White House mission

During the development of Deus Ex, a White House mission was created but was later cut from the game due to technical constraints. Although the mission was cut, many elements of it remain in the final game as unused or repurposed game assets.

Development history[]

The White House mission was created in May 1998. It was the first mission developed for Deus Ex:^[1]

“

One example of where our proto-mission idea was successful was in May 1998, when our milestone was to have prototypes of critical game systems in place and two test maps running, in this case the White House and part of Hong Kong. The maps were crude, the conversations raw, and the game systems hacked, but we could see -- and show -- the potential... The White House was likely to prove our toughest map challenge, so we built it first...

— Warren Spector, "Postmortem: Ion Storm's Deus Ex"

The White House mission was showcased in E3 1999, which took place in May 1999. One report mentions a high degree of realism:^[2]

“

"We showed the White House at E3," Warren continued... You see, we've actually gone out and gotten blueprints for all these places just to add the extra dimension of realism."

So detailed were the plans, in fact, that rumour has it there was even a spot of bother with the White House security team due to the places within the building that the player was allowed to enter. We put it to Warren at the time, but he was quick to quash our rumours. "No, no, no, no" said he, looking suddenly shifty. "In fact," he says, "the scary thing is.. no, I'd better not tell you that…" And so, the mystery went unsolved. But, from what we saw and indeed from what we've heard since, the unsurpassed level of realism will be a major selling point of the game.

— U-games.com report of E3 Demo (1999)

Due to the technological limitations at the time, the White House mission was too "big" to run smoothly on the game engine without cutting the map into smaller pieces. Deus Ex project director Warren Spector could not embrace the idea of cutting the mission into smaller pieces, so the mission was cut:^[1]

“

With the proto-mission system, we could immediately see some of the limitations of our technology. For example, we had some serious speed problems with areas as big as the White House and Hong Kong. After this, we knew we'd have to break maps up into small pieces. And we began to suspect, though I couldn't quite embrace the idea, that we'd eventually have to cut maps and missions from the game -- most notably the White House.

— Warren Spector, "Postmortem: Ion Storm's Deus Ex"

In the same article, Spector also wrote: "my dream of allowing players to explore the entire White House -- just proved to be unfeasible. There was no way any then-current renderer was going to allow us to do all that. The design had to change."

Game designer Steve Powers described the decision to cut the mission from another perspective, recounting that the mission did not make for fun gameplay. Powers wrote: "The White House was an easy environment to build, but in the end there was very little to do there other than walk around, and it was decidedly un-fun to play. With that we learned that many realistic and recognizable locations don't really make for fun gameplay."^[3]

The White House mission was cut by no later than December 1999, as it was not included in the missions list in Deus Ex design document v13.12.

According to Warren Spector, there was "a series of missions involving the White House and Mt. Weather."^[4] The White House and Mt. Weather were both developed to a playable state before they were entirely cut from the game. Thus, these two locations have been described as the "truly deleted scenes" of Deus Ex.^[5]

Plot[]

According to Deus Ex writer Sheldon Pacotti, the mission was planned to take place in the later part of the game. It would have helped tie the last bunch of missions with what happened in New York. Washington, D.C. was also planned to be the location where the player confronts Walton Simons.^[6]

“

The White House mission was cut toward the end of the project, as you might have read. The decision made sense in terms of time, budget; etc., but I think Washington would have been a fun place for players to explore. From a narrative standpoint, it could have helped ground the last bunch of missions and tie them together with what happened in New York. Originally, Washington D.C. was going to be where the player faced down Walton Simons, I believe, not to mention the place where he learned that a coup had happened in the United States. As it turned out, the player has to learn this information from overheard conversations in the bar in Paris and use his imagination during the Vandenberg and subsequent missions.

— U-games.com (1999 article)

In 2020, Pacotti provided additional details on the plot of the mission: "There was a White House mission that seemed pretty pivotal at the time. The president was a puppet of the Illuminati - he’d been replaced with a clone, and you rescued his daughter."^[7] This story concept is mentioned in design document v.13.12, which states that president Mead tried to rebel against his Majestic 12 handlers but was unsuccessfully in doing so. As a result, Majestic 12 imprisoned him and threatened to activate one of his clones that Majestic 12 had made years ago.^[8]

In the released game, one of Toby Atanwe's random lines is "Your President Mead survived the coup attempt." This coup may have been related to the White House mission.

Game assets[]

While the White House mission was cut, many assets associated with the mission (or potentially associated with the mission), were included in the game files of the final game. These game assets can be summoned via console commands.

Characters[]

The following characters may have been part of the White House mission. All characters listed below have unique graphical textures, and are part of the game assets of the final game. However, only Philip and Rachel Mead appear in the game as their originally designed characters.

Philip Riley Mead – The President of the United States. Mead appears briefly in the final game in the intro sequence.
Rachel Mead – The first lady, who appears alongside Philip Mead in the intro sequence.
Sarah Mead – In the design document for Shooter: Majestic Revelations, an early concept of Deus Ex, Sarah is listed as the daughter of Philip Mead. She does not appear in character in Deus Ex, but her character model (SarahMead) was reused to depict a schoolgirl in Hong Kong.
Margaret Williams – The Vice President of the United States, according to the Shooter: Majestic Revelations design document. She does not appear in character in Deus Ex, but her character model (MargaretWilliams) was reused for Charlotte, who is encountered at La Porte de l'Enfer in Paris.
Michael Hamner – Husband of Margaret Williams, according to the same design document. He does not appear in character in Deus Ex, but his character model (MichaelHamner) was reused for Antoine, also encountered at La Porte de l'Enfer.
Secret Service Agent – An NPC class depicting agents of the U.S. Secret Service. This NPC class (SecretService) is entirely unused in the final game. Its character model resembles that of Men in Black, but with a different coloration and with an earphone instead of the Illuminati eye symbol. Secret Service Agents are classified in the game files as civilian NPCs (rather than military NPCs), and do not have any special stats.

Game environment objects[]

The following world objects have a "WH" prefix in their class names, which presumably stands for "White House."

WHBenchEast
WHBenchLibrary
WHBookstandLibrary
WHCabinet
WHChairDining
WHChairOvalOffice
WHChairPink
WHDeskLibrarySmall
WHDeskOvalOffice
WHEndtableLibrary*
WHFireplaceGrill
WHFireplaceLog*
WHPhone
WHPiano*
WHRedCandleabra
WHRedCouch
WHRedEagleTable
WHRedLampTable
WHRedOvalTable
WHRedVase*
WHTableBlue*

Most of these objects are unused, except for those marked by an asterisk (*), which were repurposed for certain environments of the released game (specifically, the Wan Chai Market, Maggie Chow's apartment, and the Knights Templar Cathedral).