Deus Ex Diaries Part Eighty-Four (Jensen’s Stories)

This is my ongoing exploration of the Deus Ex Universe, in release order. Whether you’re a newcomer or an old-goer, I hope to make this something you can read along with and enjoy. This time I finish Deus Ex: Mankind Divided — A Criminal Past.

After doing what I needed to do in the warden’s office, I had returned to the processing centre to find it under siege…

With the guards occupied, I managed to get upstairs and into the elevator unseen, which took me to the infirmary level. Security head Thomas Stenger was the only person inside, and he was dead. So, I grabbed his keycard and went back to the elevator. He also had a pocket secretary on him, which contained emails between himself and Agent Guerrero, AKA Oscar Mejia. It was clear that “Mejia” was calling the shots…

Heading up to the Automated Security level, I used a security terminal to disable the two drones that were guarding the processing centre, giving me an easier escape once I went back down there. There were still two guards to avoid, but only two. Outside, I once again avoided the sentry turret’s gaze and carefully went towards the security building, stopping when I saw another turret. The pause also allowed me to spot some mines, so I took up position and shot them to get rid of them.

As I tried to sneak around the turret, it spotted me and I had to shoot it with an EMP round. Then, I noticed a console beneath it, so I quickly hacked it to disable it. Well, it wouldn’t let me disable it, but I turned on friendly fire and hoped that it wouldn’t shoot anyone…

Noticing a strangely positioned dumpster, I spotted a ventilation shaft behind it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t fit in the space and so I had to move the dumpster, which I did by upgrading myself with the Optimized Musculature augmentation. It led me into a maintenance space, and a second shaft gave me access to one of the bathrooms, with a guard inside. Knocking them out, I went upstairs and waited for the second guard in the area to come in my direction before knocking them out, too. Then, after shooting a camera with an EMP round, I hurried down the hall and into the office where I found a security terminal, which I hacked to disable the cameras and turrets.

Going back downstairs, I opened a door beneath the stairwell, finding it full of lasers and an active camera. So, it was finally time to install my cloaking augmentation… I had held off as long as possible, but this room would have been almost impossible without it. Alongside the Glass-Shield Cloaking, I also upgraded its energy use twice, and I took the opportunity to upgrade my biocell recharge rate twice. Biocells were in short supply, so I would need my internal one to recharge by itself. Once I was down to 10 Praxis points, I hurried through the room and into the elevator at the end, taking it up to the security offices.

Since Stenger’s office was a level five hack, I used a multi-tool to gain access. I had six of them, after all, and I was certain that I was running out of things to use them on. The emails on his computer suggested that while Guerrero was present during the hack that caused Ian Wilburg’s death, he may not have been the one to actually do it. It also seemed that Stenger was purposefully avoiding transferring Peter Wörthmüller to a facility better suited to his needs, as the request had been put off for at least two months…

A button below the computer opened up a painting, which was hiding a safe. There was some ammo and weapons, but the interesting thing was a pocket secretary with a recording on it. It was a conversation between Guerrero and Wilburg, with the former confronting the latter about an “untouchable” woman that he slept with and murdered. Guerrero issued a threat, but Wilburg was unimpressed — though in hindsight, Guerrero probably had more than a bit to do with Wilburg’s murder, and not because he “found out” that he was Interpol…

In the office next door were two security terminals, and hacking them allowed me to turn off the cameras and turrets, as well as the laser grid from earlier. Heading out onto the balcony, I dropped off (which hurt this time) and went over to the processing centre once more. The two guards were still there, so I had to knock out the un-armoured one to reach the elevator. For whatever reason, my old friend D-Town was apparently just riding the thing up and down because out he came, still trying to remember my name. So, I knocked him out and took the elevator up to the roof.

Since the cameras were active, and I didn’t yet know what other resistance I’d find, I stuck to the fence on the right, making my way around one of the anti-aircraft turrets on its platform. As I took refuge behind a fence, a security bot stumbled into view and noticed a turret guarding a security terminal!

