Hotfoot on 16/9/2001 at 03:39

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+++Warning, spoilers ahead+++

First of all, before I got the full version of DX, I played the heck out of the demos, which allowed me to become quite skilled in the first two "levels" (I still see DX as a game without levels, due to the way it flowed). When I got the full game, I went through the early portions of the game in what my friends have labelled "Ghandi Style". Silent takedowns were good, but non-lethal takedowns were best. Up until the point where you join the NSF, the only NSF troops I killed were the ones that had hostages. The way I figured it, these people were misguided. I was not there to play tribunal, I was a law enforcement officer. It was my job to bring in the bad guys so that they could stand trial in a court of law. Shooting at me didn't sign their death sentence, but it would certainly not help matters when they faced judgement.

The one thing I would not abide, however, was the NSF that decided to take hostages and use them as human shields. It's one thing to make a political statement, to try and kill the people who you have declared as the enemy (UNATCO, SWAT, riot cops, and others who knew what they were in for when signing up for their jobs). It's another thing entirely to put innocent civilians in the line of fire, and those that tried were taken down in the fastest, most effective way possible to ensure that the hostages were not harmed in any way. If that meant killing the terrorists, so be it. <IMG SRC="mad2.gif" border="0">

Once I turned away from UNATCO, I refused to kill my former comrades. They might think that they "know what they signed up for," but in reality, they were being duped by something behind the shadows. They were just as misguided as I had believed the NSF to once be.

In fact, when you have to escape the former NSF HQ after sending Paul's message, I opted to take the path of least resistance, so to speak, and jumped from the roof in order to avoid having to face the guards inside the building. Since I was using the run silent aug instead of the run fast aug, I took some damage, but it was worth it, IMO. :)

Now I wasn't able to beat Anna Navarre in the subway station (I was geared for mostly close-combat, stealth, hacking, and avoidance in what I saw as true Garrett style), not that I didn't try. I was under the impression she would use lethal force with me, and I had no illusions about her being "misguided". In my view, she was a seriously twisted individual, a psychopathic killer with no remorse or feelings whatsoever. I threw LAMs at her, for what little good it did me (meaning: none).

The MJ12 facility is where things started to take an interesting turn. Anna Navarre taunted me in my cell, I was told I was going to die slowly and painfully, and pretty much everything I had been told was a lie. My world was very slowly falling to pieces, and I was in the middle of an enemy installation, surrounded by MJ12 troopers, strange genetic mutations, and to top it all off, my brother was dead.

MJ12 was kidnapping innocent doctors, scientists, mechanics, and civilians to work in their facility as slave labor, and were more than likely behind every lie I was told at UNATCO. The troopers weren't dupes, they were willing participants in the whole thing, and were being used as the msucle to keep the unwilling civilian slaves in line. At first, I attempted to preserve the sanctity of life, but for what? What courts would I go to in order to bring these perpetrators to justice? The "system" wasn't just corrupt, it was controlled by the puppetmasters of MJ12.

In short, J.C. Denton (meaning, of course, I) lost it. I found the silencer weapon mod and things very quickly went to hell. Two MJ12 troopers that I had knocked out became Kharakian Kibble and Bits (I unleashed the Kharakians on the two other guards outside the medical area where Paul's body was being held) so that I could sneak past unnoticed. The area that marked the end of the MJ12 facility became a killing ground, as I got to field test my newly-silenced sniper rifle for the first time in that large, oval-shaped room. Was it justice? Vengeance? Rage? It's hard to say, but it was most certainly a loss of innocence for J.C. Denton.

Throughout the rest of the game, MJ12 was on a blacklist. Local police, military, civilians, etc. were still given a good chance to think about what they did in slumberland, but armed MJ12 personell were not given special treatment. The most efficient way was the way used, be it lethal or non-lethal. Interestingly enough, I didn't kill Maggie Chow, I just knocked her out when she came at me wielding that Dragon's Tooth Sword in the MJ12 facility in Hong Kong.

Now, J.C. being the stealthy person that he was in Hong Kong, got in and out both times as quickly and efficiently as he could. The first time, specifically, I missed a lot of stuff, so after Jock came to pick me up, I had him wait for a little bit so that I could attend to some unfinished business.

J.C. was so horribly disgusted and outraged by the actions of MJ12 that out of spite, he went back to their Hong Kong facility, walked in through the front door (or elevator, as the case was), and unleashed some retribution for those that had suffered at the hands of MJ12's machinations. At this point, going into the facility again was not needed for any mission objective or goal (though I was curious as to what all I missed in my previous visits), it was, for J.C., an act of defiance against MJ12 and all it stood for. It was a slap in the face to the head honcho, who would no doubt watch as one man walked in through the front door and cleaned house. As one man took everything MJ12 could possibly throw at him in Hong Kong and emerged victorious. As that one man walked out of the facility leaving behind one crystal-clear message in his wake, "Your time is over."

-Hotfoot
"Okay, so I got a little into it."

Fred Chook on 23/9/2001 at 11:20

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My perspective-

Civilians - Never harm
Civilians who attack - Tranquilise or ignore
Johnny - Decapitation
NSF - Tranq.
UNATCO - Tranq.
The UNATCO that theorised that the people at the top of the pyramid are the most important (Sergeant Berry, I recall) - Stabbed until very sorry
The UNATCO that theorised that the people at the bottom of the pyramid are the most important (Collins, if the other was Berry) - Given a great big drink and a lot of money and a plane ticket to Hong Kong
Cops - Dumbarses. Ignore.
Anna - Murder horribly
Gunther - Tranq.
MJ12 - Decapitated
Commandos - Inventive deaths. Putting a single hole in a gas canister... non-tranq darts...
PIB - Does it matter? Boom.

As you can see, I've got it all worked out.

<BLOCKQUOTE><FONT size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">Spoiler:</font><DIV STYLE="background-color:#000080"><FONT color="#000080"> w00t to the New Dark age! </FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>

Sephious on 17/10/2001 at 00:22

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You don't have to "kill" Gunther or Anna. When you say their killphrases hit them with the prod in the few seconds they stand there and shake and they will fall unconsious without detonating (found that out on accident). I prod Maggie as well...though I kill her annoying maid for the 10mm ammo.

August on 27/10/2001 at 15:24

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I started out killing NSF but then began using the prod and tranq darts not because of the lecture from paul, but at the beginning of the game these are the effective silent one shot weapons. (Though the darts are only good if you can wait the 10-15 seconds)

I also tried to avoid killing UNATCO troops. By the time I met the MJ troopers I was: a) running low on ammo for the Xbow and prod, and b) finally good enough with the assault and sniper rifle. It depended how I felt, if I wanted to go sneaking around or felt a bit quilty about all the killing would knock the MJ guys out. Other times: Bang!

The Commandos and MIB were way to dangerous to play around with, the sniper rifle, at distance was the safest and best method.

One other thing: When was the last time you felt guilt/remorse over killing in a computer game?

Shadowlurker on 1/11/2001 at 03:40

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My approach is pretty much like Fone Bone's except for the sword fight. I usually knock UNATCO unconscious. If a UNATCO troop fires on me, I'll probably try to to tranq him. However, those ones that see you and shoot at you in the UNATCO HQ are your friends, I mean, they know you personally. So I won't kill them from behind, but if they shoot at me, I have no qualms about whipping out the pistol and doing some damage. Just following orders does not justify those troops' shooting at JC, especially when they know who he is and know he's a good man. They know who they're shooting at, they know exactly who they're trying to kill and who he is as a person.