Liberty Island: An Excellent Beginning To Deus Ex

 Some of my previous entries have criticized poorly designed levels, so now I'll focus on one that did the job well.

Liberty Island is the first mission in Deus Ex, as well as the only part playable in the game's demo. You play as JC Denton, a new agent for UNATCO on his first day on the job. Your main goal is to capture a terrorist that's holed up in the statue and find out where the NSF took the stolen Ambrosia vaccine. As secondary objectives, you are asked to meet up with an informant named Harley Filben, as well as rescue Gunther Hermann, a captured UNATCO agent.

Just like the rest of the game, there's one major objective, but multiple ways of accomplishing it, and multiple other goals to pursue if you so desire. The level effectively gives you a taste of what to expect from the rest of the game, so I'll look at it piece by piece.

The Base of the Statue

The level starts at the docks, where you meet with your brother Paul. After explaining the situation, he offers you a choice of one of three weapons to add to your starting arsenal of a pistol and an electric prod. Your skillset and playstyle will likely determine what weapon is best for you.

• A crossbow, which falls under the Pistol skill. This can fire a few different types of darts, but is most useful with tranquilizer darts. Since knocking people out is quieter than killing them, it's best for stealth.
• A sniper rifle, which, obviously, is affected by your Rifle skill. This is best for people who like fighting, but don't necessarily go in guns blazing.
• A Guided Exposive Projectile, or GEP Gun, which is a Heavy weapon. Essentially, this is a rocket launcher. Because of the limited ammo, it's best used against the security droid out front (which is too strong to defeat with conventional firearms, and obviously can't be tranquilized).

Paul will respect your judgment, but seems happiest if you choose the tranquilizer darts. Initially, it seems like he'd prefer that you not kill anyone, but in light of later revelations that he's working with the NSF, he probably doesn't want you to kill any of his people. Incidentally, the crossbow is the easiest to acquire, since most NSF soldiers who aren't wielding pistols are carrying one, but on the other hand, ammunition is most plentiful for it.

Most of the level takes place around the statue, where there are NSF soldiers patrolling. As mentioned before, you can go straight in the front door if you're able to defeat the bot and the soldiers, but the game rewards you for exploring.

Behind the Statue, there's a small bunker. If you activate the forklift, you can ride the lift up to get around the arcing electricity to get some goodies and an exploration bonus.

At the north end of the island is another dock, where, you can meet up with Harvey Filben, your informant. Going to meet him gets you a picture of the NSF commander, and a recommendation that you not kill the commander.

Filben is accompanied by an associate who offers to sell you a few types of ammunition. Unlike most RPGs, even action RPGs, merchants in Deus Ex tend to offer only a few types of item for sale. It can be a good way to stock up on your favorite weapon's ammo, but isn't strictly necessary.

The Lower Statue

When it comes to getting inside, you have a choice- stealthily climb up the back of the Statue or go in the front, one of the more obvious examples of how you can often choose between frontal assaults or stealth in this game.

Gunther is imprisoned in a room on the ground floor of the Statue. He's easy to miss if you take the back way up the Statue, but if you do remember, you can sneak back downstairs, jump off the stairs and use the ventilation duct to get to him. He's guarded by a few NSF troopers, a security camera, and a laser tripwire in the doorway connecting the area around his cell to the rest of the statue. You'll probably need to neutralize the troopers somehow, and open his cell.

 If you do rescue him, he stubbornly defends his decision to not withdraw, and asks for your pistol. Not everyone is willing to help him, but those who do will be  rewarded by having him speak well of you in front of his colleague Anna Navarre. It's a small but significant example of how your actions have consequences later.

The Upper Statue

By the time you get past the area at the base of the Statue, the rest of it is relatively linear, a bit like the real life Statue.

You can get a bit of background information if you visit the Statue's head, and learn about how the French terrorist group Silhouette supposedly bombed the Statue. There's a bit more to it than that, but it's a good chance to learn more about the setting.

In the upper levels, you'll have to watch out for gas grenades. It's a good way to keep you on your toes, and to give players a use for their Demolitions skill, which makes disarming explosives easier. All of your skills are useful in some way or another on the Liberty Island mission, albeit dependent on which approach you choose and which path you take.

At the top of the statue, the NSF commander surrenders immediately, but defiantly refuses to tell you where the shipment is. At this point, you can kill him, or insist that he tell you where it is. He'll respond evasively to your questions, but sparing him is the right choice. As a bonus, you can talk to him two more times to get some information about why he believes the government is corrupt and subverting democracy. He's not only surprisingly eloquent for someone who's avoiding the questions, but has more of a point than J.C. Denton would like to admit.

UNATCO HQ

At this point, the mission is over. UNATCO troops will raid the island, killing all the NSF terrorists and confiscating their gear. All that's left is to report to UNATCO Headquarters.

At the gates, Paul will greet you. If you managed to get through the mission without killing many NSF members, he'll express appreciation, but if you killed a lot of people, he'll gently warn you about it. This goes to show that in early missions, keeping the body count low can earn you rewards.

You get a chance to meet some of your allies in UNATCO, characters who become important for the rest of the game. You also can find some hidden compartments in UNATCO, each of which has gear that you can use. That, combined with a UNATCO officer selling enemy gear, helps establish that someone is stealing from UNATCO, and you eventually find out the culprit's identity.

You can not only log into your email, but check out your colleagues' emails (which, improbably eough, does not result in any adverse consequences). If you search around enough, you'll eventually get some hints at the dark secrets UNATCO is hiding, which you will inevitably have to confront as you progress through the game.

After all your meetings are done, you and Paul will discuss your next assignment with Manderley- you take out the power generator in order to disable an EMP field and allow Paul to raid where the NSF is keeping the vaccine. Paul is cautious, but Manderley makes it clear that he will not accept failure on this mission.

Once the briefing is done, you then return to the docks where you reached the island, board the boat and head to your next assignment in Castle Clinton. At that point, the first level ends, as does the demo.

Conclusion

First levels often give a first impression of a game, which can be especially important when the level is used as a demo. Deus Ex's Liberty Island mission effectively establishes the game as an action-RPG with multiple tactical options and decisions that have short- and long-term consequences, sets up the story and ends with a hook that will help keep players' interest. First impressions are important, and levels like this helped Deus Ex earn its reputation as an FPS/RPG classic.