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Deus Ex: Human Revolution/Headscratchers

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  • I Understand that now is a bit early to create a Headscratchers page, since the work in question has not yet been released, but from the information that we've been given, Adam Jensen was a S.W.A.T Officer before he joined Sarif Industries. The problem being, that he quit because of his refusal to obey an "Questionable Order" (The exact details of which have admittedly yet to be revealed). But then he goes ahead and becomes security director for Sarif Industries (Remember, this is before the attack on the building and his subsequent Involuntary Augmentation), an organisation that is not only Amoral at best, but is also the world leader in human Augmentation, A development that Jensen is obviously opposed to, as seen in this trailer. My question is, Why would a man who quit the police force on moral grounds to work for a company that may as well have a giant flashing sign on their Headquarters saying Evil Incorporated?
    • It's hard to say if he is actually opposed to it. More likely, he just seems to be wary and cynical of it. He points out that the majority of the clients are from the Department of Defense, opposed to ordinary people that Sarif's PR seems to extoll augmentation for. Also, from what I see, David Sarif seems to be bit of an egotistical douche, and from what Jensen mutters in the trailer, it doesn't appear that he has a high opinion of him.
    • You have a point there, but that still doesn't explain why he chose to work at Sarif. It might have been because he wanted to be closer to Megan Reed (Who he could still have been in a relationship with before the start of the game), but judging from what we've seen so far about his personality, i doubt that's very likely.
    • He could have still had been in a relationship with her when he joined up with Sarif (most likely, she helped him get the job), but somewhere down the line, the relationship went south.
    • IIRC, Adam's reasons for leaving the police force were discussed in one of the preview articles. Apparently, he refused an order to shoot a teenage gang member who had augmentations, but was otherwise unarmed. One of his partners, Haas (the one he encounters at the police station during the course of an early mission who now feels guilty about the whole thing) ended up taking the shot, and Jensen left the force soon after.
    • Also keep in mind that Jensen was deliberately shitcanned by the higher-ups following the incident in Mexicantown; the PI that Sarif had checking Jensen's background noted that the files on Jensen were highly negative but read like fiction rather than fact, and were inconsistent with what the DPD officers were actually saying. That probably contributing to Jensen quitting.
    • Confirmed by the preview version of the game: this is the Mexicantown incident that is often-spoken-of, and the teenager was 15 years old.
      • There's a very good reason why both Megan and David Sarif want him working there.
    • In addition, there's a very simple reason he's working for Sarif; he needed a job and nobody else would hire him. Most people stuck in that situation who then had their ex-girlfriend came along and say she knew someone who could give them a high-paying position at a major firm would take the offer.
    • Also, incidental conversation in the game reveals that prior to the first attack on Sarif Industries and Picus massively spinning things, Sarif Industries was very highly thought of in Detroit; David Sarif was effectively most of the town's economy, and a very generous employer.
  • Where do Adam's lenses come from? There's no way they fit into the little circular part of his face aug. They don't appear to telescope at all are they some kind of liquid, did we really need that technology for sunglasses? And he has augmented eyes anyway, so what's the point of sunglasses.
    • "Fuck you it's the future" is the only reason I can come up with. Or maybe it's some sort of advanced holorgram that helps protect against debris and shrapnel? Besides, I thought the sunglasses were what gave him his HUD.
      • They probably retract into his head, and those little half circles are just the edges of the openings.
    • Both his eyes are fully artificial, maybe it's just to avoid in-universe uncanny valley.
    • Programmable matter. It's basically electronic playdough, and Jensen's glasses are made of a transparent version of the stuff. His blades are a derivative of that technology, probably.
    • The lenses don't have to be hard-solid. They can be soft, and rolled up inside their little frames. There are lots of memory-materials that can do tricks like that even today.
    • For extra squick factor, the lenses could retract into his skill without any real problem, as his skull had to be heavily rebuilt and cut into the repair a massive hematoma.
  • And as an expansion of the point above, why are so many augments only available in "Horrible robot monster black" and "bare muscle red." It just seems like really bad marketting for technology that for 90% of customers would probably want to be as inconspicuous as possible. Like war veterans that want new arms to hug their children. I'll grant that the augments may have valid reasons for having exposed points of articulation but maybe there wouldn't be so much controversy about this technology if Grandad didn't scoop up the kids with his pneumatic, wall shattering, glossy black robot claws.
    • You could paint the things pink at they would still look horrific, their basic design is horribly dangerous looking. Considering that you could just say that there's some sciencey reason why they have to be so bulky and metallic. It's also possible that because their main contractors are military, they don't have the R&D budget to adequately adapt this stuff to the civilian market.
    • More subtle augmentations are probably more expensive, which would explain why they are not as widespread. Also we might just not notice them BECAUSE they are more subtle.
    • That makes the most sense to this troper. How closely do you look at random NPC's hands or eyes? Half the population of Detroit could be walking around lightly augmented and you'd never tell in-game.
      • This is backed up by that augmented pop star in the newspaper, her augmentations are still obvious but much less industrial than what we see on those who don't have money coming out of their ass.
      • It's probably because Carbon Fibre is what they'd be built out of, and that stuff is pretty much black.
    • Some of the augs seen have outer shells in colours resembling the wearer's skin tone, like Shevchenko right at the beginning.
    • Also, despite the 'realistic' looking augs that we see on a few people. I think the issue is that making them chrome/black/whatever is preferable to creating a real-life Uncanny Valley look.
    • Some people might even like the martial look of the augmentations, like thugs and PMCs, who use it to intimidate.
    • A lot of augs are being built by Tai Yong Medical, which are explicitly described as being cheaper designs built out of substandard parts; they're the kind of augs that are available mostly because their users are poorer than those who can afford the pretty, inconspicuous augs.
    • One of the reasons might just be in-universe Values Dissonance. A lot of augs not only want their cybernetics, but they want to show off their gear too. They want people to know that "Yes, I am aug'd, I can afford to be aug'd, and I'm stronger, tougher, and mentally superior to you thanks to my augs."
      • This viewpoint is actually referred to in-universe. Wayne Haas is pissed at the universe in general and Jensen in particular because of a nasty riot involving an augment; the kid had big, tough-looking augs and was doing something that annoyed the higher-ups in the police department - so they ordered Jensen to shoot the kid. Lethally, as they believed the kid's augs would laugh off beanbags and the like. Jensen refused, and Haas did it in his stead, triggering an infamous "race" riot. Result: the police denied accountability, Haas got a desk job, Jensen got fired.
      • When you go through the opening again, take a look at Sevchenko, the guy who demonstrates the Typhoon. His left arm is augmented, but it's possible to miss it, thanks to its color; it's pretty close to his skin tone, barring some black on the hand. He probably wants to go more subtle than most people.
    • It's entirely possible that it's a legal requirement that augs be conspicuous, as so many of them are effectively concealed weapons. It means a gang of people with machine guns built into their arms can't just stroll into a bank.
      • ...Except that they can, because not allowing them in a bank due to the fact that they simply have augmentations is discrimination.
        • That is a truly ridiculous statement to make. The universe of Deus Ex is a dangerous and corrupt hellhole; Do you really think the government would be in any way reluctant to discriminate against a group of people that they don't like?
      • Discrimination in of itself isn't necessarily illegal nor morally wrong.
