- "Who the hell are you, and what in God's name are you doing down there in such a nasty place, doll?"
- — Deke meeting Hana in Fear Effect 2
Jakob "Deke" Decourt, alternatively known with the first name Jacob, is a recurring playable character who has appeared in all the Fear Effect games.
He is an ally of Hana Tsu-Vachel and Royce Glas, as well as Rain Qin later on.
Personality[]
- "Deke walks a fine line between aggressive and psychotic. A large, stocky man with distinct features, Deke is attractive to women but not a pretty boy. As a professional hit man by trade, he perceives life as a trivial highway to obscurity, paved with the souls of the numerous men and women he's murdered for money or survival. Being a cold-blooded killer by heart, Deke enjoys his work immensely, for it gives him a sense of power and pleasure. Working with Deke is like making a deal with the devil: he's extremely effective, but he leaves a wide wake of carnage and bloodshed along the way. Deke has mostly honed his talents during the many range wars that until recently plagued New Australia. Currently, he is under the employment of a secret conglomerate out of East Asia."
- — Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix - Prima's Official Strategy Guide
- "Deke can be described as a guy who just doesn't care. He's big, loud, bombastic, and extremely violent. He lacks the finesse that comes with disciplined military training. He became a scrapper and a weapons expert in various disorganized skirmishes in his native land of Australia."
- — Fear Effect - Prima's Official Strategy Guide
Deke is a sadistic, stocky individual with a love for powerful weapons. Not professionally trained, he learned all his skills during the wars that plagued New Australia for years. Deke takes various high paying jobs so he can satisfy his love of violence and pay for his extravagant lifestyle.
Biography[]
Deke's early life is a mysterious, although it is known he contracted the EINDS disease with about half of the human population sometime in the 2040s. A few years prior to Retro Helix, a "skinny Chinaman" knocked on Deke's door. The man was part of a criminal organization that had special medicine which could help him live longer, as well as money. In exchange, Deke would have to do "housecleaning" and he accepted the offer. The organization only viewed Deke as a desperate pawn, however, and did not care if he died. By the time of Retro Helix, Deke has had EINDS for nearly eight years.
Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix[]
Deke retrieves a can called the "Genetic Marker" for the organization which Mist is also a part of. Deke is drugged by a drink and wakes up among shirtless zombies in Xi'an. After exploring the area, Deke is ambushed by ghost-like beings. Hana arrives in the city with a motorbike and crosses paths with Deke and Glas, the other couriers. Unable to find their buyers, Hana and Glas wish to bail on the mission which seems like a setup, although Deke wishes to remain. He shows the others his Marker while Hana shows her DNA sequence and Glas shows a blood sample. Before they can discuss their findings, Deke threatens to kill Hana and Glas. The three are ambushed by zombies and Deke flees after stealing Hana's DNA sequence. While Hana chases Deke, he almost kills her but she is saved by Rain.
Deke abducting Rain in Xi'an.
Rain passes by an unconscious Deke, although he springs up and takes her hostage. Hana arrives and Rain tells Hana they are after the "Dark Cipher" before her mouth is closed by Deke. Deke tells Hana he will free Rain once she obtains the blood sample from Glas and that he will be waiting in the lower tomb. Hana makes a plan with Glas to exchange Glas' sample, but Glas will ambush Deke as he leaves.
Hana and Glas get caught up in various trials, however. After, Qin Zheng transports Deke to them. Hana forces information out of Deke who reveals he has been doing missions for a Chinese man in exchange for money and medicine to keep him alive, as he has EINDS. Deke's organization refuses to share a cure for EINDS because they don't care about good will. The organization told Deke the Genetic Marker he found could cure his EINDS. Now that the three are on even terms, Qin opens the portal to the island of Penglai Shan. There, they become entrapped and separated by fog. Deke eventually appears with a woman resembling Rain and he claims the woman beside him has cured his EINDS.
