisoft. - Oh, I thought Hitman was Ubisoft, never mind. Blah, blah, blah. - But there's like, when you enter, like one of my favorite ones is I interrogated this one guy. I think it was in the fourth stage and Sam's like, "I'm thinking of a number between one and 10." - Yeah. - And he's like, "That's it, or die." And the guy goes, and Sam goes, "That was the number." - And that was a lucky guess. - That was a lucky guess. And then he says, "So tell me something interesting, "and you'll have to guess again." And then he does something and he tells you something and then you can always interrogate more than once. So it's like he squeezes his neck again and the guy goes, "Oh, do you want me to guess again?" And then he's like, "Four, no, no, no, seven, seven." So you get that shit all the time when you interrogate people, it's really funny. There's one guy who's like, "Don't kill me. "I'm the biggest coward in the world." - And Sam's like, "That's a pretty tall claim." He's like, "I already pissed myself." He's like, "Okay, you're definitely in the top three." It's awesome. You got semi-upstaged by my cat. - I know, I know. - Only 'cause she's so fat that she lost her balance on Tyler's bag and she fell and she can't roll herself back up onto her feet. So she's just laying there. - And I'm not gonna move. I'm not gonna help. - She's like a turtle. - 'Cause she's like halfway turned over, like a hella, she's a bomb. - I think she may be passed out. - So the next, so sorry. So let's move on. We do the stuff with the screens. - Did you place all the trackers? - I tried to place all the ones I could find, but I didn't find all the trackers. - I didn't. - I think I got them all, but I don't remember. - You caught all the Pokemans? - Yeah, exactly. - I actually don't think that there's been one level that I finished every secondary objective. - The next mission is the first one that I ever 100%ed. - I got 100% on, hopefully, I don't think that's the only one I've got 100% on it. - It's fun, I was like fucking Danny Ocean. The best I've done is 47%. - 7? - 47%. - Oh, that was like a singular digit? - The worst I've done, on the other hand, is 5%. - That's awesome. - That was on the bank. - The bank, the bank is next. - Yes, it's true. - So you kill Lucerda, you get pulled off to the bank. The bank is one of my favorite levels in the game. The bank is a lot of people's favorite level in the game, actually. - I ran up the bat in the bank. I didn't listen to the guys, and I was like, I had two guys talking, haul ass. And it was like motion-sensitive lights. - I was like, oh fuck, so restart. - It's like you were trying to roll up on someone's garage and got caught. - Yeah, it was like Sam Fisher being caught by the most rudimentary technology. - Sam Fisher, home invasion failure. - So funny, like the guys that are out there, he's like, I'm gonna get one of these for my driveway. - And the other guy's like, what are you talking about? This has to be super high-tech, expensive equipment, man. - I suppose you're right. - Yeah, I also, so this part I snuck up and went around the building. But at this point, I had never had to think about cameras, so immediately that's one alarm. - Right. - And so I'm like, all right, already one alarm, huh? - So having played every spinner cell, I'm always with the mindset that there is something around here that I probably need to deactivate or some way to make this easier on myself. So I went up the side of the yard, past the motion-sensitive lights, and there's an electrical box that you can turn off that shuts off all the lights in front of the bank. - Yeah, but then like the guys come and they're like, well, this shouldn't be off. - Yeah, but by that time you should fucking, there should be like a sandfisher shaped puff of smoke. - So if you turn off the lights, can you run past the camera, too? - You can't run past them because they'll hear you. - But the camera. - You can move your way to the side and then I OCP the camera. - Okay, and then did you, so for the next part of the bank, did you guys go straight through the door? Did you, I climbed up to the roof. - I climbed onto the roof and yeah, and Spider-Man did from the top. - I thought that was the only way you could do it. I couldn't get through the door, I thought. - The door right there on the side, you can go in. - Yeah, I think there are other ways, eh. - I went through the roof, yeah. Yeah, when I saw the option for a roof, I was like, why would I, I'm going to a bank? I'm going to go down a fucking rope. - Exactly, and it was funny, it's funny in this game, how like all of the, every time you need to go down a rope, it's already there, like there was a helpful spy that came in before you, but it's like you go down into, I like how you go down the lobby, and this is the first time that I think that they tell you that you can remote hack things. - No, that's just places when they tell you about that. - I didn't even know you could remote hack any. - No, you have to bring up the binoculars. - Yeah, you like-- - What you do by clicking the right stick. - Really, I could have sworn they told you that you could remote hack things in this game. - No, it was a, it's in displace when the guy has his briefcase computer. - That's funny, 'cause like I actually went, I went down the rope, and then like you're in between all these lasers, and then you remote hack a computer and you can turn them off. - Oh, see, I-- - I just OCP'd each laser to get through it. - Yeah. - Well, I OCP'd the laser went over to the respective computer and shut them off. - Oh, I didn't even know you could shut them off. - Yeah, you were both hacking computers. - Yeah, the computers around letting you shut them off. - Yeah, I just OCP'd them each time I ever had to go through