Level 1 Walkthrough
Okay, it's time to pick your jaw up off the friggin' ground and stop staring at the glistening textures on the rocks around you. It's time to stop looking at the waves lapping up on the beach and the moonlight filtering beautifully through the environment.Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell® Chaos Theory™ may be the prettiest game to ever grace the Xbox, but there's still a game to be played—and a damn tough one at that.
Not even the first level is a cinch, so we've come up with a complete walkthrough to get you started on your Chaos Theory journey. So, let's get right to it.
He looks pissed. Don't make him pissed.
Once you get through the first area (there's no guards on the beach) by climbing up onto the rocks, creeping through the narrow crevice, and crawling through a small opening, you'll climb up to your first encounter. You'll find a wooden bridge spanning across a chasm and two guards nearby. Be patient here. Allow the one guard to cross the bridge near you and walk around. He and the other guard will have a short conversation. Wait for their conversation to end and the guard on the other side of the bridge to leave. You should then have plenty of time to sneak up behind the remaining guard and knock them unconscious.
Next, move across the bridge and head to the right. Follow the path until you get to the entrance of a room. You'll see a light hanging from the ceiling. Use your pistol's OCP function (pull the left trigger) to temporarily dowse the light and creep inside the room.
A perfect night for stealth.
You'll find a small generator on the other side of the room. Switch it off to permanently switch off the light. You'll also find a crate of weapons. Be sure to scan this to start a secondary objective for your mission. Next, head down the stairs to the left (as you come into the room) and go down the hallway. Along the way, you should find an "object" that you can pick up. Grab it—you'll need it to cause a noise distraction for an upcoming guard. At the end of the hall is a small room with cells. Throw the object you're holding toward the end of the hallway (not into the room) when the guard is nearby. Then, back up and wait for him to investigate. You should be able to get behind him and grab him. You can also interrogate him as well. Inside the cell on the left is another crate to scan. You'll also find a ladder that heads down. Don't take it, though. That will just take you back toward the beginning of the level (it's an alternate route to the one you've already taken).
Instead, head back outside the room and back to room with the first crate. You'll find a set of steps leading up. Take them. There is no guard at the top of the steps, so you shouldn't need to shut off the light. At the top of the steps, you'll find a door. Use the optic cable to make sure there are no nearby guards and then slowly open the door. (Use the Open Door Stealth option.) You'll see the silhouette of Morgenholt down below and to the right, and you'll hear him being tortured … unfortunately to death. Upon entering the room, head to the right until your stealth meter is all the way to the left. Then whistle. This should attract the attention of the guards. Next, get your sticky shocker ready (it's an add-on to your rifle) and wait for the two guards to come to the top of the steps, where they'll be standing in a puddle of water. If you time it right, you should be able to fire the sticky shocker into the puddle when both guards are standing in it. This will incapacitate both guards.
Nice fish-eye effect.
You'll need to head down below and turn to the light to find Morgenholt hanging in a bathtub. After a short conversation with Lambert, head to the back right corner of the room and then upstairs to start the next part of the mission. You'll need to find any data that the enemy may have pried from Morgenholt as well as the remaining boxes to scan.
Now, the real mission begins. With Morgenholt dead, you need to find any evidence from his interrogation as well as scan the remaining crates. First things first, head up the stairs from the room with Morgenholt. You'll find them in the back right corner of the room. At the end of the stairs and a couple short hallways is a door. Pick the lock and open it to exit into a small outdoor area. Your first two threats are nearby. One guard is in the tent just in front of you and to the left, and the other is patrolling outside. Try the following:
- Sneak behind the tent and use your knife to cut a slit in it.
- Sneak slowly into the tent and grab the guard. Walk him out through the slit you just cut, knock him out, and place him in a dark corner.
- Head back into the tent and press the black button to whistle.
- Head back out of the tent and wait for the patrolling guard to investigate.
- Sneak back inside when he starts to head out and grab him from behind. Dump him where you dumped the other guard.
After the two guards are dealt with, head back out of the tent and up towards the spotlight. With the two guards out, you'll have no one to bother you while you switch off the generator that powers the light. Next, head into the tent with the generator and scan the crate inside. You're now done with this area. Cut a slit in the other side of the tent, head out, and go through the doorway on your right.
Shoot the light immediately through the doorway and then slowly creep down the next hall. This will lead to another doorway outside. You'll find one patrolling guard and one stationary guard there. Wait for the patrolling guard to move away from the stationary guard and then move slowly into the area. It should be dark enough to stay hidden. Next, whistle or throw an object to attract the stationary guard. If you're careful, you should be able to grab him without attracting the other, in which case you can sneak up on his buddy without worrying about getting spotted from two different angles. With the two guards dealt with, you can scan the crate next to where the stationary guard was positioned.
You're done with this area after that, so go around the corner to the right, where you'll find another set of stairs. Feel free to turn off the generator, if for no other reason than good cover in case you need to retreat back here. Now, head up the stairs. Don't take the exit to the right. That just leads outside onto a ledge. Instead, bear left until you get to the edge of a room. You'll see one guard here, but he's sitting watching TV. You should be able to sneak up on him quietly and grab him from behind. Just take it slow. Once he's grabbed, take him back out onto the ledge and dump him there. Then, head back to the TV room.
You'll find a sleeping guard in here as well, but as long as you're quiet, you shouldn't wake him. Just pay attention to the ambient noise meter in the bottom right of the screen. If you don't exceed the white box on that meter, you won't disturb him or any other guard. You'll also find a frag grenade and some ammunition in the top right corner of the room. After you grab that, leave the room through the only remaining exit, head down the short hallway, go up the steps, and head over the wooden bridge. There are no guards on the bridge.
Stop short of fully entering the next room and turn on your thermal vision. You should see a guard stationed behind a pillar. Your best solution is to grab the object near the beginning of the room and throw it against the wall opposite you. Then, sneak up behind the guard while he investigates and grab him. Once that's done, check the computer in the near corner. That should complete the "Recover or Destroy Information about the Masse Kernels" objective for the mission.
Next, head through into the next room until you get to the small alcove with the lantern. Just outside (to your right) are two guards chatting. First, shoot the lantern. This will cause a small disturbance that will make one guard head down the steps outside. The other guard head will also head to those same steps, but at a much slower pace. Wait until the slower guard is just on the edge of the stairs. Then, sneak behind him, grab him, and dump him in the room you just left.
Next, head back out and use the OCP on your pistol to turn off the light near the stairs. Sneak down the stairs, and you should have no problem sneaking up on the guard at the edge of the platform. Once he's dealt with, head forward to the left of the stairs you just came down and scan the last crate.
Now, it's just a matter of getting to your extraction point, which is the top of the lighthouse that you're just a couple 100 yards from. We'll leave this last bit of the level for you. After all, you want to accomplish something on the first level that you can call your own, right?
And, remember, Chaos Theory's save system is different then its predecessors, so you'll be taken back to exact same spot you saved at, not a checkpoint. Good luck!
By Alex McLain
