Deus Ex Human Revolution EP14: A Brush With Glitch

By Shamus Posted Friday Feb 3, 2012

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 198 comments


Link (YouTube)

Wow. A whole week of fumbling around, tranq’ing guards, hacking computers, and juggling inventory. And then in the last half of the last episode we have a boss fight, an important conversation with Pritchard, a major glitch, we meet Bill Taggert, and we’re introduced to the whole anti-aug side of the argument.

 


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198 thoughts on “Deus Ex Human Revolution EP14: A Brush With Glitch

  1. spelley says:

    Basically RIGHT before this episode is where I stopped playing due to being distracted by other shiny things. I think I’m gonna have to get back into it. Re-sparked my interest, this series has :)

    1. Gamer says:

      “Re-sparked my interest, this series HAAS”

      Fixed that for you.

  2. Airsoft says:

    You can get the Peps in the police armoury in the first area

    1. Vipermagi says:

      And the sniper rifle’s on top of the vendor everyone knows. You need the jump aug though (one of the first augs I got), or a bunch of boxes. You can get most weapons in the game in Detroit, which is something I very much enjoy.

      1. Thomas says:

        It’s there before the riots? Does it have an affect if you nick it?

        1. Michael says:

          Yes, and sort of.

          It’s there from the first time you get turned loose in Detroit, and like a lot of Detroit scavenging it will be gone during the riots if you already picked it up.

  3. Gabriel Mobius says:

    With respect to Pritchard, I think the word you guys were looking for was foil. It works rather well for the relationship between Jensen and Pritchard, even though their relationship is a bit more antagonistic in the early stages than most traditional literary foils.

    Actually, it’s very interesting: Those two guys you talked to, I don’t think I have ever seen them before. Either I discarded them mentally as just people that need pistol rounds to the back of the face, or I somehow straight up missed them. That says something for this game, but now it’s gnawing at the back of my mind in a sort of ‘oh my god you missed something‘ way, and now I want to replay the game. Gah.

    1. Josh says:

      For a moment, I was going to reply with, “You missed William Taggart and Isaias Sandoval?!”

      And then I realized you meant the two FEMA guys at the beginning who were standing in a totally empty break room for no reason. And the internet was saved.

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        “For a moment, I was going to reply with, “You missed William Taggart and Isaias Sandoval?!””

        Josh,you are the only one who found that bug.No one else has your uber-glitching skills.

        1. Jason says:

          Oh, I encountered that. Damned annoying, too.

        2. SyrusRayne says:

          I encountered that very same bug, as well. Fortunately, I hadn’t saved that long before.

          1. FalseProphet says:

            Yeah, same for me.

        3. wyatt1048 says:

          Nope, I hit that one. It can also happen in the penthouse in Tai Yung Medical, and in one part of Pangea – I think it’s linked to the lifts.

        4. Hitch says:

          It’s fun to blame Josh for that stuff, but I’ll defend him by pointing out that Fraps has bizarre interactions with video games all the time.

        5. Zagzag says:

          I got that bug as well. When I got it I was actually thinking of Josh, and how likely it was he would get it is Spoiler Warning ever covered Human Revolution. Uncanny…

        6. PSJ says:

          I got the same bug about three days ago as I was preparing for this very episode, so I almost wasn’t surprised to see it happen.

      2. Gabriel Mobius says:

        If I’d gone with the former then the entire plot of the game may have changed, particularly because Sandoval and Taggart would be lying in pools of blood as a result of me compulsively stealthing my way through Sarif Industries.

      3. 4th Dimension says:

        Game does present a reason for them being there. They are there to oversee handoff of the facility from the Mercs in employ of The Conspiracy back to the FEMA.

      4. Wandring says:

        Maybe anyone else who had a glitch like that might have walked into Sarif’s office and missed William Taggart and Isaias Sandoval.

        So perhaps it is possible he did mean THOSE guys! (Heck if anyone qualified as “people who need pistol rounds to the back of the face” it’s Taggart and Taggart-light).

    2. Eärlindor says:

      Same here, I have no recollection of those two guys and I’m racking my brain here. “How did I miss that?”

  4. littlefinger says:

    Josh, you get the PEPS in the police station armory. WTF did you miss that?!

    1. Gamer says:

      To be fair, it is of in the corner and in the ONE place that speeching Haas doesn’t let you in to. I only found it because of my OCD exploration tendencies.

    2. SyrusRayne says:

      It’s not that hard to miss, I was wondering what the hell the PEPS packs were for my first time around. Also the PEPS sucks forever and anyone who uses it is wrong.

      1. Nick says:

        Are you kidding? Best thing ever for Pacifist/Foxiest in Panchea! You can knock whole rooms unconscious!

        1. Eric says:

          Or you can switch on stealth and run past all of them.

          1. Well yeah, if you don’t want to see the entire room go flying backwards like you’re some sort of cyber-dragonborn.

          2. SlowShootinPete says:

            Or you can buy the jump aug and play leapfrog with them.

    3. guy says:

      As I recall, getting in there is an incredible pain.

      1. Eric says:

        There’s what, one guard in there? And you can knock him out? “Hack the door” doesn’t strike me as much of a pain.

        1. guy says:

          I’m talking about the automated security systems, actually. Couldn’t figure out how to bypass them without upgrading my hacking, and I seem to recall it took a pretty high level, so I just skipped it.

          1. Sydney says:

            Get permission from Haas to enter. Walk into that room; close the door. KO the guard.

            Now you’re free and clear; just hack the computer, turn off the camera, open the door, and loot everything. I always drag the guard into the locked area and seal him in, but that’s just for fun.

            1. Andrew_C says:

              You can also get into there through the ducts. The duct you enter through starts on the previous floor IIRC.

              I also tended to K.O. the cops and drag them into the ducts. By the time I finished the Police Station there must have been 20 of them in there.

  5. Tobias says:

    Seen realistically the control rooms do remind me of the control rooms at a train-switchyard. Which would make sense for FEMA to have.

    07:20 Ohh, I thought Shamus was speaking figuratively last episode. Shows me for underestimating gamemaker stupidity.
    17:19 The exposed elevator parts remind me of the citadel in City17.
    20:30 What shamus says here, is what a lot of people say in real live, if the subject is allowing non-prescription mind improvement drugs.
    21:17 Tagart’s standpoint may be more stupid. But it might also be more realistic, I think when the real bio-conservative movement gets a real enemy and becomes a real movement, religious people will be at its forefront.

    Also, moderation again? why?

    1. Destrustor says:

      Maybe it’s “religious”.

      Edit: Yep, most certainly.

  6. Corpital says:

    I just liked Pritchard until the last visit to the Sarif Industries Tower, where you are able to read his mails.

    After I read the mail about the TV show script he was trying to sell, he jumped straight to This Is My Favorite Character In This Game.

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Its also fun finding all those snippets about hackers complaining about this really l33t guy that is countering them,and finally learning that they were talking about pritchard.Usually support npcs do nothing important,yet here is one who doesnt ust stand around picking his nose while you arent around.

    2. 4th Dimension says:

      The most interesting thing about that e-mail and response from Picus, is that they absolutely shoot down Pritchard’s idea that has main character that is an obvious Pritchard, and instead they tell him they are rather more interested in a hard boiled former cop trying to get to the bottom of a conspiracy, basically they are describing Jensen :D

      1. Eric says:

        The most interesting thing is that they bothered to reply to him at all. Isn’t it policy just about everywhere that you never, ever mail anyone back unless you’re interested in them/their ideas? THIS GAME IS UNREALISTIC

        1. SougoXIII says:

          I can’t remember the detail but apparently that was like the fifth script he sent them so they were just replying to make sure he get the message.

  7. Daemian Lucifer says:

    Wow,that boss fight is really long with bullets.Josh,why didnt you use your grenades?What are you keeping them for?And why did you make two different mines instead of stacking explosive ones?

    Taggart being the lead anti-aug guy is reflective of the real world however.You will usually find someone with such a dumb argument in the top of political groups,while the more rational people arent that vocal.

    1. CTrees says:

      You’re asking why JOSH is carrying things around which take a good amount of space in his inventory, but not using them? JOSH. Really?

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Your right.You know,I was sad that he didnt pick up the rocket launcher,but now Im not.There still may be some hope left.

