Games That Changed The World – Deus Ex (PC Zone Supplement)

This is the last game relevant to here from the PC Zone “Games That Changed The World” supplement. 3 games out of 15 from the whole of PC gaming circa 2006 can’t be bad, even if this last one isn’t strictly one of Origin’s. I would have thought that Ultima Online should have been there in terms of it starting a whole genre but it’s Deus Ex which gets the final retrospective:-

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Deus Ex – Day 12

Before I move onto something new I thought I’d go back and look at the other 2 Deus Ex endings. First off Tracer Tongs. In this ending I have to shut down one of these blue reactors by entering the code I’ve been given, then shut down the reactor coolant, then trek all the way back to the reactors to overload them.

This is arguably a slightly harder endgame than the first one as I need to find a couple of locations while Page is constantly sending creatures and bots at me. It’s not too bad though. I push this button just down the corridor from the blue reactor then start the long trek back.

Page offers me Europe on the way but it’s not very tempting.

The walk back to the reactors goes without incident. I have to climb down to the bottom of each and press a button to stop the fail safes. It’s seriously radioactive down here but my healing skill keeps me alive and I don’t need to conserve energy now.

Then it’s up to the control room and I press every button I see to overload the reactors and blow them up. The mechanic up here takes issue with this and tries to shoot me but I can deal with him easily enough.

The reactors build up power and the end sequence starts.

The net goes down and the new dark age starts. I’m running away from the explosion at the end but there is no indication of whether I survive or not.

This isn’t as satisfying as the first ending and doesn’t feel like much of a solution to the world’s problems to me. How are we supposed to get the cure to people if we can’t talk to anyone. It’s onto the final ending.

In this ending I’ll be joining up with Everett and the Illuminati by killing Page but leaving everything else intact. As the only ending where I actually get to go after Page rather than just leaving him here it’s already got something going for it. I have to shut down all 4 blue reactors this time. After shutting down the second Helios starts sending security bots after me to make life difficult but I have a few EMP grenades left.

The final two reactors are a bit easier. I have a few greys to deal with at #3 but have no problems. Page offers me a place in his company this time around.

The final reactor is in a radioactive area so I activate my healing again before I go in. Now I just have to reroute the power.

Page is still trying to talk me out of it but he’s wasting his time. It’s curious that I don’t get to choose the evil route and support Page with all these endings. I suppose this ties in more with the sort of choices that you would have seen in the Ultima series. You have to make a moral decision but as you are supposed to be a good person you don’t get to take the immoral option if there is one.

To reroute the power I just have to press this button on a panel near Page. That starts the final sequence.

Page dies and the Illuminati take over once again controlling the world with an invisible hand. Everett genuinely seems to have the right motives actually as he talks to Denton in this final sequence and he talks about distributing the cure and guiding the world to the light. Given this the final quote seems a bit out of place as the world is a lot better off than it was before. There is clearly still corruption however as the cure is still being controlled.

I think I picked the right ending the first time around but none of these were bad either. They all have me curious as to what happens next in Deus Ex 2. I seem to remember it picked the Tracer Tong ending to follow on from which is my least favourite of the 3. Since its been sat on my Steam account for about a year unplayed, Deus Ex 2 will be the next game I play on here anyway. I gather it’s much shorter than this which isn’t such a bad thing as you could argue that Deus Ex was a bit too long.

I’ll be finishing Serious Sam HD first which I picked up cheap last week but that doesn’t look like it will take more than a day or two as I’m over halfway through it already. It’s a nice game for £6 but I wouldn’t want to have paid full price.