Deus Ex

The Good
Oh, where to begin? Let's start with the graphics, which are excellent, despite the (slowly) aging Unreal Engine. A bit sluggish at times, but the for the most part they are smooth and sleek. A note, though: If you have a non-3dfx card then you should definitely consider getting the Direct 3D patches before you play the game. They will enhance the performance of the game a great deal.

The graphics create a immersive, believable environment. The developers went very far to make it realistic, as well as to create a dark, cold atmosphere. From the gritty streets of Hell's Kitchen to the cold, bueraucratic UNATCO headquarters, every location feels exactly like it would if the game were real. Furthermore, the game features an unprecedented level of interactivity, allowing the player to make a real impact on the world, and affect things around him/her.

Of course, whatever else is good about the game is dwarfed by its storyline. The game's writers have managed to take something as cliche and predictable as conspiracy theory and created a wonderfully crafted storyline supported by good dialogue (although with less-than-perfect voice acting) and excellent story mechanics. As the plot progresses, the player is able to make many choices, which affect the overall outcome of the game. There are several different endings, and dozens of ways to get there.

Another unique aspect of the game is that it allows for many different playing styles. The developers have provided the player a variety of tools, such as taser stunners, gas grenades, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, explosives of all kind, and many different stealth weapons. This variety allows a player to play the game according to his or her own style. A player can be a demolitions expert, a Duke Nukem kill 'em all type, an expert hacker, a cunning stealth assassin... the list goes on.

If you're a fan of RPGs, FPSs, both or neither... in other words regardless of what type of games you're into, you really need to try this game. In short, it is a piece of gaming art, and should be a part of any gamer's collection.

The Bad
The AI is a bit funky at times, but not too bad. Just crank up the difficulty and you'll be too preoccupied with the computer guards trying to take off your head.

Also, the voice acting leaves a bit to be desired, especially in Hong Kong and Paris. It's mostly just the phony accents that can get irritating. It doesn't detract majorly from the game, however.

The Bottom Line
A huge FPS/RPG conspiracy theory epic that will grab you by the balls and not let go...

The Good
The biggest strength of Deus Ex is its implementation of choice & consequence in both gameplay and story. The game has an answer for many things you can do out of your own volition: your boss scolds you if you enter the women's bathroom, it recognizes when you choose to kill a friendly trooper for its advanced weapon, you get praised by your paranoid associate if you kill someone before you receive the quest - you can find dozens of examples. Of course most of it is just window dressing: the reactivity is mostly front-loaded into the first few levels and the only influence on the story are a few different dialogue lines and the choice between three endings directly before the finishing line. Overall the interactivity is not even close to later games like Alpha Protocol. But it does not matter, because the developers thought of exactly the right responses to awe almost every player during their first few playthroughs. In my opinion this is the very reason for the game's stellar reputation; Invisible War has objectively more relevant choices, but it still feels confined and on railroads.

Even more successful is the impact of choice & consequence on the level design. Hands down, I think Deus Ex still has the best level design out there - only surpassed by The Nameless Mod. You can approach almost every situation from multiple angles - maybe go in guns blazing? Take the enemies out non-lethally in stealth? Or maybe they just let you slip by if you were friendly to their mate in the previous level? You could also use a venting shaft, lockpick the exit and circumvent the situation altogether? Deus Ex supports all those possibilities - although not every one in every situation - and many more.

Deus Ex wouldn't work without its fantastic dystopian setting and its interesting characters. The plot explores the following idea: what if every conspiracy theory out there is true? Yes, the writing is not always stellar, some plot points could have been lent from a B-movie and some characters are flat, but it always worked for me. The game tries to leave out the antisemitic drivel, but it is not entirely successful.
Because I played this during the 2020/2021 pandemic, I noticed some eery parallels to the game's plot - it's as if the conspiracy mongers of 2020 took their inspiration directly from Deus Ex. Only the "the government implants surveillance chips through vaccines" idiocy is missing, but Human Revolution has that one covered...

The Bad
What bothered me the most is the presence of invincible NPCs. For example, you can kill a friendly NPC at some point of the game, which is rightfully considered one of the game's highlights. But the game does not tell you so (which would be a positive point) and the person was always invincible before - so how likely are you to notice without prior knowledge? I know it is almost impossible to write a branching script for every possible dead NPC, but it still works completely against the freedom Deus Ex offers everywhere else.

The second big flaw is that the game is too long. I can't point to a single bad level, but in the second half the game mostly iterates established ideas and feels a bit repetitive. Oh, and the voice acting sucks even for 2000 standards, but I don't even notice that anymore.

The Bottom Line
Much has been said and written about Deus Ex during the last 20 years. Many people praise it and even call it the "best game ever". I am not very original here, but this statement is obviously correct: this is my favorite game of all times and I don't think it will ever change. It has its flaws, but its strengths are so great they don't matter to me. If you have not played it and are not put off by old graphics - what are you waiting for?