them and back out. - I do really like this part later in this stage where you can, the guy, they have the-- - I know exactly what part he's about to say, go ahead, continue. (laughs) - Where they have the thing on their suits or whatever, the tracking device, whatever it is that allows them to walk through the lasers. It's a really-- - The way that Anthony did that is to-- - Yeah, or if they're watching me, OCP'd every single one was really over. OCP'd another one, OCP'd another one. I did one. - The way they, the employers was supposed to do that is to follow the guy through. - Right. - The way that I did it was I jumped to the right in the first room because there was like a desk. - So did I, did the same thing and then knocked him out. - So I did that and then knocked him out and carrying his body was my past. - Right, and see, it's good that I saw you do that because then I learned from that. - It comes up again, yeah. - There was like a doors that slide open and close and I was like, "Oh." "No, I know, I'm not gonna carry this full." - Mm-hmm. - But yeah, that pissed me off, I sat there. The most tedious process sounds just, you know, 'cause that thing takes, when you're waiting on it, it takes a long time to recharge and you're like, "Right." No going back. (laughs) - So like the first-- - I mean, that's not the direction I went first. - Right, right, right. Well, you can't go that direction first. You have to, the bank is cool because you go to a lot, it almost feels a little Metroid-like and that you go to different areas before you have the ability to get through them 'cause you have to unlock different security terminals in different places and yeah. Although I didn't figure out what was up with the outside area with the fountain. Like it seemed like-- - Oh yeah, like that weird backyard area. - Yeah, 'cause you walk out there and then Sam, I can't remember what the dialogue was but Sam has some kind of dialogue that makes it sound like he just got over the wall and got in here or something like that and there's no other way to get in that courtyard except by going through the bank. But it made it sound. - I mean, he had been there before. Like the-- - The bank before? - Yeah, so we-- - Oh you're right. - He's got the story, like-- - You're right. - Basically, there's someone holding information in this bank and you need it and Sam is going in because Sam has broken into this bank before. - Right, and then they say like, but they've beefed up security systems. - Yeah, and so you also have a professional safe cracker like on your comm. - Right. - Who's like telling you about the bank security. - And didn't he come with you the first time too? - No. - Or he's just on-- - No, I think the indication is that he is in jail or that they found him on a job somewhere and told him that he was going to help. - Right. - So I disabled the lasers, walk over to the guard that's sleeping in his chair. - Okay, so what'd you do with him? - I grabbed him and then pushed his face into the retinal scanner. - Oh, oh God. - Whereas I was like, well, you're already asleep. - Face. - I guess you could ask for worse ways to die. - Did you really have a little shot on the face of the chair? - So this is what it surprised me. I'm like, you just killed a bunch of bank employees. - So in the, in one of the security stations? - Like, you have a five percent, that's why. - Yeah, in these, in these, in the security stage, I, it's one security station that's next to a hallway and there's like a chest high window, you know, who looks out into the hallway. But both the guys have their backs to the door. - There are three guys in that room. - Yeah, there's three guys in that room. So I actually ended up knocking them all out, but I had to reload like six times because like, I would stand right behind the chair, but the grab thing wouldn't come up. And so I would have to, what I would have to do is I'd have to sneak like slowly around to like the left of one of the chairs. And like, if you, if you go like one, I don't know what it would be like, like, one millimeter too far and the guy would see you in his peripheral, and we should go, "Oh, what the fuck?" - I used to do it in just the right spot. Then the grab character dialogue would come up and I could do it. And so like, I ended up getting all three guys in that room by the way. - Or you could use a sticky cam. Yeah, see. - So like, I hacked the door, opened it, one hundred and working, fired a sticky cam into the center between all three of them hit Y and everyone fell down in the center. - So much better than the way I did it. But I still don't understand why it wouldn't come up when I was standing right behind the freaking chair. - Because it's not, it's not perfect, it's glitchy. - 2005. - I play like fucking New James Bond. When I play it, I was like, "Oh, there's three guys." (drum roll) - Everyone dies. - This fucking killing, like, embassy employees, left in the room. - James Bond doesn't kill innocent people. - And the new movie, James Bond. - Hurts a lot of people. - Pretty disregard for every people. - He hurts a lot of people, sure. But anyway, so yeah. So like the-- - So yeah, I made my way through here, like a ninja. - Yeah, 5%. - I like the whole, like, glass, that glass security chamber that's just outside the main office. That was kind of-- - Oh, the computer room? - Yeah, with the two guys in it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. See, that was another one where, like, those two guys, like, you need to get into that room, right? - Yeah, you have to. - So like, how did you guys deal with the two guys that are in that room? 