Deus Ex™ GOTY Edition

What else needs to be said about this classic of emergent gameplay. A gritty dystopian cyberpunk setting, a truly enthralling story of international espionage, and gameplay that has to be experienced to be believed. From the very beginning, you're offered a choice, and that's the theme of game from there on in. Choices abound. Do you take the front door to the stronghold, or do you sneak in through the air vent? Are you a run and gunner, or more of a stealth based player? Do you prefer guns, or are you more of a tactical person, turning the enemys tech against themselves? Choices, choices and more choices. Tightly written and excellently paced, this is the way games should be. If you loved Human Revolution, go back to where it all began and experience the original. You owe it to yourself. (We won't mention the travesty of ...*shudder* Invisible War) At $9.99, this game is a steal, and the hours of enjoyment you'll get out of it will more than compensate you. Deus Ex. Gaming Perfection.

Deus Ex holds a special place in my heart for being the first game to open my eyes to the vast possibilities of story- and character-focused games. At the time that I first played it, it seemed like this was really it: The game that would shape the way of the future by showing everyone what games can be. Not a lot of games have followed suit, however, and that is why Deus Ex is still one of the most relevant Good Old Games. From a design perspective, it is easy to admire for its sheer ambition. Take the first level as an example: You are presented with a massive area surrounding the statue of liberty. You have to get to the top. How do you get there? It's entirely up to you. The designers don't tell one single way to do it, they throw you in there and let you decide for yourself: which route(s), which weapons, which tools and methods etc. etc. There is even one situation, much later in the game, where the game actually does tell you to do something very specific, but - as you may realize - you can do the exact opposite. It might feel like you are breaking the game design, like you have taken control and demolished the intended design. Of course you haven't really, but the illusion that is created here is emblematic of the spirit of Deus Ex. So while you may not be truly free to do whatever you want (which would also work against any kind of character- and story-based progression), Deus Ex still makes you feel like you can control the outcome of the various scenarios in your own way. It all boils down to the various choices you make, of course: How you go about this or that problem, how you get to this or that place. And more importantly: How you evolve the genetically enhanced special agent that you are. Your abilities define you and what is possible for you to do. And the choice is yours to make at all times. To conclude, I would point out that Deus Ex is not to be seen as a 'sandbox', but rather its design is such that it presents you with decisions that actually matter in regards to the progression of the missions, the overarching story-line and the character that you play. It is true that many specific gameplay mechanics may be dated by today's standards (particularly compared to the excellent third game in the series, Human Revolution). But the underlying design philosophy that defines Deus Ex is still as relevant as it ever was.

Some games are so widely adored and imitated that to call them the greatest of all time has become a cliché. This is especially true in the realm of the PC, where even the most obscure gems will develop their own scarily obsessive fans. In the entirety of the medium’s history, few games have been crafted with such clear love, ambition and stubborn determination as the cyberpunk conspiracy simulator that Ion Storm bestowed upon the world and christened Deus Ex. The year is 2052 and the world is a shambles, with huge corporations, Orwellian governments and an apocalyptic plague cheerfully dubbed The Gray Death. JC Denton, an agent for the United Nations Anti-Terrorist Coalition, fresh out of the academy and brimming over with cutting-edge nano-augmentations, is tasked with recovering a shipment of stolen vaccine from a secessionist group. Of course, this initial goal is soon overshadowed as hints of far grander schemes creep into view. When I first donned JC’s trenchcoat and inexplicable sunglasses, I was grooving with the premise and enjoyed the interactions, but didn’t really understand what all the fuss was about. It was only once events started to pick up pace that I developed a proper appreciation for the craftsmanship that weaves Deus Ex together. Any story is only as good as the devices used to tell it. While there are almost no wholly non-interactive cutscenes, there’s an abundance of dialogue, lore-filled reading material, overheard conversations and more besides. The beauty of Deus Ex’s plot, however, is that if you rush through or don’t pay much attention, you’re liable to miss a bunch of it. Conversations that seem entirely meaningless the first time take on a whole new meaning during a second (or tenth) playthrough, alluding to goings-on behind the scenes, foreshadowing upcoming twists and skilfully developing characters. Not since Watchmen have I seen such dizzying attention to detail in this regard, and the oft-spoofed voicework shouldn’t be allowed to distract from what is truly a masterful implication of narrative in a medium and genre which has often struggled with it. So while the acting is hardly a rival to Legacy of Kain’s thespian entourage, I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that Deus Ex’s vision of the future remains one of the most complete and believable virtual worlds I’ve ever lost myself in. More so in light of real-world developments following the game’s release. Perhaps even more famous than the story itself is the unique and occasionally jaw-dropping extent to which certain plot elements can be directly affected by your actions throughout the game. Some of the more impressive examples would require spoiler tags, but a recurring