Deus Ex Diaries Part Thirty-One (Human Revolution)

Leaving the bright future of 2072, we’re taking a trip to pre-Collapse America. In fact, it’s pre-JC Denton being born, because it’s 2027. Everything is bathed in a yellow glow, and people’s bio-modifications are super obvious - it’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution! It was originally released in 2011, but I’ll be playing the Director’s Cut edition, which was released in 2013.

There are some shaders available that are supposed to make things look a little nicer, but I’ll be using the vanilla graphics set at the highest settings. There are no presets, so I’ve had to manually shift everything up.

Now let’s check things out…

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 begin Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Things opened on Bob Page, last seen by us in 2052 when JC Denton was destined to kill him. But that was 25 years in the future, for now he was in a conference with some unknown individuals, their faces and voices digitally disguised. People in Montreal had promised use of their broadcast satellites, and “the clinics” were going to do as they were told. Page refused to wait for a referendum based on a discovery that David Sarif had made. Despite not liking said discovery, the cabal’s work on a biochip was making great strides… While the discussion went on, Page was messaging someone about a gene sequence that “she” had discovered, but they were out of reach. Or were they…?

Leaving that scene behind, we saw a news report from Eliza Cassan about protests in Washington DC, protesting against David Sarif’s discovery of human-controlled evolution. They wanted Congress to restrict these efforts, ahead of Sarif heading to Washington the next day. The news report was playing in the office of Doctor Megan Reed, where security chief Adam Jensen was on the phone. He was arranging security in Washington for Sarif the next day and was unhappy with what he had been offered.

Reed was stressed about something, fidgeting with her necklace, but Jensen tried to reassure her. Reed said that her new discovery was as big as Kepler's discovery of planetary motion, or the Rosetta Stone. The nearby newspaper said that the discovery meant that people with augmentations wouldn’t need Neuropozyne, a costly anti-rejection drug produced by Versalife. It was an issue because of how she made the discovery, though she was interrupted before Jensen could ask. Sarif had called to tell Reed to get ready to leave for Washington, and Jensen to meet in his office.

I had a quick look around the lab, including reading Reed’s emails. Her mother was worried about her since she and Jensen broke up, her dog sitter asked for her keys, and there was a mention to Sarif about a “Patient X”... A fourth email talked about a sample that she had sent to someone, and how the subject was ahead of the evolutionary curve, but Reed had a go at me for reading her emails, so I joined her at the door.

We left through her lab where Reed had short conversations with a couple of people. Between them, Jensen voiced concern that the Department of Defense were the ones benefiting most from Sarif Industries’ work in augmentation, which Reed foo-foo’d moments before being introduced to General O’Neill, who had come to watch a demonstration of a weapon called Typhoon. Dr Vasili showed it off, explaining how the steel balls were ejected, and Reed led Jensen into the elevator.

Reed talked about the dog that she and Jensen owned together, and was about to admit to something before Francis Pritchard walked into the elevator. Reed left at the next floor, and both Jensen and Pritchard began antagonising one another. The elevator stopped, and Pritchard explained that he was there to see Athene Margoulis, Sarif’s executive assistant, to talk about the tracking implants embedded in the staff. In case something happened in Washington, apparently. They sounded good in theory, at least, transmitting to dedicated satellites every 10 feet or five seconds.

I couldn’t hear more, because I was already overhearing Sarif’s meeting with Lyle as I entered his office. He wanted billionaire Hugh Darrow in Washington the next day, though a newspaper had said that he was in the Arctic overseeing the construction of a facility called Panchaea. Lyle left, and Sarif asked about the security preparations before talking about Reed’s discovery. Suddenly, an alarm went off, interrupting them. There was an environmental malfunction in laboratory sub-section six and, being suspicious of it, Sarif sent me down in his private elevator.

Once in the elevator, Jensen called Pritchard to ask where Reed was, being told that the tracker showed her running. However, the communication cut out, and Jensen pulled out his rifle. Something had happened, and it wasn’t good. Hurrying down the hallway, there was fire everywhere. Random plants were on fire with no obvious source of ignition, and I passed labs that had been destroyed.

At the end of the hall, someone was banging against the security screen saying that “he’s trying to kill me” moments before the door behind him exploded, and out strode an augmented man holding a scientist by the throat. He threw him, cracking the security screen as he did so, then shot the scientist who had correctly predicted his fate.

Inside the office next to me, I moved a box and went through the ventilation shaft into the room which the augmented man had been in. I carried on around the corner and cautiously went past a bloody window before entering a lab. Two tangos spotted me somehow, and I shot them before heading upstairs - ignoring the curiously flaming desks and chairs.

Through the door at the top was more blood, fire and dead scientists, so I was careful as I went around to the double doors. Inside the next lab were three more tangos, and once they were dead I exited through the door in the rear. Going down the hallway, a hail of bullets hit a wall, followed quickly by a scientist’s body stumbling into view and collapsing dead. Around the corner was a glass door with a scientist who was glad to see me. It was short-lived as a grate dropped open behind him, and he was gunned down by a cyborg capable of turning invisible.

The door opened after the cyborg ran off, and I entered the lab beyond just in time to see the doors at the far end explode inwards. Some tangos ran in and I shot them, but I was happy to note that nowhere inside the lab was on fire for a change. The exploded door and the hallway beyond, however, were on fire.

Then a big cyborg dude punched me and threw me through a wall and wall-sized display, embedding me inside a computer console on the opposite wall. Despite a valiant effort to fight back, and Reed throwing a canister of green stuff at the guy, I was shot in the head.

Luckily, Jensen was in literally the best place to save my life that wasn’t a hospital, because Sarif took it upon himself to turn me into a cyborg! Six months passed before an ongoing emergency brought Jensen back to the office. Sarif called on comms just as Jensen entered the lobby, saying to meet him at the helipad so they could get going. First, however, Jensen wanted to see Pritchard to get his malfunctioning optics fixed.

Hurrying upstairs, everyone seemed happy to see me, until I got into Pritchard’s office. Actually, he did seem to enjoy causing me pain whilst fixing the issue with my eyes… My heads-up display flickered into existence, and I said I had to go, but he couldn’t help but give a dig that hopefully this time I would actually save people. I decided to ignore it and headed out to the helipad. There were hostages, so I couldn’t hang around the office all day.

Outside at the helipad, our pilot Faridah Malik was stood beside the aircraft. She greeted me by talking about my swift recovery and lamenting that her personal time had been infringed. I reassured her that I was fine and got inside the aircraft. Sarif was already inside, and as we flew he briefed me. We were landing on a nearby rooftop, and the tangos were pro-human purists who had been targeting LIMB clinics. Sarif didn’t think it was a coincidence that they hit the factory the same day that the Typhoon was moved into production.

Sarif showed me the leader of the group, Zeke Sanders, on a screen before asking if I wanted to go in lethally or non-lethally. I chose non-lethal, as I wanted to sneak in and avoid being spotted as I’d completely failed to do earlier. That also meant choosing the tranquilizer rifle for some long-distance shots. Before we landed, Sarif reiterated that the Typhoon was more important than the hostages. Save them if I could, but focus on securing the Typhoon. And with that, off I went…