The Deus Ex series of first-person action RPGs is set in a dark futuristic cyberpunk environment in which various notorious organizations and secret societies (including The Illuminati, the Knights Templar, Majestic 12, and FEMA!) compete for control of the world. Not surprisingly, Deus Ex gave players the option to play through using violence— but also gained notoriety for allowing players impressive freedom to avoid killing altogether. The game is now considered a classic that was praised for its impressive implementation of "freedom of choice," as well as its plot.
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| Screenshot from the original Deus Ex |
The first entry in the series ("Deus Ex," released in 2000) has since been followed by quite a few sequels. We've seen mixed reports about exactly how much violence was mandatory in each particular sequel, but all sound like noteworthy "pacifist challenge run" contenders at minimum, even though a few are said to have some unavoidable bosses. However, the most recent entry "Deus Ex: Mankind Divided" has been asserted to be a complete zero kill run enabled game in which it is definitely possible to win without killing anyone, including bosses.
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| Deus Ex: Mankind Divided |
This also appears to be true of the original Deus Ex: The original showed up on our radar some time ago for its rumored inclusion of non-lethal weapons, stealth, and the theme of transhumanism applied to the player character through "augmentation." (The latter got our attention since it made us hope we could install some kind of implants to accelerate our speed of movement, climb walls, evade foes, or at least make our player character more a tank who could 'take his lumps' while everyone else took shots at him...)
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| Screenshot from the original Deus Ex |
After a little more research, several sources appear to have confirmed that the original Deus Ex can indeed be completed as a zero kill run. We offer a spoiler warning here for those who prefer to stop reading and find out about all the details for themselves in their own run through the game...
If not: Some research initially pointed to the conclusion that one exception to the zero kill standard existed in Deus Ex, when a "boss" character named Anna Navarre supposedly had to be killed off to get a key to a vital doorway that supposedly couldn't be opened in any other way. Fortunately, we did not give up there, however..
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| Loyal UNATCO agent Anna Navarre says "I have come to watch you die." |
Further research led to some youtube links and forum posts proving that you actually don't have to hurt her at all to get that door open: The solution is admittedly somewhat counterintuitive since it involves chucking a grenade in her general direction to make her panic and open the otherwise unopenable doorway for you, but we saw Ms. Navarre run away alive and well from the scene with the door wide open, so it obviously can be done...
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| Anna Navarre will live happily ever after in our upcoming zero kill run through Deus Ex |
As for everyone else in the game: We also found an excellent looking Deus Ex game guide at Visual Walkthroughs that details how to win the entire rest of the game with zero kills. (That same guide originally claimed that blowing up Ms. Navarre was unfortunately mandatory, but later updated their guide with a link to another player who figured out how to get past her without bumping her off, and posted a gameplay video demonstrating it.)
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| Screenshot from the original Deus Ex |
Conclusion: It looks like both the original 2000 "Deus Ex" and the 2016 "Deus Ex: Mankind Divided" appear to be capable of being played as zero kill run games, and all other games on the list also make the "pacifist challenge" list by enabling players to avoid the vast majority of kills in the game, despite not meeting the purist zero kill standard of the other two...
