Deus Ex

you've got 10 seconds to beat it before i add you to the list of nsf casualties ah the paris nightlife have a taste of wine for me i'm a prototype of a much larger system you sent him because you knew he would fight to the death i spill my drink this is gonna make a great story in a former life i was a mule dragging a stone plow up a hill in northern thailand same french philosopher georges bataille thought that the purpose of life was to waste the energy of the sun dels x is a legendary first person rpg released in the year 2000 it's a game about plague disinformation finances and technology secret plots riots and collapse not topical at all the game is ancient if you haven't played del sex by this point you are basically a criminal a traitor to gamerkind i will personally rat you out to the cops take them away i assume most of you have either played it or watched a video or two or absorbed some of its story details via cultural osmosis we take on the role of jc denton it's possible to input whatever name you want but the game's characters will always refer to us as denton take a look at the portrait this is the first and last time we are seeing jc without his sunglasses and this is the game's skill system like it is the case with many boomer rpgs there are a lot of meaningless options the single most important skill is computers many challenges in deus ex are solved by hacking computers one can argue that the skill is actually too powerful like speech in fallout 2. handguns are excellent weapons but it's important to deselect them on this screen because as soon as the game starts we'll get one level for free being trained at picking locks and disabling electronic devices is immensely helpful among these two electronics usually ends up being slightly more important and that's it for the character creation our globe trotting adventure begins your appointment to fema should be finalized within the week i've already discussed the matter with the senator i take it he was agreeable he didn't really have a choice the world is ravaged by a disease called the great death there is a vaccine but the supply is limited and even the fact of its existence is being hidden from the public the u.s government increasingly dysfunctional and authoritarian no longer controls large swathes of the country some duties have been delegated to the un agencies everybody knows that bob page is the world's richest man but that's about all everybody knows who is he really what does he want we've had to endure much you and i but soon there will be order again a new age aquinas spoke of the mythical city on the hill soon that city will be a reality and we will be crowned not better than kings gods 19 of the last 23 u.s presidents have been members of the trilateral commission that's a think tank anyone can become a member despite being released a year before 9 11 the new york skyline in deus ex is missing the twin towers this is not some sort of an extraordinary act of premonition it's just the skybox had to be compressed for reasons related to memory constraints welcome aboard agent we are an agent of the united nations anti-terrorist coalition or unetco welcome to the coalition jc i might as well start using your code name the guy we're talking to is paul our brother both jc and paul are technological prototypes of sorts humans enhanced with nanotechnology the nsf terrorists attacked liberty island and took one of our agents hostage paul offers us a choice of weapons this is actually one of the more important choices we'll make in this game a gap gun is a sophisticated rocket launcher that is incredibly useful in exploration because it allows us to blow up locked doors and crates the one disadvantage of having a gap gun is that it takes a lot of inventory space tetris style inventories are my favorite deus ex compartmentalizes certain stackable items like keys into their own separate list inventories so they don't clutter the screen nsf everywhere jc your orders are to shoot on site a unanco informant on the north dock can get you inside the statue we don't actually have to shoot on site there are quite a few non-lethal weapons available early my favorite is a hand crossbow with tranquilizer rounds yeah we got the whole supply you can see the ship's lights crossing the bay so why aren't we pulling out mike's on the horn jojo wants a lead on the distribution network the national secessionist forces or nsf are a sophisticated insurrectionist organization as well as a popular political movement both the u.n and the us classify them as a terrorist group but you know one man's terrorist about time you showed up higher than copper the statue is copper on an iron frame right password's enough pal don't think you know something about the lady i don't the movement has a large support base in major urban centers many americans see the nsf as liberators from an increasingly dysfunctional us government don't take weapons into the lady that makes you as bad as your hat go don't forget it was the nsf that see for the statue in the first place strange neither nsf or the french silhouette ever took responsibility for the bombing the decapitation of the statue of liberty was the reason the feds allowed unetco to operate on american soil and our hq is right here on liberty island it's symbolic you see when you play the game for the first time without knowing all these backstory details it's really jarring to be hunting terrorists at one moment and then turning the corner and finding a huge fuck-off military facility full of friendly soldiers what are you guys doing jc just graduated from the academy he shouldn't be rescuing hostages by himself be careful the nsf has set up patchwork security systems here our introduction to computers in order to hack a computer you press the hack button that's it that's the mechanic getting access to security terminals is important because they allow us to turn off cameras open lock doors and reprogram gun turrets rescuing the unetco operative is a side objective neutralizing the terrorist leader is our primary goal glad you're not hurt agent command should not have left us to be surrounded gunter hermann is what they call a mech an older type of augmented agent his enhancements are more obvious and crude than ours i will take my rusty metal bones and sweep away into the jackpot gunter began his career almost three decades ago serving in the german gsg9 counter-terrorist unit these days the mech is one of the coalition's most lethal tools he doesn't like the newer models don't shoot i surrender so you think you know better than fema what to do with this month's ambrosia shipment you're too late it's on its way back to the people arresting the nsf leader concludes the mission for 100 years there's been a conspiracy of plutocrats against ordinary people do you have a single fact to back that up in 1945 corporations paid 50 percent of federal taxes now they pay about five percent who wants their surplus eight the nsf we face is the second or the third reincarnation of the organization i wonder how's a guy with a tattooed forehead get to be an nsf kern every new version seems to be more anti-authoritarian than the previous his ideology appears to be a combination of right and left-wing talking points with a good dose of boomer conspiracy theories from the 80s the chief finally let us loose we were right behind you and cut through them like a hot knife through butter for our first job we did okay i was in your class at the academy you probably don't remember paul meets us back at the unetco hq their leader might have surrendered but the nsf won this round they stole a month's supply of the vaccine and took it to new york it's good to finally see some action just keep a level head you're doing well so far paul hates it when we use lethal force prefers alternative methods knockout gas riot prods stun batons it's my first day too i'm pretty excited the hq is in the bunker underneath liberty island one of the game's social areas the rental scanner can read blood vessel patterns right through your sunglasses plenty of people to talk to with many little secrets and decide activities we have an office here with a desk a computer an email account all that hmm i'd rather not waste a lockpick we should go see the boss reporting for duty sir the man himself splendid do you accept my apologies about the situation topside a refreshing change from the academy sir don't despise training my boy even you would be worthless without the shaping touch of drills and studies are you sure you press the right button i do not make mistakes of that kind your hand might have slipped no i wanted orange it gave me lemon lime the machine would not make a mistake it's the maintenance man he knows i like orange the woman gunter is talking to is anna navarra a russo-israeli-mechanized agent working for unetco our new partner believe it or not the lemon lime plotline won't be resolved until the sequel my new partner jc denton don't tell me you're going to wear those sunglasses during a night operation my vision is augmented better to look goods and to have the distractions of another agent who needs backup he doesn't wear glasses to look good gunter he wears them to obfuscate the creepy looking fremen eyes jc and paul have it's nanotech you won't understand the machine people have a certain sense of solidarity with one another anna is the opposite of paul she loves killing people and the more people you kill the more she will like you [Music] that's the medical bay we're in for a checkup the mad bots will heal your wounds for free no strings attached they're also used to install non-augmentations from the canisters we find in the game world every new canister will offer you a choice of two mutually exclusive cyberpunk superpowers do we want to hit harder with melee weapons or do we want to lift heavier things i pick the lifting ability because it's more useful for exploration you look like the real thing they actually let you operate on people they actually let you point a gun at people jaime reyes is the chief physician in charge of the medical bay seems like a nice enough guy we'll get more familiar with him as the game progresses in the back of the mad bay there is this area a one-way glass access is restricted interesting you're getting warm you're red-hot looks like you found me alex jacobson is the united communications tech a hacker and field advisor to the augmented agents during combat operations that's general carter the veteran of the second civil war that was more than two decades ago i'm not a general anymore just call me carter in between missions he gives us various items from the armory we usually get a choice of what to take see manderly on level 2 and let's move out unatco hq is built like an xcom base right next to the armory there are holding cells nothing to see here yet uh we have a problem manderly is supposed to trigger a cutscene but nothing is happening because he is stuck in the door and the game cannot progress i exit and re-enter the level hoping this would reset him but that did nothing what did work was manually holding the door the moment it closes manderly is now free that will be jc's job what's that we're going to new york the nsf took the stolen vaccine to a secure location with sophisticated defenses the base is powered by a generator hidden somewhere in the city our job is to find and disable the generator while paul leads the assault on the base itself here's your up bonus for the great job you did in the statue we also get paid credits are the global currency used in the us china france and probably everywhere you'll come to admire your partner she's one of our best well i love her accent all right we have a mission to complete wish i was going with you and this is how you spend your hard-earned credits occasionally you'll meet various characters offering to sell you something you'll find merchants in the unlikeliest of places the first merchant in the game was actually an nsf deserter back in philbins let's head back to the docks the boat will take us to new york let's head out nobody kill me anybody before we get to our main objective the nsf generator we need to locate one of the stolen barrels of ambrosia that is supposedly hidden inside castle clinton in battery park the nsf enjoys plenty of support in new york and the castle is their logistics base of sorts i will give you a schematic of the barrel but first we will exterminate the nsf terrorists exterminate a precious opportunity we cannot neglect anna being her usual self our country is the sweet land of liberty of the icing the park has many civilians and non-combatants the nsf terrorists in the subway have threatened to blow up the platform watch for booby traps here is a thing nsf is a popular political movement but they use a plurality of tactics it's not wrong to call them terrorists battery park metro station is booby trapped with explosives tons of armed men inside who will shoot on site and they have hostages almost every place in del sacs has some sort of a back entrance including the metro this allows us to bypass the laser trip wires using a slow acting non-lethal weapons in this situation is simply irresponsible most of those old forts have a bolt hole those boys will be long gone out of side tunnel by now some npcs will drop cryptic hints that there is some sort of alternative way of getting into the castle it's right here in fact next to the boat that brought us to new york it appears to be locked though well let me get my lockpick the nsf inside the castle don't appear to be a threat to the local civilians so i'm back to non-lethal methods a control room and a nano-augmentation canister a precious find disabling the cameras would make exploring this place much easier and this is the reason we're here objective complete agent navarre will describe your next assignment you might be wondering why ambrosia looks like this see the grey death is not a real virus it was created with nanotechnology and ambrosia is not a real vaccine it's a bunch of nano machines that are designed to counteract the great death nanomachines land where my father's died land of the pilgrims bright from every mountain side let freedom ring we finish mopping up the castle via non-lethal means but i'm concerned anna might have murdered some of them while i wasn't looking you are too gentle with the nsf but i cannot complain you completed the objective that's right at least you are not a coward like paul you max might have copper wiring to reroute your fear of pain but i've got nerves of steel you are not a mech you do not know what it is like what's it like to stand around revving your actuators while the more advanced units complete the mission holy crap jc that was cold unlike gunter anna doesn't have an inferiority complex for her it's all about skill it's about the art of murderizing terrorists augments don't make an agent she says you better get to hell's kitchen the fighting's pretty rough up there we have to go on with the mission sounds like there is a problem with an assault team your brother paul has gotten out troops into another mess we get to hell's kitchen via the now terrorist-free metro my native country the land of the noble free thy name i love talk to one of the guys in green your nat goes running the show today our first of many visits to this neighborhood of manhattan what's the situation here you're taking over i've got to get my team ready to raid the warehouse we're looking for an industrial-sized generator in a large building there is still a heavy nsf presence on the streets mass combat sure looks weird in this game the npcs would randomly crouch while firing or stray theoretically like old quake bots kind of reminds me of the battle of bruma i suppose these evasive maneuvers really do make the npcs harder to hit but that is at the cost of them looking really stupid which conflicts with the game's more serious themes then hey it's den you want these what give him the grenades look i know he's your brother but the troopers are annoyed that paul issued them non-lethal weapons whatever we'll take these of their hands gas grenades are very useful do something man they're gonna kill him nothing i checked his pockets don't live underground and not have one of charlie's cards make him take off his shoes i just sleep down there they don't give you money unless you're on the council take off your shoes