Deus Ex : Mr. Manderley and me

a photo album

Colin Fahey

Introduction

I recently joined UNATCO, an elite police force with international jurisdiction. They gave me dark glasses and a black trench coat, and everyone greeted me as "Agent". But the best part was discovering that my boss, Mr. Manderley, was a man who loved to party. This is a photo album of a wild 48 hours circling the globe, getting drunk, getting high, seducing gorgeous women, and destroying civilization.

I remember arriving at Liberty Island, the location of UNATCO HQ, as vividly as if I had arrived yesterday... In fact, I arrived yesterday.

My brother, Paul!

I arrived 30 seconds ago, and UNATCO is making me do work! :-(

The government alleges that terrorists made liberty lose her head.

I admired myself in a mirror in the basement of the statue. I almost forgot why I was there, but then I saw my imprisoned colleague, Gunther Hermann, behind me.

I rescued Gunther Hermann.

I arrested this guy.

UNATCO HQ!

Mr. Manderley's office door

My brother, Paul Denton! And...

Mr. Manderley! 1250 credits! Thanks, boss!

I filled Mr. Manderley's office with things I stole from all other offices at UNATCO.

"Grow up, JC." LOL!

Agent Anna Navarre is totally hot!

Later that day, I encountered Agent Anna Navarre, who was eager to kill Lebedev aboard a parked 747 jet aircraft. But she couldn't get past a metal crate I put in the doorway. Oops! :-) Lebedev was rescued, and I returned to UNATCO without incident.

I visited the 'Ton in Hell's Kitchen, and met Jo Jo Fine ... ... and another Jo Jo Fine, merged in to one entity! Whoa! That's mo' Jo!

I met the Rentons, who own a hotel named 'Ton. Nice people.

I went with the Rentons to the Underworld Tavern, a local tavern, for a few beers.

The Rentons had too much to drink. Wow, what a bartender!

Later that evening I tranquilized everyone in the 20th Street Warehouse so I could broadcast a message to the NSF.

There's the transmitter.

After transmitting the message, Walton Simons, director of FEMA, sent a recorded note to me saying that I was a "big mistake" and that he had activated my killswitch. Damn it! That guy is a pill!

I rode the subway, and evaded capture by Agent Navarre and Gunther Hermann at the Battery Park subway station. ( Gunther Hermann appears directly underneath Jock's helicopter in this picture. )

I walked to Castle Clinton to hide, but it was gone! Totally gone! Wow! It was there 2 hours ago!

I went to Jock's helicopter. He was so suprised to see me that he did not invite me to board the helicopter. :-(

The next thing I knew, I was sobering up in jail, holding a basketball...

...and a hot chick! Thanks, UNATCO!

I'm surprised they didn't take my crate of TNT.

A UNATCO security guard wanted me to challenge his authority. I escaped from my detention cell, thanks to someone named "Daedalus". ( Daedalus was the legendary builder of the Cretan labyrinth. Daedalus made wings to enable himself and his son, Icarus, to escape imprisonment. )

"You Dentons sure hung us out to dry." I interpret this to mean that Mr. Manderley wants to go with me to Hong Kong to get drunk!

Jock flew us both to Hong Kong. Mr. Manderley rested on a railing near the canal.

Mr. Manderley loves Hong Kong at night.

Whoa!

Mr. Manderley made a trip to the bathroom at the Lucky Money nightclub with several girls... For several hours... Lucky Money, indeed!

Later, I found him unconscious at the bar. I decided to drink, also.

I put Mr. Manderley in the freezer to chill.

Lights off, Mr. Manderley!

Later, I went to check his status, and he was gone. After some asking around I learned that he hooked up with some woman named Maggie Chow. I found them in bed.

Mr. Manderley and Maggie Chow showered together, fully dressed. The culture of Hong Kong is crazy!

Mr. Manderley and Maggie Chow crashed out at Jock's apartment.

We must return to Tracer Tong's place, fast... There's no time to wait for the elevator...

I threw Ms. Chow out the window. She's unconscious, so the fall won't hurt her.

Happy landing, Ms. Chow!

I carried Mr. Manderley to the ground floor, and I found Ms. Chow there, waiting for us.