      2. Josh says:

        And you guys thought I was going soft.

    2. Eric says:

      If you use the Stun Gun you can literally just stand in his face and fire over and over without ever taking a single hit. It’s pretty ridiculous to say the least.

      1. Tse says:

        And he dies in less than 20 shots, even on the hardest difficulty.

  8. Lawton says:

    The lore bit is to zeke’s brother, the surgeon Sanderson. He didn’t realize that Sarif has boobytrapped the GPL location devices, (going so far to protect his assets loyalty) The sender is not clear though.

    1. Josh says:

      I actually realized this as I was editing the video, and now I’m kicking myself for not having gotten that sooner.

      It’s not something you can or are expected to understand at this point in the game – in fact it almost seems made for the second playthrough, since it’s doubtful you’d remember this particular pocket secretary out of all the ones you have read between this point and when you finally confront the relevant NPCs. But it does make perfect sense, fitting into the scene where you find it without seeming shoehorned in at all.

      Nice touch.

    2. Hal says:

      It’s WT (William Taggart) to IS (Isaias Sandoval). What’s not clear?

      1. I’d love for this game to have like a clues list and you can just type in when you figure things out before the game tells you and it unlocks new dialogue. That way you could confront Taggart here or something. But that would be a bit ludicrous to program, I’ll admit.

        1. littlefinger says:

          I’d love an indicator that tells you that there is bonus meaning on the second playthrough. Usually my second play is something like *already know this* *already know this* *already know this* *I probably know this already, I’m going to skip this* and the last part always ends up being interesting.

          1. So like an upgrade for the CASIE or smart vision that analyzes text or something that you can only get on a new game plus? I’d love that

  9. Jason says:

    At 5:20, that email is, I think, about the GPS implants in the kidnapped scientists’ arms, that Sarif put in there to make sure he could always find them. Isaiah Sanders couldn’t get them out, but he did manage to switch the frequency without killing them (or possibly switch the frequency so they didn’t have to kill them to prevent Sarif from finding them). It’s definitely something you won’t get until a second playthrough.

    1. Lawton says:

      Eh heh heh. Beat you to it.

      1. tengokujin says:

        No, there’s enough material that you can figure it out the first time through. You’re just unlikely to remember the specifics, since there’s *so much* lore to sift through. :p

        I just remember the e-mail making sense when I played through, though I didn’t remember the specifics until you wrote them out here :p

      1. Pete says:

        …!
        … .

      2. Daemian Lucifer says:

        …!

        EDIT:Darn silent ninjas!

        1. JPH says:

          Is there any other kind?

          1. Destrustor says:

            Invisible ones.

            1. JPH says:

              Most ninjas are both, actually.

          2. tjtheman5 says:

            yes, loud and visible ones, but there not that good at their job.

            1. Sydney says:

              Unless they’re hiding in plain sight.

                1. tjtheman5 says:

                  Wait, I think I just failed a read-check.

  10. Thomas says:

    I have to admit I didn’t have your problem with Miranda she was very clearly meant to be a insecure ambition oriented ice queen and that was what came across. Her sex scene was the only one that furthered the character/story because it made sense she was a domineering exhibitionist.

    Everyone loves Malik.

    I’m a bit confused when you werent sold on Megan, because you never saw anything not to sell her. She’s just unknown, and you can basically assume she’s whatever meant a meaningful relationship. I don’t even feel that Jensen was chasing after her in the typical save the princess way. He was trying to save her because he’d known her, loved her and wasn’t the sort of guy not to save people. If Pritchard had been captured I think he’d have chased after him, in the same way he went to such lengths to help Malik in her quest.

    Taggart isn’t the anti-aug side. In fact in that very conversation you can see that, because his assistant states the anti-aug side. All the arguments you mentioned are shown to you by the game repeatedly and in fact several were made by the assistant right there. You keep seeing the gangs, the victims of addiction, the people left behind, the street wars and scavenging. It doesn’t need a person to propone it.

    Taggart actually says in the game he’s not anti-aug, he’s just pro-regulation. He is the Illuminati side. He shows how a lot of the Illuminati are nothing more than slightly slimy manipulators kinda out for their own interests and when you speak to him he offers you the chance to join him and control augmentation. He’s not even particularly evil, he just believes that the world would generally be a better place (for him and kinda for other people) if he was sorting it out. His choice at the end of the game is ‘regulation would be great but I realise I’m giving power to people like him and I just have to trust that’

    EDIT: Oh wow the game actually told us that. I never realised. Isaias is the ‘honest’ anti-aug side and think about what happens there…

    1. Knight of Fools says:

      When you infiltrate the convention center and choose to hack Taggart’s computer instead of confront him, you read an E-Mail that he sent to a colorful detractor. In that E-Mail, he explains a few points (Not particularly well, as you mentioned) and briefly mentions that he might believe things the way he does because was raised Mormon. (Though not necessarily an active one.)

      I’m Mormon myself, so it was pretty easy to connect what I believe to what Taggart probably believes: That the body is sacred and we shouldn’t be doing things to it that belittle it. Intentionally cutting off your perfectly healthy arm to get a metal one would probably be one of those things.

      So the possibility for depth and bias in his opinions was there with Taggart, but it was never fully realized. The game did a fairly poor job of making Taggart sound like anything but an elitist jerk (“Ho, I’m a psychiatrist, you’re just compensating for something!”). No matter how I might connect with him, he still felt unlikable to me.

      It’s entirely possible that the writers themselves were so in favor of augmentation that writing a strong opposed view was impossible for them. They further complicated things by throwing in a religion that they may not have understood much about (Which easily could have been left out).

      So Taggart had a lot of possibility to be an interesting antagonist, but he fell short, despite having an important part later in the game.

      Also, /AvoidReligiousDiscussion. This is just about Taggart’s potential personality and depth.

      1. guy says:

        “So the possibility for depth and bias in his opinions was there with Taggart, but it was never fully realized. The game did a fairly poor job of making Taggart sound like anything but an elitist jerk”

        Uh, that would be because Taggart is an elitist jerk. He does not believe a single word that comes out of his mouth. I have no idea if Mormonism possesses any doctrine that would lead to opposing augmentations, but it doesn’t matter because Bill Taggart does not care. There are people who do honestly believe human augmentation is bad in the game, but Taggart isn’t one of them.

      2. Thomas says:

        I disagree because Taggart was part of the people planning to augment everybody in order to give them ultimate control. At the end of the game he asks you to join him and the Illimunati in regulating augmentations as they see fit. The people he was working with regularly used augmentations and he was fine with that. In fact as I said, he mentions that he’s absolutely fine with augmentations, just not augmentations that are beyond the scope of government control and by proxy him and the illuminati. Finally the option where you allow augs by regulate is Taggarts. The option where you rid humanity of augs is Darrows

        I imagine he had a slightly elitest view, found himself not on the side of the augs and convinced himself to position his mind as a champion of the anti-aug movement, whilst using that position to force what he actually wanted (a compromise) where he would have more power.

        I think the devs made the anti-aug case pretty well. The game is constantly bombarding you with images of poverty and suffering as a result of augmentations. Augmentations push the world to apocalypse, cause riots, gang wars, devastation and addiction. How do you think the devs want you to think when you wander into a base and some thugs are chopping up the body of Malik to steal her augments?

        In the end I think the game makes an excellent case in every direction and at the end it reminds you that you can’t have what you want and every path has a consequence

        If you want a person who represents your view. Isaias wants to be a good person and he’s seen so much suffering and pain and even the madness of his own ‘friend’ due to augments. He makes a convincing case but hes too honest and too grateful and simply becomes manipulated by the Taggart and the Illuminati

        One of the interesting things about Taggart is that he actually managed to fool me. I had my suspicions but when he spoke in the conference centre I took him for slimy but genuine. Taggart really is good at what he does

        1. tjtheman5 says:

          when do they chop up Malik for her augs? I never encountered that.

          1. tengokujin says:

            You have to let her die first.

            1. tjtheman5 says:

              I thought so, I just wasn’t sure.

