Deus Ex: The Fall



Deus Ex: The Fall is a title developed for Apple, Android mobile devices and PC. Set in the Deus Ex universe, it is the fourth game of the series and the first to be released on mobile platforms. The game is a sequel to the novel Deus Ex: Icarus Effect.

Premise
The year is 2027 -- a golden era for science, technology and human augmentation, but also a time of great social divide and global conspiracy. Ben Saxon, a former British SAS soldier who underwent physical augmentation, is desperate for the truth behind the drug conspiracy. Betrayed by his private military employers, the Tyrants, not only is his own life at risk, but for all augmented humans, time is running out...

Plot
The game begins with former SAS soldier Ben Saxon and former Secret Service agent Anna Kelso recovering in a safehouse in Costa Rica. Saxon recounts some of the major events of Icarus Effect, Including the accident that killed his Belltower Squadmates in Australia, the assassination of Mikhail Kontarsky in the Hotel Novoe Rostov, and his escape from the Tyrants aboard their private Jet. During these flashbacks, Kelso goes into shock from neuropozyne withdrawal. Saxon uses the last of their reserves treating her, and asks Janus for help on where to find more. Janus advises him to venture to nearby Panama City via train, and seek out doctor on the run Alvarez Araujo. Leaving Kelso behind to recover from her seizures, Saxon departs for Panama.

In Panama, Ben finds Dr. Araujo at an improvised free clinic in the Panama City Slums. The doctor gives him a sample of an off-brand alternative, Zaaphire Biotech's Riezene, but Saxon elects to search for a nu-poz connection as he doubts the product's safety. The doctor directs him to meet with LIMB surgeon Camila Cardoso for a supply, to which she obliges so long as he helps her investigate the local trafficking of Riezene. After infiltrating the hideout of the local Skulls gang, Ben discovers a clandestine Belltower truck unloading the drugs, suggesting a sinister conspiracy: someone high-up at Zaaphire has been intentionally dumping the drugs in Panama City despite (or maybe because of) its limited clinical testing. Cardoso agrees to send antiglial drugs to the safehouse, and gives him the location of a possible pilot to Zaaphire's Headquarters in Australia, the Belltower operative Alex Vega.

In the Nightshades Club, Vega tells Saxon that she would indeed fly him to Australia, but is currently in the midst of a job. She is currently assigned to protect WHO agent Phil Parker, who is himself investigating Riezene, but Vega fears for his safety. If Saxon can convince him to pick a new pilot, she will agree to abandon her job and take him to Zaaphire HQ. After breaking into Parker's suite at the top of the Hotel Etana, the agent admits to Saxon that Riezene is not ready for market yet, and he plans to go public as a whistleblower for the events. Saxon is too late, however, as a Tyrants VTOL blows open the window to the suite, and a newly augmented Sam Duarte shoots Parker dead, revealing him to not only be alive, but working for the Tyrants. Before he can kill his former squadmate, security forces begin to converge on the hotel, forcing the squad to leave.

With the Tyrants now in Panama City, and aware of Saxon and Kelso's presence, Ben asks Kelso to leave the Safehouse, and he goes to Vega for a flight to Australia as soon as possible. She begrudgingly accepts the job, knowing this will probably end her career with Belltower, but cannot retrieve her VTOL until the company safeguards are removed. She asks him to infiltrate the local XNG Shipping Facility, which houses a clandestine Belltower training center underneath. In the base, Ben deactivates the locking mechanism and Vega agrees to meet him at the Hotel Etana Helipad, a difficult task considering Belltower has declared the site a crime scene. After reaching the top of the hotel, Saxon clears the helipad of an 80-X Boxguard, allowing the pilot to successfully land and pick him up. They depart for Kelso in Costa Rica, and ultimately, Australia.

The game ends with Duarte and Jaron Namir apologizing to Bob Page for failing to kill Saxon and Kelso. Duarte vows to kill the rogue Tyrant before he can cause any more trouble. The screen then cuts to a "To be continued" card, hinting at another game starring the couple.

Characters

 * Alex Vega
 * Alvarez Araujo
 * Anna Kelso
 * Ben Saxon
 * Camila Cardoso
 * Cobra
 * Diego
 * Janus
 * Jaron Namir
 * Lawrence Barrett
 * Mikhail Kontarsky
 * Sam Duarte
 * Scott Hardesty
 * Yelena Fedorova

World Locations

 * Costa Rica
 * Moscow
 * Panama
 * The Tyrant Jetliner

Development
In March of 2013, Square Enix trademarked and registered domains linked to the Deus Ex series: DeusExTheFall.com and DeusExTheFall.net, but nothing official was released. However, on June 03, 2013, Deus Ex: The Fall was teased on Twitter by Human Revolution developer Eidos Montreal in a subtle tweet, which said "Are YOU ready for The Fall?". Hours later, a new tweet was released, saying "Who is Ben Saxon?", suggesting a connection with the book Deus Ex: Icarus Effect. Another tweet, which said "Where will YOU take The Fall?" with a short teaser, reveals that an announcement will be made on June 05, 2013, a few days from E3.

On June 05, 2013, Eidos Montreal officially announced Deus Ex: The Fall for tablets and mobile devices.

Reception
The iOS Release of the game met with mixed critical reception, averaging scores of 69/100 on Metacritic and 70% on Gamerankings. Reviewers agreed that despite The Fall being an overall shorter, worse written and less complex Deus Ex game than it's predecessors, the game was still excellent by Mobile Standards, and more or less an acceptable entry in the series. One of the lowest review scores was by Eurogamer's Christopher Dolan, who criticized the game's poor visuals, controls, combat and even story, in addition to poor performance by the game itself. He assigned the game a total score of 5/10, one of the lowest by a major reviewer, but both Metacritic and Gamerankings recognize reviewers that gave the game a 4/10. User reviews were far more negative, averaging 4.4/10 on Metacritic.

In early 2014, the game was ported to Android Operating System and Windows. The Windows release saw much worse reception, this time averaging 45/100 and 44% on Metacritic and Gamerankings, respectively. Critics cited the minimal effort done in porting the game, including features left in from the mobile release, such as the inventory shop, lack of a jump button, and permanently bound controls. Andy Kelly of PC Gamer described the game as "truly one of the worst PC ports [he had] played in some time", and YouTube consumer advocate Totalbiscuit condemned the game in a "review" on his channel. This backlash lead to Square Enix releasing a small patch in August that allowed mappable controls, added more audio options and fixed some of the more noticable bugs, but as of January 2015 no further patches have been released for the game.

Sales figures on The Fall are as of yet unknown, as Apple, Samsung and Valve are all reluctant to release any metrics, but as of the 18-month mark since the original iOS release, no public talks of a new mobile game have been seen or heard of from Square Enix, N-Fusion or Eidos Montreal. Coupled with the strong negative public reception of the game, Square Enix may be waiting to release a more polished mobile title, or even abandon the platform entirely.