IFTTTG

Deus Ex: Human Revolution – The Missing Link (2011)

Deus Ex: Human Revolution – The Missing Link is the name of the sole DLC expansion for – you guessed it – Deus Ex: Human Revolution (2011). originally ‘detached’ from the main game it would later be snuggly merged into the base game as a seamless chapter. while i love Human Revolution, i’m far detached from my original more inane, fleeting thoughts. i’ve stomached a boatload of write-ups and video essays dissecting every flaw.. every utterance. pointing out just how crummy it is. but me? i still think it’s cool as hell (u。u)y-゜゜゜ and instead of regurgitating all my malformed thoughts about how contrived and forgetful the game is, i thought i’d cover a part that reminded untouched to me. that being The Missing Link (it’d also be a less daunting task cause for some reason i treat every write-up like it’s a novel when in reality they’re better off as bite-sized summations). it works better this way since the DLC strips us of everything at the start. ‘factory zero’. no weapons, no armor, no augmentations. it gives us a fresh slate. this might still be a hard sell. jumping into the game halfway. no elaborate dive into the franchise as a whole. the events up until now, or even who Adam Jensen is. if you bare it like a ‘demo’ write-up – like a free sample on a platter.. a small bite. something quick to sink your teeth into – then you might get a kick out of it. another neat sell ’bout The Missing Link is just how naturally Deus Ex it is. not Deus Ex: Human Revolution; but Deus Ex. i mean the original. ironically because it borrows everything from the original to the point where it’s more of a ‘faithful’ remake. this isn’t a surprise considering many of the devs were fans of the original. it’s tasteful and i’ve read they consider them ‘callbacks’. character parallels like Alex and Pritchard, Jock and Faridah, Maggie Chow and Zhao Yun Ru. our first and subsequent trips to East Asia. or even our pitstop to Paris. oh.. wait, no.. forgot it’s Montreal instead in DX:HR. whoops.. i mean, you ever notice how both JC and Adam wear sunglasses? and are both snarky and deadpan? they’re both augmented. i mean i can’t be the only one who’s noticed this, right? just me? huh.. The Missing Link takes these parallels a step further into the winks and nudges territory. just like the DLC i’ll make sure to leave everything about the game at large at the door, and to a minimum. you could skip this read up without ever knowing it existed. or.. you read it.. the choice is yours. *spoilers for the original Deus Ex and obviously the entirement of the DLC. click here to skip talk of the original..*

after the crapfest that was Hell’s Kitchen and LaGuardia Airport, neither JC or his brother Paul are in good standings with UNATCO and are considered defectors. Paul more-so than JC. his disillusionment with UNATCO is what pushes JC into the same tricky spot as his brother. taking on the T.A.H. (Tank-y As Hell) M.I.B. (Men In Black) soldiers while Paul sits idly in his apartment gave me an odd sort of chill. knowing that my choices are for naught. either leading to our imminent capture, or Paul’s death. the games switch-up part way through is what helped it feel so doom and gloom. this subversion kept me around, curious to see just how it’d play it out. suffice to say.. things ensue.. uhm.. like.. terrorism.. a-uh.. AI.. and so forth.. Area 51.. Invisible War.. *thinks for a second* oh, and uh Greasels.. anyway, back to LaGuardia Airport. no matter your route the game funnels you into a secret MJ12 base just below the UNATCO base, where JC’s detained. first time around i thought it was dependent on whether or not i lost to Navarre. i remember spending an upwards of any hour figuring out how to cheese her fight.. deep in the the bowels of New York’s subway system. well, turns out you never really had a choice. you’re swiftly taken prisoner. the room JC finds himself in is cramped. a mirror, a toilet, and a cot are all that meets the eye. at first glance it’s not much. until you see Agent Navarre walk into frame in the corridor just outside. either it’s a 2-way mirror (a facade, similar to the ceilings at the start of Invisible War) or simply the texture loading/de-loading mistakenly gave off the impression of a mirror. my money’s on the first one. things are pretty dire. JC’s augmented nature is his own pitfall. unfortunately by method of being programmed there are some things that are hardwired. the mere mention of a ‘killswitch’ has me sweating. just how much time is left? is there even a kill-switch, or is it a bluff? without much else to do we’re left to stew in these thoughts. until the lights go out.. and a strange voice is transmitted through our info-link. it’s garbled, and rushed. the info-link only gives us the name ‘Daedalus’. the door unlocks while the lights are blacked out. they explain that our chances at escape are slim – a razor-wire thin window of slim. made harder by just how entrenched we are. i’ll save the rest of the exposition for another time, to make a long story short; we’re deep below Liberty Island, below the UNATCO HQ wherein we familiarized ourselves with the game. many allied with UNATCO have already made their escape. while some shelter in place to the best of their abilities. tides turn as you fight UNATCO soldiers, even allying with an NSF captive (Miguel). people you considered peers suddenly transform into foes. with JC having to carefully navigate each tight corridor all-the-while still receiving cryptic comms from ‘Daedalus’. i was floored. having had played Human Revolution before the original (shameful, i know), a sudden rush of mirth took hold of me. to have it click that my favorite part was a ‘callback’ to the original – a game which is leagues ahead of the former, assuring me that i’d be in for one hell of a ride.. and a hell of a ride it was. though i recall this being a write-up on The Missing Link. now with the stage set, we can begin.. (i’d like to reiterate that this is from the lens of a stealthy “Foxiest of Hounds” play-through. while The Missing Link is more free flowing than the base game, stealth still feels most canonical to me. i won’t consider pacifism to the write-up since killing guards makes no difference from just K.O.ing them).