    • Refer back to the original Deus Ex, which takes place later, in 2050. JC is the first person to be augmented with new technology that makes the augments inconspicuous. This game, taking place several years earlier, then, is augmentation in its infancy, before they learned whatever skin-like substance is used to cover artificial limbs, so all of course look like, well, artificial limbs. And it just looks cool.
  • Given the drawbacks associated with the augmentations, why are they used for industrial purposes? Replacing your hand with some claw-thing that is helpful in construction work does not seem like such a good idea when the construction project is over and you have to rely on a particular drug for the rest of your life. Seems like exoskeletons would be a better idea for heavy industrial/hazardous environment work, and given the level of augmentations and plain robots we see the technology should be advanced enough.
    • The only two solid examples of companies requiring workers to be augmented in the game are Tai-Yong Medical and Darrow's Panchaea project; both groups that are involved with the augmentation trade and both are part of the Illuminati conspiracy in one way or another. It makes sense that both would promote augmentations over other, less drastic measures to show off their wares, and to prove the technology works. From the conspiracy side of things, the grand plan seems to be controlling people through their augmentations, so what better way to achieve that by requiring your own people to have them?
    • Hackers with augs can cut though sophisticated computer security like a hot knife though butter. (See Adam and 'windmill') It's not a stretch to assume that other augs provide just as much advantage, like Mailk's boosters to assist in flying.
    • In addition, who's to say that once you have an augmentation, that it's permanent? More than likely, the people with the hook-hands use them the same way as people with prosthetic limbs today: they're replaceable, and switchable.
      • Some NPCs in Hengsha will even take it further and comment about who designed Adam's prosthetic limbs. In some places, at least, it's fashionable to have prosthetics; it wouldn't a stretch at all to imagine people having different limbs like people have different ties.
  • The "neo-renaissance" style of fashion and interior decoration seems a bit unlikely. Fancy gowns and formal wear is one thing, but Megan's outfit seems a bit impractical for lab work, and none of the other scientists dress like that. And it appears in places where the residents are unlikely to be very fashion-conscious, like the demented nurse's apartment.
    • Megan was going to a press conference shortly so she was likely dressed for that and wore more practical attire while actually working.
    • You see at least 2 civilians wandering around Detroit in similar clothes (albeit in darker colours), so presumably it was simply formal ware, or just the style of the late 2020s.
      • It's considered an outward display of one's beliefs; pro-augs dress like that to show their belief that augmentation will lead to a new Renaissance, while neutrals and anti-augs dress normally.
  • Regarding the Panchaea project, what exactly was Darrow hoping to achieve by draining a small area of ocean? Is their any scientific basis for this being able to facilitate global cooling?
    • Maybe less water means less drowned cities?
      • I remember seeing an email that mentioned something about injecting iron into the ocean. No idea about the science or practicality of that.
      • Totally workable, and a real life method for managing global CO₂ levels. Seeding oceans with iron creates a massive carbon sink as simple lifeforms bloom, absorbing CO₂ from the air, then die and sink to the bottom taking the carbon their bodies is made up of with them. The result is less carbon in the air and a little more limestone on the seafloor.
      • It might be workable. Obviously no one has ever experimented at that large a scale which makes the opposition to it more understandable.
      • As far as I can recall, there's an ebook by Darrow somewhere in Hengsha that's a kind of environmental manifesto. He mentions iron seeding and pulling cold water from the ocean floor up to its surface as ways of fighting global warming. Panchaea is designed for that second goal, presumably being a kind of massive pump.
      • An eBook in Shang-hi rails against it
  • William Taggart is a very charismatic man and a shrewd political operator... except I really don't see it. He comes across as a skeezy televangelist, and while that may be somewhat appropriate I really don't see so many right thinking people listening to the guy. Am I just biased because I fall heavily on the pro-aug side?
    • It's probably because you have more information than the average person in that world, so you can see right through him to start off with. Since you're playing an augmented person to begin with, an anti-augment arguement wouldn't sit well with you. Whereas if the game was about some lowly secretary in Humanity First suddenly finding their workplace attacked by Augmented soldiers, you might side with him (since all he wants is the regulation of the technology, not it being banned outright.
      • Also, I think that being that kind of guy is Taggart's goal. The idea is to polarize the issue, and to keep the conflict going. When we talk to him 'outside' of his stage persona, or beat him in the social battle, we see him become a much more restrained, intelligent, and competent speaker. He drops the act and just says and does whatever he needs to in order to further the Illuminati's goals. (Although I find it very amusing that he says that he uses the 'Illuminati' title to scam money out of rich old businessmen. It makes me think that, compared to some of the other extremist members, he's a moderate.)
      • Oh, I really really liked William Taggart as a character. The OP hit on exactly what I thought of him when I first ran into him in the game - a televangelist.
  • I can take the absurd ventilation system and inability of guards on different floors to communicate in any way, but for some reason the total lack of network security really bugs me. A note containing the password for the computer of the CEO of one of the largest corporations in the world is found under a sofa! The cleaning staff could pretty much make off with everything there, considering the amount of computer logins and SAFE NUMBERS left lying on desks.
    • Truth in Television. People really can be that incompetent with their passcodes.
    • My favorite security fail has to be getting into the Lee Geng Memorial Lab in Tai Yong Medical with the lost pass. "Even though you are not even remotely dressed like a scientist, I give you have permission to enter this lab due to your pass, which doesn't contain a picture or even a name[1] despite the fact that at least one pass was reported to be lost. Have a nice day, sir."
      • Keep in mind that its not just scientists who are going into that lab. Security will be going in as well, and they'll need codes. You could also be a VIP. The guard's job isn't to think - its his job to stop anyone approaching and check their passcode. Besides, they have the missing card - its in the security room, the door to which happens to be watched by a heavily-armored guard with a machinegun. Keep in mind that they're also assuming that if you're inside the building, you're cleared to be inside the building in the first place, especially if you're walking around the corridors openly and chatting guards face-to-face.
      • To further the above a lot of people mistake you for a scientist's project. They assume your heavy augmentation is a sign of employment with the company - given this is long before you've taken any direct, overt action against the company nobody's going to recognize you as one of the enemy.
      • IIRC, the moment you step inside, one of the scientists comments that they think you're another test subject or project.
      • Earlier in Hengsha, you can sometimes get a response of 'What are you? A Belltower special operative?' from street cops, and 'What are you, some spec-ops veteran? Your augs make mine look home-made!' from Harvesters. Jensen's augs are visibly those of an elite corporate wetworks asset that's had millions of credits invested into him; the fact that he also has a valid pass means its an entirely understandable mistake for the guards to assume he's a TYM corporate asset.
      • There's also that reading enough office emails in that level gets across the message that TYM is not a work environment that rewards an excess of curiosity, initiative, or sticking your neck out.
    • This is Lampshaded by the Pocket Secretary on one soldier in Singapore, which has an angry message from his superior complaining that how he keeps forgetting the passcode so much that he isn't going to bother with security protocol any more, and just tells him to keep the code on himself at all times. Basically, everyday human incompetence makes the hyperadvanced security systems useless.
    • Strangely enough, some of the other scientists you meet in the TYM building assume that you're a low level laborer and treat you as such even though your clothes and augments are obviously well made.
  • Ummm... Can anyone tell me the purpose of that odd rectangular patch on Jaron Namir's crotch? It's got holes and defined edges... This is all I can think of.
