Comments on: The Deus Ex decision: which ending did you pick?

By: Holydave

Holydave — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 23:37:59 +0000

The Tracer Tong ending never made much sense to me. Ham radios and walkie talkies would still work presumably, and we’d still have vehicular transport. We’d get the whole network back up and running in no time. For that reason I always, grudgingly, chose the Helios ending. Didn’t really like any of them though.

By: HipGunslinger

HipGunslinger — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 03:40:45 +0000

I have to say, it’s articles quite like this that has allowed PC Gamer to completely replace every other gaming site I’ve ever gone to.
I’m quite confident that nobody at Joystiq or Gamespot has even played the first Deus Ex.

By: Great_Ragnarok

Great_Ragnarok — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 23:48:05 +0000

@Gap Generator,
life saving drugs and scientific advancements are not dependent on
power structures, but dependent on the proper execution of the scientific methodology.
So Tong only wanted to reset the politics, which would allow each nation
to pursue it’s own welfare, without being oppressed by corporations and super power nations.
something that was not possible in the deus ex timeline and wasn’t possible in RL.lol.

By: Gap Generator

Gap Generator — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 18:31:27 +0000

Mitthrawn: I don’t believe that the founding fathers actually destroyed the existing power structure entirely. Part of the reason the USA didn’t devolve into violence as with the French Revolution is because the existing power structures west of the Atlantic pretty much stayed in place. The same people who were powerful and influential pre-revolution were powerful and influential post-revolution. That’s not to denigrate the work they did in setting up a free and fair society (minus the abolition of slavery, I guess), but I don’t agree that what they did was to completely destroy the existing power structures as Tong wanted.

By: Gap Generator

Gap Generator — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 18:26:29 +0000

I’ve never really understood Tong’s choice. I mean, it’s not like pre-internet society was a bundle of laughs, and then suddenly the free flow of information turned governments into corrupt, self-serving venal institutions. Making a choice like that is just throwing away the millions of lives spent in toil to get us to the point that we are now. But I dunno, maybe some people like living in societies too fragmented to support the manufacture of life-saving drugs and modern medical research, or living through an event that destroys our social structures and causes chaos and destruction.

I don’t think the organic change in society is particularly broken. Look at the liberalisation of society in the past decades and tell me that erasing all of that and taking thousands of years to start again would be worth it.

By: Optimaximal

Optimaximal — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 10:00:07 +0000

Isn’t this all irrelevant because all three endings actually happened in Deus Ex canon? Although we ‘chose’ an ending, we actually carried out the other two options too!

By: Hybrid

Hybrid — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 06:35:44 +0000

I chose to merge with Helios on my first playthrough. Did the other two endings to see what the results were but I still think the Helios ending is the best option.

By: Great_Ragnarok

Great_Ragnarok — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 04:43:55 +0000

I prefer the Tong option. Government is still immature and hasn’t taken
the time to absorb all that has been discovered about reality.
so better to break things down and start with basic government.
slow and steady it’ll come to perfection!

if I made the game, I would have created an ending where the monetary system
could be made to collapse, thus forcing society even further back to get the basics right!
That way each nation would begin to create their own arbitrary currency system to
suit the needs of the local people!

By: Mitthrawn

Mitthrawn — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 04:07:23 +0000

I chose the Tong option. No human being is meant to have that much power, and when that much power is offered to you , a truly good person always refuses it and tries to destory the apparatus of that power. See: US founding fathers.

By: RPB

RPB — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 00:48:53 +0000

I went with the Helios ending the first time I played. JC’s “this is what I was born to do” (paraphrased), convinced me to stick with it in umpteen playthroughs since.:p

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 00:06:52 +0000

Like Tom, I went with the Helios ending in my first playthrough, because I rather like the idea of a perfectly fair and balanced dictatorship. Sure, it wasn’t entirely clear that Helio-Denton would in fact be perfectly fair and balanced, but there were likewise no indications that either of the other options would work out as planned, so I went for the one that I would prefer assuming that they would all go according to plan.

Also, random tip: instead of “set DeusEx.JCDentonMale bCheatsEnabled True”, you can actually just write “set human bCheatsEnabled True” to enable cheats in Deus Ex, which is a bit faster :-)

(This is because the class JCDentonMale extends the class human, object oriented programming fans.)

By: StingingVelvet

StingingVelvet — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 22:55:59 +0000

Soubi Hurt said it best… I chose the freedom ending, and still do when I replay the game. Watched the other two on youtube.

The Tong ending works best with Deus Ex 2 as well.

By: Dark-Aeon

Dark-Aeon — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 20:40:19 +0000

I did all the ending at some time, except for the party. However, my first and favorite ending is still merging with Helios, just sounds cool. Just think what you could run on that processor…

By: Muad'Dib

Muad'Dib — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 19:48:16 +0000

I’m a socialist personally so I would never side with the Illuminati, knowing what the collapse causes I can’t side with tong so I always go for Helios in the first and second. I quite like the hive mind- what’s so great about being human? As I see it humanities history is one of violence, greed, selfishness and discrimination, In a hive mind there is no discrimination, there is no selfishness and greed or violence is pointless. Go hive mind’s are great.

