Retrospective: Deus Ex

By Will Porter Published 13 June, 2010

Ghost of the machine.

You've read articles in which men of a certain age get misty-eyed about Deus Ex before. Throw an unwanted packet of soya food into the internet, and the first thing it will no doubt strike is an article bent-double around just what makes Bob Page tick.

I am, in fact, typing this with my right hand alone - the other is delicately balanced palm-up on my forehead in preparation for the dramatic swoon that will no doubt follow me writing the inevitable line: "And darling! What about the bit where Manderley told me off for going into the ladies' loo! That was so, so... meta!"

So first, let's cover some ground that all the other internet odes to Jeezy 'Chreezy' Denton probably don't get around to.

Number one: shiny floors. Deus Ex had the best shiny floors ever in games. Not everywhere (that would have been overkill) but floors like the one beneath the Versalife Hand/Earth statue would dominate reflective surfaces in games for years after.

Number two: the way the Men in Black talk with the most gut-wrenchingly neutral and emotionless voices ever put into an audio file.

Number three: the way a LAM grenade re-angles itself in your palm as you draw close to a wall so it can double up as a proximity mine.

Number four: the way you could check people's email while they were sitting, and looking a bit grumpy, a mere 12 inches from their keyboard.

1

Majestic 12 was always a fairly presumptive faction name, but they did have high aspirations.

Number five: the greatest range of secret doors and cubby-holes ever concocted in gaming. Whether in a mysteriously descending phone box, Paul Denton's secret spy cupboard or a gun-rack hidden behind a painting in a posh French chateau - when it came to places where people could secretly stash a packet or two of tranquiliser darts Deus Ex was way ahead of the competition.

There you go then, job done. On with the expected...

A modern-times replay of Deus Ex is a fascinating experience. On one hand you get to relive the simple joys: pecking a UNATCO drone on the neck with a tranquiliser dart then watching him collapse inches from the panic button,or planting a LAM below said alarm then taking a few shots and sitting back to watch your prey haphazardly scuttering into a fiery death-trap.

On the other hand you complacently whip through the game, completely forgetting that in the days of Ion Storm the concept of an autosave was an intriguing novelty - and you suffer from your forgetfulness.

You also look back at your past self and wonder just how the hell (if you're anything like me) you didn't see that early twist coming when your co-workers are cyborg euro-villains and your brother is content to potter around putting flowers down the gun barrels of the NSF.

2

His first day, and his co-workers are already pulling hilarious pranks on him. Before he knows it they'll be squatting on his desk and hitting him with a crowbar.

The biggest shock when going back to a decade-old game, though, is how much you've probably forgotten. Perhaps this, again, only applies to me - but whereas in an old game like Half-Life you can remember the story through set-pieces, in a multi-layered and complex narrative drama like Deus Ex (where different characters are notable for their opinions on how human society should be furthered), the old grey cells drop off on a few issues.

And with them go late-game hostage situations in petrol stations, MJ12 submarine bases and the fact that a character called Gary Savage even exists. I mean, I even forgot about the Greasels - pot-bellied reptile birds that strut around like Terry Pratchett's Swamp Dragons. To forget their existence must be a crime against the very greatest of misplaced videogame creatures.

I mention this because there are other events in Deus Ex that have stuck with me for the best part of said decade, a phenomenon that I strongly suspect is common among everyone who has played it.

Stuck in the forefront of your mind you still have those tentpeg moments of design genius that stitched the game together. Moments such as the flight or fight decision in the 'Ton hotel when three Men in Black and a cohort of UNATCO troops are calling you out, and about to blow the door of Paul Denton's room in.

Some players will dart out of the window and escape, others will defend their brother to the death, others still will hide in the cupboard. One set of players will continue with Paul, the rest may well assume that his time had simply come - his death seemingly ordained by the game developers.

The game's brilliance is that it wraps itself around your character, making you an active participant in the most vital parts of the story - whether you're shooting early holes in Anna Navarre on an NSF plane, or (ahem) deciding the fate of humanity by going into one of three rooms at the game's close.

