Deus Ex

aka: DX1, Deus Ex: The Conspiracy
Moby ID: 1749
Windows Specs
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Add-on (unofficial) Special Edition

Description official descriptions

Some time during the 2050's, the world is a dangerous place as terrorists, drug czars, and outlaw states rule, using violence and subterfuge as tools in their push for global conquest. A deadly virus dubbed "gray death" is running rampant throughout the world and the only known cure is a chemical known as "Ambrosia" manufactured by the VersaLife corporation. However Ambrosia supplies are scarce and world governments, particularly the United States, carefully monitor and control who receives this cure. As protest against these events, French terrorist organization "Silhouette" bombs the historic symbol of friendship between French and American people, The Statue of Liberty. In response to this attack, the United Nations Anti-Terrorist Coalition (UNATCO) organization is formed. Building a headquarters underground at Liberty Island, its mission is to attack terrorism and maintain peace around the world. JC Denton is a nano-enhanced agent who has been primed for UNATCO service. While JC's brother Paul is already an active agent, JC is beginning his first day of service when the National Secessionist Forces (NSF) suddenly raid a supply of Ambrosia at UNATCO headquarters.

Deus Ex is a dark cyberpunk game that combines gameplay styles of first-person shooter and RPG, with elements of stealth and puzzle-solving. The player assumes the role of JC Denton, UNATCO anti-terrorist agent. Pitted against an elaborate global conspiracy, he must interact with characters, pick up weapons and complete objectives. While JC is essentially fixed within the mission-framework of the game, he can be customized in areas such as weapons, technical skills and physical prowess. Completing objectives rewards the player with skill points, which may be distributed to increase JC's proficiencies in eleven different disciplines. The player can choose to increase the damage JC inflicts with various types of weapons, improve his lock-picking or computer hacking abilities, etc. Each such discipline has four levels of proficiency.

Another way of customizing JC is applying nano-augmentations to his body. These cybernetic implants bestow the hero with super-human abilities, and can be installed on different body parts, up to nine at the same time. Along with combat-related benefits, nano-augmentations also grant JC abilities that can be used to overcome certain obstacles within the game world. Examples of those are jumping to extreme heights, swimming, lifting heavy objects, etc. Weapons can be customized as well: their range, accuracy, and magazine sizes can be increased, and they can be enhanced by attaching scopes, silencers, or laser sights to them.

The game leads JC to various places all around the globe. The cities he visits, as well as most mission areas, are expansive and fairly open to accommodate different approaches to solving the same problems, depending on the player's preferred style of play. Most of the missions can be tackled in various ways, e.g. with brute force, stealth, or extensive usage of lock-picking and computer hacking abilities. At certain points, the course of the storyline can also be influenced by the decisions made by the player. Similarly to System Shock games, the environment is largely interactive, the player being able to pick up, use, and discard various types of objects.

Spellings

  • 杀出重围 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

184 People (144 developers, 40 thanks) · View all

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Average score: 89% (based on 78 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 531 ratings with 34 reviews)

From God

The Good
In 2000 fledgling game developer Ion Storm dropped a bomb on the unsuspecting PC games market. The game was Deus Ex. An amazing first person shooter/RPG/stealth game. It still stands as the best game they produced and one of the best PC games of all time.

In Deus Ex you are J.C. Denton. The newest Nano-augmented agent for U.N.A.T.C.O. In the not to distant future of Deus Ex, hundreds of terrorist groups run amok. And from the shadows an age old conspiracy is about to begin again. Deus Ex takes you from New York, to Hong Kong, To Paris, and even Area 51. As well as a few other places.

As you unravel the plot you meet many characters all with there own agenda. You decide who to trust and who not to trust. And the fate of several major characters is in your hands. The plot is well written with many plot twists and never gets boring, even after several play thoughts. The game wraps up in about 20 hours. And the real world setting despite being set many years into the future still manages to feel real.

The references to novels, and philosophy are very well done. And help give Deus Ex a thinking man’s game feel. Can you think of any other game that has a quote by Voltaire? Even the title, which is Latin for From God, imply deep meaning.

The game has three real endings and one hidden one. The three real endings all have a quote from authors and philosophers. There is one part in Deus Ex where in you interact with an A.I. that asks you several philosophical questions, very cool.

The Graphics is Deus Ex are a little dated now. But they are still pretty good. Thanks to the always nice Unreal engine. The character models are were the dated graphics show the most. The maps and weapons look much better. The lighting effects are superb. And best of all this game runs well even on weaker machines. So unless you have a PC older than 10 years you will be able to run Deus Ex.

