Deus Ex : Human Revolution - Chinese massacre

[JesterRaiin]

Hejo !
A few days ago i got my copy of DX:HR. I like it, despite many flaws and bugs. However...

Spoiler: I am curious of one thing regarding chinese episode...

So here it is : i or rather Adam "pre-Denton" walks into hotel, exchanges a few banters with hacker, then bam! - enter some armored sec guys, let the bloodbath begin. You know what i'm talking about.

So, i tried and tried and it seems there's no possibility to rescue all those people. Ok, i can live with it, though it's silly - enemies appearing out of nowhere, instantly killing everyone for no good reason, even with obvious enemy - Adam - dumping tons of hot lead on their heads... Nevermind.

What i'm curious about is : does anyone else find it strange and suspicious that there's no impact on the world ?

Massacre. Bloodbath. People died, slaughtered in broad daylight. There should be an outrage, protests, headlines all over the world and such. That's not a petty crime, that's not some "working girl" dissapearing in dark alley. Carmichael's death is mentioned in news. Tenths of people die and... nothing ?

I'm in Montreal right now, so it's possible for news to hit tabloids later on, but still, that'd be unconvincing since even now, in our pre-cyberpunk era information reaches people much, much faster. Weird. Or is it ?

 

[Wuggy]

You must remember that the next time the game picks off is about 6 months later (if I recall correctly). I'm sure a bunch of headlines and publicity was given to the event during that time.

 

[ultrachicken]

You must remember that the next time the game picks off is about 6 months later (if I recall correctly). I'm sure a bunch of headlines and publicity was given to the event during that time.

I don't think so. The game didn't have any time gaps that large, save for the part where Adam is rebuilt.

 

[ZZZappy]

No, but there was a fairly large gap in there somewhere. Maybe a month or so? I'll go look it up.

 

[Wuggy]

You must remember that the next time the game picks off is about 6 months later (if I recall correctly). I'm sure a bunch of headlines and publicity was given to the event during that time.

I don't think so. The game didn't have any time gaps that large, save for the part where Adam is rebuilt.

Oh crap, I think I read the OP wrong. I thought he actually meant the first level. Silly me.

 

[Zhukov]

Yes, it probably should have.

Although I suppose you could say that given how much nasty stuff is going on, a couple of dozen slum-dwellers being killed in China might not be considered a huge deal.

After all, how much do we hear about the many, many people being killed in South American slums every day?

 

[MattyDienhoff]

I did find that very odd in more ways than one. I thought perhaps it was meant to show how much power Tai-Yong Medical had over the media (that they could keep something so bad out of the news), but I'm really not feeling that. This was a massacre of at least a dozen people in a hotel in the middle of a densely populated city. There's no way people in the surrounding area didn't hear about it, whether the media adequately reported on it or not. Yet you don't see or hear the slightest hint that anything went on. No one even discusses it.

And that issue aside, Belltower's "kill everyone" tactics make absolutely no sense to me. I don't doubt that they're amoral PMCs who don't care about collateral damage, but I just don't see how going out of their way to hunt down and eliminate a bunch of unarmed bystanders who clearly aren't their targets helps them accomplish their mission. It's not as if they need to prevent anyone from witnessing their apprehension/killing of Jensen and Van Bruggen, they do what they want without having to explain why (like cordoning off Hengsha Court Gardens), but massacring a hotel full of innocents? That's definitely going to cause more problems for them down the line.

 

[Rhaff]

Hejo !
A few days ago i got my copy of DX:HR. I like it, despite many flaws and bugs. However...

Spoiler: I am curious of one thing regarding chinese episode...

So here it is : i or rather Adam "pre-Denton" walks into hotel, exchanges a few banters with hacker, then bam! - enter some armored sec guys, let the bloodbath begin. You know what i'm talking about.

So, i tried and tried and it seems there's no possibility to rescue all those people. Ok, i can live with it, though it's silly - enemies appearing out of nowhere, instantly killing everyone for no good reason, even with obvious enemy - Adam - dumping tons of hot lead on their heads... Nevermind.

What i'm curious about is : does anyone else find it strange and suspicious that there's no impact on the world ?

Massacre. Bloodbath. People died, slaughtered in broad daylight. There should be an outrage, protests, headlines all over the world and such. That's not a petty crime, that's not some "working girl" dissapearing in dark alley. Carmichael's death is mentioned in news. Tenths of people die and... nothing ?

