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The first thing I see when I arrive in Hong Kong is a big indoor hangar bay. The first thing I have is Jock apologizing for messing up. MJ12 has the ability to override the flight controls of our fancy new stealth helicopter, and has forced us to land at their Hong Kong heliport. My mission, should I choose to ever get out of this place, is to find the override controls and deactivate them.

There’s not much of interest in the hanger itself, aside from a couple of the big garage doors that usually signify the existence of a security bot behind them. There’s a passageway leading away from the hangar to a set of stairs. A sign on the wall conveniently explains that the stairs up lead to the control room, and the stairs down lead to the barracks. The existence of a barracks implies the existence of armed men, so I head upstairs. There are two control rooms, and a couple of guards, which I investigate and shoot, respectively. Naturally, the controls require an access code which I don’t have. There are some security panels, so I shut down all the security panels and turrets, which is by now my standard operating procedure. Still not feeling like investigating the barracks, I return to the hangar and discover that some of the grates in the floor can be opened, allowing access to some maintenance tunnels.

These tunnels can get me pretty much anywhere in the base, including into the armory and the barracks. The barracks is in fact full of soldiers, so I avoid it for now. A datacube in the armory reveals that this base has been having chronic problems with toxic fumes, and gives me the code necessary to flush out the toxic gas so the storage areas can be properly cleaned and repaired. Naturally, this is supposed to be done only after the base personnel have been evacuated. I’m not the patient sort, however, and if my previous experience with MJ12 is any indication, everyone here is probably a dick anyway. It does say something about this game that I have to stop and think before releasing the gas, on the off chance that by doing so I’ll be icing some sort of important NPC.

I eventually decide to go for it, at which point Jock helpfully hops onto my infolink to inform me that I’ve flooded the maintenance tunnels with poison gas, and need to get out of there. I turn on my Environmental Resistance and stroll out of the tunnels with minimal damage. Judging by the screams I can hear, the guys in the barracks have not suffered minimal damage. I head downstairs to the barracks to see if anyone needs my help. Sure enough, while there are a bunch of dead MJ12 troopers, there are a couple who are still upright and need my help in order to go down permanently. I render assistance unto them in the most efficient manner possible. Naturally, within the barracks I find all the access codes I need for the base, as well as for the control room.

Before leaving, I decide to finish exploring the base and erasing any last vestiges of resistance I might find here. Sure enough, a ladder in the hanger leads up to the roof, where there are a couple of guards armed with heavy weapons. The roof is big enough, and has enough crates providing concealment, that I can get up close and knife them before they have a chance to shoot rockets at me. Among the supplies on the roof, I find a couple of swords. I immediately snag one, because they do way more damage than knives. I also rapidly discover that whenever I have a sword at the ready and try to put it away, JC gives it a badass little twirl before sheathing it. Excellent.

I return to the control room to remove the override from the helicopter controls, and notice a grate I hadn’t seen before. I check it out and discover that it doesn’t lead into the regular maintenance tunnels; instead, it leads to a ladder down into the area behind those big garage doors I noticed earlier. Sure enough, there are robots behind them. I’ve played enough computer games to realize that those robots will probably come out guns blazing as soon as I get the helicopter up and running again, and there’ll probably be some sort of escort mission where I have to destroy them before they blow up the chopper. I forestall this little subplot by dropping some explosives into the robot hutches. It seems like kind of a waste to use LAMs on enemies which are deactivated and which pose no immediate threat, but some experimentation demonstrates that if I try to destroy the robots using lighter weaponry, they’ll activate and murder me with terrifying efficiency. Explosives it is, then.

Back in the control room, I enter the code. I return to the hangar, where Jock tells me he needs to bug out, but he’ll blow open the front door with a missile so I can get out. He also tells me to stand back, which is good advice, as that missile has quite a blast radius, annihilating the door and collapsing part of the wall in the process. Needless to say, the doors which concealed the robots also open up, but nothing comes out, so it looks like I got them all. Jock flies away, and I stroll on out to the front elevator, ready for some sightseeing in Hong Kong. Now, if only I knew how to find this Tracer Tong guy everyone keeps talking about.  . .

In our last installment, I had just avoided  a hopeless fight by surrendering to Gunther. When the loading screen clears, I’m trapped in a cell and bereft of equipment. This lasts for all of a few seconds until some dude named Daedalus contacts me on my infolink. He tells me, in a slightly creepy digitally-altered voice, that Paul is dead, and further informs me that he can help me escape by cutting power to my cell door, but only for a few seconds. True to his word, the power goes out, the door opens, and I slip outside and take stock of the situation.

I’m trapped in an MJ12 facility. At the moment I’m in a small detention area with a few other cells and some crates. There’s a guard post just outside, and the guard periodically walks around on patrol, conveniently putting him out of site of the cell block for a while. I search the area I’m in, and eventually locate a riot prod in a crate. Excellent. While the guard’s making his rounds, I sneak into the guardpost and hide myself behind the desk there. When the guard comes back and returns to his seat, I zap him in the nads as soon as he comes around the desk. He stands there quivering manically for a second, so I zap him again and he goes down. I take his pistol and keys, and start exploring. There are some lockpicks and other goodies in the guard post and the cells.

Also in the cells are two NSF prisoners, one dead and one alive. The dead one has some lockpicks on him, and the live one has a knife and a medkit. He identified himself as Miguel, and suggests that we cooperate to escape. I agree, and he gives me his medkit, since he clearly knows who the mission-critical personnel are here. We head out of the cell block and start trying to escape.

Daedalus has given me an additional mission objective, though. I need to find the medlab and retrieve a datacube from Paul’s body. The cube contains information that Tracer Tong requires in order to defeat my killswitch.

