Deus Ex – Can Gunther Be Defeated at the First Confrontation?

Seems there is no reliable and reproducible way of getting past this. I did it on multiple occasions, where I threw things around and snuck past the guards behind their backs, the whole time crouching.

They sometimes detected me, and at other times just minded their own business.

At one time I took the left corridor, threw a small glass item to the right when I reached the mid part, then sprinted off to the finish. So stealth is not the only option here, and I think that's the message the game wants to deliver: there are always options.

There are definitely characters you can't kill, or that you can't kill until certain points in the plot. I'm not sure about all of them, but Paul springs to mind in the first mission. I've unloaded a great deal of ammo into him many a time, and he just keeps running around and eventually shoots me to death with a plasma rifle.

Your best bet is to save before you try to kill any main-plot characters, I suppose; hopefully that won't ruin the experience for ya.