chris the cynic on 7/8/2003 at 02:31
Spoilers galore, I'm not spoilerizeing the entire post so just skip it if you don't want to know the plot.
More like 4 or 5 I think.
Deus Ex was sort of like the last chapter in a book, the culmination of events. JC was the Deus ex Machinia in the perfect use of the phrase, he was introduced late inn the game and controlled the outcome.
JC went to the rebels because Paul tried to help the rebels steal an ambrosia shipment, the first 5 missions are entirely cause and effect starting from the stolen ambrosia.
Then JC pops up in Hong Kong and does what no one else could, he finds the sword, as a result the Lucky Money is attacked by MJ12. Here's where it gets to the point of extreme coincidence, the second time JC breaks into Versalife He finds out about the virus shipment, and there in lies the key to it all happening so fast.
JC goes back to New York to meet Dowd and find the ship. Does those two things. Now he has to go and find Everett so they can cure the virus. As a result of the near culmination of Page's godhood he has moved on France. His arrogance caused him to use the Templar cathedral as a base, also greed as he wanted the gold. JC meets Everett, Everett sends him to Savage, Page knows about this via Icarus and Aquinas, doesn't want there to be a cure so he attacks. He also sets up a trap so that he can combine Icarus and Daedalus thus getting both AIs under his control (or so he thinks) on case JC lives long enough to attack Icarus using Milnet.
Off to the side an agent of the Illuminati sabotages the second UC, this is a result of JC joining up with the Illuminati thus giving them a chance to regain power. If the opportunity to steal the power had not been presented by JC the agent would have likely stayed undercover. However because the agent acted Savage saw an opportunity to get the part they needed for the UC, Tiffany went and was captured. JC went after her and got the necessary schematics as well.
Page didn't like this so he launched a missile. JC redirects the missile and nukes area 51 with the smallest, lowest radiation nuke known to man (that doesn't have to do with the cause effect thing, I just thought that it was worth putting in that that was a tiny nuke.) He then goes after page immediately because he is weakened.
Everything to this point has been a cause and effect chain started by the virus shipment.
He gets there and Page is being augmented. This is the second coincidence (The first being that JC got to Hong Kong just as the super freighter was going to America.) It could be that the super freighter leaving when it did was a result of Page knowing he could soon be augmented, that would mean that there was only one coincidence.
Regardless what I tried to illustrate was that it is a sense making string of cause and effect with only page's augmentation and the timing of the super freighter not being cause by other events in the game. (The ambrosia shipment being stolen also wasn't caused by events in the game, but that is because it started the game.)
The game was supposed to be longer, with a White House mission, a Texas mission, a space station mission, and LA mission, a London one, a concentration camp one, a moon mission, and maybe more. So it would seem that the events would be more spread out, but I think the developers did a very good job of making the shortened game into a coherent sting of cause and effect.
Z on 7/8/2003 at 11:23
I agree. It's a pity they had to cut so much stuff out, but they always do. Actually, come to think of it, it was probably a good thing to cut some stuff out (even though levels in Washington or London or the Moon would have been cool) Deus Ex takes (by my count) about 25 hours to complete first time through. With subquests, it's possibly as much as 35. If you added in all the missions you mentioned, you could conceivably have 50 or even 60 hours of gameplay. I think most gamers would feel somewhat disappointed if they could complete a major game in 5 hours without rushing, but the fact of the matter is that Ion (well, they claim) recieved a lot of feedback from people saying that they found DX to be too long and drawn-out, and sometimes it was difficult to keep interested (especially after Hong Kong) I personally didn't find this, but some people did. If the gameplay was even longer, there could have been serious ramifications.
Saying that, some of the resources from the cut missions still exist in the resource files, so it might be possible to reconstruct a version of them (but without knowing what the designers had planned) Washington, in particular, seems to have large numbers of textures, objects, and even NPC's still in the game files (like Secret Services agents and the First Family)
Z
*Zaccheus* on 7/8/2003 at 19:48
I've cleared out the armory and the bot-repair area, and am now in the tunnels under the floor.
:)
chris the cynic on 8/8/2003 at 00:28
I've probably already mentioned it, but in case I havn't:
I've been trying to get more imforamtion on what was removed. This came to a stop a while ago when I got an email back from Harvey Smith saying he would help when the second game was done. So someday I should have informatio to share on what went on in those missions.
BlackCapedManX on 8/8/2003 at 02:08
Quote:
Originally posted by Z This may be a no-brainer to some of you, but it always strikes me as odd when I think about it: Doesn't it seem kind of strange that the entirity of the events in Deus Ex took place over 2 or 3 days? (Including lengthy flight times across the Pacific and Atlantic) It always seemed weird to me.
Z Actually, if you read a newspaper on the templars stage (it's in a little alcove right before the metro) it says that the terrorist attack on Liberty Island happened a week ago... so there is some rather significant time lapse. Plus I bet Jock can fly really fast.
chris the cynic on 8/8/2003 at 04:26
Really? It can't be more than a day (as in 24 hrs) after the 747 when you leave HK. From there it takes a week?
Are you sure it didn't say "Last week"? I think Deus Ex starts on a friday or weekend.
chris the cynic on 8/8/2003 at 04:32
Sure it didn't say:
"A terrorist strike on Liberty Island was blunted this past week when UNATCO forces moved swiftly to neutralize the threat. The attack, the result of a poorly organized attempt to break security at UNATCO Headquarters by the National Secessionist Forces (NSF), was characterized by one unidentified source as a "futile gesture". Walton Simons, Director of FEMA, worked closely with UNATCO to coordinate both US and UNATCO forces in a joint operation to root out the remaining elements of the terrorist network in New York."
?
Loais on 9/8/2003 at 15:26
We know that the Jock does a good job of moving you about fast. But
[SPOILER]is there anyway to save the poor guy and you get KOed by MJ12 the illuminati and some outhers you dont know how long you were out.[/spoiler]
*Zaccheus* on 9/8/2003 at 17:13
Well, the kill switch take 24 hours, so it should be ... 24 hours max !!
:)
James Sterrett on 9/8/2003 at 17:39
[Spoiler]To save Jock, you have to notice something is wrong at Morgan's place, and then gt the bomb defused....[/spoiler]
