Third Echelon

The deniable black-ops sub-division of the NSA.

Third Echelon is a fictional black-ops sub-division within the NSA, featured in the Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell series. It is the organization that protagonist Sam Fisher works for as a highly trained agent, overcoming adversaries through stealth and combat. The division emphasizes light and darkness as gameplay elements, reflecting its covert operational methods. The series follows Fisher as he completes missions for Third Echelon across six main games released between 2002 and 2013.

Quick Facts

Affiliation: National Security Agency (NSA)
Primary operative: Sam Fisher
First appearance: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (2002)

Lore & Background

Third Echelon operates as a clandestine unit within the NSA, handling missions too sensitive for official acknowledgment. Sam Fisher, the series' protagonist, is a highly trained agent of this division. The organization's existence is fictional, created for the Splinter Cell series. In Blacklist (2013), Fisher has been appointed as the commander of a new 'Fourth Echelon,' a clandestine unit that answers solely to the President of the United States. He has denied any existence of the agency, and Fourth Echelon is working to stop a new terror plot known as the 'Blacklist.' Fourth Echelon also has the secondary objective of stopping all operations in which Third Echelon is still running.

Reader's Guide

Third Echelon serves as the primary organizational framework for the player's missions in the Splinter Cell series. The division's black-ops status justifies the stealth-focused gameplay, where light and darkness are key mechanics. Players control Fisher as he infiltrates locations, uses gadgets like his signature goggles and a Karambit knife, and performs takedowns including 'abduction' stealth melee moves. The trust system in Double Agent presents moral dilemmas, and Conviction introduced 'Mark and Execute' and a cover system while omitting earlier stealth elements like whistling and lock picking. The series also introduced a revolutionary online mode called spies versus mercenaries in Pandora Tomorrow, where one team plays from a third-person perspective as spies and the other from a first-person perspective as mercenaries.

Did You Know?

The series introduced a revolutionary online mode called spies versus mercenaries in Pandora Tomorrow (2004), with one team playing from a third-person perspective and the other from first-person.
Double Agent (2006) is the only game in the series to have different endings based on player decisions, though only one ending is considered canon.
Conviction (2010) omitted earlier stealth elements like whistling, lock picking, and hiding bodies, introducing 'Mark and Execute' and a cover system instead.