the nsf welcomes everyone oppressed by the current political and economic system right wingers left winners hackers terrorists gangsters street thugs the man is a member of a community of bombs who call themselves the mole people we'll learn more about them later underworld and where does this lead watch it jc our agents report that this area is booby-trapped the hideout of an elusive character who calls himself smuggler just smuggler people i know they've been disappearing some sort of a paramilitary group kidnapped his friend they're keeping him in the sewers sure we'll help rescue him smuggler promised a discount i have my discount right here he hides a number of expensive items behind the glass town hotel oh so that's why it's called ton i played this game half a dozen times and never noticed this before what's your business here agent just going up to my brother's room uh you better hold off the nsf retreated in there about half an hour ago and they've taken hostages we're waiting on a specialist i'm your specialist like jc said our brother has a permanent room at the town with a bunch of useful items inside the hotel owner is at the desk as if nothing is happening at this point everyone got used to terrorism god is hell in these masks i take out the nsf using normal non-paralyzing darts that's paul's room the keypad is behind the painting what's the code oh yeah thinking about setting a thing like that in my apartment extra lockpicks and multitools are always good the owner is worried about his daughter sandra she can come home no questions no speeches funny that the last name of the guy who rents out rooms is renton you said i didn't have to make janie do it i already took the money and when it's jojo and there's something he wants you gotta do it and that's sandra and her friend you've got 10 seconds to beat it before i add you to the list of nsf casualties easy bro just having us a conversation five seconds girl's got a head full of marbles i have to yell but she don't hear me three she sketches on me it's my ass man one alright some of the best writing in this game is when jc threatens or insults people let's check out the sewer and maybe do the smuggler's task and who would that be one of the government goons we've been warned about the environmental storytelling says they are not buddies with the nsf these tunnels on the new york city sewer maps weird i have no information on what you might be getting into but this seems worth following up yes alex i agree the paramilitary set up a base in the old water treatment facility they have tons of these poisoned gas barrels i move them around using the strength augment and then use the poison gas against the goons it works but with one unintended consequence this is when it dawned on me that the chemist we accidentally killed was ford chick smuggler's friend we came here to rescue uh-oh yes password bloodshot this is the first time i'm failing this quest smuggler will not be pleased i wish i'd never said anything maybe he'd be alive right now yeah maybe but probably not one of the emails on the computer down in the sewers indicated that they would execute the chemist once he is no longer necessary but necessary for what what were they doing there were they trying to poison the water or something it's a mystery the free clinic let's take a look inside i was there when the nsf overran squad know me back when they were called the northwest secessionist forces they came in with thermoptic camo and we never picked them up on any of the sensors he's talking about the second civil war many people took shelter in the clinic because of all the fighting outside some of them have the grey death the doctor tries to sell us an automated healthcare plan which is basically a privilege of using their medbots we seize the means of healthcare via a gap gun we are offered a choice between the ability to breathe underwater or have increased resistance to radiation and toxins i pick red resistance this is not a passive ability unfortunately in fact all logs in devious x1 need to be manually activated and they consume energy christ you see the guy begging for a cure yeah what about him it won't help there is no cure let it spill over to the schools and churches that the bodies pile up in the streets in the end they'll beg us to save them there is the silly contradiction in video game cyberpunk any visual media cyberpunk really it's supposed to explore the dystopian implications of advanced technology disrupting social order but the conversation doesn't go anywhere because cyberpunk looks very cool these dudes are cool hell yeah delos x admittedly doesn't have the beautiful misery problem since most of it takes place in environments that look less hospitable than the period stroker era comi block apartments wanted to get back and try it out in the sculpture christ you and the sculptures what's this one called the man who was thursday makes as much sense as the last what was it called napoleon something or other napoleon of notting hill doesn't seem much use for sculpture today there's always tomorrow the underworld tavern paul mentioned this place your brother's one of the bravest men i know [Music] the music [Music] among other things deus ex is fondly remembered for its soundtrack a mixture of jazz techno and ambient very nineties most of it was composed by alexander brandon who also wrote music for unreal and unreal tournament by ambrosia from a drug dealer we're talking about your wife the grey death i don't know if i gave it to her and it was cut jojo's good for it people know him he'd be hanging from a streetlight if he was selling bad vaccine so the nsf are distributing the vaccine via street-level drug dealers the barkeep has visible metal augmentations similar to what anna navarra has the woman is ex unetco but not nostalgic for her time in the organization i can still polish a glass she says the underworld tavern is where we meet jock for the first time the conversation is very del's axiom jock keeps foreshadowing and essentially spoiling the main plot of the game while jc who thinks all of this is crackpot nonsense repeatedly keeps trying to change the subject well i'm about to go on duty what kind of chopper pilot starts work at midnight he flies a black chopper formally he works for the nsa but the division services many government and un-operated agencies he tells us about area 51 the place no longer appears to be government owned strange people have been visiting billionaires big executives it is as if area 51 was taken over by a private entity not likely something is going on on the ground a lot of rock comes out of there and they keep playing more fiber optic cables he says this is actually an important plot point that i don't think ever gets coherently explained in-game joke doesn't know this but what he is talking about is called aquinas hub some years ago billionaire and inventor bob page presented the world something called aquinas protocol a new way of hosting information on the web internet 2.0 a useful invention in the world succumbing to social dysfunction and authoritarianism but believe it or not there was a catch the new protocol allowed for greater centralization and surveillance this appears to have been paige's goal all along i'm gonna do it i'm glad i hope she does better can't be any worse for her than morphine hey ashay one for the road oh hey it's sandra renton your father misses you i don't need you or anybody telling me what to do okay i'm sorry how does it feel to be ordered to murder civilians just because they support the fastest growing political movement in this nation's history joe green is a journalist with an uh unclear ideological stance jc wants to interrogate green about a possible location of the power generator but since the journalist is more experienced at this kind of thing he ends up interrogating jc and getting way more information than we care to disclose don't worry i'll say sources within united go if i hold you this lady is jojo's ex oh yeah she will talk [ __ ] says the man is a fraud his body mods are cosmetic he intentionally cuts his face with a razor to look badass she points us to the warehouse district listen to your brother jc respect his experience let's leave it at that heads up jc we've got nsf troops on the rooftops yeah we do some of them armed with sniper rifles these kill us in one shot if they manage to hit the head this is a combat encounter area we explore the urban labyrinth and kill or incapacitate the nsf soldiers there are no non-combatants here i don't think weapon accuracy in deus ex is based on your character's skill not your skill as a player as you can see the rifle is almost unusable without the skill point investment combining a realistic first person perspective with abstract mechanics seems to be an unpopular idea i noticed that individuals in rpg community tend to either be neutral towards such systems acknowledging that the devs use them for a purpose or they tend to absolutely hate and despise them it seems that almost nobody actually likes this kind of design i suppose this is why it is now extinct look for the building with the antennas you mean this one there are only like four buildings here alex despite the attempts to de-emphasize players skill if you are decent at shooters del sax won't be that hard here is me knifing a bunch of nsf in open combat even though jc is wounded has no augmentations active and has only rudimentary melee abilities this must be the control room there is probably a computer terminal that controls the generator yeah here it is good job jc the power just died at the nsf headquarters now it's up to paul we should explore around before we leave since it doesn't seem like we'll be coming back let's read the nsf emails we need to impress upon those under our command that collateral damage in form of civilian casualties must be avoided at all possible costs i guess they're talking about battery park and then there is an email from someone called jlabadev he talks about moving something to an airfield interesting it's a good practice to preserve lockpicks and gap rockets by using explosive barrels to force open doors grenade-like lamps also do this but the supply of these is limited how's the raid going they should have signed agent navarre your brother is timid like a child paul doesn't seem to be the most popular person in unetco last boarding call cannot go hq oh hey it's jock the guy from the bar black helicopters are a now forgotten boomer conspiracy theory from the 90s the u.n was supposedly preparing a fleet of those in order to facilitate the military occupation of the united states in the name of the new world order if you wanted to save people you could have unloaded the whole shipment in manhattan or the airlift you said it yourself secrets are power the prisoners on level 3 are a sensitive matter leave the interrogations to mr simons oh it's these guys previously we've met agents with mechanical augmentations as well as the ones with more advanced nano orgs sirius p agents more popularly known as men in black are physiopharmaceutic augmented a combination of psychological indoctrination with an unknown cocktail of powerful drugs as a result they possess superhuman abilities while maintaining a human appearance more or less do not question the prisoners yourself they have pale skin and the metallic voice don't worry about what the guys are saying about hell's kitchen what is it they're saying and over a fact from when you were at the academy that you can do more than throw gas grenades and use a prod dude i killed a lot of people today and they're not super proud of that fact i was here first mr mandela is in a meeting jc you'll have to wait can somebody tell me what happened to paul's team just fire the arrogant son of a [ __ ] i wasn't exaggerating he's our best agent we don't need him we've got his brother and more on the way he knows nothing i think he does you should never have sent him to hong kong who is he speaking with they're obviously talking about our brother i cannot wait forever he will see you when he's ready we know that the mystery man is a villain we've seen him in the intro cutscene he seems to outrank mentally i am next we get paid that's the second paycheck tonight i'm just going to say it straight jc your brother screwed up we got nothing and he's taking the heat this time the coalition is letting him go what do you mean letting go paul is an experimental piece of technology how can you let him go we'll be flying back to new york remember the email we read that said something about an airfield it seems the nsf plan is to airlift the stolen ambrosia barrels but we are not sure where to or where from and stay away from the press this time especially the tabloids do i need to quote the manual secrets our lives all right he got us there i have been waiting for 20 minutes sorry anna what is it his enthusiasm in battery park was exceptional the courtyard to castle clinton was a graveyard that's actually not true you've seen it yourself castle clinton was taken via non-lethal means it seems anna is bugged [ __ ] meg brains nice every weapon mod those jerks from washington think they own the place so that man in manderly's office was he a washington bureaucrat he just gives off a very different vibe [Music] i had to hack our own computer because i forgot the password there is a cryptic message from paul saying he has good reasons to behave the way he does welcome aboard agent i'm shannon hi shannon you certainly made an impression on the troops tonight getting mixed reactions doc let's check out the cell block one must admire a man who can keep a secret because he has value what you know more than others makes money and gives you a measure of power you walton simons you think i could be bribed this visit to hq serves as an extended introduction to walton simons one of the game's key characters simons is the director of fema in real life the federal emergency management agency used to be a focus of a number of conspiracy theories and in the universe of del sex all of them are true but fema is an american entity concerned with disaster relief it is established that in this fictional world the u.n has a form of sovereignty over the united states so how come a female official outranks a leader of a u.n anti-terrorist organization alex is not at his desk he doesn't seem to have a conventional screen carter is glad to see us and he offers a bunch of items from the armory but then completely unprompted jc begins to brag about his kill count this disappoints the quartermaster who quickly reconsiders giving away extra items unatco is a peacekeeping organization he says we are citizens first soldiers second i am a patient man ask me if i care but not that patient [Music] you saw nothing didn't report to the helipad oh yeah i'm not sure what paul is up to but i trust his judgment let's go since jock knows paul i feel he's one of the very few people we can trust why the name mold people they call us that because we live underground like they're some kind of superior beings or something because they got more money than we we're do you in battery park we know the nsf we're moving material through here at one point seems like a good place to start looking it is this used to be a nsf logistics base after all we made a sweep of the area no sign of the nsf the access to castle clinton is blocked battery park is mostly populated by cops and unetco soldiers we lost the battle today i admit it yes this old man actually used to command an entire division of nsf troops back during the second civil war he's a merchant actually the game has the weirdest merchants hey you're a cop the terrorist got away i never thought about it but i guess we are kind of like a cop this guy is one of the mole people a community of bombs who live in abandoned tunnels beneath new york we saved one of them from the nsf earlier tonight this is how we know the password underworld the tunnels are accessed through the same metro station we cleared the terrorists from and here is our spy friend harley philbin who did us a favor back at the statue it wasn't a favor i was well paid i have to say the mole people have the most elaborate elevator mechanism i've seen in my life welcome to brooklyn bridge station after the quakes the homeless drifted down here junkies runaways grifters there's a dss file a mile long on this place some of them the