Title: Mass Effect: Human Revolution
Author: IgnusDei
Rating: T
Genre: Sci-Fi
Status: WIP
Fandom: Mass Effect & Deus Ex
Pairings: non at this time
Summary: Adam Jensen finds himself in a time only dreamed of in vids, humanity is now part of a great galactic community that fears synthetics, and he struggles to find his place within it.
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7920322/1/Mass-Effect-Human-Revolution

I recomended this fic in Decent/good Mass Effect fan fiction topic some time ago. At that time this crossover was just decent, now it's very good, with interesting plot and good character dynamics.

As the title informs this is a crossover between Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mass Effect, with the protagonist of the former Adam Jensen, being unfrozen from cryo-sleep in 2175 and trying to find his place in a very much changed world.

The writing in the first chapters is decent and it improves in the following chapters, with increasing character interactions and world building. The author includes shot-out to other works that deals with transhumanism or borrows characters from those works and incorporates them into the story, but keeping it and them integrated into the universe.

The first two prologue chapters are bland and the plot kicks off at the fourth chapter, but from there it's an interesting mix of sci-fi, murder mystery and conspiracy. And with incredible world building that combines Mass Effect upbeat look on the role of humans with Deus Ex gritty, brutal reality of conspiracies and manipulation.

I would give this 5 out of 5, but the increasing number of shot-outs starts to be annoying (at least for me), so because of it I'm giving this 4,5/5. But, still, I highly recommend this fic.

 

IgnusDei had a rocky start, but he's definitely found his stride with this story. Updates are quick and well written, and the right now it's reaching the climax of a murder mystery.

I enjoyed the various shout-outs to other works, the majority of them being anime or hard SF. Some of them were concepts or objects talked about at length, while others were just brief nods. Not especially distracting, and down right immersive depending on what was being referenced.

 

Yeah it takes a while to get going for sure. I especially liked how Tali's chase sequence was altered. I had no idea what would happen to her and because of some of the other character deaths...well I was left guessing.

The only thing that's starting to bug me is how omni-gel is like a fix for anything suit related. I mean, it could be accurate - but it feels like it's being used as a crutch.

 

According to Citadel law, omni-gel falls under a category of gene science or something that is illegal, but the Council allows it through a loophole because it's just far too useful. There's a Codex entry from ME1 on the topic.

 

You're confusing two different things. Omni-gel was, according to ME Wiki: "composed of common, reusable industrial plastics, ceramics, and light alloys kept in a semi-molten state" and was used for breaking through doors and making repairs in ME1, and was later scraped in ME2 & 3.

What you're describing is Medi-gel, and under Citadel genetic modification laws it's illegal, but too useful to enforce the ban.

 

The start was definitely a little rocky but I'm definitely looking forward to where IgnusDei goes with this. The chase scene in the market was tense, the interactions between Garrus and Adam are entertaining and generally well written, and the politics regarding the order and the various human factions back on earth is just plain interesting.

My main worry is how he intends to move forward with the story. Right now we have this semi-cop drama on the citadel which IgnusDei seems to be doing a really good job with, treading ground we haven't really seen in this universe. How he intends to transition this into Adam hunting down Saren and eventually the reapers in a believable way is currently beyond me. Then there is the other question if he can actually pull off the space opera in the first place. Long story short, I just hope he isn't biting off more than he can chew.

 

Good point Legacy. What the author would have to pull off here is akin to a quantum shift in tone. Jumping from hard-boiled space-station crime to dramatic world-spanning space opera seems like it would be a challenge.

Maybe s/he plans to focus more on the investigative elements? Noveria especially seems suited to that sort of thing.

 

Considering that Deus Ex: Human Revolution and ME are two of my favourite games released in the last few years I was curious how this whole thing would play out. I have to say that it wasn't how I thought it would.

Spoiler

Killing off Shepard and Alenko and putting Jensen and Garus in the driver's seat was a stroke of genius as an approach to this kind of cross-over.

As has been noted above, it will be interesting how the author shifts gears from 'whodunit' to space opera but what's been written so far was really well done. Characterization was top notch on every count, the plot is interesting, the world is well fleshed out and the bad guy for the first arc was creepy as fuck.

I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this.

5/5

 

Soooooooo, update! Some info on what Jensen did after he was woken up, some more info on the Bioroids, and oh dear is that plot I seen in a bathroom?

 

This is getting incredibly twisted. It's like looking at a warped reflection of the ME universe, and I like what I'm seeing. It seems like this is going to be more of a spy fic than a run and gun. That fits well with the tone of the story up to this point and the overall tone of DEx:HR.

Beautifully twisted story.

 

Oh goody, from what I have seen in the beta of the next chapter we will get to see Jensen and Hein work together on a spaceship for extended periods of time. Well, that and Jensen is apparently going to be dropped into what will become a warzone in an experimental armor suit that can crush normal human pilots...

Not sure if I'm looking forward to the coming violence or disappointed that the cop drama aspect of the fic seems to be on the decline.

 

Loving this story so much. The bioroid scenes were especially good imo. Not sure how to feel about the grey box though. Maybe I missed something, but I still don't really get what happened during Jensen's escape with the light show and all that.

