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"High priority and getting higher all the time, sir."
― Isaac Briggs to Sam Fisher

Isaac Briggs is a field operator of Fourth Echelon and deuteragonist of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist. He is a former CIA officer and an expert of advanced weaponry, tradecraft, stealth, sniping, armed and unarmed combat tactics.

Biography

Early life

Isaac Briggs was born by the son of a Ghanaian professor and grew up in suburban Washington, D.C. He was raised around children of ambassadors, politicians and military officers. After graduating high school, Isaac Briggs attended the United States Military Academy at West Point. Then, he graduated from the academy and was commissioned as an officer in the United States Army before shifting into intelligence work with the Central Intelligence Agency's National Clandestine Service group for some time. Briggs was one of the few CIA operatives called in to support the investigation about the Blacklist Zero.[1]

Blacklist Attacks

Isaac Briggs, under Anna Grímsdóttir's recommendation,[1] joined Fourth Echelon following the first Blacklist Attack as a field officer and support. Briggs' first assignment in the field was to provide overwatch for Sam Fisher to capture an informant, Andriy Kobin, in Benghazi, Libya. Sam Fisher infiltrated the nearby apartments as he neared the room where Briggs initially confirmed the identity of Kobin being held inside. After neutralizing the militia interrogators, Sam removes the cowl off the tortured man to find that the man isn't Kobin, but is one of the CIA informants, who was dead, covered in blood and bruises. Sam was frustrated by Briggs' false confirmation and scolded him regarding his confirmation of Kobin. Briggs states that he assumed it was Kobin going by the 'right height and right build', but was fired back by Sam for making assumptions while he's in the field.

Charlie is able to pinpoint a location where Kobin should be based on the information inside of the CIA officer's phone: a nearby police station that the local militia have seized. Sam jumps out of a window onto an upper walkway and tells Briggs to provide sniper support to draw the heat off of Sam's position. Briggs acknowledged, and fired at the waves of militia that started flooding the immediate area. Fisher took the opportunity to move towards the police station, eventually making it inside and finding Kobin being interrogated by multiple militia soldiers. After being rescued, Sam took Kobin to a hole in the front of the station and they both ziplined to a meeting spot where Briggs drove up a van, extracting out of the area and returning to the Paladin.

Briggs7

Briggs converses with the Fourth Echelon team during a briefing around the Strategic Mission Interface (SMI).

Finding Sadiq

Briggs was part of the mission to have Majid Sadiq captured during Engineer operations at an abandoned mill in London. Briggs was Fisher's sniper cover throughout the mission until Sam is affected by VX nerve gas, and is captured by Sadiq's men. Briggs, with no options, attacks and is in gunpoint with Sadiq (holding Fisher as a shield) until he lets him go. Fisher and Briggs escape, eliminating black operatives in the way. An angered Sam tells that the mission is more important than him and he should have "finished the job". Briggs tries to help up Fisher, but he becomes furious, telling Briggs that was his last mission.

Iran's involvement

Afterward, Briggs under Grim's orders goes into another op where Fisher holds Ali Rohani at gunpoint (to find any information if Iran was with the attacks). Rohani betrays Fisher and has his men attack him, leading Fisher to leave with Briggs coming in a vehicle. Briggs and Fisher escape with Grim sending in drones to stop enemy vehicles.

After Sam reconciles with the mission at hand by Grim's speech, Fisher reconciles with Briggs and allows him to do more missions with him, needing him more than he expected.

Philadelphia

Briggs and Fisher then went to Philadelphia to stop four bombs located on trains. Briggs is playable in two sections where is he is ordered to stop the other two bombs. Wielding an HK416 and Px4, Charlie Cole leads him doing these as Briggs jokes that he accidently cut the wrong wire. The mission is a success, but ends with Fisher being in custody of a "trigger-happy cop" killing an engineer operator.

Guantanamo Bay

Fisher uses Briggs' CIA credentials to get him into Guantanamo Bay. Briggs appears in the mission as the officer holding Fisher and leading him to his cell. Shortly thereafter, he allows Sam to escape to meet Reza Nouri, the informant who was captured earlier and retrieve information on Sadiq. Though the mission was a success, it caused Briggs to be "disavowed" by the CIA, leaving his loyalty with Fourth Echelon.

Sadiq's counter-attack

Briggs and Fisher reach the Paladin in Yucatán, only to narrowly escape when the plane is attacked. Taking off, the Paladin suffers a cyber attack directly from Sadiq. Computers and engines failing, Fourth Echelon narrowly restarts the plane with Kobin's help, only to find Sadiq has already executed a Blacklist attack on the largest US gas reserve facility (in Louisiana).

Site F and final strike

"Briggs: I'm okay. Go. Go. Get Sadiq.
Fisher: You're bleeding out.
Briggs: Finish the job, Sam.
"
― At Site F.

Briggs sided with Grim, Sam and Charlie about defying President Caldwell's direct orders to not fly to Site F - the President feared a reprisal from The Engineers after the events of American Fuel. Briggs covertly sneaked into the Site F bunker, but was caught by Majid Sadiq and his men. They questioned him on Sam's location, but Briggs played coy to their questions. Sadiq attempted to force the Secretary of Defense, Lester Gollancz, to reveal U.S. military secrets as leverage over the United States. Sadiq was able to eventually break Gollancz and he was able to tell him the codes, however, Briggs grabbed Gollancz and broke his neck before he could talk - killing him instantly. This essentially made Sadiq's Site F mission a failure; frustrated, Sadiq and his guards used Briggs and several other hostages as human shields. Sam Fisher revealed himself to be one of the hostages, where both Briggs and Fisher were able to kill all of Sadiq's men with the help of a Delta Force sniper team which was placed outside of Site F's perimeter and waiting to strike Sadiq's men. With Briggs injured, he tells Fisher to continue his pursuit on Sadiq before he escapes.