    • The detachable penis idea sounds silly but makes a kind of sense when you think about it - just because he's a cyborg doesn't mean he never wants to have sex again. Alternatively it's a socket for Kryten's groinal attachments.
    • Apparently he's married. With kids. The mind boggles.
      • Perhaps he concieved before Augs... maybe... hopefully...
    • Maybe it's a waste outlet? Quite why the designers of his augs would place it there, rather than at least trying to be more efficient than the stock Human body.
  • Jensen recharges his augs with energy bars(and the occasional jar of high-energy paste available from LIMB clinics). However, nobody sells them. He has to swipe every one - game-wise, this is so he can't spam energy-draining augs, especially the undodgeable takedown moves. Can anyone think of a plot-driven reason why they're so rare? Given how many people have augs, they should be available in vending machines - toss in a few credits, get an energy bar. Perhaps the developers should have stuck with bioelectric cells.
    • Its a gameplay design decision. Otherwise, as you said, people would be spamming takedowns. And they're honestly not that rare. I've probably used a hundred or so on my current playthrough and still have plenty on hand.
    • If I had to take an in-universe guess? They're probably available by prescription only, and may even contain no-poz boosters. Which would explain them not being in every vending machine on the planet, and why I can't get my energy back from a bowl of ramen.
  • Why is Adam affected by flashbangs if he is wearing sunglasses?
    • Flashbangs aren't made redundant by the sort of lenses you get in sunglasses, and they're comprised of both a flash and...a bang. You can activate the augmentation further which nullifies both effects in one go.
    • Yeah, the only ways a set of sunglasses would defeat a flashbang would be if they were so opaque that they wouldn't carry that much light to your eyes (and rendering you effectively blind) or were able to reactively go opaque before the light hit your eyes (in other words, reacting faster than the speed of light which ain't happening in this setting). Far easier to have an augment that regulates your physical reaction to incoming stimuli. Can't be overloaded by light/sound if there's a governor on your nervous system that prevents overloaded stimuli from happening in the first place.
      • Here's a fun theoretical method by which sunglasses could deter flashbangs; if they're not actually glasses but a heads-up-display with a microsecond delay - any visual stimuli that might damage the wearer's eyes simply won't be relayed from the sensor package to the HUD. Pretty much the same way the anti-flashbang implant works; input that might damage the visual cortex isn't passed to it - though much more complicated as all the existing implant needs is a limiter, while the glasses need to be a quarter-inch-thick computer.
  • At what point did Megan become aware of Adam's unique moleculare structure that made him not require neuropozyne? Sariff ran his background check before he hired Adam on Megan's suggestion so it seems Megan already knew before Adam became a Sariff emploee. How did she find out? Does she get cell samples from all her boyfriends and study them? Did she have some sort of foreknowledge about Adam's unique traits before they even met? How? Did someone tip her off? The Illluminati were afraid of augmentation and they went out of their way to stop that research from going public so It couldn't have been them. The most likely candidate is Bob Page, hoping to use this new discovery for his own ends.
    • My guess is that someone tipped her off about Adam and reason they knew was because Adam was made to be so accepting of augments. After all, the first trace of him is as a very young baby, being carried out of a biotech lab which had been firebombed and then he disappears only to remerge 5 years old and adopted mysterious circumstances.
      • I just always thought that Megan knew and was in a lot deeper than it would seem at first glance. In my version someone tipped off Megan, Megan then told Sarif that she should hire Adam as head of security, he ordered the background check and found out on his own. Then whether on her own or by Sarif's orders she got close to Adam and started dating him to get a tissue sample and start work on it. That's why she felt so guilty about how she obtained the sample and why in the first and last elevator ride with her, she was going to tell Adam sorry for something. The only real question is who told her? The old woman who was friends with Adams foster parents would be too senile to do it, and there shouldn't be anyone else who could make the connection.
    • Adam was probably also one of many people who submitted genetic samples to be studied.
      • It's very hard to make clear statements about Megan, as we know so little about her. She never openly states her goals like Sarif or Darrow, but the fact that she just happened to date the guy who held the key to her research and just happened to get him a job at a place where illegally intrusive background checks were mandatory is pushing the boundaries of believability. Her going straight to Bob Page at the end muddies the waters even more.
      • They also broke up not long before the game begins, which just happened to be around the same time that Megan made her big breakthrough and thus no longer needed his DNA, or at least such immediate access -- he works with her now, so that's good enough. It could be coincidence, but it would be interesting to know who decided to end the relationship -- though from the way Adam treats her at the start of the game (the affection, the touches, the comments) it seems likely that it was Megan who ended it.
    • Personally, I just like the idea that Megan runs DNA tests on all her boyfriends as a matter of course.
      • "No, I'm not sleeping with you until I do a full work-up on your DNA. I mean, what if you turn out to be genetically inferior? I just don't think I could stand to be in a relationship like that."
      • She doesn't have to tell them she's going to test it, just as long as she gets it. And she probably wouldn't have much trouble getting DNA samples from the men she dates.
  • Did mech-augs still have to take neuropozyne at the time of the original Deus Ex? I don't recall any mention of it in that game.
    • No, it was invented for Human Revolution. A lot of technology and the like in HR is based on current technological trends, and rejection of foreign materials is actually a very real issue with achieving the level of prosthesis shown in-game. Neurop came about in the fiction due to that. Chances are they never considered the science behind it too much in the original Deus Ex, or they possibly didn't forsee just how far we would come in ten years.
    • Perhaps the big innovation Megan and David kept talking about came to fruition?
    • The entire point behind Adam's unusual genetic structure is that it allows for widespread use of augmetics without neuropozyne. Tech integrating whatever makes Adam able to accept implants without the drugs was likely implemented between the two games.
    • If you read the emails around Omega Ranch and such, it's mentioned that Adam's unusual DNA virtually eliminated rejection syndrome, making nanomachine augmentation possible at all, because rejection became far, far stronger at that scale. It's also my impression that the whatever in Adam's DNA that allowed clean implants could be used in a lower scale as a sort of Aug/Body "interface", so new augmentations would have built-in rejection suppresors.
      • Excellent point and another interpretation for the mass proliferation of mechanical augmentations in the 2050s - Adam/Megan figured into a way to make augmentations compatible for everyone, and rejection syndrome is hardly worth mentioning by the time DX 1 starts.
  • After obtaining the Icarus landing system, if you jump off a tall building or bridge and land amongst civilians (or police), no one comments about the crazy stunt you just pulled. Why not? They respond to your hacking in public by asking you to "not hurt them" (or "back away from there", respectively).
    • Because hacking into something is a criminal act. Jumping off buildings is a bit crazy, but the glowing electrical corona around you is clear indicator that you've got augmetics. The tech itself is probably fairly common, too; a device that would prevent deaths from falling would be practically mandatory for any construction or military work.
      • Yup, Adam looks like a military sort and it's shown how the military have Icarus landing systems implanted into them. They'd likely freak out if the AI could make the distinction between criminal act and nuts-but-not-criminal.
  • So you're telling me no other form of news media other than Picus exist anymore? Even in Real Life, not everyone watches Newscorp media.
    • They're the main source of news, but the real reason they control public opinion is because Eliza continuously monitors pretty much all communications and can edit them at will
    • If you choose to argue with Pritchard when you get the retinal implants fixed, Adam will tell him to "stop getting his news from Picus blogs", so there's presumably alternate news sources. Worst case scenario, you always have Lazarus.
