Deus Ex™ GOTY Edition

50% of the game is the most dynamic First Person RPG you'll ever play but the other 50% is a story about the horrible burden of knowledge and prophecy that has me so shook 20 years later that it keeps me up at night. If you haven't played this yet, now's your time. Get ready, friend, because it's only getting weirder and realer from here on out. Cheers.

Deus Ex is a first-person shooter with a major role-playing game component. It's an absolute masterpiece from start to finish; one of those games that grabs you and will have you wondering why wasn't a movie made about it yet. Set in a bleak future where a deadly virus has spread, DE draws from several conspiracy theories and wisely amalgamates them, creating an intricate, solid and intriguing plot which I won't reveal any part of - such is it's beauty, that it would be a felony to do so. Getting used to game controls is fairly easy and, after making some basic decisions about your character's skills, name and appearance, you'll be immediately thrown into action. You'll have a lot of choices to make: will you sneak silently past the enemy guards or shoot your way in? Negotiate with terrorists in order to keep casualties at a minimum or terminate any sign of resistance by force? Listen to civilian junkies in need for help or blatantly ignore them? It's entirely up to you: just remember that every choice will ultimately have its consequence in this non-linear universe. Graphics look good even by today's standards (and there are mods that enhance visuals anyway), sounds and voice acting is more than convincing and the music deserves praise as well. The arsenal at your disposal includes several kinds of weapons, ranging from knives, crowbars and pistols up to sniper rifles, rocket launchers and flamethrowers. Playing as a nano-augmented agent, you'll be also able to enhance your survival chances by implanting capsules into your body: these'll grant you new skills like health self-regeneration, silent running, higher jumping, improved muscular force, ability to see in dark and much more. There's a ton more that could be said about DE but a review will never be able to do it justice or to encapsulate its depth. So listen to my words: buy this gem of a game and enjoy one of the most beautiful creation in videogame history.

I think, everything that has to be said had already been said here, so I just go with: You are absolutely right, this is game design at it's very best. What an incredible piece of software. Thank you, Mister Spector!

I remember seeing a feature on this from a gaming magazine back in the late 90s. It was about this sci-fi spy game and it had Warren Spectors name attached to it which was something because he helped create quite a few great games in the past such as system shock and Ultima underworld. This game was going to use the unreal engine and the images all looked pretty fancy. When I finally got my copy it was amazing to be able to finally play it. The game ran fairly well on my top of the line system back in the day and I remember not knowing what to really expect. Deus Ex has a lot of themes going on in it, and the biggest one revolves around conspiracy theories which feeds into a lot of urban myths. This is a really slick approach and slightly unnerving because of how some of the games events shadow our present. I think it was slick how they chose to release the game in the year 2000. Anyhow the game takes place in 2052 and the world is amidst a pandemic with a disease known as the Gray death which is caused by a nano-virus. The villains are pretty much revealed in the beginning of the games introduction which was a strange choice looking back, but it's these kind of things that show up and really keep the player guessing what might happen next. This is repeated in the wide array of gameplay styles you can choose which really lets the player role play however they wanted. The games protagonist is named JC Denton and his story is also interesting and completely flips the players perspective when they find out Jcs real past. This type of gameplay is creative and no doubt influenced many future game developers as a standard. I think one of the things that also they should be commended for is the fact they were able to cram this huge game onto a cd-rom. If you have not played Deus Ex and want to play a RPG then you can't do much better than this masterpiece.

This is one of the games that made history. For RPG/FPP/Cyberpunk fans.