(http://www.nowgamer.com/news/340/deus-ex-3-to-return-to-series-roots)

I was playing the first Cairo mission and after walking down a corridor, past a neutral guard, rounded a corner only to find myself in a small (and, it must be said, avoidable) combat encounter. Basically, when I rounded the corner I ran into a couple of small-time thugs. One of them threatened me and demanded my money. Forget that! I took a shot at him with my non-lethal boltcaster (since I'm not into killing anything these days). While I was paying attention to thug number one, his buddy either took a shot at a firebarrel near me or managed to push it, hard, at me (I'm not sure, actually). However he did it, it came flying at me, forcing me to duck. The barrel hit a wall behind me, which attracted the attention of the guard I'd passed earlier and he came running. The thugs (including a third who was hiding in an alcove nearby, unseen by me) were soon down and I was unscathed.

The important thing about that scenario is that none of it was preplanned beyond the placement of the thugs in the corridor. I could have avoided that area entirely or retreated once I saw the thugs. I could have paid the thugs off instead of fighting. I could have ended the combat with a single shot from a rocket launcher but I chose to try not killing them. (I mean, they're poor thugs and I'm a biomodded super-agent -- hardly a fair fight!). I've been down that corridor a bunch of times and never seen a barrel come flying at me (and, man, was it cool when one did!). The guard is usually far enough away not to hear the sounds of combat but the barrel must have attracted him. In that one simple moment, I made choices, the NPC's responded in reasonable but not predetermined ways to my actions; objects and environment came into play; and I had an experience that was uniquely my own. Welcome to Deus Ex gameplay.

I'm in the middle of a playthrough as non-lethal, small-arms, hacker guy and I come upon the WTO helipad where I have to shut down two missile batteries to free up a copter. I can blow them up, but I don't have any heavy weapons. That means I need to find the security terminals that control the missiles. Sadly, all the doors are locked here and I'm out of multitools that would allow me to pick the locks. There are also a bunch of cameras and turrets here, guarding the doors and the missiles -- these could be overcome by multitools, too, if I had any. Oh, and did I mention the guards? Humans, I can deal with, but there are bots and turrets all over the place and I don't have the firepower for that.

So what am I to do?

Well, I'm here to free up a copter so I can get the pilot to ferry me around and there IS another pilot I could hire. But I want THIS pilot, not the other guy, so I'm determined to solve this problem, despite my lack of tools and firepower.

Took me six tries -- plan, execute, fail, reload six times! -- but I got it.

Here's the short (for me) version of what happened:

I went to one of the locked doors and planted a mine, which I then blew up with a shot from my pipsqueak of a pistol. That gave me access to an air shaft that gave me access to an area behind a locked door I couldn't get through, which revealed a security terminal controlling one of the missile batteries. Hack it, shut down the missiles on this side of the helipad -- one down, one to go...

I went to the other side of the map, where I figured the other missile control was (since there was another missile launcher there and, nearby, a door with a VERY secure lock). This door was guarded by a turret which was controlled by a camera over the door. I couldn't disable the camera and that meant the turret would clean my clock (which it did, the first five times I tried to get through that door!).


Ah, but I had the regeneration biomod and the speed biomod, so I could get out there quickly and heal myself -- barely! -- if I took a hit or two from the turret. (More than that and I'd be toast!) My hope was that the turret would target me as I stood by the door, I'd dodge at the last second, count on my speed and regen mods to keep me alive, and watch while the turret destroyed the door that stood between me and victory.

Sadly, the turret didn't have enough firepower to take out the door. Try again. Then, it occurred to me -- I had one more mine left! I planted that mine beside the door, danced around in front of the camera to activate the turret, activated my biomods, let the turret target me and leaped out of the way as the area filled with flying lead.

Sure enough, the turret took out the mine which took out the door which gave me access to the security terminal that allowed me to shut down the missile battery! Mission accomplished!

It was only later that I realized I could have done the same thing I did on the other side and shoot the damn mine myself so I wouldn't take any damage or use up energy. But, at the time, I was so psyched about the prospect of using the enemy's own turret to do the job I didn't think. (It ended up being way cooler this way so I'm glad I didn't think of the easier path!)

Going through the front-door of the Ambassador's Penthouse I took out the Ambassador Guard and the Ambassador. Next I went in to the room that held the weapon upgrade and shotgun. Only to find it blocked by deadly orangeish-yellow laser beams. Knowing that I really wanted these items but didn't waste an EMP-nade or multi-tool on them I decide to enlist the help of our rotting friends.

That's right the Ambassador and his man-servant. Since he was closest, I first grabbed the guard and threw him into the room, then picked the Ambassador up and tossed him in along side his buddy.

I then propped the guard up next to the entry-way near the death beams. Lastly, choosing the Ambassador for his very dense nature, I tossed him just on to his guard thus blocking the laser beam with his head. Watching them catch them-self a blaze was worth the effort, first the Ambassador then his guard.

Crackle, Crackle!

I then proceeded to crawl under the beams and raid the Penthouse of its useful items.

I was in the VIP lounge of Club Vox. I gave the tissue scan to the Omar and got a black market biomod cannister as a reward. I also purchased a second at the discounted price. Using these black market biomods I upgraded my health leech drone. Next I had to kill the Omar in order to complete my mission for Mr. O' Rourke. To prevent him from having a chance to use a weapon, I decided to use the stun prod. I stunned him into unconsciousness and then had to decide how to dispose of the body. I had turned on my health leech drone but I was at full health, so it wouldn't drain the unconscious body. Luckily, I spotted a pack of cigarettes on the table. I picked them up and smoke them, taking a small amount of damage in the process. Immediately my drone went to work, dissolving the body and healing my damage. Sort of a case of the secondhand effects of smoke.

I’m at the WTO Air Terminal Lower, with not a lot of ammo left. Most certainly not enough to get through the area trigger happy, but I figured I might as well give it a shot and hope i can find enough ammo and other materials to go around and just kill everyone. I ran in with my trusty flamethrower, and tried to set the two people just below the landing pad on fire to no success (and that flamethrower eats through ammo like candy.) I had no choice but to switch to my shotgun, which with it's increased modified power should kill each of them in one hit, but before I could get a chance to kill them, they were already retaliating, not to mention I just got flanked by a security bot.

My health was low, my bio energy was low from using my regeneration biomod too much, and my escape routes were few. I ran up the stairs to the upper part of the landing pad, hoping this would give me enough time to regain my health and bioenergy. But I didn't think that security bot would follow me as it did... great. I thought it was over for sure. I tried going man to man with the security bot with my shotgun, but regeneration biomod just wasn't working fast enough at level 2, and the situation just looked more and more grim. I figured by now, with a hairline on my regen and health left, I might as well just take my racing bleeding heart back with me to go get a casket prepaid.

I jumped back off the landing pad to the lower level again in an escape attempt. The two guards were still on the bottom level and they began racing toward me, and I started running backward frantically so I can maybe get some shots off while they were in the chase. Right as the guards got to the place I landed when I jumped, and right as my first shotgun blast went off, the security bot actually jumped (or fell, either way it was great), right in front of them. The shotgun blasted him in midair, and his explosion killed the two guards chasing me!

Nothing like a hard days work!