Deus Ex

aka: DX1, Deus Ex: The Conspiracy
Moby ID: 1749
Windows Specs
Note: We may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made via eBay or Amazon links (prices updated 3/18 8:47 PM )
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

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Videos

See any errors or missing info for this game?

You can submit a correction, contribute trivia, add to a game group, add a related site or alternate title.

Credits (Windows version)

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

Producer and Project Director
Lead Programmer and Assistant Director
Programmers
Designers
Dialogue
Additional Dialogue
In-Game Text and Intro/Endgame Cinematics
Art Director
Lead Artist
Artists
Audio
Music
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 89% (based on 78 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 530 ratings with 35 reviews)

Despite some mega-frustrations, Deus Ex proves that cyberpunk and conspiracy theories go together like bread and butter.

The Good


  • Great branching story line
  • High replay value
  • Compelling choices
  • Appealing cyberpunk art design
  • Unique mix of role playing, shooting, Stealth and puzzle elements
  • Lengthy campaign
  • Good soundtrack
  • You get to go to China!


The Bad

  • Poor graphics and textures that don't make most of the Unreal engine
  • Story can be confusing at times
  • Often monotonous acting
  • Extremely difficult and at times very frustrating
  • Weapon sound effects could be better


The Bottom Line
If you aren't already familiar with Warren Spector, let me familiarize him with you. Warren Spector is a developer who throughout his career, challenged the norm and took risks by deviating from the standard formula. He got his start working with other, bigger name developers such as Wing Commander creator, Chris Roberts and Richard Garriott, creator of Ultima.

Eventually, however, he decided he would work on something of his very own design. The fruits of his labour would be 1994's System Shock, one of the first shooters to scream "I'm NOT Doom! and stand out by mixing role playing elements into the game. Sadly, with the release of Doom II and the fact that many found System Shock maybe a little TOO unique, System Shock failed to truly sell and became one of the first "Cult" video games.

Spector wouldn't truly send shockwaves until he made Thief: The Dark Project. Like System Shock, Thief deviated from the norm; it was a first person perspective, but rather than focus on shooting it focused on Stealth and being sneaky. This created practically its own genre and now you know where the forced stealth section in every shooter comes from.

After Thief, Warren Spector joined John Romero's ill fated company, ION Storm and created today's subject, Deus Ex. Once again, Spector has said "Hell no!" to convention, and Deus Ex, in many ways, is a combination of all his past efforts. The shooting and roleplaying from System Shock is in, the sneaky moments from Thief return, but in traditional Spector fashion, there's another element that shook up the formula: A branching plot, multiple endings and a "Choice" system. Granted, there were games that had multiple endings before, but most of them were horror titles, and most others that had "Choice" systems and branching plots were old school RPG games. However, Spector improved on all these aspects and mixed them into Deus Ex with sublime results.

Deus Ex is set in a chaotic future where terrorism is part of daily life. You play as JC Denton, an undercover operative working for a corporation known as UNATCO, an anti-terrorist organization. JC is no normal human being though, he is what they call an "Bio-augmented" soldier, essentially a cyborg that can interact with bio-electric systems and use them to enhance his abilities. This works as a great hinge for the immersion, it explains some of his more extra-ordinary stunts and the character building RPG elements are justifiable by this as well.

The game begins with you after a terrorist working for an organization known as the NFS who has taken over the destroyed husk of the Statue of Liberty. They have stolen a vaccine known as Ambrosia, the only cure to a mysterious epidemic known as "The Gray Death." The game takes many twists and turns, and is rife with conspiracy and betrayal, and will bring in such classic conspiracy theories such as the Majestic 12 and Area 51. The story is fascinating and has many branching paths, but it is compelling and will keep you going.

The biggest problem with the story is that it CAN be confusing at time, granted, asking a Conspiracy Theory to make sense in the first act is like asking a Fly to stay on the ground its whole life. In some ways, the branching paths are to blame, because sometimes you will run into an issue where your character flips on a dime and takes another route which contradicts the previous one. This happens rarely, but when it does happen it can be dizzying and frustrating.

The gameplay, as I said, mixes role playing elements, stealth, and good old fashioned shooting. At the beginning, you give your character his basic traits and specializations before spending some points. These traits all have variety and they build in "Proficiency," rather than standard XP points. In other words, as you use these traits/skills, they will grow on their own and your character will get better with them as you play rather than waiting for you to dump more skill points in at the next level. Its a nice and effective manner of handling this aspect, and it always keeps you immersed in the game.

The art design is heavily rooted in cyberpunk, but with some strange familiarities. The early areas, rooted in New York, are the least "High tech" settings, but the game explains this well by saying New York is pretty much a rotten shithole and while civilization has been expanding in other areas, New York has gotten worse and due to constant terrorist attacks, has began to crumble. You won't see more traditional, Blade Runner-esque Cyberpunk landscapes until you take your first trip to China (yay!) and Paris (Boo!) but you can still catch hints of it in each area, and it is a distinctive visual design that will please fans of cyberpunk styling.

