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Howard Strong is an up-and-coming member of Majestic 12. He appears as a minor antagonist in Deus Ex.
Biography[]
An engineer by training, Howard Strong sought to rise through the ranks of MJ12. Strong was an MJ12 asset stationed at a missile silo that houses a nuclear missile.[1] When MJ12 troops took control of the silo, Bob Page placed Strong in charge of the MJ12 operation at the silo, which entails the launching the missile against Vandenberg Air Force Base.[2]
At the missile silo, Strong leads a formidable force of MJ12 Troopers, Commandos, and Men in Black, who have either killed or imprisoned the entire workforce of the base. JC Denton arrives at the base to deactivate the missile, but he ends up rerouting the missile to be launched against Area 51 instead. When JC reaches the launch chamber, Strong is aboard a forklift, attempting to destroy the missile manually.[3] However, Strong is unable to accomplish his task, and meets defeat at the hands of JC.
Description[]
Interactions[]
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This character is involved in missions. | 12th Mission - Missile Silo |
Killing or incapacitating Howard Strong is part of a mission objective at the missile silo. When JC steps on the floor of the silo where Strong is located, Strong will begin throwing LAMs and following up with his Plasma Rifle.
Notes[]
- If the player manages to climb his forklift (a fairly difficult task, as Howard will be shooting at the player the entire time), he will attack the player with a crowbar, making him one of the only enemies in the game to do so.
- If the player goes to the level above him (level 3), Howard will be unable to hurt the player. A resourceful player can exploit this and kill him without facing his explosives.
- It is not uncommon for Howard to kill himself with his own LAMs.
- If the player has fully-augmented legs, it is possible to jump onto Strong's head from level six; this will understandably result in his immediate demise without having to fight him at all.
- The majority of Strong's lines go unheard due to being played in order, instead of randomly like other NPCs.
Trivia[]
- Howard Strong was originally planned to be a rival to Gary Savage, and the two would have appeared in subplot that was cut from the game. Howard Strong was planned to be a key member of the "Raiders," a faction seeking to take control of Vandenberg Air Force Base from the "Salvagers," a faction led by Gary Savage. The storyline would also have involved a love affair between Gary Savage's daughter Tiffany and Howard Strong's son Ned Strong. Over the course of development, the battle between the Raiders and the Salvagers was changed to one between Majestic 12 and X-51, and Howard Strong's role was repurposed to appear at the missile silo instead of Vandenberg.[4]
- In the character backstories in design document v.13.12, Howard Strong is described a former X-51 scientist who defected to the side of Majestic 12. This backstory detail of being an X-51 defector, which would have made him a defector of an organization that had defected from Majestic 12, was cut from the final game.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ 1st Force Recon Company Log
- ↑ Dialogue between MJ12 troopers at the missile silo ("So's Page. He hands over an entire operation to an opportunist like Howard Strong.")
- ↑ Dialogue from Bob Page ("We have a few minutes to kill before we destroy the missile") and Howard Strong ("This baby's about to blow!")
- ↑ "Behind the Scenes Look in the Making of Deus Ex." Deusex-Machina.com. February 2001 (dated on another page). Archived from the original on April 9, 2001.
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