Why didn't anyone beat me over the head with a 2x4 until I agreed to play it? You guys let me down.

I saw it offered on Steam last week and I have always heard pretty good things about Deus Ex, so I bought it. I just finished it this afternoon, and I've got to say I think it's going to work its way up to my-favorite-game-of-all-time status. Everything about it is incredible. I just love the way you can go about problems any way you want, and sometimes you can solve them in a totally unexpected way.

One funny thing that happened is when I went to the Mole People village, I sneaked straight to where the NSF commander's room was without even knowing it, then found the way in by accident. I thought I was going to have to taser all those sons of *****es but then they all surrendered. And similar solutions such as releasing the poisonous gas in the Majestic12 base in Hong Kong.

In the beginning of the game, I tended to sneak around a lot and only use non-lethal force when necessary. I was especially careful to use non-lethal force or subtertfuge against UNATCO troops once I sent the distress signal from the top of NSF headquarters, because I felt guilty about harming my former comrades. That sentiment wore off eventually, though. Especially once I started getting good augmentations and upgrading them. Near the end of the game, I tended to just waltz out in the open and destroy those who would oppose me.

But the best thing about the game is the atmosphere. It's just incredible. I love the story (one of the best ever) and perhaps even more I like the general world the game portrays. I love how the game lets you subtlely make decisions about politics and ethics and morals as you go on, and certain NPCs will react differently depending on your decisions. For example, the part at the Hilton motel where you can choose to arm the owner against Jo-Jo, you can choose to give him your pistol or you can say, "I'd rather not arm civilians." Funny thing is, I gave him my pistol, then he shot Jo-Jo non-fatally and then I tased him, so when I put the cursor over him the game said he's unconscious, but in the dialogue it made it sound like I killed him.

One funny thing is when I was talking to Savage about which decision to make, JC says, "Trust me. I'll make the right decision." I thought that was really funny for some reason. I actually couldn't decide what to do until I slept on it. For those of you who must know how I decided to end the game, I merged with Helios. It was the only benevolent decision as far as I'm concerned.

So, in conclusion, Deus Ex is an excellent game, even after seven years I had absolutely no problem whatsoever with the graphics or anything else; it was simply excellent.

That's pretty much how I felt. Awesome game.

I recently started playing it again, aiming to complete it 100% for the first time since 2004. And I still find some things I've never seen before (this uh, cottage-like place, in Liberty Island with a chest in it? Woahbeans!).

Also, all the endings are worth watching in my opinion, so if you still have the savegame from the last level left, well, check them!

Yeah, I made damn sure to have a save from right before I merged. I'm going to check them all out eventually, but I'm in no hurry. I think I made the right decision.

Also, this is a question I've had since I started the game. Is "realistic" difficulty harder than hard?

Yeah, Deus Ex is amazing. I'd like to get back into it soon, although I'm currently on System Shock 2.

You should also check out System Shock 2 if you haven't already. There are a lot of great mods for it, including a Rebirth mod which is much like JKR.

I just finished playing the UNN Nightwalker fan mission, which is a sequel to Ponterbee Station. Between the two of them, it's about the size of a whole new game. Excellent level design and gameplay, the voice acting is even pretty good. Especially in Nightwalker.

And then there's Thief. There's quite a few excellent FMs for that, too. Thief II has Thief 2x, which is an unofficial expansion. It's a full 650 MB download.

I would say Realistic is harder, but the AI still sucks so it doesn't really matter. Unless the enemies start overusing headshots.

You know, I just installed System Shock 2, probably going to play it through for the first time since 2001... then again, I never remember what fixes/updates I have to get to get it work properly (and look better...ish) :\

I found this little exploit near the end of the game (fortunately—or else I probably would have kept using it). If you quicksave right in front of some lasers while holding down run, you'll be on the other side of the lasers when it's done quicksaving—WITHOUT triggering the security.

There's an exploit in Vandenberg where you get points for entering a code into a keypad. You can keep using the keypad and it will keep giving you points for upgrades.

I blew up A-51.

Tracer Tong had the right idea.

Play through it again using augmentations you thought you would never use.

Aggresive Defense System is by far my favorite. It makes you feel like a god.

I had a level 4 augmentation I never even turned on once. There were also several weapons and items I never used once. Can you believe that? It was that one that makes your other augmentations use less bioenergy.

I used the one that protects you from bullets and physical strikes and regeneration. That's it. Maybe I'll try some of the stealth ones later. And Tony, you're nuts. That is the last decision I would ever make. I'd even join Emerett before blowing up Area 51. In fact, I'm really surprised Tong even suggested it. I'd think Emerett would suggest that as a solution before Tong ever would.

If it were Paul, he would probably have blown up Area 51, though.

I really liked having maxed out jump ability. By the time you get to Hong Kong you felt like you could fly (and there were a number of paths you could only take if you could jump 10 meters high).

Hey, I have a question about Hong Kong. I broke into Jock's apartment the sneaky-******* way (by jumping out of that Asian backstabber's apartment), but when I tried to leave, the elevator was stuck or something and I couldn't get it to come up. The only way I could get down was by breaking my legs by falling off the side of the building onto various ledges and a billboard.

WTF is up with that?

Also, that fight with her (was her name Maggie?) was honestly pathetic. All she had was a dragontooth sword and you could run twice as fast as her. All I had to do was unload a clip from my machine gun into her after I played ring-around-the-rosie with her for a while until it lost its novelty.