Despite the fine art design, the graphics are outdated and poor, even for the time. It uses the Unreal engine, but it doesn't make full use of the engines strength, using the minimum texture support and stripping out many effects, and environments sometimes feel cramped, under-furnished, and boxy. Character designs often repeat themselves and their animations are less than spectacular. They even have strange jitters sometimes that can break the immersion.

The game does have a multiplayer mode, but its fairly standard stuff. The only thing about it that's really unique is that the characters fragile hitbox carries over. What I mean by that, is as you are wounded in the game, you will bleed and limbs will lose strength and they can even be crippled or completely removed causing you to lose the ability to run, fire weapons, etc. It is interesting having this element in the multiplayer game, but otherwise there are better MP games out there.

The game sounds "Meh." It does have a good score, including an awesome theme song (Although the aging "Galaxy" sound system in the engine makes it sound a little flimsy) and some characters emote, but most of the performances are mediocre and ridiculously monotonous. You'll swear JC Denton and his brother are relatives of Keanu Reeves due to their bland, uninterested voices. The weapons don't always sound that great either, a few sound good, but they often sound strange or wimpy and they don't sound like they really pack a punch which can make them a little less fun to use. Good ballistics and handling make up for this, but adding some more oomph to them would have been nice.

The game is fairly lengthy and will show you plenty of New York and you will do some globe trotting as well. The graphics somewhat detract from the environments, but regardless there's a fair amount of variety and especially in China, there are some impressive futuristic sights and places to visit.

Naturally, there are characters you can meet who will give you side quests. This also adds to the variety, and each game will feel different as you pick up new side quests, change your character, and hunt down the multiple endings. There's a lot of replay value thanks to the quality and variety the game offers.

The game can be brutal and relentless at times though. I'm always up for a challenge, but there are times where said challenge is a bit too much. Even the very beginning of the game is ridiculously difficult, if you don't pull it off just perfectly you will be shot down before you can get 5 feet out of the starting gate. And this is on the easiest setting. You're going to have to die a couple times anyways, because there are always multiple paths and you never know which one is the most likely to turn you into a bloody lump of flesh resembling Swiss Cheese. This is really the biggest detractor to the gameplay, and can tick you off enough you'll shut the game down to take a break before trying again.

Overall, Deus Ex is a unique game that still holds up today. With its great hybrid gameplay and story, its a compelling game that covers its flaws with immersion and a varied, highly replayable experience. If you haven't played it yet, what are you waiting for? You can find the Game of the Year version on Steam for only 10 bucks.

Windows · by Kaddy B. (777) · 2010

Who says games that are 2 years old can't compete with the current market? WOW, this game is the BEST!

The Good
Where should I start? Okay, first, the graphics are totally awesome (but the mouths are jerky). The sound is excellent, as well as the music, and the alarm is totally freaky. The story...well, I can't praise it highly enough. I got a tingly feeling by the end because of the greatness of the twisted plot. I never got that feeling from any other game. Everything is very non-linear, and you can customize anything, and I mean anything: pathways, side quests, decisions, augmentations, skills, inventory: you name it! The game world is extremely detailed, with a network of vents and tons of different pathways in every level. Will you: sneak through the vents, wasting a lockpick; go in using the all-action approach; hijack the security; go through the backdoor elevator, using a multitool; sneak out using another path; etc. There are practically an infinite amount of paths you can take, and there are tons of buildings and characters that you don't have to visit! WOW! Finally, the game has a sort of real-world/cyberpunk feeling: a gritty feeling which I REALLY liked...it really helped the game along.

The Bad
I didn't like the fact that it was set in the night. Also, the AI doesn't instantly see you, it always has to say something stupid, even if you're in front of their nose ("Who's there, I know you're around here somewhere!"). In addition, you have limited inventory space (this isn't bad...I just didn't like it). The loading times are waaaaay to long, and you die too often. There are also loads of ammo shortages in the beginning. Finally, after you beat the game once, playing it again isn't as surprising. But that is nothing!

The Bottom Line
Damn! This is, hands down, the best game I have EVER, EVER played, and I played LOTS of games!

Windows · by Archagon (108) · 2002

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 (240569) · 2012

[ View all 35 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Genres Cantillon (75426) May 7, 2021
20th anniversary Patrick Bregger (298416) Jun 22, 2020
First original US box design? sndwv Aug 28, 2016
Did you know? Donatello (466) Jun 23, 2013
Happy birthday! Patrick Bregger (298416) 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

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Related Games

Deus Ex: Invisible War
Released 2003 on Windows, Xbox
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Released 2011 on Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3...
Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition
Released 2001 on Windows, 2011 on OnLive
Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Ultimate Edition
Released 2012 on Windows, Macintosh
Deus Ex: Human Revolution: Benelux Edition
Released 2011 on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows
Deus Ex: Human Revolution - The Missing Link
Released 2011 on Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - A Criminal Past
Released 2017 on Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One...
Project: Snowblind
Released 2005 on PlayStation 2, Xbox, Windows
Tower of Deus
Released 2011 on Nintendo DSi

Related Sites +

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 1749
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

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.