Deus Ex Ending

[ultrachicken]

It should go without saying that this thread will have spoilers.

Which ending for Deus Ex did you choose and why? If you made a save and then explored each ending like I did, then what decision would you make had that been in real life?

I would have chosen to join Helios, because I didn't trust the Illuminati, and returning the world to a bunch of city-states would most likely cause gangs, powerful corporations or militia groups to take control. Helios had proven to be a fairly good ruler with Hong Kong, or at least better than the Illuminati.

 

[klakkat]

I joined Helios. I didn't really trust the bastard, but it was a chance at immortality, and I trusted the other two less. So, I figured it was the bet with the highest chance of a positive outcome, both for me and whatever remains of the world (and I was sort of correct; it's the best choice for the world, but it's debatable whether much of 'you' survived the merger).

 

[IBlackKiteI]

I chose the merge with Helios one.
Kill Page and the Illuminati have control and the suckiness of the human race starts again, and blow the hell outta Area 51 and life will suck and the suckiness of the human race continues anyway.

Whereas in Bioshock I dont hesitate to kill a Little Sister cos i need ADAM, or save her cos I dont need it, I was thinking about what to do for a while.

I found it better to have a God Machine rule the world than narcissistic bigots.

 

[Cronqvist]

Oh god how long is it been? Must be nearly 10 years now... hrm thats a hard one. I recall seeing every of them, but i think took the new dark age first.

As for the reasoning, i guess i wasn't a fan of the illuminati endings and joining to that extend with a machine also didn't realy caught my taste. But, then again i was a brat at that time.

 

[Ashsaver]

To me, having 2 or 3 voices in my head or plunge the world into a dark age doesn't sounds like a great ideas, so i joined with Everett.

I figured ruling the world from the shadow sounds like a good idea,plus, there's Nicolette,and Paris,and wine,and Vaccine for Greydeath which is my main motivation for finishing the game in the first place.

 

[Withall]

I picked the Helios ending- it was canon, at least, it seemed to be. Also, I never liked the Illuminati- and returning the world into a dark age wasn't my idea of a good time.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

My first choice was the new dark age, and that is what I would have chosen again I think. The choice is basically between an obvious and stated dictatorship (merging with Helios), a hidden ogliarchy (the Illuminati) or wiping the page, giving people their freedom back and hoping they can work it out for themselves.

Neither ending is perfect, they all run a pretty high risk of failure or backfire. But I figured freedom, even if brief and with a loss of technology, was better than either of the "Let's rule!"-endings. I mean, we have no real evidence that Helios would actually make a capable leader and the Illuminati... Well, they weren't exactly God's finest children.

 

[klakkat]

My first choice was the new dark age, and that is what I would have chosen again I think. The choice is basically between an obvious and stated dictatorship (merging with Helios), a hidden ogliarchy (the Illuminati) or wiping the page, giving people their freedom back and hoping they can work it out for themselves.

Neither ending is perfect, they all run a pretty high risk of failure or backfire. But I figured freedom, even if brief and with a loss of technology, was better than either of the "Let's rule!"-endings. I mean, we have no real evidence that Helios would actually make a capable leader and the Illuminati... Well, they weren't exactly God's finest children.

Freedom in itself may be a noble goal, but all the evidence I've seen is that when given freedom, people squander it, while when given constrictions, people rise above them. I've yet to see a moving counter-argument; sure, I enjoy my personal freedom, but what do I accomplish? Nothing. Only while working, or while in threat of losing my livelihood, do I rise to my potential. Freedom, at the cost of the technology we worked so hard for, is far too high a price to pay, in my opinion (which is far from humble).

 

[Kabutos]

I joined with Helios. Daedalus was a bro for breaking me out of MJ12 and Icarus was plain awesome (ICARUS HAS FOUND YOU!!! RUN WHILE YOU CAN).

Also, did anyone else not like how they kind of combined all three endings into Invisible War? If they had just chosen one ending, then I wouldn't feel too bad about having a canonical ending, but they way they did it made me feel that my choice was useless.

 

[klakkat]

I joined with Helios. Daedalus was a bro for breaking me out of MJ12 and Icarus was plain awesome (ICARUS HAS FOUND YOU!!! RUN WHILE YOU CAN).