Adam Jensen, our augmented pro-tag finds himself ensnared. at the mercy of 2 new faces. we’re left to fill in the blanks as to what happened between now and the last we saw of him. after Jensen […] [REDACTED]. so how the hell did he end up augless, beaten within an inch of his life and bound to a chair? we come to find that we’re aboard a ship; the Hei Zhen Zhu (Chinese: 黑珍珠, meaning “Black Pearl”) [pasted from the Deus Ex Wiki] which is bound for a ‘Rifleman Bank Station’. a voice over the intercom relays progress as it bears towards its destination. our captors (as well as terrorizers) are the two commanding officers in charge of the vessel.

Netanya Keitner: Sex [Female], Age [Unknown], Origins [Israel], Occupation [Rifleman Bank Station Commander], Augmentations [Cybernetic Arm Prosthesis], Status [Alive].

Pieter Burke: Sex [Male], Age [Unknown], Origins [United States], Occupation [Belltower Operative], Augmentations [Retinal prosthesis, Advanced Dermal Plating, Cerebral implants], Status [Alive].

Netanya takes lead for the time being. with Burke falling back to the sidelines. that doesn’t mean we’re clear of him though. loud whispers among the ship’s crew paint him out to be one tough sonuvabitch. earning his infamous rigor from his time in the Marine Corps – he’s also head of the Rifleman Bank Station detention center. detention center? but we’re on a cargo ship.. Burke relishes in the abundance of power that he holds. with guards often warning others of remaining in line, lest they want to end up like the other “popsicle-sticks” in his detainment center. typically i’m wary of the overzealous hothead character but i find Burke to be an amazing exception to this rule. his demeanor is calm. sure he’s quick to anger, but it’s typically measured with a composed aptitude. his drawl is sharp, like a snake’s tongue. and his stare’s leering. he’s hot headed – but perfectly tame. everything about him oozes tyrannical foe. frankly i think his design is peak Human Revolution. a hell of a lot better than the base game’s bosses. as a matter of fact, this goes for every newcomer (and old) here. i like the contrast of most of the characters in this game. unfortunately his boss fight sucks just as much as the rest, but i’ll save that for later – back to Keitner. she’s the good cop to Burke’s ””bad”” cop (that is if you consider someone implicit in beating a man to such a gnarly degree to be ‘good cop’). her tune does change once you make your escape.

the electromagnetic chair Jensen’s bound to is deactivated moments after Keitner’s through with him. hrm.. “without much else to do we’re left to stew in these thoughts. until the lights go out..” this gives Jensen a chance to flee, but he’s nowhere near in the clear. the first hurdle is a tame maze of hallways. cargo zones and corridors. sticking to the shadows works the best. this way we can utilize the game’s over reliance of vents. the optimized guide for obtaining the pacifist, stealth, and factory zero (no augs, weapons, or items) achievements has some pretty neat strats in avoiding the guards. many-a times following them closely in-line with their walk cycles. pulling these tricks off can be extremely satisfying. though these are still low-stakes. everyone else is none-the-wiser. Jensen finds his old gear (items you had in the base game) and a hidden note meant for Jensen. just when an oddly familiar voice cuts in. due to poor reception it’s unintelligible – and most of it cuts out – though their motivations can’t be deciphered, it’s worrying that they know our exact whereabouts. no matter how sneaky we’ve been..

tucked away deep in the recesses of the cargo bay is a container housing a tattered stasis pod. this discovery also comes with an achievement, ‘Never Forget’. no.. it’s not a 9/11 reference. at least i don’t think so.. it’s awarded upon finding the pod. the description reads; “You revisited the site where Belltower discovered and captured you” (Belltower being the overarching private military corpo that propagated the main events of the base game). guess somehow Belltower got tipped off to Jensen’s presence in the cargo container. how he got in there? i’ve got no idea.. heh (´ ‿｀) just kidding, i have an idea.. from the looks of things they didn’t treat him all too kindly. there’s blood etched into the crate. it’s doors pried loose. he’s literally been ripped out.. seems he went out with a fight. technically it makes sense for Belltower to be wary of Jensen. he’s an intruder. though whether or not he intentionally meant to wind up here is up for debate. Jensen’s motives were entirely spurred on by Belltower, when they […] [REDACTED]. still can’t say.. continuing on.

the automated female voice alarming throughout the cargo port gives us an accurate timeline of events. we’re bound for the port any moment now. the best part about being held captive on a boat is that it’ll have to dock eventually, giving us a chance to slip out. emerging through hatch out onto the starboard side the game splashes us with a cold dose of reality. spotted in the close horizon is a lone station. Rifleman Bank Station. we’re shit outta luck. not a single other isle – or structure of any kind – in it’s periphery. smack dab in the middle of the South China sea. what? what’re we supposed to do? swim to shore? pssh.. yeah.. sure, real funny.. at least we’re out of that stuffy cargo bay.. a headcanon i believe in is that DX:HRTML looks better than the base game. the hazy incandescence cast by the rain and the ship’s masthead lights obscures the station in a really ominous way. it’s uninviting. precisely how the original Deus Ex felt. mixing it’s grit with the newfound cyber-topology the newer games are known for. the rain adding a slick gleam to everything whenever outside. it’s like driving on the freeway while it rains. when the lights refract – striking your pupils in blurring forms. Belltower guards post up waiting for the moment we dock. still unaware of Jensen’s escape.