    • There's likely plenty of other news networks, but Picus is the dominant one, or at least the one that every public TV is tuned into in Hengsha. Then again, Hengsha is essentially owned by YTM, and YTM is owned by the Illuminati, who own Picus. Makes sense. In all the other places, Picus is just the one that the TV happens to be tuned to at that point.
    • This could also be an attempt at extending current trends into the future. At the moment 90% of American media outlets are owned by 6 corporations, and several of them are multinational outfits (News Corp owning Fox in the US and Sky in the UK, Italy and Australia for instance). Picus could be the writers trying to extrapolate that trend into a single corporation having concerns across all continents, posibly even having bought out all it's major competitors. Doesn't explain why the news in Hengsha isn't localised at all, and is even still in English though.
    • In the DX universe, Picus has been around since 1985 and was one of the first media enterprises to have a major presence on the Internet, before even MSNBC or CNN or Yahoo. By 2027 they have so many subsidiaries, sock puppets, and shills working for them that Eliza is able to manipulate the tone of international dialogue simply by pointing the competition's reporters in the direction Picus wants them to go. On top of that, its CEO, Morgan Everett, is an Illuminatus Primus, which gives them all kinds of influence behind the scenes. Basically, Picus is what might happen if Huffington Post bought out Google and Wikipedia, merged with Fox News, and then became a front for the NSA.
  • The generally accepted theory seems to be that J.C. and Paul Denton are clones of Adam right? So presumably, whatever unique characteristics that allow Adam to "accept" mechanical augmentation are also what allow the Denton brothers to be nano-augments, right?
    • Yes.
      • Paul isn't a clone though. JC is a clone of Paul. If anything, Paul either received gene therapy from Adam's DNA, or happened to be a later subject of the project Adam was in, albeit a resurrected version, considering the fire at the labs, or just happened to have good DNA.
      • In the Omega Ranch, one of the researchers says he's started naming promising experimental subjects after the 12 apostles...
      • In which case JC = Jesus Christ.
  • What was Hyron supposed to do anyway? The Corporate Warfare sidequests hints that it's some kind of super-advanced computer, and during the final boss fight Zhao tries to use it to stop Darrow's signal. But besides that, there's almost NO information on it or what it does, or why it uses the Hyron Drones.
    • The Hyron project was tasked with keeping Panchaea in one piece. It compensated for the shifting pressures of the ocean.
    • Hyron is all but outright said to be part of the means by which the Illuminati control the world as well.
    • I assumed it to be a predecessor to Helios. It seems to be connected to the global communications network and it can be interfaced with by humans. The fact that Zhao couldn't control it might explain why Helios was shackled to a powerful intelligence of it's own, taking some of the strain off the user.
  • Okay, so Jensen already has all the augmentations installed, but they're mostly turned off to allow his brain to heal, right? I can understand how that works for augs like the Icarus and Typhoon, but how do you turn off the dermal armor? It's completely unpowered, simply layers of carbon nanotubes in an impact-reactive liquid.
    • There's probably some form of software initialization that has to be activated in order to optimize the armor. Presumably in its initial state it simply provides Adam with the ability to take several gunshots in the chest and face without dying immediately, and each Praxis expended on it further enhances the armor's formation/composition to a more efficient shape.
      • Plus it may very well numb what little natural sensation Adam has left in his body. Activating more and more layers in conjunction with everything would likely confuse his brain something fierce as he has little to no time for adaption.
    • The armour could rely on tensing up, somewhat like a bulletproof version of Batman's cape in Batman Begins, meaning it needs some form of interaction to work, which would also explain why it is upgradable. More Praxis means the more tension in the subdermal layer. This would also suggest it should be able to be turned off.
      • You wouldn't want the dermal armor active 24/7. What happens when you need to get a shot? IIRC, isn't Neuropozyne injected? If it is, then you'd definitely want a dermal armor aug that wouldn't block your needles (as well as anything else you'd want injected). I'm reminded of that scene from Superman where the medics are trying to insert an IV into his arm but they just keep breaking their needles.
      • From what this Troper remembers of the description of the aug in game, it definitely 'tenses up' in response to kinetic force.
  • Sort of minor, but how does Jensen load the Typhoon? I don't have a problem with the story/gameplay segregation of not showing him slot a dozen ball bearings all over his chest and arms, but that's the most reasonable explanation I can think of. Short of that, I can only imagine him opening the ammo pack and swallowing them like malt balls.
    • The Typhoon is a torso upgrade. There's likely some sort of autoloder in his chest that he just feeds the rounds into and they get automatically distributed to each launch point on his body. This is possible, considering that much of Adam is now metal and polymer and ceramic instead of squishy.
  • Okay, the endings. Why is the Hugh Darrow ending clearly depicted as less noble than the Kill'Em All ending? Exposing the conspiracy and giving the truth to humanity so they can make informed decisions about the perils and virtues of technology somehow leads to the new dark ages, but burying the truth (and all the witnesses, innocent or not) leads to a pat "Eh, I'm sure everything will work out fine" feel-good ending. WTF? If the world's populace was denied any answers whatsoever to the mysterious worldwide incident that left thousands dead, THEN they would turn against technology.
    • ....did we watch the same ending? Because the Darrow ending is pretty damned idealistic. Also keep in mind that just because Darrow is telling the "truth" it doesn't mean that he's not applying spin to his words; Darrow's confession is deliberately intended to sabotage advanced technological development. Transmitting his words furthers his particular agenda. On the other hand, destroying the entire facility prevents anyone from applying any kind of spin on the events that happened. Since no one will know what happened, everyone will have to figure things out on their own. Destroying Panchaea is a deliberate choice to deny any of the powerful men on the station from applying their version of events and to allow the governments and groups of the world to make their own decisions, for good or ill. Darrow's ending, "truthful" or not, is still going to apply spin and have a particular reaction that has a particular effect. The Kill'Em All ending provides nothing for anyone to work with, and allows the rest of the world the freedom to solve the question themselves.
      As Eliza says, destroying the facility is the choice to make if you trust in humans to make their own decisions, as opposed to spoon-feeding them information. And ultimately, no one decision is "right" or "better" - it comes down to individual perceptions.
    • Of course Darrow has an agenda, but what of it? People still deserve to know the truth that the Illuminati exist and that they will be the ones who dominate the augmentation technology unless exposed. If people choose to reject augs after that, then it is their choice based on all the available information. Knowledge is power.
      • Except it's not the truth. It's the "truth" with Darrow's spin on it. Darrow wrote his confession, and therefore it has his biases on it, which we've already seen in action. As biased as Darrow is, his confession will invariably have his particular spin on things.
      • Building on the above: Picus computers have many emails that tackle that specific information. One in particular sticks out, where a junior reporter gets his article edited as coaching on how exactly you should phrase things to put bias into impartial truth. Darrow's truth is the same.
      • In addition, we know that Darrow is a self-deluding lunatic of the highest order; that's how this mess got rolling to begin with! He was insanely bitter about being left behind, and decided to kill or drive insane every augmented person in the world to make up for that. He needed a noble-sounding reason in order to justify doing this to himself. He came up with one. But its all nothing but self-delusion and strained rationalization, so that he can pretend to himself that he's not a monster... and if you win the social challenge with him (especially by using the CASIE aug), you finally get him to admit it. So yes, the "truth" as composed by delusional insane guy is of no guarantee of actually being a fair, objective overview of the situation.
