Deus Ex

[TheMightyEthan]

tl;dw?

[Mister Jack]

Square Enix told them to shove in microtransactions two weeks before the game was done and insisted on the breach mode because they were worried players would get bored playing the campaign.

[deanb]

Firstly they've announced their first run of DLC, with Frank Pritchard (woo)

https://twitter.com/DeusEx/status/771694470857428996

 

Secondly:
Thoughts on the "Adam died in Panchea" theory floating around based on the whole "his augs are different and not the ones Sarif gave him" quest line stuff. Personally I think folks are misreading that questline, but I guess it was a bit vague n lazily wrapped up.

[deanb]

So for my ending

 

I saved Miller with the Orchid antidote, saved Brown n co from drinking the champagne, and then beat the shit out of Marchenko. No one died, except a couple of the guards (three were grouped together so I just tossed in a frag) and Marchenko. Amazed he didn't have a dead man trigger.

 

 

Kinda feel the spoiler they threw in to the mid-credits is something that might have been better served for later, could have still had the dialogue just retain identities a secret (such as DXHR opening had). Though there are hints given the subject matter of a couple emails between certain folks.

 

Didn't really connect with any of the characters in this one tbh. While Sarif wasn't entirely brilliant you could get on with him, n Pritchard n Jensen had an almost friendly relationship at the end, and heck you even do a mission with Malik too. But here? Miller is maybe closest towards the end, but he's still no Sarif. Rest are all pretty much knobs to Jensen or just "Agent". Don't get to do much with Alex except the cutscene meet n greets, I think doing something together might have helped reinforced the bond there a little.

 

The levels were great though, loads of twists n turns. Not really bummed by the lack of boss fights, they're not really a huge part of the game and a much maligned aspect of HR anyway. Much prefer the convo things as a sort of "boss battle" element and they'll usually be the ones scoring you achievements too anyway. Boss Battles are for things like Mario n DMC, but that's a chat for another thread. Story not the greatest, but I honestly reckon that's mainly cos of the "Illuminati" stuff, we know all of that from Deus Ex. It's sort of re-treading familiar ground and we know that Page ain't gonna be taken down cos he's around in the future. I think really they should have picked some minor Illuminati member, heck make one, for this as a sort of shadow-antagonist rather than Page & co. Or at least have him accidentally set up their plans rather than crashing their party cos we know they're not taken out by Deus Ex time period. (the next one sounds like it might be setting that up in some way).

 

 

Anywho we're all on-board with Jensen being the Denton "twins" big biologically exact brother right? Given the whole "immune to pathogen that kills pretty much everyone else" the "doesn't reject augmentations" stuff, and the "I like wearing shades everywhere I go and wearing black trench coats" stuff. Wouldn't surprise me if post-panchea they took a few biological samples from him.

[TheMightyEthan]

Finally cracked the corporate vaults in the bank. I've probably spent more time on that place than anything else in the game.

[deanb]

So the Prima Guide (and their website) spoils the identity of Janus which is pretty funny.

 

 

He's that bald member of the illuminati council that wasn't mentioned in the original Deus Ex cos he's made purposefully for DXMD and I guess get killed off eventually.

 

[TheMightyEthan]

I'm not very far into the game, but I'm gonna put in this spoiler tag who I think Janus is so I can prove that I called it (assuming I'm right):

 

 

That rogue version of Eliza Cassan from the end of HR.

 

[deanb]

(this is for everyone else who has finished, not Ethan yet).

 

 

tbh given she openly reveals herself to you it'd be weird to still hide herself as Janus later on. I assume you're not far enough on to know she's now calling herself "Helle". Helle is from another of those pesky Greek stories that the current Deus Ex likes to pepper around with the likes of Icarus n such. Janus is the two faced god, he can see both beginnings and ends but obviously in more modern parlance "two faced" is a bit more appropriate to Janus in Deus Ex.

 

Helle is from Jason and the Argonauts but I can't find much on her except she's a twin and she's in Jason and the Argonauts.

 

[toxicitizen]

I'll spoiler this since Ethan hasn't finished the game but

how did they even get the information? It's not even in the game!

Kinda torn on whether to click or not... I kinda want to wait until the next game to find out but that's probably quite a ways off. Is it someone I'd even recognize? My initial guess was also that it's an AI, although not Eliza Cassan specifically. I was thinking maybe an early version of Helios from the original or something along those lines.

