As usual, I hack every computer in sight when there are no enemies to pester me. More e-mails hinting at Illuminati connections and even more putting a very anti-augmentation spin on their news articles. In my information search, I almost forget to visit the armory. There’s a robotic turret guarding it, just waiting to put a few pounds of lead into someone. I intend to make sure it knows that won’t be me.

I crouch behind the bot, following it for a bit, then pull into a small room. The robot finishes its patrol loop and comes back. From here, I sneak into the armory. The door is locked, but only opens easily using the code I found from the computers I hacked moments ago. I raid the armory, jacking their ammo and weapons. Then I see another door. One I could’ve used to avoid the robot entirely. Oh well, such is life.

I do a bit more searching, eventually working my way to Eliza Cassan. I cross a couple of guards and another robot along the way, but a key takedown, some hacking, and a modified security system later, all of the problems are behind me.

A few thoughts about Eliza Cassan thus far: I’ve seen her all over the place in Detroit: She’s on all of the billboards and people talk about Picus quite a bit. A thought had crossed my mind when I first wandered the Detroit streets. Is she human? I mean, I’ve read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Buster Friendly, the perpetual voice of the TV, was always on 24/7. It didn’t seem humanly possible. He was and android. Eliza may be an android, although I haven’t seen any in the Deus Ex world. Also, her voice acting is horrible. She sounds like an auditioner for a high school play reading from a script. It’s that bad.

So, without further ado, I meet Eliza. She’s not human. She’s… like Helios, an AI. Imagine a not-evil SHODAN. That’s what we have here. A large screen with Eliza’s face is in the center of the room while two physical existences are on either side. But, we’re not alone. Shades of the boss fight from System Shock 2 cast over me. Oh, no, I can feel it coming. Federova, an augmented mercenary that broke into Sarif Industries all those months ago has crashed my party with Eliza. Here we go again, another boss fight.

Eliza calmly tells me how to defeat the boss while I’m running around trying to avoid getting shot. “She recharges after the claymore.” “Electricity will cause her cloaking device to stop working, but the ground is water, so you’ll be hurt, too.” I put about 20 shotgun rounds into the Federova before she rips my augmented eyes out of my skull. I learned my lesson with Barret. I set the difficulty back down to the easy mode. I’m not wasting another thirty attempts on a sucky boss.

With the lower difficulty, I try again, and eventually, I get lucky. I’m able to use a couple of EMP grenades to slow down Federova, then when she’s not moving, I unload just about everything that I’ve got on her – shotgun shells, combat rifles, heavy rifles, pistols, the whole shebang. By the time the fights over, I’ve got almost no ammo left whatsoever. Did I mention the boss fights suck? She’s not anyone. No background, no story, no real reason for her to be a boss. Doesn’t matter. She’s dead. Eliza gives me some fine parting words, “Everyone lies.” Time to go back to Detroit, which has somehow gotten even shittier. (Sorry, Detroit.)

“No,” Jensen interrupts. “Montreal.”

Pulling the power move, Jensen sends the pair en route to Montreal, to check out Picus Media, a big-ass news, telecom everything group that has littered Human Revolution so far. They’re on every TV in the game. Their literature is around on tables. People talk about what’s on their TV stations in e-mails to each other. Montreal is the center of the communications world, it seems. I guess that’s what happens when you lower your taxes to promote videogame companies to put their studios in your city. What?

The mission is to speak with Picus lead news reporter Eliza Cassan. Megan and the others aren’t dead, and she seems to hold a few answers to their whereabouts. I sneak in the building, busting a wall in the process. I crouch and cover around each corner, but there’s a big problem: For a 24-hour news center, this place is empty. A moment later, Pritchard pops up on the info link sharing the same news. Good job, genius.

There’s plenty of computers and I can’t resist hacking each one of them. A few things to note: Picus definitely has an anti-aug, I mean, uh… pro-human, slant. Morgan Everett and Nicolette DuClaire work there. I’m confused. Wasn’t Nicollete the daughter in Deus Ex? Is she even born yet? No matter, time to find Cassan. Off to room 404 where there will obviously be some type of error. Let me guess: Cassan not found.

Cutscene time and Cassan pops up. She yabbers for a bit, and then disappears. Damn, it’s a holo-projection and a setup. Security is on our ass. Got to get out alive and find a stairway. There’s a ton of guards. I suck at not getting shot. Come to think of it, I still suck at a lot of aspects of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, most notably stealth and combat. I’m good at hacking and reading e-mails, though.