    • As mentioned above Darrow is explicitly anti-aug, and in fact his problem with the Illuminati is mostly displaced bitterness from feeling left behind by technological enhancement (which becomes very clear if you win the conversation battle against him). Any manifesto he created is going to be biased towards ‘technology is evil’, because that’s what he honestly believes.
      • Right. Remember, just about everything written by human beings is inherently, even unconsciously, biased. Darrow may be telling the "truth" but it is going to be his version of the truth, to push his agenda, and is no more honest than Sarif's or Taggart's fabrication. The only way to be completely unbiased is to not transmit anything, and let everyone else investigate and draw their own conclusions.
      • whining about what ending or which perspective is better or more right than another is pointless since they were intentionally set up to be up to individual interpretation. If you wanna let out Darrow's message, you aren't wrong. If you want to bury the evidence and force people to deal with their shit themselves, you aren't wrong either. If you wanna be a loser and side with Sarif or Tagart, well their point of view is easy to side with as well. There's no "right" choice, and even then this all relies heavily on Elizabeth's predictions for how humanity will react to the truth they hear is correct, which considering this is humanity, and that it's Deus Ex, that may be somewhat naive of us.
      • ^ Sure, but you're just acknowledging what makes DXHR so great - it gives strong, highly interpretative endings that actually work by themselves. You find an emotional attachment to a particular ending, a revulsion to another, that kind of relative storytelling is rare and usually done as a cheap ploy (or a lazy sequel hook). I don't know, man, there are objective arguments for each ending; so it's not really "whining". However, you're missing out if you debase it as such.
      • I personally found the "Kill 'em all" ending to be the best one, as Jensen outright states that humanity has made perfectly good choices in regards to technology in the past, and given the chance, they'll probably do it again in the future. The three people who try to get him to tell the truth all have agendas, and they're likely to have unintended consequences: Sarif's truth will let augmentations rule the day, pushing humanity towards godhood, but remember that pride comes before the fall, and it's going to be a doozy (see: Deus Ex). Taggart's truth will heavily regulated augmentations, and also let the Illuminati take more complete control of the world since the one thing they feared - augmented wild cards like Jensen - will be less of a threat. And we know what happens then (see: Deus Ex). Darrow's truth is explicitly stated to turn people not just against augmentations, but scientific advancement itself, determining it to be too dangerous. Heck, the last time we let people play with science, half the world tried to kill the other half in a fit of madness! That's good enough reason for me not to want science to push the envelope again! And when scientific progress stagnates, you get a Dark Age: nothing happens, technology remains the same or slides backwards, and the problems of the world are compounded by the inability to find new solutions to them. So yes, Darrow's ending is, to me, worse than the Kill 'Em All ending, where humanity has the chance to decide - independently of any outside force - how best to handle the future.
      • While I agree that the "kill 'em all" ending, probably the most immediately bittersweet out of the four, was the only one that didn't leave a bad taste in my brain (philosophically speaking, at least, it seemed the least odious), my overall issue is that the consequences seem reversed. As Adam says to Darrow during their conversation, his message doesn't matter, because he's a crazy mass murderer and that's what people will think of him. On the other hand, destroying the entire facility and offering no explanation whatsoever would basically leave people with nothing but a load of dead bodies and a bunch of disoriented augmented people who lost control of themselves. That would sure as hell scare the scientific progress out of everyone. And why isn't Adam allowed to broadcast a message that isn't just a load of someone else's lies and prejudices? Like, say, "Hey, there is an ancient conspiracy out there, they're using medical technology to control people, the father of augmentation tech went crazy and tried to kill everyone to turn them against his creation -- maybe we should be careful from now on without plunging ourselves into a new dark age or letting the conspiracy run the world."
      • I feel like the reason that Darrow's confession brings about the result that it does is because his confession is slanted towards turning people against augmentations, so it's reasonable to assume that that's what it does. As for why that doesn't happen when Adam destroys the facility, maybe it does. He specifically says that humanity has made good choices in the past, and will probably do so again, but he doesn't try to figure out what that choice is. He doesn't care: it's beyond him. That's why he destroys the facility in the first place. What he's doing is putting the choice in the hands of the people, instead of powerful people like Darrow, Sarif or Taggart. If that choice leads to the destruction of augmentation technology, so be it. If it results in people embracing augmentations, that's their choice. By destroying the facility, he is rather specifically not making a choice, letting humanity choose for themselves rather than have a choice imposed on them by someone else, even him. He's encouraging a Title Drop, even: by proposing that people choose for themselves, he's instigating a human revolution in regards to augmentation technology. Welcome to Fridge Brilliance.
    • Note that the game itself seems to support the idea that Darrow's message is just another spin. The final objective is listed as "Decide which 'truth' to transmit" with quotes around "truth" - which indicates that the developers considered Darrow's message to be just as "true" as either Sarif's or Taggart's fabrications.
  • Is it just me or does Jensen's trench coat seem to disappear and reappear at certain times almost at random? Ok, so he may ditch it for practicality but then how does he get it back?
    • He almost certainly leaves it with the dropship when he goes on missions.
      • That still doesn't explain some areas where it vanishes in an area transition. The Pangu and Upper Hengsha area comes to mind, he has the trenchcoat as he enters the facility but it's gone by the time he confronts Zhao possibly some time beforehand.
      • Perhaps he folds up his trenchcoat and stores it in his Hyperspace Arsenal?
      • Adam's coat is an extension of his ocular implants!
  • Why didn't the Tyrants self destruct like their Mech-Aug successors?
    • Why would they? It's not like being heavily augmented would automatically mean you'd be outfitted with a self-destruct. Hell, not equipping themselves with a self-destruct would make sense considering that the Tyrants are mercenaries instead of government agents. They don't want a potential killswitch that someone can activate.
    • They are hired by the illuminati at that point, it would make sense to install killswitches so no harvester can take their augs.
      • ...who are street level thugs and in absolutely no position to challenge the Tyrants. Installing kill switches on the augs, or trying to, would just result in several extremely pissed off assassins gunning for whoever ordered it in the first place.
      • Except the Tyrants are mercenaries whose general response to "we're going to install self-destruct mechanisms in your bodies" will be "Hahaha, no." Mercenaries would not consent to someone else putting self-destruct systems in their bodies.
      • As Michael Zelazny would be able to testify, your employers do not always have to be truthful with you about what that new implant in your body actually does. Plus, don't you need maintenance anyway, soldier? Please report to the surgeon.
      • You mean the guy whose squad and allies began to slaughter everyone connected to it the moment something fishy was discovered? The Tyrants aren't stupid.
      • Belltower's mistake was in not putting kill switches into Zelazny's group, but instead just some untested neural chips. If they'd actually had proper cortex bombs, Zelazny's rebellion would have lasted about ten seconds.
    • I'm honestly failing to see why they need to be outfitted with self destruct devices, or how this is an issue. No one said that all the Belltower mercenaries have self-destruct devices. No one said it was standing policy that everyone gets outfitted with killswitches. The Tyrants aren't outfitted with self-destruct mechanisms for the same reason that they don't have skullguns or other augments. No one put them in there.
      • They already try to cover up their tracks during the Sarif Industries attacks by burning the bodies of the belltower operatives Adam had killed. Shouldn't be too hard to put a series of explosives embedded in their augs to take themselves out to avoid capture or salvage.
