Deus Ex Human Revolution EP26: Men Never Fail To Underestimate Elevators

By Josh Posted Saturday Feb 25, 2012

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 131 comments


Link (YouTube)

And so ends a most bizarre week of Spoiler Warning. Though, given where we are in the game, all this weirdness and stupidity is almost fitting.

Particularly in this episode.

This would have been up yesterday, but youtube ran into an odd audio sync error – one I’ve never encountered before – when I uploaded it the first time. I ended up having to upload the whole video over again.

 


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131 thoughts on “Deus Ex Human Revolution EP26: Men Never Fail To Underestimate Elevators

  1. rofltehcat says:

    What kind of audio sync error was it? I’ve encountered pretty funny ones before.
    For example I was watching a section of “The Godfather” and the sound was 15 seconds or so early to the picture. It was pretty confusing and also spoilering a lot.

    My player allowed me to fix this by entering the time difference between sound and pictures but as the movie went on, the difference got bigger and bigger -.-

  2. Thomas says:

    You had to kill robots Shamus? I never had to do that at any point. You can just run around them. You can stealth them/ghost them easily, I’m pretty sure I didn’t even have cloak. I never even considered fighting them and I never got the upgrade for hacking

    Plus you can stealth around and not fight in your ‘boss fight’ although this was easily the worst cutscene of the game

    EDIT: Actually I did have cloak because one of the lifts we went up on this level kept discovering me for some reason until I worked out the exact point to cloak in my empty elevator

    EDIT EDIT: you’re also right about the cutscene being outsourced because all cutscenes in the game were outsourced if I remember right

    EDITED EDIT EDIT: (Serves me right for the being the horrible person who jumps the gun on commentating) I’m not a DX1 guy (I couldn’t get myself to play through the first level. Mainly first person stealth with a keyboard and mouse?!) So I loved finding out how the illuminati really were. It made it feel realistic to me. 13 or so powerful immoral people who realise that it’s all in their interests to work together but they’ve all got their own motivations and by definition are shady and unprincipled. So naturally it turns out they’re all just trying to use the Illuminati for their own gain. Taggart even recognises it. The Illuminati is just a name to impress investors and make them sound bigger, more coherent and less _petty_ than they really are.

    1. Shamus says:

      Malik won’t land until the robots are dead.

      1. littlefinger says:

        Disable them from a computer console somewhere on the upper walkways.

        1. Thomas says:

          And you don’t need the hack right? Because I didn’t think you could kill robots on a non-lethal run for some absurd reason

          1. littlefinger says:

            That I don’t remember. (seriously, that’s a detail I can’t recall. Someday I’m going to try a no-praxis no equipment ghost run through the game. It’s going to fail so hard…

          2. decius says:

            I think you need the robot-controlling upgrade, but you can kill robots on a pacifist run. You can even ghost it if the robots don’t see you.

            Did a perfect-ghost, no kill, no invis run. Lots of reloading.

    2. Eric says:

      I don’t get the complaint either. The cutscene was definitely outsourced, but the encounter? You can escape the guards using the conveniently-placed vents if you want to, and the robots can be almost entirely bypassed if you just sneak your way to the little control room at the top of the hangar. If anything this encounter was what all of Human Revolution’s boss fights should have been like.

      Also, why do those robots blow up anyway? I mean, what if they’re standing next to friendly soldiers? I guess the idea is they can’t be captured and repaired/reprogrammed, but it seems awfully and pointlessly dangerous.

      1. Klay F. says:

        Whats even more ridiculous is that if you destroy a robot on a non-lethal run, if it kills enemy soldiers upon detonation, those don’t count against you, meaning you can still get the pacifist achievement.

        I found this out on my second trip to Hengsha, I tossed an EMP at the robot that gets dropped against Malik, every soldier on the ground floor was caught in the resulting blast. All I had left were the few soldiers on the upper floors, who were no match for a stun gun/takedown combo. Fast forward to the end of the game, and sure enough, I get the pacifist achievement.

        1. Which is odd because I missed out on my pacifist achievement after I blew up a robot which killed a guy on my first playthrough. Possibly one of their bodies hit an unconscious guy and killed him or something, but I definitely missed out on the achievement because of that robot explosion.

          1. Nick says:

            Yeah, ditto. Or at least, that’s the only reason I can think of why I failed it

      2. Jokerman says:

        Because you can get in a near unwinnible state like i did :(. I didnt have the control robots hack, did not have emp’s, Nor did i have enough ammo to take them down. Had to do some backtracking and down a bunch of people in the last room and get the weapons to kill the last one. I got the first with an emp i found in the room but over shot the other throw and missed it.

    3. Indy says:

      I’m currently playing through the game for the “No alarms” achievement and I hope to God that that elevator, which I didn’t want to go back and double check, didn’t actually set off an alarm. I think it’s the camera through the window that sees you. If that costs me the achievement, on the next run through I am killing everybody in TYM.

      1. Nick says:

        You mean the alarm that Zhao sets off after her cutscene? That doesn’t count. If you mean the one through the door at the start of the episode, that counts. I don’t think any on elevators count.

        1. Indy says:

          It was the one at the start of the episode but I still got the achievement and am so happy about it. I swear I failed a dozen times along the way. But maybe I’m just paying less attention than all the guys I ran past.

  3. Nyctef says:

    There are probably much faster ways of getting into the building, they’re just too heavily guarded for Jensen to get in. Same with the second level – I remember the complaints about how all the workers would have to go through so many sets of stairs but really you’re going in the back door and actually come out of the front.