By: Hermit

Hermit — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 19:08:44 +0000

It’s funny. I usually pick the Helios ending in DX1, but the way that plays out if you stick with it in DX2 always unnerved me slightly. If you support JC’s plan at the end of IW, it shows Helios talking about merging people’s minds, effectively turning the entire population into some sort of hive mind collective. I always found that a problem – Tom says that dictatorship only fails when they go stupid or evil. But there’s no malevolence behind Helios’ decision, and I don’t doubt it’s a logical course of action, but at the same time they may as well not be human anymore.

It’s not so different from the Omar ending. In both what it means to be human is drastically redesigned to the point that it’s unrecognisable, the only difference is the factors behind it. The collapse of society in the Omar ending forces individuals to augment themselves to survive – harsh, but at least it’s a choice they have (or illusion of one, at least). Helios isn’t giving people a choice – dissenting voices within the population are presumably outvoted.

By: TooNu

TooNu — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 18:34:37 +0000

I don’t think my last comment showed hmmm.

So yes, I just completed Deus ex for the 20+ time. I chose all 3 endings ebcause I havent’ played it for about a year, I am going through it again this week but slower and taking in everything rather than rushing through it to see what I remember. I normally go for all 3 endings but then the Helios ending is always last.

Just save the game before you hit the switch for bob Page, hit the switches for the reactors or before you go to Helios one last time.

By: schmegeggi

schmegeggi — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 17:57:29 +0000

I played all three endings, not finding out about the groovy party ending until years after I’d uninstalled it. Deus Ex Invisible War was a big disappointment. DX: Human Resources looks cool, lets hope they make it as open to play as Deus Ex

By: xenist

xenist — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 17:17:30 +0000

Personally, I chose to merge with Helios. Tong and his stupid new dark age was a preposterous idea and the Illuminati were assholes that have been jerking me around too long for me to give them the satisfaction. I didn’t even have to take 30 seconds to decide.

By: Pod

Pod — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:23:41 +0000

I reloaded and did all 3. It’s a pity the whole game boiled down to “select A B C”, rather than having a decision you made in the first 5 minutes where you didn’t know what you were doing essentially forcing your hand. That would have been MUCH more fun!!

By: Soubi Hurt

Soubi Hurt — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:01:12 +0000

I chose to destroy everything and create the colapse i thought that it was the right thing to do. I could not become a dictator or allow a dictatorship.

By: Dante [GD]

Dante [GD] — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:36:15 +0000

I’m actually the opposite of crimsoneer, as a moody teenager convinced I knew better than everyone I picked the Helios ending, nowadays I’d probably side with Tong’s Dark Age. It’s actually one of the best illustrations I can think of of how I’ve become less Socialist and more Liberal over time.

Not that I think Tong’s ending is perfect by any means, I think increased communication and connection makes us more equal, not less. But with the only other options being two flavours of dictatorship (I don’t consider the Illuminati any better for being an Ogliarchy) I couldn’t see a better alternative.

By: crimsoneer

crimsoneer — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:01:01 +0000

I merged with Helios – I think that was probably the start of my steady decline from Rousseau-ian “everybody has the potential to be a clever, productive member of society” to my current “Everybody is an idiot and only I know what’s good for them” philosophy.

By: His Master's Voice

His Master's Voice — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 14:57:40 +0000

I’ve merged with Helios. It’s just… appropriate? Is that the right word? It somehow felt the right thing to do, what with DC already being a very transhuman character.

By: Rich McCormick

Rich McCormick — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 14:42:02 +0000

First time round, I had to quicksave and quit to have a think.

Came back and decided to go for Tong’s option, hard reset and send everyone back to try again. I’d have liked to play a DE2 set in that world, city-states connected by the cobbled-together remnants of fibre-optics and tin-cans on strings.

By: jonfitt

jonfitt — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 14:27:45 +0000

Hmm. I think I need to play DX2.
$10 on Steam.

By: Vagabond

Vagabond — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 14:23:18 +0000

My first was Helios. Made the most sense.

I still do that ending.

By: Persus

Persus — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 14:05:49 +0000

In the end I chose all of them but I think my first was to merge with helios as well.

By: Loopy

Loopy — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:56:30 +0000

The first time I played the game to completion, I chose to merge with the Helios AI, it just seemed like the right thing to do at the time. :)

By: DancingOmelette

DancingOmelette — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:51:04 +0000

lol @ “Cons: Some of the people waving their hands in the air seem like they just don’t care”… and Red_Avatar says you guys aren’t funny!

What I love most about the ending choice is how none of these are clearly the “good” ending, none are clearly the “bad” ending. They all have significant pros and cons, it’s a tough choice, and you don’t get any answer at the end saying “correct! you chose the right ending.” IW really wussed out on this, with the magical happy let’s-all-hold-hands-and-be-cyborgs-together ending. Let’s hope it’s something HR nails.

By: SAeN

SAeN — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:48:43 +0000

How did I know Tom would choose Godhood…

And I like the Flight of the concords reference.

By: Duality

Duality — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:41:39 +0000