      • ...they also had government agencies covering them, preventing further investigation or anything that might incriminate those responsible.
      • That and dead Belltower operatives can directly implicate Belltower's involvement in the attacks. A band of freelance mercenaries less so.
    • Killswitches were installed primarily to deal with rogue agents, as opposed to getting rid of evidence. Once they're dead chances are nobody's gonna get anything out of them save the augs which the Illuminati really shouldn't care too much about. Alternatively, since it's a good 25 years before Deus Ex 1, they may've either not invented or not perfected killswitch technology, which could mean there is a longer delay in the killswitch being triggered and the mechanism activating.
    • What about the fact that the Illuminati are scared witless by augs? Wouldn't it make sense for them to install kill-switches, just in case?
    • The "upgraded" biochip that all augments are supposed to have installed effectively works as an off-switch, if not a kill-switch. The Tyrants might have been told they were getting a different chip so they wouldn't suffer the same glitches as everyone else, but it definitely won't be the same chip that allows them to control people. Honest.
  • One thing I realized: if having augmented limbs is too difficult for some people, shouldn't medical technology be advanced enough that they could get a transplant for an ordinary human limb?
    • Not necessarily. Limb, uh, 'donations' would have to come from somewhere else and it's unlikely they could be kept on ice for long enough to survive a procedure like that. A prosthetic 'only' has to worry about nerve endings and the like, not blood circulation, arterial issues etc etc etc.
      • In addition, at that point, you're getting into Rejection Syndrome, which is exactly the same as it is for augmentations, with the added benefit of taking immuno-suppressants for the rest of your life to keep your immune system from eating your new arm or leg. Transplants are not a cure-all.
  • Why aren't there any mirrors in the game? Was it that difficult or demanding to the machine resources to have them?
    • The advertisement "mirrors" in the bathrooms fit the "corporate takeover" theme of the game. It has nothing to do with engine resources.
      • Uhuh, and the mirrors that are simply not there and have blank panels instead, even in respectable appartmenet, fit...what theme exactly? Not to mention that the advertisement has "energy saving mode" written in it, which means its a screensaver, which means it should still turn on when you approach. And then, of course, there is also Jensen's conviniently broken mirror.
      • The theme of the common man losing sight of himself as he is blinded by corporate propaganda. Welcome to cyberpunk.
      • ^ Be sure and choose the correct god [dead link] or goddess for your time there!
    • Don't forget it was a console game first, ported to the PC - they weren't dealing with the freedom given to them by PC hardware. Reflections take a surprising amount of effort and resources to look decent; half-arsing it probably wasn't something the art team wanted to do, so nixed it entirely.
    • Reflections are extremely difficult. That's why graphic engines always make a big deal about them when they are included. For something of such marginal value to gameplay, most games just ignore it entirely unless it is already built into the engine they are using.
    • Huh, yet DX 1 and Duke Nukem 3D both had them, Unreal had reflective floors, and Duke Nukem Forever has this. Where is the progress in there?
      • DNF didn't have true reflections; it just had an image of Duke in the mirror facing whatever direction you happened to be facing. DX 1's "reflections" were just another model of Denton moving around in an area behind the "mirror," matching your movements. That's actually a fairly clever bit of smoke-and-mirrors common to early games. True reflections are a bitch for any engine to manage.
      • Exactly. Hence the use of 'half-arsing' as a descriptor. Great that those games can cobble it together, but HR is a much more expensive, much more technically complex game those the examples you're citing.
  • Clearly the most important of all Deus Ex questions here - How exacty did Adam get up to Panchaea's landing bay after his "lander"/craft/thing crashed into the ocean? He shoots off, its parachute fails to open and he crashes into the water...then it loads with him on the helipad, hunky dorey. Looking over the side it looks like a decent distance from the ocean to where he is, so he couldn't have just climbed out onto it. And he seemed to have come away from a terminal velocity crash landing without too many issues.
    • He swam.
    • At first, sure. But how does one "swim" up 10 stories onto a helipad with no noticeable ladders or entrance (other than helicopter, natch)? It just seems like a heck of a scene-skip, is my point - like they originally planned to have him land on the station[2], only to have the cutscene people change their minds at the last minute and not tell anyone else. Just an oddity, really.
      • There has to be other ways of gaining access to Panchaea from the water. A ladder at the very least, if only as an emergency precaution in case of a worker falling into the water. The place wasn't built by Armacham, Cerberus or RED/BLU.
      • And once you start the level, that alleged ladder dissappears...where to exactly?
      • Adam has swords built into his extremely powerful cyberarms, he could probably stab his way up the side if absolutely necessary. There are also likely protrusions that he grabbed onto to pull himself up all/part of the way. Or maybe he bailed at the last second with the Icarus Landing System and all we see is the shuttle hitting the water, which might explain why's not cussing out everything in existence over how damn cold he is after having been dumped in the Arctic Ocean.
    • Could Jensen swim? Even if you ignore his inventory, exactly how much does someone so heavily augmented weigh? I'd imagine they're somewhat more dense than a typical human. Reminds me of the swimming scene in the first |GiTS movie, where Batou comments on how the only thing between Kusanagi and a horrible asphyxiation on the ocean floor is the ballast system on her back. Presumably he still requires oxygen, so even if he didn't have body cavities that'd be crushed by the extreme pressures were he to plummet after the crash, I can't imagine he'd survive long enough to climb the incredibly tall tower.
      • There are several possibilities there. The composite materials that Jensen is mostly made up of now are light enough where his weight isn't much different than it used to be before the attack and so he's as buoyant as before. According to mythology, Icarus crashed into the sea, so perhaps the Icarus Landing System has a floatation feature in the event of a water landing. Or maybe there was a life vest in the shuttle.
  • Is there a plausible explanation for why all the drones for the hyron project are female? Adam pretty much asks this question in The Missing Link DLC, but never gets an answer.
    • The Hyron project has some very, very tight demands when it comes to compatibility for the drones; men apparently are unsuitable. Remember that something as (relatively) minor as mental stress from sexual assault can render a candidate unsuitable for Hyron, let alone being of a completely separate gender.
      • Reading the emails and talking to the prisoners reveals that there is (or was) some pretty serious prison rape going on. I doubt the mental stress would be minor. I'm still looking for an actual explanation, though. I.e. why are men unsuitable? Did they even try?
      • Yes, actually, compared with major physiological issues like gender and pre-existing augmentation getting in the way of Hyron suitability, the stress caused by prison rape would be minor, especially considering every one of these people are already extremely stressed by being kidnapped and held in a secret prison, usually for no apparent reason. That's why I used the word "relatively." No explanation is presented as to why men are unsuitable, but considering the number of deaths involved in creating Hyron drones, I'm pretty sure that any possibility that they could implement to expand the pool of candidates would have been used already, so men are clearly unsuitable for some physiological reason that isn't specified.
  • On the subject of takedowns. So, it takes the same amount of energy to knock a guy out with a punch as it takes to stay imvisible for seven seconds. Ok, I'll assume the energy goes into boosting Adams' reflexes to deliver an unblockable blow. But then the same energy is spent if you sneak up to a guy from behind and knock him out, i.e. when you don't need to hurry. Hell, that goddamn cell is spent even if you smother an enemy from behind! And it matters not if you're trying to deck some lithe street girl or a seven-feet tall musclehead in heavy armor. Now what sense does this make?