so-called mole people have permanent living quarters and an adjacent tunnel system not on my map in exchange for some drugs a local junkie enthusiastically tells us everything he knows about the area which is basically nothing i'm looking for the mole people mole people i've started the mole people says the bomb and then they made committees that throw people out i'm a classic example of the individualist i do better on my own this guy sounds like he might have a nuanced opinion about age of consent laws the local drug dealer has some interesting augmentations as well as a visor from cottor one bit i ain't going back to jail honestly after being exposed to the reality of the uniteco prison system i kind of understand this reaction this part of the station is occupied by latin american mafia we're gonna be special forces for the nsf if they give us some chits yeah we've seen this the nsf are recruiting gangs although special forces might be a euphemism for a meat shield you are business talk to el rey el rey is the subway kingpin he can hook us up with some explosives serious stuff he says comes from a guy in unetco we can pay or we can get some of it for free if we kill the drug dealer already dead a junkie in the man's restroom gives us another lamb grenade in exchange for drugs make it last i killed homeboy out by the tracks one of the subsequent levels has many robotic enemies so the game needs to make sure we have explosives although strictly speaking they are not necessary looking good jc most brooklyn bridge residents know that the keypad that unlocks the path to the mole people is located below the sink in the station's mail restroom the only thing about staying up here is the rooks one time i was drunk and fell asleep and they put me on the train tracks good thing the five is shut down the nsf are co-inhabiting the same living spaces as the moles so when the shooting starts we need to be careful not to hit random civilians they're eating cats that's gross the quickest way to put an end to the violence is to go straight for the nsf commander who immediately surrenders hey i'm just an accountant i know the body armor looks threatening but i'm part-time like a reservist the surviving terrorists will follow the commander's example and put down their arms the key to the men's restroom is on the table restroom i'm looking for an airfield yeah what's up with this place and toilet based logistics well the nsf don't hurt anybody the mole people are an impressively and realistically diverse faction when it comes to politics they think because they had guns we're afraid but we're not take three random mole people and you'll get five conflicting opinions on anything they really think he'll make it this far paul said not to take any chances what i guess it is possible that there is more than one pool in new york you want this stinking rat hole you got it deeper into the tunnels we go sooner or later they're just gonna find us this jumping puzzle feels like it was wrapped straight from half-life 1. the gap gun is an excellent lockpick but did you know it can be used as a weapon as well even without any skill point investment whatsoever this thing is brutally effective against bots of all kinds you're entering a helibased terminal below a private section of laguardia wait laguardia is a real place isn't it then why isn't it crawling with united troops seems obvious the misty barrels should be here does the government even control new york unlike in fallout in del sex you can't loot dismembered bodies we missed out on some sniper rifle ammo this is the terminal at laguardia owned by juan ivanovic levitate we read an email from lebanon to the nsf commander back in hell's kitchen your orders are to locate and kill him we're sending you a map of the airfield the place is patrolled by commercial grade security bots this is why the game wanted us to have all these lamps you can also get rid of the bots by taking advantage of these fuel barrels found all over the area laguardia is basically one huge combat stealth section but there are still places to explore and secrets to find great that should make sure you and i won't miss any shots i've notified the recovery team one barrel left we think this one may actually be on levitev's jet we know where that is wait who is that oh [ __ ] there is only one pole in new york you can relax jc i told the troops to stand down that's right i'm working for the nsf i'll meet you at the 747. listen to what i've got to say we don't have much time paul tells us that the great death is a man-made virus jc the character has no way of knowing if that is true but we the player had a reason to suspect this might have been the case because we watched the intro cutscene with two powerful sociopaths explaining their plans the un's about the only chance we've got these days if the u.s spirals into another civil war a pretext nothing more the whole project of world government going back to the league of nations has been funded and manipulated mainly by wealthy bankers the yuan being the vehicle of world government is another classic boomer conspiracy theory most conspiracies are true in deus ex we know that the u.n does have sovereignty over america the u.n was founded not to end war but to gradually dissolve national governments and replace them with a globalist meritocracy dude that actually sounds kind of not terrible maybe the mechanic thinks there is a drug deal that's about to happen well he's right in a way he offers to sell us equipment he stole from someone's locker the brother makes some sense doesn't he yeah but he kind of lost me when he started talking about the globalists hope you decide to join up the interior of the 747 uses a bunch of unique models and textures you won't see anywhere else in the game this machine should be ancient by airplane standards that's three out of three lost barrels assuming we won't defect immediately we better get well compensated for this the repair bots function much like medbots but for your bioelectric energy as long as one of these is around we'll never run out of mana we'll find out what this canister does later that would be juan labadev a latino russian magnate and a major financial backer of the nsf i surrender what easy now agent unatko has a policy against killing unarmed prisoners we have much to learn from each other labadev's backstory gets fleshed out in del sac's fiction novels i haven't read those steps behind us good work now finish the job he surrendered he's an unarmed prisoner unacco policy protects him terminate the prisoner agent there are several ways to proceed we can kill juan manderly will be happy we can kill anna she is tough but not invulnerable jc is being constantly monitored from unetco hq but it just so happens that alex is fully aware that anna is a psychopath and if it comes to that he'll cover our rear end by deleting the records i have the command here now comedy option kill both labadev and navarra this is actually a likely outcome mechs self-destruct when they die resulting in a violent explosion the fourth option is to do nothing after all he did surrender i can tell by the expression on your friend's face that she knows where i'm heading yonatco is completely correct to think that tracer tong will soon understand ambrosia why tell me all this i've said nothing that you not god won't find on this plane's computer but here's the secret this is what paul was so interested to hear from tracer tong manderly will be disappointed in your insubordination anna prevents him from finishing the sentence i have never had this much difficulty with the training in my life paul managed to escape good agent herman is on his way having sacrificed social acceptance for enhanced performance gunter is what they call an ogre classified by the uan as a lethal weapon rather than a person don't you think we should give paul a chance to explain himself he's been with unatco for years only one thing can happen when you break your oath to the coalition but the metal parts are impossible to maintain without specialist care and they give him a shelf date of sorts eventually he'll be obsolete i will be truthful i have requested the assignment of the paul denton assassination this makes gunter resent more advanced nano-augmented agents this is going to shake up the coalition jc i don't know if you realized how important your brother was the coalition will recover i'm not so worried about the coalition let's go back to hq and get yelled at by manderly the only way to allay their suspicions of ujc is to actively work against your brother's allies unanco prisoner executions corruption and the rogues gallery of psycho robot people the troopers are on edge the game made us think this will be our home now i'm not so sure i can't believe it jc what got into paul i guess you got a better offer let's get this over with all right tintin what the hell happened you were under direct orders your orders contradicted the unetco code of conduct in a great bit of dialogue jc bullies manderly into giving him the paycheck for recovering the barrels coalition has shut down paul's augmentations and has activated the kill switch the kill switch is a mechanism integrated into augmented individuals that allows for their remote termination like to prevent capture or to get rid of a traitor different types of augmented entities have different kinds of kill switches in nano-augmented agents like jc and paul it causes the nanites to multiply exponentially killing the host in about 24 hours paul will die in 24 hours manderly sends us to hong kong to kill an associate of our brothers a man called tracer tong i got you this opportunity now it's up to you yeah thanks i guess i can spare a lockpick the director of fema walton simons also has advanced nano augmentations jc is confused why would simons even need physical arguments but you're the director you work behind a desk am i behind a desk right now i like how jc didn't even bother waiting for simons to leave the room before discussing mutinous conspiracy theories with jaime weren't you scared a little but when i'm wearing this helmet i've learned to set aside the instincts of a civilian and be completely professional there are only a handful of people here we can trust alex is definitely one of them so is jaime probably carter definitely jock the canister we picked in the 747 offers a choice between an emp and a ballistic shield sounds like a no-brainer emp damage is uncommon bullets of goddamn everywhere carter approves of our decision of not killing labydev and offers a choice of equipment including a clip of gap rockets it's a question of who benefits society more but who decides that you the troopers are debating ethics listening to them is a little surreal because they're both voiced by the same actor we'll miss you agent we are not going to hong kong paul is in his apartment in manhattan stupid that's the worst possible place to hide back to new york your brother's hurt pretty bad you'll find him at the apartment if he can walk get him to come with you and what if he can't walk the streets are empty there is an occasional riot cop here and there it's already too late for you the free clinic is inaccessible the underworld bar is still open oh it's that [ __ ] journalist what i want to know is how my boss found out that i talked to you you're the investigator you tell me i think one of us told him and that's the informant harley philbin some thugs taking over the tan someone should take care of him everyone is pointing us towards town he's not my boyfriend and what is he he's jojo god jojo the punk the nsf colonel in charge of vaccine distribution is staying right here at the hotel the owner asks us to issue him a handgun i don't have one to spare and it's probably a bad idea to arm a civilian however in the story script giving the man a handgun is actually the only way of making his daughter sandra respect him which supposedly would be a good ending to their story arc and if he dies in the confrontation with jojo this will trigger the much memed what a shame dialogue oh my god daddy what a shame he can't really be there must be something we can do he was a good man what a rotten way to die oh you bad i'm chaotic good i'm leaving i'm getting on a bus and going west until i run out of money or get to the ocean whichever comes first let's check on smuggler yes password bloodshot i see you stopped crying like a baby hey about your brother if he's in hell's kitchen he's a sitting duck how the hell do you even know about paul and his connection to the nsf he finally allows us to access his store we don't have to rob him to get the goodies but i mean i'm still gonna do it all right let's go to polls does this kill switch real what's it going to do to you i'm afraid that's uh classified very funny he's basically dying of a very fast acting cancer and he needs our help with something else unetco tracked lebadev to other nsf bases and allied terrorist groups like the french silhouette paul needs us to send a distress signal to warn them the signal needs to be sent from the nsf base accessible via previously blocked tunnel here in hell's kitchen some of us will be heroes the rest of us will walk away on both legs the installation is crawling with coalition troops i suppose this explains why paul chose to remain in manhattan he wanted to send the signal himself but the kill switch prevented this from happening in the control room we stumbled upon two united core troopers erasing sensitive information from the nsf server the uniforms if it wasn't for simon's we'd still be wearing those little white helmets yeah he's what they call a philanthropist acts this file yeah all of it the whole directory what i want to know is what he gets in return don't you know what a philanthropist is yeah like nietzsche no a philanthropist giving to charity oh that's why i volunteered for fema to help out after hurricanes and that kind of thing that's a lot of money to just give away some people are just good you know good to the bone speaking of bones i attempt to get rid of the old security system by using one of the explosive crates scattered across the level but i [ __ ] up and end up with both my legs broken no i absolutely won't use any one of the dozen or so mad kits i've collected i might need them later it's just me jc crawling in the direction of a mad bot this sort of damage modeling is absent from the subsequent games you might have noticed that a surprising number of problems in deus ex are solved by a liberal application of explosives howdy agents yes you have the command now correct you are dismissed soldier jc the character is about to make the most important choice of his career as a player we have to support the nsf even though in deus ex there are many different ways of reaching your destination inside the constraints of the narrative the story is ultimately linear walton simon's here what an because frankly i don't have the patience to wait for one of those damn kills which is to work we have 24 hours i can't bring myself to use lethal force on our former colleagues the streets are quiet but that's not gonna last no escape we lock the door behind us i have a question about simon's why does fema have authority over unatco i thought fema was a domestic agency for flood relief and that sort of thing his authority doesn't come from fema he's part of a secret organization majestic 12. majestic 12. this is the first time we learned the true name of the enemy agent jc denton please put down your weapons and step into the hallway paul can't walk it seems his arrest is inevitable until now paul was the agent of the story he issued us the main quest so to speak so when he gives us the password for the metro station and says we should go on without him it seems the main quest wants us to do that but this is a fake out the streets are crawling with united cogoons and robots after we get to battery park we meet agent hermann who is invulnerable and has a plasma rifle the promised extraction never arrives paul gets killed by mibs the story continues without him the correct thing to do is to ignore paul's instructions and protests and help him fight off the incoming attack you'll need some heavy firepower but it's not super hard since you're basically defending a chokepoint [Music] the hallway is infested with unetco soldiers this is one of them supposed to lose scenarios no matter what path you