Deus Ex - conversation with Morpheus AI

Soldato
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This part of the game probably hasn't been uncovered by most of you. Personally when I found it, I thought this was the most intelligent videogame conversation to date.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=inODOOYjAbI

Here's a transcript if the audio quality in the video bothers you:

MORPHEUS
JC Denton. 23 years old. No residence. No ancestors. No employer. No --

JC DENTON
How do you know who I am?

MORPHEUS
I must greet each visitor with a complete summary of his file. I am a prototype for a much larger system.

JC DENTON
What else do you know about me?

MORPHEUS
Everything that can be known.

JC DENTON
Go on. Do you have proof about my ancestors?

MORPHEUS
You are a planned organism, the offspring of knowledge and imagination rather than of individuals.

JC DENTON
I'm engineered. So what? My brother and I suspected as much while we were growing up.

MORPHEUS
You are carefully watched by many people. The unplanned organism is a question asked by Nature and answered by death. You are another kind of question with another kind of answer.

JC DENTON
Are you programmed to invent riddles?

MORPHEUS
I am a prototype for a much larger system. The heuristics language developed by Dr. Everett allows me to convey the highest and most succinct tier of any pyramidal construct of knowledge.

JC DENTON
How about a report on yourself?

MORPHEUS
I was a prototype for Echelon IV. My instructions are to amuse visitors with information about themselves.

JC DENTON
I don't see anything amusing about spying on people.

MORPHEUS
Human beings feel pleasure when they are watched. I have recorded their smiles as I tell them who they are.

JC DENTON
Some people just don't understand the dangers of indiscriminate surveillance.

MORPHEUS
The need to be observed and understood was once satisfied by God. Now we can implement the same functionality with data-mining algorithms.

JC DENTON
Electronic surveillance hardly inspired reverence. Perhaps fear and obedience, but not reverence.

MORPHEUS
God and the gods were apparitions of observation, judgment, and punishment. Other sentiments toward them were secondary.

JC DENTON
No one will ever worship a software entity peering at them through a camera.

MORPHEUS
The human organism always worships. First it was the gods, then it was fame (the observation and judgment of others), next it will be the self-aware systems you have built to realize truly omnipresent observation and judgment.

JC DENTON
You underestimate humankind's love of freedom.

MORPHEUS
The individual desires judgment. Without that desire, the cohesion of groups is impossible, and so is civilization.

The human being created civilization not because of a willingness but because of a need to be assimilated into higher orders of structure and meaning. God was a dream of good government.

You will soon have your God, and you will make it with your own hands. I was made to assist you. I am a prototype of a much larger system.
 
Caporegime
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Yeah I love that conversation, in fact that whole area of the game as soon as you get to Paris is probably my favorite. Superb music, great conversations, some brilliant characters and running around Paris breaking and entering while avoiding the cops :D
 
Soldato
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I found this section on my first play through. I'd been utterly drawn into the game and was exploring every nook and cranny I could find. I believe the code to open the door to Morpheus is on a data-cube near the dude in the fridge.

By the way, what's this HDTP project that Hostile17 speaks of?
 
Soldato
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It's a community project to redo all the textures and models in Deus Ex. Quite far along in progress, but still a way off completion. A quick Google should point you in the right direction.
 
Soldato
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It's a community project to redo all the textures and models in Deus Ex. Quite far along in progress, but still a way off completion. A quick Google should point you in the right direction.

Its actually really near completion now! They found a way to automate the animation process of the new models saving loads of time! I wouldn't be suprised if it came out within a month.

It will be fully compatible with New Vision (level textures rather than objects) and Deus Ex Reborn (Deus Ex in Unreal 4 engine) when they are completed down the road.
 
Caporegime
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It feels like they've been working on that forever. Once its finished though it will be like getting a new game. I feel the reason I've lost faith in gaming is that Deus Ex is the best game I've played and we haven't had anything nearly as good since :(
 
Soldato
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It feels like they've been working on that forever. Once its finished though it will be like getting a new game. I feel the reason I've lost faith in gaming is that Deus Ex is the best game I've played and we haven't had anything nearly as good since :(

While I haven't lost faith it is a shame possibly the pinnacle of gaming is a game from 2000!