"I want to stay in the field, I mean, who else is going to bail your ass out when you get captured?"
Isaac Briggs to Sam Fisher. This refers to Briggs rescuing Sam after he was interrogated by Majid Sadiq in the Abandoned Mill.

Aftermath

After the team's secret capture of Sadiq, Briggs goes back to work as a field officer and support on the team as Fourth Echelon hunts down the remaining members of The Engineers. He later on assisted Sam in rescuing Igor Kasperov. However after that he was never mentioned again when Sam was sent to Bolivia in 2019 and in future. It is currently unknown whether he left Fourth Echelon or went back to the CIA.

Profile

Briggs

Briggs shows exceptional skills in covert tactics and espionage, being very skilled in all types of firearms as well as showing stealth skills similar to Sam Fisher. He is able to climb ledges and is adept at mountain climbing, despite only training indoors prior to his first mission working together with Sam Fisher in a cooperative mission. It is shown that Briggs possesses very skilled marksmanship abilities, as he was able to take out multiple foes during his recovery of Fisher from Majid Sadiq.

Personality

Briggs showed signs during his first day of being a man who "followed the book", loyalty and skilled operator who is a force to be reckoned with. His relationship with his crew members (mostly Fisher and Cole) is negative at first glance due to Briggs' constant CIA outlook and way of planning ops in the Paladin. Despite this, Grim chose him due to his skills rather than his opinions, but accepted Briggs when he sided with her on a few confrontations with Fisher.

Relationship with characters

Despite being in one-game, his relationship with the crew members of the Paladin are shown.

  • Sam Fisher: Sam disliked Briggs due to his "by the book" and "CIA outlook" to perform operations on the field. This caused Fisher to even show loathing of him when he saved him when Sadiq escape the abandoned mill, even backing away when he tried to help him recover. Despite this, after Fisher reconciles with Briggs, he shows concern of him (as shown in Site F, reminding Briggs he was bleeding out). In Co-Op and Campaign, the two are an unbeatable team, watching each others back and with their skills are an army of two.
  • Anna "Grim" Grímsdóttir: Grim chose Briggs in the CIA's branch due to his skills on the field from the Army and specialist. Though the two don't speak much unless ordered to, the two have a stable partnership in Fourth Echelon, as Briggs often agrees with Grim during confrontations with Fisher.
  • Charlie Cole: Cole shows disliking of Briggs when it came to planning operations (ex was in Benghazi). After Sadiq was captured, their relationship calmed as Briggs told Cole to watch himself with a loaded Five-SeveN.
  • Andriy Kobin: Briggs and Kobin appear to not get along, this is shown when Briggs put him into custody, he was happy he was the one to do it.

Equipment

  • Ceramic Plate: The Ceramic Plate suit is Briggs' standard outfit in the field, during the Solo Campaign. He was seen wearing during missions like the Abandoned Mill, Transit Yards and other operations.
  • Mk VIII Suit: The Mark VIII Tactical Operations Suit was the uniform used by Briggs in Blacklist Attacks. The suit doesn't hold as many gadgets, but is effectible in the battlefield. Briggs doesn't wear Fisher's exact suit, but wears an special mark, but does wear Fisher's in Site F.
  • HK416: The Heckler & Koch 416 was Briggs' signature rifle on the field (in cutscene and playable sections in Solo Campaign). It was equipped with an EoTech and Suppressor.
  • SR-25: The SR-25 is constantly used by Briggs in Blacklist, he first uses the sniper rifle in Benghazi to give support to Fisher. He uses again in England (abandoned mill) and Philadelphia to take out enemy fighters with nerve gas bombs.
  • PX4 Storm .45: Briggs' signature sidearm, he uses in and out of operations during the Blacklist Attacks.
  • Karambit: A curved, hand-held double edged knife, with one fine and one serrated.
  • Fourth Echelon Goggles: The multi-vision goggles used by Fourth Echelon, namely Sam Fisher who also has the same type of goggles.

Trivia

  • Briggs is Sam Fisher's co-op partner in Splinter Cell: Blacklist.  Briggs is also playable in four single-player missions, two of the single-player missions involving Briggs manning aerial drone weapons.
  • Briggs is similar in some ways to Sam Fisher; obviously, they are both spies, but both also attended military academies (Sam attended the United States Naval Academy, Briggs attended West Point Military Academy) and went on to serve in military special forces (Sam in the Navy SEALs, Briggs in one of the Army's various special forces).
  • Briggs is playable during the Site F mission in third-person perspective, but during the Transit Yards mission, his perspective is changed to first-person - the same aspect as the Mercenaries in Spies vs Mercs.
    • During "Transit Yards" mission, his weapon of choice is M416.
    • As a sniper, he uses either a drone or the SR-25 (which he used in the Safehouse mission).
  • In Blacklist, Briggs is not customizable on split-screen, but on online co-op the loadouts that were made for Sam will carry on to Briggs.
  • In the campaign level "Transit Yards", Briggs will only perform lethal attacks.
  • As Briggs broke the Secretary of Defense's neck to prevent Sadiq from getting vital classified files related to the U.S. and its military, he apologized to the SecDef before killing him.
  • In cutscenes, Briggs is left-handed, while in gameplay, he's right-handed.

Gallery

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 A little bit of background info on Isaac Briggs, official forum post by UbiZack (archive)
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