Dummied Out / Deus Ex

Deus Ex and its sequels have a significant account of unfinished, unimplemented or bugged content, some of which has been restored by mods or fan patches over the years.

Deus Ex

• General:
  • An early idea that never panned out would have involved the player choosing to stay with UNATCO instead of transmitting the NSF emergency signal. While it's never been confirmed just how much was completed before the idea was scrapped, a conversation can be accessed during the "UNATCO Transmitter" mission that has JC telling Paul that UNATCO isn't perfect (but he'll stay with them anyway), and, later on, the troops on the Wall Cloud superfreighter having unused friendly lines if their "loyalty" IDs are changed. It's believed the idea was scrapped either because it was much shorter (content-wise) than the NSF plotline, or there wasn't enough time to finish it.
  • There are all sorts of deleted items and NPC's that can be found in the gamecode, including an alternate Chinese security bot. Many of these are integrated into various mods, including the GMDX and the Lay D Denton Project mods.
  • There were originally plans to give the player the choice between controlling a male or female version of JC, with some concept art and in-game dialogue (enemies referring to a "guy in a coat", gender-neutral language referring to the Dentons used in the opening scene, cheat commands identifying JC by the "male" gamefile) programmed in, though this was seemingly scrapped early in development. This was a feature later fully implemented in Deus Ex: Invisible War, and implemented for the original game in 2021 with the "Lay D Denton Project", which seamlessly adds a female version of the lead character to the game, complete with a fully-recorded script for her lines and slightly-alternate level encounters to reference the change. The same mod also restored numerous small bits of content for use in fan projects going forward, including restored minor dialogue and cut items.
  • In a manner similar to that of Final Fantasy VII's PC port, the Game of the Year Edition of Deus Ex mistakenly uses versions of each level that are older than the retail release, making this trope prevalent as it unintentionally added bugs that either caused content to be unimplemented, bugged out or glitched. Notably, many of these glitches or bugs were reverted in mods such as Deus Ex: Transcended and GMDX, which work to restore the content and correctly fix various level triggers and conversations. A map patch restores the "latest" version of the maps.
  • Hundreds of combat barks and lines of NPC dialogue related to the player attacking them or switching their moods were planned to be included but never play, either due to typos in the gamecode or poorly-implemented programming. Some mods restore the balance of these combat barks, which encompass a large number of the major characters in the game.
  • Early betas and prerelease videos showed off a different key system — the player would have had to find associated keycards for use with a "cardreader" at various points. This was simplified to the Nanokey system, but the assets for the original system can still be found, in various forms of completion, within the gamefiles.
  • While several levels were cut long before development, the "White House" level (the first designed for the game) was intended to be a major part of the plot, and has numerous assets and files still left behind in the gamecode. Information about it is scarce, but some developer comments have suggested that the intended plot would be of JC visiting the property to get advice from President Mead and/or his cabinet, discovering that Mead is a clone, and having to rescue his daughter, Sarah.^note Sarah Mead's model is reused in the game as a prostitute in Tonnochi Road during the Hong Kong segment. Numerous assets from the level still appear in the game and can be summoned through the console, including a pamphlet detailing the layout of the building, Secret Service agents and various pieces of level furniture. Contrary to popular belief, the level was not cut due to accuracy of the setting (prompting Secret Service involvement), but something far more mundane — it was boring to play.
  • Both design documents and inaccessible parts of the level reference that JC could go back to revisit Liberty Island in later chapters, with the instance this refers to in the Shooter: Majestic Revelations design document mentioning that this could be done to get more intel on the NSF's activities they'd left behind. In the final release, all instances of Liberty Island seen after the opening mission are inaccessible but partially-completed, and have unused obstacles, enemies and alternate geometry placement that suggest the player could revisit the area (or that they were earlier versions of the opening map). Notably, during the fourth and final visit to UNATCO, clipping outside the area reveals a solitary mercenary thug, LAM's placed around the same entrance to the upper access for the Statue, and a Lockpick in a crate near a camera in front of the main entrance — all different to the final design.