Anyway, I decide it’s easier to sneak past the guards than to take them on. Well, that and after a several unsuccessful attempts and a few reloads, I’ve learned my lesson. As I lurk behind banisters and cubicles, I find a another conveniently-placed human-sized airduct and travel through it. I go upstairs, where I sneak behind desks to avoid the detection of guards. Finally, I make it past all of the guards and it seems like I’m in the clear, when I meet the end of the line at a broken elevator. Wait, that’s right, Icarus landing system – that’ll save me. I leap through the elevator shaft, gently land, gain a nice bonus of experience points, and find myself at the studio.

So, this is where Ms. Cassan works. Fancy place. It’s a TV studio with cameras and a new desk. I’m curious as to why they keep guns and ammo with the cameras, but other than that, a neat location. More failed attacks from me and more reloads, so I opt to stick with sneaking. Then, I see it: a security computer. Lucky me, it’s attached to a turret. I hack it, set that turret to eradicate any enemies on the spot, and that’s it: game over for the local security guards. I hack all of the computers and absorb their knowledge. On my way out of the room, I notice the turret is selectable. I can pick it up. A portable killing device? Can it be? Hells yeah.

The turret is My Buddy™. Wherever I go, he goes, too – My Buddy and me. (Obscure reference, I think.) It works… better than I thought. I can drop the turret wherever I like, but it’s sometimes slow to react. I basically have to alert enemies to my presence. If that doesn’t work, then I have to coax them into shooting the turret. Once they connect, though, that bad boy goes apeshit on them.

I”m trying to find the Funicular – another word for a big-ass elevator. My Buddy and I go work our way to it and end up in the basements of the Picus building. Pritchard pops up on the infocom to let Jensen know that we’re (turret and I) to find a hidden room. Ok, off we go. Fresh off the elevator and there’s a security camera and a laser grid. I throw My Buddy™ in the laser grid, setting off the alarm, then I destroy the cam with my handy shotgun.

My Buddy™ wastes the guards and even turns the other robotic turrets to rubbish. What a great investment. I can’t believe it’s worked this long. If I can keep it up, the rest of the game will be cake. I may never have to fire another shot.

In the basement is large Illumaniti statue, very reminiscent of the opening scenes of the original Deus Ex. A hand around a globe; that can only mean trouble ahead. Speaking of trouble, some angry guards come after me, so I let My Buddy™ the turret kick their ass while I go to an airvent. The airvent takes me upwards, where the sound of turret fire stops. Uh oh. Those bastards EMPed my turret. He’s no more. Sad to see him go. Those bastard are also cloakers. They’ve got cloaking technology, which means I have to shoot them based on the blasts of their weapons. I see some augmentation upgrades in the future. For now, though, I need some time to regroup.

I’m struck. Not by a bullet, but by the view. It’s a modern palace up here. Blade Runner inspirations abound, as a a soft warm light radiates through the windows and onto large polygonal statues. As beautiful as the place is, I have a sinking feeling; there’s no way that there’s a big open space with conveniently placed hiding spots unless a fight is coming. It’s got to be a boss fight. I walk slowly, prepared for an ambush. I hack a couple of computers, head through the top door and… cutscene.

It’s Zhao, Tai Yong’s VP. Jensen gets a hold of her and shoves one of the fancy retractable blades out of his elbow and onto her neck. He makes a critical mistake, choosing to let her live. She starts yapping and caressing his chest. Jensen, having completely forgotten about Meghan and his entire motivation for the game, is completely and utterly manipulated. Listen, if any strange girl starts to come on to you after you threaten her life, she’s manipulating you. Poor Jensen is played the fool and she escapes, setting off every alarm in the building.

Time for a firefight

The guards come running through the previously serene grand hallway. I toss a few grenades – a flashbang, a couple of gas grenades – to the center. Anyone left standing gets picked off one by one. I’ve come to use cover more and more, mostly because I don’t get shot when I’m holding down that cover button. If I just hide behind a banister, occasional shots graze me, and I can only take about three before I’m dead. So, I hide. When they stop firing, I toast them. I use my combat rifle, and when I’m out of ammo, I pick them off with the pistol. The sniper rifle is almost useless. There’s no way to silence it. What? (Oh, unless you’ve purchased a specific edition of the game. Screw that.) So, every time I fire, I attract too much attention. I’m still carrying it, though, hoping I can sell it for a cool 1500 credits later.