The Music is excellent. Particularly the main theme. The sound effects are realistic. And the voice acting is amazing. Some people have complained about J.C.’s voice but these complaints are unfounded, I think that his performance is one of the better ones in the game.

The game is almost completely customizable. You can pick and choose what skills you will make use of. You can be well balanced or weapon or stealth oriented. You can choose which augmentations you want and upgrade them as you see fit. Weapons too can be augmented. The way you play the game is also up to you. You can go in shooting or sneak around. There are always multiple ways to solve any problem you may come across.

In the end you even must choose the fate of the world. The fate of characters also depends on your decisions. And certain actions can make the game easier. Or harder.

The Bad
The Graphics are a little dated. This game is so good that any other Ion Storm game has a hard time by comparison. A few of there games do come close to the excellence of Deus Ex. Such as Anachronox, and Thief: Deadly Shadows.

The Bottom Line
You have to play this game it is just to good to pass up. And unless you have an ancient PC and less than 10 bucks you have no excuse not to play it.

Windows · by MasterMegid (723) · 2006

Sweet Merciful Crap, This Is Good!!!

The Good
It was like living an episode of the X-Files. Lots of details to uncover, conspiracies to unravel, and allegiances to choose. Plus, there's a way for everyone to play the game out based on their tastes. Whether you want to sneak in through the shadows Bond-style or charge through with guns blazing Terminator-style, the game will accomadate you. Playing settings are detailed and varied, from New York to Paris to Hong Kong. Graphics are excellent, as long as you have a system with the cojones for it.

The Bad
Frequent, if necessary, level loads, since the levels are just huge. And even though the game is very deep and provides numerous ways to solve every problem, it really has a very linear plot, even if it's a line in disguise. The only choice you make that actually affects the direction that the plot takes happens at the very end of the game. That might not be a flaw per se, but it is something that you should know about if you expect a game that has wildly differing storylines based on how you carry out missions. People will react differently to how you deal with situations, but you get the same missions and go to the same places.

The Bottom Line
First and foremost, worth your money. Secondly, worth your time, because it will suck up a great deal of it. In a nutshell, (Half-Life's shooter aspect)+(Theif's sneaking around in the dark aspect)+(Any RPG's depth as far as character interaction and plot twists go)=One Hell of a Game (Working Title: Deus Ex)

Windows · by Jordan Samuels (2) · 2000

The best action-shooter-RPG you'll ever experience!

The Good
Whow!, Whow! and WHOW! This is by all means a game every single player on earth should play. Well, at least all of those who were so in love with games like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Unreal, Half-Life or System Shock. You acquire a role of JC Denton, a secret agent for UNATCO agency. It something like ex-UN, but not sure how much is it interested in world's peace. Anyhow, you are... well, more nano-technology then human, probably one of the newest models. Along with your brother, you both have a memory of your parents and everything, but as missions go by, you'll start to believe some words of the terrorists, especially when your brother switch sides.

The story goes pretty deep and there are many overtures and switchovers in it, as well as the thing you can change on any way you like, and still finish the game. Now to tell you the truth, that's something I rarely see as 100% compatible and efficient success in games industry. As you feel, as you think... don't hesitate to listen to your heart when playing, do as you please anytime, there is no such thing as error, only wrong judgment, hehe, but you play as you wish, with complete control over your character and his surroundings, and that's truly accomplished in this game.

The game runs pretty fine, even on my - now old - Pentium II 333MMX, and the fact I have 192MB of RAM doesn't do the trick. Guess it's the processor. Still, even if I reduced a certain quality or screen resolution, the game still looked a blast, simply amazing. The thing is, this game might have many same things like other games, but it's the only one that has all those things right! That's a fact!!! Besides, it does have a great new features which does make it unique.

Your character is built on nano technology, so you can upgrade him form time to time with nano canisters or upgrade canisters, choose the things you wanna upgrade, like being stealth (even literally, hehe), night vision, striking force, focusing targets, eyesight. Hey, didn't you wonder how come he's always wearing sun glasses, when it's always atmosphere like in Blade Runner, foggy and cloudy night. Either that, or you're crawling some dark sewers and buildings. Well, that explains the purpose of this nano technology, doesn't it? :)