          2. bassdrum says:

            In the Harvester’s base when you’re tracking down Sevchenko’s GPL signal. There’s a little room covered in blood off to one side; if Malik died, she’ll be there; if not, it’s either empty or some random corpse (I can’t remember off the top of my head)

        2. Dude says:

          I just wanted to say, this little discussion is beautiful. Shamus lauds Bethesda for setting these tiny little scenes for us to interpret–skeletons with books in phone booths in Fallout 3 and so on and so forth, but Human Revolution also has really wonderful situational storytelling from time to time; that Malik scene being one of the best.

        3. Knight of Fools says:

          I can’t believe I completely forgot about Taggart’s deception. Thanks for pointing that out.

          I actually never thought about what the heck he was doing or paid much attention to it. I guess I never associated ‘elitist, anti-augmentation Taggart’ with ‘Illuminati Taggart’.

  11. ACman says:

    The PEPS is available in the Detroit Police Armoury.

    1. Infinitron says:

      Yes, and the cops at the station even have a conversation about it.

      I must say that this series has taught me that one completionist, in-depth, 100 hour playthrough is better than two and a half speedruns.

      1. Thomas says:

        Speed runs? You mean an anything but do everything run. If you are aiming for any kind of roleplaying you will not be able to see everything in the game. I never saw the PEPs in the armoury because I didn’t see why Jensen would randomly break into the polices weapons locker and steal their stuff. And I never saw the consequences of some conversations because I refused to reload etc And never read all the emails because I was trying to leave as little impact as possible. And never experienced sneaking through the police station, because I convoed my way in.

        With this game I don’t think you can blame anyone for missing stuff, even with two completed runs, you have to play the game in a very very special way to see everything in one run and for some people that wouldn’t necessarily even be the better way to play. I’m glad I didn’t nick stuff and break into random rooms :D

        1. I broke into the armoury because as a video game player I know that armoury=free loot and what am I just going to NOT take everything that’s not nailed down?

  12. Gamer says:

    Did anyone else notice that Pitchard’s ponytail doesn’t move at all when you talk to him?

    Also, people complain about Josh not being Cuftburt enough, but he’s got 100 pistol ammo, Sniper Rifle ammo, a crossbow, none of which he will EVER use. He’s definitely got the inventory thing down pat.

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Well the crossbow is a quest item.

      1. CannonGerbil says:

        He could have just dropped it at the feet of the Stripper/Cop before he left to the massive underground base, thus freeing up 8 inventory spaces with which he could have used to pick up other stuff, such as a rocket launcher or something.

        Or, he could just lug it around with him, unloaded and with no spare ammo, like a true Cuftbert.

  13. Duhad says:

    OK really quick, but when you turn around and look directly at Barrett who is glaring at you right before he hits you, did any one else just hear Ivan Drago saying “I must brake you.” in that moment of silence? Because I have never been able to watch that seen with out just mentally putting it in there.

    1. I just heard Jensen yelling “line?” then another voice going “keep rolling, we’ll dub it in in post!” before Barett punched him, but maybe that’s just me.

  14. Jason says:

    Also, this inventory stuff is why you don’t pick up the crossbow until the very end.

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Or why you finish that quest as soon as you are able.

      1. Jason says:

        Yeah, but going into Derelict Row to tag the weapons shipment and then going all the way back to Jenny and then all the way to the antenna is a pain in the ass.

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          Less than having that thing clutter your inventory for this long level.

          1. Rosseloh says:

            I disagree. I ended up just dropping a bunch of ammo and a weapon I wasn’t using (a sniper rifle I think) at Jenny’s feet, and then just picked them back up once I was done. This most recent playthrough has mostly been silenced/laser-sighted pistol so I didn’t really need it anyway.

            Now that I think about it, it was probably my MMO mentality of “be as efficient as possible with quest objectives” that came through there. I like to finish objectives in one area at the same time without having to backtrack.

        2. Sydney says:

          I just walk into D-Row and shoot everyone the moment I get into Detroit. That way I can do Jenny’s quest quickly and easily, and get free Ghost bonuses when it’s time to shut down the antenna.

  15. JPH says:

    Speaking as a fan of Malik, I think the whole reason why I liked her so much was because she wasn’t a love interest. She was just a good friend, and she never seemed like anything more, nor did the game paint her up as anything more.

    And yeah, I also really liked Pritchard. He and Malik were my favorite characters.

    1. Even says:

      This. As for Pritchard, it’s a little shame that a lot of the depth on him gets hidden behind e-mails. The guy really comes off as just being very passionate about his job. There’s a lot of echoing to the rivarly, giving the sense that he’s just bitter at Adam because he used to be in charge of security and now he feels like he’s been put aside. One of the e-mails on his own terminal was just priceless. Poor guy.
      Playing through second time, I found a whole new level of appreciation for the dialogue with him. It just makes perfect sense.

    2. 4th Dimension says:

      I liked Zeeke, especially his Praxis surprise, which I fell for EVEN after Shamus spoiled it in the show. That’s why I didn’t kill him but did a nonleathal takedown.

      1. Destrustor says:

        I got tricked by the trap, killed the douchebag who dared attack me in a moment of dazed confusion, and then recognized him.
        And then went “oh so that’s what Shamus was talking about.”

        And even if I had known that was the trap beforehand, I’d have willingly fallen for it because PRAXIS OM NOM NOM!

        1. 4th Dimension says:

          I purposly reloaded in order to avoid the trap and not kill Zeke. And you can do that. Move the body, remove EMP mines, and THAN take the Praxis kit. Quickly enter stealth and hide in kitchen.

  16. Lawton says:

    I predict that the new trend of female characters is going to be “Bro” characters. No romance, or no romance without initiation by the player. No blondes, short hair, trending toward non-white or butch. Must be useful in some obvious way, but easy to ignore. Also, a tendency toward masculine activities or whatever. The general idea being to allow the player to see them as a “one of the guys” character instead of a love interest. In addition to Alyx Vance, I would point to Chie Satonaka from Persona 4 as a good example.

    1. Gamer says:

      Chie was a very interesting character. I liked her myself. Sadly I stopped using her because Kanji is better.

    2. krellen says:

      I don’t think Alyx Vance qualifies. Eli, at the very least, was quite explicit about trying to hook her and Gordon up.

      1. Dude says:

        Which bugged me to no end. It seemed out of character both for Eli and Gordon. Valve: “Here’s a female co-protagonist for our story, why, of course she’s gotta make kissy-face with the One Freedon Gordman.” Eli: “The world’s gone to hell, but I’ll be damned if I’m not gonna use this opportunity to ensure future little Gordon Freemen for G-man to exploit.”

    3. SougoXIII says:

      Wait a sec, isn’t Chie one of the love interest in P4? As in you can actually date her?

      1. anaphysik says:

        Yes, but he said “no romance or *no romance without initiation by the player*” (bolding mine). Which does match Chie fairly well; and to be honest, most of her Social Link is precisely about the ‘bro’ role she falls into.

        {Hm, interesting thought: on reflection she also seems to have a rather ‘big bro’ relationship with Nanako (though obviously not as strong as the protagonist (there is no way to not embrace being Nanok’s big bro, NO WAY I TELL YOU; ahem). I wonder if that’s intentional, or just me making stuff up.}

        Of course, I’m thoroughly disqualified from talking about this subject because Rise.

    4. Sumanai says:

      I have little information on Chie (meaning to buy Persona 4, but haven’t gotten around to), but from what I’ve gathered she’s a pretty common character type in anime. Not necessarily part of the standard set of characters, but not rare or exactly new.

      It could still be a new trend in storytelling, but if so, it’s somewhat worrying. It basically suggests that “you can’t have a non-romantic relationship with a woman unless she’s a tomboy”, but I could be reading too much into it.

  17. Hal says:

    A few thoughts:

    -You guys hit on a lot of the emails you find lying around: World building, call-outs to the original that would only be recognized by those who played it, and information that doesn’t make sense until later. I like that last category, because it means you spend a lot of time seeing snippets of the sinister story around you while Jensen is still putting them together.

    -I hated the Barrett fight. I was still figuring out the combat system. I didn’t even kill him! I threw a gas cannister at his head and he tossed a trio of grenades at his feet while he was stunned.

    -Remind me again, what was the hacker going after in Sarif’s files?

    -Is it just me, or is Taggart’s face just a bit too small for his body? He looks . . . odd.

