Deus Ex™ GOTY Edition

One of the best games of all time!

I have no idea how many times I've played all the way through this it's got to be at least half a dozen considering all the different things I tried. While I won't claim this is perfect, it is the best of the first three, I haven't played the fourth one yet, and there's so many things that it gets exactly right. As a RPG-FPS hybrid it is accessible enough for people who are not sold on something that's only the former and works rather well as a gateway game. This was the first role-playing game I ever tried and now I've played a dozen different ones. If you're considering this franchise I would definitely skip the second one but back to this one specifically. You’re forced to make a number of choices that hugely impact the rest of the experience. It is literally completely impossible to try everything without replaying it. There are a number of augmentations and every time you install one you have to choose between two different options. For example you can run silently or faster; the former is great for stealth the latter greatly assists you in a more combat-oriented playing style. Ultimately these are two of the major ones that you can choose for how you approach the entire thing, although I can't claim that it is equally open to both the way that Splinter Cell Blacklist is. You also upgrade abilities. At the lowest you can hardly even aim the type of gun and at the highest you're a crack shot. Given how open it is it is actually possible to go all the way through this and barely at all use any violence and it doesn't try to force you into doing something that truly does not feel right for you. Sometimes you're forced to get very creative but it is actually doable. I have never struggled so much with what I wanted to keep in my inventory and what to leave behind. This includes but isn't limited to that some weapons are much larger than others which of course means you can carry multiple small weak ones or a few really large ones that end fights extremely quickly.

Story direction and gameplay were very innovative, though I wasn't a gamer in the late 90s and early 00s, so I don't have a good frame of reference. Deus Ex does a good job making you feel like your decisions are important. Sometimes minor interactions in game will cause NPCs to have altered dialogue, which I found to be charming. I love attention to detail and this title isn't missing it. Often times I felt conflicted throughout the story - which is intended - and I was relieved to know that I didn't have to kill someone I didn't want to. You feel a sense of freedom. This also applies to level progression. Depending on your character's skills, the items you have, and your playstyle, you will always have at least two, but usually a handful of options for navigating the world and completing objectives. Character progression is also a strong point. In the early game I was mostly sneaking around or avoiding combat due to a lack of overpowered abilities and skills. By mid-game I was confident in most combat or stealth situations, but still died to strong enemies. By the last couple levels I felt basically unstoppable. This also benefits the pacing of the game. If you explore a lot and earn bonus experience and find upgrades when you can, it affords you the ability to move through the later levels at a faster pace if you are eager to finish the story. This is an intelligent design choice in my opinion. There are of course multiple endings. I am definitely going to play through again to see how I can influence the game world with different choices. I'm curious to see what they've written for alternate story paths. The voice acting is in some cases superb, and in others, laughably bad. The main characters were voiced exceptionally well and kept me glued to the storyline. Side characters and minor NPCs often misread the lines or read them poorly. That's a direction mistake. But there is charm in it. And this by no means hurts the overall achievement of the game.

Good story, graphics is outdated, but it still can be fun

The graphic are dated, the story linear but I wouldn't change a thing. Great cyberpunk