Hengsha



Hengsha is a densely-populated island off the coast of Shanghai, on which a second street level has been built above ground level, on top of an enormous structure called the Pangu. Nicknamed the Rose of the Yangtze River, it is at the heart of the global augmentation industry, with Tai Yong Medical headquartered within the city.

Background
Hengsha is the second city that Jensen will travel to in 2027. After defeating Lawrence Barrett, Jensen is instructed to go to an apartment complex in Heng Sha known as the Court Gardens, where he will find the hacker he is looking for. Hengsha is the second major city hub, and it is here that Jensen will meet Zhao Yun Ru for the first time.

The city is divided into three major districts with various levels and sublevels. Jensen will first touch down on the roof level of the main district, which is home to the Hung Hua Hotel and the Hive. The Daigong district to the east is where the LIMB clinic and Alice Garden Pods is located. Finally, the Youzhao district to the west is a primarily residential district and is where the Court Gardens are located. There is also a sewer network underneath the city.

Behind the scenes

 * The dual-layer principle was also used in Seattle in Deus Ex: Invisible War. There, a rich-poor divide was very much in effect. Also a city within Final Fantasy VII (Square Enix) had a similar design.

Developer quotes
''Shanghai's Hengsha is a lot more into the trans-humanist thing. It's a lot more accepted there - it's the Silicon Valley of all cybernetics. Within the art direction everything that's more like that is more golden, and a lot more towards the cyber-renaissance. The dual layer is inspired by a mockumentary we saw quite a while ago, which appeared to be a real documentary about Hong Kong... In the game the idea isn't that it's the poor at the bottom and the rich at the top; the bottom used to be the Mecca of cybernetics, a lot of the headquarters of the great labs and manufacturing plants are there, it's just that when they built above it they chose a different architectural direction. So above they have new universities and new headquarters, but the bottom isn't a slum - there isn't an old school dichotomy. We put a lot of stuff in the game, like you'll see those student-types from the upper level coming downstairs at night to party, and hit the bars and brothels.'' - Jonathan Jacques-Belletête