'Cause they're like, when I got there, they were already, like, on alert. - Oh. - So we'll see they weren't on alert for me. I just went up to their door. I hacked the door lock and snuck in, and then I did the same thing. I, like, snuck around his chair until the dialogue popped up, and I pulled them both out of their chair. - See, for me, one of them was walking around, so I grabbed him. - Oh, that must have been what happened. 'Cause, like, I really do only remember pulling one guy out of his chair, so that I must have got the other guy while I was-- - It's weird, the guy that was still inside, I interrogated him, and he said something about a ventilation shaft that should be open. - Right. - But I never found anything like that. - Well, you don't need to go through it, though. - I was gonna say I never used any ventilation shafts, and so on. - No. - I did between a couple of the rooms in the downstairs hallway, but whatever. - Right, probably. - So this point you make it into the office. - Right. - And it's where you get a, God, I can't even remember why we went into the office. - You have to authorize access to the vault in three different places. - Oh, that's right. - Oh, that's right. - So, yeah, you do that, and this is the first level where hacking is, like, seriously important. - Yeah, I did a ton of hacking. Again, the rental scanner as well. There's another thing I hacked, I did not use it. - Mm-hmm. - But there's just lots of cameras, lots of hallways, lots of sort of, like, different directions you can go and where people can come from, and that sort of, this is where the game sort of opens up. - So here's-- - Oh, God. - I was gonna say, here's a question. Like, if you take out the guys in the security room, then do the cameras still sound alarm? - That's what I was wondering, too. I always shot them still because I wasn't sure. - No. - Ah, fuck. - Eventually, I wasn't worried about cameras because I had, like, that room with the three guys, that's, there are two main camera rooms and that's one room. - And then, like, but there is one where, one of the secondary missions, though, in this stage, I think is that you can, like, take the tape. - Yeah. - Yeah, you take the video tape so the Sam isn't caught on camera. - Exactly. So, so basically, more ninja shit, more sneaking up behind people, more taking them out, et cetera, et cetera. - Yeah. - And for Anthony, more murdering of everyone he encounters. (laughing) - More of those moments, like, I described at the very beginning where I make them think they saw something and then I'm just lingering the shadow with my gun drawn. - Yeah. - And they only have the moment as I pull a trigger. - You're, like, something out of a fucking horror movie. - Yeah, I was trying to think, I know, I'm like, I am a scary person. - Anthony Hopkins is Sam Fisher. (laughing) - I am the Sam Fisher. Yeah, I'm like, it is like a horror movie 'cause they're like-- - I am not the spy of your dreams. I am the operative of your nightmares. - Yeah. - His face is something of a nightmare, man. Like on the PC version, he's right at the front menu. - Yeah, he is that way on Xbox, too. - Oh God, it's like, basically, oh! - But when this came out, I was just so amazing. It's like, Jesus Christ, he's got pores and he blinks. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like the first of those like face menu things that turned out to be like the wave of the future. Like in another game club game, Heavenly Sword, does it actually work? - War, God of War III. - God of War, God of War II did his own. But yeah. - So you get down to the vault. - Yep, and the vault was really cool. I like the way that you break into the vault. - With the auto key? - Yeah. - Yeah, that was a really cool mechanism. I was hoping that like, I would get to use that somewhere else in the game or I'm hoping we get to use it somewhere else in the game. We haven't so far. - Once you're in the vault, I like the conversation between Sam and Fisher, Sam and Lambert, about a race. - Yeah. - Because he's holding like a million dollars or a million francs in his hand. - I know, I like that that's totally just like, not even the reason they're there. They're just like, still a million dollars that I think that's what you were there for. - Well, and you have to go around to the computers and make it look like an inside job. Like that's the secondary objective. Did you do that? Did it look like an inside job where someone murdered every employee at the bank? - No, he did. - Yeah, 5% now. (laughing) This looks like a hired job with, did more mercenaries might as well have come in and kicked the door and just killed everyone? Did Lambert say anything at the end? Like, Sam, you're a fucking idiot. - No, it was just like-- - No, this isn't Pandora and tomorrow. - Mission success, 5%. (laughing) He got pissed at me about the fourth alarm when he's like, "Ah, Sam, one more alarm." And this mission's officially over or something. - Which is way more chances than you ever got in the other "Spunner Soul" games. Like, really, everyone laughed at that joke where he's like, "Let me guess, three alarms." And it's over because every other game, it's like, "Fuck." I have to restart this entire thing because I got three alarms. - There already can be some sections where like, one alarm. - Yes, any alarms. - Wow. - So, what happened in the vault for you, Anthony? - Did you turn on the sprinklers? - I did. - I did. - But I just grabbed the money and-- - And walked out. - Yeah. - And bad shit went down. - Yeah, but I don't remember what bad shit it was. - Like, you set off an alarm, right? - Oh yeah, I set off an alarm. And then I just hauled ass and ran for my-- - And the alarm and the doorway, right? - Yeah. - I set that off too. Is there a way not to set it off? - Yeah, there's a laser there. - Really? - Yeah, if you bring up a night vision, you can see it and disable it. - Dude, 'cause I tried like several times. I'm like, "What the fuck is this?" I totally, I disabled the shit out of that laser, then came out, went out through the roof, went back down to the side. - That was alarm number three at that point. - And then what you see at the beginning of the level, that I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out how I would use it before I even got to the end of it, is there's a zip line. - Yep, yeah, I did the same thing. - Did you figure out how to use it? - Yeah, you have to climb up a pole on the front door side of the building. - Like, you have to, like, you go around to the front, you disable the light underneath it, and then before anybody can get up to it, you fucking climb up that shit and zip line past everybody. - Zip all the way to the front gate, yeah. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, I ended up sneaking past, but there's more guards out there. - There is, yeah. - You zip line all the way to the end. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I ended up killing everyone on my way out. (laughing) And I, but when I beat the-- - In a way, that's almost impressive, 'cause it's not easy to kill him, and need people in this game. - No, when I beat the level, too, it definitely took me like 15 tries, because in this last part of getting out, I had, like, not even, like, visible amount of health. - Did you have any sticky shockers or airfoil rounds or anything? - I told you, I thought I had equipped him. Then I didn't know that you had to squeeze left trigger to shoot them, so there was, like, definitely, like, I told you at one point, I was like, you're not gonna get killed. - Oh, God. (laughing) - What happened? - He's done! - I actually did that a lot on the PC version. 'Cause in the PC version, you hold down the quick inventory thing, you hold down control, and it brings up the list, and you can just drag your mouse over to airfoil rounds, and he automatically equips the correct gun. - It does a version of it on the console, as well. - Okay, but I just thought that, like, okay, I have airfoil rounds equipped, so now I'm just gonna shoot airfoil rounds. - That is what I thought. - Yeah, and, like, there was a couple times where, for a while, I thought, oh, airfoil, 'cause I was used to them from Double Agent, so I was like, oh, airfoil rounds must just work differently in this game. I must have to hit people two or three times in order for it to happen, but no, it was because I was killing them. - Yeah. (laughing) - It's because one bullet wasn't about it. - I didn't know I wasn't shooting airfoil rounds until the level with the National Guard, where you couldn't kill them, and all of a sudden, he was like, what the hell are you doing, Fisher? And I was like, well, that is the airfoil. - Yeah. - What's wrong? - I'm firing airfoil rounds at them. They just happen to be shaped like bullets. (laughing) - It's a lead foil round. (laughing) - Carry us on until before. - Let's see, what was level four, fuck? - Level four was the, it was the top of New York City, right? Ah, yes, this is where we're trying to get to the house. - Yeah, right. - Let's start in the alley after the terrorists basically shut down New York. - And I kept thinking that there was a way to get up and over these guys, 'cause I kept trying to go up the fire escapes and everything like that, but they were all-- - That's what I did. - I went up the fire escape, and then the stairway is broken. You can't go up any higher. - No, but you can hang on to the ledge. - Yeah, you can go over the ledge and shimmy all over. - And shimmy your ass across. - Really? - Yeah. - Damn it. - I still had to drop down eventually, but where you drop down, you go down a pole. By the time you go down a pole, you're basically-- - Right. - Passed all the time. - Into the building. You know, you can just get around. - 'Cause I spent a really long time. I had to go through and like figure out ways to lure all these guys. Like after a while, I gave up and fired an air, 'cause I try not to use my airfoil rounds or anything. I try to just like sneak and grab everybody. - Amen, I love airfoil rounds. - But it was like, in this, I like used all of my airfoil rounds at the beginning of this stage, 'cause I couldn't figure out any way to get through these guys, and it was because I didn't find the-- - Which is bad, 'cause man, there are a lot of guys with guns in this level. - Yeah, but I didn't have a problem with anybody later on. I was able to get around everybody, but still. - Did you kill any of the security personnel? - Huh, why would I? - Anthony. - No, I-- - That's good, that's not cool. - At this point, because it started off National Guard. - Oh, you just think you couldn't kill anybody? - I just kept on left triggering always. I'd ever killed anyone, so. It's funny because it's a right mouse button in the PC version is the non-lethal and left mouse button is lethal. - I'm already confused because the left trigger on-- - Yeah, left a mouse mouse. - Is it not lethal? - Yeah. - Right. - So yeah, so you work your way over and you get up onto the roof with the helicopter, and that part actually gave me a ton of trouble as well. - Really, how come? - Just, I just-- - 'Cause it's just balls out, you have to have perfect fucking timing. - Yeah, there's three guys, and you know that one goes over to the electric box, and so, and again, I was not trying to kill anyone, so I was trying to shoot lights and draw guys out, but inevitably, when I would do that, I would draw two guys out, and one would pull out a flare, and I'd be like, fuck, now I can't sneak up on them. - This is one of those situations where, because there's so much noise, you just have to run. - Yeah, but then I couldn't figure out where we were