Board 8 > Deus Ex was right! (Playthrough) [SPOILERS]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Recently, I started a game I expect a lot from, much more than the disappointment that was BioShock... I'd come across certain quotes, and I know it's a plot about global domination by a group of "elites"... Not unlike what we see happening around us. So I'm hyped.

So far, the game has not failed to deliver. Trilateral Commission, Rockefeller and Rothschild name-dropped already in the end of the very first mission. Nice. Anyway, first things first. I started with the tutorial to learn the control and stuff... They're easy enough. I had some trouble sneaking past soldiers without being spotted, but eventually I got the hang of it. Naturally, I decided to go all Metal Gear and play a stealth, no-kill run. Given the plot, this game clearly wants to be the Western Metal Gear, anyway! I created my character and distributed points in Computer, Electronics and Environmental Training only. Who needs combat!




Then, a rad intro about some guy who wants to dominate the world, and the first mission. A "terrorist" group called NSF has blown up the Statue of Liberty and taken over the interior, I need to go and flush them out, catch their commander. Secondary objectives are to rescue another agent that got caught, and to talk to some informant who'll give me the key to the statue interior. It's a nice chance to showcase my "nano-augmentation." My character, J.C. Denton, and his brother Paul are the first two to receive this new technology. And we're part of UNATCO, the UN anti-terrorist coalition. Anyway, I sneak around the level, avoiding the terrorists outside. I talk to the informant dude, and he gives me the key. I get to the statue and I don't even have to use the key because I find a computer to hack, and I got the access info laying around previously in the level... I turn off the cameras and turrets and waltz inside.

Some NSF dudes are patrolling the inside, but are far too spread out. It's easy to sneak past them. I climbed some stairs and suddenly cleared the level - the commander dude just surrenders when he sees me, just like the informant said earlier. Then we begin a fascinating conversation where he talks about how the elites are oppressing the people and stuff. He says that 19 out of the last 23 presidents were in the Trilateral Commission, which is financed by the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds. Naturally, that can't be a coincidence. He talks about corporations paying ridiculously low taxes, while the workers pay really high taxes. Mentions the difference between early and mid-20th century and now (I'll soon learn that "now" is mid-21st century). Hard not to sympathise with the NSF, effectively the army of the people against their government. Then, UNATCO troops storm the building and kill everyone I'd carefully avoided harming... Way to shit on my efforts, assholes.



Then I realise I'd forgotten to save the agent and load an earlier save... He's kept in a locked room and you need to go through a laser alarm first. I can't hack it yet. Fortunately, there are some ventilation shafts which I crawl through, Solid Snake-style. Eventually, I go inside through them, and sneak past the guards, until I reach one sitting on a chair who can't be snuck past. I have to knock him out with my prod, the first measure of violence I have to use in the game, and I do so. Then I do the same with his buddy patrolling nearby, so I can talk to the agent undisturbed. He's a "mechanised" agent, apparently having traded his real body parts for metal ones to be stronger and more useful to UNATCO... And now, nano-agents like myself have come to replace his kind. A sad story. He's understandably rather irritated at all this. And then I go back to the things I described in the above paragraph and complete the level.
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Afterwards, I've got to be debriefed with some big shot in UNATCO, so I head into their building conveniently also lying on Liberty Island (but was locked before I cleared the mission). There, I see my office, browse my computer, meet the guy's secretary and Hermann, the guy I saved, again, along with Navarre, a chick I'll do the next mission with. There was a public terminal near them, too, where I learned lots of things about several "terrorist" organisations around the world. Unsurprisingly, they were essentially all fighting globalism. Sadly, I am apparently globalism's tool. The game's writers intent rather clear, I believe I'll be able to change that by the end of the game.



Mind you, in the course of all this, I load saves many times when I get detected. PC gaming allows you not to waste too much time redoing things. Thank goodness for that. There are some slight issues with the game, for example, I can carry bodies, but it doesn't really matter because their buddies don't notice when I've knocked out a partner of theirs. Nor do they notice open doors that shouldn't be open and stuff... Will be rather easy not to be detected.
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Not much to report this time, I spent a while fooling around some more in the UNATCO HQ. I learned that the situation in the US was kind of like now, but reversed. In the game, it's Congress and Senate defending the ordinary people, while the President was betraying them and siding with the globalists. Then, I entered the ladies' bathroom, and naturally there was some uptight glasses-wearing woman there who immediately threatened to report me. I responded by taking a selfie with her.



There was also a "cleaning bot", i.e. the game called the iRobot before it was actually a thing... Neat. And I got to meet Jaime Reyes, my doctor, as well as Alex Jacobson, the glasses-wearing fool talking in my head during missions. I asked Reyes if I could turn the annoying "InfoLink" thing that Jacobson is talking to me through off, and he said he wasn't allowed to answer that question. OK then. Then I talked to some retired general in charge of the weaponry who gave me a stealth gun and complained about some really good insider thief stealing weapons... Maybe I'll be stopping that? No indications so far.



Then, I went to report to the guy in charge, and met my brother Paul there... Apparently, we'll both participate in the next mission, which once again targets the NSF guys. I've got to take down a power station, and then Paul and his team will attack the "terrorists." Sounds simple enough. I'll work with Navarre in this mission. Meanwhile, the plague situation seems pretty bad... "Aliens did it" is one rumour that circulates.



Oh, and the UNATCO HQ music is pretty rad!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBzDv24IOYQ
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I played some more today... Next mission is in New York, in the Clinton Castle (lmao), and a short boat trip took me there from Liberty Island. Upon arrival, agent Navarre briefed me shortly - I was to acquire an Ambrosia shipment (that's the vaccine against the plague). So they could give it to some politicians, no doubt. She also talked about exterminating some NSF "terrorists"... WTF is with this bloodlust? My guy asked her "Exterminate?" - he's clearly not down with bloodshed.



Then, I talked to some kid who asked me for some food because he was starving. I gave him some soy food and he told me the code to a secret passage the NSF were using right near the vending machine... Somehow, UNATCO had no idea about the passage that would help spare NSF lives, but this kid did - and so did the other bums I talked to in the area. This is fishy as hell. One of the bums was an NSF sympathiser, saying they'd learnt their lesson since the Northwestern War, and were now more disciplined... Well, godspeed to them! :)




I had to lockpick my way to the keypad to enter the code, and I only had 1 lockpick and I needed 2... So I loaded my previous save to smash crates around Liberty Island until I found 2. I also upgraded my Lockpicking skill with the EXP I'd earned during the previous mission... With that, I could pick 25% off a lock with a single lockpick. Nice! So I have one left now... That crate-smashing was pointless. Anyway, I entered the code and proceeded through some ventilation shafts until I reached the place with the Ambrosia, guarded by a couple of NSF soldiers... Sneaking past them wasn't too hard. And apparently just locating the Ambrosia completed the objective. I didn't take it or anything (admittedly, it was a big container). But coming back couldn't be done stealthily, as there was a soldier standing at the exit... Had to engage and take him and his buddy down with tranquiliser darts. C'est la vie.

I talked to Navarre afterwards and, after scolding me for going "too soft" on the NSF, she told me there was more to the mission - terrorists had taken some people hostage at the metro and set up bombs... I got EMP grenades from her, they should help me disable the detonators... Anyway, this part will be done next time.


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So does this mean we're done with seeing the world as a jRPG and now everything is a wRPG?

How could you betray your beautiful Japanese culture?
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Vlado posted...

Oh, and the UNATCO HQ music is pretty rad!

Deus Ex has an amazing soundtrack. You're in for a treat.
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