Which is your best ending and why?

For me it is definitely Helios. One solid concrete change to humanity. All others ending return world to state that was without fixing anything.

I vote for the Illuminati. It seems the best choice. Here's why:

1) Tracer Tong's solution involves setting the world a few hundred years back. Although it seems like an efficient solution, Tong forgets that humanity would eventually develop a similar technology, and globalisation – with all its dangers – would begin anew.

2) Helios' solution seems too fishy. A supercomputer with some human compassion sounds ideal, but Area 51 can be invaded, and Helios corrupted and reprogrammed. Then somebody would carry out Bob Page's plans again.

3) The Illuminati seem to be the least of all evils. In their plan, humanity would retain a false sense of freedom, while being firmly but wisely controlled by men behind the scenes who can neither be discovered nor influenced. Whatever their agenda may be, they already have absolute control, so I assume they would be working towards the advancement of mankind.

Still, the developers made it very tough to decide on just one ending. Fortunately, the decision has to be made a mere half an hour before the end, so the final area can easily be replayed.

Back when I played it I went through all three endings. First I did the merge with Helios one, then the ending where you join the Illuminati and lastly the one where you destroy Area 51 and set back global communications (Tracer Tong's plan). I think that the ending is actually less then 30 minutes from the end, it is basically the final choice of the game as to what you want to do.

Also, I think that Invisible War assumes that part of every ending was experienced, but I might be wrong there. Can anyone confirm whether any of the three endings are assumed for the sequel?

You are correct. DX2 combines somewhat milder forms of all three ending from the previous game:

[Slight spoilers below!]

There are the Illuminati, who still wield some form of influence, there is JC/Helios, who is incapacitated, and there are hints of Tong's doing, who destroyed the Internet, forcing the world to develop a new version of it. DX2 is disappointing, however, since it presents you with exactly the same choices at the end as in DX1.

One interesting inclusion in DX2 is the Omar and their ending is interesting (philosophically speaking) when compared with the other three.

That's not true. DX2 has 4 endings. I guess JC/apostlecorp and illuminati endings are somewhat similar (however I'm not sure about the JC one) but there's also fascist templar regime ending and post apocalyptic omar ending.

Here are links to the four different endings in DX2:

JC Denton Ending
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeboqg4t9vs

Illuminati Ending
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIX0BIuRYGo

Templar Ending
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcCGGracpCw

The Omar Ending
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLMn3_SzBiU

So I suppose then that the canon ending for Deus Ex 1 is that JC merges with Helios. And then we find out from Invisible War that after he merged with Helios that Tracer Tong must have incapacitated JC/Helios when he took down the internet, and in the meantime the Illuminati remained behind the scenes maintaining their power wherever they could and leading to the new version of the internet that you mention.

Now, I've not played Invisible War (well, I've played the start of it on Xbox but never got that far into it so would welcome it here on GOG so that I can play it through) so I don't want to know what the endings are but am I right in believing that again all of the endings are available from a single choice at the end of the game?

http://sites.google.com/site/darkreality/threeendingsandinvisiblewar

Cliff's Notes: JC merged with Helios as per that ending, but his augmentations weren't equal to the task of containing Helios, which forced Paul and Tracer Tong to put him in stasis. This is what caused the communication collapse as in Tong's ending, but not as severe. The Illuminati then move in, as per that ending.

Personally I think the Helios ending is the best ending possible.

Tong's ending only delays the problem, giving us a second chance, but not changing anything and leaving us to similar problems.

Illuminati ending is the worst ending imo, because you leave control to one group who have done terrible things in order to assure their absolute control. I can't remember any specific things mentioned in the game they have done, unless you bring HR into it. You can be assured though the illuminati do not have everyone best interests at mind, nor would they work towards the 'advancement of humankind' (Just ask DuBeers how he's doing). Additionally they paved the way for MJ12 to exist.

Helios ending provides a sort of supreme dictator that is as close to being perfect as possible, meaning as long as helios/JC's morals cannot be corrupted (which is less likely than leaving the illuminati in control) then the world has the most efficient and capable ruler in history.

I'm all for enlightened dictatorship, but the human mind is frail. JC can easily go mad or become overwhelmed by all the power. In fact, that happened at some point before the beginning of DX2, and JC/Helios had to spend a lot of time in some kind of a stasis field.. At least the Illuminati are a group of many people who can check each other's power and reach a compromise with at least a modicum of good that can be found among them, but how would humanity fare under a single insane half man-half machine demi-god that can censor the Internet and control the world's power plants and other vital systems?

JC wasn't overwhelmed, but had some technical issues with merging and his augmentation.

Helios was quality change, a new breath to humanity. Helios without JC had enough power to make a lot of mess and it didn't, so maybe it is a good AI ;)

Helios all the way, baby!

Thing is...While Bob Page isn't real there's ALWAYS been--and will always BE a Bob Page, i.e. people who think they should 'guide' humanity according to their likes--and who actually have the power to make some of that happen.

In any but the Helios ending the probability exists that a future Page-like character will pop up and the world will be in exactly the same mess it's in by the time J.C. Denton starts having his adventures.

Siding with Helios at least eventually people will have real-time democracy. Any other way and it's, "Back to the same old routine." In other words people of power trying to micromanage peoples' lives while wallowing in luxury themselves because as they see it--it's what they deserve from the unwashed massed who should be grateful for their enlightened leadership.


Yea. Helios for me. I grant you these points but Helios can be protected by duplication and its programming backed up

I won't argue the merits of the Illuminati except to say that's my second choice for an ending as it's certainly better than killing hundreds of thousands to millions of people just to set the clock back and eventually wind up in the same situation again generations later.

Just about every first-time player I've spoken to--including me--does this ending at first and for the reasons you state. Many choose other endings, though when they play again.