After some exploration, we find a robot maintenance facility, which occupies three floors. The first two floors have wide-open spaces containing guards, technicians, and robots; by rushing up a few flights of stairs we find ourselves on the comparatively safer third level. I say comparatively because while there are more corners and furnite to hide behind, there are a couple of armed guards up there, too. I manage to ambush and taser each of them individually, helping myself to their assault rifles in the process. Sadly, the game does not allow me to prop one of the guards up in a chair carrying a sign reading “Now I have a machine gun, ha ha ha.”

Luckily, the game does allow me to hack a convenient security panel and reprogram the robots on the lower floor. The security bots promptly come to life and start gunning down the guards, putting an end to my non-lethal jailbreak. What can I say? True pacifism is hard, especially in Deus Ex, and I have a low tolerance for frustration these days.

This makes the bot bay a great temporary base. In addition to my new security droids, there’s a repair bot which I can draw energy from to power my augmentations. I leave Miguel there for the time being, just in case any stragglers survived the roboacolypse, and make my way to the nearby armory. There are a couple of very hostile military droids patrolling the hallway in front of it, but they have a predictable patrol route and very limited line-of-site, so I slip past them into the armory, shutting the door behind me.

Inside the armory is a guard and a turret. I machine gun the guard before he can turn on the alarm, and head upstairs out of site of the nearby security camera before it sets off the alarm and activates the turret. Most of the time in Deus Ex, whenever you see a turret or camera, there’s a security camera nearby that you can use to control it, and that’s the case here, too. I hack the system, bypassing the camera and reprogramming the turret to hold a deep-seated hatred from MJ12. I then loot the armory thoroughly, finding all my old equipment in the process. There’s also a fancy-dancy containment field holding a plasma rifle, but while it’s intriguing, I don’t really have the skills or ammo reserves to put it to good use, so I leave it be.

On my way out, I open the door and find a hostile security bot just outside it, so I backpedal furiously and throw explosives into the hallway until the two bots out there are destroyed. Robots are pretty fearsome, and I get shot up pretty badly, forcing me to use some of the medkits I recovered.

After wandering about some more I find myself back outside the cellblock, and this time I notice a large grating in the floor, which I can open. Excellent! I drop down into the ductwork and crawl around a bit. It’s dimly lit and there are some dodgy-looking animal carcasses down there, but I eventually find myself underneath what Daedalus assures me is the nanotech lab. There are plenty of gratings I can use to exit the duct work, most of which seem to go to pretty explosed locations.

I eventually settle on the one which looks like it’ll let me cause the most mayhem; specifically, it open into an office, directly behind a chair where a Man in Black is sitting and using a computer. I pop the grate open and fire a couple crossbow bolts into his head, dropping him. That’s when I discover that, much like Anna, Men in Black explode when they die.

I reload my last save and repeat the process, this time turning on my Speed and hauling ass back into the ductwork as soon as he starts to fall. The explosion attracts the attention of a couple of guards, but they can’t find me and eventually lose interest, whereupon I return to the office and investigate.

The email on the computer confirms that the guy I just killed was the Agent Sherman who Simons sent to oversee the MJ12 operations in New York. Go me! I also find a diagram of a dissected greasel. What’s a greasel? This is a greasel:

They’re these weird transgenic critters that bear an uncanny resemblance to the poison-spitting dinosaurs from Jurassic Park, only they’ve been given additional feathers which don’t seem to serve and purpose other than aesthetics. 

I also find a schematic of The Visible Walton Simons and his augmentations. I’m talking about his nano-augmentations, so stop giving me that look, you sickos. Among other things, he has the ability to remotely detonate incoming explosives, and also has a built-in cloaking device. I guess both of those could be useful for hurricane relief, somehow.

Finally, I discover that I can use Agent Sherman’s computer to open up the greasel containment area. This could be useful because it abuts the large nanotech lab outside the office. The large lab that’s swarming with scientists and armed guards. I decide to go for it.

Utter pandemonium erupt outside. Greasels start spitting poisonous venom at everyone in the lab. The scientists start running around in a panicked frenzy, while the guards start shooting at the greasels. The greasels win. Realizing that the scientists aren’t going to do anything to soften up the critters, I burst into the lab, pistol at the ready, and finish off the greasels, which are surprisingly tough for being so small.

One of the scientists, the aptly-named Dr. Moreau, was a friend of Paul’s and was involved in the creation of our augmentations; he’s not happy with anything that’s happened lately, and gives me the code to get into the med lab right next door. I head over and find that Daedalus was telling the truth; Paul is dead. I find the information I need; Daedalus tells me he’s passed it along to Tong, and gives me the code I need to exit the MJ12 base; this is the designers’ way of making sure you don’t leave the base without the information Tong needs.

I return to the nano-lab and the ducts, since I’m pretty sure that I’m persona non grata here after inciting both a robot uprising and a rebel greasel rumble. I explore until Daedalus tells me I’m under the command center. This is as far as the ducts will take me, and another big room full of guards and dogs is standing between me and freedom. I open the grate and snipe as many as I can from cover, but I’m eventually required to engage in a stand-up gunfight with the survivors. This is another  brutal firefight, but I survive and make my way to the exit.

I’m unpleasantly surprised when I enter the security code and the door opens to reveal another guard just outside the door. Luckily, I’m fast enough on the draw to make sure the surprise is even more unpleasant for him. Before going out, I make my way back to the robotics bay to recharge and to let Miguel know it’s safe for him to make a break for it. Once I’ve done this I return to the command center and exit the MJ12 base.

As soon as I pass through the door, I find myself in UNATCO HQ.

After my daringly spectacular and homicidal escape from the former NSF base, I return to the hotel to report to Paul. There are still some guards in the lobby, so I sneak past them and stick a couple of LAMs on the wall next to Paul’s door to discourage anyone from interrupting us.