After turning the hallway to a bloody mess, it’s time to get to the hangar and get the hell out. If I make it to the hangar, Malik can pick me up in her shiny helicopter. I go to the hangar preparing to get the hell out of Tai Yong, but it’s never that easy. There are two bigass robots in there and the hangar doors refuse to open until the robots are disabled. These things look like giant caterpillar bots, both the in the sense of the earth mover Caterpillars and the the shimmying movements of the caterpillars that wander the earth.

I start sneaking to the left. I see a stairway on the right, but I don’t think I can make it without becoming botfood. With liberal use of cover, I eventually make it to some stacked crates. First thoughts: Stack them correctly and I can get to the top. Second thoughts: stacking sucks. I give up on my grand stacking idea and instead dash to the other side of the room. Really, in a way, the sneaking can be kind of boring. There’s a lot of waiting. Wait until Robot 1 can’t see you. Ok, wait until Robot 2 can’t see you. Damn, now Robot 1 is back. Ok, GO! Sprint for five seconds and then do it all again.

Sprinting is done by holding down the shift key, a la every game since (and maybe before?) Half-Life. I reach the other side, then crouch and sneak up the stairways. This is security room two, but it won’t let me override the bots. I dash to security room one on the other side, do a little security hacking and disable the big caterpillars. Back to room one to open then hangars, and now it’s time get the hell out of China.

I backtrack a bit and find… would you guess? A conveniently-placed, human-sized airvent. I’m noticing a trend, but I can’t resist the temptation of an drafty passageway. It leads me directly to the security area. I eavesdrop on the guards for a bit, then, you guessed it, takedown. It seems I’ve attracted some attention, so I hide under the desk and pump a few shotgun shells into anyone else that steps in the room. A little hacking and I’ve got a security robot on my side. A little sneaking and I’m in the security room. A little waiting and I’m treated to a quick cutscene, showing Van Bruggen’s vidoes and outlining my next goal. The new mission: Find more evidence, this time from the VP of Tai Yong Medical.

I try to speak to a few people to find out more about the pass, but they usually talk about how I have a very “lower city” look with my augs. Whatever. Fortunately, I overhear a researcher mention a pass he forgot. It’s in the security room. Great. Two guards loiter just outside the security room door. I hide behind an adjacent doorway, and when one guard steps away… bam, takedown, and pull the body behind the door. When the next guy comes back, I do it again. No one notices a thing. I almost felt bad, but one of the researchers tells me the guards were pressuring him to give them money. They deserved it.

I take a conveniently placed human-sized airduct (damn, these things are everywhere…) to the security room, where I, right on cue, I find the security pass. The guard lets me into the labs and even apologizes for giving me a hassle earlier. Service with a smile.

The labs remind me of Blade Runner, specifically the scene at J.R.’s place with his little animatronic buddies. The aug builders seem to be doing something similar, creating human body parts on desks in front of them. The scientists are friendly, but there’s some nuisance security. Really, they leave me alone, until I barge into the security room. A single takedown knocks two guards off their ass, then I’m able to hack any security computer I want and disable all of the cameras without a fear or retribution. The scientists don’t even care.

I head upstairs and wave to a guard, who naively waves back. After all, I’m auged and must be security at the place. Next step is to into the server room and find the tapes van Bruggen left there.

Further into the maintenance area, I find a trusty air vent. The air vent leads to a pretty good fall, and after falling off just about everything in Detroit, I’ve learned that’s not a good thing, so I’m willing to spend some Praxis points on the Icarus landing system. It does the trick and Jensen coasts the last few feet of the fall in third-person. The animation for it is a bit over-the-top for my taste, but it works, so I can’t complain. The air duct opens and shit… I set of an alarm. An alarm with robots. And guards. A bunch of them. My stealth expertise is short lived.

I hide in the air vent and take pot shots until I toast all of the guards. My silenced combat rifle works well with the distance. The robot is a bit stronger, so I use my shotgun upgrade – I can set it to fire two rounds at once for twice the damage. After a little work, the robot is toast, too.

Time to find the elevator to the Medical Center upstairs.

Van Bruggen admits to using the hacker back in Detroit and he points us to the Upper Area of Hengsha – that’s where we need to go. As we discuss the finer points of life, chaos ensues. Belltower security is bursting through the place and they’re taking no prisoners. Gotta escape. Van Bruggen asks for a little help, in the form of one of my weapons. I’ve upgraded all of them, and I can’t bear to give one out, so I tell him to figure out how to get out on his own.