  • The multiplayer system, thrown in after the fact after the developers couldn't get it working properly for release, originally had more modes and plans for additional functionality, including NPC placement, randomized items and different game mods like "Running Man", "Assassin", "Hostage" and "Scavenger Hunt".
• The Tutorial section had numerous mission objectives and sections removed prior to release, with most of its audio clips from the associated sections left behind on-disc. These included a "Combat Arena," where the player would have been trained to fight security bots with explosives, a "Demolition Training Range" and an "Outdoor Target Range" that would have simulated combat in an urban environment.
• Liberty Island:
  • The intro cinematic uses level layouts that are not in the rest of the game, and suggests that the scene was made using older versions of levels. Chief among them, the Versalife hand statue has a staircase at its back that is not present when the player visits it in Hong Kong, while the buildings in Paris are largely gray instead of white.
  • The level layout had additional walls added around the statue just before release, presumably in a bid to help cut down on rendering (the removal of the skybox with the Twin Towers in the skyline was also a symptom of this change in scope). Interestingly, the previous level layout, with smaller walls near the front of the Statue, is still in the game — but only present at times when the player can't leave the UNATCO base and can't see the rest of the level.
  • A 1999 preview video for the game showed off unused lines during JC's conversations with Paul and Kaplan, with the former making a more overt reference to using a back entrance to get into the Statue, and the latter making JC's choice to rescue Gunther much more overt, by asking Kaplan if he has any equipment that will offer minimal use of force.
  • A line from Sgt. Kaplan about JC buying a scope for his sniper rifle was intentionally disabled before release, due to the fact that the rifle automatically comes with a scope to begin with. This line can still be found in the voice files.
  • Two lines of dialogue exist to give Gunther a stealth pistol or assault rifle when he's rescued from the Statue of Liberty, despite the fact that you only get either weapon after Leo Gold is interacted with (and Gunther is freed by that point). It's possible to glitch the game out so that JC uses these lines, but it cannot be intentionally done in normal gameplay.
  • Alex Jacobsen would have had an extra line telling the player (if the sentry robot in front of the Statue wasn't destroyed) that a UNATCO soldier disabled it with an EMP grenade, but this never plays in normal dialogue. He also has additional infolink messages about meeting new characters in UNATCO, but these were apparently removed for being redundant.
  • A unique line from Filben would have played if the player killed Leo Gold and then went back to talk with him. In the final product, he will still tell the player (if they avoided him prior to killing Gold) that he still wants to be paid, but he doesn't mention Gold's death. Filben also has unique dialogue stating that "at least it wasn't a bloodbath this time," but the line was intentionally disabled.
  • Prerelease images from the level show that it would have been possible to acquire a flamethrower (with a red napalm canister instead of green), but this was removed prior to release. However, the player can net an assault rifle at the very end of the mission if they know to knock out a UNATCO soldier, while a Flamethrower is found regardless in the following area (Battery Park).
  • A newspaper detailing a link between the Statue of Liberty bombing and Silhouette was intended to be found and read in JC's office, but due to the Game of the Year Edition reverting to an older version of the UNATCO interior map, the newspaper is set behind JC's office door — and is immediately destroyed when the player opens it for the first time. Various mods correctly place the newspaper on JC's desk for the player to read upon entering.
• Battery Park:
  • The boat pilot has a surprising level of functionality assigned to him, but most of it was either bugged out or not implemented. He originally had a line telling JC what to do at the beginning of the mission, and at one point in development, it was possible to go all the way back to the Park from Hell's Kitchen, where the boat pilot would have unique dialogue stating that Manderley has "some bad news", and telling JC they need to get moving, acting as an alternate exit point. Alex also has an unused infolink message telling JC to go back to the top of the warehouse for extraction if they destroyed the generator then left the area. The Deus Ex Randomizer, released in 2022, restores this interaction, taking the player directly from Battery Park to the regular start point of the following mission.