Paul’s in even worse shape than before, although he’s happy I was able to send out the warning. As we’re talking, there’s a commotion outside, and someone yells at us to open the door and surrender. Whatever else they were about to say is cut off by the sounds of the LAMs detonating. Paul tells me to go out the window and escape through the subway station; he’s no condition to accompany me, but he can still hold off our attackers for a while. I activate my Speed enhancement and head down the fire escape to the ground floor.

By now I’m pretty familiar with the area, so instead of taking the main streets to the subway station, I can take a shortcut by slipping through a hole in a wooden fence just outside the hotel. The street outside the subway station is patrolled by a couple of UNATCO troopers and a pair of combat robots. Since I don’t have time to be sneaky, I take out the troopers with my silence sniper rifle, then destroy the two robots with rockets from my GEP gun, ducking back behind the fence whenever I need to reload. I expect the explosions to attract the wrong kind of attention (never mind the question of what would constitute the right kind of attention, under these circumstances), and haul ass to the subway station and hop in the first train I see.

It takes me to Battery Park. You remember Battery Park, where there was just a massive shootout earlier this night? Battery Park, which was last seen to be occupied by UNATCO? Yeah. I’m not sure why in the world I’d willingly go there, aside from the fact that the designers made the game that way.

As proof that this was a really bad idea, Anna meets me on the subway platform. She’s disappointed that I turned against UNATCO; I tell her I’d die before I go back. She thinks this is a great plan, and is willing to do her part to make it happen.

This leads to an absolutely horrible firefight. My weapons loadout is really good for taking down enemies before they can find me. It’s not so great for dealing with a pissed-off Russian-Israeli cyborg who’s aiming an assault rifle directly at my face. I keep boosting my speed throughout the fight, taking cover behind the pillars in the train station while returning fire with my peashooter of a pistol whenever I can. Anna’s too close for me to use the GEP gun or sniper rifle effectively, and my crossbow reloads too slowly to be much use. And, as it turns out, Anna can take a whole lot of damage. Finally, after the longest continuest firefight I’ve been through in this game, I bring her down with a shot to the head. In one of the more unpleasant surprises that Deus Ex has thrown at me, she then explodes. Between Anna’s attacks and her subsequent explosion, I’m almost dead, I’m down to two magazines for my pistol, and the explosion has destroyed Anna’s weapon and ammunition, which might have been useful.

I consider the situation for a moment and decide that while the firefight may have been exciting, and was quite the interesting experience, there was probably a more efficient way to handle this encounter. I reload my last save and try again.

This time, as soon as I get off the subway car and see Anna walking across the platform, I don’t wait to hear what she has to say. I load a white phosphorous rocket into my GEP gun and launch it directly toward her. She doesn’t even get a shot off at me before she dies. Note to self: safe the small-caliber weapons for oblivious enemies; alert enemies require the liberal application of high explosives.

Once Anna has safely exploded, I run up the stairs and exit the subway station. Outside, I meet Gunther and a veritable army of UNATCO troops, backed up by several of the big military combat bots. Gunther demands that I surrender, and I do; the odds against me are just too overwhelming.

The game does give you the option to fight if you want, but it’s sort of a false choice. Several of the enemies in this group are impossible to kill, so it’s only a matter of time before they bring you down and take you into custody. This is apparently one of the few cases where the game “cheats” by putting you in an unwinnable situation. At least that means I’m not tempted to replay this fight over and over, trying to win it just to see what happens. In this case, Deus Ex has successfully short-circuited my tendency toward obsessive perfectionism. Well played, Deus Ex.

After helping myself to the snacks and ammo in Paul’s apartment, I head down to the lobby, where I find Gilbert and Sandra Renton, the manager and his daughter. They’ve got some new problems; specifically, a gang leader named Jojo Fine has moved into the hotel, and also seems to have taken over as Sandra’s new pimp. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard Jojo’s name; the last time I was in Hell’s Kitchen, a few people mentioned that Jojo had been supplying weapons to the NSF.

Gilbert is pissed about Jojo, and asks to borrow a weapon from me so he can take Jojo out. I loan him my spare pistol, although Sandra doesn’t think he’ll follow through. It becomes a moot point when Jojo strolls in, talks some smack to Gilbert, and berates Sandra for hanging around the hotel instead of doing her part to make him a rich man. Gilbert can’t take too much of this, and pulls his new gun; Jojo does the same, and things are looking bad. Luckily for everyone involved, I’m watching this little scuffle through the sights of my crossbow, and fire a dart into the back of his head as soon as he draws. I guess it wasn’t too lucky for Jojo, but at least he got to die the same way he lived: as disposable criminal cannon fodder.

The Rentons are grateful for my help, and Sandra decides that maybe working at the hotel isn’t so bad. I head out into’s Hell’s Kitchen, and discover that even though the NSF have been defeated, the UN and cops have Hell’s Kitchen locked up tight. There aren’t many people on the streets, most of the buildings are closed up, and there’s almost no one at the bar. I check out the MJ12 base, but it hasn’t been reinforced since my last killing spree (although the Ammo Fairy seems to have restocked the place).  The Smuggler has also restocked, so in short order I’m all set to infiltrate the former NSF base.

The infiltration is actually pretty easy, since all the UNATCO troops assume I’m supposed to be there, so they don’t bother me as I search the place. The base is a former warehouse with several floors. In the center is a large open room; this room contains stairs going to the upper floors. The upper portions of the room only have flooring along the perimeter; the center is wide open, and could theoretically allow someone on the top floor an excellent opportunity to snipe at anyone on the lower floors. There are also all kinds of intriguingly explosive-looking objects scattered throughout the place.

Off to the sides of the center room, there are various offices and storage spaces. One office allows me to eavesdrop on a hilarious conversation between two troopers regarding Walton Simons and his relationship with UNATCO.