Also, did anyone else not like how they kind of combined all three endings into Invisible War? If they had just chosen one ending, then I wouldn't feel too bad about having a canonical ending, but they way they did it made me feel that my choice was useless.

Eh. Invisible War was a poor sequel to Deus Ex. The exploration element was about all I can recommend, but that's done better in Deus Ex and in more modern games like Fallout 3.

 

[Kabutos]

Eh. Invisible War was a poor sequel to Deus Ex. The exploration element was about all I can recommend, but that's done better in Deus Ex and in more modern games like Fallout 3.

Yeah; the whole combined three endings was one of the reasons I thought Invisible War was so bad.

I just hope they get their shit together for Human Revolution.

 

[Sacman]

I chose to party...

 

[Sacman]

I picked the Helios ending- it was canon, at least, it seemed to be. Also, I never liked the Illuminati- and returning the world into a dark age wasn't my idea of a good time.

actually DE:IW just made all the endings canon...

 

[Zacharine]

Merge with Helios.

City-states would have effectively been a reset button, with society-wise nothing learned nor gained from the past 1000 years.

Giving power to the Illuminati was extremely distasteful. There is no evidence that they can actually rule anyone effectively, while it would have also chained all humans to oligarchy. There is no evidence that the people would have been in any shape of form better off than with Helios ruling over them, but in both cases they would have no freedom.

Merge with Helios. A tyranny, plain and simple, but one where the ruler is without actual needs or fear of being supplanted. An enlightened dictator, doing it now and forever only for the people. At first, the loss of freedom would be jarring. But people would get used to it, and the golden age a global peace would bring would counterbalance it somewhat. And if at later stages freedom is deemed more necessary than now, then it can be given back to the people.

Helios won with his arguments, plain and simple.

 

[Hawk of Battle]

Merge with Helio. But not out of any desire to do "right" or "benevolence", more because at heart, I am a tyranical dictator who craves POWER! And the ability to be omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent and omni everything else, was to much to pass up.

 

[joshuaayt]

I quite liked Invisible War- I just thought I'd get that out of the way. It's become customary for me to state that on Deus Ex threads.
Anyway.
I chose the one that sided me with the more charismatic and less evil party- Helios.
Really, it was one of these three:
1. Let the bad guys since like half way through win,
2. Let that one punk send humanity into the goddamn dark ages
3. Place myself in a position of utmost power, or, at least, give myself some influence over the decisions made by the A.I I merged with.

 

[jezcentral]

I merged with Helios. The Illuminati ending was tempting, as it was a "maintaining the status quo" ending, and at least I'd have a hand in how the world was handled.

I never understood how Tracer Tong was a good guy. How is the Dark Ages a viable choice? Destroy civilisation to save it? Given the opportunity, I would kill him the moment I saw him.

 

[klakkat]

Helios seems to be the popular option, though it is nice to see some different reasoning behind choices. That is certainly what Deus Ex was about; WHY you do something is important as is WHAT you do.

Many materialist, selfish, selfless, pessimistic, and optimistic outlooks ended up with Helios as the answer.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

Freedom in itself may be a noble goal, but all the evidence I've seen is that when given freedom, people squander it, while when given constrictions, people rise above them. I've yet to see a moving counter-argument; sure, I enjoy my personal freedom, but what do I accomplish? Nothing. Only while working, or while in threat of losing my livelihood, do I rise to my potential. Freedom, at the cost of the technology we worked so hard for, is far too high a price to pay, in my opinion (which is far from humble).

Deus Ex is quite typical Cyberpunk in this respect. What good has all the technology done humanity? Several shadow organizations use it to spy on everyone and manipulate opinion, one of them used it to engineer a deadly disease and then monopolized the cure. Physical augmentations and nano-augmentations have plenty of potential, but who do we see using them throughout the game? Para-military factions manipulated by these same shadow organization. Despite all the technology people are starving, people are poor and destitute no matter were we go.

What Tong (Tung?) suggests is that by taking the technology that promoted the current world order away, we are also giving humanity a chance to start anew. By re-developing without the Illuminati or the Majestic XII or UNATCO, people get a chance to do it better the second time. To actually make technology work for the people and not against them.

 

[mad825]

I just hope they get their shit together for Human Revolution.

*humph*
you must have faith to have that much hope.
It looks like they have it screwed over already, the technology far more futuristic than DX.
both Jean and Anfossi seem to know more about IW than they do about DX.