THE DEUS EX REPORT
Part 1
New York Shakedown
Short Game(mechanic) Overview:
Deus Ex is an Action Adventure Role-playing First
Person Shooter (or AARFPS). The game features a good amount of action with a
strong story and a lot adventure-like dialog. The hero gains experience which is
spent on skills like swimming, lock picking or the five weapon skills grenades,
heavy weapons, rifles, pistols and close combat weapons. Weapon skills are
important for accuracy and damage output with that type of weapons. In this game
accuracy does not mean the precision of shooting but the speed of aiming
instead. Even an untrained hero can shot perfectly. It needs a lot more time
though until the crosshair has shrunk to show that an exact shot is now
possible. In addition moving doesn’t change the accuracy of a well-trained
marksman much but cripples the precision of an untrained one. The player can
also pick more specific and powerful special abilities like breathing under
water or partial invisibility, which consume energy (like mana). Even the
weapons are upgradeable and every aspect is changeable. Accuracy, recoil,
ammunition capacity and reload time. Some guns can be equipped with laser
pointer, scope or silencer. I’ll skip all weapon upgrades except the silencer
and the scope in the report, because these are the only ones that change the
usage of a weapon. The game uses an inventory system. So the hero has to choose
which weapons and tools he will take with him. With that many options the player
it free to choose the style he likes the most. A sneaky close range fighter? Mr
“Keys-are-for-girls-I-got-my-rocket-launcher”? Super Sniper with an all
seeing eye? The great level design gives everyone a chance of wining.
Chapter 1: Beginning Blasted
Linking up …
Establishing comlink …
Accessing nanobase …
Uplink complete …
SUBJECT:
J.C. Denton
nano-augmented UNATCO Agent
upgradeable nano-ability system
build in flashlight and IFF-functions
just completed UNATCO – Academy
trained in: hacking computers, lock picking,
multitooling and using rifles
has arrived in New York City to begin his work at the
UNATCO headquarters
Transmission beginning…
Ah, New York, centre of world economy, gate to America,
greatest city on east coast, big apple…
Well, that apple is a rotten one! This city is as
bombed, broken, and rusted as Lady Liberty here on the island. Nobody wants to
live here anymore, whoever can afford it, moves away. So just the waste of
society is left.
Wait! Somebody is contacting me via comlink…hmmm,
some Alex Jacobson guy.
“Heads up JC! Your brother Paul is on his way to meet
you at the docks. The NSF is raiding the island and shots have been fired. I
repeat, find Paul! I will monitor your operation from HQ.”
What the… NSF? Here on Liberty Island ??? What does
America’s most dangerous terrorist organisation here at the UNATCO HQ?
Wasn’t it enough to blow up the statue some years ago?
Find Paul he said…no problem, he’s just coming
towards me…
So that’s what’s going on here…Paul just briefed
me about the situation. The NSF targeted a shipment of the
“Ambrosia”-vaccine for the “Grey Death” plague, stole it, speedboated it
to Manhattan and left some troops to keep us busy. They also captured one of our mech-augmented Agents, Gunther Hermann. Don’t know how that
happened, these mechs are known to be serious fighting machines. Because I just
got my 10mm and my electric prod with me, Paul let me choose one of three
additional weapons, a multifunctional minicrossbow, a 30.06 Sniper or a guided
rocket launcher.
Mini Crossbow
A cute addition to your armoury. Even thought often
underestimated this little fella can save your day. It can fire three kinds of
ammunition. 1: Barely used Light-Darts for enlightening dark areas (the
flashlight is always better) 2: normal Darts just for damage 3:
“Poison”-Darts. Shoot one of those in the head of someone and a few second
later he’ll be down.
Sniperrifle
This baby is delivered with a scope and fires impressive 30.06mm bullets. It kills anyone with a headshot but needs some skill to operate it in zoom-mode. When the Sniper finally gets its silencer upgrade it becomes a monster that can take out everyone everywhere, except bots of course. This is a must-have for me!
