Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Ongoing Impressions Part 12

Illuminati – with cloaking technology. Me – in an airvent. Sounds about right. I hide in the airvent and take potshots at the invisible assailants in the basement of Picus TV. With a bit of timing and patience, I manage to take them all out, using a combination of my trusty shotgun and combat rifle – the shotgun for close range and the rifle for longer range. I even use my upgraded, laser-guided pistol for a little accurate shooting.

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.)