    1. 4th Dimension says:

      General industrial espionage/sabotage, and going for Thyphoon/Patient X info.

      1. Hal says:

        See, I understand that reasoning, but something is off for me:

        How can it be Typhoon stuff when the Tyrants already have Typhoon systems installed? Additionally, there’s Typhoon ammo everywhere, which sort of indicates that it’s not the proprietary (to Adam) thing that it’s indicated to be in the start.

        Patient X? They already have Megan, there’s nothing in Sarif’s files that they wouldn’t already have.

        Corporate sabotage? This is the only one I can get on board with, given TYM’s goal of establishing a monopoly on the augmentation market in order to distribute the killswitch. Something makes me feel like this isn’t the case, though I can’t put my finger on it.

        1. decius says:

          For that matter, how does ADAM have the Typhoon hardware installed- At the beginning, the technology is just now being perfected, but after the raid which incinerates the entire lab where it was developed, suddenly Serif has the hardware to install (but not the software? Put the control on a button rather than linking it into my brain if the hardware works, kthx? If the hardware doesn’t work, I’m sure these Praxis kits will have the tech to fix that :}<

    2. X2Eliah says:

      Everyone’s head is 0.8 scaled to realistic.. Taggart just has a pointed narrow face that makes it a bit more apparent.

  18. Eärlindor says:

    2:40 — YES, JOSH! Dump that pistol! Tell it like it is! Revolver ftw!

    I sound like a jerk, sorry, but man that was satisfying. /Revolver fanboy

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Revolvers are usually a great weapon in games,as long as you can get over their low bullet count(meaning,you manage to miss very rarely).

    2. Reet says:

      I was a pretty big fan of the revolver on my lethal run too. I used every upgrade I could find on it, saved a crap ton of ammo for it (nearly 100 bullets) and it was an absolute MONSTER. Every shot is like a mini grenade with the explosive rounds upgrade. One hit on pretty much every human enemy and even robots went down with around three. Particularly useful in THAT fight (crashland in hengsha).

    3. X2Eliah says:

      Yep, the revolver is awesome. Place the damage upgrades + explosive rounds, and you never need to carry any other lethal weapon; all killing-needs will be fully performed by the revolver (and for stealth stuff you have the nonlethal weaponry).

  19. krellen says:

    The way the NPCs all twitch like coke-fiends really bugs me. Very uncanny valley.

    1. Amazon_warrior says:

      It’s like they washed down their bottles of ProPlus with a quadruple espresso…

  20. Paul Spooner says:

    On the topic of Neuropozine dependency and people saddled with unwanted augments. This actually makes no sense in light of other in-game events. Say someone has an arm or a leg augment, but now they can’t afford the meds. Why not have the augment removed? We see that there are whole gangs built around the principle of stealing augments, so why aren’t these poor people selling their augments? Especially if they can no longer afford the drugs?
    It seems like the game treated augments like a disease that you can’t get rid of. In reality, it would be like an implant which could be easily removed with surgery. Affording the surgery wouldn’t even be a problem if the augments are valuable enough to steal.
    If the augment in question is life-support critical (like an artificial heart or something) then it’s really not a dilemma either. Would you rather have died than get expensive augments? That’s not much of a choice.
    I found a lot of these “moral problems” which the game brought up to collapse to similar analysis. But perhaps there’s an angle I’m not considering.

    1. Gruhunchously says:

      We don’t really know how valuable individual augment are, though. The Harvesters steal augs, sure, but for all we know, they can only make money because they have an entire organization revolving around keeping a fresh supply of enhancements coming in. They seem to target augmented victims frequently enough to feared by the locals and the police. Maybe one arm or leg enhancement alone is not enough to pay for the surgery required to remove it.
      And even if it was, would people really be so willing to give up an arm or leg? It would be an enormous life altering inconvenience that would probably prevent one from getting a job or living normally.Losing your augments might save your life, but it would also make it very difficult to live.
      But those are just my thoughts

    2. guy says:

      If you remove your arm augment, you no longer have an arm. And if you get a new one, you’re back to square one.

      1. 4th Dimension says:

        That’s one of things that bothers me about this argumentation thing. Those Leg and arm arguments REALY stand out, and make you seem more of a robot than human. That has to hurt these people when they interact with them, not to mention their ability to pick up ‘companions’. So these are the people that VOLONTIERED to have their hands and legs sawn off (which were perfectly good, and replaced with spotty dogy, expensive to maintain, dehumanizing, ugly, not conferring much of a benefit argumentations.

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          Im not sure about ugly.I liked sarifs arm.

          1. 4th Dimension says:

            Arms that Sarif produces are generally Okay. But look at all those gangsters in Hangsha, and mercs, and tell me they don’t look frankenstanian.

            1. guy says:

              I happen to like the obviously robotic aesthetic. Granted, Sarif’s look better, but I didn’t think of them as disfiguring at all. Plus, story-wise they’re pretty sweet even if the fact that this is a shooting game and not an arm-wrestling game conceals that.

            2. Eric says:

              I think the Harvesters are explained as having, well, harvested and scrounged stuff – either cheap junk or old military hardware, which is built more for function rather than looks. Tong himself has the one arm attached during the game because it’s an upgrade over his own (as the e-mails make clear) and it doesn’t even seem all that special.

              Also, the Harvesters have kind of a pseudo-religion built around augmentation. They basically want to become machines, and I’m not sure looking pretty is a big concern for them.

            3. X2Eliah says:

              … Don’t wear a T-shirt?

    3. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Neuropazine is used to combat side effects of augments,build up of glial tissue(if I remember correctly)on the nerves.Even if you remove your augment,that will stay in your body.If I understood it correctly,its like some sort of nerve cancer.So there is a point where even if you remove the augment,you still would need to take neuropazine.Also,some people do remove their augments before this.

      Also,how many people today are starving,have no home,and similar poverty related problems,when you can always easily sell some of your organs for money.Why dont more people opt for this?Just analyze that,and youll know why someone with a mechanical limb wouldnt want it removed.

      1. Thomas says:

        ‘If the augment in question is life-support critical (like an artificial heart or something) then it's really not a dilemma either. Would you rather have died than get expensive augments? ‘

        Is looking at it from a very middle-class western perspective. The people who can afford it do. The point is people can’t afford it and are driven onto the streets with a drug addiction that will kill them. That’s why the Limb clinics are swanky and full of rich people talking about how awesome augments are and the streets are full of homeless people with no future cursing augments.

        As for the arm looks thing. It’s gang culture. In the pro-aug gangs, augs are cool. They always compliment you on looking so packing awesome. It’s the same with tatoos or buzzcuts or whatever. It makes them feel good because it’s part of their culture of power. The anti-aug gangs disagree and would never chop off their arms to have one, which is what happens

        1. guy says:

          You are seriously arguing that people who are not middle-class westerners prefer dying of heart failure.

          1. Thomas says:

            No, I’m saying for lots of people it’s not possible to just go out and buy medicine. Like in this game. I can’t think of a single character who had augmentations but stopped taking neuropozyne on a principle, I can see think of a lot of very poor people who had augmentations so they could work/live and now don’t even have the money to continue living.

            Remember that most of the world can’t actually afford the right to health. Heck millions of people in the USA can’t

      2. Paul Spooner says:

        If the “glial tissue buildup” is non-reversible by removing augments, then I concede the point. I didn’t get that impression, but I wasn’t paying super close attention to all the details.

        I agree that some people are poor, and yet have valuables they don’t want to give up. However, that’s a different issue from the morality of augments. If anything, augments are easier to liquidate than organs, because they don’t spoil, and are (seemingly) independent of blood type etc. What I’m saying is, they are bringing up real societal issues, but many aren’t really a problem with augments, or augmented humans. They are just problems with people in general.

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          “They are just problems with people in general.”

          And just how in real world you hear “this song/movie/video game drove this teen to get a gun and start shooting”,you get “augs are bad” in this game.No one wants to blame people when they can blame a product.

        2. Thomas says:

          Okay I see what you’re saying, that if only augments can help people then even if it drives them broke it’s better than nothing.