Rocket Launcher
Called GEP-Gun in the game. With its two ammunition
types and the “Lock On” feature this is a weapon of mass destruction. First
type is a HE-rocket with a small blast range and a very hard punch. It’s
effective against everything you encounter. Second ammunition is the
phosphor-rocket. Launch one of these babies onto a group of enemies and see them
going up in flames. Not useful in close combat situations, you’ll burn
yourself. Phosphor doesn’t harm bots though. It’s always nice to have this
weapon because you otherwise might lack easy bot-killing abillitys.
Even though I love the Sniper, the rocket launcher is
the weapon of choice because they are very rare to get.
“Remember that we’re police, stick with the prod.
It will stun your opponents and knock them unconscious.”
Did he really said that? Those are terrorists… All
they deserve is a bullet through the head!
Stun-Prod
The only close combat weapon that needs ammunition. A
nice one for a sneaky ninja or someone who doesn’t want to kill anyone. 1 or 2
shocks make a human unconscious but it’s no that useful in the later game
because some enemies are immune. Possibly the best close range weapon until
mid-game.
After a little chat with the guarding corporal and
short glimpse onto the machine gun armed battle robot I got to work. Rescue
Agent Hermann and reach the top of the statue to interrogate the terrorist
leader there. That shouldn’t be a problem. When I had checked the few supplies
on the dock and choose a baton instead of a crowbar for close up beatings, I got
my 10mm out and advanced up the ramp into my first real combat.
Standard 10mm Pistol
A good mid to close range shooter. The clip contains 6
rounds, which do a fair amount of damage. The typical start weapon, rather
deadly but its lack of advantages makes you choose other guns fast.
Baton / Crowbar / Knife
The three standard close combat weapons. The Baton only
knocks the opponents down while the other two kill them. As a weapon which needs
two fields in inventory the crowbar comes 3rd. Ridiculously the Baton
is actually better than the knife because it deals more damage… I just use one
of these (mainly the baton) for opening crates.
Lets take a quick look… Hmm three NSF Guys on patrol
here. I can’t see any heavy weaponry, just handguns. Mr. Jacobson is talking
in my head again, about the academy’s stealth course…thanks; I’d never
have gotten that idea. So I hide in the shadow around a corner and wait for the
first foe to walk by to shoot him…
There he is! BANG!
Headshot, he’s down. Quickly,
change position to get a clear view upon the now alarmed other enemies…
Whoa, that was a bad start for me. I better use a med
kit to tend my wounds. Luckily the nanites in my body took care of the poison
fairly fast.
Again Alex Jacobson warned me about something I already
saw: A little robot was patrolling the front entrance of the statue. I didn’t
think for long, got my Gep-Gun, pointed it at the bot, waited for the missile to
lock on, fired and blew him to smithereens.
I scouted to surrounding area and found a patrolling
sniper guarding the direct way and four other troopers on the other route. With
my last battle in mind I didn’t felt confident enough to take on a sniper
while there are other enemies around to play backstabbers. So I started my
assault on the pistol armed, separated foes, when he was far away on his patrol.
This time my tactics proved successful. I stayed behind cover aimed carefully
and took them down with 1 or 2 decisive shots from my 10mm pistol each.
Even though the way to the dock was free now, I was
really keen on take out that last one to get his weapon…I like the sniper
rifle a lot, I think I’ve said that before, haven’t I?
I continued towards the north dock and showed the two
terrorists there how powerful a correctly operated sniper rifle is.
Shortly after I met the informant, he looked very much like a bum but that didn’t bother me.
He gave me the key to the front entrance
and a picture of the NSF leader. Wasn’t very useful that guy… at least I
found two sniper and one rocket ammunition packs on the north dock. With them
and a new shotgun I returned to the front entrance of Lady Liberty.
The Shotgun
Nothing special here. Only great for close distances.
Aim at the head and one shot will do the job. Bad thing is, the gun only holds
3!bullets a time and reloading takes ages. The second ammunition type is a sabot
bullet, that can take out small bot, cameras and automatic guns. I usually keep it but rarely use it.
