Archive for April 27th, 2009

The first mission in Deus Ex is to eliminate the NSF terrorists who have occupied the Statue of Liberty (which was apparently decapitated in a previous attack). The NSF stands for National Seccessionist Forces, by the way, which is sort of odd; are they planning on seceding and taking the entirety of America with them, or what? Anyway.

I get delivered to a dock by boat, and meet up with Paul. Paul is JC’s older brother, and the first UNATCO agent to have received nanotech augmentations (JC being the second). Paul is all “This is a police operation” and “Try not to kill too many people.” He then offers me a selection of weapons, and I take the GEP (guided explosive projectile) gun, which blows things up real good. I also have a pistol and an electrical riot prod. If you’re going to ask your highly-trained paramilitary agents to avoid killing people, maybe you should make sure they don’t have to rely on a melee weapon to subdue the gun-toting terrorists. Just a thought.

It also turns out that Deus Ex is one of those games that rewards exploration, regardless of whether it makes sense or not. Sure, I’ve been assigned an important mission, but I’d better make sure to take a swim and make sure there aren’t any valuable supply crates floating in the water under the docks. Oh, hey, there are! What are the odds?

When I finish dicking around on the docks, I head out onto the island itself, and promptly attract the attention of a couple of patrolling NSF. I head back to the dock areas to take cover behind some crates there, and the goons follow me, whereupon they’re promptly ventilated by Paul and a UNATCO security droid. Paul’s apparently a big believer in the maxim “Do as I say, not as I do.” I’m going to be generous to the designers and pretend that this is an intentional element of the obvious biblical allegory which attaches to JC and Paul.

A quick survey of the island reveals a UNATCO outpost with some troopers wandering around. They’re not happy about being asked to show restraint, and when I tell the sarge in charge that I intend to clear out the statue, he gives me access to the command center and sells me some ordinance.

I head toward the docks on the north end of the island, where I’m supposed to meet up with an informant. There are some guards on the way, but they don’t seem to be particularly alert, or have very good vision. This is good, because I’m hoping to ninja my way through this game, and I don’t want to have to put up with too much frustration.

One thing I do notice is that it usually takes a couple zaps from the electric prod to take the guys down, and the prod doesn’t have a whole lot of charge. By the time I’ve zorched three or four guys into unconciousness, I’m running critically low on juice. My pistol doesn’t have a whole lot of ammo, either, so I’m guessing ammo conservation is going to be a major issue in this game.

There are a couple guards on the northern dock who have decided to hang around next to a crate full of TNT (helpfully labeled, natch!) Combined with the ammo shortage, ths is all the incentive I need to ditch this “non-lethal combat” shit and blow the guys up. They gib nicely, and I meet with the informant, who gives me a key to the front door into the statue after I promise not to kill the NSF commander. Oh, and when I go for a swim off THESE docks, I find a sunken boat with a locked hatch containing some crates full of ammo and shotguns. My lockpicking skill is high enough to get me in without undue difficulty, and I make away with all manner of goodies.

Around the eastern side of the statue is an undergrond bunker with a couple more guards, who I promptly shoot in the face with a crossbow I found. The crossbow has both regular darts and tranquilizer darts, but the tranq darts take a while to work, and I don’t want my victims running around and alerting other enemies before they collapse, so it’s extrajudicial killing all the way. The bunker contains a jumping puzzle involving electrical arcs, crates, and a forklift. Ugh. I endure it and am rewarded with some weapon upgrades, which I promptly apply to the crossbow, which is now my favorite general-purpose weapon.

Somewhere along the way, I run into an NSF security droid. Unlike, say, System Shock, robots are really hard to take down with conventional munitions, but as always, are incredibly vulnerable to EMP grenades. Whee!

After thoroughly looting the island (while avoiding a trio of guards I really don’t want to tangle with), it’s time to assault the statue itself. The front door is a viable option, but near the bunker there are a bunch of crates and shipping containers piled up around the statue’s base. Sure enough, it’s possible to climb them up to a platform near about halfway up the statue. I feel all sneaky.

On the down side, the platform with crawling with NSF goons. On the bright side, as long as I crouch and stay near the statue while I move, they have a hard time seeing me, and I can work my way around to an entrance. The entrance leads to a narrow hallway patrolled by another guard, but a quick dart to the back of the head takes him down.  Is this the first time someone has been shot in the Statue of Liberty? I’m not sure, but I’m kind of hoping it is.