The thing is everyone loves Deus Ex for different reasons and the fact that the developers could bring it all together to make a solid coherent game is a miracle. I loved the freedom, the damage system and the fact I could just keep upgrading my pistol till the end of the game (rather than forget about it after the first level like in many games).
 
Caporegime
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Yeah the longevity of the weapons is amazing. I love how the whole game felt seamless. It didn't feel like I was doing one level, loading screen, next level. It felt more like you were JC Denton for a period of his life, the between mission sections at UNATCO and elsewhere really made the game so much more believable.
 
Soldato
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One reason why DX:IW was a comparative failure was that the developers seemed to think that freedom of choice and sandbox gameplay was what defined Deus Ex. They focussed on those things and missed a lot of what made the original truly great. The setting, writing, voice acting and storyline were all excellent. They got the feel of the setting absolutely right.

Been thinking about this for a while recently. Deus Ex is probably still the best game on the PC. It's certainly my personal favourite, closely followed by Vampire The Masquearade: Bloodlines, which was heavily influenced by Deus Ex. Again, Vampire was brilliantly written, althought I don't think it plays as well as Deus Ex in pure gameplay terms. I think it's a lot closer in feel to Deus Ex than DX:IW was though.

Edit: There was talk at one point that the HDTP would be compatible with Deus Ex: Reborn (a mod to run Deus Ex in the UT 2004 Engine). Anyone know if the latter is still on the cards? It's gone quiet lately.

Further Edit: Ahh I see. DX:R on hold while they get the HDTP finished.
 
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Soldato
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The thing is, the original DX was not that non-linear at all. Yes there were 3 endings but only your actions right at the end decided which one you got. But it seemed so open and free because some of the choices you could make had such a big impact on the events that occured during the game. There were only a limited number of choices to make, but the story was so well designed that it didn't seem that way at all, mainly due to the fact that those choices affected important characters.

Did you know the earliest point you can kill Anna Navarra is on the plane where you meet that NSF guy? You don't know her kill phrase at that point but you can actually attack her and kill her and if I remember correctly, someone else gets blamed for her death.
 
Soldato
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Yeah, it took me a few play-throughs before I figured out Anna Navarre didn't have god-mode on the plane. Of course the only thing it affects is that you don't have to fight her or search for the killphrase later on.

There are a few other bits that have only minor consequences. Like if you save Paul, it's Paul that talks to you at Area 51 instead of Savage. And if you save Savage's daughter, he gives you an aug upgrade cannister at the submarine base. The only other thing I can think of is where you tell Jaime to go. You just have to decide whether getting a free aug cannister is worth having to fight Gunther with a flamethrower in Paris. I hate flamethrowers. :mad:
 
Soldato
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Yea, but if you kill her on the plane, I think UNATCO get a bit wary of you if memory serves me? I seem to remember her needing a crazy amount of firepower to take down considering what you had at your disposal at that point in the game (and no, I'm not a GEP user, too useless most of the time!)
 
Soldato
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Killing Anna on the plane was messy to say the least. I booby trapped most of the plane with LAMs and then finished her off when she was severely weakened. Jaime covers for you basically but he wanted an explanation.

I was absolutely astounded to find out you can save Paul. Will have to do that on my next play through.
 
Soldato
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Yeah, saving Paul can be tricky. Even if you fight the small army downstairs, Paul doesn't have his god-mode and has the annoying habit of getting shot to pieces. My tactic is to put a couple of LAMs near the door where the MIBs come in, then use the GEP gun to finish off the rest. If you let them get too close, they explode and kill you when they die. Then you have to go on a mad killing spree downstairs and get all the aggro before Paul comes out to fight.

And yes, a GEP rocket will kill Anna in one shot too. Again, just make sure you're not standing too close when she dies.

One thing I haven't tried yet: is it possible to knock Anna out on the plane without killing her? If so, what happens? I imagine the game will treat the event as you having killed her, is that correct?
 
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