Deus Ex

[Anthony Sabre]

I know that most people associate the actual opening theme music with Deus Ex. For me it's the music that's playing when you rescue Paul, NYC Streets. I played that level over and over again trying to save Paul. That was the point at which I got hooked on the game.

 

[Lindley]

Saving Paul is actually easy. If you can beat all the guys in the hotel, he lives; but he also lives if you "die" in the hotel with him instead of running away through the window.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I think the trigger to saving Paul is to actually make it all the way to the front door of the 'Ton and beyond, past the disproportionate number of enemy snipers in the hotel lobby. (My trick: beforehand, plant lots of LAMs or, if you want to collect ammo, gas grenades, then whip out YOUR sniper rifle and in the upper level, shoot the MIBs.)

 

[Lindley]

That's certainly the fun way to do it.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

It's always fun to see MIBs cower before the might of gas grenades.

"'Effective crowd control'? What does that mean?"

 

[Orac Zen]

The easiest way to save Paul is to stow yourself safely in his hidden office, wait for him to kill the MIBs and assorted other goons, then wander out and pick off whoever's left in the lobby. It's simple and appeals to my natural laziness.

So no one's given TNM a go?

 

[Zulu Romeo]

The game continues to amaze me.

This time I played things differently, going all stealth, avoiding all confrontation in Castle Clinton and the NSF base (apart from the snipers), talking openly to the journalist... and even avoiding encountering Shannon in the female bathroom.

Returning to base, Navarre described to Manderley how disappointed she was with my hands-off approach (pretty rich given that SHE was the one lecturing to me about how to do stealth and avoid combat during the training mission ), Shannon was warm towards me for once and openly told me about the false floor in Alex's office, and Manderley told me off for speaking to the press. Plus Carter, who was happy that I didn't confront anyone in Castle Clinton, started talking with me about the heavy-handed approach of the military, then insisted on giving me more ammo (I had enough rounds already). (It seems the way to get the happy Carter / bemused Navarre outcome is to completely avoid engaging any enemies in the Castle Clinton segment, in my case going in the back way, finding the Ambrosia, and sneaking out of the front door without letting anyone see you. Even if you merely knock out the enemy while securing the area, it seems to make Carter disappointed. However, this time I did get away with knocking out maybe one terrorist with a baton.)

Great game.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I'm playing through again, too, trying to do things differently.

I've been killing pretty much every bad guy I encounter. Nothing like sneaking up on someone and putting a stealth pistol round in the back of his head.

I've also developed an affinity for setting traps. I watch a guard's patrol route, set up a LAM on a nearby wall, then hide until he goes "BOOM!" I did that on Lebedev's plane, too, so Anna would get blown up. Alex thought that was "over the line."

One thing I just ran into, though. At the part where the MIBs are breaking into Paul's apartment, I hid in the secret closet until the fighting stopped. Paul said he would meet up with me in Hong Kong. Then, I got captured by Gunther at Battery Park. Couldn't put up much of a fight by then as my legs were crippled by a security mech. But I woke up in the MJ12 base and Daedalus tells me about Paul's body being in the facility. What the fuck? I thought I saved him? Did I do something wrong there?

 

[23skidoo]

One thing I just ran into, though. At the part where the MIBs are breaking into Paul's apartment, I hid in the secret closet until the fighting stopped. Paul said he would meet up with me in Hong Kong. Then, I got captured by Gunther at Battery Park. Couldn't put up much of a fight by then as my legs were crippled by a security mech. But I woke up in the MJ12 base and Daedalus tells me about Paul's body being in the facility. What the fuck? I thought I saved him? Did I do something wrong there?

It's been awhile since I played this (I love this game, but I lost my ability to play it when I changed computers a couple years ago). As I recall there is only one option available for saving Paul's life and that's to personally kill all the attackers. If you go out the window as Paul asks you to, or hide like you did, then he dies. I see above that someone still saved Paul by letting him fight the MIBs, but I've never experienced that. Usually if I leave the fighting to Paul and don't take out at least some of them myself, he dies.

I find leaving a LAM on the wall just outside the door to the apartment (on the side towards the staircase, not the broken elevator) is a handy way of taking out a bunch of the guys before you have to start shooting. Once I scored lucky and took them all out with one. Just remember to stay well back from the door.

I love just wandering around the levels in this game (when circumstances allow). Hong Kong is just cool to look at and explore (lots of hard-to-find areas). Some of the character design is great, too. I think Anna gives Lara Croft and Alyx Vance a run for their money as hottest video game gal of all time. When I do play DE, I usually avoid killing her off on the plane so I can have the other encounters with her later. (Actually, I lie - there is a hotter video game gal, and that's the Woman in Black you come across a few times in DE.)

Alex

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Has anyone found and read the MJ12 Company Picnic email sent by a certain Harleen Quinzell?