    I love how Josh runs up to the vent you can use to ghost out of there .. and thinks “nope, typhoon time” :)

    Also: Room 404 Eliza Not Found “LOOOOOL” :P (If you notice how she talks a bit wierd then it does set up some nice foreshadowing, though, assuming you don’t realise that twist straight away)

    1. Thomas says:

      I mean worst comes to worst, she’s got a helipad with a direct lift to her office. And she doesn’t look like the sort to be too environmentally conscious to have her own personal helicopter chauffeur

    2. Chances are most of these people live in Upper Hengsha, not lower, meaning they wouldn’t have to take half the routes Jensen did. If anything the route he took was a loading dock or something specifically for shipping crates down below the pangu.

  4. Nonesuch says:

    Picus seems to be based out of the 1976 Olympic Stadium in Montreal

    1. Paul Spooner says:

      Intriguing. I didn’t realize that was a real building. I’m guessing the interiors are nothing like those in the game, but still. Clever touch.

    2. Destrustor says:

      Picus HQ is the olympic stadium.

  5. Gruhunchously says:

    I just wanted to say that I really like the music throughout the Montreal level. I think it’s the best in the entire game.

  6. Daemian Lucifer says:

    Technology regressed because jensen obviously picked the “tell the truth” option in the end,so there were riots,and lots of tech got lost.But now humanity had the adam gene,and could rebuild much faster.

    This fight with a dozen mooks was actually quite a good one,since there were so many ways to do it(avoid it,plant mines,take them one by one,shoot them,….).Its how other boss fights shouldve been as well.But the cutscene was really crappy.Imagining that she had casie aug makes it a little bearable,but not by much.

    Emp grenades didnt bother me much earlier,but recently I find myself thinking about them more often,and resenting them.Why would you have military grade equipment that is not shielded?Its just so jarring.

    Like people have already said earlier,typhoon would probably be used as a weapon of terror,or as a last line of defense for a spy.But I can think of a way to use them even on the front lines:Instead of bombs,drop augmented soldiers from a plane equipped with icarus and typhoon.Moments before they touch the ground,they typhoon it,and then run in the chaos to finish off those who ran for cover.It would be pretty effective.

    1. Infinitron says:

      Technology did not entirely regress between DX:HR and DX.

      For example, DX:HR does not have DX’s all-powerful Wintermute-style AIs like Daedalus and Icarus (Eliza by comparison is merely an ascended chatbot with a holographic representation).
      Nor does it have crazy things like nanotechnological universal contructors or synthesis of artificial lifeforms (greasels and karkians).

      Then there’s the MJ12 commandos in power armor which are more advanced than even the “heavy” grunts in DX:HR, and the physio-pharmaceutically conditioned MIBs.

      The regression in technology between the two games is actually more of a degradation of the day-to-day public infrastructure that you see, not a regression in the actual level of science and technology. That’s why Eidos Montreal were able to semi-convincingly explain it away as the result of an economic meltdown that occurs between the two games.

    2. MatthewH says:

      I recall an e-mail in the Detroit factory pointing out that the most obvious use of the Typhoon is suicide bombing (well, at least before they fixed the backblast problem).

      The mention that the range is fairly limited, so I figured the military’s idea was to use it on their heavy mechs as an area denial weapon. Use the mechs like tanks, put some distance between them.

      Also, just had a thought: maybe the typhoon is a directable weapon, and that mad dance move Jensen does is just because he wants to aim it in a circle. But if he were to twist his arms and flex Wolverine style, the blast would be aimed forward. Or something.

  7. Hitch says:

    It’s just not the same without Garrus and Tali.

    1. Sumanai says:

      It’s just not the same as Garrus and Ashley. I seem to remember her backpedaling her foot out of her mouth pretty fast. Or was it with Wrex?

  8. Dante says:

    THIS WAS THE BEST WEEK EVER! Don’t you agree Shamus?

  9. Some_Jackass says:

    Best credit sequence ever.

    1. Slipshod says:

      Seconded.

      1. Gamer says:

        Oh, good. I was afraid I’d come off as crazy if I lol’d at it.

        Which I did.

        1. Sleeping Dragon says:

          Same, that was awesome.

            1. Deadyawn says:

              sixthed, that was hilarious.

    2. tengokujin says:

      Elevator: Deus Ex.

      Now available never on Steam for no money.

  10. guy says:

    Question: How many people instantly figured out the truth about Eliza after this cutscene? How many didn’t?

    I am incredibly enraged by the Zhao cutscene. My reaction on my first playthough:

    “Okay, seems somewhat plausible- Adam, back up or force her away- this is a conspiracy large enough to- Adam, get further away, don’t they teach you to stay at a distance from suspects in SWAT academy- potentially use CEOs as their pawns-ADAM, TURN AROU- OH YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!”

    Honestly, for that level of incompetence he deserved taking a knife in the back.

    Incidentally, did anyone else find it a bit odd that destroying the robots opened the door? I mean, I guess it isn’t a huge issue, since it can be explained by the door having an interlock to keep it from opening while the robots are active and no one destroying a couple million dollars of equipment for bugtesting alternate deactivation conditions, but it is still a bit strange.

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      As soon as she disappeared I knew she was an AI.I dont know if its oversaturation with the trope,or something like that.

      And wasnt pushing the button what opened the door?Robots were destroyed so that they wouldnt shoot at the craft.

      1. evileeyore says:

        “As soon as she disappeared I knew she was an AI.I dont know if its oversaturation with the trope,or something like that.”

        As soon as she was named I knew she was an AI. Look up ELIZA and you’ll see why.

        And yeah, oversaturation of the trope.

    2. Eric says:

      Yeah it was obvious.