The key would get me inside unharmed, because the
camera, which activated the machine gun needed a few seconds to sound the
alarm. But I'd probably run directly into NSF guards. So I choose a safer
way. I utilized my hacking skills and deactivated the camera and opened the
doors at the control panel on the side of the door.
I’m inside. Two NSF Grunts are guarding the hall, one
on a balcony, the other at a counter. Hiding behind a pillar I come up with a
plan. With a quick headshot I’ll take out the upper and concentrate onto the
second.
So it happened again, I nearly fucked up another fight because I missed something. Furiously I walked through the door, not worrying about the laser trips, which activated the alarm again. Ignoring that fact I checked the rooms and found the prison, where Gunther Hermann was imprisoned. I opened the cell door with a quick hack at the nearby computerpanel.
Gunther was angry because HQ had ordered him to
retreat. Obviously he refused to follow that order and was captured. I didn’ t
talked to him for too long. He got my pistol to allow him a safe return to the
UNATCO-HQ.
I got my crossbow out and walked up the stairs in the
back of the great hall. On the next level I found a single guard with his back
towards me. A quick dart silenced him very fast, allowing me to follow the
corridor instead of advancing up the stairs inside. I chose that way because I
was sure that the stairs would be guarded on every level and knew that the
statue has also stairs on the outside. This time I was lucky, when I looked out
of the door I saw two guards walking away from me. Not wanting to start another
fight I just ran out and up the stairs to the next level. With no guards outside
on this level, I climbed the stairs to the next. Here I had to go inside again.
Hmmm, four entrances… first is guarded by two
terrorists. One with a crossbow the other armed with a pistol… better check
the next, seems to be free. Go on… wait, what’s that green shot there? Beep!
Grenade! Quick disarm it… beep… beep… done, that was close. Just a
gas-grenade, would have alarmed the two guys though, but now I’m can take it
and use it. Nice… lets check the other gates… yes, they’re also trapped
with gas-grenades. Nothing to worry about, when you see grenades in time, they
are easy to deactivate and make a fine addition to my armoury.
Gas Grenades
Produces a cloud of gas which does not kill a foe but stops them. So if there is a group enemies, explode one of these and you have a lot time to shoot them unharmed. But don’t get into the cloud yourself, it would hurt your lung.
Lets look inside… there are the stairs… won’t be
able to sneak there, no shadow and my foes watch that area. So I have to take
them out first. It’s better to attack them from the side though. Standard
tactic again, get close to them with the cover of walls, aim carefully and do
precise headshots. Take a quick look upon them… there is a barrel beside
them... it has a small yellow sign: “Explosive”. That’ll work even
better… Back up a bit, I don’t want to be caught in the blast. Set it of
with a 10mm bullet… KABOOOOM!!! Just little pieces of flesh and bones
remain…
When I advanced up the stairs, I got a message from
Alex. Gunther had safely returned to HQ. He also reminded me to keep the
NSF-leader alive and conscious. UNATCO wanted him for interrogation to find out
where the barrels with the “ambrosia”-vaccine had been brought.
At the next level I heard another two terrorists talking. Obviously they knew the law was coming for them. They had heard the shooting and the explosion from below and were very afraid to die. What of course was just about to happen... Two headshots punished them for standing with their back to the stairs I was coming up.
It turned out, that they were the last
guards of the terrorist-leader, who was in the next room, just one ladder ahead.
He surrendered quickly and I tried to gain information about the stolen vaccine.
Refusing to talk about that, he just accused the government to be part of a
conspiracy against ordinary people. He backed that up with ridiculous
statistics; corporate America would just pay 5% of the taxes while the working
class pays 95%… TTT, I said… typical terrorist talk… During this private
Q-and-A-session a UNATCO-trooper turned up and said, I should leave the leader
up here and report back to base. The troops had been behind me, clearing all the
terrorist resistance I had left…
On a box in the leaders room I found something that looked weird. It was a little container, which held some bright blue liquid. I took it for a check-up at the HQ, where I headed, because there was nothing else left to do…
At the front doors Paul waited for me for a little
“family debriefing”. As I expected he wasn’t very happy with my style of
fighting, or the fact that I was fighting at all.