Shortly after that, I remember Tong threatening to kick my ass if Bruggen ends up dead. I’m sure I’ll hear about it later. Whatever.

I’m on the top floor and I can hear the security forces working their way through. Finally, I’m starting to do a bit better with my sneaking skills. I stay crouched to not make a sound and work my towards the air duct on the second floor. The airduct brings me to the now-closed entrance, but I make a detour through the showers. A couple of guards are around, but I sneak behind them take them down, one at a time, silently. I’m almost out of the place when I make a flub. Two more guards spot me when I carelessly run around a corner. No problem – it’s shotgun time. I whip out my upgraded shotgun buddy and blast them at point blank range. They’re toast and I’m out the door.

Back on the streets of Hengsha to do a little clean-up work. I track down the apartment of the guy who murdered Malik’s friend. Sure enough, he’s left some evidence of the murder around – a broken clock, baseball bats, e-mails. In fact, maybe a bit too much evidence. Malik has a plan though. We’re to meet the guy at the Hive and put pressure on him to confess.

At the Hive, it’s another verbal sparring battle. Hopefully, I’ve paid attention to the details at the apartment. He keeps playing dumb, and I get the option to accuse him of killing her with a baseball bat or a clock. Pieced together correctly and he’ll confess. Don’t and well… I don’t know. Again, I’ve been pretty lucky with the conversing and coerced the guy into confessing his crimes. Last step, walk away. Malik has a bit of a surprise and posts the guys confessions on the exterior of the Hive for all to see.

One last thing to finish: Way back when I arrived in Heng Shua, Mei, a local working girl asked me to help out her friend. A guy on the roof knew where she was. I couldn’t find the place on my own and I didn’t want to pay him for the info. An idea pops in my head. Pay him, knock him out, and keep my money. Sure enough, the plan works to a T. I bribe him, get the location, and then gently knock him unconscious with a punch across the face. For good measure, I hide his body by some dumpsters and go on my merry way. He’ll wake up, no worse for the wear, and I’ll still have my 2000 credits.

The girl’s location is added to the mini-map and I find her in a place that I’ve been past many times. I can’t believe I went pass that spot so many times and missed it. Then again, Hengsha confuses the shit of me direction-wise. There are three guys there. I’m a bit worried that the sound of gunshots will attract some unwanted attention from the authorities, so I upgrade my takedown aug. With the upgrade, I can take down two baddies at once. There’s a third, so I keep my stungun armed. I charge the guys and jam the Q button. Works like a charm and takes the two guys down. The third guy whips out his weapon and blasts me. I’m able to withstand a shot and I zap him with the stungun. He goes down compliantly. Search the bodies, find the code to the locker with the girl, and life is good. She’s going to run away from her job and life in Hengsha. Time to report back to Mei.

Mei is vindictive. She wants me to kill her bastard of a boss. I agree, the guys a dick, but her plan is to kill him out right, which I’m not really a fan of. So, I ask if there’s anything else that can be done. Sure, we can plant drugs on him. Great, just what I want to do. She asks if I”ll help. I say, “Yes,” but really, I don’t want to plant drugs or murder the dude, even if he’s an asshole. If I could intimidate him to quit his job, it’d be one thing, but… I’ll pass.

Enough Hungsha for me. Time to hit the train and get the medical labs in the Upper City.

Maybe it’s not so different than the plastic surgeries of today. Really, it’s kind of crazy to think that people will implant silicon and more into their bodies for vanity. Imagine what society will think if they dig up our graves for scientific research in thousands of years. Just like we hypothesize about how why the Egyptians mummified their leaders, will they conclude that we put silicon only in our upper class individuals so that they’d be able to use this in their life after death? I ramble, but even though I find it absurd that someone would willingly chop off their arm in order to attach a mechanical limb, what society does today is not so different.

I go in and speak with the girl, Mei, and the owner leaves her with me, assuming I’m a client. He knows how to run a successful business. Mei informs me that one of girls has gone missing. She’s going to forcefully be augmented. Will I help? Of course. Mei does not know where the girl is, but a shady guy on the corner of the rooftop should. He wants 2000 credits for the info. No way. I’ll just find her on my own. I search around the place a bit and come across a keycard to medical corporation.