          That’s fair enough, the issues are though a) People are suckered in by the idea of being able to live a life with limbs. It’s hinted in the game that the corporations are deliberately surpressing information about N dependance so they can make more money (a pro-regulation argument)

          b)Rich people can afford to function and get better, poor people can’t

          c) Finally, the N. drives people to do dangerous and violent things to try and stay alive. In the same way heroine causes crime N. has been causing gang wars and very violent crime.

          But the truth is augments aren’t ultimately bad except in two ways 1. For reasons about your view of the ultimate goal of humanity, (I would have called this religion, but I think agnostics should be able to philosophise too :D)
          2. By giving humans more power it can exacerbate a lot of the human flaws. More capability for violence/destruction, inequality, oppression. There’s a danger that half the human race will be just left behind.

          The rest are either mechanical reasons that improve with time (N) or human reasons that are important to people but essentially unsound (fear of change) and in the end I think most people would agree that heavily regulated augmentations would be the correct way to go, if regulations didn’t put more power into the hands of certain individuals to decide humanities course

          1. decius says:

            I can’t find the reason why N is so expensive on the white market- Unless it is prohibitively expensive to manufacture. In that case, it makes no sense to get augmented to continue working, because only people who are already independent can afford the augs. I suppose that augmentations could be using the inkjet printer business plan, but unless there is some kind of monopoly on N, they would be undercut by the street producers exactly like inkjet cartridges are.

    4. Zeke actually did remove his augs – he had an artificial eye if I remember correctly, but he thought it was making him crazy.

      So its not unheard of, but I imagine there’s a lot of blood involved.

  21. webrunner says:

    I like how Eidos (a Square-owned company) called the Machinegun Arm guy Barrett.

    1. Gabriel Mobius says:

      Noticed that too, did you? I must admit, I cracked a smile when I realised it for the first time, despite my antipathy towards VII.

  22. Infinitron says:

    I had that glitch too. It’s pretty dramatic.

  23. Bodyless says:

    @18:00 i had the excact same bug but in sarifs office, so no dialogue was glitched after reloading.

  24. guy says:

    Part of the reason that the game doesn’t really sell Taggert is that he’s not actually making an honest, principled stand against human augmentation, he’s just using it as a route to his own personal glory.

    He’s not convincingly portrayed as a well-intentioned voice against the dangers of this new technology because he’s not. Even discounting that he is part of an elaborate conspiracy using regulations as a cover for making all of mankind their mindless slaves, he’s intentionally portrayed as a sleazy televangelist in every aspect of his voice and mannerisms.

    I first heard him in the police station on Picus TV, and the moment he delivered his spiel about how he deeply regretted the attack on Sarif’s manufacturing plant, I immediately assumed he was cynically manipulating the honest anti-augmentation groups to make himself rich. I saw no evidence to contradict that assumption.

    Now, the people on the streets of Hengsha and Detroit actually made the economic argument, kept talking about how they were trying to scrape together enough money to get augmentations to get out of their crime-infested slums and dead-end jobs, going to work for Panchea because they offered augmentation to anyone who signed the right contract, worrying about how they’d be stuck on Neuropozene for life and how they could possibly afford that. Those are the legitimate anti-augmentation people, the rank-and-file of Purity First. Taggert isn’t one of them.

    Actually, on my first playthough, my thought on picking my personal canon ending went, I actually think augments should be more heavily regulated, but if I picked Taggert’s ending, he and people like him would be writing the regulations, so screw that, Sarif all the way

    1. Infinitron says:

      Rank-and-file of Humanity Front, you mean.
      Purity First is a terrorist organization.

      Oh and it’s spelled Taggart.

    2. Lord of Rapture says:

      THIS.

      It was so goddamn satisfying to yell at Taggart during his boss speech. The CASIE telling me that yelling at him was the correct solution was just the cherry on top of the sundae.

      At Panachea, he was the only guy I decided to punch in the face after hearing his speech, and then pick the Sarif ending just to spite his smug, slimy self.

      1. guy says:

        Oh yeah, it was pretty satisfying to shout at him. On live TV, no less!

        I didn’t have a CASIE aug for that confrontation, but I pounded on shouting at him because I had absolutely no time for his pyschobabble.

  25. Amazon_warrior says:

    I didn’t get the whole Megan thing either, so I decided that Jensen was tracking her down to confront her about her using him as an unwitting lab-rat, something that I personally worked out right at the soddin’ start of the game, but which Jensen himself never seemed to figure out. I found it teeth-grindingly annoying to have conversations with Sarif where this could have been brought up, but wasn’t. And then when I finally tracked down Ms. Bitch in the freak room, *she* had to *tell* Jensen about the Patient X thing! Grrr…. Jensen was fairly narked in that conversation, but not nearly as much as I felt he had a right to be. But possibly that’s because Jensen is supposed to be a nice-guy hero type and I’m basically a vindictive arse…

    For most of DX:HR, I felt like they were forcing me to play through the least-interesting story in the setting. I had so many unanswered questions and things I would have preferred to follow up, but couldn’t. Jensen’s origin story really intrigued me and I was glad we got to see some of it, but it mostly came off as “Hi! Some guy has probed your entire life. Go pick up his findings from a locker, would you?” I’d also really like to know whether anyone had any preknowledge of Jensen’s freak genes and whether the relationship with Megan was actually a weird sort of entrapment thing…

    I actually started coming up with an alternative plot in which Sarif was behind the “attack” on Sarif Industries because he wanted to do Sekritz Research Frowned Upon By Society and cynically manipulated Jensen’s grief and new-found ability to punch through walls to uncover the origins of the DNA trickery so that Sarif could be the one controlling it. On the upside, people would be let off the neuropazine hook, on the downside Sarif would have a monopoly on the technology…

    …And then I realised I was probably thinking about it far too much. :p

    1. guy says:

      Too complicated. Sarif already had a lock on a monopoly because Megan was working for him so he’d own the patents.

      1. Amazon_warrior says:

        Mmm, true. Like I said, I decided I was giving it too much thought fairly quickly! :p

    2. Eric says:

      I actually think Megan is one of the most complex and interesting characters in the game. She comes across as a Generic Love Interest, but only because she’s viewed through Adam Jensen’s eyes – a man who is still attached to her, desperate to reclaim their past. Viewing her through an objective lens, she is actually one of the most sociopathic characters in the game and her status as an ally is called very much into question.

      1) It’s strongly hinted that Megan only ever used Jensen to get access to his genetic material. Perhaps they were close, but whenever you get the chance to speak with Megan, she’s always concerned with Patient X, and not with Adam. This is clear even in the game’s opening scene, in retrospect. However, this concern isn’t out of concern for Jensen – it’s because she doesn’t want to be caught.

      2) It’s not clear whether or not Megan was actually kidnapped. Although of course it appears that way, and Jensen’s goal is to rescue her, when you do find her she seems to be getting along just fine, more than happy to do her research. She is almost completely shocked when she is finally reunited with Jensen and comes across far more like a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar, than she does a good friend and former lover.

      3) It’s strongly hinted that she was romantically involved with one of the Tyrants (I forget his name, the one you fight at Omega Ranch). When Jensen walks into her room, she speaks his name in an almost sing-song voice before being surprised (and arguably dismayed) to find Jensen there instead.

      4) Her relationship with Hugh Darrow is unconventional. The e-mails between the two seem to hint at the fact that they have been on friendly terms for a very long time, and it’s clear that she knows who he is – hardly the mysterious kidnapper. This despite him being the one who backhanded her in the intro.

      5) The final conversation she has post-credits casts her as a person unconcerned with the ethics and morality of her research. The “I had nobody else to turn to” line makes little sense – why couldn’t she go back to Sarif, or any other random biotech firm? In light of 4) it sounds more like she was working for Darrow, not for Sarif. Admittedly, it is a bit vague, but it doesn’t really strike me as consistent with the loyalties she should have to existing characters and organizations.

      I realize some of this is starting to sound a bit like fan fiction, but frankly Megan simply does not act like she *should* for a character in the role she is in. Her behaviour just doesn’t add up, unless you accept the fact that she was in on it the whole time, or at the very least is extremely self-interested and manipulative.

      1. I read her the same way and I really wish Jensen was smart enough to try calling her on it because I thought her ruse was kind of transparent.

        1. Amazon_warrior says:

          Indeed yes.