There's something else about Deus Ex though, which once soldered together neurons that now can never be severed. Deus Ex allowed for experimental gameplay like no other, and it remains the quintessential 'Hmm. I wonder if...' experience.

My personal anecdote, which has bored 10 years' worth of pub tables, was also in the early Hell's Kitchen hub. It came at the point at which you have climbed through four floors of UNATCO troops, and once you've sent a signal out from its roof a message from Walton Simons informs you that all of the troops you've just sauntered past now have orders to kill.

Bereft of medikits and shot about in the chest, I may have been a big man - but I was out of shape. Rather than fight my way down through the building I followed a gut instinct - tossed a few crates off the side of the building to cushion my fall and jumped down.

3

JC Denton is essentially a workplace harassment suit waiting to happen.

I smashed my legs to pieces and had to deliver a hasty headshot from pavement level, but I dragged myself away from the danger zone and lived to fight another day. 10 years on, the magic I felt then is still with me. I may have forgotten the Greasels, but I remember breaking my legs like it was yesterday.

Deus Ex not only gave you a degree of control in the way it told an otherwise linear story, but also gave you the tools to muck around within its game world in the way you saw fit.

This wasn't just restricted to the way you built up your character, or solely in how blood-thirsty you were, but also in the way you negotiated your way past its challenges and characters. Brilliantly, Ion Storm also had enough ken to program in a show of awareness of how you were playing the game.

It's a simple thing, but get a repeated nugget of information from a bum on the street and JC will pipe up that he already knows it. Other games would be content for NPCs to bark at you in a vacuum - in Deus Ex there is both action and reaction.

4

"JCDentonJCDentonJCDenton... he appeared! *Gasp* It's true!"

Kill too many people and the chap in the armoury will refuse to give you extra ammunition, watch Simons interrogate the NSF and the Men in Black will indicate his displeasure top-side, go into the ladies' toilet and... well you know what happens when you go in the ladies' toilets. Swoon!

There's a myriad of reasons that Deus Ex was a great game - by my estimation the greatest I ever played. It's a crime that it not only never got a worthy sequel, but also that no-one thought to cut and paste the template and at least create more games of it ilk.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines came close, in spurts, and perhaps you can see some echoes in the wares of BioWare and Obsidian... But somehow gaming let the most part of the magic disappear up into the ether. That Deus Ex: Human Revolution looks as good and worthy as it does is nothing but a blessing.

In any case, and please excuse me for attempting to direct something as organic as a comments thread, I'd love to hear your own personal Deus Ex stories. The moments that just blew your mind, and made you fall in love with that big sunglass-wearing hunk JC Denton before he unified with that great big mainframe in the sky.

Stuff other than the simple joy of piling pot plants and furniture on people's desks would probably be best though. Even if that's yet another good reason for the game being ace.

Picture of Will.

About Will Porter

Will ‘Velvet Owl’ Porter is a roaming freelance writer who occasionally appears at EG’s back door asking for scraps. You can find out how cold/hungry he is by following @Batsphinx on Twitter.

Read more articles from Will by visiting the Will Porter archive page.

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Comments (64) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Kanjin #1 2 years ago

    da daaa dada da da, da daa dadada!

  • thelatestmodel #2 2 years ago

    Best. Game. Ever.

  • Praetorianer #3 2 years ago

    Ahhh....the memories. Jsut recently finished it again, though :D

    Now I am in Trier in Invisible War!

  • lucky_jim #4 2 years ago

    Definitely a strong contender for my own personal Best Game Ever Award. The trailer for the new game is very exciting, but I don't know if it's possible to capture that same sense of wonder that Deus Ex engendered. I was only ever an occasional PC gamer, so I didn't really know what to expect. The screenshots on the box reminded me of Doom and Unreal Tournament (i.e. it looked like an FPS to me), and I knew it had reviewed well, so I just took a punt and bought it. The slow realisation that you can pretty much go anywhere and do anything (at least, that's how it felt at the time) was totally mind-blowing.

  • reinhart_menken #5 2 years ago

    Man, I wish I remember as much as you do Will Porter. All I remembered was the end, and what ending they were, fitting of a game so spectacular throughout. I tried all of them as well.

