Let's Play: Deus Ex

[Revising Ocelot]

"You will soon have your God, and you will make it with your own hands."

'Kay, this is my first LP. I realise I haven't posted much on the forums yet, but Deus Ex was one of my favourite games from way back. Way back. So far back I've forgotten just about everything, except the fact it was awesome. And I'd like to share the awesomeness!

What is Deus Ex? Well, it's fundamentally a FPS, released in the year 2000. A huge, sprawling single-player FPS, with RPG-ish features like a shop system, skill points that boost attributes like weapons expertise, computer hacking, lockpicking, and so on. The plot and dialogue is extensive, and there is oodles of player choice throughout, from conversations and skills focus, to blasting a path through adversaries or sneaking past them through the shadows.

As there are so many choices to be made, especially in dialogue, I'll often skip them and choose myself. Some, such as what skills to be proficient in, are up to you. And the first thing when starting a new game is to choose skills...




So, without further ado...

The code name is what JC is referred to in dialogue, voice acting etc. It can't be changed. Your real name can be changed, but it's very infrequently used (and not worth bothering with ). Appearance can be changed too, but we'll stick with the default since it looks the best with JC's shades on - he wears them 100% of the time in the game. The reason they're off at the moment is so that you can see his eyes - they're augmented for superior vision. He can wear shades through the whole night, staying stylish but not hindering his eyesight whatsoever.

But, we shall choose his starting skills!

Computers: Your skill at hacking. At Untrained level you can only use them; at Trained and higher, you are able to hack computers, and with higher skill you can stay "in" the computer longer before you're detected as a hacker.
Electronics: Your skill with electronics. This will allow you to bypass electronic devices such as door keypads with greater efficiency and less resources.
Environmental Training: Your skill at using protective gear, which increases the duration and effectiveness of such devices like thermoptic camoflague (temporary invisibility) and hazmat suits (radiation protection).
Lockpicking: Higher ranks allow you to use lockpicks with greater efficiency and effectiveness to pick locks on doors, cabinets, drainage covers etc. Some doors are unpickable, however.
Medicine: Increases the health obtained from medkits. They can be used to heal your body in general or specific body parts - for instance, if one of your arms is particularly crippled, hindering your accuracy greatly, you can heal it alone.
Swimming: Simply put, this boosts your swimming speed and lung capacity.
Weapons: Demolition: Your effectiveness with devices like grenades and LAMs (think hybrid proximity mines/grenades that can be stuck to any surface) is increased, as well as your skill at disarming explosives.
Weapons: Heavy: Your effectiveness such as damage, reload time, accuracy and also walking speed with heavy weapons such as GEP Guns (rockets), flamethrowers and Plasma Rifles are increased with this skill.
Weapons: Lowtech: Your skill with weapons such as knives, crowbars, batons and even swords.
Weapons: Pistol: Your effectiveness such as damage, reload time, accuracy with weapons such as 10mm pistols and mini-crossbows is increased with this skill.
Weapons: Rifle: Your effectiveness such as damage, reload time, accuracy with weapons such as assault rifles or shotguns is increased with this skill.

There are four levels of skill: Untrained, Trained, Advanced and Master. JC always starts with trained skill in Pistols. Skill points can be obtained by exploration, completing objectives, conversation and other sources.

Also, we'll pick up various Augmentations throughout the game which augment part of JC's body with one of two possible aids for a body part, such as EMP shielding or silent running. These use energy at varying rates, restored by repair bots or biocells.


So, choose some starter skills and we can step foot into the first part of the game, Liberty Island.

[Solid Snake]

...Hmm.

Kind of want you to try a different build than I'm used to playing.

I think we should level up Weapons: Demolition. Never played a demo expert with Deus Ex. I'd be interested to see what your strategy would be when relying predominantly on explosives.

Is Environmental Training at all useful in this game? Can't remember. It's been years since I played it. I'm an environmental lawyer wannabe so I'll just throw a vote towards this skill, for no reason other than it sounds useful.

Other than that, hacking computers is a must, and it appears some training is required to do so, so let's get up to at least trained proficiency there.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

First of all, I'm assuming this is on pc, so untrain yourself in pistols for some extra xp (as soon as you start the game you automatically get re-trained in handguns anyway). Then train yourself in rifles and hacking, those are essential.