      2. X2Eliah says:

        Yeah, that’s what I sensed her being like as well… I’m not sure if she was aligned with Sarif or Darrow at the beginning (pre-kidnapping), but it’s fairly obvious that when you do find her, she’s easily/willingly working with the Darrow-ists. And, yeah.. I was also surprised that there wasn’t an option to call her out at this obvious change-of-heart.

      3. Amazon_warrior says:

        Thank you for expressing what I thought about Megan far more clearly than I managed! I think it annoyed me because there were so many little hints to all this kicking around, yet Jensen seemed oblivious. Blinded by love, or just blind? Either way, it was frustrating.

      4. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Nice analysis.But I disagree with your first point.To me,it felt like she really does have feelings for jensen,and she broke up because she felt guilty for using him like that.

        1. Amazon_warrior says:

          I dunno. If we accept that she was just using Jensen for his genetic material (*cough*), then her note about betraying someone she respects could point to someone else, maybe the Omega Ranch Boss chap. She betrayed (cheated on?) him with Jensen (maybe under orders?) because Jensen had something she needed for her research, but then cosied back up with him as soon as possible…

          I kind of got the impression that she split with Jensen as soon as she had him where she wanted him, i.e., working for Sarif where she could easily access his DNA without having to make kissy faces with him.

          1. Daemian Lucifer says:

            Then why the hell did he break up with jensen?If you found someone with a special dna,you wouldnt just take a swab from his mouth and be done with it.There are plenty of tests youd want to run.If she was interested in jensen just for his dna,shed milk him dry,not just take one sample.

            Also,she told no one,not sarif,not omega ranch guys,where she got the sample from.Why would she do that if she didnt care about jensen?

            1. Amazon_warrior says:

              I have the nagging feeling that you didn’t properly read what I wrote before you posted this.

              I suggested why already. And I think Sarif *did* know about Jensen, or why the hell would he employ a PI to investigate Jensen’s background and find out how he became like he is? Or have the clause in his contract saying they could go nuts with augmentations if anything happened to him?

              Also, who said anything about just one sample? It’s very easy for an employer to create reasons to obtain samples of genetic material from their employees (routine drugs testing being a very obvious example). It’s probably much harder to do so to someone you happen to be dating. “Hi honey, mind if I swab your mouth and take some of your blood? Oh, and the Robertsons are coming over for dinner later.” “Awwww, not the Robertsons, you know I can’t stand that woman…” Hair samples were probably as far as she could safely go without arousing Jensen’s suspicions. So yeah, I do think she ditched him as soon as possible.

              1. Daemian Lucifer says:

                Its only implied that he suspected it because of the pi he got,but megan didnt tell him.And that clause about augs isnt jensen specific.Sarif is producing neuropazine,so why wouldnt he want to make his employs more useful AND addicted to his drug at the same time?He hired jensen because megan wanted him to,and trust me,I know how valuable employs can influence their bosses into hiring new people just by asking.

                1. Amazon_warrior says:

                  1) Sarif *doesn’t* make neuropazine, Versalife does. There is an entire side-quest in the game that highlights this.
                  2) We don’t have enough information to know whether that cause is present in everyone’s contracts or just Jensen’s, but it seems like the one other survivor didn’t get put through any life-altering surgery, so…
                  3) Yes, Sarif hired Jensen on Megan’s say-so – I never disputed that. But why? Because she sweet on him? Or because having direct control of the only person known to have this DNA profile would be of massive commercial interest to Sarif and also significantly further her own career?

                  …and now I’m done talking to you. Your replies are straying tediously close to troll-like.

                  1. Daemian Lucifer says:

                    1)I forgot that,its been a while.But the point still stands that it would be beneficial to have your employees both augmented,and hooked to a drug.

                    2)The other survivors werent on the brink of death.People who encountered the mercs were either dead or kidnapped,jensen was the only exception.

                    3)Because she is a valuable employee.Sometimes thats just enough.And he hired that pi after he hired jensen.We are never told that he knew about jensen before that(nor if he knew for sure afterwards).In fact,we dont know(or at least I dont remember it being said)when megan got her discovery.Was it before or after jensen was hired?

  26. Hitch says:

    Okay, you rag on the boss fights, but at least the game plays somewhat fair.

    Sure it takes control of Jensen away from the player so he walks into the middle of that brightly lit room, apparently in an attempt to talk to the two bad guys getting on the elevator, so the 8 foot tall cyber gorilla can sneak up behind him.

    But after knocking Jensen out, what does the 8 foot tall cyber gorilla do? He sets Jensen on the floor behind the K-rail and backs off to the other side of the room, so Jensen can take cover at the start of the fight.

    After all that, the silly fight and the scripted nonsense at the end fit in perfectly.

    1. Nick says:

      Not to mention that the knockdown-and-stand-up animation ends with him pointing a gun barrel directly at your head… which he won’t then immediately shoot you with.

      In fact, a reasonably successful tactic is to move up next to him and unload repeatedly into his head as he won’t shoot or grenade you. Occasionally he’ll just straight up kill you with a takedown though.

  27. Nick says:

    I’m surprised no-one has called Shamus on this: whilst Taggert’s arguments don’t include the rich-getting-richer strain of things, it is the entire focus of the money collecting job you can get from Bobby Bao, the bartender at the Hive in Hengsha – He gets you to collect money from a broker who had to use gang money to give her augments to make her capable of competing in the world of rich men, and now the gangs are bleeding her dry.

    I mean, Taggert’s argument is still stupid because of the way he presents it but the game is at least aware of those ideas

    1. Thomas says:

      Yeah I’m pretty sure it gets talked about a lot in different points of the game. The game was so insidious about this stuff that I wouldn’t be surprised that it’s thanks to the game the arguments were so fresh in Shamus’ mind :D

      Every sidequest, mission, street and NPC has something about the augment debate and another aspect of the wider theme. It’s what made the game so good, it doesn’t have a story as such, instead it’s got an issue which you see more of at every point.

      I mean think about the brothel. They were making some pretty hard hitting points there. And at the end of the game they even turn your playstyle into a pro or anti aug point

  28. Sydney says:

    When Barrett elbows you in the stomach, how does he get his arm around to grab your neck that quickly?

    Go back to 10:45, try to imagine doing that move.

  29. Sydney says:

    Does anyone know if Taggart’s answer to Jensen’s last question is ever anything different? Say, “Not that time” or something similar?

    I’d’ve made it change like that, if it were me.

  30. Zaxares says:

    1:15: Actually, all those lockers are empty because the mercs are evacuating the base and were told to take all of their personal belongings with them. … Which DOES make it odd that they are still bullets, illegal software and prescription medication in the lockers when Jensen finds them. :P

    1:41: If you read the e-mails on the computers upstairs, you’ll learn that these guys are FEMA employees who are here to oversee the handover of the base back to FEMA after the mercs pull out. The room they’re talking about is, ironically, the locker room that Josh came out of just a few seconds ago. There’s actually two routes into the locker/break room area; Josh took the longer path, which is why he didn’t run into these guys first. Normally the player takes the shorter route and meets them on the way.

    Incidentally, these two guys only spawn if the player has not set off any alarms in the base prior to this point, which is why some people may never have seen them.

    2:18: Heh, this is one of those spots that’s just MADE for the double-takedown aug. I walked up to them, bluffed them to get the peaceful go-ahead, and then promptly knocked them both out at the same time.

    5:25: … I really can’t tell if you guys are being serious, or you’re just deliberately not making the connection so as not to give away TOO many spoilers. :P If you ARE being serious, take a close look at the e-mail addresses. WT. IS. William Taggart. Isaias Sandoval. Much, MUCH later in the game, you find out that Isaias was the doctor the mercs used to help in the kidnapping of Sarif’s scientists. This e-mail exchange proves that William Taggart not only knew what was going on, he was COMPLICIT in the scheme. (Which makes sense, since he IS part of the Illuminati.) This proof could actually have brought down William Taggart and the Humanity Front, if Jensen had revealed it at the press conference, but for some reason, Jensen never mentions it. Maybe he forgot about it in all the excitement too. :P

    6:55: You guys didn’t see the 100+ B0X-Guards sitting around the room? O.o Each of those boxes (which is apparently powered by a miniature nuclear reactor, judging by the signs on each one) is capable of transforming into one of those large, quadrupedal robots. There’s enough Boxguards in this room to conquer an entire city all by themselves! It makes sense to me that they’d have top-notch security here, and place them in the most secure location.