Oh yeah, and I have three complaints about the story: 1) Alex Jacobsen was not involved enough in the storyline. (In Emerett's lab, Jacobsen says, "I'll keep you informed," and JC says, "Yes. Do that. Keep me informed, please," and then Jacobsen NEVER informs you about ANYTHING or even TALKS to you for the rest of the game), 2) They SHOULDN'T have killed off Jock, and 3) the last time you see Jaime Reyes is in Paris. WTF?

I always try to max that one out. The missles blow up in their faces.

If you're unhappy with that plot point maybe you should replay the game.

*HINT HINT*

****, are you serious? I wonder how much of the storyline CAN change.

Say—if I had explored Emerett's lab a little more, would I have uncovered evidence that Emerett's mechanic was a spy? I admit I was in quite a hurry and did not explore his lab at all. It was kind of funny because Jock kept complaining about a rattling. Hrm. If only I had put the clues together.

I killed Jock the first time I played.

Did you stay with your brother or leave him to die?

WHAT?!! You can save Paul?!!?! WTF?!?!!?

hahaha

you just have to leave the hotel by the front door without Paul dying first.

I... I... let him die. But only because I thought I had no choice! He said, "Don't be a fool! Go!" so I went.

Again, I ask: You can save Paul?! WTF?!

How many other of these "choices" are there?! I thought the game was fairly linear..

I'm pretty sure you can save Paul, and maybe even get him to Hong Kong (FGR, confirm or deny please. I once spawned Paul in Hong Kong and he had relevant dialogue). If you stay in the apartment with him instead of going out the window (even if you die) he lives. I don't remember anything past that.

Also, you have the right idea about the mechanic. There's also two more cool characters in Everret's place if you look.

If you save Paul you both end up in Hong Kong, Paul also gives you advice about which path to take at the end.

Yeah, you're right. I forgot that I had actually gotten him to Hong Kong at one point.

OMG! I need to replay again now.

So when you get captured in by Anna and get put in the brig at the Majestic12 facility, how does the story change? Obviously you don't have to find his corpse in the medlab to get the information about the death key thingamajig for Tong, but... does Paul break out with you or what?

That just... blows my mind. I can't believe the story could change THAT much from just a single decision.

Also, Tony, how the hell did you get around if you killed Jock?

The story doesn't actually change that much regardless of what you do, the only real decisions are at the end. But saving Paul makes an emotional difference to how the game plays out.

I can't remember the exact events in the MJ12 facility if you save Paul but it's not much different. The only real difference overall is that Paul appears in Hong Kong and says hello.

I killed him by not spotting the fake mechanic. It was all my fault.

Also: I'm reinstalling it thanks to this thread.

You can kill Anna before she kills Lebedev, too. Jacobson freaks out and then covers your tracks. I'm not sure what happens later because I loaded right after I did it.

Really?! I tried to kill Anna about 20 times before I gave up and just let her kill him. So then if you kill her what happens in Hell's Kitchen when they come for Paul?! How will you get put in the Brig?

You won't make it. After Anna (in the subway, yes?) is Gunther with an entire squad of UNATCO troops. The part after Paul's apartment is a giant escalating attempt on your life.

Yeah, it's great how dynamic the story is. If you don't save that daughter of the Hilton's owner in the beginning of the game, you find her as a bum near the gas station at the end of the game. Or maybe it's the other way around, I forget.

Easiest way? Lay LAMs on every wall leading up to Lebedev's door. It feels like cheating, since you know she's coming (at least to me), but it always kills her. I liked Lebedev. In fact, I liked that whole level.

Wonder if it'll run with the craptacular graphics card in my laptop...

I thought saving Paul was pretty easy. Did it on my very first play-through. I just unloaded half a clip (or the entire clip, don't remember) of my SMG in the first agent's head that came through the apartment door before he could actually get inside the room, he exploded injuring the second one, making for an easy kill. I don't think I got hit once.

Hey, if you're going to be replaying Deus Ex, make sure to get the updated renderer. Don't bother with the OpenGL one, only Direct3D. You can enable detailed textures and some other nice features by viewing the preferences window. To do so, press the chat key to bring up the console, clear the text with backspace and type "preferences" and hit enter.

I think I used the rocket launcher thingy on the first MIB, and like you said the resulting explosion knocked the health way down on the second. It's been a long time, though.

Never saved Lebedev. Didn't think that was possible. The beeyatch would always whack him or me.

Did save Jock first time! yea me!

*considers reinstalling the game too*

I find that interesting... I mean... doesn't the guy tell you he has more information? That alone was cause enough for me to play through that part multiple times to see the different outcomes.

Dunno if it's been said yet, Free, but saving Paul also has him give a speech when you're choosing an ending. IIRC he supports the Helios idea, but tells you to do "What you think is right."


BTW, to save him you only have to walk out the front door of the hotel. He's invulnerable, so just hide in his closet or something while he kills everybody. The "Paul = dead" depends on what way you take out of the hotel.




A bomb!

Sweet! I knew I made the right decision.

Well that and the fact that Deus Ex: Invisible War goes on the storyline as if you chose that ending anyways <_<

Just curious, but which JC were you? I love the red haired one. Just seems right to me.

I was the one on the far right. The pale one with the light blond hair. Definitely the "real" JC.

Nuh uh!


The black one is. >_>

Hah, I wonder how Bill Page would explain to JC that he has a white man for a brother.