Setting the mood:
We're in the UNATCO bunker. Chief Manderley wants JC for a debrief before sending us on our next mission. But this is Deus Ex, so we're going to fool around first.
A lot of the exposition for this game can be found by reading newspapers that are left around. Usually it provides a bit of foreshadowing for future plot events.
You can also throw pot plants around. We'll leave the receptionist here in his new jungle habitat.
JC's office. Like him, boring and empty. In the future, computer monitors are see-through so you can't get away with browsing Reddit while pretending to work.
We can log on to the computer with the username JCD and password bionicman, but it's more fun to hack into it instead and read everyone else's emails. Here we can learn a bit about why we maybe should have left Gunther in his cell...
There are also a few random foreshadowing emails that provide a bit of context to the Deus Ex world. Also observe the domain URL at the bottom...Deadalus: GlobalNode:UN//UNATCO? Hmm. We'll learn more about that soon
There's also this email to the chief from a mysterious 'WS'. 'Our Little Experiment'? 'Primary Unit'? itisamystery.gif
On the way to the break room the news is reporting on a company with the logo 'VL'. We'll be seeing some of them pretty soon.
This is on the wall in one of the rooms. Let's see if I can decipher it...
Code:
Suspects:
Tracer Tong
Robert Page
Margaret Chow
Max Chen
Jojo Fine
[unintelligible] (?)
Organisations:
B[unintelligible] Illuminati [?]
[scribbled out]
[unintelligible] - Research [?]
NSA
Robert Page Industries
Locations:
Paris
Hong Kong
Nevada
2 planes shot down in Russia
Who is Jojo's boss?
What is Ambrosia?
The map is one of Liberty Island. I have no idea why Paris, Hong Kong and Nevada (places we will be visiting soon) have arrows pointing to various points on Liberty Island, though.
I also don't understand the obsession with Jojo Fine. As we'll soon discover, the guy is just a two-bit drug dealer.
Onwards, we run into Gunther himself and his equally psychopathic partner, Anna Navarre. Gunther is a bit of a special bloke.
They're both filthy hanzer mechs jealous of JC's nano-augmentations, which makes for plenty of opportunities for passive-aggressive banter.
denton.jpg
Time to get debriefed. But first, a trip to the ladies' bathroom?
In UNATCO, toilet cubicles don't have doors. Nothing to hide nothing to fear and all that.
On to the medical centre, JC can apply the new augmentation canister that we picked up after smoking the NSF leader in the statue. This one gives us magic arms which lets us pick up stuff like fridges and trout. Unfortunately, unlike the sequel we cannot drop them from tall buildings onto passers-by below.
Into Manderley's office...
Paul is here too. The next mission is to go to Battery Park and find the shipment of the virus vaccine (named Ambrosia- I'll let you come up with the riced pudding jokes) that the terrorist scumbags have half-inched. We'll be going with Anna Navarre. Paul is off to Hell's Kitchen to fight the good fight there.
So VIPs are getting priority on the vaccine...? Do I smell...conspiracy? _illuminati.png
Oh, this game.
Off to Battery Park then. We'll say goodbye to Private Lloyd on the way.
Arriving at the drop zone in our trusty NYPD speedboat that looks like a bit of an anachronism considering it's 2050 -
The NSF are in Castle Clinton, and presumably the Ambrosia is being stored inside somewhere. We can go in all guns blazing with the murderous Anna through the front door, or try and find an alternate route.
We spot this young lad wandering around the waterfront. I've actually forgotten; can you actually harm kids in this game?
Holy trout.
Police Report: Battery Park
The kid was approaching asking for food in a very threatening way. He reached to rub his belly in a motion that indicated he may pull a weapon. I had no choice but to neutralize.
There's a bit of a scrap going on between UNATCO and NSF Scum near the subway. We could get involved but instead we'll stand here with the baton, like some morbid conductor of the violence in front of us, before looting their bodies once they're finished with each other.
The NSF have taken hostages and have the subway boobytrapped. We could just strut down there and sort them out but that would probably lead to quick death.
This being Deus Ex, there is always another way.
[insert 'just dropping in' one-liner here]
We can pick up the flamethrower from one of the terrorists down here, but, like its Resident Evil counterpart, it's pretty rubbish. Chuck it.
There are still a few NSF guarding the entranceway to the subway. The massive firefight taking place just yards away must have got lost in the wind. Instead, we'll stack up the remaining boxes of TNT near the entrance...
Get their attention, retreat to a safe distance, and...
Forties confirmed for being hardy enough to withstand high-powered explosive munitions. We'll pick them up and store them to use later.
Anna Navarre and her cronies decide to bust in through the front entrance. Leave them to it.
Had we not killed the kid, he would have told us that the NSF have a secret entrance to their underground den behind this vending machine. For whatever reason we cannot use our super arms to move it so there is only one alternative.
For clarity, we could have also got in by bypassing the security box next to the vending machine, or by finding a secret passage via the vents we were crawling around earlier, or by moving around some big boxes to reveal a passage behind Castle Clinton, or just going in the front with Anna and going downstairs. Can't do that in CoD.
The underground base. Are we going to see naked zombies!?
Nope, just goons.
With those safely dispatched, we can pick up the augmentation canister...
...and secure the rice pudding. Fortunately UNATCO procedures dictate that 'securing' just means 'looking at briefly'.
Anna congratulates us on the brutality of our methods, and now it's time to take the subway to Hell's Kitchen to rendezvous with Paul.