*tssst*.. the soft hush of a cigarette being stubbed out, signaling the start of the guard’s walk cycle. i’m nearing the main central unit of the ship. where the walls are furnished in that maritime wallpaper. accented by freshly polished wood floor. my heart starts to pang in anticipation. hacking the doors key-code leaves me vulnerable. locking me into place during the hacking ‘mini-game’. with a camera overhead. keeping the guard alive just ups the ante. i’m in a race against the clock. luckily it’s level one. without upgrading my augments with praxis kits i wouldn’t be able to hack anything higher (an immersion hole that’s already been ran through). all of the DLC feels this way. making it all the more satisfying when i successfully make through undetected, and unscathed. these instances are once again core Deus Ex. you get to level the pros and cons. engaging with every obstacle leaves room for potential, or some consequence. you’ll be backtracking through a lot of the same rooms. do you maneuver ’round the guard? or take him out? leave his body out for the rest to find, or risk lugging him over behind cover? okay okay, that sounds like every game ever.

the ships CIC (Communications Center) is free from any surveillance. no cameras, sensors, or guards. and aside from the guards protecting the perimeter of the ship both Burke and Keitner are nowhere to be seen. even though they’d been interrogating Jensen just moments before. there’s no varying degree to them ‘hunting’ for us. it’s more-so Jensen stealthing his way through the facility Solid Snake style. it’s the simple rigama-“roll” of cover-to-cover, stealthing. it’s a lot more fun than going in guns-a-blasting. rebuilding your augment collection and deciding which is more pertinent to navigating the station. the way it’s integrated in to the Director’s Cut of the game is a humbling moment. akin to the woes of Icarus.. *yawn* before now we curated an insanely cheese set of augments. since the DLC juts out ~ 75% of the way in. cloaking paired with silent movement nulls most of the game. i could probably play a New Game+ while snoozing.. for the write-up i copped the standalone version of the DLC. in the Director’s Cut release of the game you get your gear back early into the mission, giving you more of a fighting chance (though it awkwardly has to account for you having less space in your inventory, providing you more loot at the tail-end of the DLC). you’re not given that grace in the standalone version. you start from the ground up, forcing you to be more methodical. think it’s cooler this way. all of that’s ironic considering it’s Deus Ex. though it would’ve been cool to hide from a roaming Burke, or Keitner. considering how we were mysteriously freed from lockup, i’d like to think this office isn’t typically this empty. some outside force is behind this..

the room’s gradient goes from a blue naval-like sensory and into a deep hellish red. a voice cuts through the centrifugal computer system. the same one that came through earlier. nearly identical to that of ‘Daedalus’, just unmistakably Russian this time around. even having the same fuzzy voice filter. this is the exact reason why it clicked to me so suddenly on my first playthrough of the original Deus Ex. the concept is so damn kino.. it was a great facade in the original to enlighten us on the corrupt web of goings-on. this time is the same. the voice on the screen doesn’t identify itself. just saying they’ve gone through a hell of an effort and getting us outta here. if played like a ghost, he’ll make a point to say that this won’t last long. eventually they’ll find out we’ve escaped. he is right though.. like i said earlier, there’s not a single other vantage point in sight. only the ship and the station. i escaped; now what? it’s heavily guarded with security checkpoints and personnel. getting out is secondary to to not getting caught. also, who the hell’s posted up all the way out here? already with keen info on us – and to know us enough to trust that we’d follow his breadcrumbs. forgive me for being weary, it’s just a lot to be so suddenly thrusted into. hrm.. whatever. he gives us directions to a contact located just beyond the ‘sally port’, the connector between the ship and the station. apparently there’s someone looking to speak with us. mkay.. i’m at the rendezvous point.. and all that’s here is an airshaft and.. *gasp* K-Keitner..?

if you’re at all confused, hopefully this is where things start to come together. in the write-up i mean. this is only the tip of the iceberg game-wise.. first of all; Keitner does not seem to be one-in-the-same with our Russian ‘bratán’ that we’ve been in communications with. she’s just another pawn, like Jensen. though she’s unaware of the voice comms we’ve been receiving. as it turns out Keitner is the lieutenant of the Belltower sector situated within Rifleman Bank Station. overseeing day-to-day operations and the more lax front-facing side of Belltowers exterior. while Burke retains utter control of the top-secret detention center.. much to Keitner’s frustration. the stormy skybox outside isn’t the only thing that’s brewing. the tension within the station can be felt in every breath. Burke’s hotheadedness and Keitner’s crummy attitude leaves everyone walking on eggshells. but it’s a relief to know that a part of her demeanor is just a front. she’s able to confide in Jensen what’s actually going on. a few months earlier, an agent with Interpol (ICPO-INTERPOL – the International Criminal Police Organization) came in contact with her about a black project going on within the station. on Burke’s side of affairs. as you’ll see in game, the detention center is filled with a bunch of civilians which seem to disappear just as quickly as they appear. often marked as M.I.A., or deceased. as you’ll soon see in-game, the detention center is simply a prison. a command watchtower sits in the middle with cells encasing the perimeter. prisoners (or ‘terrorists’, you can hear the guards argue back ) call out from behind tempered glass. desperate to escape. DX:HR has a tricky time in showing the severity that the world finds itself in. with it’s small and cramped hub world, and NPCs with the personalities of cardboard, there’s never any chaos to match the panic. it tries, but falls flat. Rifleman Bank Station is the games best showing at this. it’s clear that the people caged up aren’t really terrorists. Burke and his team are. dozens of them trapped against their own will. neither Keitner nor the greater public knows what they’re doing here.. or the whereabouts of past detainees. and even if they did escape, where would they go? compared to the stilted commotion back in Detroit, or Hengsha.. or Montréal, Jensen’s decisions lead to an actionable doom for the entire station. it’s the most dire of tightropes. one that only Jensen can walk. she pulls out a.. bioscan.. telemetric-doodad.. thingamajig.. changing our biometrics to that of a ‘Corporal Alan Tyler’ (which is like the funniest thing in the whole game) so we can bypass security checkpoints. aaand that’s that. before leaving she gives us the option to visit a minor contractor below the loading bay sector, to fulfill our ‘procurement’ needs. a contact of a contact.. his name’s Quinn.

