OK, that's kind of cool - a recovered alien artifact that may have been part of an artificial intelligence, that has a fragment of voice message that sounds a lot like Shodan. Now we're getting somewhere.
I might as well take another point in Strength (from 2 to 3). I'm doing as much fighting as possible with the wrench, and strength also increases inventory (so I can grab everything not nailed down). I might as well take a point in Endurance (from 1 to 2) as well, since I'm going the fighting route. I still don't have a single point in Psi; going down that route would probably take a new playthrough. And I still don't have a single point in Hack, Repair, or Modify. I have no idea what and when to do with this Maintenance skill I chose in the initial setup.
Well, that's cool, now I can one-hit the zombie melee grunts.
Trying to throw grenades - can't - looks like I will need a grenade launcher.
I'm low on ammo, and my equipment is near broken. Should I spend all my current upgrade points on Repair skill? And then my last two maintenance tools on fixing my handgun? Even with double upgrade, it still only upgrades it 2 measly points. It would really suck to move on to the next level, and find a handgun that wasn't broken just lying on the floor. I'll hold the points for now.
I do this in every game I can - I hoard my resources until I'm sure I need them. Often times I wind up scraping past a problem, I could have easily spent the coin on. After the first playthrough or so, I'll know where I can let the resources go, but first time through I'm very stingy.
Wow, my magic voice handler - the one that sounds like Captain Janeway - is annoying. How can she even watch my every step if Xerxes has control of the security system? Later on down the line, Deus Ex gets this right with the infolink, meaningfully integrating it into the story and the gameplay.
Ran out of save slots. Can I use the old trick of moving my files away (using the operating system, not the game), and renaming the last save as the new first? Yes.
I forgot to mention another innovation: you can wind up a swing and hold it, basically performing half of a melee attack, so if you happen suddenly on an enemy you can quickly smack 'em. Its quite a brilliant little idea, and I've never seen it any other game.
I can't go any further - my guns are all broken or out of ammo. I need to rewind, and purchase another skill point so I can use the shotgun, which I have ammo for. I reload start of level, backtrack a little, purchase weapon Standard 2 -> 3. I still can't afford Repair, I'll have to move a little further into the next level, get some cyber modules, then come back again. This is the kind of crap you have to deal with on first playthrough.
Find more modules, come back and buy Repair 0 -> 1.
It's getting a bit strange to keep finding these voice message containers littering the place; a lot of times they're just lying around like they were discarded. At least the voicework is listenable, and so the story bucket fills, drop by drop.