As for the weapons, they're great. The thing that seems small, but that way, much more realistic, is the inventory since most of time I couldn't take some more advanced weapons and not leaving the ones I had behind, which was no option since I upgraded the weapons I had already, so it would be a terrible waste. Yeah, you'll notice how with certain weapons (sniper or a rifle gun), your hand isn't steady as you'd like. Well, with upgrading certain weapons, their range and accuracy, you'll be more easy to handle 'em. One thing's for sure in this game, game balance is amazingly correct. That means, there are no tricks like super indestructible bosses, or that you can destroy some bot simply with a rifle. Well, you can, but it'll take you more magazines then you think. Still, the game's pretty hard even if you play it in 'easy' mode. It's most likely you'll be killed many times whichever mode you choose. But the good thing is to pass the training and get acquainted with game's interface, weapons and tactics. Guess those that taught you taught you well... maybe too well for their mistake ;))

There are some pretty cool weapons, like shock buzzer that only render opponent unconscious, not leaving the blood trace so you can just remove the body where none of his pals will spot him with ease. Also, dart bow that's mounted on your hand (actually, you mount it, it's not a part of you originally, it's removable), that has three types of darts. Flare ones that are useful all the way through the game, usual dart with some light damage, and tranquilizer darts that disable opponents. Of course, when you hit him, he runs for a while before he blackouts, but he definitely blackouts. Okay, flamethrower is for mass audience, hehe, and makes crispy enemies rather easy, takes pretty much space though. Sword, well, some kind of advanced technological sword is pretty much useful. Still, if you have weak melee attack, you might need a few slashes to get your target down. Oh, and there's only one thing to be sure you kill your target with only one bullet... and that's to aim for the head.

There are other useful weapons, but when it comes to bots, the regular weapons doesn't do any good. You'll either need EMP grenades that disable robot electronics leaving it unable to perform guard duties, or you can use things like bazooka or rifle when switched to rockets pod, and aim from the distance. Also, you can hack into computers and security grids and sometimes, you can either disable enemy cameras, turrets and/or bots, or make 'em your ally. There are many places to travel to, many ways to get equipment, and many traps, so be careful to whom you trust. And whenever someone needs your help, be sure he's not using you for his own goal, and risking you without thinking twice. In such cases, you can either decline his offer and give him some lead, or make a job for him, collect reward and then waste the fu**er.

Now, this game also has something that's not always present in 1st-person RPG-shooters, and that's a damn fine tune. Music is really awesome. In his own style, it may be just as good as the one from Outlaws, well, in its own style I said :) Great speech, accents, places, everything. This just might be the right game to have the major genres included, and all are active all the way... action, adventure, role-playing, science-fiction, heck, if they ever made this game as a movie, Matrix wouldn't be as close :)

The Bad
Hmm, I wonder how they put such a huge and fantastic game on single CD. Bravo for them. Anyway, there should be some other way to make save games. I mean, I know, the more you explore, the more of that will have to be included in a save game file, but still, 15MB save game file... you just save your game a couple of times and there goes 100MB of your space. And that's only average, it varies form 4MB to 24MB of space. Still, game works fine, doesn't take too much to load, and has great atmosphere, storyline, characters, music and everything else.

The Bottom Line
This game hold too many secrets for me to be able to mention them here, but you can make a game skeleton out of this review, and the rest should be your decision. Still if you don't get this game, it can only be your loss, and your loss only.

As I mentioned earlier, for slower machines, you can use cheaper detail level and different resolutions, which is most of time okay (unless you played for some time in richly detailed level, you might not want to reduce that, hehe), but when it comes to characters, they're completely unrecognizable (faces, I mean), but when you put on rich level of details, they look just plain great. Well, you can always switch the things when you finish the mission and speed isn't important anymore, hehe. Anyway, even in the worst possible detail level, the game still looks better than all the 1st-person shooters I know.

The game has three different endings, but its path is chosen at the very end. I'm usually not a particularly fond of multiple endings, since that usually means you have to play from the beginning and then choose different path. Well, not this time, it's more like making a final decision of what to do. Still, none of the endings won't be that easy, even though they all end more or less at the same place.

Great game! Honestly! I'm really looking forward to its sequel, I wonder to which end will they continue it, if so :) This is a true game we were all longing for, yeah! Good work Ion Storm & Eidos!

Windows · by MAT (240759) · 2012

[ View all 34 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Genres Cantillon (76020) May 7, 2021
20th anniversary Patrick Bregger (298957) Jun 22, 2020
First original US box design? sndwv Aug 28, 2016
Did you know? Donatello (466) Jun 23, 2013
Happy birthday! Patrick Bregger (298957) Jun 24, 2010

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The PC version of Deus Ex appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Alex Denton

Somewhere in Area 51 (the last stage of the game) you can see a number of containers with clones in suspension. One of them is called Alex Denton. Alex Denton is the lead character to the successor Deus Ex: Invisible War.