Garvin Quinn is the stations engineer, and makeshift quartermaster. an Irishman, he’s got a quick tongue. even now as inch deeper into unknown territory, he has an ability to ease the tension in the room. just a bit. he’s on the same odd end of the stick that Jensen is (not a euphemism). his duties require him to be upstanding, but with an underground dealings in weaponry, he puts himself in a risky spot. it seems his connection with Keitner was established after his secondary market had been found out. bribing her with ‘info’ and allying. his corridor acts like the games safe zone. but it’s silent about it. there’s two ways in and out, both free of surveillance. it’s like hiding beneath the floorboards. enemies encroaching above.. through an airshaft ventilation, or an elevator. both being a bleak affair. going down gives you time to breathe.. to think on the events that’d transpired. but the ride up is the same dooming feeling you get before leaving home for class on a caliginous first day. staring out at the sea’s vanishing point. all muddled.. gray.. it’s a neat atmosphere to double-wield. feeling safe but also uneasy. Quinn keeps to himself, never really dishing too much about Rifleman Bank Station but giving just to enough to know he’s keen on the goings-on. he too is augmented. a cylindrical cutout encases the front of his face, kinda looking like a top down view of a PS1. nuts ‘n bolts complimenting his widow’s peak. he’s slick. i know sometimes they bear a character’s likeness on outside sources (or ever so rarely their VA), and even though it’s kinda true here, he contrasts nicely with all of the other augs. they’re like snowflakes. no two are alike. that is, unless you’re a nameless NPC and your model’s copy pasted all throughout the hub world.. ultimately his use boils down to being a merchant. a spot where you can resupply on goods. he’a handy, good with gear, and someone Jensen can almost find himself confiding in. on a weird side-note; Quinn gives you a side-quest looking for spare parts to build a grenade launcher. the 329-Series MPRS to be exact. the same rocket launcher you can find everywhere else.. in the.. game. it’s a really redundant quest that you promptly forget about upon leaving his shop. until you find the scope (the most accessible of the three parts) and promptly forget about it again. nothing ever comes of it, which’s kind of a let down. you don’t see much of Quinn at all after the initial meet and greet. guess he works in the shadows.

the detention center and interrogation room by extension are dreary affairs. not a single vantage point facing outwards into the abyss we call an ocean. it’s probably for the best though. maybe it’d give everyone motion sickness. a mess of air ducts, shafts, and crawl spaces intertwine this sector of the station. yes the game has an over reliance on vents. that we can agree on. since DX:HRTML is one environment, it gave focus to fleshing it out. giving it maneuverability. it’s especially noticeable when you zoom out, taking in it’s smaller square footage. there’s a lot of secret passageways. the skeletons of former work crews in the form of abandoned gear. emergency ladders and an elevator shaft built with the circumference of real people. rather than a cramped hub world only fit for an inhumanly svelte Jensen. it’s excessive use is justified here.. somewhat. some routes are still hella cheese though. a lot of it is hiding in plain sight. most of the game wouldn’t have gone so smoothly if the guards were just slightly less daft and actually spotted Jensen.. y’know.. doing their job.. the detention wing is made up of seemingly tens of dozens of tiers. though we’re only able to access the up to the 3rd most floor. it’s made up of restless detainees. crying for rescue. exclaiming that they aren’t terrorists. their wishes answered somewhat indirectly. on polar ends of the room are entrances in and out, with a security checkpoint built-in. beyond the furthermost checkpoint is the fabled interrogation wing. a sector i wasn’t prepared for.

it’s a corridor straight outta a horror game. i almost expected a boss chase.. or insane war to be wagered. it feels like we’ve been transported straight into the Death Star. the floor glows a searing red hue and nearly all overhead lights are cast the same. just much more dimly.. rooms sect parallel down the hall. those tell-all two-way mirrors house space for the interrogators and interrogated. the space’s null and void. luckily no interrogations are being conducted at the time of our arrival. the glass arrays on the floor (where the red glow’s coming from) houses more rooms. these ones more grim than the observation rooms. a body can be found slumped over in a chair. actually, all the rooms below have the same chairs. these cells are more worse off than the ones we saw in the detention room. just a chair.. least the other ones had a toilet.. and toiletries. that floor’s actually accessible. the corridor we’re in leads down into that level. the locale directory lists that level as housing; the Archives ⬇, Storage rooms ⬇, Examination Rooms ⬇, and.. Morgue ⬇ o ~0; should be mentioned; a new vessel of storytelling only found within the DLC (to my knowledge) are these audio log devices. basically pocket secretaries, just audible. though i’ll be honest i didn’t listen to them until it was necessary for this write-up.. whoop.. a recording can be heard between a “Gary” and a “Tiffany”, regarding those detained and their relation to a ‘Hydra Project’. she’s clearly distressed, and even namedrops Burke. saying they should have steered clear of him. “those poor women”. it’s enough to give us a clear image of Burke’s villainy. pocket secretaries, guards, and audio logs all elude to what he’s doing here. illegally detaining (yeesh, i’ve said this word like.. a hundred times) people all over the world for some.. purpose. in fact, we don’t even need pocket secretaries, guards, and audio logs to glean information from u_u on the first cell to the left is a living participant, a ‘Nina Sullivan’.

