Deus Ex

The Good
Deus Ex... What else to say? I almost feel there are already too many reviews for this game here, but well another one can't hurt, right? I really can't add much more praise to this game so I'll just stick to confirming that all of it is well deserved. Really, to those who still have their doubts about this game and ask themselves "is it really that good? Or is it all hype?" All I have to say is that it isn't that good. It's even better.

The premise of the game is part System Shock (man, Spector must have a real thing with AI's!) and part X-files slapped on a first person rpg with fps elements, but the game takes all preconceptions you may have over all these genres, influences, etc. and mixes it into one very well made whole which manages to amaze even diehard gamers like myself... well maybe that's overstretching it but yeah, it's VERY good.

Granted, a lot of the marvel of the game comes courtesy of a lot of groundwork that was laid in previous games so it's not as "original" as one would like to assume (a certain person I know thinks this is the holy grail of gaming simply because he completely skipped past all of Spector's early works). But still Deus Ex manages to take all that has been done before and expand it to pharaonic proportions. Want cyberpunk ambience? Have as much as you want. Non-linearity? Ten times as much as you have ever seen. Complex storyline? Take every conspiracy theory and add some more. That's how Deus Ex feels, it's ideas may not have sprung first, but it sure is the best incarnation to date of them.

I could go on and on about each aspect of the game that has been tuned to perfection, but instead let me adress what I think is the golden nugget of Deus Ex: It's freedom of choices. At virtually no point in the adventure the game makes any preconceptions about what your choices may be, for each objective there is a million different ways to accomplish your objective be it guns-blazing, sneaky or whatever. Thus Deus Ex has done something utterly amazing: it has found the absolute cure for gaming frustration. Sure, you may love a certain type of games, But every now and then you need a change of pace right? Well Deus Ex changes paces with you. Got tired of sneaking around? How about some stress-relieving shootouts? Want to stop "playing" for a while and just talk with npc's and interact with the world? Go right ahead! Anytime, anywhere, anyhow. Thus you are never stuck in the game, you always find another solution to whatever problem lies ahead of you, and you are always moving forward. The sense of progress is constant, and it's a remarkable feat to accomplish in any game. This is quite simply: admirable.

The Bad
Well, there are some bad things about Deus Ex I'm afraid: First of all it's AI is braindead. Seriously. It uses the so popular pre-set reactions that make it look like it actually thinks when it goes and hits the alarm or whatever, but in reality there's very little under the hood. In fact, the AI suffers from the deadly "Headless chicken" syndrome, when no alarms are around, the enemies will start to run around frantically with absolutely no purpose whatsoever whenever you show up, shoot someone, or do whatever. Fully emulating the behavior of... you guessed it, a headless chicken. Furthermore, there are also some serious issues like their indifference to knocked-out bodies (if they are dead, sure they start to run around, but if they are ko'd... guess they probably figure they are taking a nap. Face first. In the middle of a corridor... a-ha)

Also something that is truly horrible is the voice-acting. AHHHGH!!! Memo for Deus Ex 2: get professional voice actors!. Most characters sound like they had a gun pointed at them, and those who don't simply can't act, like Simons who is simply HORRIBLE, and don't even get me started on the "foreigners" and their painfully overacted accents. Seriously, I though my ears were bleeding at times, and I have heard everything from the abominable (but ground-breaking we must admit) Ultima Underworld opening to the Resident Evil games.

Now, this is all... shall we say on the technical area, the game does have a cohesive (though sometimes cliched) story, but I also have a bone to pick with the "creative" aspect of the game.

Whenever you play a game, watch a movie, etc. you make concessions to it depending on the game's setting and other things in order to get into the adventure. Thus nobody complains that in Mario Bros. there are talking mushrooms or that Mario can't jump so much without getting tired, since we accept that Mario's games are totally free of our physics laws and happen in a fantastic reality where we accept those things. Deus Ex on the other hand, is "for real".

Sure, it's sci-fi, but it's rooted in our reality, in our world. In fact, every fantastical or outrageous element in the game is explained and justified with luxury of detail both to add to the ambience and to ground the game in our reality. So Deus Ex takes the stance that it's serious and "realistic" and lets go of practically every concession we make to videogames. Now, I have nothing against this, but it's tricky business to make something "real" and I'm afraid not even Spector and his group of elite coders got it right.

Sure, they added realistic details to the game, real-life reactions to certain events, etc. etc. etc. But they missed out on lots of simple stuff. Stuff that is so blatantly stupid that I couldn't stop myself from laughing whenever they popped up, and in fact it's stuff that doesn't concern the game per se, but the narrative/dramatic qualities of it. I wouldn't even call them flaws, but "goofs" since it seems like stuff that got lifted from those hilarous mails that go around the net by the title of "Stuff we learn from the movies" or variants of it. Allow me to list a few: The bad guy that tells you his plan and laughs maniatically (with the optional "The world is Mine!!! Bwahahahaha!!") the "I'm-so-cool-I-talk-in-a-low-key-drone-and-I-never-raise-my-voice"; the one man army vs a million terrorist/conspiracy soldiers; the self destruct button, characters that are lifted right out of comic books and are either "good" or bad to the bone, etc. etc. etc. But those that were most amusing to me had to be the ones related to the "internationality" that the game was given. Let me tell you a secret as a certified non-US resident: We all secretly speak english. Seriously! All that mumbo jumbo about different languages is a hoax, we are only people who speak english in different accents! In fact, when we are alone we like to discuss in english!! I swear it's true! And thank god that Deus Ex has blown the cover on this big hoax showing us all as we really are! :))) ....Seriously, sometimes the game seemed to become something like "American tourist: The simulation" :)) With wonderful bits like J.C. approaching a couple in paris and going "Yo! 'Sup bro? Heard anything 'bout Silohuete?" :)) Ok,ok so I'm stretching it, but that is pretty much J.C.'s approach to "spying" in the whole game, complete with a Matrix-get up and a low key drone-like voice.... yeah, "conspicuous" it ain't! :))

So yeah, yeah, I know what you are thinking: I'm nothing but a little bitch. But remember that in the box it says "epic globe-hopping adventure", etc. etc. Not "cyberpunk B-grade James Bond clone" so I think I'm right when pointing out whenever the so vaunted "realism" comes apart at the seams.

The Bottom Line
Quite simply Deus Ex is a superb game, I can't help pointing out the few flaws because... well, maybe I am nothing but a little bitch :) But still, American tourist simulation or not, braindead AI or not, terrible voice acting or not, Deus Ex is fantastic. It's a remarkable game and everyone who considers him/herself a serious gamer HAS to own it. There is no way around it, Deus Ex is a defining moment in the history of videogames and no one should miss it.

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.

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.