  • An unused female junkie in the park had voicelines recorded for her, in which she talks about a new type of drug, called "Ambrosia," that's more popular than Zyme. It's unknown if the character was referring to the Ambrosia treatment or if she was referring to a drug that was deliberately poisoning the population.
• Hell's Kitchen:
  • The level layout was originally completely different, with alternate encounters and more billboards in the air. This was kept until seemingly late in development, with it still being shown off in promotional videos up until early 2000, while various unused elements from the earlier iteration (including lines referencing that JC would have met Paul at the 'Ton Hotel instead of the Hell's Kitchen Subway) remain on-disc. Several of these textures remain in-game, including an instance of Writing Around Trademarks when a Bud Light logo couldn't be utilized (necessitating the creation of a fictitious brand).
  • The Underworld Bar had an unused alternate theme that was used for promotion on the official Deus Ex website (and Eidos France).
  • A pair of conversations in the Free Clinic with the bum near the entrance were never properly implemented because the game prioritized their ambient dialogue barks instead. GMDX restores the conversations, which have JC questioning the bum about his immunization schedule in the army and his involvement at Squalnomie.
  • Paul's apartment has an unused voicemail message from one of his contacts, foreshadowing his involvement with the NSF. Paul himself also had unused lines intended to be played after the fighting in front of Osgood and Sons is resolved, telling JC to continue on with the mission to find the generator.
  • Ford Schick has unique lines in his first conversation if the player hadn't spoken to Smuggler beforehand. Normally, this is impossible to view because the sewer grates in Hell's Kitchen are locked (with unpickable grates) until the player speaks to Smuggler. It's possible to glitch one's way into the sewer system by using LAM exploits or cheats, but this cannot otherwise be encountered in normal gameplay.
  • The encounter with the thugs harassing the bum at the basketball court was intended to have additional dialogue (between the bum who tells JC to "do something, man!" and the thugs), but due to unclear event flags and challenges placing the characters close enough to trigger the comments, the lines never play.
  • A bugged piece of content that worked in the game's favor: In the post-mission UNATCO visit, Anna would originally have had a line praising the player as being "a most effective weapon for the Coalition" if they completed their tasks in the opportune fashion. Instead, due to a bug, the best line the player will ever hear is Anna's line if the player did everything except speak to her and get the EMP grenades, making it seem like she will always be disappointed in JC's performance (and reinforcing the Ax-Crazy Bad Boss mindset that will eventually prove decisive in the following mission). Conversely, lines both Anna and the troopers in UNATCO would say if JC mocked her (by saying mechs have "copper-wiring") are also unimplemented, while an extended conversation between Anna and Manderley (in which the latter tells JC to "get his ass to the chopper") was also unused.
  • Likewise, in the post-mission UNATCO visit, there was originally a safe that could be accessed in Manderley's office which had a Recoil weapon mod. In the final game, this safe is situated behind a bookshelf in the office that can never be moved. Speculation suggests that it was made inaccessible because the player robbing his boss right in front of his face would have come off as unrealistic.
• Airfield:
  • The player could originally access and listen to a (fully-voiced) VOIP conversation between Tracer Tong and Juan Lebedev, where they argue over whether or not to bring JC into the conspiracy. It went unused for unknown reasons, but several mods add it in as an accessible conversation by calling a specific number in one of the offices in the Laguardia Terminal.
  • Both Anna and Alex have unused dialogue if the player completed all the Battery Park tasks in the opportune fashion and executed Lebedev themselves, with Anna saying he passed the "final exam", and Alex relaying that Manderley wanted him to know that he's a "crack agent". These were programmed in, but left unused due to the game not recognizing certain event triggers between level chapters.
  • The 747 has an unused portion of the cockpit that was "papered over" with a wall, but can still be seen via clipping inside the level area.
• UNATCO Transmitter:
  • A large number of lines collated by The Cutting Room Floor suggests that the mission start point was changed relatively late in development. Originally, the player was planned to start in Battery Park once again, with Jock having extra lines telling JC to bring Paul back to the park, and a large number of lines from UNATCO troopers (and homeless people) still stationed in and around the sealed-off Castle Clinton and subway station, with one of the troopers gloating about Lebedev's death and the operation to seal off the coastline. In the final game, if you use console commands to get past Gunther and the Inescapable Ambush at the end of the level, Jock will use the lines originally meant for the opening of the mission.