we’re pulled into conversation with her. Nina’s a college student from Canada who was kidnapped whilst on a trip to Cape Town, South Africa. which i guess is a real place. i hadn’t heard of it before now. scary.. erh-.. her situation, not the place. bet it’s beautiful 𖦹 .𖦹 she mistakes Jensen for a guard. exclaiming she just wants this to end. she’s been specifically picked for further examination, eluding to being a good candidate. a perfect match for whatever the hell Burke and his crew of scientists are working on. poked.. and prodded.. her genes tested on, unwillingly. she makes mention of the “participants” who never come back. afraid they’ve been transported somewhere else. or worse. Nina’s an odd fragment of the game. Jensen at the end of the conversation warns her that he can’t save her just yet. and i mean he’s right, for her sake. if she just waltzed right out there.. i’m sure you get the picture. but we don’t ever find closure with her plot-point. which is weird considering how she takes precedence of this rattling sector. she simply disappears on our return trip. no explanation. it’s actually haunting thinking that maybe they took her elsewhere in between the time since we last saw her. but that’s it. it’s hard to explain why i feel this way without getting ahead of myself. cause of choices we make later in the ending, altering the course of the timeline, she can be saved (?) but that decision – and by extension, the spot she’s been relocated to – are really out of the way. especially in respect to the first play-through. the play-through i consider to be the most canonical, yano. places you’re not privy to until you’re given a second go at them. it’s not a complaint since it shows the true doom that the prisoners are in. when Jensen leaves her, warning her to stay put, she lashes out in desperation. threatening to tell Burke and the guard if he doesn’t free her. juxtaposed to the tentative back and forth we’d had just seconds ago. and on our return trip back – she’s gone. it sends sharp chills down your spine. making ya think.. what could’ve been.. maybe we should’ve let her free when he had the chance. but we don’t have the chance to (only indirectly.. like i mentioned before). ultimately left to dwell in the pyrrhic victory. it’s slightly in contrast to Deus Ex’s maxim of ‘freedom of any possible solutions’, or whatever.. she just goes the way of the wind. sigh.. shit hits the fan real quick though leaving you with marks of sudden whiplash; Burke’s in the next room over. the Morgue.

Burke’s questioning the two doctors in regards to the increasing die-off of the detainees. those being used a for a project they often refer to as the “OCM”.. both Savage and Kavanaugh are flustered about different aspects. Savage, of the failure of the participants. and Kavanaugh, of the moral implications of what they’re doing. their willingness, or lack thereof, is now abundantly clear. and on this point Burke hits her with; “and are you volunteering yourself, Doctor?” to both their chagrins. which is also where the mention of their office romance comes from. he’s willing to break any moral code in pursuit of results. favorable.. results. even sinking low enough to use one of the head researchers of the project. the two step into an elevator into the unknown, which seems to be controlled by Burke’s retinal prosthesis augment. lastly; there’s mention of [Megan] Reed. for the purposes of this write-up, she’s not important. but she is to the game at large. she’s Jensen’s lost.. love.. woman.. lady.. you get the picture. what ensues is his efforts in tracking her down and rescuing her. which is what led him here.. oh, whoops.. i said that was [REDACTED], didn’t i..? crap. whatever. the mere mention of her gives Jensen enough warewithal to finish what he started. if only he could chat with Kavanaugh.. but we can’t access the elevator without Burke.. the guy we’re hiding from. deu(x) crap. Keitner comes in through comms. turns out there’s a convenient backup eye in Burke’s office. well, neat. that’s convenient. did i already say it’s convenient?

i read that some considered unfavorably. that it’s too fetch quest-y. too linear for a Deus Ex game. i think the open sandbox that is Rifleman Bank Station is fun. it’s not tedious enough to gain the title of ‘fetch quest’. rerouting back through the station is more difficult than the first time around. more guards to face and encounters that are way too close for comfort. i do think the fact Burke’s just got a retinal prosthesis sitting on his desk is a bit.. nyeah.. his personal quarters are a bit of a mess. concept art shows it was intended to be this way. rather.. avant-garde.. it’s clearly meant to reflect a state of mind. things aren’t stacking up in his favor and Jensen washing up is just the cherry on top. retrieving the prosthesis (after accessing Burke’s secret stash, of course) and returning back to the morgue sector, we can dupe his retinal recognition measure, initiating the elevator. it’s trajectory.. below. if my calculations are correct, this would take us deep underwater.. the station’s sprawling. especially when considering the seemingly multi-story length tiers of the detention bay. but like a nitwit i hadn’t even considered the amity of the ocean. i’m really into cataloguing elevators in video games (an end year write-up you can jot down in your calendars) and Deus Ex may have some of my favorites. *link spoiler warning-ish* the stations underwater labs slowly form into view through the dense and murky waters. little clawed submarine forklift hybrids float on by. seemingly unaware of our impending arrival. though, since we’re still disguised as ‘Corporal Alan Tyler’ it checks out. aside from awe, the idea of further eluding Burke is nerve-racking. we’re still on his turf. his domain.. his rules.. (҂⌣̀⌣́)