A few words about Deus Ex: Revision
My latest playthrough prior to writing this review was made with the mod Deus Ex: Revision. Until now I only played Deus Ex vanilla, so I can't make a comparison with other popular mods like GMDX or Shifter. Revision does not make many gameplay changes (at least I did not notice them), but redesigns the levels. Some of them have only small changes (for example the first level on Liberty Island has more decoration elements and that's it) while others - especially the three hub areas - were completely revamped. Unfortunately some levels are clearly inferior to the original ones (especially the Hong Kong market area is awful). This is a shame, because some of them (the new Paris comes to mind) are really well made. I would recommend the mod for Deus Ex players who look for some variety, but newcomers should definitely play the original first.

The Good
There are some major changes in the PlayStation 2 port, the first thing you'll notice is the different GUI and inventory system. It's easy to use and works great with the PS2 controller, though the change that every weapon uses one weapon slot, divided into weapon types might be questionable, since that makes part of the game a whole lot easier than the PC version. Now you can have the sniper rifle, GEP, assault rifle and assault shotgun all at once, and all melee weapons are stacked into one slot, meaning you can pick up every single one of them. Of course there are a lot of positive things about this, it makes the inventory very easy to handle with the controller. There is also a great system of marking items for fast selection, which you can then scroll through using the up/down arrows on the digital pad. The character models has got an much needed improvement, which you might not see at first, but when you return to the PC version you quickly notice the difference. The motion captured animation of the characters is excellent, including quite detailed eyes, and thief style dead/unconscious bodies which collapse realistically when you throw them around (the bodies in the PC version where not animated at all and where stiff as boards). The AI has also got itself some improvement, enemies can see you when you expect them to see you most of the time, and allies help you out a bit more than in the PC version. We shouldn't forget the music either, every track in the game has been re-recorded and remixed, all lo-fi sampled strings have been replaced with real orchestra instruments. You often end up watching the main menu for minutes just to hear the fantastic new rendition of the Deus Ex theme, the introduction and ending scenes have been remade as great looking FMV's, almost comparable to the ones seen in Deus Ex: Invisible War. They have made the use of nanokeys automated, so you only have to click on a door to unlock it, if you have the key, instead of putting your weapon down to use the keyring, which I think is a good thing.

In many ways this is a fantastic port, but it also got some annoying flaws ...

The Bad
There are some things in the port that really annoys me, the thing that annoys me the most is the extreme slowdowns you encounter in several parts of the game, often when they are least wanted, such as when you get into a firefight with several bots and soldiers at once. Parts of a level when you are boarding a big freighter are almost unplayable, and the last level got increasingly slower the more objectives I completed. Sometimes the lag can make you miss enemies you are trying to shoot, though the auto-aiming feature usually makes sure you hit even if your crosshair jumps inches at a time in the worst slowdowns. On a few occasions I encountered an horrible bug that made the game exit and jump to the main menu when I tried to save, making all progress since the last save go lost. This only happened twice in all the times I saved, but I really recommend you to save often to make sure you don't loose to much if a save at a critical time fails. They have changed the augmentation system slightly, so that you can install augmentations any time you like when you've found an canister, while this is generally a good thing, some in-game help and the manual still claim that you have to use a medbot to install them. There are also some differences in the way the Data Vault and computer use works, the great feature from the PC version, where you could go to the Data Vault and read all previous communication with NPC's has been removed, making it hard at times to remember what you are supposed to do. There isn't as much information stored in your "Notes" either (and the feature to edit notes or add your own has been removed, though I can understand why, with the lack of a keyboard). When you find passwords or keycodes they are stored and automatically entered when you use the a computer or keypad which you have the codes for. While this saves you the inconvenience of having to memorize codes, or check your data vault for passwords every time you want to use a computer, this also takes away the possibility to guess a lot of codes and eventually finding out the right one by chance. Now you either have the code or have to hack or use multitools to bypass security computers or keypads. Due to the memory limitations of the PS2 all levels have been remade and split up into several parts with loading times (much longer than those you encountered in the PC version by the way) between them. While they have done a great job most of the time, often with results which are visually indistinguishable from their PC counterparts, or even better looking in a few occasions, they have removed many of the different ways to get past obstacles, usually only leaving a couple of the most obvious ones. The streets of New York has got the worst treatment in my opinion, but also parts of Hong Kong, where it feels like you are running through doom style claustrophobic corridors rather than real city streets. The lack of a multiplayer mode is also a bit sad, though it wasn't completely necessary. But since the multiplayer patch had been released for the PC version by the time this port was released, one would think they could have included it in this version as well.

To be perfectly honest though, I think most of the flaws are minor ones. Except for the slowdowns and the save game bug (which both are really annoying), you get used to the other differences and appreciate the fantastic story instead.

The Bottom Line
Deus Ex on PC was a fantastic FPS/RPG hybrid with an fascinating storyline, and the PlayStation 2 port has managed to keep almost all of the things that made the original game great, while improving the graphics and music a lot. It is far from flawless though, but it still a great PlayStation 2 game, well worth the time and money you invest in it. I will end with an advice: SAVE OFTEN!