 

Personally I feel that was the grey box having an influence on Jensen after the box was exposed to the prothean beacon. Who knows what else would could have essentially downloaded itself onto Shepard's grey box during the process that Jensen then could have picked up.

 

True. That would be a great way to tie Jensen more firmly into the protheans too wouldn't it? If he starts getting the same dreams as Sheppard then we're already halfway to galaxy hoping aren't we?

 

Update is up. Shit happens. Jensen beats folks down.

 

Adam Jensen's new combat suit drawn by the author.



Reminds me a bit of Grey Fox from Metal Gear Solid.

 

The name Shinkawa is a probably a reference to that. Yoji Shinkawa is the guy behind most of the character and mechanical designs in Metal Gear Solid.

I've gotten about halfway through the current amount of chapters. I was very, very iffy on the prospect of Shepard dying, especially right at the start of the story, but it's been good so far regardless. Frankly Jensen seems more interesting than this version of Shepard would have been anyway. I really like how he's fleshed out Tali's story and elaborated on C-Sec.

It's too bad Mass Effect's official expanded universe material is either utter shit or just mediocre. I'd love to see more stuff on par with this and Interstitium put into official canon. But Mac the Hack and Drew Karpyshyn just didn't give a damn apparently.

EDIT:

Well I got up to speed. Have to say, there are some things I'm not liking about this so far.

One, the references. "Aki Ross" and the Deep Eyes are blatantly ripped out of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and just pasted in. I don't like that. Allusions like the Shinkawa thing above are fine, and I suppose the alias Sarah Walker is too (though it's a bit obvious), but the method he's using reeks of unoriginality. And I mean, show of hands, did anyone actually like Spirits Within? If so, count yourself among the few, and I doubt this guy's going to win the movie converts by stealing its characters.

Two, Jensen. For one, he's a hell of a lot more powerful than he ever was in the game. Some of that's forgiven due to the advancements in technology, particularly his energy reserves and not having to eat a thousand candy bars, but it feels like he's a walking "I WIN" button. For another, his past. Clearly the author's changed the ending of the game, which would be fine on its own as the ending wasn't exactly impressive, but then he's adding in all this stuff between Pangaea and being frozen that's supposed to be relevant, and then adding more stuff between being unfrozen and winding up on the Citadel, like adopting a kid or something. I think this guy needs to close the gap between the events of Human Revolution and Mass Effect. Tie in Jensen's transportation to the future to the actual events of Deus Ex rather than all this fluff. It's like nothing from the actual DX3 game has anything to do with this, besides the character of Adam being ported over. And cut out the little family "I just wanted to be a farmer" crap entirely, we've only seen a little of it and it's already sounding very fake and cliche to me. Jensen has enough to brood over without any of that.

Oh, and no one cares what clothes Jensen is wearing. Having a paragraph dedicated to that is annoying. Just let us assume it's the same thing he wore in the game and leave it at that.

Three, there are certain characters I'm having trouble with. The ones directly ripped from other material notwithstanding, the one in particular I mean here is this Hein character. He's far too manic and "randumb" for me to take seriously. I try thinking of him in the context of either Deus Ex or Mass Effect and I'm just not seeing him fitting in at all.

Some other minor concerns are Saren being sidelined so far (though I'm giving that part of the story a chance to grow some), whether this author can transition between Citadel police work and a galactic war, and this change to Liara's name that feels very unnecessary and makes me worry about the upcoming portrayal of her character.

In all, the guy needs to bridge the gap between Deus Ex and Mass Effect better, do a bit of fine-tuning on his portrayal of Jensen, particularly his backstory, and basically redo his "original" characters from the ground-up. I like his portrayal of C-Sec and the partnership of Garrus and Jensen, but Mass Effect deals with war on a galactic scale, not cowboy cops, and unless he wants this to just be a side-story while the events of the series unfold alongside it (clearly not the case considering he's killing ME's cast left and right) he's going to have to work on bridging that gap too. I'll give it a 3.5/5 for now.

 

According to someone on SpaceBattles (where Ignus post his story), Hein is a mix of general Hein from Spirits Within and Gregory House. IMO, he is supposed to replace Joker, as the "joking-quirky kind of guy", but fails. In the original games Joker was iritaiting as hell, in this fic Hein starts to be iritaiting as fuck with his "I am awesome, I know best, I am funny" shit.

Liara's name and her role was some-how spoiled by Ignus and his posting about Drakengard in response to the change. So, after checking Wikipedia page for that game, and looking up on the characters section we get this:

I smell indoctrination plot. Also, extrapolating from Benezia's words in the last chapter, Manah is an Ardat-Yakshi.

 

I actually really like his Hein. He's supposed to be an asshole, but an entertaining one. Dammit if I'm not entertained.

 

Oh, another rip-off from that movie? I didn't even remember him. And I'm not seeing a lot of House in this character frankly.

Well I didn't find Joker irritating really (only in ME3, and it's not because of his character so much as how little they used him, and how they needlessly made EDI into a sex-bot for him to drool over), but I sure do find this guy to be. I think it's mostly because I'm supposed to see him as head of an important government organization. I could see this guy in a civilian contractor role, or a smuggler/pirate captain, but definitely not as head of DARPA.

Also, it looks like my fears about his changes to Liara are legitimate.