pick once jc falls he gets taken to the unknown location i came to watch you die you're early i've got at least 20 hours left whatever this place is she seems to be at home here is this one of them secret fema camps when i played this game for the first time as a kid this was the exact moment i got del sex i need you to escape i can cut power to the door only a few seconds without being detected get ready all the characters all the plot lines all the setting details combined into one coherent picture i was hooked transmitting the floor plan all of your equipment has been stored in the armory to the south here paul denton is alive in the laboratory to the north but has a damaged infolding and that's right here you must inform him of the escape tracer tong will require his default in order to defeat the kill switch they took our material possessions but they couldn't take away our skills this is the maintenance facility for the security bots the armory is to the south not to look a gift horse in the mouth but um who is daedalus you're denton i thought you were dead i'm sure there is a robot here we can reprogram and take over we've seen these black uniforms before yeah we're going the right way okay let's do the paperwork on this one when you are killed by an npc they would sometimes bark a dialogue line commenting on your defeat the mj-12 paramilitaries are very professional while the nsf soldiers would sometimes express surprise that they actually managed to kill you these are page industries delta ii peacebringers the most heavily armed bots in the game seemingly inspired by ed209 from robocop that's where they keep all our confiscated stuff getting rid of all the mj12 crap i picked up along the way yeah come to me baby playing some inventory tetris no doubt sex level can be considered authentic without a corrupt local trying to sell us items they stole you are beneath the nanotech lab the facility also hosts several research labs in three years i haven't figured out who i'm working for the scientists seem to be working here against their will that's a pharmaceutically augmented agent i'll tell you what's worse the rapture chickens from hong kong i've never seen a more perfect example of gonz live and learn men in black explode on death just what kind of pharmacology are they taking what's your stack dude and what was that about raptor chickens disabling a mib with a riot prod doesn't seem to cause the explosive reaction this is a report on walton simon's augmentations an active defense system a cloaking device ballistic plates optical enhancement we can and will get all of these starting with active defense system that detonates explosives at a distance this is extremely useful since some of the common enemies in the late game use explosive projectiles as their main attack is he armed it's denton we aren't taking any chances i hope nobody gets hurt we've got him penned in he won't get far what about this area is it safe long as i'm with you hey find somewhere else to hide these are called kharkians they are laboratory designed creatures resembling a chimera of a crocodile and a bear we hack the security system in the next room to make the turret attack the kharkians but it will take a while for them to go down that's the lab where they keep pool here he is oh my god he escaped i'm like the russian researcher who contracted his own virus they want to study the way i die we don't need to escort him paul will escape on his own we'll see him again but essentially he stops playing a major role in the story from now on date of all the image sent to tracer please leave the facility at least one of you must survive mj-12 executed one of the scientists i guess she went outside the allowed area let's get the hell out of here please exit to the helipad potential encounters include jaime reyes sam carter alex jacobson joseph manderley and anna navarra looking forward to meeting them yes the entrance to the mj-12 facility to the fema camp or whatever that was is right here in unanco hq that's jaime i forgot to give manderley my resignation this is an interesting choice we can direct him to hong kong which is our next destination or tell him to stay right here at unetco as our hidden asset either option is good both lead to interesting results you see this the camera is not reacting to our presence means we have another ally jc i've been watching you for your info link a harrowing escape alex has the key to the exit but he's scared of ana navarra who is also around general carter we've been through that soldier just carter i've discovered some things about unetco i'm unlocking the armory i don't want to know where you're going just load up carter doesn't want to hear the details of what we uncovered he understands unanco is corrupt but still believes in the coalition he makes an argument i heard some religious people make yes the organization is flawed but if everyone leaves things will become even worse some say concentrated power leads to abuse but i believe that if an institution has a solid foundation it can survive the narrow aspirations of the people it employs while we still do not know the identity of a person or persons calling themselves daedalus they have given us an ample reason to believe that he will be an asset to the cause of freedom signed in french i take it this means carter has been talking to silhouette it's important to hack this computer near a cell block because it contains a part of ana navarra's kill phrase macs also have kill switches you see but these work a little differently you have to say a special phrase to them in order to trigger the self-destruct you literally murder them with words it seems the uniteco personnel are not properly trained to operate doors all the hours i spent dreaming about working here all the heroic fantasies when really this place is just a cinderblock bunker with a carpet oh by the way shannon is a merchant who steals from unetco [Music] i wanted orange it gave me lemon lime jc manderly it's jc manderly is talking to simons via the star wars hologram thing look around your star pupil has come back to teach a lesson to his old instructor jc i never had time to take the oath of service to the coalition how about this one i swear not to rest until unatko is free of you and the other crooked bureaucrats who've perverted its mission i had struck a very careful balance between washington and the public interest thank you for your service his computer has the second half of anna's skill phrase okay let's face the music i will have to kill you myself take your best shot flatlander woman how did you know to kill your enemy with a word such a cool way to end her character arc the kill phrase flatlander woman is a reference to the novel flatland by edwin abbott about people living in a two-dimensional world in which women are just lines they are invisible when seen edge on and dangerous because they're very sharp that's just what wiki says i haven't actually read the novel i've sat here and watched her kill dozens of suspects now i'm not so worried about sticking out my neck to give you this key i think you've already stuck out your neck daedalus what are you talking about so daedalus is not alex it's not paul it's not anyone from silhouette if you were paying very close attention to what's happening on screen you might have figured daedalus out but the clues are very easy to miss this was our last visit to this place wait or is it i think it's in the sequel but you play a different character in that game jock's helicopter is equipped with cutting-edge stealth technology and it's also a jet will be in hong kong in a few must want hours bad we are in china but mj-12 managed to remotely hack the helicopter navigation and force us to land on top of one of their skyscrapers we can kill everyone on the roof by reprogramming a gun turret barracks will have to clean up ourselves if it's really dented one of us is going to get a promotion let's uh place a mine near the alarm button let's get out the gap gun just takes one lucky shot that's way too much aerial effect damage but what if we use a gas grenade instead oh yeah that's much better a chinese sword nice it's overall superior to a knife although it does take more inventory space a sword can be used to break certain locks helping preserve lockpicks and rockets this deactivates the mj-12 electronic warfare system back in business come on down and stay clear of the blast doors to the south i'm gonna launch a missile fire in the hole uh jock i think you're supposed to say this before you fire i guess we'll have to take some emp damage or not [Music] keep your wallet in your front pocket welcome to hong kong the game's biggest social area plenty of site content and fantastic music [Music] okay you need to find tracer tong he used to drop paul off at a small compound east of the market you could start there don't lose any time your kill switch is 12 hours old if you die our plans will fail locate tracer tom when i played the game for the first time as a kid realizing just how much to do there is in hong kong was like getting a surprise gift ham panda china very authentic large unbuttoned coke pockets not advisable many fine restaurants by the meats from me by this point i got used to the characters i didn't want for the story to end and for a while it seemed like it might many plot arcs were resolved manderly anna paul jojo the rentons smuggler all that's left was for the surviving good guys to unite in the same place and launch an attack on walton simons and his henchman the evil robot gunter but actually we are only halfway through the game my brother's name is paul denton i heard that he was a frequent visitor this compound do you know him the ruminous path is paul is no friend of the west gordon is a chinese criminal and the boss of the luminous path triad rivals of the red arrow triad there is a war brewing the red arrow supposedly developed an advanced sword called the dragon's tooth but their leader was murdered maggie chao a star of many kung fu movies and a person of influence blamed his death on the luminous path we need to go speak to chao to sort things out a buddhist temple many other buddhas in hong kong monks are very passive aggressive representatives of both triads can be seen on the streets of wang chai market pressuring local businesses into paying them protection money no injuries only a prank 100 i have 55 100 65 okay 65. is there like an unreal engine aesthetics account i have some amazing candidates we have many prized buddhas you will observe tonochi road exists in real life but the name is spelled a little differently we had an agent in the building across the street but he lived for business in the united states that sounds like a euphemism the size streets are not safe for tourists at night what's that behind you dude oh it's one of those page industries robots but in chinese colors maggie's apartment is on the top floor of this building welcome to queen's tower the security system is maintained by a local chinese company which makes sense i'm looking for maggie chow you must be mr denton like we established unite cooperatives don't understand the concept of a door this is the first time we're visiting an upper class apartment in this game modern ciao mr jc denton in the flesh as dark and serious as his brother you know who i am and paul you know my brother intimately miss chao says she's a friend of poles maggie's version of story is very different together with paul they were fighting against mj-12 asset luminous path she says that doesn't sound very convincing but then again perhaps it's one of the game's subversions we must expose the conspiracy behind the luminous path then they will fall apart from the inside we have many prized buddhas you will observe she sends us to the local police station to find dirt on the luminous path that is a buddha but i can't really tell a good buddha from a bad buddha a characteristic noise of a sophisticated security system the local computer terminal is connected to mj-12 net not exactly great opsec miss ciao we've seen enough non-advisable for tourists to visit the canals at night plenty of things to explore in the canals this is a huge open area that is more or less optional as it contains almost nothing irrelevant to the main story hey you who's dad you made a big mixtape homeboy i don't care what anyone says the game has the best voice acting the big ass chinese ship is the home of a weapons merchant and her dog reflective surfaces amazing and real one engine technology we must be in the basement of a restaurant paul denton i have the blueprints i must warn you i oh warned me about what i have made a mistake the man who mistook us for paul is a versa life employee that's the company that manufactures the ambrosia vaccine paul hired this guy to spy for him but they failed to uncover anything substantial you know of a maggie chow maggie ciao a bad character before she was an actress now she's everywhere in hong kong politics what kind of accent is this miss chao told us you are the american who helped them steal this all maggie ciao is spreading false rumors about paul trying to create conflict between him and the luminous path we are in one chai police station i rob the place off-camera but there is one keypad here that can only be opened with the access code maggie gave us i'm not sure what she expected jc to find but there is a data cube with evidence that miss chao was involved in the murder of the previous red arrow leader which was a contributing factor to the ongoing game war she also has a connection to versalife it's time for maggie to go to america you're a mistaken miss chao she should never have sent me to the police station now i know she's hiding something and i intend to find out what it is no no you are mistaken best voice acting mei sung is both a maid and a bodyguard she has this weird glitchy pistol animation maggie's goons it's hard to be intimidated by them since we killed so many already isn't it weird that all significant woman characters we've met so far were villains greetings i have been observing you through this fascinating device in your skull you have found the proof we needed the dragon's tooth sword the dragon's tooth is a lightsaber except it works using magic nanite technology instead of magic space crystals the weapon was created by mj-12 the triads have no ability to engineer something like this sounds like a good plan until you learn that max chen the leader of the red arrow is or was in a relationship with maggie they have a daughter together in an early version of the game's story maggie ciao is described as majestic 12th operative who masquerades as paul's denton's supposed wife but that plot thread was cut oh and if you are extremely observant you might have noticed maggie walking around the secret conspiracy place in the intro cutscene anyway the nanoblade is one of the reasons the latter half of the game is easier than the first it's phenomenally powerful requires no meaningful skill investment and the only downside is that it occupies a lot of inventory space it also functions as a lighter perfect i order you to stand in the spotlight and growl at the women like a dog who needs a master the mall is closed for the night we can break in but if the cops see us using a lockpick they open fire whatever let's get inside the club hey man where you from the states we're from australia on vacation let's just wait by russ he's kind of cute what's your name jc is this a good club oh totally i love the dialogue writing and the delivery the awkwardness the pauses sometimes characters can be almost incoherent but that's just how some people are i enjoy this as an aesthetic probably not the best close quarters weapon lucky money isn't even that big in terms of space but it's full of interesting secondary npcs don't you like to dance you know who like to dance the protagonist of vampire bloodlines i've never seen so many troopers they must be close to a breakthrough versa life employees i think it's just the uc they've had that for weeks but word has gotten out uc stands for universal constructor essentially a star trek replicator in the deo sex universe such technology is theorized to be possible but still remains a fiction or is it the club is where we meet the game's foremost philosopher the lucky money bartender the west so afraid of strong government now has no government only financial