 

[Lindley]

But I woke up in the MJ12 base and Daedalus tells me about Paul's body being in the facility. What the fuck? I thought I saved him? Did I do something wrong there?

Wait until you get to the infirmary to see if he's alive. As I recall there are a few places where the dialog is ambiguous enough that they didn't bother to change it to reflect all possible paths.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

One thing I just ran into, though. At the part where the MIBs are breaking into Paul's apartment, I hid in the secret closet until the fighting stopped. Paul said he would meet up with me in Hong Kong. Then, I got captured by Gunther at Battery Park. Couldn't put up much of a fight by then as my legs were crippled by a security mech. But I woke up in the MJ12 base and Daedalus tells me about Paul's body being in the facility. What the fuck? I thought I saved him? Did I do something wrong there?

It's been awhile since I played this (I love this game, but I lost my ability to play it when I changed computers a couple years ago). As I recall there is only one option available for saving Paul's life and that's to personally kill all the attackers. If you go out the window as Paul asks you to, or hide like you did, then he dies. I see above that someone still saved Paul by letting him fight the MIBs, but I've never experienced that. Usually if I leave the fighting to Paul and don't take out at least some of them myself, he dies.

I find leaving a LAM on the wall just outside the door to the apartment (on the side towards the staircase, not the broken elevator) is a handy way of taking out a bunch of the guys before you have to start shooting. Once I scored lucky and took them all out with one. Just remember to stay well back from the door.

I love just wandering around the levels in this game (when circumstances allow). Hong Kong is just cool to look at and explore (lots of hard-to-find areas). Some of the character design is great, too. I think Anna gives Lara Croft and Alyx Vance a run for their money as hottest video game gal of all time. When I do play DE, I usually avoid killing her off on the plane so I can have the other encounters with her later. (Actually, I lie - there is a hotter video game gal, and that's the Woman in Black you come across a few times in DE.)

Alex

But I woke up in the MJ12 base and Daedalus tells me about Paul's body being in the facility. What the fuck? I thought I saved him? Did I do something wrong there?

Wait until you get to the infirmary to see if he's alive. As I recall there are a few places where the dialog is ambiguous enough that they didn't bother to change it to reflect all possible paths.

Guess I'll see what happens! I'm early in the MJ12 mission. I keep getting gunned down in the maintenance area. I'd built up quite an arsenal, and now it's gone, so I gotta go find it so I can whup some ass again.

Thanks, guys! I missed playing this game. Can't wait to get to Hong Kong again. I loved those missions.

 

[Lindley]

Maintenance area is all about stealth. And I think that you can program one of the bots to help you out from the office at the top, IIRC.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Last time I played the MJ12 prison level, I tried to have a go at blowing up the two massive robots guarding the armoury using the nearby TNT and a scrambler grenade. It didn't quite go to plan.

I love that level - you get a real sense of having to use everything available to you to survive, although I often find this is a feature in most levels. If there's an explosive barrel or TNT crate or an armed LAM nearby, I use it to blow things up instead of using precious rockets to get through.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Maintenance area is all about stealth. And I think that you can program one of the bots to help you out from the office at the top, IIRC.

Yep, I made it through. The guards were no problem, it was those damn bots, and when I found the computer upstairs could make them not target me, I was golden.

Last time I played the MJ12 prison level, I tried to have a go at blowing up the two massive robots guarding the armoury using the nearby TNT and a scrambler grenade. It didn't quite go to plan.

I love that level - you get a real sense of having to use everything available to you to survive, although I often find this is a feature in most levels. If there's an explosive barrel or TNT crate or an armed LAM nearby, I use it to blow things up instead of using precious rockets to get through.

Yeah, that's definitely a cool level. I think it's one of my favorite parts in the whole game. You wake up, don't know what's going on since you should be dead, and you have this weird voice talking to you. There's definitely a sense of momentum as you start out with nothing and gradually build up your arsenal again. I'm working with a silenced, reduced-recoil assault rifle now.

It was very satisfying to pop everyone at UNATCO, save the handful of people I asked to meet me in Hong Kong.

 

[Lindley]

When I played that, I always used nonlethal force on all UNATCO personnel.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I'm an asshole. I kill anybody who is not specifically out to help me.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I had a go at different outcomes to the Rentons vs JoJo fight (if only to try and recreate THAT famous moment which, sadly, I couldn't quite recreate [What a shame - everyone]). Interestingly, there's a pretty satisfying outcome if you end up helping JoJo by shooting and killing Gilbert and Sandra...

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I'm at the Brooklyn naval base now. I sure do love the Hong Kong part of the game, though. So much to explore.

I popped Maggie Chow from across the UC chamber with my silenced assault rifle, too. Didn't want to bother swordfighting the bitch.

 

[Brandonv]

I thought I would share this thread I came across at the official Dues Ex 3 forums. It has a bunch of early screenshots and also a look at some of the games concept art. I really like the concept art, and I get a definite Blade Runner vibe when looking at some of those pictures.