    • Maybe it activates a "combat mode" that temporarily supercharges his arms so that nobody can outmaneuver or overpower Adam. The same way you feel fatigued after a big adrenaline dump regardless of how much you actually exerted yourself, the combat boost may drain Adam's augs regardless of how much effort it took to take down a foe.
    • Perhaps he needs the energy to compute the exact amount of force needed for a Tap on the Head (and, uh, a broken arm?) to cause unconsciousness but no lasting effects? As for the lethal takedowns... well I never used them, so I say they don't cost any energy.
  • According to one of the Ebooks you can read, Iran formed the United Arab Front which ultimately defeated Israel. How could they have done that when they seem to be missing the key requirement? Iran is neither an Arabic-speaking country nor has any significant Arab population.
    • Iran does, however, have a very powerful military.
    • Right, it isn't implausible for a unified Middle East to take down Israel, especially if the US military was fully committed elsewhere. And it may even be handwaved away if Iran was admitted into the United Arab Front because of its military power. I was more wondering how they could have been the founding member the United Arab Front when Iran is not an Arab country and has historically been at odds with its Arab neighbors. A United Muslim Front or United Middle Eastern Front would have made more sense.
  • The've called a landing augmentation that is supposed to arrest falls from great heights and prevent damage whereof...Icarus. What moron was in charge of that naming? Prichard?
    • Maybe they did it out of irony and the "Break-A-Leg Landing System" was too cumbersome?
      • It's called that because it's needed for people like Icarus (so they don't die). Since Icarus had no landing system, his wings melting caused him to die. Just like if some guy didnt have the landing system, he would die if he decided he could jump off a building and fly (and so thats why its a landing system for "Icarus"
  • The insane augs in the final level. Why aren't they attacking each other? They are not literally zombies directed by some central will - they are just people suffering from some horrifying illusions that apparently picture everybody around them as horrible demons...except for other augs. Oh, wait, they do attack Jensen, so it's not the case. Augs without the tinkered biochip then. Oh, wait, Jensen might have one as well, so it's not the case either. So what is it then?
    • Darrow set up the signal to make augs attack other people. He likely would have set it up so that anyone who wasn't being affected by the signal would be attacked. Adam wasn't being affected by the signal at all, so he was a target.
    • In the latter case, as shown below, Megan fixes Adam's chip so he won't be affected.
  • If I got it right, Darrow's shocked realisation about the wrongs of the augmentation technology was fuelled in a large extent by the nightmarish nature of the Hyron. But wasn't the Hyron, as a part of the Panchea project, his creation? If he, for some inexplicable reason, was so abhorred to his masterpiece being powered by three women trapped in an endless torment, then why the hell did he make it that way?!! What, was he supposed to not know about it? How is that possible?
    • Heel Realization and My God, What Have I Done? are tropes that cover exactly this sort of thing. It can take time for the horror of what one has done to really sink in; this is nothing strange. Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project understood, theoretically and personally, the implications of nuclear weapons while building them, but it didn't sink in until they actually used them. Darrow likely built and designed Hyron, but it wasn't until he saw it in action that he realized how horrible it really was.
  • If Adam gets the upgraded chip why doesn't he suffer hallucinations like everyone else?
    • Megan fixes it when you meet her.
    • Is there a separate cut scene? I'd like to see that if you've got a link.
    • found it here
  • How does TYM expect to stay in business? I'm not talking about the tendency to fire employees who question things, murder people who get in the way or even the full support for putting substandard products on the market. I'm talking about the psychotic email policy. How can any self respecting business expect to get by with a limit of four emails per account, especially when the mandatory warning email counts towards that limit. Is it any wonder that top secret passwords keep appearing on lost Pocket Secretary's when employees can't rely on their much more secure work computers?
    • Their secret to staying is business appears to be destroying or absorbing competitors. Their e-mail policy might actually force people to use an I.M system instead, or just talk to each other.
    • The email policy is designed to control communications within the office and root out dissent and dangerous employees. You learn as much if you find the office where the current database manager is working.
      • In other words, business efficiency is irrelevant. Their entire business model is founded on having no competition, not being better than the competition; once that's achieved, they don't really care if their workers can actually do better, so long as they do something.
  • Once you get back from Montreal you're sent to contact Taggart and try to learn the location of an aide. The problem with that? You do it by barging in on a major address by Taggart being broadcast across the world. Why is Taggart taking any time to answer your questions? For that matter, where's the heavy police presence that was supposed to be there? You should be dogpiled by police by your second sentence.
    • First, Taggart kind of has to answer what you're saying because you're directly challenging him in the live press conference and more importantly, he wants to match wits with you. The fact that he directly addresses Jensen instead of ordering his security to throw you out, followed by engaging in a direct debate with Jensen, is proof enough. Second, pay attention: when Adam starts to approach the stage, Taggart actually turns to his security and waves a hand, ordering them to stand down. Again, he wants to debate you.
    • For that matter, where's the heavy police presence that was supposed to be there? You should be dogpiled by police by your second sentence. There's a half-dozen cops with assault weapons inside the convention center, along with more outside and a police boxbot. Plus, there's the riots going on that are drawing much of the police's attention. That's a pretty strong police presence to begin with, considering the department is currently strained containing the riots.
      • They can't throw you out, because you're not trespassing. You have a valid invitation to the press conference, remember? (Well, technically, David Sarif did -- but since you're one of Sarif's principal employees, he has every right to give his invitation to you so you can represent him there, if he's too busy to come himself. Which is exactly what he does in the opening cutscene for this chapter.) As an invited guest, security has no right to touch you unless you start disturbing the peace -- and asking a question at a press conference hardly qualifies.
        • Security does go hostile to you if they catch you moving around backstage, but that's because you don't have a backstage pass. Your invitation only covers the public areas of the conference center, which you can move around in as openly as you want.
    • For that matter, I'm actually more baffled by the aftermath of your conversation. None of the reporters seem particularly fazed by the verbal smackdown you gave Taggart and are just as dismissive of you talking to them as anyone else you encounter in the building.
  • What is powering peoples basic augmentations? They can't all be solely powered by normal metabolic energy. Jensen only needs to eat something to charge energy cells 2-5, what's charging energy cell 1?
    • Actually, yes, they are being charged up by metabolic energy. Jensen needs energy bars to top out his energy reserves, but his own metabolic processes are supplying his augs with energy otherwise and recharging the first cell.
  • Does TYM even have a self-preservation instinct? I can understand how using mercenaries to blow up and steal from competitors could work, but the augment design? The emails at the TYM building make it clear that some of the flaws in their products are life threatening. Do they really think that even Picus can keep everything quiet if a significant number of buyers start losing the ability to use their legs? Have they even realized that the people most able to afford their products are the same ones who can use their political power to get revenge or start a revolution? You would think that the conspiracy would want to keep people happy.
    • Faulty and dangerous augmentation is the entire point. The Illuminati want controls to be placed on augmentation tech so they can effectively regulate it. They're deliberately introducing flaws in the technology to slow down its spread and cause laws regarding quality control to be passed that ensure that the Illuminati can regulate the technology. Remember that the entire impetus for much of the game is because the Illuminati is struggling to bring augmentation under their control in the first place.
      • And Zhao doesn't see a possible problem when her company is the one that's going to get blamed for it?
