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Recap / Deus Ex Mission 11 Paris

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Mission 11:

Paris

The helicopter touches down on top of an abandoned building just outside the city. Jock tells JC that there's a tunnel he can use to gain access to the catacombs, and warns him to stay alert for any MJ12 troops.

In the building, JC finds an erratic woman named Aimee who implores him to kill the greasels that murdered her pets. When he does so, she gives him some valuable intel on the area and the troops and thanks him profusely. JC heads through a series of tunnels and emerges at a gated-off compound staffed by a handful of troops. After dispatching them, JC explores the area and finds a mysterious voice asking him to join a new world order when he searches a nearby office.

JC discovers the entrance to the catacombs and enters. Inside, he finds MJ12 troops discussing the resistance's plans and JC's arrival in the area. He makes his way to a hidden vault accessed through a panel on a wall, and finds the remnants of Silhouette.

The leader, Chad, offers to help JC, but asks him to rescue two missing members that got lost and were captured by the enemy troops before he arrived. A young boy also begs him to rescue one of the hostages, who is his mother. JC continues through the catacombs, passing an abandoned vault with a squatter and MJ12 defenses on the way.

JC finds the enemy bunker, dispatches the troops in the vicinity and escorts the two hostages back to the Silhouette bunker. The young boy and Chad both thank him profusely, and the latter gives him a key to access the sewer tunnels and make his way into the city.

With that, JC heads through the catacombs and the sewers. Tong radios to inform him that he is directly underneath the area where Nicolette was last seen, and that a curfew has been put in place for all residents. JC emerges in an area filled with patrolling MJ12 troops and police officers.

As he explores the area, he comes across various civilians complaining about the curfew in the city and how it's hurting business, and several others who ask JC to help them carry out thefts to support the black market. JC finds out from Tong that Nicolette was last seen at the Club de L'enfer and heads over.

Inside the club, questions the locals, many of whom also complain about how the curfew has resulted in hardly any tourism. JC eventually finds a woman in the upper bar who claims to know Nicolette after JC reveals a trusted piece of information about Beth from Dowd.

The agent walks outside to find the same woman standing by Jock's helicopter. She reveals that she is Nicolette, and wants to help JC because MJ12 assassinated her mother. She tells him that they can start looking for clues to Beth's plans (and get in touch with Morgan Everett) at her childhood home, which was abandoned in the wake of Beth's death.

JC and Nicolette board the helicopter. Just as it rises off the ground, Gunther comes running around a corner to attack them but is too late...

The helicopter lands at the abandoned house. JC and Nicolette investigate the rooms and surrounding area while she tells him about her past, relationship with Chad and her mother, and her thoughts on the situation with the Illuminati. The duo eventually discover that Beth hid a key to the old wine cellar in her bedroom. When they investigate the cellar, they find a secret laboratory and communications satellite. Nicolette is shocked and says that her mother never revealed such a thing to her.

JC uses a nearby computer to send a message to Morgan Everett, who contacts him via infolink. Morgan praises JC and Nicolette, and suggests that the latter is wise just like her mother.

He offers to meet JC, but only if the agent does something for him first: infiltrate a former Illuminati cathedral (now taken over by MJ12) and open access to their network, which will allow him to retrieve the design schematics of the Grey Death and synthesize a vaccine.

Nicolette gives him a key to a nearby crypt which will give him passage to the cathedral. JC takes out an assault team before heading into the crypt and through another sewer passage...

Tropes:

  • Actually, I Am Him: Nicolette initially passes herself off as a friend when JC comes looking for information on her, and promises to put him in touch with her. Outside, she reveals that she is the woman he's been looking for, but had to make sure his intentions were true.
  • The Aggressive Drug Dealer: Telling Renault in the Paris hostel that you don't like his business of dealing Zyme (twice) will cause both him and his associate to begin open hostilities with you. Discussed when the bartender at the hostel outright tells JC (in his first line of dialogue, no less) not to give Renault any identifying information about himself.
  • Arbitrary Skepticism: The bartender in the Paris downtown hostel completely dismisses JC's attempt to explain that MJ12 are part of a major conspiracy organization, with said bartender saying he's "heard it all before". This comes as Paris is under lockdown, with black-suited commandoes and heavy security bots patrolling the area right outside.
    JC: The conspiracy is real.
    Bartender: And I bet you have a little booklet that will tell me all about it, no?
    JC: They call themselves Majestic 12.
    Bartender: (humoring him) Good. I was afraid you were going to tell me about the Illuminati.
    JC: They were once part of the Illuminati, but they rebelled.
    Bartender: Oh.
  • Arms Dealer:
    • Defoe in the metro station.
    • The unnamed dealer who is out of town, and whose apartment JC can break into for powerful items like a plasma rifle.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: If the player asked Jaime Reyes to stay behind at UNATCO, Jaime will meet JC at the local cafe and relay Gunther's killphrase, "Laputan machine," which can be used to bypass the boss fight at the Cathedral later on.
  • Concealing Canvas: A painting in Beth's old bedroom can be moved out of the way to access a hidden compartment with a key to the basement (and access to the secret computer room).
  • Coolest Club Ever: Played with. Club La Porte de l'Enfer is said to be hurting because of the martial law crackdown. Although it's a massive space (complete with multiple levels, catchy music and plenty of secrets), it's sparsely populated and most of the occupants are either complaining about the conditions or just trying to make ends-meet.
  • Crazy Cat Lady: Aimee, in the condemned building in Paris.
  • Death of a Child: There are two children seen in Paris (one in the catacombs, and one in the city) who can die as a result of the player or enemy soldiers.
  • Developer's Foresight:
    • If you kill the Greasels in the sewers before speaking with Aimee, his dialogue will change to acknowledge this, thus skipping the acquisition of the sidequest in the first place.
    • JC's dialogue with Defoe at the Metro station will change slightly if he killed the three troopers before talking with him for the first time.
    • Interestingly, if the player skips the entire Catacombs section by using cheat codes to load up the map that appears directly after it, the two women in La Porte de l'Enfer don't make any reference to Chad at all. It's possible that this may have been a remnant of the scrapped UNATCO plotline (and that JC would have never visited the Catacombs in the first place), but this hasn't been corroborated by official sources.
    • Renault's dialogue in the hostel changes if the player raided the nearby bakery and stole the zyme before talking to him. Instead of trying to negotiate, Renault just cuts to the chase.
    • If you break into the club's storeroom before talking to the black-haired woman walking around in front of the bar, JC's dialogue changes to acknowledge that he's already broken in. When the woman complains about it being her last shot at making money, JC tells her to get a job.
    • A number of residents (including the doorman at the hostel near Club L'Enfer, the bartender at said hostel, and the owner of the local restaurant) will have slightly different dialogue if you wait to talk with them for the first time until after you've talked to Nicolette and asked her to wait by the helicopter. Instead of asking about Nicolette directly, JC's lines are changed so that he asks for more general information on Silhouette as a group (or in the case, of the restaurant owner, changes to point out that the cops are just tools of MJ12).
    • If you take too long exploring the mansion in France, or poke around in unimportant areas, ICARUS will contact you and ask, "What are you looking for?"
  • Digital Piracy Is Okay: Discussed. If the player breaks into a digital media store in the city, Tong tells him not to waste his money on it because he can get anything for much cheaper on the black market.
  • Dungeon Shop: A homeless squatter in the Paris catacombs (after initially mistaking JC for a member of MJ12, who tried to force him out of the bunker he was staying in) will sell a few medkits and a pack of tranq darts to JC.
  • Fascists' Bed Time: Paris is under a curfew imposed by MJ12.
  • Fling a Light into the Future: The computers in Chateau Duclare have several messages written by Beth, who notes that she expects her time is short, and giving Nicolette instructions on how to utilize the equipment and connections she'd built up in the interim.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Right after you first arrive in Paris, Tong calls to let you know about the history of the area, but seems to be suffering from a lingering cough...
    • If you manage to sneak up on a certain pair of MJ12 troopers in the city core, you'll hear them talking about how UNATCO knows exactly where JC is, as they're using the Echelon IV system to track him.
    • Talking with Jaime enough after the main conversation reveals that, due to him sticking around longer (as opposed to leaving for Hong Kong if it was suggested for him to join the resistance), he is aware that Carter has been let go by UNATCO, and is voluntarily seeking out a man named "Gary Savage" at a place called "Vandenberg"...
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: In one of the few straight examples in the game, the player can kill Chad in the Catacombs, but when they talk to the two women about Silhouette in the club, JC tells them that Chad is still alive (however, there may also be an instance of Developer's Foresight, as noted above).
  • Harassing Phone Call: In the first area (before the catacombs), investigating a building across the street from the catacombs entrance and picking up a ringing phone results in an anonymous voice (Icarus) that insists JC become part of the "New World Order" or else.
  • In the Blood: Nicolette decides to continue her mother's work after Everett contacts them at the DuClare household, and he notes that she is wise just like her mother.
