Deus Ex™ GOTY Edition

I've decided to play DE since Human Revolution impressed me so much and wanted to complete the first two parts to complete the story before playing Mankind Divided, so this review reflects the point of view of a guy that played the game for the first time in 2018 after completing HR. The graphics are still acceptable and are not painful to look at which is often the case with old 3D games, which is impressive given it's been 20 years. The story is intiriguing, though naive at many points, which will disappoint you if you expect something comparably complex to HR. I had also expected more open world and side quests. There are still some deep and immersive dialogs that really make you think about the future world that were the high points of HR. The combat system is cool and character development seems to be thought-through, but the tasks are lengthy and get boring after a while. I had the feeling that the game is simply too long and repetitive - kill the guy, get the item. I've played the stealth way, which has probably took much more time than hacking through the enemies, but didn't feel being rewarded too much for that, except for being able to overhear a couple of additional dialogs that didn't add much to the story. Probably it used to be more fun at the time it was released as the game was revolutionary in terms of graphics, story and openness. Despite losing its edge a little with time, the game is still enjoyable today and I recommend it to people that enjoyed the sequels as well as to all those that like dark sci-fi and fusion of RPG and action. It's also fairly easy (didn't spend most of my skill points until the last missions).

Theres a reason this game is so widely acclaimed. I've played it through maybe 3x, first getting it back in 2001. The depth of the writing in the game with discoverable books and dialogue is top notch. Some occasionally unintentionally hilarious voice acting too. Great music. This game has great layers of cyber-punk, govt conspiracies, shadow conspiracies, bioengineering etc. They allow for different approaches to the same problem with some levels almost feeling open world as you explore the surroundings and try to discover how to accomplish your objectives. Cons might be clunky fighting FPS, but thats secondary to why the game shines. I still found it to be enjoyable to get into firefights. You can be strategic with gas grenades, LAMs, pepperspray, dragon's tooth... Brb gonna go play it again.

and still relevant these days, it aged like wine

It took me abit to get used to the gameplay but the moment it clicked during the first mission I fell in love with this game, thats not even including the incredible world and fantastic characters.

It is easy to see, where the sequels such as Deus Ex Human Revolution and Mankind Divided have their origins. Deus Ex is an exellent game and deserves it's classic status. In Retrospect, now that I have played almost all, I have to say that Deus Ex - Invisible War is an utter disaster in comparison. What surprised me however, considering the amount of hate online, was how similar the gameplay of Deus Ex Human Revolution and Deus Ex Mankind Divided was. Expecially Mankind DIvided in fact. In both cases, you can easilly tell that you're playing a Deus Ex game. What I have not understood though, is why people recommend System Shock 2 in reference to Deus Ex because outside of these being First Person Shooter types of games, there is no comparison. Especially considering that System Shock 2 has practically no RPG element. (which is what I look for)