      Only thing is they do nothing with the AI theme the entire game. The nice thing about the original Deus Ex was that it explored transhumanism but did so on multiple levels – augmentation, labour, socio-economic change, domination by megacorporations, corruption and perversion of government institutions, development of artificial intelligence, bio-engineering, etc. Deus Ex was aware that transhumanism was a state of society and state of mind, NOT just “I have robot arms!”

      Human Revolution is ALL AUGMENTATION ALL THE TIME but doesn’t actually explore its own single topic in enough depth for it to really resonate. It leaves all the arguments in the strawman stage and has about as much subtlety as the protagonist from the Postal series. They really could have made the game a lot more interesting – and wouldn’t have needed to go into extremely detail about everything – simply by speaking about more than one issue.

      1. Thomas says:

        Well DX:HR does take long looks at everything you said after AI. So I’m not really sure what you’re saying. You started talking about other technology related to well, just futurism I guess AI is transhumanism as well but then everything else you list isn’t that, it’s affects of the one technology so maybe you weren’t quite saying what you were trying to? (sorry I hope you don’t take that as insult, I’m a hopeless communicator and seem to be unable to avoid writing walls of text at the moment, whereas you just seemed to be talking about two very subtle differences. I’m definitely the worse writer)

        But whatever the case the aug explorations of DX:HR goes way beyond ‘I have robotic arms’ I guess a lot of it is subtle, as people pointed out before non of the people actual spout anti-aug arguments, instead it relies on sidequests and just the general atmosphere of Detroit and Hengsh-

        Wait Hengsha also had all this stuff about the multi-tiered city, and the last level is all about Pangea and controlling the environment. And you also have an AI, media control and human-driven computing, aren’t those side technologies related to a transhumanism mindest?

        And even in world context, it’s not far enough in the future that much has changed yet. The tech is developing and it’s strongly implied without Darrow’s brekthrough we wouldn’t be there yet. Whats more society hasn’t embraced a transhumanism mindset yet, it’s still fumbling it’s way and trying to settle on something, so for all the technology to represent the mindset would be false

      2. MatthewH says:

        I was fooled. Towards the end of the level you see a big half-sphere type structure, and I thought this was the broadcast room I was looking for (because you’d need somthing like this to produce the hologram). But I wasn’t exactly surprised when she turned out to be an AI.

        Also, I wondered -though couldn’t figure out why they’d do it -if they named her after Elia Kazan -director of On the Waterfront. My best explanation would be that Kazan’s most famous film is about testifying against corrupt behind-the-scenes machinations by Communists, er, I mean Mobsters. And Eliza Cassan is trying to subtly out the Illuminati.

        Oh, and Zhao – anyone who comes at me with a machinepistol I think loses the benefit of the doubt when it comes to tearful confessions.

        I’m starting to think Jensen may just be a lousy judge of character. See also Reed, Dr. Megan, in the stinger.

    3. Hitch says:

      I think I’m just old. I can’t hear the name “Eliza” without thinking AI. So, long before we got to her, as soon as I heard the name, I was thinking that. It’s supposed to be some sort of surprise reveal?

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA

      1. Klay F. says:

        I was guessing that Eliza was an AI as soon as I saw the first trailers with her in them, and I wasn’t even aware of that program. I mean, you just have to listen to her method of speech. Its just a little, TOO cool and measured, no human can speak like that without sounding like a retard, and no other character in the game talks like that. Put this together with a little genre savviness, and you have the only possible answer.

    4. Sleeping Dragon says:

      The moment I became something like 95% sure was when I read an email (I think it’s on one of the computers in the Picus building, but I’m not 100% sure) about some sponsor wanting for her wear their clothes on camera and a guy was trying to get her measurements , which proved really, really hard for an unexplained reason. I thought there was something off about her movement and speech when I saw her in the newscast earlier, though that might have been attributed to animation peculiarities.

      As for Zhao, seriously, I’m not really one for physical contact in real life so I’m not sure if it’s just me but if someone I don’t know started rubbing against me like that I’d freak out. On top of that we’re talking about a woman who just wanted to shoot Adam a few seconds ago and is known for her ruthlessness. Even if Adam wasn’t sure about her story if I were in his place I’d hold her at a distance with a gun pointing at her head, listen to her story and then ask if she can prove any of it. I think this could’ve been lampshaded with pheromones, as was mentioned on the show, but we don’t really get any indication that’s the case.

      1. Neil D says:

        Thank you. I was trying to remember when I first pegged Eliza as non-corporeal, and yes, that email was exactly the point.

        On an unrelated note, when Josh was roaming through the cubicle farm and said “Adam Jenson: Sarif Janitor”, did any other old-time adventure gamers feel a sudden compulsion to walk to every garbage can in the place and disintegrate the contents?

    5. I’m not sure the exact point I figured it out – I was suspicious a bit before meeting her but I know by the time Jensen actually met her I was certain. I was first clued in when apparently she’s the only anchor in this 24 hour news network, and she does radio shows in Hengsha. I figured there might be others, they just didn’t want to detract from her screen time though. By Montreal, her dialogue and the fact these conspiriators were relying on a news anchor for help with tracking devices meant during the entire scene talking to her I was going “and then he’ll grab her arm and it’ll be a hologram, right?”. “I find my realisation disturbing” and “it seems I have alerted them to your presence” would have been dead giveaways even if I wasn’t suspicious.

      Also I was pretty sure there’s no way they’d give you an escort mission in this game.

    6. decius says:

      I for one can believe that Zhao has a better CASIE mod than Serif does. All it takes is figuring out exactly what buttons Adam has and pushing them the right ways- Adam was feeling guilty about not being able to protect Megan, carryover from his guilt about not putting in the fence and not feeling forgiven for it, &etc. Zhao knows enough of this to put a enough of a twist on him to pull off the panic room. She knows this, and that’s why she doesn’t just stay in the panic room and call security straight off. If she didn’t already know how to play him like a fiddle, she never would have entered his sight.

