Deus Ex Diaries Part Fifty (Human Revolution)

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. I continue Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

After quite the ordeal on a Belltower resupply base-cum-torture prison, I was finally on my way to hopefully rescue Megan Reed…

Days later, the pod that I was riding in activated, waking me in a store room. Jensen contacted Pritchard, who confirmed that I was in Singapore before losing my tracker. He told me to take the jamming transmitter offline if that would help, but I needed to discover if Reed was actually here…

After looking around the warehouse that I found myself in, I tossed an automatic unlocker onto a door panel and grabbed the ammo count upgrade that was on a shelf. I installed it onto my laser rifle, as that was the only weapon it would apparently fit, then headed out of the door, sneaking behind cover while two Belltower goons chatted. As they split up, I took position ready to pounce, and was spotted the instant I went to knock the guy out, alerting everyone. With only four rounds in my heavily-upgraded 10mm pistol, I had to conserve ammo until I found more. I shot someone in the head, but swapped over to Burke’s Revolver to shoot a couple more.

With the immediate area clear and nobody shooting at my position, I moved down the walkway towards a fence. I moved a dumpster out of my way, then entered the building through a window which gave me access to some sleeping quarters. I looted the place, then cautiously went outside where I found someone with their back towards me — so I knocked him out and dragged him back into the room. The quarters next door were locked, but I’d found a pocket secretary with the code 1385 on it. Inside was a reload speed weapon upgrade, so I whacked it onto my 10mm.

Opposite was another set of quarters, so I checked it out before heading into the big room next door with someone patrolling it. I knocked them out, then used an automatic unlocker on the armoury door. Unfortunately, inside was mainly ammo for weapons that I wasn’t using, but there was also a damage upgrade weapon mod. Yes, I plopped it onto my 10mm.

The control room which the armoury was inside of had a computer and a security terminal; I hacked the computer but there wasn’t anything interesting on it. The security terminal let me deactivate a single camera, so that was also uninteresting. Finally, I deactivated the signal jammer using a code I’d picked up at some point: 0111.

Pritchard called to confirm that the locators had shown up for him. As well as Jensen, Pritchard was reading Koss, Colvin, and Faherty — but not Megan Reed. He also told me that Sarif had gone to Panchaea with Hugh Darrow, Bill Taggart, and some UN delegates. He marked the kidnapped scientists on my hud, and I went outside into a courtyard with four hostiles. It was only then that I noticed that I was unable to tag any of them; I’d forgotten to update my augmentations.

As I couldn’t quite remember what my augmentations were before, I went with: Stealth Enhancer; Cones of Vision; Mark & Track 1.0; Social Enhancer; Recharge Rate 1-2; Energy Level 1-3; Smart Vision; Run Silently; Sprint Silently; Jump/Land Silently; Sprint Enhancement; Punch Through Wall; Dermal Armor; Damage Reduction 2-3; Hacking Stealth 3; and Radar 2. I was left with six Praxis points, but I figured that I would see how things went and upgrade accordingly.

With utmost stealth, I managed to lure and knock out one of the guards, then slip inside a building. I attempted to lure a second man inside after me, but he only went as far as the door. I attempted to knock him out by sneaking up behind him, and although that was successful I was spotted by one of the others. Since my Burke’s Revolver wasn’t upgraded as much as my pistol, it took quite a bit of ammunition to take down my two attackers, but I had almost 150 rounds when I started the fight.

Once the coast was clear, I hacked a security terminal that was situated behind a turret just around the corner of the building. It allowed me to turn the turret and a nearby robot friendly, as well as deactivate a single camera. While looking around the courtyard, I came across another building, and went inside, going through decontamination to enter what turned out to be an office building. As expected, the lobby had some Blackwater men guarding it, so I decided to be as stealthy as possible.

After a prolonged firefight, I noticed that there was a glass floor near the reception desk. Through it I could see into the laboratory of Faherty, including the man himself. Since I knew where I had to go, I decided to look around the offices to see what I could find. I found emails about experiments, mentions of this place being Omega Ranch, someone complaining of colleagues putting bestiality on their screensaver, and an office memo explaining that scientific equipment was not for sitting upon. The usual office stuff, you know? I did also come across emails from one Jaron Namir to a Kaspar Donato, which contained biographies of the kidnapped scientists, Megan Reed, and Adam Jensen…

Once I had deactivated some lasers I headed down in an elevator to the laboratory. There were rooms filled with patients of some kind, but there was nothing in them for me to do, so I headed straight to Faherty. He was glad to see me, and saddened to hear that Sevchenko was dead. Faherty had been forced to create a signal which would remotely update a person’s implanted circuitry, as his part of some joint project he wasn’t privy to. Luckily, he knew where Reed was, but unluckily it was something called “the secured zone”. However, if he and the other two scientists were to create distractions simultaneously, it would allow me to get inside. Before we did that though, I had to upload a virus into the security network so that the scientists could no longer be tracked.