 

(this is for everyone else who has finished, not Ethan yet).

 
tbh given she openly reveals herself to you it'd be weird to still hide herself as Janus later on. I assume you're not far enough on to know she's now calling herself "Helle". Helle is from another of those pesky Greek stories that the current Deus Ex likes to pepper around with the likes of Icarus n such. Janus is the two faced god, he can see both beginnings and ends but obviously in more modern parlance "two faced" is a bit more appropriate to Janus in Deus Ex.
 
Helle is from Jason and the Argonauts but I can't find much on her except she's a twin and she's in Jason and the Argonauts.

 

Well shit

 

 

I kinda wish I hadn't missed that side-quest. I thought it was kinda weird and disappointing that she played no part whatsoever in the game.

 

 

Edited September 6, 2016 by FLD

[deanb]

Same way they'd get most other stuff in their guide I imagine. There's speculation it'll have slipped through given the game got sliced in two and it was possible you'd have found out in this. The official artbook also spoils another character too (though this one is strongly hinted at in the game) so it's not the only cock up. Folks are leaning on it potentially being just in error but it makes a lot of sense and folks already speculated on this person prior. The game itself blows it's load in the mid-credits sequence which a lot of folks are like "what the hell?!" about. the whole "S-E interfered with the develop a bit too much" is I think pretty glaring in a lot of aspects, thankfully mainly issues in regards to outside of the game n release n such than gameplay n such itself.

 

Not missing too much with the Helle mission.

 

Mainly just the HR connection pay off/fan service and seeing some top notch hacking going on but nothing super in-depth. Oh wait I guess later on you get an event happen, which tbh I wasn't super keen on cos it spoiled my plan a little; She blows up a bunch of cars to provide you with a "distraction", this however puts all the enemies in the vicinity on high alert...

 

 

In others news someone made a pretty large gallery of some screenshot "photos". Shame the game didn't launch with Ansel (Witcher 3 just got it the other day so totally taking that for a spin some point).

http://imgur.com/gallery/orwxJ

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, I'm really hoping they add ansel, this game is fucking gorgeous. Especially the lighting.

[Mr. GOH!]

I know I'm way late to this, but regarding the supposed bug in a level that appears to cause all enemies to go into search mode, ruining your chance to get the Foxiest of the Hounds achievement:

 

 

Pretty sure it's not a bug, if you were talking about the GARM facility level. If you call Miller at the beginning, he gets into contact with Chikane, who approaches the base in his aircraft, which alerts the guards and causes them to look for you. If you call Alex, there's no alert.

 

[deanb]

 

Elias Toufexis (Adam Jensen) playing Mankind Divided. He takes advantage of the ability to ad-lib lines. Talking a bit about the process of making the game, and "that Dota thing that took ages". It's mainly a play through of some of the more talky-sections.

[TheMightyEthan]

Oh for fuck's sake

 

 

I have the antidote but didn't realize you could use it to save Miller...

 

 

Luckily I still have a save from there so I can go back.

 

The ending I first got:

 

 

Miller dies, I stopped the delegates from drinking the champagne, and we still stopped the bombs.

 

[TheMightyEthan]

Alright, that was an easy fix.  Only took me about 20 minutes the second time through.

 

I didn't find the ending even slightly disappointing, I was ready for Halo 2 levels of being cut off in the middle, but I thought we got a full story.  Or at least a full installment of a multi-installment story.  The kind of thing you'd get in a mystery TV show, where at the end of the season they'd be all "we foiled this plot, but they're still out there, lurking..."  Idk, maybe I just have low standards.

 

Also, thank the gods for the lack of boss fights.  

I was able to talk my way out of the serial killer boss fight, and EMP mine + invisible takedown ended the final one pretty quick.

 

 

I kinda still want to go back and replay Human Revolution (Director's Cut, obvs), but I'm worried the gameplay won't hold up after this one.

[deanb]

Yeah, I felt given the reports this was a pretty solid "beginning, middle and end" type story. Was expecting a much more drastic cut-off. It's obviously not a "everything got wrapped up" story, there's the loose threads of conspiracy but it's to be expected. Given we know most of the "bad guys" are gonna be kicking around for JC Denton to take down. Jensen was always going to be limited to taking on the minor plotting or inconsequential Illuminati members, heck if anything it'd be more likely he'll accidentally set-up creation of the Dentons and gray death given what we know of his genetics.