    Edit: Well, maybe I remember a little more, the first thing that got me was that the sniper rifle swayed. I can't remember if many games during that era did it, but Deus Ex must have been one of the first ones.
    Edited by reinhart_menken at 13/06/10 @ 09:04

  • Sharzam #6 2 years ago

    Also it is moddable so you can add DX10 lighting to it and high res textures. May not look as pretty as modern games but sure does bring it up a bit.

    A great game on every level, personally i remember the feelings not the game itself. I remember getting to the end and having to make a choice which would totallly change the world (in this sense only fable 3 came close) but the whole game is just full of choice and thats why its great.

  • BurningR #7 2 years ago

    I bought this when I was 15 because the box looked cool, hadn't heard anything about it before. Man was I in for a treat!

    All the things the review mentions, it's funny, I couldn't remember them on my own, but they came back as I read the article. Oh the greasels, how could I ever have forgotten those!

  • [STARS]TyranT #8 2 years ago

    Best moment of the game was when I was in the Asian womans house and I haplessly threw a plant pot - it hit her on the head and she and her guards attacked me, I slaughtered all of them and found the way to get to the hidden sword. Far earlier than I would of done had I not messed about - brilliant.

    Just very annoyed that the game never offered you the chance to stay with UNATCO, it forces you to leave them even if you've not seen enough to believe what your brother says.

    And the Icarus moment just over midway is spine chilling.

  • BurningR #9 2 years ago

    Sharzam: Could you give me a link for that?

  • Haloboy #10 2 years ago

    I SPEEL MY MORNING COFFEE!

  • Tuffty #11 2 years ago

    A BOMB!!

    Perhaps one of my favourite moments in Deus Ex was the conversation with Morpheus. Just brilliant writing, hearing Morpheus conviction that God is in essence a beta test for more advanced AI programs is quite chilling. Gameplay wise I'm not sure if I can remember, I wasn't quite as inventive but I'd love to play it again. I do remember the exhilariting feeling I got when Gunther told me he'd hunt me down after Anna's death.

  • JediMasterMalik #12 2 years ago

    Probably my favourite game ever, people who havent played it can barely call themselves gamers.

  • FooAtari #13 2 years ago

    Is this retrospective spoilerific?

  • Magiced #14 2 years ago

    If you enjoy the spy/conspiracy/cyborg superagent/singularity/transhuman philosophy aspects of Deus Ex's plot, its well worth watching the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex anime series . It's got the same mix of themes and some great action.

    It is also a fuckload less pretentious and more comprehensible than the original films (which were almost certainly a big influence on Deus Ex)

  • Windypops #15 2 years ago

    Deus Ex cost me about two hundred quid. I had to buy a new graphics card and double-up on RAM to get it to run on my box.

    One of my best memories: Rupert Murdoch/Bob Page taunting me as I closed in on him. Made me feel really vengeful.

    It feels like it was the last of the "big games": games in which the developers used your PC's grunt to create massive levels. The architecture of a single level was a genuinely daunting thing. Now, all that processing power seems to be dedicated to accurately mapping every virtual dust mite and biscuit crumb in a level the size of an average bedroom. Or maybe I'm just feeling residual bitterness towards the sequel.

  • Obiwanshinobi #16 2 years ago

    I've got a copy of Unreal like right over there on the shelf and last time I checked it had this kind of floors too (in the very castle demo sequence). The Psycho Mantis bossfight in MGS was taking place on such a floor as well. Looks like a combination of the floor texture transparency and everything being rendered twice. That's funny how good looking, simple solutions get replaced with not quite as good looking but technically fancier stuff. Like early real-time choppy reflections in Midnight Club II on the PC, or the mirrors in Max Payne 2 (the former looking uglier than fake reflections in, say, Mafia, and the latter not looking any better than mirrors in Deus Ex, Hitman and MGS, but giving my Radeon 8500 an edge over GF4 which wouldn't render the reflections at all).
    Deus Ex is one of the ultimate games of secrets, up there with Super Metroid, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Thief II: The Metal Age. The story in Deus Ex isn't great, but neither was the story in Gothic, yet I still find these two being "true" cRPGs. I have spoken.
    Edited by Obiwanshinobi at 13/06/10 @ 11:16

