Insurgent Stronghold is the third solo campaign level in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Fourth Echelon commander Sam Fisher investigates Andriy Kobin's buyers to Mirawa, Iraq.
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Overview[]
With Andry Kobin's information, the Fourth Echelon was able to pinpoint Kobin's buyer, Jadid Haidos, operating in a camp located in Mirawa, Iraq. Fisher parachuted down to an outlying area outside of one of the buildings of interest as Isaac Briggs covered him using a sniper rifle-equipped drone overlooking the insertion point. After touching down, Fisher needed to infiltrate the stronghold undetected, otherwise the whole camp would be on alert. Fisher closed into position when Charlie notified him that he is now within range to release the Tri-Rotor to scout inside of the stronghold. Fisher activated the Tri-Rotor and brought the drone inside of the building, where he was able to locate a group of men inside. Fisher got the Tri-Rotor into position as it began to run a voice-recognition analysis on the group. The reading came back, but Charlie was frustrated because it gave him an errors, stating (to himself) that the reading 'wasn't good enough.' Suddenly, the Tri-Rotor's feed was distorted and was shot by one of the guards, destroying it. Charlie, in an attempt to alleviate the complications, told Sam that he hears that facial recognition is much better.
Sam makes his way into the building and heads inside of one of the deeper rooms, finding Jadid Hados inside. Fisher interrogates Jadid by physically smashing him across the environment and punching him. Jadid attempts to talk Fisher off, eventually revealing to Sam that he's MI-6. Fisher throws him on the ground, with his gun pointed, as Jadid vents out his frustration, telling Fisher that he's been deep undercover, and that Fisher ruined it all. Fisher asks him what his activation key is, but is told by Grim that they'll need to scan his retina if they want to confirm it. Fisher proceeded to throw Jadid against the wall and use his OPSAT to scan his retina, it reveals that Jadid had been burned by MI-6 for being a double agent for The Engineers. Fisher calls Jadid out, from such Jadid grabs the front of Fishers gun and makes sure it's pointed at him. (What happens to Jadid at this point is up to the player, as they can 'Spare' or 'Kill' him - but if he's spared, he will shoot himself using Fisher's gun, dying regardless.)
Fisher makes his way out of the building as he navigates the side of the cliffs, climbing towards the wooden bridge to another village. Along the way, Fisher communicates to the DEVGRU teams currently on the ground who are engaging hostile forces nearby. Fisher pushes through the village and along the lower tunnels that the local insurgents had set up to avoid any aerial drone strikes. Fisher eventually makes it to the structure where The Engineers had been using, as he climbs along it he notices that it's had structural damage from predator drones, although it happened some time ago. Fisher makes it inside where he finds a dead U.S. Army soldier, Miguel Garcia, laying on a blue tarp, with cameras set up around it. Fisher spots that the cameras were still on, telling Charlie to trace the signal. Fisher picks up a tablet that was left on the tarp and finds that it was left on a video, he taps the screen and the video begins to play. The video showed a man talking to Garcia, who was bound by the arms with bruises and cuts on him. The man then cuts the soldier's throat and looks into the camera, revealing that he was actually talking to the viewer.
Charlie tells Sam that their drone was just taken over by someone else, and that he needed to get out of the building immediately. Suddenly, an explosion erupts from the side of the room, knocking Fisher off his feet. He gets back up and immediately bashes the door and dashes out of the building, rushing through the burned and destroyed environment, making his way through. Isaac Briggs states that he's almost there in the chopper, as Fisher states that he's going to use 'the hook.' Fisher bashes out of another set of doors and immediately fires a grappling hook up where it is latched and picked up by the helicopter, extracting Sam from the area.
Trivia[]
- This is technically the first mission in Splinter Cell: Blacklist where the player takes control of a different character besides Sam, as the player uses the drone (controlled by Isaac Briggs) to take out a number of insurgents at the start of the level.
- This is the second mission in the Splinter Cell series that takes place in Iraq, with the first mission (although it was a flashback level) that takes place in Iraq was in Splinter Cell: Conviction.
- Fisher finding Miguel Garcia's corpse as it's tied up to something above him closely resembles the first level in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, in the level Lighthouse, where Fisher discovered Bruce Morgenholt's tortured body.
- This was the first mission shown in the world premiere trailer for Splinter Cell: Blacklist, showing the gameplay of Sam going through 'Jadid Basecamp' in Mirawa. The final version is vastly different compared to the E3 trailer of the game, but some elements are only slightly similar.
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