supposed to go first either. I couldn't figure out that you were supposed to-- - Go ahead and play to the big old sign, yeah. - What, you mean I'm supposed to run towards the giant source of light? - Right. (laughs) - Well, there's the one guy that's walking around. Like, he totally steps over to the side that you come out on, and he's in the dark waiting for you, and there's so much noise from the helicopter that I was able to just get the drop on him and take him down and leave him right in the dark, and then the other guy who's standing by the helicopter, he's standing in the light, and like you'd think that he would spot you, but if you wait there long enough, he steps into the darkness outside of the ring of light, and then you can get him there, and then the other guy at the electric box, he's just standing there waiting for you to get him, so. - Yes. - I like how you phrase it. Like, he's waiting there to get him, waiting there for you to get him, and this other guy walks over for you to get him. - Yeah, they are, they're waiting for you to get him. They're like, "Come and get me." - Yeah, so I ended up being-- - I'm like, "I'll come and get you." - You know, eventually you get to the sign and you zip line over. - Yeah. - Yeah. - And there's a weird jump that you should never have to make. - I'm like, why is this like this in this game? - Like, it's like had a corner across, but there's no good way to do it, so you basically have to do an awkward jump and hope he grabs on. - Yep, it was really strange. - Yeah, that's fucked up. Do you know what we're talking about? - Like, right after he's in the line. - Like, you went on the side, the side sort of gardening thing on the side of the building, and then it stops, and there's a 90-degree gap, and you have to jump up to the walkway. - Yeah, I don't remember this being problematic. - It was just really weird because it's not the kind of jump you think that the Samfisher control scheme is built for. - It's the kind of jump where if you made it, you'd think that you weren't supposed to be able to. - Right, I don't even remember any weirdness to this part. - Anyway, you make that jump, and then you take out the guy that's on that walkway. - He's waiting for you to get him. - Yes, he's waiting for you to get him. - That guy's definitely waiting for you to get him. (laughs) - Well, I had to be really fast at getting him because he had a flashlight out. - He does turn around. - He's walking towards where I was hiding. So he, like, walked around the corner, and the grabbed character thing was up for maybe a quarter of a second. I was just hammering A. - Well, actually, speaking of that awkward jump, I actually had to reload a quick save because I jumped over to the railing, or tried to jump over to the railing. And I don't know, I made too much noise or something because the guy goes, "Huh?" And starts walking towards it. And I somehow managed to jump back to the ledge that you land on. So I jumped back to it 'cause I was like, "Oh, he's gonna see me, he's gonna see me." And then, like, he just ended up standing there. Like, he didn't go back on his patrol or anything. He just stood there, staring out into space, like waiting for me to come around the fucking-- - So why didn't you nail him with an airfoil around or something? Oh, 'cause you used all those. Did you have any sticky shockers or anything? - I probably did, but I just reloaded the quick save again 'cause I felt like it wasn't my fault. I felt like it was the awkward jumps fault. - I think in a pinch, you can actually hit someone in the head with a sticky cam. - Really? That's kinda cool. - I think. - It's worth a shot. Just shoot him with your pistol. (laughs) - I don't know, can you kill any of those guys? - Yeah, at this point, they're mercenaries now. These are hard guns. - In fact, he even says that when you get to the first guy on the ledge here, he's like, "I think it's Lambert," says like, "That's no mercenary," or, "That's no national guard." That's a full-on mercenary or something. - Right, so I knew that at this point, too, but I was like, "I'll just keep knocking him out." Didn't have, "I had gotten over my blood, "thirsty streak, for whatever reason." (laughs) - So this next part, you go in there and there's the lipo pinging with the plastic sheet. - Yeah. - See, I cut it like you did, but I didn't figure out that there was an air vent there. So I was like, "Okay, I'm hiding in here." - That crawlspace put me in a difficult... I felt like a George Clooney and fucking her brother were art, though, where's the... - We're in a test butt. (laughs) - 'Cause basically, I came in, like, there was one guy on my left and one guy on my right. I was in a mercenary sandwich. So basically, what I had to do was wait for one to circle around the back, and I zapped the light with the OCP to get the other guy to come over to it. And as he walked over, I grabbed him, pulled him to the extremely small dark spot out by the crawlspace and choked him out. And then went after the other guy in the kitchen. - You choked one out. - Choked one out. - Gotcha. - And then I rubbed one out, and then I went to sleep. (laughs) - My problem with this one is that the first thing I did is I walk in and I slit the plastic, and then right away, one of the guys noticed it and started going on patrol. I was like, huh, that's not right. - How would they know? - They knew. - How would they know? - They're paid mercenaries. - This is also another spot where you encounter a radio. - Yup. - Pussy, again, I never thought to me to do anything to the radios. I was like, I just want to leave them alone, 'cause they're already making a lot of sound. - They're making noise, yeah. - I never shot those, actually, ever. - Well, like I said, I only know