on one hand it’s relieving to learn that the labs are limited to just one room. and Burke’s nowhere in sight. but on the other; there was less to explore than i thought. it seemed sprawling from within the elevator. the foreground phasing away, out of view. i mean it’s probably still extensive. but it’s relegated to a singular spot. it’s not even a hindrance considering how the game swells in in the ‘autotelic’ (i just learned this word..) aesthetics that insanely resonated with me. it’s this sort of climaxing moodiness that Deus Ex games are only capable of pinning down. i rather like it.. it also comes with increased stakes. as soon as you descend into the Mariana Trench level laboratory (la-bore-a-toooor-e), you’ll be forced to try and compartmentalize your emotions. there are those women.. erh, ‘test subjects’ i mean.. pinned to examination tables. they don these Deus Ex-ian outfits, begging Jensen just to put them out of their misery. the music swelters.. their cryptic calls for help. you can’t help but feel crummy for their predicament. Dr. Kavanaugh’s unaware of your arrival as she facilitates more experimentations at the behest of Burke and Savage. luckily both are nowhere to be found. in confronting her.. you kind of thrust her into a weird spot. where she has to explain both sides to just what she’s doing. despite her refusal, she still partakes in the understanding and research aspect of whatever sick.. twisted.. crap is going on here (see below image). but; she’s willing to turn whistleblower. providing evidence to Interpol, exposing Burke’s participation. rather useful considering there’s an Interpol agent out and about here.. just wonder who.. (o`_’o) doesn’t mean we’re home free, though. Burke’s got the submersibles on lockdown, and seeing how we’re in the middle of FREAKIN’ NOWHERE; she can’t just leave. she’s expendable enough for Burke to see her contract as nulled. religating her to whatever fate houses the women on these tables.. we’ve got to enact a way for her to escape. preferably unscathed.

a wise man once merged man with machine. together, for the betterment of mankind. this man was JC Denton. why do i bring this up? not too dissimilar to this event is the OCM (Organic Computational Matrix) project. just much more.. grim. i’ll skip the spiel about p-dot clusters and mutagenic-gene-whatchamacallits.. and all that science.. crap. as it’s not pertinent. we already know about the guise cast by Burke and his team, regarding the “”detainees”” and how they’re experimented on involuntarily. treated like expendable lab-rats. results are showing a less-than negligible markup with many subjects being outright terminated. basically; they’re tryna build a supercomputer out of humans. females, to be exact.. darn these bastards to hell.. Kavanaugh’s research shows they all-too-frequently ‘fry’, burning up inside. causing catastrophic systems-wide failure. and being useless to their endeavors, Burke leaves them to writhe in pain. haphazardly cross-wired between themselves and an array of computers. still conscious privy to the pain.. i hear some of you think; “now that’s unethical..” true.. which is why Burke chooses to enact a ‘code red’. alarms start blaring as the elevator we had just rode comes to a screeching halt. our comms with Keitner become garbled. and they begin to cut in and out.. but in the mesh of words, it’s obvious it’s not Keitner on the other end. or our comms have been intercepted. a voice completely foreign to hers can be heard cutting through, accenting her desperate plea for Jensen to escape. luckily the elevator shaft came prepped with emergency exits. a vent leads up into a crawlspace just above the morgue, allowing us to re-enter and narrowly avoid the soldiers stationed to ambush us. is.. liek.. role reversal.. we so stealth.. it’s funny, i learned through the speedrun route that you can actually be as loud as you’d like without the guards spotting you. i find scripted moments like these to be neat. the fears they forcefully inject into you by way of “alert! alert!” blaring. you wouldn’t dare run, risking alerting the guards. so you play it slow, on the edge of your seat. neat.. duno. our path back to the detention center marks the last time we trek through the searing red hue of the interrogation wing.. aaand another scan..

when, *wham* straight into a cutscene with Jensen juxtaposed to a dying Keitner. unexpected and out of nowhere, the last we saw of her.. she’d been laying low. her random appearance this deep within Burke’s sector, paired with the strange voice that had emanated through her side of communications.. something feels off. there’s something sporadic, and inconsistent about her. she feels.. like a pawn. which is basically confirmed, only indirectly. she’s the one who clues us in to Burke’s “code red”. scorched Earth.. clearing house. even someone like Keitner – with administrator privileges who ranks highly – is on his list. he’s literally clearin’ the place out.. our problems only get worse when it turns out he also enabled a controlled gas meant to take out the last of the stragglers. Keitner lets out a final “mh.. hngh-.. duh!” giving us a classic Deus Ex ultimatum just before keeling over. you’re given 3 options;

through the control center you can redistribute the gas to the detainees, saving Kavanaugh. “her going whistleblower would be good for exposing Burke to Interpol.. though it throws an enormous morality wrench into everything. the detainees never asked for this. and despite Kavanaugh’s disdain for Burke’s methods of research, she’s still partaking in it. sullying her good graces.” or you could redistribute into the deep-sea labs below, killing Kavanaugh. and our chances at exposing Burke. she was our golden ticket.. – or – you could search (not very far at all) and find the super secret third option.. the centrifugal gas canister housed within the walls of detainment center. utterly detached from the main control center. destroying the canister (which is tough to do on factory zero) stops all gas flow. saving.. well, everyone! w00t w00t. doing so gets you a gleeful ovation from the l33t Russian h4x0r, who’s been listening the whole time. the choices are fair, but anyone with even half a cerebral cortex could’ve found the route to rescue everyone. i mean, i did.. on my first playthrough. out of sheer will for scav-ing every corner.. uh, anyway – you’ll receive comms from the Russian hacker ushering Jensen back to the loading bay to face-off against Burke. it’s time to talk.. about.. *looks at notes* aha.. a Human Revolution boss fight.. my favorite!