In the Good Ending, the group kills Mist and Rachel Kazra. In a restaurant, Hana tells Deke and Glas about an upcoming job involving a runaway girl.
Fear Effect[]
Deke first appears after Hana's and Glas' mission at the Lam Building. He is seen at a hotel, and a package arrives for him. He opens up an envelope to obtain a needle-like device called a "decryption spike". He is picked up by Hana's car and he uses the spike to watch a video of Wee Ming Lam.
While sailing down a river, Deke spots Wee Ming among a burning village. Deke and Glas give chase while Hana gets dressed, but all three are separated by the undead villagers. Deke reunites with Hana and they stumble upon a military train where the hostile soldiers shoot anyone on sight for fear of the villagers. Deke fights a tough enemy in the train and solves a fuse puzzle, but is ambushed by strange humanoid beings whose flesh burns unnaturally fast. While Hana powers the train, Deke fights enemies on its rooftop. They wreck the train trying to steal it, but Glas is able to find a jeep with Wee Ming sitting inside. She asks to be taken to Madam Chen's restaurant, which doubles as a brothel, hoping to find answers about her existence.
Deke's gory corpse after being spiked through the head.
Deke waits outside the restaurant with Hana, but when people inside flee, Deke tells Hana to check the front while he looks around the back. Deke encounters Hana dressed as a sex worker inside. She reveals Wee Ming has been captured, but they aren't going to give up on her. While Deke explores the building, he is ambushed by Madam Chen who is actually a demon. Hana finds Chen holding Deke and he has a slit throat. She tosses his corpse and it ends up falling into the area where Wee Ming is; his body is gored by a spike and his blood splashes on Wee Ming, enabling her dark powers.
Demon Deke luring Glas in Hell.
Glas finds his way into Hell and soon after periodically hears his name being moaned by a familiar voice and a shadowy figure of Deke walking in the distance. He follows the voice to an icy room filled with murky water, where the water joins together to form Deke's rotting torn in half head along with a bubbly mass covered in the faces of Deke's victims and arms with long black claws at the end.
Demon Deke blaming Glas.
The demonic form of Deke tells Glas that his appearance was made to look more hideous every time he pulled the trigger on a victim. Glas expresses his apology, which angers Deke due to his belief that he is in Hell because Glas didn't cover all the angles on their ransom mission. Deke tells Glas that his eternity is about to start and is going to be horrifying. Deke prepares to attack Glas but is halted when Glas shoots his form, which damages him and causes the souls of his former victims to fly out. Deke morphs back into water and tries to swallow Glas by dissolving the floating platforms holding him above the water. Glas shoots Deke's demonic form enough to cause it to revert to a harmless puddle of water. As Deke dissolves, he calls out Glas's name one last time, leaving only an eyeball that Glas picks up.
Glas tells Deke to rest easy and that he'll make the ones responsible for his death pay for it. Glas puts Demon Deke's eye in a well bucket up above him that Hana later finds when she turns the crank lifting the bucket up. When picked up, the eyeball is called the Stone Eye, which is used for a puzzle later on.
In all the endings except for the True Ending, Deke remains deceased. However, in the canonical True Ending, he is revived at the end of the game, presumably by Wee Ming. He is found sitting on a toilet in the ruins and claims he can't remember much. The three wander off after agreeing they did "just fine" on their mission.
Fear Effect Inferno[]
Deke gets spiked again.
In the cancelled game Fear Effect Inferno, Deke assists the team with Hana's mission to kill Minkz. He has grown a full beard again, has been seen donning a chef's outfit, as well as a long brown coat.
He is also seen getting a spike through his eye/head, though wearing the brown coat, suggesting this occurs after the Minkz situation. He is also seen fighting some enemies with the spike in his head, suggesting he survives the spiking, at least for a while.
Fear Effect Sedna[]
In Hong Kong, Deke is bored stiff - and that's never a good thing. He's been working on and off as a mercenary but gets no satisfaction in working alone. Since Glas left, he found he couldn't get on as well with Hana and Rain, so he let them drift apart. Nostalgic for the good days which were always full of chaos and bloodshed, Deke yearns for both.