  • iconld #17 2 years ago

    Choice, all about choice. Enemy base in sight:

    1. Go in all assaulting, fighting the mech
    2. Climb up boxes, put on speed enhancenment and jump to a secret roof-entrance
    3. crawl into vents, pick a lock
    4. Go in the sewers, multitool the electric barriers

    I love this kind of gameplay. Thank you for Deus Ex and being an inspiration to games like Mass Effect. With the 3rd installment, it's time to take back your crown...

    JC Denton:” What good’s an honest soldier if he can be ordered to behave like a terrorist?”

    You got that right, mister Denton... Check IMDB for more epic quotes from this game.

  • Shinetop #18 2 years ago

    For me personally, busting out of jail and slowly realizing exactly where you were was the highlight of the game.

  • FWB #19 2 years ago

    Can we get this on the iPod/iPhone, please?

  • DFawkes #20 2 years ago

    I remember the exact thing that made me realise how special Deus Ex was - a basketball. I saw it, doubting very much any game would let you interact with something so insignificant. But one press of that key and I had it in my hands, something without function that was there just because they said so. My co-workers all getting irritated at my Agent throwing it at them for giggles :)

    It was all the little things I loved. Getting drunk and starting a gunfight, or your abilities becoming so much better with time. And this was when I was a console gamer, so I hadn't played anything even kind of close.

  • boshman #21 2 years ago

    It's almost a crime when i see the game sitting by itself in the PC section of a GAME store for 50p. I want to buy it again just to give it a good home lol. Ion storm really set the bar for role playing games with deus ex, it had the freedom of gameplay of an adventure FPS with endless depth/philosophy and fantastic story.

    Fav part: materialising a spy drone from your body when doing some vent-shaft recon :p
    also, check out The nameless mod for it if you havent already- http://thenamelessmod.com/

  • LionheartDJH #22 2 years ago

    I've owned this game for about 5 years and only just completed it this week, but I can safely say it is one of my favourite games ever. I love the dystopian cyberpunk future with its augmented humans, and coupled with conspiracies about world domination with a touch of philsophy it really is one of my favourite game settings and plots. The multiple ways to complete objectives is also fantastic, my playthrough was quite combat focused but I'd like to try being more stealthy if I play through it again. And while the graphics are quite dated by today's standards I don't really mind, especially seeing as it means I can play it on my laptop with no issues, so I can take this awesome game anywhere with me.

    There's a lot of cool moments in the game but I think my favourite is the section after you get captured by UNATCO early in the game. The whole escape was really tense and I always felt it was going to be a challenge to get out, especially when you have other things to do before you can leave. The sense of relief when I finally got out of there was one that I have not had with many other games.

  • Frybird #23 2 years ago

    Usually the bad graphics of an old classic hinder me with revisting it.

    Not so much with Deus Ex.
    Yes, it does look horrible, from the weird faces to the often empty looking outdoor enviroments and the horrible horrible animations.
    And maybe it has something to do with me having first experienced the "slightly dumbed down but not nearly as much as you think" PS2 Version, wich, for it's time, was already horrible graphically. But given that i played it back then and that i can play it today without minding it's complete lack of eye candy is just an indicator of how great the game was.

    The wonderful mood and atmosphere, punctuated by the excellent soundtrack. The story that, while sometimes very cheesy and messy with it's over-the-top conspiracy clusterf**k, felt engaging at all times. And given how wooden the characters looked (and let's not forget one of JC's best friends, a helicopter who pretends to be human) it's all the more amazing how interesting, and sometimes even complex they were.

    And then there is of course the gameplay and it's "i don't care how you do it just do it" approach that, as said, wasn't really succesfully replicated to this day. (Alpha Protocol sometimes feels close, yet so far away, and even mentioning games like Fable in that respect would be a very bad joke)

    So yeah, best game ever? Definitely not a bad choice.


    I'd like to look forward to the upcoming sequel, but the only "okay-ish" sequel and the way games are made today leaves me mostly skeptic.