Don't ever bother with swimming, medicine or environmental; swimming is utterly useless, environmental only offers the occasional bit of extra protection and requires you to waste inventory space on suits all the time and medicine, well, just don't get shot and you'll be fine (the regen aug later also negates any need to use healthpacks at all). I'd suggest at least getting trained in lockpicking and electronics at least 1 level, to save yourself some tools, but some deft use of quicksave/quickload can save yourself even more items (I can practically walk through this game with near full stacks of lockpicks and multitools and still get every door unlocked even at the "trained" level). Also those 2 skills are expensive as shit to train so it's best not to rely on them too much. If you pick a door, find out that what's behind it isn't worth it then it's best to quickoad and save the picks, or even if it's worth it then usually a single rocket to the door is a much more cost effective means of getting to the loot.

Other than that, heavy weapons is a good one, for the occasional bot and you may want to add 1 level to demos (or just carry some emp grenades, which are just as effective at low levels as they are at higher levels). Melee is also useless, especially once you get the dragons tooth, which kills things dead in 1 hit.

Basically get rifles and hacking maxed asap, add 1 level to hacking and electronics, then focus on heavies. Anything else is highly ineficient.

As for augs for later on (starting from the head down); aggressive defense (blows up rockets and mines from a distance), vision enhancement (seeing through walls anyone?), microfibal muscle (super strength), regeneration (super healing), toxic resistance (immunity to poisons (it's either this or aqualungs)), recirculator (keeps augs running for longer), ballistic defense (reduces damage from bullets and blades), cloak (invisibility) and speed enhancement (super running, jumping and the ability to fall from huge hights without damage).

If you also incorporate the fabled "Jesus Mode" glitch later on this will effectively make you into a walking tank-god of a truly unstoppable nature, your only weakness being energy weapons, and even they can be healed from easily enough.

Alternatively, do what this guy did.

[Revising Ocelot]

PC, of course. Isn't there a PS2 version? I wouldn't know how to get screenshots from that anyways.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Good, then the various glitches I just mentioned work quite well. Just remember to abuse the fuck out of the quicksave button and activate "Jesus Time" later on (all skills at master and all augs maxed out? Hell yes!). And remember to untrain those pistols, I think you can gain like over 1000 points at the start just from that, and you're still trained once you start anyway!

[Revising Ocelot]

Wouldn't know the first thing about glitches in the game, but I had to patch up anyway. It was running at hyperspeed due to my laptop being way too powerful for the game.

This is essentially an entirely fresh run - the only bits I can remember about the game are tiny snippits from the first few maps. Edumacation has made the memories leak out to make room for useless algebra (which I've also conveniently forgotten).

[Kerensky287]

Awesome, another proper LP!

Here's the loadout I suggest:
1125 Computers (Hacking sounds important)
1800 Electronics (Again, sounds important)
900 Weapons: Demolition (I'm curious as to a game mostly revolving around grenades and mines would play out...)
3825

So that means you'll have 1175 points left to spend. I assume points carry over into later levels; if not, I dunno, spend the rest on medicine or something.

I've never played this game before, but I may look into it if the LP is good. I'm looking forward to it!

[DFM]

Swimming.



Everything into swimming.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Originally Posted by Revolving Ocelot

Wouldn't know the first thing about glitches in the game, but I had to patch up anyway. It was running at hyperspeed due to my laptop being way too powerful for the game.

If you've patched then some may not work. Still, they're all on that site I linked to, so check em out and see if they work.

Originally Posted by Kerensky287

900 Weapons: Demolition (I'm curious as to a game mostly revolving around grenades and mines would play out...)
3825

So that means you'll have 1175 points left to spend. I assume points carry over into later levels; if not, I dunno, spend the rest on medicine or something.

Points carry over and you get more from other things later on, so as to upgrade further. But I know from past experiance that there aren't enough nades in the game to rely on them as your primary weapon. Mostly they're just saved for the odd robot or MJ12 trooper.

And as I said, medicine is utterly useless, especially once you get regen (fully upgraded it heals 40 units per second, healing you to full health in about 10 seconds, assuming you've lost practically all of your health).

Originally Posted by DFM

Swimming.



Everything into swimming.

And this guy's just full of lies.

[Mirai Gen]

Its DFM.

I mean, yeah.

Also looking forward to this.