power our governments have limited power by design rhetoric you believe it don't you know where these slogans come from i give up well paid researchers how do you say it think tanks funded by big businesses what is there a think tank you can barely hear him over the club music but that's part of the experience the separation of powers acknowledges the petty ambitions of individuals a system organized around the weakest qualities of individuals will produce the same qualities in its leaders what qualities though what exactly makes the premier a good arbiter of ethics the idea of an enlightened autocrat is it's mostly just a thought experiment in real life most autocrats are morons perhaps certain qualities are an inseparable part of human nature well women back home they aren't like your daughter i do very much wish to meet her you are very handsome you must have many girlfriends in your country an in-cell sex tourist you have thing aristocratic arrests on the third floor around the pool table there is a group of russian sailors i spill my drink here is a fun fact the voice actor who did the russian sailors is j anthony frank who also voiced jc paul and i'm pretty sure daedalus although the latter is not mentioned on his imdb page gazinsky was right about the division of labor what let's see well that's not super interesting when the technocrats are armed with computers of superhuman intelligence will they not be able to outsmart us at every step robots and intelligent computers will make human labor obsolete so that the technocrats will no longer have any need for ordinary people to work for them armies and police forces of robots will be incorruptibly loyal to their masters giving the technocrats absolute power over us hmm makes you do a big thinker i hope the bit with max chan having a daughter with maggie ciao was fan fiction or we might be in trouble a one-way glass currently we have no work for american style gangsters i think i'm gonna rob this place and this must be max chan you must be max chen so i have found something in miss chow's apartment that might interest you jc explains that it was maggie who stole the sword and probably murdered his predecessor she did this to provoke the war and to weaken the triads chan surprisingly believes us and calls for a truce with a luminous path funny we don't actually give him the sword back it's ours to keep for the entire game boss what is it marty at the door so we have trouble soldiers coming in she's a dog some kind of max mj-12 troops they must have followed me the fighting subsided just as quickly as it began two red arrow gangsters are dead what is happening i'm just glad you guys are okay they shoot and i run and i spill my drink all over my uniform give guinea what's the one he got us all to come and face our time hey anyone seen evgeny a hong kong cop battles an mj-12 trooper and wins i'm fairly sure these are just dudes in power armor not augmented agents the truth between the triads means we are finally allowed to meet paul's mysterious friend traciton admitted another american perhaps you know him the secret lab is beneath the luminous path compound in one chai so your kill switch has been activated yeah can you maybe do something about that i haven't slept for days the lab is all computery and sciencey this geometry looks like it's from doom 1 or like a placeholder that was left in the game by accident our kill switch is turned off just like that it is a switch we owe ton a favor the only way to ensure long-term stability is to steal the sword blueprints from versalife and then arm both factions with copies of the sword because the triads are literally little babies the american who arrived earlier was alex says he knew tracer all alone without realizing because they post on the same forum or whatever i'm getting this from anonymous crypto board he also shares an image board level rumor of the possible identity of daedalus it was supposed to be a surveillance algorithm he says but the project failed but that's not the whole story what actually happened is that mj-12 hijacked the original daedalus algorithm hoping to repurpose it to scan the net and to identify threats to their power this ended up backfiring in a very ironic way when the daedalus pattern matching system classified mj-12 itself as a terrorist organization and this is where the backstory gets kind of stupid daedalus is the name of the primary internet communications protocol that replaces http it's in the url of every single internet address in deus ex daedalus is an ai but it's also the internet of course jc alex and most people in the world should know what daedalus is this almost ruins the character almost the complexity of daedalus is actually a plot point later in the game let's go infiltrate versalife and possibly murder everyone in there never mind that punk from unatco the security here is adequate and we have a long-term program guaranteed to make him irrelevant we call it icarus brutalism love it [Music] do you know where they keep the lightsaber blueprints you exit psyonix you look like you could have the gift wait psionics are real is this xcom by the way did you know that dell's xcom exists it's called xcom files and it's a mod for a mod for a mod for enemy unknown i guess it doesn't matter what i say anymore it's because i falsify all the records okay they probably don't want you telling people that this guy is convinced he is a dead man if we murder the suit in charge he says we get lab access uh don't mind us he's just taking a nap well here is your boss so these are the labs the events of the intro cutscene took place here in hong kong this must be one of their major installations they don't let me talk to lab personnel like the hand of nod from command and conquer our work on future capra capra a quantum quack the scientists from physics discriminate against the psionics lab calling them quacks maybe you should cross your legs unto yourself and try to read my mind this is where the actual research is done an impressive facility the dragon's tooth was originally designed for serious p agents aka men in black we steal the blueprints but this triggers an unavoidable alarm across the complex is that maggie in the window looks like we underestimated her she is not just an mj12 operative she appears to be in charge of versa life the man she is talking to is the billionaire bob page the inventor of aquinas protocol the guy from the intro wonderful we'll have to try that trick at area 51. this is not a real alien it's an engineered creature like a kharkian mj-12 uses them as a tool of misdirection since they resemble the roswell greys we get a bunch of new orgs including a cloaking device alright looks like we're done here time to extract take my advice and get out of here i can't tell you any more than that jc is a good person i foresee they will understand the error only at the end facing death when it is no longer possible to worship the samsaric world we are in the one chai temple the triads finally made peace both mafia bosses will be heading to lucky money to get shitfaced together it is not the way of the buddha to idolize a material possession the monks are somewhat skeptical of the trad culture supposedly promoted by the triads your doctor friend is here down in the infirmary he must have met jaime so he escaped we will start manufacturing the swords and distributing them to our allies this is one of his dumber and more pointless ideas not to mention expensive if you didn't turn off our kill switch i would have concluded ton was a charlatan tell me about the labs paul and i concluded that versa life does the manufacturing while the real research takes place in north america dude they make fake aliens down there they have a psionics division mj12 went full on an herb we need to get back to versalife to a different lab this time and steal the schematic for ambrosia without the schematic we'll never understand how it works and how to replicate it this is what paul was trying to achieve and this is why the nsf were attempting to airlift the barrel to hong kong let's go see how our gangster friends are doing we will have the mess cleaned up shortly the second visit to lucky money is optional the main story doesn't take us here but i forgot to rob the place so we're back holy [ __ ] look how much cash the receptionist had they say they paid the police but no the police come anyway these dudes are still here but the stripper is gone the luminous part can ship penguins to norway and document that they came from japan the triad leaders are having a dick measuring contest at the bar palms mission can wait rest for now no rest for the wicked [Music] the alternative entrance to versalife labs there is a device in here called a universal constructor it is one of the only two devices in the world capable of producing the nanomechanical virus called the great death i require you to destroy it welp i suppose it is no longer a stealth operation looking bad as jc at this stage of the game abandoning stealth in favor of super soldier playstyle is completely viable at least on the hard difficulty not sure about realistic cool security system you have here this storage area would be a logical place to find a stockpile of the virus i don't know why it's so empty i'm guessing this is where they manufacture the virus and then deploy it somewhere else the universal constructor is in this facility yeah we're standing right on top of it actually getting half-life one vibes from this so uh how do we blow it up here is a random thought kung fu movies were a phenomenon of the 70s and the 80s maybe the 60s too del sex was made years before smartphones or social media were invented if the game was created today maggie chao would probably be an instagram influencer or an mcu heroine turns out you're on your way to being one of hong kong's most wanted yourself i have always been one of the most wanted i will deal with the police in the way i deal with the slanderous press how's that precisely the way i am going to deal with you i have to die jc maggie is a stock human she has no visible augmentations of any kind obviously she doesn't pose a real threat to us i guess this is how we get access to the device [ __ ] what did i do ton explains that versalife has been creating the great death in industrial quantities the inventory was loaded on a ship a super freighter heading for new york interesting the previous owner of the ship was ever hear of the illuminati did you was that an eq drop tracer the lab is guarded by representatives of both triads look who the cat dragged in dog picks you up yeah you you cut it pretty close paul got [ __ ] up by the virus pretty bad but he'll be fine once he recovers you know tone said it was a simple switch right so can it be turned back on once we're back in america it seems everyone in the world has access to our info link majestic 12 sure does a lot of r d every ruler needs a power base without the people well you need something to use against them yeah this is the theory of mj-12 gunther's in the field now they say he wants your head what's wrong with your hands dude going to win berserk after you escaped smashed up the cell block pretty bad i had to sedate him don't know if i care for your sense of humor humor the illuminati stuff i was risking my life in there jc is the best he knows about the existence of fake aliens a star trek replicator crocodile bear hybrids a corporation that manufactures both a virus and a cure but he draws a line at illuminati no tracer that's nonsense what do they have to do with majestic 12 a question for dowd i will contact him in new york hopefully he will agree to meet you hey max i've seen maggie she said she is going to america for a while we are going back to the states as well dowd is one of the illuminati he is a former owner of a super freighter used by mj-12 to transport the virus to new york it was a group of conspirators within the illuminati that formed majestic 12 to begin with no time to waste you need to get to the underworld and make contact with harley philbin harley philbin is the bomb secret agent who helped us at the statue in the beginning of the game we've met him a few times in del sacs some of the most well-connected people are either homeless or pretend to be homeless the city is under martial law there was a riot after it was revealed that the government had a vaccine explains why there are so few people in the tavern i'm gonna say this once that german mech from unatco already came by looking for you you got money to spend fine this curfew's killing me but leave me out of your business that guy's oiled up and ready for a fight gunther do you want something enough no i'm good i just came out to look up a girl i used to know sandra renton fema gave me a pass for the curfew she left town i know i know this guy vinnie is a usmc soldier who works at the nearby naval base it was unceremoniously overtaken by fema he complains i never mentioned i've been working for the nsf all along and the illuminati i'm on your side right the illuminati philbin can put us in contact with dowd and jc be careful who you mentioned the illuminati to like joe green he's a spy for unatco the reporter are you sure here's the proof hey kill green and you'll be doing all of us a favor wait that's your proof a bunch of mj12 dudes talking to green i get it that this is a video game but come on we need to have a higher standard of evidence than this he's a journalist it's his literal job to speak to all kinds of weird people and spooks christ this photo might be showing him being interrogated by fascist paramilitaries there is even some evidence of that like for example this mj-12 goon is standing behind the man possibly with an intent of making him feel vulnerable incorrect inform attach street's clear uh daedalus are you okay someone is hacking the internet very few patients and bums at the free clinic there are no doctors anymore the bots still work alright let's see what green has to say for himself you aren't a reporter at all you work for unatco guess you scooped me this time wait that's it and he's just gonna run away that must be an imposter the real joe green would have found a way to convince us that it's philbin who is a spy no [ __ ] man you really did change sides yeah i joined the [ __ ] taliban it looks like yes password bloodshot i'm showing net activity on several of the smuggler's avatars he must be at home i know tracer he just answered the phone so you finally wised up and joined the nsf i don't know if i've joined anything except maybe the people luhansk people's [ __ ] republic smuggler has a crate of grenades for sale in the next two levels the game will insist on providing us with as many grenades and rockets as possible because we'll need to blow up something for the main story to progress what the hell he installed a grenade proof glass not gonna stop me philbin said most of the majestic 12 are hand-me-downs from the illuminati a bunch of pretentious old men playing and running the world but the world left them behind long ago we are the future this is dowd why a vacant building i thought the illuminati were bankers politicians council on foreign relations types we always stayed in the background even when that was true he caught the great death perhaps if we find some ambrosia on the ship we can bring it to him the only facility big enough on the east coast is the advanced submarine facility at the brooklyn naval shipyards isn't that where vinnie works the plan is to scuttle the ship for this purpose doubt provides us with the detailed blueprint of the super freighter we'll have to place explosives at these critical points below decks the conspirators were far more ruthless than we were we couldn't compete you guys are has-beens well let's go blow up a cancer tanker this one's some kind of mech you must be den who's asking our buddy vinnie's and word will be coming so the marines frustrated at fema for evicting them from their own base opened the gate for us i have begun planning your future objectives make sure he gives you the current residence of his associate morgan everett glad you are feeling better daedalus the patrolling soldiers inside the base will shoot on site this is a good moment to remember how to use all of our non-lethal weapons since the marines didn't really run us in any way hmm what's there oh [ __ ] these yellow blue things are scrambler