Books

Ever wonder about the books found in Deus Ex? The Man Who was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton is a real book written in 1901, and takes place in a fantasy version of Victorian England, in which anarchists take names of days of the week it has some similarities to Deus Ex. G.K. Chesterton also wrote a book about St. Thomas Aquinas whom is referenced several time in Deus Ex.

One of the many books you can read in Deus Ex is the beginning of The Eye of Argon by Jim Theis. This is a real book, considered by many to be the worst fantasy book ever written. Information about the book and the full text can be found online.

Cancelled Linux version

The Linux version of Deus Ex was supposed to be ported by Loki Entertainment Software. Unfortunately, they went bankrupt back in 2001. Although their company website still exists, it (obviously) hasn't been updated. The status of Deus Ex in the website is "coming soon". Not likely.

Non-lethal

Due to the array of non-lethal weapon and the numerous stealth options, it is quite possible to finish the game having only killed three people. That's a pretty non-violent option for a first person shooter! With the explotation of glitches, the number can be dropped to one.

References

  • There's a register in the hotel at the Hell's Kitchen location... click on it and you will see that the last name is Hyppolita Hall... a character from the Sandman comic books.
  • One of the computer passwords used in the game, "reindeerflotilla", is actually a reference to the 1982 movie Tron, where it was used by Flynn to hack into the computer network and challenge the MCP (the time when he's actually inside the Encom building).
  • The helicopter pilot Jock with which J.C. Denton allies himself in the game is possibly a reference to the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. In the opening scenes of that movie, Indiana Jones makes a getaway in a biplane, flown by a pilot also named Jock.
  • Main voices of JC Denton and Agent Navarre are eerily similar to the protaganists of Nocture... as well as their general appearances.
  • A couple of tidbits. JC Denton was supposed to have a famous ancestor with the Initials J.C. If you look at the game logo, you see a very stylized J and C rotating around a tiny sphere.
  • Castle Clinton, as well as the Statue of Liberty, are real buildings represented in the game as playable maps.
  • In the hotel, in NYC, check the guest register. One entry is, Gabriel Syme, from London, England. Syme was the title character in the novel, The Man Who Was Thursday.

Special edition

Beware the "special edition" that's being sold for $9.99 in bargain bins at Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, etc. This is a one-level demo being passed off as a full retail version. Unlike other legitimate bargain bin software, the Deus Ex being sold in the bargain bin section is only a demo and not the full game.

Eidos has a nasty habit of releasing game demos disguised as full retail versions and pedalling them in bargain bin software racks (they've done this previously with Tomb Raider). Nowhere on the packaging is it mentioned the "special edition" is a demo and not the full retail version of the game.

Title

The title "Deus Ex" comes from the latin term deus ex machina. It means- 1. A god introduced by means of a crane in ancient Greek and Roman drama to decide the final outcome. 2. A person or thing (as in fiction or drama) that appears or is introduced suddenly and unexpectedly and provides a solution to an apparently insoluble difficulty.

Twin Towers

If you run around Liberty Island, you can see the New York skyline. The Twin Towers are missing because allegedly, they were destroyed by terrorists. This was a design decision for a game released before September 11, 2001.

Voice acting

Lots of Ion Storm employees were used as voice actors. Tom Hall plays the villain in the game; Jay Franke, a QA tester, played the protagonist. He used to be on the TV sitcom California Dreams.

Awards

  • GameSpy
    • 2000 – Game of the Year
    • 2001 – #18 Top Game of All Time
    • 2011 – #3 Top PC Game of the 2000s
  • PC Gamer
    • 2000 - Game of the Year
    • October 2001 - #10 in the "Top 50 Games of All Time" list
    • April 2005 - #27 in the "50 Best Games of All Time" list

Information also contributed by Adam Baratz, Alan Chan, Dr. M. "Schadenfreude" Von Katze, emanjonez, Entorphane, Jason Musgrave, jeremy strope, MasterMegid, PCGamer77, Ryan Prendiville, Scott Monster, Stephen Atkinz; Tomer Gabel and WildKard

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by rstevenson.

PlayStation 3 added by GTramp. Macintosh added by Kabushi. PlayStation 2 added by NeoMoose.

Additional contributors: MAT, Adam Baratz, Unicorn Lynx, Shoddyan, Zeppin, DreinIX, Zeikman, Patrick Bregger, FatherJack.

Game added June 25, 2000. Last modified March 16, 2024.