Deke agrees to join Hana's and Rain's mission in Paris. He disguises himself as a servant with the objective of gathering information from guests and hosts. After providing Hana with intel, he pilots the rotoship to save Hana, Rain and Axel Chevalier.
Quotes[]
Fear Effect
- "Not bloody likely." (perform a nonsensical command)
- "God had nothing to do with this." (about his monstrous form)
- "Well, you enjoy your last breaths, Glas... because your eternity is about to start, and it's going to be horrifying."
Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix
- "I'm not fat, I'm stocky! I've been living with the damnation for almost eight years now!" (about having EINDS)
- "How the hell do you people eat with these sticks? No wonder you Orientals are all skinny!"
Trivia[]
- The FE1 website, FE1 manual, FE1 strategy guide, FE2 back cover, FE2 Spanish and Japanese manuals list his first name as Jakob. However, the FE1 comic, FE2 strategy guide, as well as the subtitles of FE2 when he introduces himself lists it as Jacob. The reason for the discrepancy is unknown, as well as what is actually canon. However, it is probably Jakob due to the amount of sources, as well as the Fear Effect 2 English subtitles showing inaccuracies in other places.
- The subtitles of the first game also write his surname as DeCourt.
- The FE2 Japanese manual lists his surname as Decourat.
- His biography claims he was born in Christchurch, New Australia, but the town is actually in New Zealand. It can be assumed that either the developers made an error (as finding reliable information was harder in the 20th century), or that because the series is set in the 2050s, New Zealand has been re-named New Australia. It also mentions that Deke has been involved with range wars, possibly the developers referencing the often absurdist and rather dystopian 21st century that Fear Effect depicts, and perhaps alluding to a war between New Zealand and Australia in which Australia defeated New Zealand.
- Deke's body containing the souls of his victims in Fear Effect seems to be inspired by Freddy Krueger, though the developers have not confirmed it as an inspiration.
- Some lines in Fear Effect 2 suggest Deke is a creation or a failed genetic experiment of Rachel Kazra's, which may explain why Mist was keeping an eye on him:
- Lu: "For years, Kazra tried to merge the 160 pairs of chromosomes divided between the twins. She created countless failures. Some you fought in the tomb. One became your travelling companion."
- Glas: "Deke?"
- Lu: "Do not blame him for what he's done. He is but a puppet in the hands of Kazra."
- In a promo pic for Sedna, it is mentioned his first name is Jacob, he is born in 2016, he is 6'0" (183cm) and 235 lbs (106.5kg).[1] All of this appears to come from an old version of this article which was using the FE2 Strategy Guide information (except for born 2016), so this may possibly be seen as an example of fanon turning into canon. For now, the "born 2016" should be discarded since there doesn't seem to be any known official source for this information.
- Both the FE2 Japanese and Spanish manuals list him an inch shorter at 5'11" (180 cm).
- In Sedna, Rain tells Deke, "You'll look amazing with an apron... as usual." This may be a hint to the cancelled Inferno.
References[]
See also[]
Gallery[]
Fear Effect[]
Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix[]
Fear Effect Sedna[]
Fear Effect Reinvented[]
| Characters from the Fear Effect series | ||
|---|---|---|
| Debuted in Fear Effect | Hana Tsu-Vachel · Royce Glas · Jakob "Deke" Decourt Jin · Madam Chen · Mr. Lam · Wee Ming Lam · Triad Boss · Machine Gunner | |
| Debuted in Fear Effect 2 | Drew · Jake · Mist · Qin Zheng · Rachel Kazra · Rain Qin | |
| Debuted in Fear Effect Inferno | Cyborg body guard · Demonic Nurse · Demonic Orderlies · Demonic Surgeon · Minkz | |
| Debuted in Fear Effect Sedna | Atiqtalik · Axel Chevalier · Sedna | |