  • Ged42 #24 2 years ago

    I'm currently having a new play through with some of the graphics mods on.

    Still really good and i'm still finding new ways of completing levels and new hidden staches of ammo.

    /spills drink

  • TheRealBadabing #25 2 years ago

    My favourite bit is probably where Warren Spector signed my copy. /smug

  • andromeda #26 2 years ago

    BEST GAME EVER!

    fav part.

    Using two Lams in a sequence to create a "climbing wall" that got me several meters up to a window that "maybe" wasn't meant to be accesed that way :) took me several tries though!


    Damn , Looks like "Lam climibing" is an internationally recognised sport :(

    [link url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQuB-VMecYs&translated=1
    ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQuB-VMec...[/link]


    Edited by andromeda at 13/06/10 @ 13:41

  • BurningR #27 2 years ago

    All those mods people are talking about, for enhancing graphics for example, could you please link to these?

  • rayscoota #28 2 years ago

    One of the all time classic's, current developers could learn a thing or 2 from this game :)

  • dsmx #29 2 years ago

    You mean like stop making better graphics and concentrate on making a good game first?

  • Obiwanshinobi #30 2 years ago

    Oh yes, I found a way to break the game. In that underwater mine or whatever, when you enter certain room, one black dressed dude walks in after you and starts chatting with you before the fight. If you set an EMP next to the door, it will explode during the chat, the game will crash and display some error announcement window.
    I liked how explosives in Deus Ex were really powerful, easily as dangerous for you as for your opponents alike. It used to be pretty normal in PC games of the quicksave-quickload era (getting your characters blown apart by grenades thrown by themselves), but sometime around the Max Payne 2 mark hand grenades, Molotov cocktails and the likes became little more than silly toys.
    Edited by Obiwanshinobi at 13/06/10 @ 15:32

  • TomSwift #31 2 years ago

    Killing Maggie Chow and throwing her body out of the top floor window of her penthouse apartment!

  • Ged42 #32 2 years ago

    Here's a guide to the graphics mods for those who were asking.

  • schachmatt #33 2 years ago

    God, I love Deus Ex!
    But like everything I love I'm also more critical towards shortcomings, like shooting the the other Biomech guy in the subway when he's trying to arrest you only to realise he's invincible in that situation. That could have been designed better.
    Didn't like the overarching conspiracy story too much either. Would have liked a more believable, grounded storyline better.

    On the other hand there's so much attention to detail and there are just so many ways to tackle missions and approaches to npcs or npc vs. npc battles.

    Last time I've played DE i also upgraded my jumping ability and jumped down the side of the building after disabling the generator, thereby circumventing all the guards bothering you otherwise.
    Another favourite part are alien-looking genetic experiments.

    Obiwanshinobi: You talking about breaking the game reminded me of the fantastic anti-walkthrough on http://www.it-he.org/ . Games that are so full of possibilities are also easier to exploit, but those guys really had some absolutely great ideas to do it.

    Did I mention I love Deus Ex?

  • timberwolf #34 2 years ago

    So... here's to Deus ex 3 being Bioshock with robots in.

  • ZeroAX #35 2 years ago

    "Bereft of medikits and shot about in the chest, I may have been a big man - but I was out of shape. Rather than fight my way down through the building I followed a gut instinct - tossed a few crates off the side of the building to cushion my fall and jumped down. "


    OMG that is exactly the same thing I did, well minus the crates as cushion.

    One of my favorite parts was Hong Kong, and the quest to retrieve that laser sword

  • TheTingler #36 2 years ago

    I cut through this retrospective like a hot knife through butter. Loved it and still love the game. While I do occasionally consider the likes of Half-Life 2 or Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, or even Grim Fandango, if anyone asks the easy answer for my Greatest Game Ever is Deus Ex.

    Personal favourite moments? The demo, which had the whole of Liberty Island to playthrough - and finding out you could literally go over the entire island and all the way up (and down) the Statue and choose your way in was a stunning revelation no game has matched before or since. Scale? Yes. Choice? Maybe. Not both at once.