Luminous Path member : "Maggie Chow... the most beautiful woman, yet capable of great ugliness." Uh... Don't look behind you, mister!

I put Mr. Manderley and Maggie Chow in separate medical beds in Tracer Tong's headquarters.

When Mr. Manderley wakes up... Hey! It's Jaime Reyes, my doctor!

Mr. Manderley wants to surprise Alex Jacobson, the 1337 computer hacker dude.

Who is it, Alex?

That's correct , bziach! It's your former boss, Mr. Manderley!

Alex and Mr. Manderley.

The three of us! Damn, dude! This is totally awesome!

Mr. Manderley wandered to a nearby temple to inhale "sacred smoke".

"Hook me up with the Buddha, monk!" Mr. Manderley likes to get "enlightened" at least once each day.

Later I visited Max Chen at his Lucky Money nightclub. I dumped Maggie Chow, and the Dragon's Tooth sword, on his desk.

"I found something in Miss Chow's apartment that might interest you." ( ... namely, Miss Chow, and the Dragon's Tooth sword! )

Max Chen: "No, you must be mistaken." Max, baby! Work with me here! Examine your desk! Ms. Chow ... Dragon's Tooth sword ...

I explained the facts in a way that his Buddha loving brain could understand.

We all went to the temple to become "enlightened".

Gordon Quick was interested in drinking alcohol.

I will see you guys later!

I wanted Mr. Manderley and Miss Chow to be with me when my killswitch was turned off.

Ha, ha! The sparks tickle! I told you guys it would be cool!

Miss Chow urged me to take her to a local nightclub named the "Universal Constructor" (UC). That is a strange name for a nightclub! When we got there, she made it explode, and watched the pretty sparks, and became unconscious due to excessive excitement.

We returned to New York... Mr. Manderley crashed at my brother's apartment at the 'Ton.

I know this apartment is beneath your standards, Mr. Manderley, but Walton Simons cancelled my UNATCO credit card ... ...as if activating my killswitch weren't enough! Damn it!

I set up an impenetrable mass of trash cans to anticipate Stanton Dowd's arrival at the destroyed foundation of Osgood & Sons.

I'll be damned! Stanton Dowd, surrounded by trashcans!

Mr. Manderley met Stanton Dowd in the Dowd family crypt. That is really perverse.

Dude! Dowd walked past Mr. Manderley, former director of UNATCO, without even saying "hello"! I guess being in one's own family crypt is somewhat distracting!

Finally! I got them to reluctantly pose for a photograph.

Jock gave us a helicopter ride to a rooftop in Paris. Mr. Manderley told me French girls can't get enough American "l'amour"! I downloaded the section of the UNATCO database of French culture pertaining to "partying and nightlife" directly in to my cybernetic implants.

Mr. Manderley consumed too many bottles of "vin" and became unconscious. For laughs, I carried him to the Catacombs and arranged skulls and bones around him. ☠

When he wakes up, he will be frightened out of his mind! Ha, ha! Damn, dude! ☺

Later, some narcotic merchants convinced Mr. Manderley to try nuclear gamma ray radiation. ☢ French people invented radioactivity, and Mr. Manderley was eager to indulge in this high-energy delight. After some negotiating, and a money transfer, Mr. Manderley was on top of a crate of Plutonium, basking in its glorious invisible rays!

Mr. Manderley, riding the Plutonium horse! Mr. Manderley told me later that he could "see infinity" and that he had become "quantum entangled with eleven dimensions of pure ecstasy"!

Later, I decided to consume narcotics, too. I went to a Paris nightclub named "La Porte de l'Enfer" (The Door to Hell). I was messed up.

Mr. Manderley was there, too!

Whoa! Totally awesome! There are eight of us!

Hey! It's that girl from the Lucky Money nightclub!

Remember me?! I paid to get you in to the Lucky Money!

Meanwhile, Mr. Manderley seduced Ms. Beth DuClaire.

Mr. Manderley convinced Ms. DuClaire to go with us in Jock's helicopter. "If the helicopter is a rockin', don't come a knockin'!" Seriously, though... Ms. DuClaire, and Mr. Manderley, had crazy sexual intercourse in the back of the helicopter cargo area.