Oh, that reminds me of something I forgot to mention when I wrote up my last trip to UNATCO HQ. I played through this section while I was at my mother’s house, and she was in the room playing Bookworm Deluxe on her own computer while I played Deus Ex on my laptop.  During a conversation at HQ, JC asks Simons what he does that requires him to have nano-augmentations. Walton says, in a rather menacing tone, “Actually, I’m the head of FEMA.” As soon as he said this, my mom started laughing. And who could blame her? Like I said earlier, some elements of the conspiracy theories in this game have not aged well.

Anyway, back to the conversation between the NSF troopers. They reveal that Simons is a major financial backer of UNATCO (”You think UNATCO would be handing out assault rifles if the funding was left to the UN?”), Simons is a philanthropist (”Like Nietzche?”), and that he volunteered for FEMA (”To help out after hurricanes and that kind of thing”). Okay, that last bit is more sad than hilarious, all things considered. I also find that they’re deleting an awful lot of files from the computer system.

I spend a bit of time remodeling the warehouse, too. The UNATCO guards are all “Glad to see you here, agent!” and I’m all “Thanks, I’m glad I could make it. I’m just here to make sure you guys are in compliance with UN regulations detailing the proper storage of hazardous materials. Specifically, I’m going to be moving these barrels of flammable liquid closer to the doorways, stairs, and other choke points so they’ll be. . . easier for you to keep an eye on. Yes, that’s it.”

My cover is nearly blown on the third floor, where one of the guards gives me all sorts of attitude about how no one’s supposed to be up there without Simons’s permission. I respond with something along the lines of “That’s great, but if you’re not going to help me move these crates of TNT, could you go bother someone else for a while?”

During my sweep of the warehouse, I find a datacube of information Paul sent to Lebedev with all sorts of interesting information: suspicious payments from Simons to Manderley and other high-ranking UNATCO personnel; evidence that UNATCO bombed the Statue of Liberty, and evidence that UNATCO is spreading the Gray Death around.

By this point, I’m thoroughly convinced that Paul is right. I get to the satellite communications station on the roof of the warehouse and beam the evidence, and a warning, to Paul’s allies in Hong Kong and Paris. As I leave, Simons butts in on my infolink; he’s very disappointed in me, and is having me terminated. My killswitch has been activated, but that’s a minor concern now that everyone in the warehouse is trying to kill me.

Trying to escape the warehouse results in an absolutely massive firefight which I have to replay quite a few times before I finally get it right. Once the shooting starts, the guards all start booking it up the stairs toward me, and if multiple guards make it up to the top floor where I am, there’s no way I can take them all down before they kill me. Luckily, the stairways are on alternating sides of the warehouse, so I can get a clear shot with my sniper rifle as they cross between floors, assuming I don’t get when they start returning fire. I take advantage of the explosive goodies I’ve scattered around to take out several enemies, although eventually I resort to tossing grenades down the stairs to wipe out incoming groups.

After a long and intense firefight, the enemies eventually stop coming. I make my way down the stairs to the ground floor, and discover that the reason they stopped attacking is because I’ve killed pretty much everyone else in the warehouse. I go outside, fighting my way past a few last UNATCO troopers guarding the exterior of the house, and head back toward the hotel to report to Paul.

I finish up the third mission by killing Juan Lebedev and looting his plane.

See, this is why I make for a horrible bureaucrat. The proper phrasing is something along the lines of “After Lebedev’s death, I personally led UNATCO personal on a thorough search of the aircraft, recovering the missing vaccine and retrieving sensitive technology which had fallen into NSF hands.” By which I mean I’ve found the last container of Ambrosia, as well as my first subdermal augmentation canister. Sadly, the augmentation is sort of useless to me. It allows me to obtain either the Ballistic Protection or EMP Shield augmentation, neither of which I particularly need; I’d rather save my subdermal augmentation slots for stealth-related augmentations when they become available.

The airport is now patrolled by UNATCO troopers; there’s no sign of Paul or the remaining NSF.

I make my way  back to the exterior of the airport, where I meet Gunther. He’s been assigned peacekeeping duties for the area; I talk a bit of smack at him, noting that that seems to be the only thing he’s good at. Gunther’s pissed that Paul has joined the NSF, and even more pissed that Paul seems to have gotten away. He’s not much of a conversationalist, so I hop on the helicopter back to HQ.

Manderley gives me my latest payment, plus a bonus for retrieving all the Ambrosia and offing Lebedev. My next mission will be to go to Hong Kong to assassinate this Tracer Tong character Paul was talking about. I also learn that Paul’s living on borrowed time, since his killswitch has been activated. Apparently, all augmented agents have built-in safeguards to keep them from going rogue; in the case of nano-augmented agents like Paul and myself, the nanites can be remotely programmed to replicate exponentially, resulting in the agent’s death. Great. Now that I know this, my next performance review is going to be that much more stressful.

Hacking Manderley’s computer reveals a few more interesting bits of information. Jaime Reyes has emailed Manderley, concerned that one of the NSF prisoners he examined appears to have been shocked repeatedly with a riot-prod while in custody. An email from one WS, presumably Walton Simons, informs Manderley that Simons has sent one Agent Sherman to assist him and ensure that “MJ12 operations are not adversely affected.” Considering that the only things I know about MJ12 are that they kidnap people and infect New York City’s water supply with the Gray Death, it’s starting to look like Paul might not be crazy after all.

In the break room, I overhear Simons asking Jaime for medical advice, and it becomes clear that Simons has nano-augmentations as well. Later, in the medlab, I talk to Jaime about Paul’s defection; Jaime is skeptical that UNATCO is involved in a conspiracy to infect the population. I check Jaime’s email, and see that Manderley has assured him that he will investigate the treatment of prisoners, but since the situation is so chaotic right now, it’s probably best if Jaime doesn’t mention this to anyone else, okay?