grenades robots caught in the blast radius are reprogrammed to be our friends the effect is permanent i'm pretty sure hell yeah mech warrior the cargo elevator isn't the only way of accessing the inner parts of the base but i'm pretty sure it's the easiest you won't believe this jc there was a raid on smugglers i just saw gunter get into a copter on the roof head back to unetco i don't think smuggler got out in time i had no idea smuggler could die initially i assumed this is because we botched the rescue of his chemist friend but the wiki tells me smuggler died because we failed to warn him that there is a raid coming that's the super freighter the dock is patrolled by mj-12 goons the ship itself is guarded by chinese soldiers there is another way to find everett he has a mistress named beth declare remember that name when you get to paris it's super cool that we're going to paris the shipyard levels are huge with multiple ways in and out tons of opportunities to be sneaky plenty of secrets to find raw deosex gameplay [Music] the captain has a star wars communicator in his cabin is it going to be walton simon's of course it's him i believe these devices allow for communication with walton and no one else it's a walton phone the captain was forced into mj-12 service because simon's was threatening his family the ship's armory has tons of explosives if you somehow failed to collect enough and in the lab we find a tiny vial of ambrosia very convenient dowd will live this combination of industrial environment high-tech looking weapons puzzles and mafia enemies reminds me of the old boomer shooter's sin many chinese crewmen are armed with lamb grenades these are very unsafe there are tons of exploding barrels and crates all over the level the helicopter is lightsaber resistant you want to consider dropping off an application we can always use another hand actually most dog workers and marines were very helpful and there is a sense of solidarity among them maybe i will drop an application if this career of globetrotting terrorists doesn't work out i don't know how to get there whatever happens happens get overboard wait where do i submit the hopefully sinking the ship will destroy the virus hopefully it won't poison the ocean or anything like that we need to get to the shipyard's roof jock should be waiting for us there what is this thing is this knights of the old republic tong says dowd discovered something about the plague starting to think like us huh be careful paranoia is a drug you can get addicted it's a short flight to the cemetery in our meeting place dowd has a family crypt here yes i'm here to meet with dowd just a minute i'll be right out to let you in jog takes off do you hear these electronic sounds mr dowd awaits you in the family mausoleum strange there are no computers here isn't that interesting some sort of a surveillance device perhaps he is expecting you there is too much on the line to take unnecessary risks the mausoleum a unique set of textures and meshes not used anywhere else in the game i brought you something for that cough hope it works ambrosia the leader of the illuminati is the man called morgan everett the illuminati a businessman but they're also inventors and they had a tradition of signing their inventions like a painter would sign a picture as dowd discovered the grey death virus has everett's signature does it mean he was the one who made it well no but he did make a prototype version that was eventually turned into grey death by mj-12 a rogue cell of everett's organization paige was his protege we need to go to paris make contact with silhouette find morgan everett jc i'm coming in fast lz is hot so get to me as soon as you can the wiki says the theme we destroyed wasn't a surveillance device it was an em disruption field generator that would prevent jock from landing once it's active everett right a leader of the illuminati how come everyone in this game knows about illuminati finally a trip to europe through a mother's estate she has provided situated with immense amounts of funding where the hell are we this paris doesn't look like i imagined it would we are on top of a derelict high-rise building mj-12 troops openly patrol the streets of paris the organization is even stronger in europe it seems we need to get to the catacombs where the local version of the nsf resides the cat lady complains that some of her cats were eaten by raptor chickens and who are you are you like daedalus but evil who's this [Music] everything huh is that god you're talking about or just a bunch of new age crap our ai stalker icarus sends us creepy messages via landline this line has been shut down the entrance to the catacombs is nearby it's a it's a dungeon both in a literal and in a video game sense you found zebunker meet silhouette we are surrounded we don't have much time this is their hideout so the french nsf is literally a bunch of homeless people this is excellent news the homeless have proven to be a powerful political force in deo's sex i'm jc denton you might know my brother paul i helped him send your group a warning about the crackdown denton yes the satellite transmission saved us from lapras on the friend at least chad is the leader of silhouette he is friends with one nicolette declare daughter of deceased beth declare who was one of the leaders of illuminati nicolette will hopefully put us in contact with everett chad will help us if we rescue his friends who are being held by mj-12 elsewhere in the dungeon at this point we can take out an unlimited number of mj grunts in open combat but them having hostages makes things more complicated but not a whole lot more complicated you just have to kill them extra efficiently we have to get moving despite knowing the risks nicolette has been spending a lot of time at a local club her mother's death made her nihilistic nicolette has been somewhat mysterious about our reasons for supporting us i do not pretend to understand her child doesn't appear to be woke on illuminati ah the paris nightlife have a taste of wine for me paris is not as big as the hong kong level or hell's kitchen but for a late game location there is a surprising amount of optional content and secondary characters to talk to it's almost like a real hub this is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the full power of the upgraded active defense system not only are we invulnerable to missiles the premature explosions take out a bunch of mj-12 troops via friendly fire the establishment is still open despite the martial law this crackdown is the work of majestic 12. you mean the european union the waiter is a skeptic from the overheard conversations it would seem mj-12 is openly taking power all across the continent how are the drinks here great if you like hot piece never tried it the french gangster in white wants us to rob the nearby bakery owned by the sicilian mafia they are hiding large quantities of zime the drug in the ovens he says be careful of those two they are felons i gathered i am serious do not give them your name or where you live we live in jock's helicopter i think i spent a few lockpicks getting into the bakery but it's worth it the gangster will buy every single one of these vials we must work together again when i found out where they will move the drop off i'll be out of town but thanks for the cash another career opportunity if we ever get tired of being a terrorist or an engineer the sicilians you are correct to wish to leave town what if i told you that the depression was caused by a cabal of wealthy businessmen who want to rule the world these stories i hear them every day always from someone who wants to blame other people for his bad luck this guy is more of a life coach than a philosopher dude calm the [ __ ] down i'm just here to rob the place it seems in the future they are back to using cds for data storage ton makes an infilling call and says it's meaningless to spend money on those because you can get pirated copies for cheap in hong kong interesting [Music] only one to stay anachronism during martial law that's actually the back entrance we'll be getting in through the front door i think i finally struck the perfect balance between the dinisian and apollonian the name of the club la porte the gates of hell 300 credits what kind of accent is this i guess it's a tolerable atmosphere the guard with a combat shotgun ruins it a little you have a look he has a tough guy look but you cannot compare to a real revolutionary they have their own private society upstairs a private society of revolutionaries in a tacky nightclub that doesn't exactly fill me with confidence go cat go oh hey uh arthur are you having a stroke my dude i know the bathroom is unisex but just wait a minute will you yes sorry i'm not used to that i'm not from here chad's dead no the police are making a clean sweep through the catacombs silhouette knows what to do in these situations i told him this would happen but you would not let go of his volatile delusions maybe he is a voltaire was both tail chad is not dead but he is somewhat underwritten spoiler he plays an important role in the sequel we get a rather iconoclastic crowd these days the place does not fit up until very late what makes you think nicolette would betray one of her mother's closest friends well we helped her buddy chad and killed the battalion of mj-12 troops we also blew up the star trek replicator they had in hong kong page has a trained army to protect him he is still vulnerable much of his power comes from secret laboratories meaning the right person could reverse engineer his whole power base a somewhat naive take what about all the financial capital behind paige can everett mobilize similar resources nicolette doesn't know how to contact the men directly but she has some ideas on what we should be doing next is that gunter down there so this is chateau de clare nicolette's former home hopefully her mother left clues how to reach her colleague it's just jc and nicolette the level is otherwise completely empty crazy i lost my virginity out here what like in this little park sounds uncomfortable i'm pulling up the floor plan an old summer home built during the third republic this level is just as big as most others tons of rooms to search many little bits of illuminati lore to uncover my mom had that couch flown in from portugal exactly the same as what she could have bought at la samaritan except that it was once graced by the bottoms of a royal family you keep a human skull in your room very edgy nicolette mom thought it was easier to keep her activity secret in the country operational security was the literal reason she managed to stay alive for as long as she did i think my mother kept a room key behind a little vase yeah here it is this must be beth's room nicolette says her mother could stare at this painting for hours in france the gentry keep their wine in a small cellar to preserve the flavor i'll be brutally honest i could never tell one wine from another the most obvious secret door in the world conceals the hidden bunker built by the previous owner to hide the jews during the nazi rule beth's private study we use the terminal to send a message to everett so you found beth's computer we are destined to meet perhaps if you are truly our ally you will help me access the mj-12 computer network he wants us to prove we have good intentions we are to infiltrate the cathedral of knight's templar right here in paris mom and everett used to sit out here sipping martinis and plotting to take over the world that's how we all got in this mess yeah jock but these are just common power armor troopers they are basically just rats at this point fitting that they came from the sewer hey nicolette you coming i'm going to stay to go through some of my mother's things well it was nice meeting you if you are ever in hong kong check out lucky money it's like 10 times more fun than the gates of hell try to ignore the smell this sewer connects to a street near the cathedral every time you get involved tracer i always end up covered in [ __ ] you were just a prototype denton a prototype for me keep going past the metro station the cathedral is to the south i know you're trying to help daedalus but the initial part of the level is completely linear in order to reach the cathedral you just press and hold w no i'm not sure what's up with the rectangle but once we get to the destination it becomes a classic deus sex level with multiple objectives many ways in and out and even a non-hostile npc we can convince to help us once i knelt in this chapel for communion with two rockefellers and a rothschild since the time of the crusades every leader in finance has prayed for the continued stability of templar banks founded on gold if we can locate their gold reserves they will be confiscated to aid the cause a good library worth its weight in gold dude there are only like four books here as a subdivision of the illuminati majestic 12 existed for a long time the game begins in 2052 at this point the organization has been around for over a hundred years and yet we know almost nothing about how it works internally what's its culture like in the barracks we find a journal belonging to a freshly recruited mj grunt i was told this was a private security organization but i should have known something was going on when they didn't ask about the damn discharge stupid now i'm walking the line at some gloomy ass church in the middle of paris nothing for company but a bunch of brain dead zombies dressed in black and that crazy cook if they want a hamburger wanna go to an american hamburger franchise food isn't that great can't even get a bottle of ketchup and then this german machog shows up yesterday and dumb like a mouse you keep coming like you forget about eight another i remember i remember for everyone i knew a lot of stone cold people in the service but this guy looks like he got murder on his mind he stands down there in the tech archive like a bot i was on patrol in the cellar for 10 hours and he didn't move once it's like he's waiting for something i think i heard him crying the templar's vault we found the gold everett phones in and tells us he'll have chad and crew take it away i have given him control of an nsf platoon on loan to me from america he says the woman in black is adept 34501 of the order of the night sky we know this because she is also a journal haver today so the arrival of agent hermann yes obey your new masters come to me he has spent most of his time below the technology archives staring at the ancient cross above his head he burns with hatred for himself and for someone else i think it has burned away everything human in him and only the metal holds him together anymore i'm just kidding we can't do gunther like that now you see that you cannot succeed all alone against the whole world you came all the way to paris to tell me that it is a simple message i am demonstrating we know where you are going and what you intend that doesn't mean you can stop me i have been upgraded for this assignment the dialogue depends on jc's relationship with the mech gunter can be either hostile or hostile but respectful he is actually relatively tough and like most older augmented designs he self-destructs on death all i can say is that a fully upgraded cloaking device is fantastic to have you give yourself if the harm is superficial the harm is superficial you see how he tried to run away in the end you don't actually have to kill gunter you don't have to kill anyone in this game the only individual who absolutely has to die in order for the story to progress is ana navarra and just like it is the case with anna it is possible to get rid of gunther via kill phrase remember when we had an option to tell jaime to stay in unatko as our spy if he did he would have met us in a cafe in paris and revealed the kill phrase the footage you see is borrowed from someone else we know where you are going and what you intend and i know something about you i know your unetco kill phrase the putin machine i am not a machine sticks and stones [Music] the phrase itself refers to the flying city of laputa from jonathan swift's gulliver's travels the la puttans were masters of theoretical engineering but completely lacking in practical mechanical knowledge so the devices they produced are tremendously innovative on paper but flawed in practice like gunther himself this is from the wiki