“Pace yourself, you killed a lot of people tonight.”
My brother is different to what I remember, but
maybe that’s what you become, when you work for UNATCO; I’ll have to see …
Everything else was just meaningless talk and I proceeded into the HQ.
Chapter 2: Down Under
A few stairs lead me down to a gate, which was guarded
by a UNATCO-trooper and a retina-scanner.
With a quick look into the scanner, the door opened and
I advanced into the office-level of the HQ. After a bit of exploring I found my
office.
Looks a bit cold, I thought by myself, when my voice in
my head told me the login and password of my PC. Checking the mails, I found a
bunch of “welcomes”. One caught my eye especially, from Jamie Reyes,
apparently the local doc here. I knew someone with that name from university;
I’ll have to look after that but first I had to find my boss, Joseph Manderley.
The next room I walked into on my search obviously was
the meeting and recreation room. In the kitchen beneath I met Gunther Hermann
and another female mech-agent, who introduced herself as Agent Navarre.
When she left to prepare her next mission, I followed
her outside the room to look for Mr. Manderley, whom I found right in the next
room.
The debriefing went very good, he was pleased with my
performance. We didn’t talk for long, because he ordered me to go to the
armoury and the medical centre to prepare for the next mission. I decided to go
for the medics first, to check if that Reyes guy really is my old pal. And
indeed he is…
We talked for a while, about the past times, what we
had done since then and about my augmentations. I asked if the intercom I have
in my head could be turned of and to my great surprise he told me, that he
couldn’t tell me, because it classified information… I suppose that means
no… great!
Nanoaugmentations “Arms”
1) “Microfibralmuscles” enables the hero to lift
heavy items like big metal boxes or sofas. Not very useful, except for clearing
some way to reach a few more goodies.
2) “Fightingpower” implies to be a very powerful
upgrade, but it just increases the damage of close range weapons, which need
very special fighting stiles. Either you sneak or you play as bullet- and
rocket-prove “nothing can harm me Rambo type”. Additionally some mid-to-late
game foes explode on their deaths, which makes it easy to blow up yourself.
In the back of the medical centre I found a corridor,
which lead me to another retina-scanner operated door.
Not operational for me though, which is weird because
I’m supposed to be one of the top agents. No need to worry about now, I’ve
got important tasks. When I left Jamie Reyes the door on the other side caught
my eyes, Alex Jacobson Communication Engineer. It looked like I’d found the
hiding spot of my head voice… I continued to the armoury and met General
Carter (well sorry, he told me that he’s not a general anymore). He is a hero
of my youth, he fought the NSF back in the days of the second American civil
war, when they had regular forces and weren’t terrorists. He gave me a brand
new stealth pistol, which is a perfect replacement for my 10mm pistol.
Stealth Pistol
A beautiful weapon that fires 10mm bullets like the
standard pistol. It doesn’t have the same punch but is silenced and has a
larger clip with ten bullets. A scope can be attached and it can be used as a
“Mini-Sniper” that way.
I thanked General Carter and returned to Joseph
Manderley for the briefing of the next mission, but not without visiting the
prison cells here in the HQ. On the way to there I also found the office of Anna
Navarre and Gunther Hermann. Theirs looked even worse than mine what probably
the reason they don't like me that much. With my urge to explore my souroundings
satisfied I left the support facilities and went to the briefing. When I arrived, my brother was
there already.
Our job was to attack the NSF in Manhattan and retrieve
the ambrosia-vaccine they stole. My first objective would be to go to Battery
Park and break into Castle Clinton located there. Anna Navarre would be my
partner for that part of the mission. With this task completed, I had to travel
by subway to Hells Kitchen to take down a hidden NSF power generator, which
supports an EMP-Field around the NSF-HQ. When the power is out Paul will lead
the actual attack.