Burke’s monologues stand as its sole authentic, boss-like attribute. the only thing in stopping us from [REDACTED], is Burke. and the only thing keeping us from Burke, is another security sally port. but in a quick blindside we’re denied access. Burke chimes in letting us know the ‘Corporal Alan Tyler’ jig is up and he won’t be letting us slip through his fingers, (once again). Keitner’s dead. Kavanaugh too (in high likelihood) and Quinn – our only other in – falls through. he calls us just to say “thanks for everything” and that he’s flying the coop. abandoning ship. depending on how you go about dealing with the internees, Kavanaugh, and an early QTE event, he’ll leave you with a parting gift. and free reign of his shop. tucked (not so secretly) away, beneath crates of explosives and tech doodads is a button unlocking an actual hidden compartment. it feels kind of stupid. with the button being so big and easy to find. it nulls the secrecy of the facade. plus, Quinn’s already an outlier whose every action is met with scrutiny. one wrong move.. in the beasts own personal lair, and wham! all his efforts.. all his planning.. gone. his fugacious stint to turned to a life-sentence. i duno.. just a thought. oh-..? his plans? did i say plans? i-i mean.. i.. eh-.. u-uh.. ho-.. O__O;;;;; welp.. i guess the cat’s out of the bag.. seems i’ll have to explain myself.. the computer sitting on the desk just in front of the button is a ploy. the ditzy email correspondence between him and his mates seeking to set up their next pub outing, and of guards looking for help with odd-jobs around the station, are cute. to say the least. but another computer hidden inside the secret stash room tells a different story. the emails talk cryptically about some augmented fella you’ll recognize as ‘Corporal Adam Tyler’ or, Adam Jensen. his whereabouts, objective status.. even his proposed priviness this deep in. do i have to keep going? it’s revealed at the end, but Quinn is behind the whole le Russian hacker thing. more on that later.. gotta tackle this boss fight first.

i don’t think any of the Deus Ex games had that great of boss battles. that said, the ones in the original were good. they had a weird, moody penultimance to them. they were never like an enclosed chore of punishes and waves.. if you wanted to you could stomp ’em out within the millisecond you see them. the faceoff against Maggie Chow was a boss fight was boss in the literal sense, though i remember making quick work of her. but some like Gunther, and ones even later by the end took serious levels of elbow grease. it’s almost like they don’t count for the purposes of this write-up. the two aren’t even in the same world as each other. i’m also not Mr. Authority on Deus Ex.. i’ve gotta play through like.. 9 times over again before i feel comfortable talking about it. Human Revolution’s on the other hand, are glaring. they were definitely made with the original games soul essence. just nix Burke’s battle. at first it’s setup to be a hell of a showdown. guards are geared up in spots that had originally saw no activity. you have to re-orientate yourself, fumbling through air-ducts and cover-ways you could’ve sworn led you to your escape.. not of the bathrooms.. for the third time. and paired with Quinn’s phone call reinforcing his total:scorched:Earth protocol. Burke’s gaze is searing. his taunting is backed up by a severe snarl. he has us outnumbered in a place made up of his own elaborate ordinance. fighting in his domain, his dojo (more accurately a sally port). this one falls short of being awe-inspiring. something even the base-game got right. i like the aesthetics of the game. the look of the DLC feels right at home with the rest of the game. but it does lack flair. the game thrusts you straight into a fight. snipers take aim on the overhead conveyor belts, and a 80-X Boxguard unfurls in the middle of the room. near inches from our face.. for us factory zero/pacifist/foxiest of hounds achievement hunters, it’s a manual reload nightmare. it encourages you to go in guns slinging. if you’re quick enough you can take cover behind the rails. it’s not impossible.. just the fact it’s so suddenly jeopardized is not very Deus Ex-ian. and so on. no matter how you choose to take him on, Burke will stand idle in his office. with his pistol drawn, of course.. look! here’s a photo of me behind him. he’s got no idea.. hurhurhurh.

and that’s.. it. i mean basically. the game forces you to take down all the goons. no matter how you choose to navigate the hangar. stealthily, or not. erasing the rush of ninja-ing by everyone. it’s even dissatisfying engaging them with guns. the layout around the room is extremely symmetrical. hurdles parallel each other the whole way down. all the while Burke remains static. he’s just standing there.. not very menacingly. it’s Burke’s boss fight but his instincts (or lack-thereof) render him the easiest obstacle out of everyone there! it’s insanity O_o;;;;; it’s not all that long, and it’s not all that difficult. thankfully you can choose how to take Burke out with free choice of your armory. it sounds silly to say, but this fact alone makes it better than any of the base games since all of those culminated into a cutscene, barring your choices from being anything meaningful. this becomes a double-edged sword. the game doesn’t know how to react to this change. the guards remain unaware of Burkes death. even ones scouting the adjacent hangers back behind us. the lack off comms doesn’t seem to phase them.. even the 80-X guard disintegrates on Burke’s takedown. eh.. i mean, i’m not complaining. those things are total pains in the ass to deal with.. but Deus Ex: Human Revolution – The Missing Link, more like.. Deus Ex: Machina.. Link.. hurhurhurh.. reminder; we’re in the most rigorous, top security lockdown in the western Pacific. how come everything in its vicinity dissipates at its most crucial moments? they need to do some staff restructuring after this..