I’d just like to say that Deus Ex features one of the single most realistic workplaces ever portrayed in a video game.

Alex sends me a message over my infolink, saying he wants to talk in person. When I visit him, he asks if I believe what Paul said; sure, it sounds kind of crazy, but Alex has never known Paul to make a mistake. I go talk to Sam Carter for my usual inadequate supply of ammo. He’s also surprised at Paul’s defection, and remarks that while I did what I thought was right, it’s never an easy thing to kill an unarmed man. Personally, I think it’s a whole lot easier than killing one who can fight back, but Carter is probably talking about morals and stuff. Dammit, man, I work for the UN! Moral concerns are secondary; what really matters is that somewhere, there’s a written regulation justifying my actions!

I had outside to the helicopter. Jock tells me that this latest assassination mission stinks, and that instead of going to Hong Kong, we’re going into the city again to talk to Paul.

I suspect this is going to be somewhat difficult; now that I’ve killed Paul’s boss, and Paul knows he’s being hunted himself, he’s likely to be even more paranoid and well-protected than usual. I’m sort of surprised when the helicopter sets down on the roof of Paul’s hotel. I’m even more surprised when I go down the fire escape (keeping an eye out for traps that never materialize), go through the open window, and find Paul sitting in a chair in his hotel room. If I had doubts about his commitment to operational security before, I have doubts about his sanity now.

Paul’s in bad shape; he hasn’t died from the effects of his killswitch yet, but it’s only a matter of time. Paul wants me to infiltrate a nearby NSF facility which has been captured by UNATCO. There, he claims I’ll find proof that UNATCO is up to no good, and I’ll be able to transmit a warning to Paul’s allies, notably Tracer Tong and a subversive European organization known as Silhouette. I agree to do it, because it’s apparent by now that Simons and Manderley, at least, are involved with the mysterious MJ12, and also because the only way to progress further in the game is to do what Paul wants.

If my understanding of NYC geography is correct, it should be at least a few miles to walk straight from Battery Park to LaGuardia through the subway tunnels, but if you discount the time I spend dodging cameras, hacking computers, and destroying droids, it only takes me a few minutes. My objectives at the airport are to retrieve the remaining Ambrosia and kill Juan Lebedev, the NSF commander. The only problem is that Lebedev has put a lot of security in place to keep anyone from infiltrating the terminal.

The first obstacle is a wide-open lobby with a guard and an inconveniently-placed security camera. One canister of Amrosia is there, and beyond the lobby is a heliport I need to get to; if I try to run straight across, the camera will pick me up and sound the alarm. I shoot the guard before he can see me, and end up dodging the camera by heading into one of the hallways leading off the side of the lobby. There are several offices there, but picking the locks on the office doors allows me to retrieve some ammunition and, more importantly, hide from patrolling guards. Using the offices as hiding places allows me to ambush the guards and take them down with my knife, keeping both the noise and the ammo consumption down.

From the hallways, it’s possible to climb some stairs that bypass the lobby and lead to a catwalk around the walls of the heliport, the floor of which is patrolled by several guards. The catwalk itself has a sniper on it, and I give him a 10mm pink slip because his position is redundant now that I’m here. I use my sniper rifle to pick off some of the guards directly, and take out others by blowing up some of the fuel barrels scattered throughout the room. This whole sequence is actually pretty interesting to play, because the lobby and the helipad both give the enemy a wide-open field of fire against direct attacks, forcing me to sneak around the edges and side passages to pick them off one by one. Playing this way is quite tense, but fairly rewarding.

The helipad contains an elevator that goes up to ground level. The area I find myself in is walled off from the rest of the airport, complete with gun turrets and guard towers; the 747 hangar I need to get to is behind yet another tall wall and locked gate. Security droids and guards patrol a maze of stacked crates and shipping containers. There don’t seem to be any locations which aren’t covered by a patrol route or a security camera.

The most convenient way I find to clear this area is to use my Speed enhancement to jump onto some of the crates and run along the top of them. They’re all metal, so it makes a lot of noise which can alert guards, but at least it keep me away from eye level and out of sight of the security cameras. I use this vantage point to take out any guards or robots I see, although this requires me to expend almost all of my EMP grenades.

After clearing out all the opposition and looting the guard towers (reprogramming the cameras and gun turrets in the process), I’ve found a second Ambrosia container and the key to get into the hangar. What’s the NSF going to throw at me next?

It’s Paul! He’s working for the NSF! Not entirely shocking, given what we already know! Paul says the Gray Death is a man-made virus, and that UNATCO is controlling the populace by controlling the supply of Ambrosia.

Most of JC’s lines are spoken with a somewhat flat affect, which I originally chalked up to an attempt to make him seem cool and badass. In this conversation, though, it actually creates some interesting ambiguity. When JC asks Paul “Do you really believe that?” it’s not clear whether it’s meant as an honest inquiry or a skeptical retort. For the time being, I’ll assume that this is intentional; JC’s words are scripted, but it’s up to the player to decide JC’s state of mind, and the meaning behind his words.

Paul goes on to say that he and Lebedev are going to ship the Ambrosia to Hong Kong, where someone named Tracer Tong will use the sample to help them synthesize more. I warn Paul that UNATCO is on the way, and Paul urges me to talk to Lebedev.

Lebedev’s jet is nicely-appointed 747 which includes a bar, multiple bedrooms, a swanky conference room, and probably a swimming pool in the cargo hold. 

It also contains Juan Lebedev, who shares the Denton Brothers’ affinity for long coats and leather vests. He surrenders and is about to tell me why Paul defected from UNATCO when Anna Navarre arrives to take charge. Anna orders me to finish the job, and when I tell her that UNATCO regs forbid the killing of unarmed prisoners, she orders me to do it anyway. I have a full magazine in my pistol; now I just need to decide what to do with it.