After the high altitude (and low radar signature) romantic experience, Mr. Manderley said he wanted to marry Ms. DuClaire at the Knights Templar Cathedral. I didn't believe him, but there we were.

In the cathedral, Mr. Manderley found a new kind of radiation in which to bask and bake.

Incredible! It's Agent Gunther Hermann!

Agent Gunther Hermann also became intoxicated by the intense radiation.

Gunther became unconscious briefly...

... But then Gunther and Mr. Manderley became, uh, "married" by a computer with software for a virtual priest!

... "to have and to hold" ... ... "for more credits or less" ... ... "in malfunction and in nominal system status" ...

If I didn't take a picture, nobody would ever believe me! Nobody ! Ever !

After paying a few credits to the virtual church for a cybernetic marriage annulment, and dropping off Ms. DuClaire, Mr. Manderley and I met Alex at Morgan Everett's mansion.

"Alex, connect me to the computer "narcotics", brother!" "I want to get dizzy, dazed, and confused, digital style, my man!" Once again, Mr. Manderley was exploring new dimensions.

Mr. Manderley, mentally and physically adrift in an aquarium!

Are you trying to get us kicked out of Everett's house?! We've only been here two minutes!

"Water, J.C.!" "Delightful water, all around us." "Think about it..."

"I feel at home here, J.C., floating through this space, through this liquid tranquility."

Mr. Manderley visited Lucius DeBeers, the defunct leader of the Illuminati, whose frail body is kept close to freezing until science can give him a new body. DeBeers talks really slowly, and Mr. Manderley fell asleep due to intense boredom.

OK. Stay here and chill. I'm going to the Vandenberg Command Center!

I went to the Vandenberg Command Center...but then I saw a shadowy figure...

The mysterious entity drifted by...

I turned on a light, and... It was Mr. Manderley!

"Yes, J.C., it's me!" "I now have the power of flight, thanks to all of the radiation I have absorbed recently!"

"Now I must fly onward, J.C., to my destiny!"

Later, in the entrance hall of the command center, I saw someone resting on a skylight window.

I fired a bullet toward the window, and down fell...Mr. Manderley! What a punk! Get your lazy body over here. We must see Dr. Gary Savage and Sam Carter!

Sam Carter and Mr. Manderley, together again!

Mr. Manderley joined me on a journey to the Vandenberg Gas station to buy cigarettes, and we encountered Sandra Renton!

Sandra Renton with a bunch of hoboes! Girl friend, that is sad!

Mr. Manderley wanted to get wet again, at the submarine base...

"Do you not feel a primordial connection to the ocean, J.C.?" "Oh, wait! You were spawned in a jar in a laboratory." "My bad!"

"Look at me! I am a fish! I am totally swimming, and I am scared of aquatic predators... Scared, but confident, too. Evolution prepared me for this, J.C."

Mr. Manderley swam onward to the Ocean Lab. I found him by traveling in a small submarine.

"I arrived at the undersea facility before you, J.C.! Yes, I did."

Mr. Manderley flopped out of the water and landed on the deck of the submarine room. He pretended to be maladapted to terrestrial locomotion.

Later, Mr. Manderley jumped in to a tank containing Karkians!

Get the hell out of there, Mr. Manderley! Those Karkians are going to eat you!

Oh, no! They ate Mr. Manderley! He is...gone forever!

Then a Greasel started eating Mr. Manderley.

⚠ Uh, oh!

In all the confusion, I decided to kill Mr. Manderley myself, with high voltage. ⚡

Mr. Manderley cannot die!

Hey! It's Walton Simons, director of FEMA! I put many large containers next to a vehicle before descending to the lower part of the undersea base. But, upon my return, the containers seem to be obstructing Mr. Simons. Sorry! We will have to chat at a later time.

Hey, Mr. Manderley! It's Walton Simons! Remember him?!

I think Walton Simons is trying to hurt us, Mr. Manderley!

Ouch! Plasma!

Dr. Gary Savage joined me and Mr. Manderley on the roof of the submarine base, and Jock was waiting for us in the helicopter.