    Oh, and PCZone offering an exclusive second demo which made all of New York available to play for free - well before the game was released. Day one purchase anyway.

    I personally loved how if you save the manager's daughter in the 'Ton Hotel, but don't persuade her to stay, she'll run off and turn up randomly at a ruined gas station miles away later in the game. She'll thank you and talk to you, but otherwise there's no benefit other than you thinking "this game has thought of everything".

    Oh, and you forgot to mention the Bioshock level. It was a deliberate homage to System Shock (there was a Thief homage level later in the game too), with all the people dead and only monsters, machines and log entries to find. Except instead of being in space... it was underwater. System Shock, but under the sea? Sound familiar?

  • miggoh #37 2 years ago

    Yeah, Deus Ex is a true classic, but personally I think that System Shocks are better. Especially the first Shock, which is still after all these years the best PC game that I have ever played.

  • TexMurphy01 #38 2 years ago

    Nobody's going to give us a lemon-lime related quote? All the poor bastard wanted was orange!

  • Bumbuliuz #39 2 years ago

    I so loved that game. I still have my original copy lying around and another in Steam. One of my all time fav games with System Shock 2.

  • Miths #40 2 years ago

    I remember starting the game eight or nine years ago, but never getting very far. I imagine the only reason it failed to get me hooked might have been that isometric RPGs (BG, Icewind Dale, Fallout etc.) made up for around 95% of the games I played in those years, so a first person "shooter" was just a bit too much of an oddity.

    I think I got around half way through Invisible War as well, but remember it being a rather underwhelming experience. But apparently that was a pretty common opinion :).

    I was looking at the Steam version of the original Deus Ex the other day, and it seems that with the DX10 renderer (which also adds widescreen support if I've understood it correctly?) it might be worth considering, even though my tolerance for severely outdated 3D graphics is generally rather low.

  • birritan #41 2 years ago

    This was during the golden age of PC gaming for me. I still go to these games to this very day for my fix. System Shock 2, Thief 1 & 2, DSX...all hit the right notes. I'm somewhat jaded by the games market today...usually focusing it's design by how many normal maps and specular maps it can throw at it's player.

    For some reason the classic days of PC game development have long gone and all we have left now are diluted game mechanics and titles with about as much vision as a chiwawa (Halo anyone?).
    Edited by birritan at 13/06/10 @ 18:44

  • mumblyjoe #42 2 years ago

    DX10 renderer, if anyone wants it

    http://kentie.net/article/dxguide/

  • PearOfAnguish #43 2 years ago

    My favourite game of all time, I love everything about it, even the wonky voice acting. Can't choose one single thing, but the Hong Kong section sticks in my mind for the multiple solutions and great music, the opening mission was fantastic, the UNATCO capture is surprising and loads of fun, and there's that really creepy bit where you come across a deep-frozen bloke who begs you to end his life.

    Best game ever.

  • Shinetop #44 2 years ago

    Annoyingly, I've repurchased it on Steam because my disc is long gone, but it turns out it runs in slow motion on some modern PC's. Did anyone find a fix for that?

  • X3Entente #45 2 years ago

    @shinetop, set renderer to OpenGl

  • HermitUK #46 2 years ago

    I love Deus Ex, purely because anyone who's played it has one of those "This thing happened to me" stories that you'll have totally missed.

    Once decided to play through the game a a gun toting augmented crazy instead of my usual stealth and pistols approach. So when Tong asked me to break back into VersaLife via the sewer entrance, I promptly ignored him and strolled in the front door again. The offices are now guarded by a squad of the MJ12 heavy troopers. Get through them to the lift, and it all looks good. Then the lift doors slide open, and there is the biggest god damned Spider Bot you'll ever see guarding the Hand Statue in the lobby.

    It's to the game's immense credit that the developers didn't force players to use the alternative entrance. Rather than railroading the player they actually took the time to consider "What if the player does this instead?" It's a design ethos sorely missing in so many of today's games.

  • Miths #47 2 years ago

    @Shinetop

    Reading the info about the DX10 renderer, it sounds like it might fix the issue as well. If I'm not mistaken many issues are down to the game not playing well with multi-core CPUs, and the new renderer forces the game to only use one core, among many other things.