    8:33: Yeah, unfortunately both Barrett and Fedorova still auto-counter you if you stun them and try to melee takedown them. In fact, Namir does it too, unless you exploit the glitch (I’m pretty sure it’s a glitch, since he’s the ONLY boss vulnerable to it) when he’s jumping over a wall.

    9:55: Yeah, I agree the boss fights felt very artificial and stilted, but I still enjoyed them nonetheless. I do think it would have made more sense for Barrett to have called in some goons to help him, and the fight could have been made more dynamic by having upper stories that Jensen could run up to (and jump down from) etc. The boss fight at the end of The Missing Link DLC is an example of a boss battle in DX:HR done right, I feel.

    10:23: Heh, I agree, Rutskarn. Still, I don’t think Barrett is a particularly bright specimen of augmented humanity. Have you read the e-mails he sends to people? They’re hilarious. XD Not quite Gunther-Hermann hilarious, alas.

    11:08: At the risk of belaboring my point, that’s what I’ve been saying all this time, Josh! XD The bosses in this game feel like they’re examples of what fully-augmented individuals built for combat are capable of, and yet even Jensen, with his super-secret, top-notch, military-grade augments (and if you select all the combat-related augs) make him NOWHERE near this good or resilient. Even with the fully-upgraded armor tree, a couple of guards with shotguns can STILL take you down in about 2 or 3 shots at point blank range. (Although granted, even Barrett goes down in about 3 or 4 shotgun blasts to the head when he’s stunned.)

    12:38: You can actually get the PEPS in the police station armory prior to this point. You just missed it in your stumbling and occasional aggroing through the place, Josh. ;)

    14:15: Yeah, I have to agree that Miranda very much gave off the impression that the devs were trying too hard. She actually DOES have an interesting character and backstory, but she feels very fake for the first part of the game, and that gives her a serious handicap in the first impressions department.

    17:45: Ohhh, THAT glitch! I got it once too, on my last DX:HR playthrough. I’m not sure what triggers it; I think it may be viewing your inventory or augments while travelling in the elevator, but I never properly tested it. Fortunately, a reload should fix that problem.

    20:40: I was the opposite of you, Shamus! A lot of what William Taggart had to say really resonated with me (so much so that his path at the end of the game is my “canonical” choice). He doesn’t explicitly say the whole “non-augmented people are being left behind” line, but that feeling is present almost everywhere in the game. There is a sense that only the people who can afford to pay for augments will get the best, brightest and most well-paying jobs. This not only accelerates the gap between rich and poor, as you mentioned, but what about people who, for personal, moral or religious reasons, don’t want to get augmented? They’ll be forced into the fringes of society, unable to compete with those who ARE augmented.

    And then there’s the other half of the anti-augmentation argument, which is that a society where everybody is augmented is more inherently dangerous to itself than one that isn’t. (It’s a similar argument to having a society where everybody carries a firearm everywhere they go.) Is it stronger, safer, and more productive? Or does it just increase the potential for things to go terribly wrong if things get out of control? Riots by normal people are bad enough; a riot of people with superhuman strength, speed and/or guns in their arms could create destruction on an unprecedented scale. David Sarif believes that if everybody has access to cheap, safe and reliable augmentations, it will benefit humanity as a whole. William Taggart believes (and I agree) that having augmentations will do nothing to change the fundamental nature of humanity (which is to be greedy, selfish and to gain as much as you can for yourself and not care about the fate of others who are not your friends or family).

    So, as Taggart advocates, I think that regulation of augmentation IS necessary, to ensure that dangerous or illegal augmentation are not freely available to the populace, and that augmentations undergo strict safety testing to ensure that they don’t have adverse side-effects that are suppressed or concealed by greedy corporations who are more concerned with profit than the public’s welfare.

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      “2:18: Heh, this is one of those spots that's just MADE for the double-takedown aug. I walked up to them, bluffed them to get the peaceful go-ahead, and then promptly knocked them both out at the same time”

      I did the same thing.

      “There's enough Boxguards in this room to conquer an entire city all by themselves!”

      Nah.You throw one emp grenade between them,and theyll crumble like a tower of cards.

      I get why video games are doing this with emp weapons,but it always makes me laugh how these pimped out military robots dont have shielded circuits and can simply be knocked out by a single emp.

      1. Zaxares says:

        Yeah, I agree about the non-shielding bit. It’s pretty ridiculous. I’d have preferred it if there were different varieties of Boxguards; some that are unshielded, some that ARE shielded and need 2 EMP grenades to take out, and some that are totally immune to EMP attacks whatsoever.

    2. Amazon_warrior says:

      “(It's a similar argument to having a society where everybody carries a firearm everywhere they go.) Is it stronger, safer, and more productive?”

      Ha, this reminds me of the “Wait, what?” moment I had during a replay of oDX. It’s the bit where you steal the nano-sword specs and hand them over to the Triads. I never really thought about this the first time I did it, but on this subsequent play-through I was like, “Waaaaaait a minute. I just armed half of Hong-Kong with lightsabres. Was this *really* a good idea?” I think it was one of the bottlenecks in the story that you had to go through to proceed, though…

  31. anaphysik says:

    So… Chris actually fits really well here. He doesn’t say much (though he’s starting to pipe in more), but what he does say is pretty insightful. And he hasn’t started singing or anything, so that’s nice.

    Watched almost all of the Errant Signals on his channel, with the exception of the Deus Ex: Heaven’s Retribution one – Chris, do you plan to cover a lot of the same ideas on Spoiler Warning? Or is the plan to be more off-the-cuff?

    1. DirigibleHate says:

      I don’t like his microphone. The recording from Chris seems a lot… heavier? than everyone else’s? The sound just seems out of place amidst the other casters. Also, his voice seems to be cutting out much sooner than anyone else – even when he talks it seems like we’re missing entire words at the end of sentences.

      1. anaphysik says:

        The latter part’ll likely get better after he has a chance to hear the episodes (i.e., the next time they record after this week).

        As for the mic, it simply sounds noisier to me. Maybe he just has a crappy mic, or perhaps it’s farther away from him (it sounds like we’re getting more ambient room noise?).
        Of course, sometimes crappy mics can be part of the experience. Mumbles still sounds kind of weird since her new setup, and now even Josh is losing some of that low-fi charm that mixes so well with his psychotic charm.

        (Is it weird that I find it perfectly acceptable to bring a new host on, but get annoyed by mic changes – no, by mic improvements?)

        1. X2Eliah says:

          Mumbles still sounds kind of weird since her new setup

          No, no, that’s actually Rutskarn. Mumbles is the one that’s taking a season-off.

          1. anaphysik says:

            Spoiler Alert: All the voices are actually done by Josh. He’s already admitted to at least two simultaneous mic setups – it’s only logical that he’s hiding more! There never was a Mumbles!

            Ahem.

            To derail the trolling I normally love so dear… I was actually talking about how in Assassin’s She’d gotten a new setup Too, which made Mumbles sound nothing like Mumbles. And of course, she also showed up for the recent Old Republic SW, with the same clarity of voice, and now with relatively low BAC.
            And I hate change.

            Yet somehow, Chris is cool.

  32. CalDazar says:

    I think you can get the PEPS before you find the ammo. Even though it is amazing the lack of ammo made me discard it.
    Everybody likes Malik. I played a non-lethal character but the moment Malik was in danger I pulled out the Typhoon. After that I used it to destroy every mech I found since it was a one hit kill. I cannot wait untill Josh starts using that thing.

    I have no idea why anything William Taggart says gained motion. I guess since it’s all fear based people just run with it?

  33. Venalitor says:

    I just considered this now, and I don’t remember if it was mentioned in the first episode when it went down, but did the boss leader guy use a nine millimeter when he shot Jensen?

  34. JPH says:

    Also:

    Shamus, don’t compare the Barrett fight with Megaman. Megaman is way better than this boss fight.

  35. Bentusi16 says:

    I had this issue as well. Everything was going fine and then kaboom.