  • Ford Schick would originally reappear in Smuggler's hideout if he was rescued during the first visit to Hell's Kitchen, and would have unique dialogue talking to JC and reacting after the raid on the 'Ton.
  • The transmitter computer would have had a spoken female voice that would narrate the (successful) satellite connection attempt.
  • Paul would have had additional lines during the raid, commenting that "We can't win!" and "There are too many of them!" These are restored in the GMDX mod to play if hostile MJ12 troops are still active in the hotel.
  • Originally, the player could encounter a conversation between two homeless people in Battery Park talking about the effects of the Gray Death (and telling the player to leave if he tried to talk to them). Normally, this can't be accessed without exploits, as the pair are situated in an area filled with UNATCO troopers and Gunther, who normally approaches the player as soon as they exit out to ground level. In mods like Shifter and GMDX, this conversation is moved to the alley beside the Underworld Tavern in Hell's Kitchen so that the player can listen to it at their leisure.
• UNATCO Escape:
  • A piece of cut content that solves a minor Plot Hole was left unused in the final product, but can be found in the gamefiles (and early press demos).The conversation with Paul (if he's alive) in the secret MJ12 base would have had additional dialogue from a nearby doctor who would explain how he would help Paul escape (by using the chaos caused by JC's escape as a distraction to smuggle Paul out of the building). This was left unused, potentially because the doctor could have walked to the other side of the medical bay in the base and would not say his lines correctly.
  • The gamefiles have unused pieces of music associated with the UNATCO Escape, including an ambient piece called "Opponent Within" and an unused pattern for the departure theme.
• Hong Kong:
  • The MJ12 helibase has an unused secret gas valve that could be turned on to knock out the soldiers in the lower levels without the player running into the gas themselves. This was mistakenly removed in the GOTY Edition, which used an older version of the map, but was restored through fan patches.
  • Clipping outside the loading area for Tonnochi Road will result in the player finding a Triad member standing in a T-pose. With a console command, it is possible to get him to speak, and doing so reveals a unique dialogue, that among other things, mentions Maggie Chow being Paul's wife (which is a lie). The conversation appears to be a remnant from an earlier version of the story, where the NPC would act as a "greeting party" for JC during his visit to Hong Kong. Notably, this NPC also appears in the Deus Ex: The Conspiracy PS2 port, but is left similarly unused.
  • An unused early version of a portion of the Tonnochi Road map (seen in pre-release and beta footage from the game's promotion) can be seen from the entrance to the Lucky Money area (looking out to the left at the canal), but was left inaccessible in the final product. The version of the area has alternate billboards and level design.
  • Unused dialogue mentioned in the script files shows that originally, if the player accessed the Lucky Money without paying the cover fee, a bouncer would accost JC and ask him to pay up. If the player refused, the doorman would attack him immediately afterwards.
  • Queen's Tower has an unimplemented "emergency hatch" that allowed the player to exit from the elevator shaft which was mistakenly removed in the GOTY edition of the game. It was later restored by fan patches.
  • It was once possible for the player to acquire the Dragon's Tooth Sword and show it to Max Chen at the Lucky Money Club without talking to anyone. This is impossible to do in-game, as Tracer Tong will introduce himself when the player gets close to the sword in the MJ12 Queen's Tower base. Conversely, a second, functionally-identical copy of Chen is present on top of one of the buildings on Tonnochi Road, and cannot be found without level exploits. However, his character is used as a main component of speedruns, as he can be used to skip the visit to the Lucky Money immediately after obtaining the sword.
  • An unused pair of NPCs exist in the Versalife Level 1 Labs, who are seen discussing a near-accident with one of the samples. This conversation and their ambient dialogue was restored in the GMDX mod.