      1. Sleeping Dragon says:

        See, I would agree if she manipulated Jensen with CASIE and pheromones and all that. As a matter of fact it would even be strangely satisfying, would give the player at least a bit of a feel of how it is to be on the other side of the “social” augmentation. Did you act stupid? Sure you did, because you were up to your ears in chemical compounds telling you to calm down, trust and protect this person. It would also make sense that Zhao, of all people, could have an aug like that and at a level beyond what is readily available on the market, possibly even a better one than Jensen has.

        What this scene lacked was some indication of that, unless her “all over you” thing is meant to be her rubbing the pheromones straight in Adam’s face (though that’s really not the first thing that came to my mind). I’m not saying Zhao should start making fart noises with her armpit but we could get some indication, like a close up of her eye and seeing that something is adjusting there (I know the CASIE aug is in the brain but it could be a different model or something) or stumbling upon an email describing how her company is experimenting with crossing new boundaries with social augs or something.

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          Or adam saying to sarif “She used casie on me” afterwards.

          1. evileeyore says:

            Or David Sarif whining at him “Adam, don’t you understand? You got CASIEd Adam.”

  11. Piflik says:

    I really liked the conversation with Eliza. Until then I never suspected her to be an AI, but from her dialogue I knew.

    Oh and Shamus…I think the word you are looking for when describing your relationship to Josh’s playstyle is omniloathe.

    1. I’m more of a fan of “Anathemalice”.

  12. Infinitron says:

    The area before Zhao’s penthouse is the executive office space. It’s quite posh, which is why it might seem “residential” at first glance.

    1. Tse says:

      Also, the news building looks quite simple and boring compared to some of the crazier “future designs” proposed by a lot of famous architects. I think it’s possible to build even now.

      1. Infinitron says:

        Non-sequitur?

      2. Agent says:

        It was built for the Montreal 76 Olympic games…

  13. Hal says:

    You know what really bugs me about that scene? All she does is slip into a panic room while the door sloooooowly closes. Why doesn’t Adam use the myriad explosives he has, including the Typhoon, to blast that sucker open? Why doesn’t he slip under the door while it closes? Ugh.

    Also, trying to do that “boss” scene with all the troops storming in was rough for me when I was trying for a non-lethal playthrough. I solved that by placing a concussion mine and a gas mine right outside the door they spawn from. No firefight, just a pile of bodies and an open door.

    The Picus offices were definitely “too empty.” Nothing broadcasts, “You will fight a bunch of guys soon” like expansive offices with prolific cover and zero people.

    Everything about the Eliza/Montreal part felt contrived, shoehorned. The one thing I did appreciate, though, was at least getting some info about Morgan Everrett. In DX1, I never felt like I understood why he was part of the Illuminati; he didn’t seem like anything special except being buddies with other people who called themselves Illuminati. At least we know more about him now.

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Well it is a panic room,those things are designed to be impenetrable.So at least that part is plausible.Everything leading to that,not so much.

      I love sarifs reaction to “she has a panic room” though.

      1. guy says:

        Yeah, the outer door was probably bulletproof glass, and then the blast doors closed behind it. I have little doubt that the panic room was capable of soaking up Jensen’s entire arsenal.

    2. Tse says:

      I just threw a gas grenade at them while they were chatting in a circle. Took them all out simultaneously.

      1. So did I.

        I also wished Jensen could roll a gas grenade under the Panic room door, that would’ve been satisfying, but his reaction time apparently slows to nonexistant during cutscenes.

    3. Gamer says:

      I heard that Montreal was intended to be a hub, but it had to be shortened to it’s current length for various reasons. They also intended to explore Eliza’s character much more, but time and budget got the best of them so we could only get the this little bit.

      1. acronix says:

        My DLC sense is tingling…

  14. Infinitron says:

    I disagree with Shamus – the Illuminati’s incompetence is narratively and thematically necessary – it’s a statement about human nature.

    If everything was fine and dandy with the Illuminati’s “rule from behind the throne with an invisible hand” modus operandi, there’d be no real ideological conflict, and no resulting debate about the role of government, etc.

    By making the Illuminati incompetent, the games show that things are never that simple, and that some people will always be dissatisfied with the middle ground compromise between freedom and order that the Illuminati represent.

    In other words, the Illuminati are unavoidably “incompetent” because their regime is contrary to human nature and thus it will always break down, sooner or later.

    1. Thomas says:

      And the people in the Illuminati aren’t incompetent, far from it, it’s just the structure, which as you’ve said conflicts with the nature of the people who form it

      1. MatthewH says:

        I don’t know that the Illuminati are incompetent. They are, after all, in the process of being played by Bob Paige. But this is always the problem with Divine Rights of Kings. As everyone has pointed out back to Plato, it works great when the King is virtuous – less well when his son has a baser nature (like, well, Bob Paige). I still think Tracer Tong’s solution was overkill.

        The Helios AI’s brilliant solution was to make the virtuous king immortal and omnipotent. Which of course worked so wonderfully that JC Denton was apparently flipping loco in Invisible War. Perhaps absolute power corrupts harder than we thought.

        In this story, though, I think the conspiracies and the Illuminati were massively under-developed/explained. I still don’t know what the Illuminati thought would be accomplished by the biochip plans, or how Hugh Darrow expected to stop them by sabotaging the chips. It all seems more direct and overt than the Illuminati of Deus Ex. But I’ll whine about that when we get back to Detroit.

