Deus Ex™ GOTY Edition

Excellent level design and iconic music, good ammount of content and replayability (About 20hr a casual playthrough). Graphics are stylized and looks quite pleasing 24 years after release. Voice acting of the main cast is excellent as well as dialogue in general. VA of secondary NPCs can be hit or miss. Story is WAY ahead of its time and it's excellent, quite thought-provoking, and the world building is equally fantastic. The open nature of the levels, as well as the enemy AI and the RPG elements of both combat and exploration truly shine if played in the hardest difficulty. Pacing of the main story falls off a cliff half-way through but it's so fun it never ends up mattering that much, specially since level design only gets better.

.... I mean, I don't think a review of the actual Deus Ex is necessary (if you never heard of it... man, where the heck did you live?) since it is, simply put, one of the best videogames of all time AND the finest example of ''Immersive Sim'', although not being the very first (that honour goes to System Shock... or Ultima Underworld, which is more of a proto-immersive sim, really). (P.S. Immersive Sim has always been quite a difficult genre to pin down, but I think that Deus Ex represent its very definition.) So, I prefer to be focusing on the Revision Mod that comes with the game (which I admit, although I've played this game for, like, ten times?... I never tried, or heard, of the Revision Mod), so this review is for those who already played the OG game and wanted to try something different (which, again, should be everybody, people!... Yes, Immersive Sim are not for everybody, but c'mon! It's Deus Ex). And... it's still Deus Ex: beautifully and masterfully crafted, and now there's simply more of it! (there's only the new soundtrack problem, which I consider to put, for the most part, weaker than the OG... but you can deactivate it and restore the OG one in the menu). Now, time to put the ''conspiracy'' glasses and to... ''Page'' this game to your friends! (...I know, that was weak... man, what a Shame.... What a rotten way to pun!)

The game is excellent. Top, top drawer cyberpunk themed game with options to take various approaches and decisions. This GOG version contains the GOTY edition, which does run on my Windows 11 machine, and also the Revision mod with updated textures and high resolution compatibility. The GOTY edition is fine except that it keeps cutting off the final 1 or 2 seconds of dialog in the conversations. That gets very annoying, particularly when the characters are each speaking every few seconds - you miss most of it. I have looked at suggestions online and they seem to mostly be patches or fiddles with the ini file (which did nothing to help me). The Revision mod looks like the answer. It is included in this GOG release, and has graphical improvements as well. It might not be "pure", which was probably my preference, but it is a good way to enjoy a slightly updated version of the old classic. I don't expect the differences from the original to be too significant. The only bummer is that is doesn't seem to be able to do cloud saves with Revision, only with GOTY.

This game has a place in my heart for a reason, it's one of the best crafted games in one of the most difficult genres. The freedom allowed in Deus Ex and how the world reacts to your actions is incomparable. This isn't some kind of detail that barely affects the gameplay, it enhances it. The story is intriguing with likeable characters (one time I tried to do a genocide run, but after killing too many people after the first mission, I stopped playing and felt awful for the rest of the day). It's cheap, will run on any machine (I play it on school computer when I have free time), very inspiring and fun. Sseth made an amazing review on it, go check it out.

The game that others should try to emulate. The level of interactivity with the world and its objects is high. No game has such a deep level of immersion. You can play the game in so many different styles, from a blast 'em out shooter, to a sleuthing mystery to a sneaking spy game. Littered everywhere in the world are items to read (that just might give you the password to unlock that door without using a multitool!) and every character's story is quite well-developed. Play this game enough times at least to see each of its multiple endings!