With that information we were dismissed and I left the
HQ. At the front door I talked to an UNATCO-trooper, who offered to sell me some
equipment. I bought a scope for my new stealth pistol and continued to the south
dock, from where a boat would take me to Manhattan…
Chapter 3: Manhattan Blitzkrieg
The ride with the fast motorboat lasted only for a few
minutes. No time to come up with new strategies to prevent future battle
fuck-ups. I just checked my weapons, reloaded them and landed on Battery Park
Dock where Anna Navarre waited for me already.
She quickly briefed me about the situation. The NSF
pulled back into castle Clinton to guard the barrel of the vaccine they
weren’t able to get out here in time. The main objective was to recover that
barrel but Anna had a different approach:
“First we will exterminate the terrorists. A precious
opportunity we cannot neglect.”
Her plan was simple: Block off the entrance and take
the place by storm. I wasn’t happy with that procedure, she would be the hero
of that battle while I had to stay behind because I didn’t have the right
equipment for a frontal assault, a machinegun for example, but she gave me no
time to answer and sped of to the castles front gate to block it. I knew she
would wait for me to begin and so I to find another way in.
When I saw a child waking on the dock, I remembered the
advice they give in the academy. “Listen to children, they are aware of their
surroundings and love to play ‘spy-games’.” I bribed the little boy with a
candy-bar and he told me that the NSF unloads their speedboats here and go
through a secret passage behind the vending machine. My little informant could
even tell me the code: 9183! I thanked him and looked around.
Yes, there is a vending machine. But where is the
keypad? … Ah, a little metal box is on the wall, maybe it’s in there… lock
pick it… opened, yep a pad. What was the code?
Take out stealth pistol, there are stairs down… quiet
… could be guards everywhere.
Quick, into that side corridor! Ah, it’s a dead end, with a camera
and there is the terrorist again firing at me with his pistol… BANG…ZHAM,
ZHAM… that finished him… but how to get out of here before the backup is
here. Hmm, there is a ventilation shaft… crouch inside; I’ll be safe here.
Lets see where it leads.
So this is the end of it, a NSF Soldier is guarding
that shaft, while another is patrolling… The patrol has just left, make no
sound opening the hatch, aiming… ZHAMZHAM, ha dead you are!
Oh, there is the
other one. ZHAM, ZHAM, he’s got a flamethrower, don’t let him come close,
ZHAM, ZHAM, ZHAM, YES! Got him! No barbecue today…
Flamethrower
Incredible powerful on close distances and very large
in the Inventory. It’s hard to use because of the range and there is barely
any ammunition for it in the game. I do not recommend using it, but I don’t
want to be hit by this beast.
I continued my search for the ambrosia-vaccine ran into
another guard, which I quickly took care of with some 10mm bullets from my
pistol. After sneaking past another camera activated automatic gun, I found the
missing barrel hidden in a corner. I quickly contacted Anna Navarre with a
little grin in my face to inform her that the mission is accomplished.
Nanoaugmentation “Body”
1) “Aqualungs” allow the hero to stay underwater
for a longer time. It’s quite useful, because there are some diving passages
in the game, which are mostly easier ways to the mission objectives. There is always an alternative though.
2) “Resistance to radiation” decreases the damage
radiation and poison inflict on the agent. Not very useful in my opinion because
there are not many radiated areas and poisonous weapons are mainly used in the
beginning of the game.
After I finished my search I went topside and met with Agent Navarre.
She was a bit disappointed because I was “to gentle with the
NSF. But at least you are no coward like Paul.” Paul? A coward? I never saw
him that way… but no time to worry about that. Anna gave me a new mission. The
NSF took hostages in the Battery Park subway station and my task would be to
clear the situation without getting the civilians hurt or killed. Because the terrorist had threatened to blow up to platform, Anna gave me
some EMP-grenades.
EMP-grenades
A grenade against technical structures. Bots, cameras,
laser trips or nano-augmented agents. When the hero gets caught in the blast it
depletes the energy for the augmentations. Everything else is deactivated but
you have to be careful, some larger bots need 2 hits.