Later, at a nearby missile silo, Mr. Manderley told me and Jock to fly to Area 51. Mr. Manderley lay down on the missile silo doors and took a nap.

Jock and I began our flight to Area 51, but then the missile silo doors opened, and Mr. Manderley fell upon the rising missile! Holy smoke! Mr. Manderley is riding the missile!

Jock and I watched helplessly as Mr. Manderley continued to be carried upward by the missile. If Mr. Manderley survives, he will love this picture!

I arrived at Area 51 and perceived two figures in the shadows of the burning destruction...

It's Mr. Manderley and Walton Simons! Friends again!

How did you survive the blast, guys?!

Mr. Manderley and Walton Simons, best friends forever!

♪♫... so happy together !...♫♪

Please, Mr. Manderley, we must go below ground. Bob Page is hosting a party, and we're late already.

Hey! It's the Man In Black (M.I.B.) who killed my parents!

That M.I.B. is going to pay!

Mr. Manderley swimming in my birthplace: my incubation tank! That is simply wrong, dude! I felt strangely violated, but I took this picture anyway.

Later we encountered a few space aliens. Immediately, they greeted us with radioactive beams.

Mr. Manderley was intrigued by the alien radiation. I tried to accept the intense radiation burst in the spirit in which it was intended, but the fact that I was almost 100 percent killed interfered with my objectivity.

Ugh! Put on some clothes!

Mr. Manderley stayed in the nuclear reactor room while I went to meet our host, Bob Page.

Hey! It's Bob Page! Wow! Bob has changed in some characteristics since I last met him. The tubes connected to his bodily organs, and the energy field...totally new. Very fashionable!

Mr. Manderley! Dude! What a reunion!

Hey! I wouldn't fly too close to Bob, Mr. M.

Dude! You're in his bioelectric field, you freak! Get a room, you two!

He will do anything for a thrill.

A short time later, Mr. Manderley flew over to a console and pushed a button to kill Bob in a huge explosion! This is a crazy party, Bob!

Finally, Mr. Manderley and I met with "Helios", a sentient artificial intelligence. Eager for the ultimate mental journey, Mr. Manderley "merged" with the computer brain, shamelessly, directly in front of my eyes. Thus, the flawless logic of the computer combined with Mr. Manderley's... ( How shall I describe it? ) ... "nonlinear" thinking.

Wow! I won't soon forget the past 48 hours! And I won't forget the good times I had with my friend (and former supervisor), Mr. Manderley! -- J.C. Denton

Notes

Normal game play, and no characters were harmed

Everything shown above occured during normal play of the video game "Deus Ex", without any cheating, modifications, or level editing. Also, Mr. Manderley, Walton Simons, Gunther Hermann, the female in the detention center cell, etc, are all merely unconscious, not dead. In Deus Ex, unconscious people could survive things that would kill conscious people, so I didn't feel unethical throwing Ms. Chow from a sixth storey window, or putting Mr. Manderley on a highly-radioactive crate, underwater, on an electrified rail, in a nuclear reactor with radiation-projecting aliens, in a meat freezer, in a bioelectric field, and in front of a "Greasel" to be partially eaten.

Object-oriented world

Deus Ex is an extraordinary video game because it allows the player to use objects with unprecedented freedom. Also, the various body augmentations are just enough to allow a focused player to go beyond the intended parameters of the game plot. The object oriented nature of the game, and the almost excessive abilities made possible by the "augmentations", made the game enjoyable to play multiple times. The sophisticated logic controlling the behavior of the characters and objects adapts well to diverse scenarios, making the experience realistic and fun. There are subtle flaws in the behavior of the characters, and there are ways to go beyond the intended limits of the game. However, those flaws are difficult to discover, and those flaws are difficult to exploit. If the flaws and holes were numerous, obvious, and easy to exploit or explore, then the pleasing sense of reality of the game would be lost. Deus Ex has very few flaws and holes, and those flaws and holes are very difficult to discover, explore, and exploit.