No doubt, this’ll come in handy later, but right now, the mission is to travel to the address that Barret left. It’s a penthouse apartment in another district of the city. I head down the the lower streets and check the place out. It’s littered with vendors and pedestrians. One thing that I’m noticing that’s quite different than Detroit is that people here have no issues with augmentations. Folks walk down the streets displaying their mechanical arms, legs, and who knows what else. I’m told to watch out for The Harvesters, who may just rip my fancy military grade augmentations right off of my body. Right, like I’m going to let that happen.

Walking through the streets, I listen to tons of people. Some speak English, some do not. Those that don’t are translated at the bottom of the screen with their translated words wrapped in parentheses.

Eventually, I find my way to the correct district, but in all honesty, I’m having a heck of a time finding where I’m supposed to go. I leisurely hack into the room of any apartment I find. A couple of these apartments even have people in them, who rightfully decide to cower in the corner as I turn on their faucet and hack their computer. In the back of my mind, I wonder if anyone is going to pull a gun on me, but it doesn’t happen. I reach the top of some buildings where I discover that the rooftops are close enough that I can use my jumping aug to leap between them. I keep leaping and leaping until I find an airduct. Yes, a steady diet of airducts will keep you alive in Human Revolution. I sneak in the airduct and it brings me to an elevator shaft. Down at the bottom is a Praxis kit, a little bonus for venturing down there. I want to go up, so I take a few ladders upwards, but then I hit a sticking point: There’s no ladder to the next level. It’s alright, I stand on a guard rail and use my augmented jumping abilities to get up there. Damn, that aug has come in handy. And to think, I almost decided not to get it.

On top, there’s another airvent, leading to the Penthouse. Wonderful. I head over to the bedrooms, which are mostly empty. I go down the hallway and, oh crap, guards. I go back to the airduct and hide. A couple of guards come down the hallway. I wait until they separate, pop out and wham – takedown. I pull the unconscious guard into the airduct and search his body. Nice, a couple of credits. I do this a few more times, and no one suspects a thing. With the hallways cleared, I head into kitchen. There are two more guards just outside on the patio, but I make sure to hide behind the kitchen counter and only move when they’re looking away from me. I’m making liberal use of cover and the mini-map in the lower-left corner of the screen. The map displays any visible enemy as arrows. The way the arrow points is the way their facing.

For some reason, part of the kitchen has been blown up, but the destroyed rubble reveals a secret computer room. There’s some extra software, so I snatch it and hack the computer. This is our guy. Now, I get a name to go with the address: Van Bruggen. I also have another lead: Look for a man named Tong. Malik pops up over the info com and informs me that the Hive is the place to go. Sounds like a plan, so I will do just that.

I head down to the Hive, only to find that there’s a 1000 credit cover charge. It’s expensive, but the word on the street is that there’s a back way in. Now the other word on the street is that they’ll rip your augmentations out if they find that you didn’t pay, so I opt to pay the cash and keep things on friendly terms. I walk in, gun in holster and talk to a few ladies. None seem that interested, so I chat with Bobby the bartender and buy a few drinks.

Drinks give you health at the expense of vision. I’ll take it. I try one of each, raise my health a bit, and go all blurry-eyed. I head to the pisser, aiming poorly I’m sure, and I find a note containing the password to get downstairs.

Bobby had told me to go upstairs, so I go upstairs first where I’m greeted by the manager of the place. It’s another conversation battle. This time, I’ve got to convince the guy to let me see Tong. He’s augmented and seems a little angry, but I reason with him until he agrees to take my services and let me have a speak with Tong in the basement.

Down to the basement, I start snooping around. I hack a few doors, but only where I won’t get caught, and I even pay the DJ a visit. It pays dividends as I’m able to get the DJs locker code in the main security office. I’m also able to turn off some security cameras, which gives me an opening to hack another room. In this room, there’s a dead body. I guess the folks on the street were right about those that don’t pay to get in.

I finally talk to Tong, who just so happens to be the manager from upstairs. Surprise, I’ve been speaking with Tong the entire time. He gives me the location of van Bruggen. It’s in some pods, as they’re calling them – a shitty hotel that now rents rooms for long term. I head over an Malik is already there. She’s been doing some sniffing of her own. A Hengsha friend of hers just recently died, but she knows there’s something fishy about it. She’s no cop, just a pilot, so she wants my help. Of course I’ll help. But, I’m going to wait until tomorrow to do it.