  • An unused piece of music called "Majestic 12 Laboratories" (MJ12_Music.umx) was intended to play in one of the levels, with fan speculation suggesting it was intended to be used in the Level 1 Versalife Lab. Notably, this piece does play as the standard ambient music in the Conspiracy PS2 port.
  • The player was initially intended to find John Smith's body (the researcher who gives JC the sidequest to kill Hundley in Versalife) floating in the tunnels underneath the facility after destroying the UC if Hundley isn't killed, ostensibly because He Knows Too Much. However, due to an incorrect text string, this ambient encounter never occurs.
  • Additional Red Arrow and Luminous Path gang members would appear in the Lucky Money once the Triads cement their alliance, though they were removed for unknown reasons.
• Hell's Kitchen Revisited:
  • The music that was intended to play in the area never normally plays due to a bug — as a result, the entire hub area is completely silent for the duration of JC's visit. (Some fans have praised the bug, as it helps set the mood much better.) Several mods and patches restore the intended music to the area.
  • Like his previous appearance, Ford Schick was intended to reappear if he was saved, and he would give JC some additional Expo Speak on the methodology behind the Gray Death, as well as give JC an aug upgrade canister. The conversation was never fully implemented, as Schick would never normally give the player the canister, but the full functionality was restored through mods.
  • The gamefiles reference a character named "Thomas Dieter," who would show up and give JC the mission to kill Joe Greene in the event that Harvey Filben (the informant in the opening mission) was dead. This character never appears, given that Filben is set as essential and cannot die in the course of the game, and no other references are made to Dieter outside this mission.
• Shipyard: The troops inside the Lower Deck Control Room of the PMCS Wall Cloud have unused dialogue that respond favorably to JC, whereas they are normally hostile to the player and cannot change their allegiance. This dialogue (coupled with an apparent platform at the top of the ship that confers an "Area Location Bonus", despite having nothing to do with anything) has fueled theories that it was intended to be part of a "UNATCO loyalist" plot that was never implemented.
• Cathedral: Pre-release videos showed off what appeared to be a playable area on the street below Everett's home, implying that the quest to locate him involved travelling through the streets to his apartment. This area (and one located beside it) were eventually cut, but they can still be seen from Everett's home in the final product.
• Ocean Lab: Enough evidence exists to suggest that the Ocean Lab level was originally intended to be the Moon level, as the location itself is set inside a crater, has texture files associated with the unused "Moon" map, the fact that it carries on from Vandenberg (which has a space station located near it in real-life) and other accompanying textures may have been placed in the level. Additionally, the Silo level has unused textures referencing that the "missile" launched for Area 51 was actually a rocket, and (as shown in pre-release / beta videos) had seats in the center that the player was intended to access to get to the Moon level.
• Area 51:
  • The MIB in the hangar on the surface level was intended to have dialogue with an MJ12 trooper, but since there is no other associated trooper inside the area, the intended lines don't play.
  • The technician near the Reactor Lab has a number of additional lines talking about the Grays, having different reactions to how many were killed and saying he'll "stay right here" if JC urges him to escape, but these were left unused due to the proper event flags not being set correctly.
  • Page had several unimplemented infolinks, including one talking about his plan to produce animals with the UC, and a variable line based on how much damage JC took during the MIB elevator fight. Due to the latter not being implemented properly (it checks the player's credits, not health, when calculating damage), it is impossible to hear these lines normally.
  • Everett and Helios had unused infolink messages both urging JC to consider their respective endings, with the former happening near the entrance of Sector 4, and the latter happening just before JC merges with Helios. Tong also had unused lines for the "Dark Age" ending, referring to the Aquinas Protocol now having "howling" noise in the background, and telling JC the system is going down across the globe.
  • The gamefiles still contain an unused piece of music associated with Area 51, whose placement in the game, or what context it could be used in, remains unknown, with some players speculating it was a "Departure" cue that would have led into the scrapped "Moon" level. In the GMDX mod, this is restored for use as the combat theme for Sector 4.