this from a tip that I saw in the loading screen that said you can overload certain, is this something like, you can overload certain electrical items to make a lot of noise. And I was like, huh, I bet that's radios and TVs that you do that with the OCP. - You can also just turn the radios on by like walking up to them, right? - Yeah, you can. - On or off, yeah. - And they'll just walk towards it, but it's not the same as-- - That's boring. (laughs) - I want them to make crazy poltergoist noises. (laughs) - So yeah, so there's these two guys in this opening room, and they're pretty easy to take out overall, you just have this kind of patient, or if you're Anthony, you shoot them in the head. - This is another spot where it's easy to sort of not realize where you're supposed to go, because the door or compartment you're supposed to walk through is so nondescript and so hard to discern. - I don't remember having a problem here. - This is where you have to-- - Fine. - Is this where there's, no, I'm lost. - You walk through this area, then you come out on the outside, and there's a camera on the wall and a staircase that goes up. - Right. - Caught again. - With-- (laughs) - Is this the camera? - Yes, and then you go up the staircase, and there's one door that's magnetically locked. - And the other one's-- - And the other one's not. - Yeah. - Okay, yeah, definitely caught again right there. (laughs) I remember. - You're not OCP-ing these or anything like that? - No, I just didn't see a camera. I just didn't think I was like-- - You can't hear 'em. - They're shot. - I don't know. - They beep. - I actually didn't even see the magnetic door. I went the other way the first time, and so there's like later on, Sanfishes has something about the magnetically locked door, and I'm like, what magnetically locked door? - Did you go through? - He talks as though I'd already seen it, and I never did. - Yeah, I think you're making a mistake, Arthur, in thinking that I crouch all the time. (laughs) - I run most of the time in the crouch once I see someone, I'm like, no. (laughs) - See, that's your mistake. (laughs) I guess I've just taken for granted that so many spinners doesn't like it. Why would you stand up? - This is why conviction is made for me. - This is why Sam Fisher has back problems. - 'Cause the new one is just about and mercilessly murdering everyone. I'm gonna be all over it. - Although, honestly, conviction in its level design is a lot like chaos theory. Like, there's less of the shooting at lights, but there's still some, and there's less caring if people find you, but there's still some. - Yeah, way less. It's all about being an engine and using being seen to your advantage. - Yeah, my time with conviction reaffirms the fact that this new splinter cell is not like, like I stopped playing the early, I didn't play chaos theory because after the second one, I felt like everything in the game I was just activating. Like, even in chaos theory, like to crawl, like you walk up to a crawl space and like a dialogue box comes up and it's like activate crawl. - Well that's, I mean, just in general, that's a big thing, conviction is that they've done away with the dialogue box that you see everywhere. - Yeah, yeah, I mean, I didn't like that. - They've made it much more organic and say the way that Assassin's Creed has been. - Yeah. - I mean, obviously, so. - Totally right. - Now we're me, yo. - No, I like it too, I mean conviction then. - Yeah, and even things like when you pull your gun out and conviction, he moves around a lot faster, whereas like in this one, when splinter cell pulls out his gun, like you walk. - Splinter cell. - Splinter cell. - Splinter cell. - Yeah, well, that's the thing though, is that like, it's designed that way so that, you know, you're not switching weapons and things like that. - I can understand, but like, you know, that sort of like brings up the bigger question of like, you know, do you just dictate what your players are gonna do? Do you allow them to sort of do it the way they want to do it? - And yeah, again, this was the first game in the series that moved more towards letting people do what they wanted to do. - Just having options, the fact that we could do it totally different ways today. - Like the melee, I mean, not just that, just equipment and abilities, like the melee attack and the knife and like the loadouts and multiple routes and just all that stuff is totally new. - Well, for me, that's what stealth action games have always been about. I mean, like the good ones anyway, you know, like... - Vampire Rain, right? - Yeah, like Vampire Rain. - Like the darkness. - I liked the darkness. - I didn't actually play the darkness. I heard it was better than people. - The darkness is good, but I didn't play it as a stealth game either. - No. - So yeah, so we're in this stage where like-- - You're in the penthouse. - We were sneaking through the penthouse. We're trying to get to this guy's bedroom to find his secret hidden server room. - He has a panic room. - Yeah, he was supposed to find the Jody Foster room. - Right. - And this is where you actually encounter the guy that does the number guessing game. - Which was pretty funny. - Yeah, there are a lot of fucking cameras in this penthouse. Guys, paranoid as hell. - Yeah, well-- - And they're all in for the-- - Before you get to the penthouse, when you go out to do the magnetic door, right? - No, you have to do the penthouse first. - Oh, that's right, so you push out that other door and there's guys and then there's like, it's almost like a house built on top of this roof. - Yeah, but again, you're ignoring like the part that we're on, which is the penthouse. You have to finish the penthouse before Grimm's daughter unlocks the magnetic door. - But for