        1. Hal says:

          The Illuminati plan was as follows:

          1. Achieve high regulation of augmentation in order to control the production/installation.
          2. Clone humans in attempt to find secret of augmentation resistance.
          3. Everyone on earth is augmented.
          4. Control everyone on earth through the modified neurochip.

          To be fair, steps 2 and 3 may not have been necessary, but steps 1 and 4 were the integral parts. Darrow subverted this by making the neurochip do what it did to kill augmentation altogether.

          And I don’t remember JC in IW being bananas, just that, with the destruction (?) of global communications, being omnipotent AI/Nano man wasn’t really working out very well. His thing was that humanity was always going to be held back by elitism because the actual capabilities of people would always be varied; only by everyone becoming like him would that go away, and I guess the way to do that was to form the Borg.

          Okay, maybe that was a little crazy. On the other hand, the smartest man in the world would probably seem a little crazy, but only because we don’t really understand the method of his madness.

          1. Infinitron says:

            I’m don’t think 2 and 3 were ever part of the official Illuminati plan, although Bob Page was probably exploring in that direction.
            (part of the backstory is that all this messing about with biochips is child’s play, compared to what Bob is doing with Adam’s DNA and Megan’s research behind the backs of the rest of the conspirators – which eventually leads up to the creation of the Dentons and also of Morpheus, the precursor to Daedalus and Icarus)

          2. MatthewH says:

            “His thing was that humanity was always going to be held back by elitism because the actual capabilities of people would always be varied; only by everyone becoming like him would that go away, and I guess the way to do that was to form the Borg.”

            As I said. Crazy.

            Steps 1 and 4 are the ones that don’t feel right. 2 and 3 make a certain amount of sense because the guided development of humans is an Illuminati goal. Their going after Sarif makes sense because Sarif wants to take that guidance out of the hands of the Illuminati and give it to the people at large (his is a much better solution than Tong’s in my mind).

            But the Illuminati plan still requires that augmentation be available, just consolidated. Tai Young Medical’s approach makes perfect sense. You mob-boss the independents into line and co-opt everyone else. But UN treaty regulations are going to be controlled -at best -at 2 arms’ length, and this risks limiting augmentation only to the elite -thus making the Illuminati’s job harder. And it’s Paige, not the other Illuminati who see themselves as gods. Mind-control chips and kill-switch’s are Paige’s thing. The Illuminati work through money, influence, and subtle suggestion. They are the descendents of the Knights Templar and the Freemasons, the nobles of mankind. This kind of stuff goes against the sense of nobless oblige.

            And it seems to me the obvious result of Darrow’s sabotage is not to ban augmentation, but to prevent crazy people from having a role in making them. At best, we get Taggart style regulation. Maybe major anti-trust legislation. Add another A to FDA. Darrow at least can be excused -he’s supposed to be crazy.

            My best stab is that we’re really seeing the result of 3 or 4 different plots crashing into each other -but we only ever get hear about 2 of them. We miss any explanation of Paige’s machinations, and I’m not convinced Taggart isn’t a patsy for a much better planned Illuminati conspiracy.

            1. Thomas says:

              I think the Illuminati are portrayed here as multi-goaled. In fact they aren’t even portrayed as an Illuminati but just a bunch of greedy people who realised cooperation was in their best interests (as Taggart unwittingly describes it)

              In fact your talk of nobleness and nobless oblige is directly talked about by Taggart. He says that the reason they call themselves the Illuminati is to bring this kind of image into people’s minds so that they’re more likely to have respect and investment. They’re actually just all in it for themselves. Zhao wants to be the ruling corporation, the others realise it’s good for them to have one corporation that owes them money. And if you can have a chip in every persons head that gives you power over them? Why not? These are the people who’ve decided that if they attempt the unthinkable they can succeed by sheer might of will.

              As for Darrow, I think his plan would work. If you saw half of humanity suddenly go crazy you wouldn’t let anyone touch augments any more. Think of the regulations on GM crops and that’s without all these deaths

    2. It’s also an important rule of conspiracy theories – The conspirators always have unlimited resources, the ability to silence an infinite number of people, no accountability to anyone, and the sudden, inexplicable urge to do incredibly stupid things to clue in conspiracy theorist and undermine their own plans.

      For example: The Illuminati is apparently so secretive nobody can find a trace of hard evidence they exist. Which is why they put their logo on American money.

      Meanwhile 9/11 was apparently set up months in advance with explosives clandestinely set up all around the buildings (because apparently piloting an aircraft into them wasn’t enough). Not only that but they managed to coerce or bribe everyone involved from firefighters to government officials into perfect secrecy without a single leak over 10 years on but they can’t do anything to stop the guys who made the Loose Change video.

      Big Pharma is putting a lot of effort into faking studies proving their medicine works while discrediting alternative, natural cures. They do this instead of simply selling the alternative cures at massive profits, preferring to spend all that time and money on things like FDA approval and efficacy trials.

      Sherlock set up not only Moriarty’s crimes, but every case he ever solved and planted every clue he followed, ensuring it was legitimate and valid just so people would be impressed by him, so thoroughly that he could fool John 100% of the time whilst living with him. However he hired a known children’s television actor to play his arch nemesis. Also this apparently absolves “Richard Brook” of being an accomplice to any of these crimes, and it’s somehow more plausible than Sherlock just being a good detective because “nobody could be that smart”, even though he’d have to be ten times as clever to pull off the conspiracy.

      Sorry, I’m getting onto a bit of a tangent here.

      1. Sagretti says:

        Also, Richard Nixon utilized a network of egotistical, self-serving people to sabotage political opponents who posed little actual threat to his presidency, while being paranoid enough to wiretap and bug everyone, including himself….