The lab was close to a morgue, so I headed inside and punched through a wall. There was a cloud of gas, but also a shutoff valve, so I quickly turned it off, losing only a little health. Following the tunnel, I exited a ventilation shaft around the corner from the courtyard, and opposite another punchable wall, which I hit. Exiting a disused lab, I could see signs of enemy forces on my mini-map. However, since I was in a hallway, I was able to knock a lone man out and hide him in an office. Punching through the wall, I located another ventilation shaft behind some boxes, inside of which was a ladder. As luck would have it, it led me straight to Colvin!

She wasn’t exactly happy to see me, until she discovered that Sevchenko was dead. Colvin had been tasked with creating a software upgrade that could limit functionalities in biochips. She agreed to create a distraction when given the signal, and I left the office. I knocked out someone who came to investigate the door that I’d just opened, but not before they spotted me and the alarm sounded. I took down another two, but a third who had been shooting had apparently just wandered off. While investigating the lobby, I couldn’t see anyone but I did see a security terminal on the ground floor. I dropped down, right behind some hostiles.

Another firefight ensued, and once I’d shot them all, I found the security terminal was only for two cameras… Back upstairs, I found another security terminal for a further two cameras, one of which I’d shot earlier. There was a punchable wall which I hit, before realising that the door for the disused lab was a short distance away. Behind some large boxes, I found an elevator which took me straight to Koss’ lab. He was the first member of the Sarif team who had other scientists working with him, as it turned out. Not that any of them took any notice of me.

Speaking to Koss, he explained that he had created the new biochip that I’d had installed days earlier. But that was probably fine… He reluctantly agreed to create a distraction on the signal, and handed over the virus that Faherty had mentioned. He also mentioned that there was a tunnel at the back of the compound that could lead me to Reed.

Heading downstairs, I exited the building through the hole I’d punched in the wall and went for the security console. As I rounded a corner, I was startled by the noise of a security bot, until I realised that I’d already made it friendly. There was a storage locker in front of me, which had some guns and ammo, though all I could carry was the laser rifle battery. Following the path around, I could see a security camera monitoring the tunnel which I was now entering. It was very easy to avoid it and slip into the security office.

I hacked the security terminal to deactivate the camera and turn another security bot friendly. I also grabbed an EMP grenade from a locker, before uploading the virus. Jensen called Pritchard to tell him to send the signal — causing the scientists’ locator implants to vibrate. Moments later, there was an explosion, and my friendly bot shot some men who came running out of the now unblocked end of the tunnel. I went inside and took an elevator down to some weird meat-puppet showroom? Looking out from the elevator, all I could see were mannequins of muscles and no skin, moving in unison…

Exiting the elevator, I found the head of Tai Yong Medical, Zhao Yun Ru, who taunted me about being too tenacious. Jensen claimed to know what she and her group were doing — creating a kill switch for augmented people so that they couldn’t rise up. Unfortunately, that wasn’t quite right, and she pressed a button on a remote which deactivated my augmentations. Worse, the “mannequin” behind me was actually Jaron Namir, the man who had led the attack on Sarif Industries and almost killed me…

Namir attacked, and I quickly swapped to my laser rifle — but missed and actually swapped to my grenade launcher. I shot him with three grenades while he wasted time turning invisible, killing him. Unfortunately, my augmentations were still glitching so I couldn’t look around very well. All of the mannequins stood to attention saluting as I left the area and passed through some double doors.

My entrance was a huge surprise to Megan Reed who thought that I was Namir. Jensen accused her of willingly working for these people, especially since she was in a special all-white room. Even the computer and safe were white… She assured Jensen that she had been really kidnapped for her research, and explained that her big discovery which allowed augmentation without rejection was Jensen’s DNA. Sarif had convinced her to use her research to better mankind, but Hugh Darrow had managed to turn her against that idea since kidnapping her. Oh, and this whole thing was owned and operated by Darrow. While Reed tried to explain that Darrow was secretly working against Zhao Yun Ru “and the others”, Jensen stated the fact that Zhao had used it to shut him down. Luckily, Reed was able to circumvent that, repairing Jensen just in time.

Darrow appeared on the TV that had been showing the news, announcing that he was going to show everyone how augmentation could change the world. He apologised, then something happened, causing people to scream in pain and fear, then some of those present began attacking others like rabid animals. Reed told me to open the hangar bay doors while she fetched the other scientists, so I used the indicated elevator. Faridah Malik contacted me while I travelled, saying that she was en route and ready to extract.

The doors opened and I pressed the button right in front of me. The hangar bay doors opened, and rather than have me fight some more Blackwater men, Malik dropped an EMP on them, disabling them. However, the door wouldn’t open until Reed and the other scientists climbed aboard Malik’s aircraft and she took off. Reed called to tell me that I had to get to Panchaea to stop the signal broadcast, which was causing people to have terrifying hallucinations. Since she’d just taken the aircraft, she directed me to “use the LEO shuttle”.

At the other end of the landing pad was a single-person rocket: a Low Earth Orbit Shuttle. Activating the console plotted a sub-orbital trajectory to the Arctic, and I climbed aboard. There was a brief countdown before it launched, sending me into the stratosphere…