Main factors which enabled this story

The first crucial ability which made telling much of the story possible is the ability to carry any unconscious person to any location. The second crucial ability which made telling much of the story possible is the ability to carry a solitary person, and then board Jock's helicopter, and then arrive at a destination with the solitary person still in one's arms. This ability enabled me to carry Mr. Manderley from city to city all the way to the end of the entire game. A third crucial ability which made telling much of the story possible is the ability to lift crates, carry crates, stack crates, and climb on top of them. A fourth ability which enabled me to add a lot of nice touches to the story was the ability to lift objects, carry objects, and drop objects in a predictable manner. Thus, I could arrange a lot of the little objects scattered around the world. For example, I was able to gather lots of office furniture from in UNATCO HQ and cram a lot of it in to Mr. Manderley's office. I was also able to gather a lot of skulls and bones in the Paris Catacombs and arrange them around Mr. Manderley. The control when dropping objects is very limited (one basically tosses the object in to the air), but sufficient to achieve a lot. Another strange ability that I discovered was the ability to continue to, upon appearing inside the "Secret MJ12 Facility" detention cell, carry the object (or person) that I was carrying at the time of being captured by UNATCO troops. So, although all other possessions are taken away and put in a vault, the object one is carrying at the time of capture by UNATCO troops remains in one's hands when one materializes in the detention cell. This made a few humorous pictures possible. Most stunts involved tedious planning, stacking metal crates, carrying stuff, etc. Tranquilizing some characters without accidentally killing them was sometimes difficult and time-consuming. For example, Agent Gunther Hermann can sustain a very large amount of damage before becoming unconscious or dead, but using only tranquilizing weapons to actually render Gunther Hermann unconscious takes an impractical amout of time; so, the strategy is to quickly damage him to "within an inch of his life", so to speak, and then use tranquilizers to get him the rest of the way down to unconsciousness. It seems necessary to make a few attempts (i.e., a few accidental killings) before a good sequence of attacks becomes evident. One of the biggest surprises and thrills was seeing Mr. Manderley being carried up by the missile after I put him on the missile silo doors. That was, by far, the luckiest outcome of all the things I tried in the game. When I brought Mr. Manderley to the missile silo, I immediately thought to try to get Mr. Manderley on top of the missile as it launched. The only apparent method was to let him be scraped off of the opening silo doors and fall on the missile. It seemed unlikely to work, but it did! When the missile launch scene began, and I saw Mr. Manderley get snagged on the missile and start to ascend in the air, I laughed with excitement and real satisfaction. That moment was so awesome, and I loved that fact that Deus Ex had just enough physics and object orientation to make it possible. Another surprise and thrill was seeing Mr. Manderley fall from a skylight window (upon which I placed him earlier) after I shot the glass from within the building. Given how the physics engine works in Deus Ex, this experience with the skylight window seems obviously possible and trivial, but subjectively, something about seeing this scenario work really pleased me.