    Also, if you pay attention that warehouse where josh mentioned the “naval bridge”…those are all riot bots or whatever you want to call them. Each one of those cubes is one of those big mech things. So it actually does make sense.

  36. Dante says:

    That was a very shocking episode, very electrifying footage.

    1. MrCompassionate says:

      I reFUSE to stoop to such punning. I don’t know WATT you are thinking.

      1. Amazon_warrior says:

        I sense an under-current of tension here! And quite a lot of resistance…

        1. Destrustor says:

          OHM my god! This pun contest is getting me so AMPed, I could go pole-VOLTing right now.

          1. anaphysik says:

            Mho puns, mho problems.

            1. Gamer says:

              What an en-Lightning series of puns.

              1. Dude says:

                Look at all the discussion it has sparked.

  37. george says:

    You get the PEPS from the detroit police station.

    Just throwing it out there… and you can get one on Heng Sha near the apartments that belltower are scouring in a locker (like right next to it).

  38. Oxymandias says:

    Shamus is to improved inventory as mumbles is to cannabalism

    1. anaphysik says:

      Except in this case, Josh took cannibalism and has been eating people every few minutes with no one noticing. (He even calls Shamus out on not noticing the extra space – space which admittedly was immediately filled up with more junk.)

  39. Joe says:

    Shamus. I need to have a talk with you. You keep mentioning the need to upgrade inventory. So my question to you is this:

    Why would you upgrade inventory? Ever? When you can get superjump, stealth, wall-punch, hacking, stealth run, and so on and so forth. Compared with all the other options, upgraded inventory space seems… unnecessary.

    To be fair, I was very careful about managing it. So I had my ultrapistol, stun gun, some other really good weapon (that I used for bossfights and nowhere else, because the pistol was so good), ammo for each, maybe some gas grenades, and various other necessities (candy bars and pills).

    1. Shamus says:

      Because it’s needed to pick up stuff to sell. It’s also needed if you’re trying to stockpile ammo / grenades.

      If all you want is space to carry your gear, then sure, the base inventory is enough.

      1. Gamer says:

        Not to mention all the booze that Josh loves to pick up.

      2. Hal says:

        Also, if Josh upgrades his battery life enough, those Jars of energy juice are going to come in handy, and they do not stack.

      3. Ysen says:

        I needed the inventory expansions just for my gigantic stash of mines and grenades. At least they made boss fights pretty easy.

        1. Tse says:

          I have a huge problem with inventory space. I lugged around the 3 non-lethal weapons, the pistol, several gas, emp and concussive grenades and a whole lot of candy. And then I saw the laser rifle. I couldn’t make enough space for it, so I had to drop the P.E.P.S. Dropping it was against everything I stand for, but I had to make space for the extremely rare “makes the final boss a joke” weapon.
          P.S. Oh, and I use the stun gun for bosses, they are the only enemies it does damage to and can kill. Well, that and the typhoon. (playing non-lethal, got typhoon after I had already bought every single upgrade that was of use to me, after that I upgraded my lung capacity, both aiming upgrades, the sprint upgrade; in fact the only things I don’t have are silent running, the cool-down timer, hacking analyze, hacking stealth and all stealth upgrades. I refuse to get silent running, have over 30 viruses and over 30 worms and I’m at the beginning of the preorder bonus mission, too bad I can’t sell praxis kits, not that I won’t make Adam a rich man by the end of the game)

  40. bassdrum says:

    Suggestion for the part which you mention is coming later which you believe may also have been outsourced–if you’re indeed referring to that part where you wait for the funicular for a while, then I have a suggestion to make which should make it much less obnoxious: barricade the doors. If you have the heavy lifting augment by the time you get there, you can grab the two vending machines on that floor, block the two entrances, and spend the whole ‘epic fight’ jumping around the room while all your enemies pile up with increasing confusion on the other side of the door. It made things a lot more amusing.

    1. Destrustor says:

      I had hacked and dragged the two turrets into that room and set them up to defend me.
      I was sad to see the game apparently bugged up and only spawnwed two or three ennemies for the epic fight. I also took the turrets down the elevator to handle all my killing needs up until the boss. Good times.

    2. Gruhunchously says:

      You can also slip quietly into the air vent under the floor and let them tromp around over you for a bit before using the cloaking aug to sprint sprint to the funicular unseen.
      But I’m pretty sure Shamus was talking about the encounter in China after the rather dismal confrontation with Zhao. The funicular fight is actually well done.

      1. bassdrum says:

        There’s that, although you can sneak through that pretty well with a bit of effort. I’ve been playing through the game again since Spoiler Warning started covering it, and I came across a part I’d completely forgotten (perhaps on purpose) which seems more likely: the second time you go to Hengsha, and Malik gets shot down, and good luck saving her from the walls of enemies if you’re going non-lethal. I reloaded that segment today about 3 or 4 times before just giving up and taking the bad outcome and really wishing that I’d had a gun with me/were willing to compromise on the non-lethal run. If that indeed is the part to which he was referring, I agree wholeheartedly–it was poorly done and near impossible to do ‘right’ without playing the game in a certain way.

        When I played through the funicular fight again, I noticed that there actually were a lot of ducts/hiding places/vantage points to use that I hadn’t remembered there being.

        1. Tse says:

          I found saving Malik frustrating, as well. Took me several gas grenades, 1 emp grenade and several boxes of candy to accomplish it. The important thing about this fight is to get the guys with heavy rifles as soon as possible, followed by the guys with weaker automatic weapons. The snipers do negligible damage. Oh, and kill the robot as soon as it’s dropped, use an emp grenade.

  41. Bluespike5 says:

    So a random thing which I found out about hacking was that if you could capture the red one (i.e. enemy server) it would get everything and finish it as well.

  42. Ysen says:

    Anyone else think Taggart looks kind of like Kevin Rudd?

  43. Fang says:

    5:13: Couldn’t that be referring to Sarif and Adam with at the start of the game? When Adam has to get all the Augments. That’s the vibe I get.

    Aw! I wanted to see what the glitch would do! D:

  44. RCN says:

    Ok, this is a biggie and I’m sure someone else touched the subject somewhere, but I’m burning through all the Spoiler Warning episodes I’ve missed since I got back home and I can’t check the comments.

    1st I’m pretty sure that pocket secretary is from Sandoval, who you discover later tried to remove the implanted GPS sci-fi devices inside the Sarif Industries scientists they kidnapped, but failed.

    2nd You can actually do a instant takedown on all 3 bosses. I discovered that by accident on the last one with the plasma rifle (weird how Deus Ex: Sherman Doctrination has a much more advanced and slick plasma weapon than the original Deus Ex. Wasn’t the one on Deus Ex supposed to be a prototype? And now they’re standard military industry design? In the prequel?) I just of automatically go for the takedown key, even in the boss fights, because the game conditioned me to it, but once the plasma rifle boss jumped over the glass walls I just hit it and, voilà¡, instant takedown.

    3rd Prichard is my favorite character as well. There’s certainly a rivalry between the guy responsible for physical internal security and the guy responsible for the electronic internal security, and both have a lot of blame to throw around, but it certainly feels like you couldn’t go through the game without him and he couldn’t solve the mysteries without you. And hey, he is basically the only guy who doesn’t look up to Jensen in astonishment every time he walks into the room. It is like everyone is in awe of Jensen and his not-at-all-symbolic name and Prichard is the only sane man calling you up on that.

    4th You kind of rebuked yourselves on the video already, but yeah. Taggart plays the human purity card almost like Hitler pulling the racial purity card, because he is a politician, and even though I know I’m invoking “that” law by mentioning Hitler, he really was a good politician above all else (actually, I’d say Hitler was the quintessential politician, but I have a really low view of politicians), and the aryan card was just something that resonated with the german masses at that time who were going through a really bad period of self-loathing after WW1 and some truly xenophobic zeal against all those foreigners (specially jews) who got into their homeland and took control. Taggart is similar because he is going against all those “augmented people” who got into the world and is taking the jobs of normal people who can’t keep up anymore, and everyone in power seem to be getting augmented, and so on.

    5th Sandoval pretty much gives the much better arguments in Taggart’s instead, in the game’s favor. So no, the anti-augment movement isn’t really just stupid, only the argument used by their main representative in the game, but that’s more a statement of the game writers on politics than transhumanism, really.

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