[deanb]

http://polycount.com/discussion/177541/deus-ex-universe-art-dump-thread

 

Art dump thread over on Polycount.

[toxicitizen]

I'll simply preface this by saying that it's all speculation but there seems to be some evidence to support it, so potentially massive (and I do mean massive) spoiler for Mankind Divided sequel?

 

Essentially, the theory is that 

 

 

the Adam Jensen in Mankind Divided isn't the real Jensen.

 

 

 

Which, considering the missing chunk of his memory and what the Harvester side-quest gets into, kind of wouldn't be completely out of left field? Then there's the main menu art...

 

 

Here's where it starts to be potentially very convincing, though. Those of you that picked the Versalife bank vault option, can you confirm whether this is actually in it? http://imgur.com/a/5wsZO

 

Obviously, the main thing of interest would be very easy to miss there. Ideally, someone still has a save they can load up and check?

Edited September 26, 2016 by FLD

[TheMightyEthan]

 

Oh yeah, I totally was guessing I'm not the real Jensen during my conversation with Sarif.

 

I did the bank vault mission and while I didn't see the body parts in the containers I did read the book and can confirm it's in there.

 

[deanb]

It's worth noting the "book" is in Human Revolution right at the start(obviously you don't learn the significance until later). But yes the other parts of the safe are quite interesting.

 

 

Anyway you can easily tell that isn't the original Jensen in their cos that one is missing the sunglasses!

 

 

 

The Deus Ex sub has been banging on about it for a few weeks, I'm in "wait and see" mode. I've no idea what Illuminati would have to gain from it, especially as it runs counter to their plans and would require some weird retconning of the original Deus Ex. But on the other hand with other things it does make some sense. As I said I'm just in "wait n see" mode. Could be a big thing for the game, though weird Jensen would never comment on it like he did with the other big thing in HR, but could also be a silly easter egg like the companion cube n knuckles & knuckles.

[TheMightyEthan]

 

The thing that initially tipped me off that you might not be the original Jensen is when talking with Sarif and he says something (I can't remember what, something about serial numbers?) that implies that even your original, Sarif-made augs might be counterfeit replicas.

 

[deanb]

 

Yeah he was talking about your serial codes but not that you're in counterfeit augs, but him calling out the lie that the folks who pulled him from Panchea couldn't identify that their "John Doe" was Jensen. The accusation being they purposefully ignored who it was so they could have more time with him.

 

[TheMightyEthan]

 

But it was in the context of when you got dropped at the second facility, the known, reputable one.  They should have been able to identify you by your aug codes, and the fact that they couldn't made me go "ah, so all my augs are probably new, so perhaps I'm not the real Jensen"

 

[deanb]

 

It's not that they couldn't, it's that they didn't. In fact iirc the remark is he didn't actually go to the second facility but a fake facility or something. tbh it was a rather poorly done quest.

 

[toxicitizen]

Damn, had to go to bed right after posting but this revived the thread more than I expected lol.

 

 

 

I also took the serial number thing to mean they could've identified Jensen but didn't, or rather pretended not to know who he was. But who knows at this point, the other interpretation seems equally valid. I'm assuming it was intended to be ambiguous.

 

But yeah, after sleeping on it, I'm convinced there's something here. There's just too many things in the game that hint at a theme of double/false identity for it to be a coincidence. It would be the ultimate payoff for the story. Off the top of my head (and some stolen from a NeoGAF post I read before going to bed):

 

-Singh is a double agent

-Jensen acts as a double agent between TF29 and the Juggernaut Collective

-Jensen takes on Miller's identity in the Illuminati Matrix

-two versions of Eliza Cassan

-TF29 psychologist is an Illuminati mole (Also, this could potentially reframe why she insisted so much on Jensen's past during his psych eval. She might've been making sure his false memories were correct.)

-The Harvester side-quest deals with having someone else's memories implanted and it changing who you are

-Janus is generally depicted as being a two-faced god

-Tavros is essentially just Belltower rebranded

-The shadow operatives are impersonating the Tavros security guys during the last mission

 

And I'm sure there's actually tons more. It's been like a month since I finished the game, some details are already a bit fuzzy.