Observations regarding pushing the game plot to the limit I really did reach Jock's helicopter at the time in the game when UNATCO attempts to capture and imprison JC Denton outside the subway station. When I clicked on the helicopter I didn't really expect anything to happen, and nothing happened. I wasn't very disappointed, although I thought it would have been fun if Jock expressed astonishment about my arrival. The game never intended for this scenario to occur, and the game established many extreme obstacles to prevent me from seeing that there was no way to avoid a particular fate. But what makes Deus Ex enjoyable is that most obstacles and constraints in the game are mostly natural consequences of the objects and behaviors in the environment, instead of being imposed in an artificial, supernatural, magical manner. I was able to get past all of the natural obstacles in this scenario, but even then the game didn't seem artificial. I simply succeeded in avoiding arrest indefinitely. There was very little to do in the game in that condition, and eventually I surrendered to agents of UNATCO to continue with the main story of the game, but that was a personal choice, instead of being an event beyond my control. People who are critical to future plot events are physically indestructible and cannot be killed or made unconscious. Also, people who are unconscious can fall from arbitrary heights, and can be hit by bullets, and can be exposed to lethal amounts of radiation and toxic fluid and gas, all without being killed. ( However, the body of an unconscious person can be destroyed by explosions or by animal bites. ) But those facts seem to be the only exceptions to the general realism of the game. I have read comments in Internet discussion forums which claim that it is possible to play the entire game without killing anyone. I successfully made it through the entire game without killing anyone other than Agent Anna Navarre. At a critical plot point I successfully trapped her in the basement of UNATCO using metal crates, and in theory I could make a safe getaway, but the game script simply doesn't allow Alex Jacobson to give JC Denton the key to escape UNATCO unless Agent Navarre is dead. I believe I succeeded in tranquilizing Agent Navarre, but this was not sufficient. I tried to tranquilize Alex to get the key, but he cannot be tranquilized or destroyed. However, according to comments on Internet discussion forums, one can make sufficient noises by the critical door to lure a guard from outside to open the door. I am inclined to believe this claim, and someday I will try to make it happen. In general, I am bothered when a video game plot forces a player to kill to make progress. For example, in the video game "Red Faction", the player meets a general at a desk who is unarmed, just sitting there, and all one has to do is push a button, which is fully exposed behind the desk. The player can hop all over the desk, etc, and the guy doesn't move. It's quite easy to push the button, but when one makes an attempt to push the button one gets a video message: "You must kill the general." That is very wrong! My mission was to push the button. My mission did not involve killing a totally passive guy at a desk. I enjoy deathmatch games, but in strategy games I don't like artificial constraints established merely to tell a particular story, or force the player in to having a particular personality. Try to make it through Deus Ex without killing any humans, and without allowing your enemies to come to harm, and, yes, Deus Ex becomes a strategy game! For example, I rescued Lebedev! I prevented Agent Navarre from getting anywhere near him, and I just walked out of the 747. I later returned to the 747, after running in to Gunther Hermann, but before boarding Jock's helicopter, to verify that Lebedev was still safe. Agent Navarre had no chance of getting past the obstacle I put in her way. Only a strength augmentation made it possible to carry that huge metal crate in there. The most difficult rescues in the whole game were associated with street battles between UNATCO troops and NSF "terrorists" in Hell's Kitchen and Battery Park. You have to avoid triggering those battles until you are prepared to run in and hope that you can stun and tranquilize all the NSF people before anyone on either side gets themselves killed. That is very difficult. The outcome is partly determined by probabilities. Everyone has terrible aim, so they can often survive long enough to be rescued from themselves. I do not think it is possible to play the entire game without destroying at least four robots (at the Vandenberg base, when Jock is too scared to land). But it is not necessary to kill any Greasels, mechanical spiders, Karkians, or Grays. Many threats can be avoided by running, jumping, and hiding..

Resources

If Deus Ex runs too quickly on a portable computer

In Windows, go to: Start (Start) -> Control Panel (Control Panel) -> Power Options (Power Options) -> Power Schemes (Power Schemes) Change the power scheme to the following: "Home/Office Desk" (Home/Office Desktop) Start Deus Ex after changing the power scheme, and the game should run at a normal speed. ( If Deus Ex is already running, then you must exit the game, and restart the game only after changing the power scheme. The next few paragraphs will explain the necessity of starting Deus Ex after the power scheme has been changed. ) The default power setting on the portable computer is likely to be "Portable/laptop" (Portable/laptop), which is configured to conserve electricity by slowing the CPU when the computer is not working on anything important. When Deus Ex starts, it checks the CPU speed to determine how fast the game should run. Later, as the game continues to use the CPU, the power management increases the speed of the CPU. The game checked the CPU speed when it was still slow, and so the game runs too quickly when the CPU speed is later increased. Changing the power scheme to "Home/Office Desk" means the CPU will not go to a reduced speed when the computer is idle. Thus, the CPU speed detection when Deus Ex starts will get a speed value that will remain the same even after the game has been active for several seconds. However, using this power scheme all the time (after you stop playing Deus Ex) might make your computer use more electricity and become warmer. When I installed the original Deus Ex software on a computer running the Windows XP operating system, the game ran too quickly and was impossible to enjoy. The player's character "walked" extremely quickly. The footsteps were so rapid that they made a buzzing sound! Voice messages from characters were stopped before the audio could finish playing, giving little chance to hear or read those messages. Changing the power scheme to "Home/Office Desk" (Home/Office Desk), and then restarting the game, fixed the problem. Awesome!

Download a software "patch" to update Deus Ex