I talk to Lebedev again. He tells me I didn’t have parents, and that the people I thought of as my parents were actually employees, and that they were murdered so they couldn’t tell me why I was created. This is interesting, but let’s be honest: it also sounds like crazy talk. Lebedev doesn’t have any proof, and while UNATCO’s top agents seem to be trigger-happy Eurogoons, the NSF hasn’t really shown itself to be much better. And the longer I talk to Lebedev, the more agitated Anna gets.

At the end of the day, I’m not about to turn on UNATCO based on nothing but Paul and Lebedev’s accusations, and even if I did, I don’t know if I could survive a fight against Anna and her assault rifle in the plane’s close quarters.

And who is Lebedev, anyways? Paul makes him sound like some sort of altruist, but at the end of the day his grand plan was to hijack vital medicine and fly it out of the country. To do this, he and his private army have engaged in armed insurrection, taking hostages and sowing chaos throughout the city.

Yes, he surrendered. Yes, killing him now would be an act of perfidy. But will arresting him do any good? Will he really be punished? In a corrupt society, is it reasonable to believe that a man who’s wealthy beyond belief will really face justice? Maybe Anna is right; murdering him might not be legal, but maybe death is the only thing that will stop him.

Walking away may be an option, but it’s almost certainly a meaningless one. It will just piss off Manderley and my fellow agents, and may cause them to see me as a traitor like Paul. Even worse, if I do that, Anna will no doubt kill Lebedev. After infiltrating his stronghold, killing his guards, and leading UNATCO to him, can I really say my hands are clean just because someone else pulled the trigger?

Maybe it didn’t have to come to this, but I can’t change the past. I’m working from incomplete information, and I’m not going to learn anything more while Anna’s here. The only thing I know for sure is that whatever decision I make, someone is going to die. I’ve got a pistol in my hand, and no more time to think.

I pull the trigger.

So, as luck would have it, entering the Land of the Mole People requires me pass through a disused and no-doubt filthy public restroom in the subway station. This means I’m already in a bad mood when I enter the Mole People’s tunnel complex and am greeted by the sight of an NSF goon standing across the tracks with his back to me. For some reason, murdering him in cold blood doesn’t do anything to make me feel cleaner.

Clearing out the NSF is an interesting challenge. There are plenty of pillars, crates, and other obstructions which I can use to hide myself from sight. Unfortunately, these tunnels are where the Mole People live, so there are lots of noncombatants around, including several children. When I start shooting terrorists, they all freak out and start running around. While they generally move away from the firefight, they do tend to running into the crossfire while doing so. Luckily, I manage to avoid getting anybody killed while I clear the tunnels of bad guys.

One particularly chatty civilian seems to be in charge. I forget his name, so let’s call him King Mole. King Mole tells me about a secret room (accessed by pressing a switch cleverly disguised as a brick, no less!) where the NSF commander is hiding. I find the place and barge in ready for a fight. Instead I’m greeted by a most stirring speech:

“Don’t shoot! I surrender! I’m an accountant, not a soldier. I know the body armor looks intimidating, but I’m just a part-timer. . . like a reservist.”

In all fairness, the NSF uniform does look sort of intimidating.

 I accept the guy’s surrender, and search his office to find the key I need to continue my trip to LaGuardia. Naturally, this requires me to trek through yet another grody bathroom. If I ever meet the dude who designed this level, I have some very pointed questions to ask, although I doubt I’ll like the answers.

The next stretch of tunnel has only a few human guards, but relies heavily on electronic defenses. Most of this section is smooth sailing for me. This is where techinical skills come in handy; I might not be terribly effective in a straight-up firefight, but once I can get my hands on a security computer, it’s trivially easy to disable just about any automated security system. Typically, each security computer controls up to three different locations, and allows you to control cameras, doors, and turrets in those locations.

The one curveball I encounter in this section is a pair of commercial security droids, which are pretty scary. Military droids are even scarier, but they’re only available to government agencies or intergovernmental organizations like UNATCO, which means that whenver I see one, it’ll be on my side. Luckily, the droids are disabled by a couple of EMP grenades I’ve been saving for just such an occasion.

It’s probably worth noting that robots are more or less impervious to small arms fire; at least, I’ve never been able to destroy a robot with bullets before it killed me. The easiest ways to disable them are with EMP grenades or with explosives, neither of which particularly care about the robots’ armor. Since EMP grenades aren’t exactly common, and explosives have uses other than robot demolition, it’s often a good idea to avoid robots whenever possible.

One thing I haven’t really touched on yet is datacubes. These are essentially little messages, much like the recordings you can find in the System Shock games. Often they contain useful information (like computer passwords), plot development, or both. Some of the datacubes and emails I find during this mission are correspondence involving two NSF members called Decker and Erin. Their communications with each other, and with other NSF soldiers, contain useful information about the security setup around LaGuardia, but also make it pretty clear that there’s something going on between them. It’s all very cute, right up until the moment I realize that as one of the commanders on the scene, Decker probably doesn’t have much longer to live, assuming I haven’t killed him already.

The first thing I notice upon returning to UNATCO HQ is that there are a couple of honest-to-god Men In Black running around, acting vaguely threatening. Anna is waiting outside Manderley’s office, where Manderley is meeting with the MIBs’ boss, Walton Simons. Simons seems to think he’s running the show now, and he has concerns about Paul, both due to his unwillingness to kill, and due to his failure t o retrieve the stolen Ambrosia shipment from the NSF. I know this because I’m eavesdropping on their conversation the whole time. Simons finally leaves, and I barge into the office ahead of Anna, because she’s an NPC and I have better things to do than wait around in a computer game. Like blog about it, I guess.

Incidentally, it’s obvious that Simons is a bad guy, for two reasons. First off, when you start the game, you’re treated to a conversation between to men who are conspiring to do something vague. Simons is one of them. Also, he looks like this:

Generally, good guys don't look like this.