      • That's not going to matter much if TYM's the only remaining source for augs around.
      • If the Illuminati's main plan succeeded - namely, mind-controlling every aug'd person on the planet, which means mind-controlling everyone who matters - then issues of corporate accountability go right down the drain.
  • At the hotel what exactly was Belltower thinking when they went after Van Bruggen? They could have simply closed off the streets, surrounded the hotel and sent teams in to search it. Instead they crashed in, shot up the place and set up turrets and land mines. Remember that they had no idea that Jensen was going to be there. They never had a good reason to handle things that way.
    • Belltower is a bunch of thugs, not professionals as we later see. The fact they're the cops in Hengsha means they can get away with whatever they want.
    • Belltower did close off the streets. You run into a roadblock right outside. They were operating under the assumption that a sudden assault and killing everyone room to room would take care of the entire issue. They would have killed Van Bruggen (and do if you don't give him a weapon) too.
  • Can someone explain to me the logic of the "Destroy Panchaea" ending? For me, it seems ridiculously out of character for Jensen who hours ago said to Megan "we aren't through yet" (or something around those lines).
    • Well, that was before Jensen learned the truth about basically everything. The Destroy Panachea ending is the "Fuck all of you for playing chess with the world" choice. Also, this is an RPG. You decide what's in or out of character for the protagonist.
    • I see it as a fitting ending for a self-resentful Jensen, who constantly whines that he didn't ask for this, hates Sarif for augmenting him, Darrough for inventing the damn things and Taggard for willing to control them, refuses to see any positive aspect to the situation and finally shatters after learning that the woman he loves betrayed him. So he sees the destruction of Panchea as a convinient way to end his burdensome existance, literally drag his enemies down with him and ensure that the hateful augmentations are banned, because, let's be real, that's exactly what's gonna happen after the world is left with no explanation for the sudden global outburst of violence among the augs.
  • I'm confused about the ending conspiracy. Was everyone going crazy part of the plan or did Hugh Darrow hijack it? Was William Taggart in on that because he was pretty pissed off in that basement. What was Zhaos group's plan then with the new biochips, some sort of mind control? And how much was Darrow part of the kidnap the scientists plan?
    • Zhao's group planned to use the new chips for mind-controlling augs because they couldn't control the use of augmentation. Darrow hijacked it with the Hate Plague broadcast.
      • That actually sounds kinda simple. Jensen traveled around the world for that?
  • How did adding humans to the Hyron Project do to improve it? What can humans do for cooling the planet that computers cannot?
    • Humans added extra processing capability and adaptability to the computers that they couldn't manage on their own. Remember that they haven't developed AI tech in the setting beyond Eliza, who is fairly limited overall in what she can do, so Wetware CPU was what they had to resort to to make the computer able to adjust on the fly to shifting ocean pressures. The drones allow the Hydra computer to think abstractly and be self-aware.
    • But wouldn't humans be worse at figuring out how to adjust quickly to shifting ocean pressure?
      • Not at all. The human mind works far more quickly than a computer and has nearly unlimited data storage. If they were just entering commands into the computer via keyboard or something then yes it would be worse, but when the drones are linked in they can react as the speed of thought.
      • The human brain is much slower than a (2012-era) computer, and has no reliable low-level data storage whatsoever. Its advantage lies in its massive parallelism which is really only useful in certain task categories and a waste in others (which incidentally is explicitly spelled out ingame). Whether the drones are better than a computer at adjusting pressures depends on the scale of the task... probably not, but it is a huge facility. But that's not all they may be designed to add.
  • One of the central conflict seems to be about how dangerous cybernetics on a regular person would be, has this universe never heard of a civilian model? I realize it might still be somewhat problematic with black market military grade stuff, but shouldn't it be obvious you shouldn't sell civilians something that can knock down a concrete wall with ease?
    • The majority of the cybernetics you see likely are civilian models, but even if they can't punch through walls they still have metal arms and legs that don't get tired, don't feel pain and are superhumanly fast. There's probably a governor built into the civilian augs that keeps them overclocking and giving them superhuman strength and "merely" have great, humanly achievable, strength. All of those things put together would be a very dangerous combination in a careless or malicious person.
    • Most cybernetics are unobtrusive models. Neural enhancements, reflex enhancements, bone strengthening, lung or heart or other internal augmentations. There's also no indication that civilian-available augmentations can "knock down concrete walls with ease." Remember that the stuff that Adam has been outfitted with is extreme, bleeding-edge, military-grade technology produced by the most advanced cybernetics firm in the world, whereas most other augments are substandard, cheap crap being assembled by TYM.
    • Plus the Illuminati have been hijacking the conversation in order to divide the world into two extreme camps.
    • If you pay attention, nobody really cares much about the arms and legs. They're in it for the neuroenhancements, which can't really exist without elevating citizens above the average level of ability.
  • Assuming the Kill'Em All ending isn't canon, where is Adam during the original Deus Ex?
    • Somewhere among the other billions of human beings across the globe. If he's still alive, he's either working with the Illuminati or Sarif. In the former case he might be dead or simply in hiding, while in the latter he's outside the scope of the original game's narrative.
  • In part 13 of Deus Ex, named Fallen Soldiers when you load it, you see a mention that Sandoval "refused to implicate his boss, Bill Taggart". Did the person who wrote that actually look at the dialog for the game? Sandoval openly states that Taggart was trying to blame the entire thing on him and that Taggart was just as much at fault. As for the conspiracy, there's nothing to indicate that he had any idea that Taggart was a member.
    • When Sandoval said that, he was in the middle of a Villainous Breakdown. He isn't acting rationally or thinking coherently, as trying to reason with him during his debate results in his suicide. He's saying what he thinks is true, where what's really happening is Taggart is trying damage control and distancing himself from "radical anti-augs". When Sandoval calms down (if you talk him down), he realizes that his actions would undo all the good Taggart has done, and also tries distancing himself from his boss to save Humanity Front's reputation. Bear in mind that the whole "blame confession" was done where only Jensen would know.
      • His conversation with Jensen didn't suggest he was going to try to protect Taggart's reputation. After he calms down he just asks Jensen to take the revolver away.
        • He also had more time to think after Jensen leaves him, where he could come to the decision of not blaming Taggart. Besides, Taggart covered his involvement so well that not even Sandoval could prove anything.
  • n the Missing Link DLC you can hear one Belltower guard complaining about how he's worried about their prisoners and the other tells him that the people are terrorists being locked away. The only problem is that they're arguing about this in the same room as the prisoners and they can, at any time, walk over to the pods and look at the notes. The notes that make it clear that some were taken from slave markets, others were protesters and still others are people that even Belltower has no idea who they are. Does it never occur to a single person in charge that kidnapping innocent people, telling the rank and file that these people are terrorists and then putting the guards in the same room as the evidence that proves their innocence is probably a bad idea?
    • Well, during that argument, it's also made pretty clear that questioning things is a bad idea and that those who do question are likely to end up in the cells as well, or worse. It seems like the guards (or at least some of them) basically know what's going on, but either are playing ignorant to cover their own asses, or are convincing themselves that those people of diverse age and background dragged in from god knows where who are crying and/or desperately pleading their innocence are totally terrorists in order to ease their consciences.
  1. ↑ since the guy who lost it is Chinese
  2. ↑ Notice how you start right next to a helicopter
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