Deus Ex: The Fall cut story content (Zaaphire Biotech facility)

The Zaaphire Biotech facility located in Canberra, Australia was originally planned to be the setting for next chapter of Deus Ex: The Fall following the Panama City chapter. However, the location and its associated story content were never released due to the cancellation of the continuation for Deus Ex: The Fall.

Information on an early build of the mission is known from game data found in Deus Ex: The Fall and also from early build footage released by N-Fusion Interactive, the game's developer. The general setting of the mission is consistent with the ending of the released part of Deus Ex: The Fall, in which Ben Saxon leaves Panama City for Canberra, Australia onboard Alex Vega's VTOL to investigate Zaaphire Biotech. However, the plot of the early build has elements that are inconsistent with the plot of the released game.

Plot summary
Data in the game files describe the following plot:

Ben has learned that that Dr. Isaac Tiven created an implant in his head known as the "Argus Implant." Ben heads to Zaaphire Biotech's facility in Canberra to confront him. As Ben moves deeper into Zaaphire's facility, it becomes apparent that they were expecting him. Inside the facility, the offices have been evacuated. Heading deeper into the facility, Ben passes Zaaphire's security check point before entering the labs, where he confronts Isaac Tiven. He learns about Zaaphire's plan to go public and the rapid unethical testing they have done with Riezene to move it to market more quickly. Isaac informs Ben that an old friend is waiting for him deeper in the labs.

Ben finds his Zaaphire Helipadold squad mate, Sam Duarte, deep in Zaaphire Biotech. It seems that Sam is being recruited by the Tyrants to take Ben's place. Sam thinks Ben betrayed him and is hellbent on revenge. Before they get too far into their conversation, Jaron Namir, Lawrence Barrett, and Yelena Fedorova appear, knocking Ben unconscious. Namir was sure to let Ben know that he could kill him if he wanted to. When Ben comes to his senses, he is aboard Alex's VTOL. They trace the Tyrants and head to New York City.

For the plot summary of the next chapter, please see Deus Ex: The Fall cut story content (New York City).

Inconsistencies with the released story
In the plot described by the game files, Ben he has already discovered the "Argus Implant" inside him by the time he heads to Zaaphire's facility. This Argus Implant is not mentioned in the released game and may have been a cut story element. Additionally, the reunion between Ben Saxon and Sam Duarte first occurs within the Zaaphire facility. In contrast, in the released game, Ben encounters Sam in Panama City before he heads to Australia. These inconsistencies suggest that changes were made to the game's story by the time of the game's release, and that the originally written Zaaphire facility segment described in the game files would have needed revision in order to continue the story.

Locations
The following locations are mentioned in the game files. The game files also include corresponding data for each location. Note that the context data use the older spelling of "Zaphire" (with only one "a"). The game files also contain loading screen images for the locations. Cropped loading screen images are shown in the table below, while the full loading screen images are shown in the gallery at the end of this article.

Location names in game data
The following table lists variant identifiers that are used to refer to the above locations. The leftmost column shows the location names specified in the stringtable01 internal XML file in the game data. The rightmost column shows the game script class that appears in Assembly-CSharp.dll for the given location. Compared to the New York City chapter, the game scripts for the locations in the Australia chapter do not contain substantive content.

Other data in the game file refer to the locations using the acronym VS, which stands for "Vertical Slice," a term that is used in game development to refer to a demonstrative early build of the game.

Footage of early build
N-Fusion Interaction released a video in 2015 containing excerpt footage of a playthrough of an early build of the mission. In the early build, Adam Jensen's model is used as a placeholder for Ben Saxon's model. The dialogue in the footage also uses placeholder voice acting. The footage, which shows main mission marker "M1" throughout the video, indicates that the Zaaphire facility segment was designed to be a single mission, as opposed to a city hub area with multiple main missions.

The early build footage is generally consistent with the plot information in the game files. Similar to what is suggested by the game files data, the reunion between Ben Saxon and Sam Duarte occurs inside the Zaaphire facility instead of at the end of the Panama City segment in the released game. The early build footage also shows an early model of Sam Duarte depicting Sam as still recovering from his injuries sustained during Operation Rainbird. The footage confirms that Sam's role in the story was modified during the course of development.

Consistent with the game data, the footage uses the early spellings of "Zaphire" and "Riezol" (instead of the in-game spellings "Zaaphire" and "Riezene"). The original pre-release title "Deus Ex: Icarus Effect," which appears in the game files, also appears at the end of the footage. These similarities suggest that the early build footage and the data-mined game files both portray roughly the same early version of the story.

Related gameplay content

 * The game files also include "Australian" versions of two weapons. For further information, see Deus Ex: The Fall Cut Weapons.
 * The game files include the following turntable flags that appear to be intended for use in unlocking turntable models: Turntable_Isaac, Turntable_ZapphireMaleTech, Turntable_ZapphireFemaleTech.

Gallery
The following images can be found in the game files.