Manderley gives me more cash and tasks me with fixing up Paul’s mistake by retrieving the Ambrosia. Anna comes in, tells Manderley about what a great job I did shooting up the NSF at Castle Clinton, and suggests that I also be assigned to assassinate Juan Lebedev, one of the leaders of the NSF. As it turns out, Lebedev is in New York, directing the latest NSF operation from his private terminal at LaGuardia. Yes, he’s rich enough to buy an airplane terminal, but rich guys are usually pretty wussy, right? He’ll probably be an easy target.

While Manderley and Anna are telling me what to do, I’m surreptitiously hacking Manderley’s computer, and learning that Manderley and Simons suspect that Paul is collaborating with the NSF. Not entirely implausible, given the strange emails Paul had in his inbox.

After I’m dismissed, I wander around talking to people. One of the UNATCO guys says Anna was impressed by my performance, and he suggests that we would make a good couple.

Umm. . . how about NO?

I chat with Jaime Reyes and Sam Carter a bit. Carter is all set to load me up on weapons and ammo until I start talking about how I cleared out Castle Clinton, and how great it is to be seeing so much action my first day on the job. This pisses off Carter, who is apparently the only UNATCO employee other than Paul who believes police work doesn’t require indiscriminate killing. He still gives me some useful weapon enhancements, but refuses to hand over the 7.62mm ammo he promised. This would be more of a problem if I had any guns that could use it. My staple weapons are the crossbow, riot prod, and knife, and I’m packing the GEP gun for armored targets and a snipe rifle for long-range engagements. I just don’t have room to carry an assault rifle.

The guards at the detention area warn me that Simons is interrogating the NSF prisoners and doesn’t want to be disturbed. Naturally, I go to the cells to listen in on one of the interrogations. Simons wants to know about the NSF’s plans, and has apparently taken the trouble to learn a bit about the prisoner’s family. Simons even offers to put the terrorist’s family on the list of Ambrosia recipients; evidently it’s ordinarily restricted to the weathy and the politically connected. The interrogation really tells me more about Simons than about the NSF, and makes it clear he’s a pretty scary dude.

When I head to the helipad, the MIBs stop me to let me know that Simons didn’t appreciate my “intereference” in the interrogation. God, these UNATCO guys have weird priorities. They don’t mind if you shoot up New York City or steal everything that’s not nailed down from their offices, but the moment you eavesdrop on a sensitive interrogation or try to search the ladies’ room for loot, they jump all over you for it.

"Oh, and stay out of the ladies' room in the future. That kind of behavior embarasses you more than it does the agency."

Anyway, I make it to the helicopter without further mishap, and I’m flown to Battery Park. The helicopter is piloted by Jock, who was hanging around at the Underworld last mission. He’s a friend of Paul’s, and much like Alex and Jaime, will be a significant support character over the course of the game.

Jock flies me to Battery Park, which is now occupied by UNATCO troops. A bunch of homeless are congregating by some boxes and shacks near the subway station, unable to leave the park until the fighting dies down. Some questioning makes it clear the NSF have been using the subway tunnels to move their troops and equipment from place to place, and that’s probably where the stolen Ambrosia is. The tunnels are inhabited by the Mole People, a bunch of homeless folks who have permanently moved into some of the disused subway tunnels. The entrance to the Land of the Mole People is hidden from outsiders. Luckily, I saved a Mole Person from being mugged by the NSF last mission, and he gave me their secret password. Another Mole Person at the park tells me I need to go into the subway station and enter a code into the disconnected pay phone there, which opens up a secret elevator. If I hadn’t had the password, I could also buy the code from Harley Filben, the NSF informant from the first mission, whos’ hanging around in the subway station now.

The Mole People are about as exciting as any group of hopeless and destitute outcasts can be expected to be, especially since they don’t seem to have resorted to cannibalism. I find the local excuse for an authority figure, who’s complaining that explosions from the ongoing fighting have cut off their water supply, and they can’t open the valves to get the water running again because fallen debris is blocking the way to the valves.

Luckily, some of them stole a crate of explosives (probably from the NSF), and while most people have already sold theirs, it shouldn’t be too hard to find something I can use to blast my way past the debris. Luckily, I’m already carrying about a ton of explosives, but I’m not one to pass up the chance to get some more. For instance, one junkie has a LAM (Lightweight Attack Munition, basically a futuristic grenade), which he’s willing to trade for drugs.

There’s also a drug dealer hanging around nearby, conveniently. He’s apparently the only supplier for this level of the tunnels, although a gang called the Rooks dominates the tunnel one level above. When I ask the dealer about the NSF, he gets scared and refuses to talk. I identify myself as a UNATCO agent and press him harder, because everyone knows that drug dealers are more likely to open up to you if they think you belong to a law enforcement agency. This causes the (black) drug dealer to yell “I’m not going to prison, bitch!” in a textbook example of late-90’s racial insensitivity. He then pulls a gun, forcing me to stab him to death. This nets me some ammo and some vials of drugs which I can trade to the nearby junkie for explosives.

I also head upstairs, because the Rooks are said to have taken some of the stolen munitions as well. Their leader offers to sell me some at an exorbitant price; when I demur, he offers to give me a LAM for free if I kill the drug dealer downstairs. When he learns I’ve already done so, he hands over the LAM, saying he doesn’t need it anymore. He says something to the effect of “With all the money I’m going to be making now, I’ll be able to afford a GEP gun!”

Yes, basically, by killing one drug dealer, all I did was open up his turf to another, possibly more psychotic gang. If they ever make a video game out of The Wire, I hope they hire Warren Spector to design it.