I'm in Montreal right now, so it's possible for news to hit tabloids later on, but still, that'd be unconvincing since even now, in our pre-cyberpunk era information reaches people much, much faster. Weird. Or is it ?

Since you are in Montreal, you should have noticed that Picus is completely empty, and seeing that you go to Picus relatively quickly after Chine, it is plausible that Picus was empty before the massacre.

You must remember that the next time the game picks off is about 6 months later (if I recall correctly). I'm sure a bunch of headlines and publicity was given to the event during that time.

I don't think so. The game didn't have any time gaps that large, save for the part where Adam is rebuilt.

There is a gap when you get on the ship, although it isn't 6 months. But like I said, Picus is empty, so there wouldn't be any news on the massacre.

 

[atol]

Have you not noticed the e-newspaper things? The media puts a spin on it because they're in the pockets of the big corporations, and any investigation from the government is dangerous and difficult because the corporations are so powerful. So everything gets brushed aside.

 

[DJDarque]

Yes, it probably should have.

Although I suppose you could say that given how much nasty stuff is going on, a couple of dozen slum-dwellers being killed in China might not be considered a huge deal.

After all, how much do we hear about the many, many people being killed in South American slums every day?

Alice Garden Pods wasn't really a slum, though. It was a lower-class hotely-thingy, but not really a slum.

 

[JesterRaiin]

Picus is empty, so there wouldn't be any news on the massacre.

I don't think so. There's whole Tai Yong Medical section between massacre and Picus. Also some Jensen's may fullfill their subquests then. That's enough time for any info to spread by both official and unofficial canals.
Also : Picus isn't disconnected from the world, there's no "4 emails per account" policy.

Yes, it probably should have.
Although I suppose you could say that given how much nasty stuff is going on, a couple of dozen slum-dwellers being killed in China might not be considered a huge deal.
After all, how much do we hear about the many, many people being killed in South American slums every day?

Probably. Life is cheap in DX reality, but... Let's think about it : bloody incident involving civilians, brave security AND augmented American spy ? C'mon ! Simpler events were more than enough to ignite wars or sanctions. That's not the WH40k setting where politics and diplomacy means "purge heretics" and "also purge their remains".

And that issue aside, Belltower's "kill everyone" tactics make absolutely no sense to me. I don't doubt that they're amoral PMCs who don't care about collateral damage, but I just don't see how going out of their way to hunt down and eliminate a bunch of unarmed bystanders who clearly aren't their targets helps them accomplish their mission. It's not as if they need to prevent anyone from witnessing their apprehension/killing of Jensen and Van Bruggen, they do what they want without having to explain why (like cordoning off Hengsha Court Gardens), but massacring a hotel full of innocents? That's definitely going to cause more problems for them down the line.

...That, and also let's not forget that checking all floors, all "rooms", killing all inhabitants in a matter of seconds seems impossible even for a squadron of heavily armed, augmented cyborgs. Really, it's just like three - four sentences exchanged between Adam and Van Bruggen.

Have you not noticed the e-newspaper things? The media puts a spin on it because they're in the pockets of the big corporations, and any investigation from the government is dangerous and difficult because the corporations are so powerful. So everything gets brushed aside.

That's why i mentioned Carmichael's death. Even though her case was dismissed, there was information about her "accident". Also, there are people all around who speak about different topics, for example : about missing "working girls". I don't think that such incident would go unnoticed. Changed, twisted, presented as an act of terrorism or something else : probably. Unnoticed : nope. It's a viral world afterall

 

[AlexiVolkov]

Well considering how Belltower is essentially the police for the Chinese government at that point, it is not hard to imagine they kept a pretty tight lid on it, or spun it in some direction to where it would have little impact.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

I am ashamed that so many people in here doubt the bravery and solidarity of the Belltower employees. They were trying to apprehend several dangerous terrorists inside the Alice Garden Pods whe the terrorists opened fire on the legitimate peacekeeping forces of the Belltower Corporation. Many civilians were caught in the ensuing firefight, initiated by the terrorists, and there was a regretably high number of civilian casualties. This is clearly just proof that Belltower needs even more funding and liberties in exercising their peace and law keeping mandate within Hengsha, as the criminal and dissident elements are growing yet more bold and dangerous.



That and the fact that it is possible that Belltower has no idea what "windmill" looks like and as such are killing everyone to make sure that they don't let him get away by mistaking him for just another civilian.