Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Ongoing Impressions Part 11

“Back to Detroit,” says Malik.

“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.