"You gotta help me Jensen! They're gonna kill me!"
As Arie van Bruggen looks on desperately, I ponder the situation. Belltower security are searching Alice Gardens, a cheap and dirty apartment block, intent on killing van Bruggen. Give him my combat rifle or pistol to defend himself, or leave him to die? Silenced pistol, I might add, upgraded with armour piercing ammo.
I tell the hacker he's on his own and he throws an F-bomb at me before climbing back into his bunk to sit nervously. So that's his plan B. My plan, in contrast, is to get out of Alice Gardens and not die.
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| Hug! |
I'm doing my best in this game to not kill people directly. Apart from added XP points, this playing style is generally more fun. So no to shooting things until they die, and yes to stealth and innovative solutions.
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| Ho ho, please...no more jokes...my sides are hurting... |
This is where Deus Ex shines as an RPG. I could very well just make the whole thing a loud and violent massacre, but I have the option to play it otherwise.
Speaking of options, I find myself in a tricky spot. I've stealthily made my way into a dead end. There are half a dozen enemies nearby, so far still unaware of my presence. There's no way I can sneak past so many of them, so I look around. I eye up the fire extinguisher and chuck that out into the courtyard, the noise alerting two guys. One of them is carrying a heavy rifle, packing some serious firepower. Okay, if I do this wrong I'm dead. As they come into the corridor, I lob a concussion grenade and blind them for a moment. It's all the time I need to stab both of them. It wouldn't have worked if not for the flash suppressant augmentation protecting me from the blinding effect of my own grenade.
An augmentation which, like all augmentations, is optional. It's perfectly possible to finish the game without any. This would no doubt be incredibly challenging and besides augmentations can be incredibly fun to use.
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| The wedgie augmentation is the best |
There's one for every situation, like the concussion grenade scenario. My choice of aug depends on my play style. Being the stealthy and deep thinking guy I am I've gone for those that let me be a better computer hacker, jump higher and lift heavier loads. That last one is perfect for reaching hidden places. And throwing vending machines at people. I never said I was above brute force.
It's just a perfect example of how open the game can be and the many paths you can take. The only thing missing is the option to disguise yourself in another person's clothing, but that would probably break the game. And turn me into the murderous clothes thief I became in Fallout 3.
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