  • Kick the Dog: Icarus casually mentions that Beth's corpse was dissected and put in cryonic storage while JC and Nicolette are walking around the abandoned DuClare residence.
  • Kleptomaniac Hero: Briefly discussed — if you choose to break into any of the flats in the Paris downtown area, both Tong and Icarus will bring up the issue; the former, by noting that doing so will likely provoke an armed response from the cops, and the latter asking JC to consider his reasoning for doing so. In one of the flats, the couple inside will order you to get out, and if you keep trying to talk to them, they will engage hostilities.
  • Large Ham: Aimee, the Crazy Cat Lady, has this in spades. Almost all of her dialogue is delivered in an over-the-top, exaggerated accent:
    '''HOORAH! My kitties! Now they can go out and play, and not get eaten!
  • La RĂ©sistance: Silhouette (led by Chad), as well as Nicolette (who takes up her mother's work).
  • Love Hurts: Subverted. Camille (the dancer in Club La Porte de L'Enfer) suggests that JC is looking for Nicolette because he's in love, and tells him not to waste his time because she's already in love with Chad. JC remarks that he's not in love, and just needs to find her to discuss business.
  • No Hero Discount: Averted. In the metro station, Defoe will give a major discount on his goods if the player clears out the MJ12 troops nearby.
  • Properly Paranoid: The first two MJ12 soldiers you can come across in the Catacombs have an ambient conversation where they talk about how paranoid Hela (the Woman in Black leading the unit) is, and then mention that they always feel like someone is about to sneak up on them...
  • Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: The couple you find in one of the Paris apartments are heard making plans to flee the country the next morning, with both of them planning to head to a mountainous region (like North Dakota) and hide out as they wait to see what happens with the government coup.
  • Sequence Breaking:
    • If you have the requisite skill in lockpicking and/or enough lockpicks, you can get the Blast Door key in the Catacombs from a cabinet opposite Chad's room and sail on through, completely ignoring the Hostage Situation in the process.
    • The player can also lockpick the back door to the club instead of paying the steep cover at the front entrance. Subverted if you go back to the front, when the doorman angrily stops you and demands that you pay up; the player can either honor his request or tell him to go pound sand.
  • Shoplift and Die: Stealing is punished in Paris. There are several completely optional locations that are people's living quarters. If you are caught breaking into them, the Parisian police go after you. One house will have the owner attack you after you attempt to talk to him a few times.
  • Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!:
    • Subverted with the young boy in the local café, who seems to be blissfully unaware that he's been recruited by a paramilitary organization that is looking to overthrow the government. Interestingly, it's his parents who are arguing about his morality, with his mother appearing to sympathize with her son's new job, and his father trying to argue against it.
    • If you speak to Nicolette enough, it becomes obvious that she's not entirely innocent even then (and that she sees her alliance with Chad and Silhouette through very cynical eyes - considering their value as a tool of the Illuminati just like her mother did).
  • Spotting the Thread: Tong realizes that the local bakery in Paris has more to it than it lets on, as he muses aloud about why a business would have heavy-duty security inside. He turns out to be correct, as picking a grate behind the service counter reveals that the store is running a Zyme-dealing operation, of which JC can steal several vials to sell to Renault at the nearby hostel.
  • Stockfemur Bone: There are skulls and femur bones scattered throughout the Paris catacombs.
  • Video Game Caring Potential: You can rescue a Silhouette member from MJ12 - if you do so, her child repeatedly thanks you for saving her life. Although...
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential:
    • There's really nothing stopping the player from massacring everyone in the Silhouette bunker and taking the key to the exit door themselves, thus skipping the entire fight in the MJ12 bunker.
    • It's possible to go around in the city core breaking into homes, shooting random civilians, clubgoers and police officers with no penalty whatsoever.
  • Vulnerable Civilians: Nearly everyone in the level (besides Nicolette) can be killed, including the Silhouette members and city residents.
  • What Measure Is a Mook?: Discussed at length. MJ12 has apparently conscripted a young boy to fight for them, and their parents are debating the ethics and consequences of the boy's actions. The father believes that it is good that the son has a job, even if he's at risk of being killed by enemy combatants like JC, while the mother is grief-stricken and begs him not to kill her son.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: The bartender in the Paris downtown hostel is openly supportive of the "government's" actions, claiming that the operation will be over soon and the authorities need to impose martial law to pull Paris out of the "depression" it's been forced into. When JC points out that the paramilitary forces are part of MJ12, the bartender dismisses it, claiming he's heard the stories all before and that the government would have no reason to deliberately pull the country into economic turmoil just to advance their goals.
  • You Bastard!: The player can get this several times, depending on their playstyle.
    • In the café, you can meet the parents of a MJ12 trooper. The father will be a bit accepting about his son's potential death at the hands of the player, seeing what he and the rest of MJ12 are doing, whereas the mother will beg you not to kill him.
    • Icarus will call you out (and implore you to join the "new world order") if you decide to break into the homes of Parisian citizens. However, considering one of the (two) homes you can break into is that of a suspected arms dealer, which is hiding weapons that are likely illegal, Icarus' response falls somewhat flat.
    • The other home you can break into has a man and woman talking about going to America. If the player tries to talk to them, they respond "Hey, this is our home!" and "Get out!". If spoken to enough, they'll pull out batons and start beating JC.

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