theme early on involves your approach to tackling enemy troops; I admit to suspecting the game was reading my mind when somebody first complained about my use of excessive force, and even the sub-missions you find on certain levels can conclude a number of ways depending on your methods and how the characters involved end up. More than once I’ve killed someone under the assumption the game would end, only to find the developers prepared for that eventuality. While the three possible (and all remarkably awesome) endings are largely unaffected by any of this, the freakish way characters will reference a specific choice you made hours earlier adds a uniquely personal aspect to the roleplaying experience I’ve never seen anywhere else. Adding hugely to the atmosphere is the soundtrack, which first makes its presence known in obscenely glorious fashion on the main menu and never lets up. Literally every level has its own selection of tunes, including separate ambient, combat, talking and even death tracks, requiring a veritable army of artists (chiefly Alexander Brandon of Unreal Tournament fame) and encompassing such diverse genres as techno, jazz and classical. Most manage to remain pleasant even after looping for hours, but a handful soar above that; not only are tracks like UNATCO, Hong Kong and VersaLife beautiful in isolation, they manage to perfectly capture the mood of their respective levels and fit the tone established by recent plot developments. Deus Ex is one of those cherished games whose soundtracks are inextricably bound to emotional memories in my head. So we’ve established that Deus Ex is a titan of interactive storytelling. But what about the actual sodding game, you may be wondering. Well, if you forced me to cram Deus Ex into a genre, I’d have to call it a first-person shooter. After all, you run around in a first-person perspective and use a variety of weapons to turn enemies into globs of gore. To think of Deus Ex as merely an FPS, however, would be doing it a severe disservice. Not only, for instance, is there a vastly greater emphasis on plot and exploration than in most shooters, there are also multiple varied and entirely valid play-styles, building on a set of skills which can be upgraded as you earn points by accomplishing specific goals. The true genius of all this is that whereas full-on RPGs like Oblivion are so open-ended and impossible to balance that there will always be some character builds which are just undeniably more practical than others, Deus Ex’s levels, while big, almost always provide a route for just about any preferred means of play. If you want to blast through the front door with a rocket launcher and set everything inside on fire, you can. Equally, though, it’s feasible for a sneaky agent to pile up some boxes, clamber through an air vent and bypass much of the immediate danger, or maybe hack some turrets so they turn on their masters. It gets genuinely unsettling sometimes just how well the missions cater to one’s tastes. Furthermore, since there’s a finite quantity of XP, money and lockpicks in the game and it’s impossible to have all the augmentations at once, no single character build can ever find absolutely everything, taking the replay value into absurd territory. Really, though, I think Deus Ex lends itself to a stealth-based style; it seems more in-keeping with the futuristic super-agent vibe to pick locks, rig up traps and stab people in the back of the head. For the ultimate experience, play on the “realistic” setting, which leaves you susceptible to near-instant death, but makes enemies similarly fragile to balance it out. Grunts only appear able to see 50 degrees in front of them, but cameras can spot you at a glance and robotic adversaries will goopify targets in an instant. In many ways, the non-linear levels remind me of Thief and Hitman, and while the stealth mechanics feel more primitive than Thief 2, less polished than Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and require less patient planning than Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, the fact that I feel the need to make such comparisons should tell you I enjoy Deus Ex’s sneakery. What Deus Ex offers over any of those purely stealth-focused titles, however, is the potential for endless hilarious experimentation. As I’m sure has been made clear, Deus Ex is more than capable of telling a mature story with complex themes (transhumanism, philosophy, religion) and allusions to classical literature and mythology (Icarus, Thomas Aquinas, Tron). Yet that’s not what most of the footage you’ll find on YouTube focuses on. From distracting a guard long enough to unleash a caged beast on him, right up to breaking a man’s skull by throwing health kits, there are antics you can get up to in Deus Ex that simply cannot be replicated anywhere else. I enjoy maxing out the speed augmentation, allowing me to pogo across rooftops and attack my foes from all angles, most often using the ever-entertaining TNT boxes. There’s a delicious dark comedy to be found in such exploits and the joy of weighing up a situation and devising a ridiculous scheme with which to resolve it is an almost spiritual experience. Alas, with all this chaos comes a price. It’s never a good sign when you can literally exploit a bug before the game has even really started, but it’s pitifully easy to figure out a way of getting extra XP at the character creation screen. And for all my praise of the incredible balance between the play-styles, it has to be said that the swimming and environmental skills are laughable wastes of your precious XP. The developers were given a remarkable amount of freedom and exploited the opportunity as best they could, resulting in a game overflowing with ideas, not all of which were baked to the same golden crisp texture. Other examples of this phenomenon include Black & White, BioShock and Minecraft. Personally, almost all the glitches I’ve witnessed have done little more than make me laugh, so judging from my experience, Deus Ex is much less likely to catch fire than such modern wonders