for all these blips in the DLC’s cohesion.. i still like it a lot. the detective work is fun.. unfurling an oddly strung web in Belltowers cogs. adrenaline searing as you infiltrate the detention center, cargo bays, and even an underwater lab. Jensen runs circles over Burke. foiling his villainy, but at what cost..? the choice is almost too high stakes, too on the nose for it be all that deep – but it’s still a choice nonetheless. your heart’s sonar system sends out doleful pangs with each every choice and lapse in futility.. saving Kavanaugh, or the prisoners (or both). the lackluster boss fight is whatever – with the mission being carried by its atmosphere, layout, and sturdy array of characters characters. it’s only like 36% anticlimactic. and speaking of characters.. i hope you’re sitting down, because what i say might cause an epileptic episode.. you’re sitting? good. the Russian hacker.. it was Quinn.. all along.. the whole time.. *gasp* he conducts an arrangement between himself and Jensen for discussing their next steps. lurking in the shadows of the sally port, is Quinn. though not ‘Quinn’ himself per-say. in his Russian voice he says that Quinn met with a horrible fate and will be M.I.A. the persona of “Garvin Quinn” seems to have died while making an effort to escape. his real name is unknown. adopting a fully Russian accent. the reveal came earlier inside the elevator, but i’ll admit to dropping a “ohmagah” upon putting two and two together. it’s so bite sized.. i wish he could’ve been a piece of the base game. i’d trade anyone for some more time with him.

anyway, this is his only appearance. and outside of a reference found in the games successor, Mankind Divided (and possibly a mention in the books, but i don’t know what’s the be-all and end-all of canonicity there) his story is left untold. for him to be relegated to this one-off DLC is a damn shame (҂⌣̀⌣́) he spills the beans on what’s going on here, his ties to Interpol, and relationship to Keitner.. all the while keeping his lips sealed on his true identity. yadda-yadda. Jensen’s still hell bound on locating what he originally came here for. yano, [REDACTED]... *in Burke’s voice* “MaEgaN”. luckily Quinn was able to intercede comms from a nearby boat with space for one more cryo-pod, guaranteeing a spot for Jensen and tying the DLC together in a full circle. him enclosed in another pod.. hopefully he reaches his intended destination this time around. this prompts him to say “it better be the right fucking boat this time”, to which Quinn rebukes in his faux-Irish accent “don’t worry mate, it’ll be grand.. besides, i thought you Americans liked riding off into the sunset?” a quote i still don’t really get.. the camera pans upwards signaling the start of the end for Jensen. but that’s.. not the end of the DLC. a brief post game cutscene plays wherein we can see Jensen hitching an airlift to the boat, before a conversation between Quinn and a ‘Janus‘ juts in. Janus.. but pronounced like.. JAY-nus.. like.. J + anus.. i’ve never heard it this way.. and paired with his ugly mug (o Д O ; ) i’m left seriously stumped and confused to who the hell this guy is. he’s newly integrated to the series through this game and those subsequent, with ties to the Juggernaut Collective. who are enemies of the Illuminati (Mankind Divided ball knowledge.. stuff i know nothing about). so he’s a big deal. his voice has the same vocal filter and cadence as the Russian hacker. a detail which i’m 999.9% sure is meant to be noticed. so.. stay with me here.. i think Janus might’ve been the hacker guiding Jensen all along. with Quinn working subservient to him. Janus is described as an adept hacker. his role in the aforementioned collective puts him on a high pedestal. his motives are cryptic, as is his entire conversation with Quinn. they elude that everything was pre-planned, “exactly as [Janus] instructed.” they’re keened into Jensen’s innerworkings with him acting as a pawn in their story. possibly for the ensuing events of the base game. aka World War Augment.. and on that note.. you’ve seen Deus Ex: Human Revolution – The Missing Link through to the end.

the game would’ve been harder to understand if it hadn’t been interwoven into the base game through the Director’s Cut. it highlighted the Hyron Project in a better way. but i’m kind of dim, so all that hushed secret Illuminati talk just goes over my head. it works as a great appetizer for the events of the games end. filling in a spot of the game with plausible shenanigans and leaving no trace of tampered cohesion. it’s linear in the sense of a mission funneling you where you need to go (i.e. back in lockup) but it’s not always the case. Rifleman Bank makes for a fun new locale to scavenge. it feels larger on that first playthrough. probably not so much your second time through.. or your third.. or fourth.. there’s always a chance you gut the thing you love in the process of engaging with it but i say this one passes the test.. even after like 5 times through. though the Burke fight really blows. in our last chat with Quinn, Jensen asks him what he’ll do with Burke. i don’t remember his response for if you take him down lethally.. something something ‘he’s out of the picture, for good’ while taking him out passively gets you a; “i’ll find a more permanent solution once you’re gone.” from Quinn. like, verbatim. Burke’s guards still think he’s alive. so they take order like he his. in the time Quinn and J-man have been talking the base has been operating on code red. they should probably check on Burke.. but, oh.. right; Janus – or.. i mean, Quinn (?) – can send out fake comms using a computation matrix cross-connecting voice synthesizer. or something. i think it’s dumb. what happens if Burke wakes up? or the guards waltz in on our little rendezvous? or is this whole place superseded by Janus? i guess Quinns woes could’ve been part of the ploy.. ironically the devs went too far in re-adjusting course for future boss fights (possibly after how poorly people took to the games first handful) finally one that lets you dictate the fate of your enemies outcome.. just for the outcome to null any reason to care.. while we don’t spend much time with Keitner (or Quinn for that matter) that doesn’t make her death any less tragic. being humbled at the start and losing core gear, as well as augs and weapons, was a nice touch for the end game. it’s neither grueling nor is it easy mode. the parallels it shares to the original DX’s story maaaay be doing a lot of heavy lifting.. some of Human Revolution’s best traits are ripped straight from the first game, meaning this write-up may be biased to some extent; o well. my fun meter almost broke the scale just about here (and in the subsequent end game). hopefully this shone through in the write-up without me having to write about the rest of the game. that’s an endeavor for another day.. thank you for reading.

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