some reason, I thought the door I'm going through is the non-magnetic door. - Yeah, you go through the non-magnetic door first, which is the penthouse, which is where we are. - Oh, man, I mean, it's totally erasing that part. (laughing) - But yeah, this is the first time we're-- - Let's move on to where I wanna be. - Shut up. - Yeah, this is the first time you deal with infrared cameras. - Yeah, and you can only see them in night vision. - Oh. - And did I fuck that part up too? - You must have because they tell you, they say like, "Look out for those camera fissures," and he goes, "And they're infrared," and then Fisher says, "Oh." - Oh, that means I can see them in night vision. - Right, okay, no, so I did, yeah. - It's a little disappointing that they tell you that. I mean, yes, they should. - No, I'm glad they did. I wouldn't have figured it out otherwise. - But it's so satisfying, and the other Splinter Cell games still play with your vision modes and realize that you can do this cool shit. Like, I can basically see through walls with fucking thermal vision. - Yeah, but there hasn't been a reason to play with your vision modes and this all up until now. I mean, I needed the audio cue, otherwise I would have missed it. - I mean, but yeah, that's like the, I'm not saying it's the same, but it's like, it was immediately when you said that I thought at the ARMA guys were like, "I wanna be able to run five miles without seeing anyone." 'Cause that's cool, it's like real. (laughing) No, shut up. (laughing) - So you make your way through knocking guys out left and right, or I did anyway. - So did I. - I knocked everyone out. This part I actually, there was no blood. - You were not. - No blood. - Sam Fisher, serial killer. - And we're heading towards. - And then there was like a secondary emission of some stuff to find and all that good stuff. - Yeah, at this point, everything does kind of bore together. - Yeah. - Like all the side missions just sort of like, and then you, you find six of this. - Right. - And then you upload stuff. - For some reason, I could not remote hack the terminal in his bedroom. I had to, I had to OCP the camera and then manually walk up to the terminal. - Yeah, I did that. - Yeah, I never did any remote hacking, so. - Could you shoot cameras at this what I forget? - I never tried. I was just OCPing 'cause I was afraid I'd set off an alarm. - Yeah, or make too much sound. - Yeah, exactly. - So-- - Silence pistols make a lot of noise. - They do. But then you find the panic room and you find the server with the algorithms and stuff like that. So I'm still not, I'm still not sure who's fucking apartment this is that we're breaking into. - This is, is there Casey? - Sir Casey, okay. So you're breaking into Sir Casey's apartment and is there Casey as who? - Is there Casey, there are only two people that knew anything about the mass algorithms, the computer program that like can break any security. One is Morgan Holt. - Who's dead? - Who you found dead and who is supposed to be protected by Displace. - Right. - Who is run by a friend of Sam Fisher's named Doug Shelland. - Right. - And the other is Zercasey. - Right. - Who's also being protected by Displace. - Okay. - And so, and so this particular apartment of Zercaseys, is he's an employee of Displace? - No, he's being, he hired Displace to protect him. - Protect him. - Or that's your understanding. - Oh, okay. - And so you're breaking into his apartment to find out, to find these algorithms? - To find him because you feel, you believe that the only person that could have pulled off the shutting down of New York's, of the Eastern seaboard's power grid. - Was Zercasey. - Was Zercasey. - Gotcha. - And with the last name, like Zercasey. - Well, it's gotta be, it's gotta be a bad guy. - He's gotta be Zercasey. - And evil, he's an evil Yugoslavian. - And so they, so well, yeah, and it wasn't just the East Coast, it also shut down Japan's at the same time, right? And so they're like, "This is fucked you." - And this is during like height intentions with Korea and China. - Right, because there was a missile that was launched. - Not so, yeah. - Or is that the next mission? - The next mission. - It's the next mission. - So yeah, you don't find him in the panic room. You find out that there's a little place across the roof, which is what Anthony was thinking. Grim unlocks the maglock door or whatever. - And he goes across to the unfinished apartment. - Right, and on this unfinished apartment, I got blown up by mines. - Yeah, that's a square, it introduces you to wall mines. - Yeah, they don't even introduce-- - They don't even ever introduced it. - No, I was like, "There's still a blanket on the wall, boom." - You know what I figured out? - Oh, they go run over the, oh! - You know what I figured out is that like, if you have somebody that you're interrogating, if you're holding somebody, and you walk next to the mines, they don't go off. - If you just walk up slowly to the mines, you disarm them. - Well, what I figured out is that like, what I figured out the hard way is like, I grabbed somebody to interrogate them, and I was walking back into a dark corner, but there happened to be a wall mine there, and I was standing right next to him, and I was like, "Oh, that's no big deal." So I interrogate the guy, and then I go, "Okay, let him down." And as soon as I let him down, Sam Fisher stands up, and boom! - Still up too fast. - Yeah, the wall mines, it didn't even like, there was never like, even like a moment where they're like, "Look out, Sam, there's a wall mine." - Yeah. - Like a game would do these days. It's like, yeah, I just got blown up twice before, I was like, "Okay, wall mines." - And I was trying to like walk up to all of them really slowly and disable