as Skyrim. And that’s an appropriate comparison, since Morrowind is another revolutionary title from around Deus Ex’s time. The difference is that while Morrowind, for all its charms, has only become increasingly clunky and cantankerous as time has gone on, Deus Ex’s soul is so enrapturing and its ambition so unparalleled that its more dated elements (weightless shooting, inconvenient looting mechanic, rudimentary physics) are more than bearable. Honestly, the game’s graphical shortcomings don’t bother me that much, since every detail bleeds more character than almost any big-budget title of recent years. If nothing else, Deus Ex is a monument to what a dedicated developer can manage, even with obvious hardware limitations, proving to the world that design should take precedent over fidelity. I can’t imagine what might be accomplished if a publisher today gave a studio even half the freedom Ion Storm had. I’ve hyped Deus Ex up to the extreme in this review. Honestly, I wish I didn’t have to, but I can’t stay silent in the face of such majesty. Some find the freedom too overwhelming while others can’t look past the cracks in the canvas. There are folk for whom it just won’t gel, no matter how much they try and let it. Like I said, it took me a few hours before the magnitude of the greatness before me began to sink in. Really, I can’t see how any serious gamer can’t at least be curious enough to give the one of the so-called BEST GAIMS EVARGH a fair go before passing judgement. It’s definitely an experience that demands you invest before it’s going to give something back. Deus Ex sat on my “get to it eventually” pile so long that I now consider it my vocation to lead other wayward souls towards the light. Yes, it’s fugly. Yes, it’s broken. And yes, the vending machines will be the death of us all. But the people who can look past all that and “get” what the creators were trying to accomplish are liable to discover that some legends live up to their legacies. They just don’t make ‘em like this anymore. What a shame.

There isn't a lot to say about Deus Ex that hasn't been said already, but for those of you who haven't played it, there are two things to keep in mind about it. One, it is undoubtedly one of the best (if not the best) PC games of all time, and one of the greatest games ever made. And two, it's a great game for a number of reasons, but there's one in particular that sticks out. Deus Ex successfully blended the FPS and RPG genres without sacrificing elements of either, something many games attempt to do but very few actually succeed at. The story of Deus Ex sets you in the shoes of JC Denton, an augmented cyborg super agent of sorts who works for the United Nations Anti-Terrorist Coalition (UNATCO). It's a dystopian future where terrorism is rampant, the populace is stricken with a seemingly incurable disease, and gas prices are somehow still cheaper than they are today (in some states anyway). As JC, you are sent off to combat said problems, but things don't always turn out as planned. From here, the story takes you on a wild ride, full of conspiracies, choices, and books that give a philosophical meaning to events. It's overall a wonderful story that features memorable characters and locales that you'll definitely enjoy. However, Deus Ex is at its best in the gameplay department, as it is both a challenging FPS and a deep RPG. Deus Ex sticks to the traditional health system, meaning no naturally regenerating health and the ability to have limbs blown off, leaving you incapacitated and unable to fight. Add in a rather noticeable lack of ammo and you have a pretty tough game, even if the grid-based inventory system allows you to carry a shotgun, machine gun, and plasma rifle at once. On the other side of things, Deus Ex is the kind of game you can play however you want depending on your skills. Putting points into any skill has a much more noticeable difference than in subsequent games, especially in terms of combat skills. You really can't aim that well with basic training in rifles, but you're a natural marksman at master level. Putting points in lockpicking and computers helps you take the stealthy route (a fun and non-violent-ish way of playing Deus Ex), putting points into swimming will allow you to access certain underwater areas, and so on. In addition, you can acquire augs that give you a number of abilities, like the ability to move faster and jump higher, regenerate health, or lift really heavy objects. You can't use augs endlessly though, as they are regulated by a separate meter from health, so it keeps things balanced. But overall, Deus Ex boasts challenging combat and a truly deep stats system in an action RPG where character builds actually matter. Of course, Deus Ex isn't perfect. For one, the map system is pretty basic, so it's easy to get lost in levels. The graphics aren't anything special, and weren't even that great for their time. If you're running the game on an old rig, there were some optimization issues, but the GOTY edition fixes those I believe. And finally, the voice acting in the game is good at best and laughably bad at worse. The American accents sound fine, but the Chinese and French accents that you'll encounter later are the definition of "faked" (listen to someone say "Luminous Path" and just try to keep a straight face). However, there are some mods that fix that graphical issues and the hilarity of the voice acting almost makes up for how bad it can be. But regardless, the good of Deus Ex vastly, VASTLY outweighs these problems. Deus Ex is one of those games that you just HAVE to play. It's one of the best examples of an action RPG done right. Hell, it's one of the best examples of a game done right. It's a masterpiece. If you came into the series with Human Revolution, you should definitely check out where many of the tenants it clung to came from. And if your first exposure to the series was Invisible War, it's time to find out why Deus Ex is the s*** and not just s***. Just play this game; it's one of my favorites and one of the absolute best games ever made.