Deus Ex™ GOTY Edition

Three main entrys came after this game and none could beat the King. This game is still the best sci fi dystopian FPS RPG ever made. The gripping story that takes you around the world chasing a governmental conspiracy, the fantastic soundtrack, the design of levels and characters, the community that grew around this game and made it so much better with mods, all top notch and unsurpassed untill today. It seems that game producers nowadays are lazy and prefer to bet on sure bets like remaking old games, rather than taking a dive into uncharted territory and inspirations to make original. We are facing a originality crisis and sometimes for the better, because this game deserves a propper AAA remake and a Movie. Even if they don't, the community will. It's not a modern game, but at least it has soul.

The plot is basically Alex Jones personified combined with cyberpunk, X-Files, and the height of the 90s black leather hacker imagery. This game has a simplified open world design, more like Pokemon with characters data dumping complex ideas, compact areas meant to depict entire cities, and an emotionally reserved protagonist who can believably slaughter everyone around him or defend every life, all while spouting idealogical theory. This is not so much a thinking man's game as an 18 year old's version of a thinking man's game. This was and is one of my favorite games simply because it lets you explore ideas, hear some wild conpsiracy theories which are just accurate enough to get you thinking, and filled with a streamlined story that keeps you moving. You will have plenty of chances to be a government man in black who kills without question or you can play a pacifist idealist. In terms of gamplay, this was one of the first FPS games to introduce the mechanism that every problem has multiple ways of solving them. Pro-tip, swimming is useless and blowing people up with the GEP gun means you can't loot the bodies.

If you want to know why I love to play games on PCs, get this game and experience what early 2000s had to offer. But if you do get this game and play it on a modern PC I advise you to get a mod called GMDX, it gives support for 2560x1440 resolution and enhances the textures somewhat but does in it a way that don't mess with it too much like other mods do... Also I like the changes to AI this mod gives, they are interesting!

This game is a classic for a reason, the gameplay is amazing and really lets you come up with some absolutely broken and fun strategies, which you'll need because those tranq darts aren't going to do what you think they will. The soundtrack is catchy and has tracks I'll come back to just for a listen. Most importantly the story is mind bending and an utter joy to experience, and every year it proves it's self more relevant from 9/11 to the Corona virus. I, for one, welcome our MJ-12 overlords.

A pandemic, a vaccine, global conspiracies, high tech low life, self-conscious artificial intelligences: Deus Ex takes it all and more and makes a great plot. Yes, graphics are kinda meh as of 2021. Yes, the enemies' AI is dumb sometimes. Yes, the game mechanics don't reward your roleplaying much after the first couple of parts. Yes, the hacking mechanics is boring. It does not diminish your pleasure from living through an entertaining and engaging story. The game's plot has become even better now with 2022 coming in, COVID not coming away, QAnon being out there and suspiciously many in-game quotes sounding exactly like what you've heard from news over the last couple of years. The plot is worth it, and living through it as J.C. Denton is really much more rewarding than reading it somewhere. Have a try.