them, 'cause I thought there might be a secondary mission where they say like, "Sam, you need to disable all these mines." - No, there's the primary mission of not getting killed. - Yeah, they're just there. They're not a secondary mission or anything, but here I am like being all paranoid, trying to get my fucking 100% and everything, trying to disable them all. - In this section is the first section where I actually, where we were talking about, slammed open a door to knock somebody the fuck out. - Right, right. - Right when you go into that building. - Yeah. - Right, it's true. You knock him down an elevator shaft. - So that's true, at least I did. - So then you get-- - Jesus. - No, I slammed the door and he went right across the hallway down an elevator shaft. - Right, 'cause he is facing an elevator shaft. - Yeah. - I guess I just didn't slam the door up in that hard. God. - So you get into the basement. - This whole place is kind of a death trap. - Yeah, it is. - There's just a lot of really deviously placed enemies and a lot of light. - Yes. - But yeah, you do find Vorac, which is you thought was a person like that was working with Sir Casey. - And it turns out to be a computer. - A super old computer, yeah. That works on punch cards. - Yep. - But it's like-- - But it's like super advanced, even though it's super advanced. It's just the algorithm that it's running is so-- - The algorithm is advanced. - So ridiculously brilliant. - Right. - That it would change electronic security forever. And that's what you're getting on the punch card. - Yeah, I kind of didn't understand why we didn't kill that old guy while we were down there. - 'Cause he's just a maintenance dude. - He knew too much. - He's just a crazy old coop. - He knew too much. - Well, maybe in your reality, you would kill the nice old guy. I mean, did it tell you you couldn't? You probably could have shot him. - Oh. - Yeah, I just think it tells you you can't. - Yeah, he's just too much of an asset to them, and a liability to me. - Right, yep. - Well, I mean, you could go back and try to kill him and try to change history. - Instead, I had to sit there and listen to him babble a whole bunch. - Yeah, his voice actor was really annoying. - This part threw me off a little bit because the description says you should look at the tubes to see what's heating up. - Right, and they don't actually get colored. - Exactly. - They just send out smoke. - That's what threw me off as I was looking for them to change color, and they never did. - Me too. - And it also said that he would cover the ones on the right, like you did the ones on the left. He never did that for me. I was fucking running back and forth like I'd check with my head cut. - Oh, no, he did them all for me. - Yeah. - On his side of the room. - You shit. - I'm like, "Wait, I cover your bases, boy." - So you collect the punch cards and then you have to extract. - Yes. - So in that point, I-- - What'd you do by going back to the pants? - Right, I had to knock everyone out, so it just hauled ass. - Yeah, me too. - I just ran. - Yep. - Try not to suck any dicks. - There was only one guy that I didn't knock out, and it was the guy who was standing in the living room. He was like leaning up against the pole next to the spiral staircase. - My fucking, yeah, I came out. 'Cause I could sneak by him really easy. He didn't even notice. - He just listened into tombs. - Again, liability for later on. - How fucked up would that be? - Like, he fucking, like, he's off. I gotta go to the bathroom, then he walks out, walks to the kitchen, and there's like three bodies and walks out of the car. - I've only ever not taken out one person once, and it was in the displace level, the next one. There was a guy sitting in an office all by himself, and I was like, yeah, it's no point. (laughing) - You keep playing your flash games. - I interrogated the guy who was sitting along in the office. He had a bunch of stuff to say. - Yeah, say, well, I probably would've tried to actively catch people if I knew I could interrogate them. - So, who's the guy that they want you to find the identity of? - My one, Netich. - So, Netich, like, who is that guy? - She... - Why don't I, 'cause, like, I'm having such troubles trying to follow the plot of this scene. - It's because the plot is super convoluted. You find out later, like, who My One Netich is. - I like the first mission impossible. - Movie. Anyway, go on, what's your-- - I'm sorry, and mission impossible, and the third mission possible movie. (laughing) And every Tom Clancy movie. - So, who's My One? - My One Netich, we had a brief break that you didn't hear at home, which is why, while all of a sudden we're saying, My One Netich is named correctly, instead of Netovich or Nottage, or whatever. (laughing) - My One Netich is a security head, who's in charge of VIP security at this place. - Okay. - So, the supposition is that he may be dirty, so you're going into this place next to find out if he is. - When I hear the name "displace," it makes me think of, like, it's the urban spies, like, "displace." You guys coming to "displace"? (laughing) - No, I got it. - All right, so, for next week's show, played through five through eight. - Five through eight. - Yup. - 'Cause we're tired. - It's late. - Yeah, yup. Yeah, go ahead and we'll start for our friend's podcast, the mobcast@bitmob.com, Geekbox and Geekbox.net, and then, yeah, that's it. - You can hear, Anthony, on... - That was already, that was already last week, Game Scoop, I was on it. - We already talked about this in our platform last week, so. - All right. - Word. - All right, look up. - Switch PS3, I'm having fun. I'll see you guys next week. - Good. - Pack speed up on Saturday. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]