        Oh, wait. Not that I’m saying any of your list are legitimate conspiracies at all, but once in a while something does come around. People, especially people with excessive amounts of power, can act really strange and/or stupid when it gets to their head.

        1. The difference between most of the ones I mentioned and Watergate is Nixon’s really didn’t require superhuman powers of coercion, and it did actually get uncovered before his presidency was over. As is predictable, the more people sworn to secrecy, the harder it is to keep up. It’s a pretty good model for how you’d expect most of these things to go if they were real, but they apparently never do.

          I mean really, the amount of people that would have to be involved in 9/11 and not only was every single person recruited fine with creating a horrible tragedy, but over ten years later on, none of them have had a change of heart and talked? That’s a lot longer than Nixon had, and it’s far more horrific than what he did.

        2. Thomas says:

          And to fake the moon landings they built a giant rocket capable of going to the moon and trained astronauts to pilot it but without checking out how a flag would actually move on the moon, because you know, no-one will check out the flag, and then, since they’d built the massive rocket and photoshoppers were expensive a couple of decades ago, they decided they might as well fake the moon landings on the moon

          1. Realizing that setting up a hoax conspiracy for any given event would be far more expensive than just doing it is one of my favourite things.

      2. Thanatos of Crows says:

        Well, you could always say they plant those clues to make people jump on them and make the theorists look ridiculous, effectively dismissing theories concerning them. Making a joke out of something is an easy way to hide it. Took me two minutes to think of a verb. Sleepy time!

        1. Exactly, that’s the key part of how conspiracy theories get so ingrained – any evidence against the conspiracy is part of the conspiracy. It would be much simpler to have no clues at all if they’re that good, rather than just baiting people.

          And you could say “well there are legitimate and fake clues, and the fake ones obfuscate the legitimate ones” but the thing is, they all get put under a fine toothed comb anyway, and there never are any legitimate ones, which would mean if such conspiracy theories exist, the only reason people know about them is because of the fake clues.

  15. Bruno says:

    Just so you know, that building actually exists, and looks pretty much the same. Believe me, if you’re from Montreal, using the Olympic Stadium for this level an hilarious idea.

  16. Pete says:

    The typhoon: so it would be somewhat impractical in regular combat situations on its own, but as you have so effectively demonstrated, use it with the cloaking aug, and…

  17. Infinitron says:

    Fun fact: The big Picus newsroom is an almost exact replica of the New York Times’ newsroom.

  18. McNutcase says:

    Now that the seal has been broken, I will be sorely disappointed if the game is not referred to in the credits as “Deus Ex: Hunan Chicken” at least once.

    1. anaphysik says:

      I believe that was actually Shamus’ *very first* riff on the DX: Hydrant Resuscitation name. (Except that I seem to recall him saying “Hunan Beef” instead, but whatevs.)

      EDIT: Aha – http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=14220
      And it was actually all Josh’s fault.

  19. Spammy says:

    Shamus, the line you were looking for was in No More Heroes 2: “I hate you with all of my hate.”

  20. el_b says:

    remember when we hated elevators?

    This episode has one of the best credits sequences of your whole show, I watched it again and again :P

  21. Even says:

    Great. Now that tune’s gonna play in my head every time I’m in an elevator. Thanks.

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      At least then you wont hear muzak.

    2. el_b says:

      Better than the girl from ipanema LOL

      I cant remember if this is already been mentioned, but will you be doing the missing link dlc?

  22. LunaticFringe says:

    16:12 Um Josh, not sure if you’re trolling or not…that’s a real building, it’s the Olympic Stadium built for the ’76 Olympics. It was really weird when you listen in on some of the mooks because they start talking about how Montreal’s infrastructure is falling apart (which it pretty much is in real life, thank you, mob contracts). This, along with the comments in Detroit about the Habs having a winning streak makes it pretty obvious that it was a Montreal studio who made the game.

  23. Velkrin says:

    One thing that really bugged me about the Zhao cutscene (that hasn’t been discussed) is that she has a machine pistol, and instead of trying to shoot you she CHARGES into melee range. Granted she may think you’re partially bulletproof, but still.

    There must be something in the air in the offices of Tai-Young Medical.

  24. Varriety says:

    The Zhao cutscene was stupid for me, since, after reading email after email about how much of a bitch she was, Adam still fell for the damsel in distress routine. The game made up for it the second time you meet her, though, if you don’t get the *new* biochip when you start getting those glitches that only ever happen when I’m running around a hub.

  25. MatthewH says:

    9:30. Those of you who called “Typhoon” may collect your winnings at the window. Everyone else, pay up.

    I was actually excited for a moment when I saw Josh making gas mines. I was envisioning planting those on either side of the elevator, or on the stairs of something so that the entire crew of Belltower guys would be gassed in a hilarious green cloud. Alas, I think he was making room for EMP grenades.

    Which he also didn’t use.

    And I’m saddened that the big robot monsters apparently go down as easily as the little security bots.

    1. Pete says:

      “And I'm saddened that the big robot monsters apparently go down as easily as the little security bots.”

      Do keep in mind Josh is playing on easy. Not that I remember the things being any more durable on hard, but I did actually use my EMP grenades, so…

      1. Tse says:

        Upgraded typhoon kills every non-boss enemy in a single shot in all difficulties.

  26. The Defenestrator says:

    So Adam confronts Zhao and then lets her walk behind his back and gets pushed out the door, so he goes to Montreal and confronts Eliza, and then at 20:45 he turns his back on her! Jensen, are you capable of learning from your mistakes?

    1. Tohron says:

      Looking at the later boss fights, clearly not.