Of course, if you want to be a hardcore utilitarian about it, you could look at this from the following perspective: for killing one dude, I received two bombs. If we assume that having to kill a dude is a bad outcome, and receiving a bomb is a good outcome, then this series of events led to twice as many good outcomes as bad ones. That’s what I love about utilitarianism: if you’re sufficiently sociopathic about how much weight you give to your priorities, you can justify anything. The other thing I love about utilitarianism is that, much like magic and F-22s, it tends to work better in video games than in real life.

Having supplemented my arsenal, I go back downstairs, blow up the obstructing debris, make my way past some scalding steam, and restore running water to the city’s homeless. Warm fuzzies and good karma all around, and I’m going to need every bit of it soon. When I return to the Mole Marquis (or whatever he is) who gave me this task in the first place, he gives me directions for getting into the lower tunnels, warning me that the NSF is still down there, along with a bunch of unarmed and innocent civilians. I can’t even begin to count the number of ways this could go wrong.

I picked up a few more augmentation canisters during that last mission, so this is as good a time as any to explain in detail how they work.

Essentially, there are two parallel character-development systems in the game. I’ve already talked a little about skills. They’re pretty straightforward. You receive skill points for completing objectives, advancing the plot, or exploring new areas, and you can spend them to upgrade your skills at any time. With a few exceptions, they just let you use your weapons or tools more effectively.

Nan-augs are found in canisters, and are generally guarded and/or locked up. Each canister has two abilities it can grant, and you must choose between them. Each canister is also associated with a particular body part; for instance, Microfibrial Muscle and Combat Strength are appied to the arms. Most body parts can only take one upgrade, although JC can take three Torso enhancements and two Subdermal enhancements. This makes things a bit more complicated.

The Aqualung and Environmental Resistance canister I found in the last mission is a Torso augmentation. I can only use it to acquire one of the abilities (ER, in my case). However, there are duplicate canisters available later in the game, so I could in theory pick up Aqualung later. I won’t do that, though, since there are two other types of Torso canisters available, each with two associated abilities. This means there are six possible augmentations, but JC can only fit three of them in his Torso, and Aqualung is pretty much the worst of them. But if you really wanted to give JC the ability to swim for hours in radioactive sludge, you could do so.

Well, not hours, exactly. Nanoaugs aren’t always active, and when you do switch them on, they consume bioelectric energy, which is Deus Ex’s answer to mana or psi points: an arbitrary statistic that decreases when you use your special abilities. Augmentations all consume power, which you can only regain by drawing power from a repair bot, which is not portable, or using a bioelectric cell, which is portable, although they’re consumedwith use and there are a finite number available in the game. It’s a large finite number, mind you, but finite nonetheless. Naturally, the more useful the aug, the more rapidly it tends to drain power, so you can’t be Superman all the time.

In addition, each nano upgrade has four different levels. A newly-installed upgrade is at level 1, and isn’t usually that great. Microfibrial Muscle gives you a slight increase to your strength: approximately 20%. Environmental Resistance reduces your damage from toxins and radiation by 25%. This latter doesn’t sound like much, but it’s the same reduction you’d get from using a Hazmat suit if you haven’t invested any points in the Environmental Training skill. As you can see, there’s a bit of a trade-off at work. You can reduce damage with Environmental Resistance, expending some bioelectric energy in the process, or you can use Environmental Training, which requires you to use a hazmat suit (and they’re only good for a limited duration).

In order to increase the effectiveness of your upgrades, you don’t spend skill points. Instead, you use nanotech upgrade units which you can find at various points throughout the game. Each upgrade will enhance any one augmentation by one level, and naturally, they’re in somewhat limited supply. Upgrades tend to enhance your augmentation from “somewhat useful” to “spectacular.”

In cases where there’s some overlap between a skill and a nano-aug, it’s best to pick one or the other to specialize in; since skill points and upgrade items are in limited supply, you don’t really want to invest in redundant abilities. The power drain for Environmental Resistance is modest, and I’d rather not have hazmat suits taking up precious inventory space, so I’ll be relying on it throughout the game.

I’ll start by upgrading Environmental Resistance whenever I can, until it’s level 3. Each of the first three levels reduces environmental damage by 25%, so at level 3, it gives a 75% damage reduction; this is what I was talking about when I said that augmentation upgrades are important. You get diminishing returns at level 4, which grants only 90% protection. It’s certainly better than 75%, but remember, each upgrade that I spend on Environmental Resistance is one that can’t be spent elsewhere.

Such as Speed. The two leg upgrades are Silent Running (lets you move quietly while running at full speed) and Speed (which makes you faster, increases your jumping height, and increases the distance you can fall without taking damage). Silent Running sounds good for a sneaky character, by I think Speed is far better, since it enhances your mobility and allows you to jump over obstacles and into otherwise-inaccessible locations. Once I have ER up to level 3, if I devote all my upgrades to Speed, it’ll reach maximum level about halfway through the game. At that level, it nearly doubles my running speed, more than doubles my jumping capability, and allows me to fall up to 60 feet without taking damage. This is an ability with some profound tactical implications.

By the end of mission 2, even without having had the chance to upgrade my augmentations muchm, I have the ability to travel through hazardous areas with reduced damage, jump higher and farther than normal, and lift and move heavy objects. There are all good abilities for opening up new paths or navigating dangerous routes with minimal damage, which in turn makes it easier to avoid guards and security cameras. An alternative stealth build might use the Silent Running and Combat Strength abilities to run up behind guards and beat them into unconsciousness while their backs are turned. Or, instead of using Microfibrial Muscle to lift obstructions out of the way, a combat-oriented character could use it for wielding heavy weaponry and Rambo-ing his way through every enemy in the game.

The great thing about Deus Ex is that the nano-augmentations let you choose between a bunch of useful abilities, and you can utilize each of them in a variety of ways depending on your playstyle. I’m sure some combinations are better than others, but there are enough routes through the game that just about any plausible-seeming character build is probably viable.