Vaulting the fence, I cloaked to get through a laser grid, then remained cloaked as I used the password B0TT0PP5 that I’d found much earlier to access the terminal. Once the turret and two bots were deactivated, that only left me with the laser grids and cameras to contend with. Speaking of which, a hatch was heavily guarded with lasers, so I cloaked and dropped down to find only a console to hack to deactivate said lasers…

Or so it seemed! As in the adjoining room was a tower of plugs, and when looking into the vent on the back wall, I noticed something hidden behind a panel in the “tower”. Punching it through allowed me to switch a breaker which opened a hidden area where a security terminal sat. Accessing it let me activate the manual overrides for the two anti-air turrets, so all that I had to do was press the buttons attached to each one!

Leaving via the ladder, I was surprised to find two security drones patrolling, soI carefully went to the right-hand anti-air turret and hit the button without being spotted. Though, I did have to shoot the camera with an EMP round first. But then, I decided that I didn’t have to sneak around anymore, and so I shot the two drones with EMP rounds, then swapped to my combat rifle and blew them away!

This made my trip to the second anti-air turret much simpler, and I hit the button. The only thing left was to leave the prison, so I went down in the elevator, finding Guerrero holding Wörthmüller at gunpoint, about to shoot him. He claimed that the doctor knew too much and had to be eliminated for the good of our covers. I challenged the agent’s version of events, choosing to confront him about Wilburg’s death, but Guerrero seemingly ignored it, going on again about how The Fixer was behind everything. Whispering in ears, having a fake stutter to appear harmless, and he killed Stenger.

I didn’t believe that Wörthmüller was the mastermind, especially since the way he spoke was fragmented and disjointed, seemingly unable to concentrate on a single subject. Especially in this high-stress situation… He asked to come with us, which Guerrero did not like. He asked me to back him up, but I decided to try and persuade him rather than either pick him or the inmate.

First of all, I tried identifying with him, as a fellow agent who knew undercover work, and the stresses of trying to play two sides. Guerrero clearly thought that he had been treated better as a member of Junkyard than he was as an Interpol agent, and because of what he’d done, there could be no coming back for him. Once again, I tried identifying with him, drawing from the experience of working with both Interpol and trying to uncover the powers behind them. He could come in and be a force for good, show Interpol that he was redeemable.

Thankfully, it worked, and Guerrero agreed to just get on the aircraft and play ball. All that was left was Wörthmüller, who if he didn’t already know too much, certainly did after hearing our discussion. While talking to him, I reasoned that he kept quiet about Flossy’s plans, as well as the whole operation that Junkyard was running out of the infirmary. Still, if he were to be asked where Guerrero and I had gone, I figured that he would tell the whole story, as was his habit. As such, I opted to take him with us, and we boarded the aircraft…

Back in TF29’s Prague office, the final cutscene showed Doctor Delara Auzenne reacting to this whole story. Strangely, despite me confirming that I had brought Guerrero back in, she had found no record of where he had ended up. As a high-value asset, that may have been intentional, but before she could muse further, she asked if I had made contact with him since, which I denied. She thanked me for my time and dismissed me. Just before leaving, however, I remarked that there hadn’t even been a terrorist attack to foil, just like Guerrero had said…

As Jensen left the office, Auzenne took out her phone to make a call…

Final Thoughts

And that’s it! A phone call we never hear, and unless Eidos Interactive decides to give fans what they want, we never will. But man, what a ride this entire franchise has been! Three years playing these games on a weekly basis and loving every minute. Yes, even Invisible War and its inability to work correctly on modern systems.

This took me just under five hours, and I didn’t even visit the cafeteria or hack every computer, so it might take you more. You can probably speedrun it in 40 minutes, nope I just checked after writing that and it’s under 10 minutes… Either way, it’s a strong end to a strong game; I recommend A Criminal Past!

One last thing. In the final chat with Guerrero, I realised that Jensen never puts his collar down, always having it up like his trenchcoat, whereas every other inmate has it down. I’m almost embarrassed that I missed that detail, honestly, because it’s such a neat one!

Anyway, that’s it (for now?); so, thanks for following along on all of these diary entries. If you want more like this, I’ve already written diaries for the Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, Metro, and Red Faction franchises and even did four entries for Total Overdose. I’ll be back soon with a new diary, I’m sure, so keep reading!