With those in my possession I headed towards the
subway. When I arrived, UNATCO troops were just fighting against terrorists
guarding the station entrance and the wooden huts bums had build. I pulled out
my pistol and supported the grunts, who quickly take out the enemies. A quick
talk to the troopers didn’t get me any new information, so I proceeded with my
mission.
A first recon showed me three NSF watchmen on the
stairs down to the platform.
My plan was to attack with quick and decisive force and
not sneaky and stealthy, because that hadn’t worked for a few times now.
Additionally this wouldn’t give them time to react properly on my assault or
to execute the prisoners. I just had to be careful with that booby traps Anna
Navarre had talked about.
With my sniper rifle in hand I approached the to of the
stairs. Three shots later two terrorists were dead and the third was fleeing
severely wounded, probably to warn the others. I had to prevent that and ran
down the stairs like lightning. The bleeding coward didn’t come to far. He was
stopped when he just passed the laser trips activating the explosives placed
everywhere on the subway platform. Luckily these days those things have an IFF
system telling them if it’s friend or foe passing. That way I was able to take
out the remaining four enemies with ease. Even a shotgun and a flamethrower
where no match for the mighty 30.06 bullets, which quickly showed them the route
to hell.
Well, the fourth terrorist had his chance when he cleverly hid behind a
pillar after stupidly throwing his weapon away. But I made him even with his
comrades when he tried to change cover and met the metal-executioner.
With all human threats out of the way, there was just the booby trap left. An EMP-grenade deactivated the beams for a short time and allowed me to reach the explosives on the platform. I carried all of them into the ventilation ducts and then triggered the explosion. After the blast was over without doing any harm, Alex Jacobson reminded me of my next objectives: “Take the subway to Hells Kitchen and meet your brother there. He will brief you about the generator.” I acknowledged and opened the train doors.
The automated train
started moving just as I was inside and took me to my next adventures in
Manhattan. But that is another part of the story that will be told later…
Authors notes:
So that’s it, my first try to write a battle report.
I live in Germany and my English-marks were never to good, so I hope my writing
is acceptable and understandable. Hopefully Words check-up function eliminated
the worst mistakes.
Maybe I should explain, why I choose Deus Ex to report.
First thing is, I don’t play any games online, so I have no material for the
classic battlereporting games. Obviously that also means I seriously lack
knowledge about how these games are played. For Deus Ex things are different,
I’ve played this game a lot since I got it in later 2000. I have beaten this
game four times and have played it for 50 to 80 percent about 15 more times.
With its dense storyline, the semi-clever enemies and the many possibilities to
solve the problems, Deus Ex has a lot to make an interesting report. And of
course it is my all time favourite action game.
In case some of you wonder, I’m not writing every
detail this game has. I’ve cut it down to something what could be the core of
Deus Ex. Also this is a mixture of all the times I played the game. The actual
game I play right now to take to screenshot serves as a solid foundation for the
report but it is spiced up with situations that I’ve encountered in the past.
For this and possible future Deus Ex reports you have
to know that I will skip or change every part which does not help with the
completion of the missions or doesn’t provide any important piece of
equipment.
The Fun Part:
Somewhere back in 2002 I saw something very
interesting. I was looking at the Manhattan skyline when something struck my
mind. Try to figure to out what I mean yourself. Here is a picture of the
skyline as it’s seen from Liberty Island in the game.
Do you see it? No? Let me help.
The game was published in 2000…and the World Trade
Centre is missing!
With that little thing I’ll quit. I hope you’ve
enjoyed the report. I’d like to thank Word for helping me with the English
language, FrontPage for allowing me to do html without knowing anything about
it, Zerg~Ling for his CSS-Guide which really helped my crappy format and Lucky
Newbie for making me do this…
PS.: While I was writing this there was one particular thought from CattleBruisers battlereporting-guide. "I need about 1 and a half hour to write a report" Hmmm, it took me a whole month finishing this one ... maybe I have to work on my speed too.
PPS.: Lots of kudos to Zerg~Ling and ~CattleBruiser~! It were your reports that made me love battlereports and yours are still my favourite ones ... so please, start reporting again!!!
Link to the following part: Generating Hell