During his service his office was rigged with a bomb, which severely injured Detective Jake Hard, who underwent heavy reconstruction and lost some of his memory. Devoid was the alleged perpetrator and Hard held him responsible for his damage, although Devoid himself accused Mayor James Waterford for wanting to get rid of him. Eventually Devoid was forced to resign for an alleged police brutality scandal, and during the relevant press-conference he assassinated the Mayor. After threatening those who wanted to get rid of him, he disappeared in the underground of the Neo-City where he became a notorious criminal, performing terrorist acts against corporations involved in the Mars conflict. As the game starts, the player character Jake Hard is pursuing his archnemesis Angel Devoid who has been spotted near Neo-City, until his flying patrol car is damaged and himself falls severely injured. He wakes up in a hospital after having had a facial reconstruction surgery, only to find himself having the face of Angel Devoid, and unable to speak as his vocal cords are damaged. His first task is to escape the hospital before the Police arrives. Early in the beginning, he meets his ex-colleague Lorraine Ruger, who has been blinded and recognises Hard from his gait, and supplies him with a Plasma Pistol. The player travels around regions of Neo-City, meets several characters who pass him for Devoid, but also tries to survive as his archnemesis is wanted by bounty hunters, a figure only referred to as "the Yak", and the "Death Tribes" (underground groups whose members maintain neotribalistic customs in the urban scenery). As many of the characters are hostile, the player occasionally has to resolve to quickly using the pistol against them in order to avoid the game over. As the game progresses, the player obtains wetware computer chips belonging to Devoid; he learns that he was involved in the theft of a highly explosive material known as Trixilite, which he has linked to the thermo-furnaces of Paradise City, intending to destroy both cities. In the end, the player accesses an underground complex where he meets the original Angel Devoid inside a life support device. It is revealed that Angel Devoid employed clones for his deeds, and the player is actually the last of them, leaving open to interpretation how much of the protagonist's backstory is true. The player then is faced with several choices that will trigger three alternate endings; these range from either killing Devoid and being hailed as a hero while the citizens continue to live their own dystopia; to escaping on a space shuttle before the cities explode, and seek a new life on Mars.