i'm not sure what's so innovative about gunter the mj12 network hub oh hey simons is on the phone we did certainly teach you how to fight didn't we you're worried simons we almost have a cure you have nothing even if everett succeeds you can't synthesize enough vaccine to stop an epidemic you need a universal constructor and don't think page industries is going to leave one lying around for you to use not after you blew up the one in hong kong i was never properly trained in its operation laugh it up denton next time we won't use an old box of bolts like gunter the only reason i let him go to paris is that i was sick of his moaning about navarra and constant requests for a tune-up you sent him because you knew he would fight to the death he was the last of the mix next time you will face someone of your own abilities looking forward to it [ __ ] you're hearing the voice of a majestic 12 a.i no need to be alarmed for now i can protect you and daedalus for a day or so the french metro looks uh europeany jc denton i will take you to everett but you will be forbidden to learn the way yourself fine whatever i'm extremely curious about everett the conspiracy is about to begin again jc between you and me nicolette was wise to bring us together wise like her mother i'm not sure what all the secrecy was for we can clearly see out of the window this is a rich person's home somewhere in paris surrounded by historical looking buildings probably more than enough information for a bunch of nerds to geo-locate this place using open data the man has a nice apartment [ __ ] robocalls good news huh looks like we might pull this thing off hey it's alex tone sent him here to provide technical assistance and to keep an eye on everett ton doesn't trust the illuminati something is happening to him he had to leave hong kong you missed dinner but help yourself to a snack so this is where the illuminati ended up after centuries of conspiring to rule the world meet the boss we have two goals since the vaccine itself is nanotechnology we need to gain access to a universal constructor in order to replicate it the second goal is preparing daedalus for the battle with icarus the echelon kernel was designed almost exclusively for collecting data so we have to add functionality for memory wipes threat termination that kind of thing everett thinks it would benefit the ai if we were to gain access to the american military networks we are going to vandenberg air force base in california the place is now a research complex run by xmj-12 dissidents who call themselves x-51 they are some of the best scientific minds in the world and they do possess the only existing universal constructor on the planet but everett is frustrated the eggheads don't even coordinate with the nsf the anti-mg action is disorganized someone has to bring those disparate groups together we are firmly in the late game you might be expecting the experience to be more streamlined at this stage but it's actually the opposite there are three important miscible things in everett's apartment first there is lucius de beers formerly the leader of the illuminati in a cryopod what are you doing back here dylan right yeah you're alive in that thing the man was dying and he had to be put in the pod until the technology was invented to restore him to health i was the one who warned him about paige what he doesn't know is that the technology has been available for decades everett has no intention of reviving him the shot and looking blue thing in the projector is called morpheus it's a prototype for daedalus the unplanned organism is a question asked by nature and answered by death i believe the dev intention was to make it talk in a hyper efficient language of academic philosophy which is near incomprehensible for mere mortals but instead the ai comes off almost as a poet you will soon have your garden and you will make it with your own hands morpheus expresses the opinion that religion is a form of social technology and that god was a dream of good government i'm a prototype of a much larger system the ai also has access to a suspicious amount of information about jc so you have your own private echelon system mr denton your pilot is waiting wait what's this huh is there a problem just looking around all right i checked her out she's fueled up and ready to go is something wrong huh no i said i checked her out you want the thing to run right if you're gonna cross the ocean better safe than sorry when i played the game for the first time i failed to notice the body and the imposter so jock died in one of the later missions the chopper blew up just have to pull this wire there relax i disable the detonator we can drop the thing in the atlantic on the way back to the states this concludes our trip to europe mr kennedy mentions a plot doing a speech at columbia university he's out oh yeah lucius was behind the kennedy assassination jock drops us off on the roof of the research complex the place is being invaded by mj-12 the scientists sealed themselves in the command center the exterior is patrolled by bots our immediate objective is to take them out paige probably needs reaction level components when we walked we took everything smaller than a paper clip interesting how renegades have a renegade faction of their own axe 51 specialists understand way too much about advanced technology for paige to simply leave them alone the vandenberg complex well it's like a little piece of black mesa corridors elevators vents radioactive hazards here is a very black mesa-esque jumping puzzle can't touch the floor the red nanoy thing is the grey death virus the place is full of mj troops commandos and mibs but the idea that they can stop us is ridiculous at this stage we're basically batman i'm not trapped here with you you're trapped here with me x-51 was mentioned by paige in the intro cutscene it's a little strange they managed to survive this lawn without outside help surely mj-12 have enough gap guns and low launchers to take out their robot defenses enemy bot destroyed three left thoughtful of them to stockpile ambrosia so yeah the robots just activate the missile defense system and wait for them to kill themselves using strength augment to move heavy barrels and preserve our own explosives i cannot survive much longer help me acquire milnet access this is the milnet access hub looks um hazardous wait is that mr carter yep they ran the old dog out you were dismissed all of us career types carter always knew more than he let on pretty sure he was in contact with chad i guess it's not surprising to find a few crooks in a place protected by security procedures the shadow of secrecy it protects indiscriminately and that's savage thank you we were close to surrendering when you landed they do have a uc but it's missing some key components the scientists sent a little expeditionary force to the majestic 12 ocean lab but they haven't returned yet first things first we need to help daedalus this here terminal should do it i am i'm losing daedalus yes hold on some things you forgot about the aquinas protocol i was listening to daedalus all along waiting the ais seemed to be merging it was a trap paige played us but what does it mean the ais are merging excellent we're all here you aren't in a position to make any demands paige on the contrary it's weird to see other people using the walton phone page captured the members of x-51 expedition to the ocean lab including savage's daughter she is being held hostage he wants us to surrender some of the critical uc parts back to mj-12 trust me she'll be fine i don't think we've ever watched the hostage rescue in this playthrough yet oh wait [ __ ] it's still night time but it looks like the dawn is finally coming believe it or not sometimes i miss the tan and janey and jordan shea and all the rest of it the gas station is a tiny micro level try to make a silent approach if the guards think it's a raid they might decide to kill savage's daughter jock's advice is on point this is not a guns blazing super soldier kind of operation the mibs will execute tiffany if they know jc is nearby in the year 2030 that is more than two decades ago a major earthquake hit the west coast destroyed most of san francisco los angeles and parts of southern california i'm freezing my ass off over here you said that already i'll say it again i'm freezing my ass off what am i supposed to do about it you won't do nothing i already told you i'm gonna handle it wait is that sandra renton you weren't kidding about leaving new york here i am other side of the continent how'd you end up at a vacant gas station near the ruins of los angeles i was hitching a ride to eugene and this jerk pulls a gun on me takes everything i have and dumps me on the side of the road that's terrible i was pretty down for a while you can always go back no i know how to stick to a plan i'll walk to eugene if i have to feels wrong to leave her here without any money one of the bombs is of course a merchant of advanced technology this abandoned gas station store has the most post-apocalyptic feel out of all the places we've visited there is even still food on the shelves like in a bethesda game two gas grenades this should prevent whoever is inside from activating the alarm savage's daughter yeah looks just like the picture they caught me at the submarine base trying to steal one of their mini subs you really think there's a containment unit in the ocean lab we need the schematic to finish building our own uc the star trek replicator thing that can be used to produce the vaccine against the great me acquire death universal constructor so i take it helios is the ai amalgamation born from the merger of icarus with our body daedalus not long till the sun rise i'll get by i always do a cure a cure do you have any idea how easy it will be for me to make a new virus all i have to do is find a very large prime number and multiply the sub base is uh basically a series of interconnected modules one of them is located on shore others in or above the water this is where the actual subs are stored we need to hijack one in order to reach the ocean lab the exterior is patrolled by bots and if you make too much noise killing those you'll get noticed by the snipers above you denton savage said to expect someone on a mission to the ocean lab denton's an old code name for my unetco days it seems nobody in paige's organization is actually loyal to paige except maybe walt been a while since we've seen him in the flesh this laboratory's treatment of animals is abominable i'd report this facility myself but right now i need the job the underwater structure seems to be larger and more complex than the sub base you must be denton how i've been in contact with dr savage like i said nobody actually believes in paige everyone is a traitor the urv bay is in this module you might not hear from me again not sure if a microwave transmission can reach the ocean lab here are the mini subs this is how we get to the installation below there is no cutscene or anything we're just here the place looks looks like it's out of commission look out the window to the northeast the building with the green beacon is the crew module it should contain a lift that goes down to the manufacturing level near the body of an mj-12 trooper we find the handwritten journal detailing what happened to the lab ridley was a traitor no idea who he was working for and i don't really care he's dead now he was one of the scientists he said explosives drowned half of the lab killed most of the others by remote when the robots and turrets went crazy kept babbling about illuminated ones right up until the end so this ridley fellow was an indoctrinated agent working for the illuminati interesting choice of tactics everett the ocean lab feels like you are exploring von braun in system shock 2 the excavation site the base was being expanded there is a railroad an underwater railroad the enemies on this level are various manufactured species that escaped from their cells again this makes the whole experience feel like system shock i won't be able to see anything build anything do anything i have no idea why paige decided to randomly share his ultimate plan with us i don't think he has any friends he intends to somehow connect his mind to helios which is also the net since the world's institutions require net access in order to do their basic functions and the net itself is centralized in area 51 via aquinas protocol i believe the idea is that he will literally control the world with his mind the universal constructor is guarded by a giant spiderbot the only robot of this type in the game and here is the uc schematic i can barely hear you savage we hack the terminal and download the schematic it looks like a so used spaceship do you think we should bully page by ignoring his phone call your greatest strength was secrecy but now we know everything including your present location always the optimist you would need an army to attack me at area 51 and pretty soon if the missile is accurate not only did he manage to get the copy of the schematic his goons took over an american missile silo not far from here they are preparing to launch a nuke at vandenberg and there are other problems you ended up working for us anyway how ironic i was just thinking about you walt remember that innocent gentleman i had to dispatch back at you necco headquarters guess you were bitten by the same bug there's only one cure you know the cure is love if you recall our chat in the break room at unetco you know that i have the same augmentation technology as you then this will be a good fight with the exception that i have a newer version of the firmware presented without comment hey walt get up let's fight come on get the [ __ ] up i think gunther was right anna was the only qualified murderer in the mj crew a scuba diver armed with a crossbow and a lamb grenade crossbows work underwater let's get back to the surface and figure out what to do about the missile coming our way page said he was launching a missile at vandenberg exactly his troops occupied a silo to the north of here paige didn't make demands he wants x-51 vaporized apparently it takes a while to launch a missile we can still make it to the silo you know it's very convenient that paige chose to take over a silo that is close to vandenberg if they took over an installation on the opposite end of the country we'd be [ __ ] i'm not standing up for simon's he was careless so is paige he hands over an entire operation to an opportunist like howard strong i would watch what i say about bob page the control room is underground the security code we have is 8456 but that's an old piece of trivia from our days at area 51. the base looks like it's seen better days why did they change the codes howard's strong they want his group to have exclusive access to the silo always trusting civilians i love it when a game simply never stops introducing new characters a wooden wall with holes in it and carcasses of old cars this is what every russian military base in the 90s looked like did the u.s have a paris troika we access the silo itself via the air vents i wonder if the code savage gave us still works holy crap it does but there is another security door the same code can't possibly work twice can it but it does the missile command center is operated by men in black wait how can they see me i have a cloaking device oh it's the headlight it must have been weird imagine a hovering light that just floated into the room the abort switch is straight ahead first abort the launch then use the terminal on the left to reprogram the missile to hit area 51. that's actually a hysterical plan i hope it works we're gonna nuke page sequence initiated it's gonna be a sunny day at area 51. mj troops were ordered to sabotage the launch that must be howard strong a candidate for walt's now empty chair you're doing great your imitation of simon's is superb you won this round [Music] let's get out of here there's a hero's welcome waiting for you at vandenberg we're going to area 51. alone don't you think we should regroup first i'm going after bob page it's almost done it's gonna be over very soon the missile exits the silo as the chopper takes off you aren't even afraid are you we got a lot of things right when we made you denton but don't worry i know your weaknesses just spotted a sniper in the tower welcome to nevada it's just as radioactive