  27. Mormegil says:

    I just never understood why Zhao even mentions Picus and Eliza. Why not throw out a complete red herring?

    I can understand Barrett talking about Heng Sha – he was an idiot who was dying (and thought he was going to take Jensen with him) but Zhao is supposed to be a master manipulator. She’s clever enough to get past Adam and into her typhoon proof panic room but not clever enough to avoid passing on vital plot information.

    1. Infinitron says:

      It’s possible that she was genuinely afraid for her life, and was bitter enough at the rest of the Illuminati for not promoting her to the Inner Circle, that she willingly sold them out. A very temporary betrayal.

    2. Daemian Lucifer says:

      She did mention her on that security camera footage,so you didnt even have to speak with her to know where to go next.

      1. Indy says:

        She only said Eliza. Which, unless the trope holds true, isn’t evidence. She only joins it up with “one phone call to Picus”.

    3. Pete says:

      Because Picus IS A TRAP!

      Duh.

      1. Mormegil says:

        But why put the trap where the vital plot information is? Saying that it’s a trap doesn’t fix it – it just means that the incredibly smart bad guys have put the trap in a dumb place.

        Why not put your assassin in somewhere where there isn’t an opportunity for the good guys to get an edge on you and then send Jensen off there?

        1. Indy says:

          They essentially did that with the FEMA complex. You go through the whole level without learning anything (except that FEMA’s involved and this notion is immediately rejected by Sarif) and the only plot information is given to you by the assassin.

  28. Gamer says:

    With regards to people being immune to the CASIE augment, I think it’s less about having an implant that resists it and more that knowing about and knowing how it affects you gives you ability to resist it. I say this because I don’t think Malik, who’s just a pilot, would get an augment just to resist CASIE.

    So, if I’m right, Jensen has even less of a reason of fall for her deception since he obviously knows the CASIE augment exists.

  29. Gamer says:

    Also, did anyone notice the vast amounts of alcohol that are in Josh’s inventory, just sitting there?

    Is Josh meta-trolling by not drinking. I mean he drank two bottles of wine, but…

    1. Nyctef says:

      I love how Josh eventually succumbed to Shamus’ nagging and got a couple of inventory upgrades, but only so that he could hold more alcohol :)

  30. onFyre says:

    I’ve noticed that all of Chris’ subtitles in the credits are compliments, whereas the others are usually jokes at your expense or unrelated. It’s because he’s the ‘guest star’, isn’t it? I think he’s settled down enough by now for you to start slagging him off soon.

    1. That and he hasn’t done anything really embarrassing or stupid on air yet. There’s a lot of things you can make fun of the other hosts for doing after all this time (most of which are exactly why we watch it of course) but so far Chris has stayed pretty professional.

      You just know they’re waiting. One day he’ll slip up and then bam! Wacky subtitles forever!

    2. Dude says:

      I think his first troll title should be: Metahuman Metaphor.

      Swiftly followed by some form of allegory.

  31. CalDazar says:

    I didn’t have a problem with the”boss” battle that was a room full of goons. I threw in some gas grenades and knocked out the survivor or two with my close quarters atack. I did have more than a few grenades though.

    I felt a little battle tired by the time you are at Picus, I assumed the game was heading toward the end sith all this quick advancement and combat, but then things kept going and we fall into more quest hub. Did they cut something or just not realise that such continual action would be taken as a note that things are ending?

    1. Indy says:

      Yeah, I got the Picus is the Collector Base vibe too. If Montreal was a hub, than that would explain a lot but the decision to cut it must have meant that a hub there would be worse, right?

  32. Zaxares says:

    1:10: I think it’s both. The area Jensen is in now is definitely an office of some kind (belonging to the top level execs of Tai Yong Medical, if the computers are any indication), but Zhao Yun Ru clearly lives on the top level of the building in the Penthouse. It seems only reasonable to assume that other high level execs would also have living quarters in the building, considering it’s high level of security and “flashy” living space.

    2:08: I know the robots you’re thinking of, Shamus. You don’t need EMP grenades to deal with them; there’s a console on the upper walkway that you can stealth to, hack into, and use that to shut down the robots. … Well, if you have your augments specced to allow you to control robots, of course.

    4:50: Josh, I still cannot figure out for the life of me WHY you are grabbing beers, painkillers and other medical stuff… And then NOT USING THEM! XD That Hypostim in the drawer? You could have just grabbed that, injected yourself with it, and then moved on.

    5:10: To be fair, TYM DID build Upper Hengsha. They basically OWN the damn place, so they can build whatever they want on it. XD

    6:21: Yeah, I have to admit, Jensen acted like a dumbass in that cutscene. The woman just pulled a GUN on you, man! Don’t let her get BEHIND you! Sheesh…

    11:45: … BWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! XD

    12:59: WAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! The robot gets his revenge! XD

    17:39: As another example of how I love the detail that goes into the game, check out the spilled coffee cup on the table AND the spill it makes on the carpet below. It’s a tiny thing, but it does so much to reinforce the feeling that the people in Picus evacuated in a hurry.

    18:14: Aaaand Josh points it out himself. Pfft. Just make me redundant, whydontcha?!

    19:39: Hey now, Shamus! Josh already upgraded his inventory, when he originally didn’t just to spite you. Let’s not push our luck. ;)

    1. Indy says:

      I miss the Viddler comments too.

      1. krellen says:

        I miss the Viddler comments when there were only a handful of people making them. Once everyone started doing it, they became impossible to follow and thus completely pointless.

  33. Iv never had one of the robots kill me with self-destruct. Then again iv never run up to try and have fisticuffs with one.