  • There's several unused elements littered outside of the level. Using the "ghost" cheat, players can find several artifacts from earlier iterations of the level in Sector 3, including a blocked-off room with a door/window texture that isn't seen anywhere else in the game, as well as a separate hallway a fair distance away from a hatch that can't be opened normally (it can be opened with the "opensesame" cheat, but has a solid wall of dirt behind it). These were likely remnants from the scrapped "Moon" level concept.

Deus Ex: Invisible War

• An entire beta script for Deus Ex: Invisible War sits unused in the gamefiles, detailing numerous alternate lines, conversations and some varying setpieces.
• The gamefiles also list a number of enemies that went unused but exist in various forms of completion, including an additional type of security bot, baby Greasels, the half-baboon Ruck creature, a giant attacking ceolacanth and cyber-enhanced guard dogs. The last of the enemies got a Shout-Out in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, when ambient chatter from enemies will reference an NPC who wants to get his pitbull "cyber-augmented".
• Several variants of weapons, including a potential sentry bot launcher, multiple types of proximity mines, the Mako Ballistics pistol and assault rifle, went unused, but can be found in various forms of completion within the gamefiles.
• On one of the early Xbox releases, alternate early renders of some of the endings were found in the files, featuring different lighting effects, slightly-altered animations and more.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

• The game has debug menus which are disabled by default in the final product, but can be reactivated with a modified patch file. Doing this allows the player to go through the Gamescom and E3 demo versions of the game (which have some alternate content), as well as a testing level called "Zoo", which crashes the game if the player tries to move into any of the subareas.
• Various characters have lines that would have enforced Gameplay and Story Integration — they would refuse to talk to the player unless Adam holstered his weapon. In some situations, the intended dialogue never plays because the area (Sarif HQ, for instance) automatically holsters weapons by default, and in others, the line(s) are bugged out.
• An instance of Getting Crap Past the Radar that was cut in later releases was a breakable wall in the Lower Hengsha sewers, which contained a bed, several Nuke Virus discs and various sex toys. The material was patched out in the Japanese version of the game (but still accessible), while the material was removed altogether for the Director's Cut release.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

• Datamining revealed that Deus Ex: Mankind Divided had a number of items, augmentations and several emails that were cut prior to release:
  • Several augmentation upgrades for the Remote Hacking and LIDAR augs were never implemented, but still retain script files and text descriptions on-disc. The Remote Hacking upgrades would have given the player the ability to hack from farther distances, along with the ability to remote-hack robots and turrets to attack enemies (a Call-Forward to a similar ability, found in hacking terminals, from the original game), while the LIDAR could be upgraded to see an enemy's predicted walking path and destination.
  • The player was originally intended to receive additional messages in their home computer, including one from Dr. Vera Markovic (who appeared in Human Revolution and the tie-in comic) speculating that Adam may have a "super immunity" to all diseases because of ability to not require neuropyzyne to function, a chat conversation with a user named "Lil liarbyrd" (implied to be Faridah Malik) foreshadowing an "unexpected guest" Adam may have in the future, and an unused email found in Task Force 29 that would have had two employees complaining about Jim Miller's decision to bring in a psychiatrist, Delara Auzenne.
  • Sobchak Security was intended to have more content, with several emails outlining the psychological condition of Aurelius Milkovitch, the owner of the site (and a former Belltower operative), and information about his plan to break into the Tarvos Vault at the Palisade Bank.
  • Cut script files in the final mission indicate that there were additional objectives that were never implemented. Not only was David Sarif (who confirms to Adam in the final product that he would be traveling to the summit in London) intended to be part of the delegates in the reception hall, but Delara Auzenne was intended to be fought, though whether as a sub-boss or social battle isn't clear. Interestingly, the game itself lampshades this by having several of the delegates in the convention hall express confusion as to why Sarif isn't present, lampshading the cut content.

Deus Ex: The Fall

• Deus Ex: The Fall has texture files hinting towards a New York City level, a Lower Hengsha level, and an Australia level. Since this game has been pitched to be episodic, it is unknown if it is cut content, or just textures in place for future installments. An album can be seen here.

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