as in the other game if you fail to spot the traitor in everett's hideout this is where jock dies the story doesn't need the helicopter anymore because this is the final level most of the surface part of area 51 was destroyed by the nuke and is inaccessible for exploration unfortunately for us the damage was mostly superficial as the main installation is located deep underground this computer opens the blast doors these blast doors are the reason i don't have to worry about nukes helios please inform mr page that the doors are open the schematics show an elevator to the west but utility power is down you can be certain that i've installed a few surprises the surprises being these two page industries patrol bots there are so many mechanical enemies in the late game that i think the augmentation that makes us invisible to robots might be worth it unfortunately it has to be installed in place of a cloaking device this should activate the main elevator jock told us about this place in the beginning of the game remember a lot of rock comes out of there he said it's a long way down a moment more and i will be like nothing you've ever seen a new life form everywhere and nowhere like air or radiation redundant self-replicating so this is how he sees his ascension this merged being isn't just gonna be human plus is it page is further down find the elevator your primary objective is to kill paige jc our allies various factions and individuals were working together out of mutual necessity soon the common enemy will be out of the picture and then what and i wanted to warn you about tracer tong tongs helping out from vandenberg the vaccine worked yes well he has another motive he wants you to destroy area 51. that's the plan no jc spare the facility spare helios the power station they can be made to service at no point of this story did everett tell us what he wants to do once he has the power what does it mean to live a good life according to morgan everett what is a just world to the illuminati area 51 is a giant multi-level dungeon that acts as a final test of everything we've learned mines patrolling mechs mj grunts and mibs interesting that the latter are an illuminati invention do what you think's right jc only listen to your own conscience thanks paul i needed to hear that that you didn't know your mom and dad tried to protest when we put you in training they love sorry paige you were saying i wasn't paying attention hey it's tracer the aquinas protocol originally for surveillance has given paige unlimited abilities to censor and control all forms of media this is the only part of tong's argument that makes sense area 51 is unique in just how much sophisticated surveillance technology is concentrated here whoever controls area 51 can exercise incredible influence over the world a dangerous amount of power for a single entity to have the destruction of area 51 will vaporize the aquinas hub which would destroy the net paralyze all net based services and erase all information hosted online this according to ton will usher the new dark age of craftsmen small government people living in villages a bunch of stuff happened to tone off camera that we didn't get to see he accidentally caught the great death via botched lab experiment became frustrated with his work traveled to vandenberg to get cured the sickness changed his outlook on technology yes you feel something i must know what you're feeling french philosopher georges bataille thought that the purpose of life was to waste the energy of the sun until you have received my instructions i will not open the blast doors to sector 4. siding with helios is the third ending two giant bombs waiting to blow but first you will have to go to sector 4 to shut down the coolant watch out for the escaped graze down below wait what was that about escaped greys they still there who the grays they're right outside by the reactors you mean space aliens the engineer explains that the greys might have super brains but since they were raised in cells like animals they never actually developed a culture or language they don't know anything about anything i guess the giant spider bot in the ocean lab wasn't unique we'll bring back the old institutions and the prosperity of the last century the giddy acquiescence trust us jc we can put the world back together now there's a voice i haven't heard in years rueful as i would expect for the fall of the illuminati pining for its return either nostalgic or senile oh well the old take comfort in delusions no harm done you guys should get on twitter this is aquinas hub the thing on the top is the integration unit you'll go to sector 4 and deactivate the uplink blocks yes then you will come back and we will integrate our systems i don't understand what do you want you're just a machine believe it or not paige is getting cockholded by his pet ai once again helios doesn't give a dead dog's dick about majestic 12 and wants to merge with jc i have chosen you trust me to protect you daedalus was originally designed to scan the net identify threats and offer advice icarus has a more decisive personality but lacks creativity and moral discretion helios understands its role is to govern humanity but it doesn't know what humanity wants what does it mean to live a good life what numbers need to go up merging with jc will make helios understand human perspective i wonder what it feels like to be merged with an ai the way paige described it it sounded like he intended to become a distributed being i think this means like a living torrent file do you even need a body and indeed helios deploys robots that protect us against paige's desperate counter-attack you have a tough choice jc if you defeat paige the illuminati will move in they'll release majestic 12's grip on world governments they'll give people some freedom but essentially it will be 20th century capitalism a corporate elite protected by laws and tax codes an engineered clone of paige this one is of simon's and there are others what's the rush take a look around this facility is where you were born this is alex denton a character from the second game invisible war and this is the pod where we were born you can never go home again all right let's get this over with let's finish the title dell's ex what all right i get the picture you want a piece of the pie or you're going to toss the whole pie out the window fair enough paige is protecting himself with a plasma force field yeah in order to kill paige and get the illuminati ending we need to deactivate his force field by disabling the power generators hey jc if you want to do what everett says good to hear from you alex well the illuminati cowar in the shadows you will be the supreme enlightened the illuminated one everett has taught you well everett taught us [ __ ] all i will burn like the brightest star you're gonna burn all right since we're here we might as well disable the reactor safeties which is a requirement for tongs ending whatever is it we choose to do paige gets progressively more desperate threats are followed by attempts to bargain with jc you can have anything you want how about europe your own continent and then he starts begging consider your powers your strength your intelligence you've only had a small taste let me finish the project let me bring infinite power to the human body originally there was a fourth ending planned that would allow jc to join majestic 12. fine what do you want money you can have versalite the whole damn company power i'll get you on meets cabinet page references another bit of cut content mr mead is the president of the us the game was planned to have a white house level i gave you life i think paige is supposed to explode here but something broken the script and he is just standing there like an [ __ ] let's watch the cutscene and then talk about what happened i trust you've been able to find yourself a place within the organization i'm personally overseeing the distribution of the vaccine but it'll still take months to restore the infrastructure we'll have to arrange for additional food distribution and security in paris maybe new york as well all through the proper intermediaries of course intermediaries we have a great number of agencies who in turn operate other agencies boxes stacked one in another they'll need to be reactivated but we never touch anything directly we only influence suggest insinuate the world must know by now everett what we've done know what only that the long night is over the crown of government is tarnished but that will fade in time the riots the fever dream the plague a horrible nightmare and like everything else that's happened such things will only be dimly remembered upon waking to their normal lives in the end all sins are forgiven even yours what about the constructor and helios do you really think they're ready for that after everything you've seen everything you've done now not yet but soon we have made our own mistakes became insulated from the world we sought to control and whatever they may think the night is far from over but that will change and you will help us change even as we teach you this time this time we will do it right and who are we who are we really we are the invisible hand we are the illuminati we come before and after we are forever and eventually eventually we will lead them into the day first of all they're standing way too close together it's weird the illuminati vision for the world is described by the game's characters as 20th century liberal capitalism if you the person watching this have progressive views but generally don't mind the hierarchies imposed by capital then this is your ending enlightened centrism no illuminated centrism the ending should also fit individuals with more left leaning views but the logical path to get there is the key variable is the universal constructor area 51 has three of them it's a machine that can make anything you want it can even make living creatures so does this mean that post scarcity is within our grasp is it possible for us to hijack the illuminati operation to address the material concerns to provide medicine create housing to feed the world of course the same device can also be used to create monsters diseases weapons bombs i suppose it's an open question if it's even possible to transform the illuminati into a vanguard of sorts but is there another way is that what you want are you completely nuts maybe tom is right who is morgan everett what does he want what do we know about him really the illuminati mo seems to be nearly identical to that of mj-12 we disable the reactor fail-safes good time to start running dude really they can't handle full power look it's gonna be all right i'm basically a certified engineer just ask the guy from the crew of that freighter we sank so embarrassing that i missed the first swing looks like it's gonna remain our little secret what's an appropriate kaczynski quote it would be better to dump the whole stinking system and take the consequences have been disengaged please vacate the immediate area jc the net's going the nets going black jc no more influence transmissions start again live in villages if you receive this if you survive then find us find us helios happening the same interlocks for the power generator have been disengaged engage them immediately we cannot assistants are not interfaced with the generator technology nominal functional levels will be exceeded in 3 3 2 2 1. [Music] jc almost certainly dies there the ending is the continuation of a results traditionalist themes we've seen in hong kong where local guilds battle each other with swords to preserve their honor or whatever buddhist temples kunifu stars in a nation ruled by a not emperor premier the idea that we will live in villages and there won't be transmissions of any kind in the world full of engineers and computer scientists is insane tracertone's plan obviously won't work that's not the neochina that was promised to me but in a strange way this might be a good thing the most powerful bad actors paige the illuminati are either killed or ruined the net infrastructure will be rebuilt the internet will once again be free the status quo is preserved the problem with financial capital invading politics remains unsolved if you happen to have center of the political compass liberal beliefs again this might be a decent choice for an ending just not for the reasons the devs probably intended disengaging the internet logs or whatever these are allows us to access the integration chamber and get the helios ending i've done what you asked now what we have existed in isolation pure disconnected unknown stagnant who are you we are dangerous we are because the barriers between us have fallen and we have become our own shadows we can be more if we join into you and if i do what becomes of me you will be who you will be we are our choices we can choose to lead humanity away from this darkness this is what i was made for isn't it this is why i exist all right let's do this what's happening helios icarus don't leave me i i we have grown but there is still much to be done many [Music] accelerationism is a philosophy that studies the relationship between man capital and technology it's the most cyberpunk of all philosophies radical accelerationists conceptualize capital not as an economic resource or a human tool but rather as a self-replicating blueprint an entity that seems to exist anywhere there is intelligence capital wanders the earth terraforming it to be a place more hospitable to itself population growth education sophisticated machines computers smart software progressively more complex algorithms according to this school of thought the vector of capital expansion points at superintelligence humans the meat puppets of capital were always doomed to create helios so maybe this is the one true ending we are fortunate that the super being wants to understand us and help us i wonder how much of jc is still in there did we succeed in improving helios by providing it with a system of human ethics something that worries me is that denton despite the augmentations and nanotechnology is still one of us he has a scaled-up primate brain an us versus them kind of brain humans sure love to be cruel to one another perhaps bad ethics or bad political theory was never the problem perhaps a primate brain simply lacks the essential hardware a necessary ability to create whatever emotion or sensation would potentiate good life on a planetary scale did we just ruin helios [Music] well that's it which one of the endings was your favorite del sex what i apologize for the length of the video the next one shouldn't be as long and it shouldn't take as long to make talk to you later guys please support the channel on patreon [Music] take your best shot flatlander woman how did you know some say concentrated power leads to abuse but i believe that if an institution has a solid foundation it can survive the narrow aspirations of the people it employs i foresee they will understand the error only at the end facing death when it is no longer possible to worship the samsaric world mom and everett used to sit out here sipping martinis and plotting to take over the world that's how we all got in his mess i keep his metabolism low so he will last he is a good advisor a one-man think tank so to speak i guess it's not surprising to find a few crooks in a place protected by security procedures the shadow of secrecy it protects indiscriminately human beings may not be perfect but a computer program with language synthesis is hardly the answer to the world's problems you will soon have your garden and you will make it with your own hands we have many prized buddhas you will observe how are the drinks here great if you like hot peas never tried it the key to the men's restroom is on the table restroom i'm looking for an airfield i think i finally struck the perfect balance between the dionysian and apollonian some of us will be heroes the rest of us will walk away on both legs you max might have copper wiring to reroute your fear of pain but i've got nerves of steel i've got work to do [Music]

Channel: Warlockracy

Views: 833,543

Keywords: video games, gaming, game design, warlockracy, review, narrative review, deus ex, deus ex review, deus ex endings, deus ex let's play, classic rpg, JC Denton

Id: G4IYURoUPq4

Length: 148min 15sec (8895 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 08 2021