  34. Grudgeal says:

    10:10: …Did you just compare Zhao to Saemon Havarian? Because the *first* thing that comes out of your character’s mouth when you meet him is a comment on how completely untrustworthy he seems. Practically every NPC you have in the party with the common sense of a hamster will chip in on something similar.

    And if you want him to screw you over too badly (leave you on the sinking ship with the Gith), you have to *choose* to go along on his little sidequest, which I might add is completely optional, and Saemon doesn’t gloat about it either way. Zhao is Capcom Cutscene levels of stupid by comparison.

  35. Daemian Lucifer says:

    Ok,we all agree that the cutscene was bad,but lets try something constructive for a change:How could it have been improved with as little change as possible?

    My suggestion:After being disarmed by jensen,zhao grovels and begs while slowly backing away,then smacking the button to close the door.Jensen lunges,but isnt fast enough when the door slams in front of him.

    1. Shamus says:

      I think that would have fixed it.

      And really, the big problem with the cutscenes isn’t that Jensen is ambushed, it’s that he’s STUPID. The writer has full control of the entire world outside of the player’s view. Bad guys can jump in through the windows, enter through previously-locked doors, uncloak, emerge from darkness, etc etc. And yet instead of properly constructing the world to fit the situation, they bent the character by making Jensen a senseless rube. It’s a lot like Fable 2: “I can’t figure out how to outsmart the player, so I’ll just railroad them into being dumb.”

      1. Irridium says:

        Or alternatively, keep it all in-game and let the player keep control. Have Zhao move around, let the player follow her movements, and while you’re distracted by what she’s doing/saying, an enemy comes up behind you and throws you across the room and Zhao gets away.

        And if the player doesn’t follow her, but instead focuses on where the enemy will come from, let the player stop the enemy from ambushing, and while the player is focused on that, Zhao gets away.

        Also let the player be able to shoot Zhao whenever they want, and therefore skip the final “boss” fight at Panchea. That would be awesome.

        1. Dude says:

          It should have been a boss conversation like Zeke. Where she twists herself out, or you can kill her/arrest her and kill her via some freak accident. It would require another big bad for the end fight, sure, but considering how cardboard cutout Zhao is in the final boss fight, it might as well have been one of her clones.

          Or better yet, have it as another holograph conversation behind an impenetrable wall. That would go down better than the oh-she-escaped-too-bad, and it would be a nice red herring for people wondering if she’s an AI too after Eliza’s reveal.

    2. Gamer says:

      They could have pulled the classic stunt where Jensen tries to Sneak up on Zhao, only to find that it was a hologram. Then, Zhao reveals herself on an intercom or teleconference or something. They have a chat and something slips. Then, Jensen hears guards outside and leaves ASAP.

      Though I like your suggestion.

      1. They couldn’t pull the same trick twice with Eliza though, it’d be just as annoying.

    3. Indy says:

      How about Zhao opens the door for you, calls you by name and threatens to flood the room with gas. When Jensen tries to reach her, she closes the door, gloats for a while (giving the necessary plot hook to Picus) and decides that watching you die to gas wouldn’t be “noble” enough, calling in her security from the hangar instead (and explaining your escape route).

      I feel like that wouldn’t be as stupid.

      1. Better, but I’d prefer if, instead of gassing not being noble enough, she sends them in just in case you have the aug that lets you breathe gas. She can’t see you, and she doesn’t know what augs you have, so she sends them in to be sure.

        Zhao really doesn’t strike me as the honourable type.

        1. Indy says:

          I’d rather her act out of character than Jensen.

  36. KremlinLaptop says:

    At first blush the Typhoon seems both useless and sort of insane as a military weapons system; it would require the operator to be within kissing distance of the enemy to be effective.

    It’s still quite plausible when we consider all the other batshit insane weapons that have been developed over the years and put into production. I.e the Davey Crockett portable nuclear bomb launcher which was the real world equivalent of the Fat Man, the AIR-2 Genie unguided rocket with a nuclear warhead, and most insane of all the Mk 45 Anti-Submarine Torpedo which – in water – had a larger blast radius than the maximum range of the device.

    In comparison the Typhoon seems almost sensible…

    1. Indy says:

      I consider the Typhoon to be like a suicide pill… but for everyone else in the interrogation room.

      1. Blake says:

        9:36 – Guards come to ambush Jensen, Typhoon goes off in the middle, Jensen stuns one of the remaining guards, the other says ‘I saw that!’

  37. Johan says:

    “Somehow I got Smooth Operator”
    Yeah I think some of the bonuses are occasionally bugged. At the Singapore Facility I did nothing but run up to people and kill them with my heavy machine gun/machine pistol. I killed every enemy on the island and set off every alarm, before I then turned them on and hacked them for XP. I got Smooth Operator and Ghost.

    I guess it was like “well there are no witnesses, they must have been killed by the spirits of the vengeful death. Using machine guns”

    1. Infinitron says:

      Many “missions” in the game are actually divided into smaller sub-missions. Basically every objective on your objectives screen is its own mission. There’s no correspondence between the level or map and the “mission”.
      So, you may have ghosted the “sub-mission” immediately after the one where you shot all those people.

      1. Johan says:

        You know, that might make sense. The final “stage” of the mission was to go to the back of the base and push a button. Since I’d already killed everyone and destroyed all the cameras, I guess I couldn’t be seen

  38. John the Savage says:

    Aww man, you guys missed my favorite PDA. It’s the one by the downstairs entrance to the big cubicle room. This guy had his username, password, social security number, and the PIN to HIS BANK ACCOUNT on his PDA, and then he LEFT IT ON THE FLOOR! I kept praying that we could use it back in Detroit or Hengshaw to pick up some massive credits.

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