    I'm really awfully tempted to buy the Steam version now - I imagine I'll probably be pulling the trigger later tonight.

  • Ranger_Ryu #48 2 years ago

    I had the first one on PS2 never really got into it to be honest,did like Deus Ex:Invisible War though so maybe I should try and pick up the Deus Ex complete pack Mastertronic released.

  • jonnex #49 2 years ago

    *Swoons*... Ah, this game was incredible. Just reading this article takes me back, and gives me that kind of wobbly feeling inside that reminds me just how deep an impression it left.

    I only have glimpse-memories of Deus Ex by this point, which is good in a way, as at some point I'll be able to replay and experience it all anew. But my general memory of what made the game so fantastic was the feeling of complete freedom, and of being truly a part of the story - in fact more than that, of being the driving force of the story. Absolutely epic. Surely one of the, if not the, best game ever made.

  • craziii #50 2 years ago

    I am reading the sprawl book series to get my self in the mood :p

  • dudefella #51 2 years ago

    Deus Ex is amazingly brilliant. That moment Will Porter talks about, when Simons sics the UNATCO troops on you? If you neutralize them all beforehand, when Simons contacts you he actually acknowledges this, says something like "the captain isn't responding so I assume you already took out the men. No matter, your killswitch is ticking down." fucking bastard. I love this game to bits, so many choices.

  • RobTheBuilder #52 2 years ago

    I also had a savegame glitch, but I still remember it being amazing. I've yet to play a game since that has felt so much like you are actually driving the narrative instead of just witnessing it.

  • piercehead #53 2 years ago

    For some reason one of the things I always remember is swimming through a flooded street under Hong Kong, managing to hold my breath just long enough to get to the end and pick up a nano canister...while fighting off those killer hippos (Karkians).
    Yes, I was too tight to use a breather :)
    Edited by piercehead at 14/06/10 @ 01:22

  • Miths #54 2 years ago

    So much for wanting to (re)try a ten year old game on a modern PC. I just bought the Steam version and ten minutes into the training mission I get the first Blue Screen of Death I've seen yet on this ~1 year old PC.
    I don't know if it might be related to the suggested DX10 renderer I installed (I looked up the BSOD Stop code and it actually seems to refer to a file system related issue, but it's probably anyone's guess what that might mean in very specific relation to this game), but I can't say I'm feeling inclined to risk screwing with a PC that's been running flawlessly until now.

    Well, I guess I'll just have to wait for Deus Ex 3 :).

  • Grayvern #55 2 years ago

    Little touches Like if you shot gas cylinders that weren't explicitly gameplay they were just environmental detail but you could lure guys out and gas them by shooting these poison gas storage tanks, which in any other game would just be a green particle effect.

    And feeling guilty after the Unatco Breakout.

    But the back half of the game does suffer from too much combat and less alternate paths, it's not flawless but it is a classic.

  • Harmonica #56 2 years ago

    Best game ever, etc etc.

    Except for Half-Life.

  • ObiChrisKenobi #57 2 years ago

    Possibly the first thing I ever bought off play.com all those years ago.

    EDIT: Yes it was: 01/03/2004

    They even sent it special delivery, oh how things have changed.
    Edited by ObiChrisKenobi at 14/06/10 @ 08:24

  • linkster #58 2 years ago

    My most unforgettable moment was hanging around near a conversation between a pimp and a prossie, feeling very clever and sneaky, biding my time, when all of a sudden it got heated, POP, down she went. I went cold. Could have saved her. Must be more responsible in future. Gut wrenching and rarely equalled in any other game.

  • TheBard #59 2 years ago

    Deus Ex had my favorite gaming moment of all time. OF ALL TIME:

    -Spoilers-

    The very moment when you reached your goal in the Vandenberg satellite uplink station, flipping the switch to open access to the military network for Deadalus... and stand there gasping as you realize that you just created Helios and were played all along.

  • PearOfAnguish #60 2 years ago

    Miths, the game works fine on Win 7. And it's not going to permanently screw up your PC if it crashes.

  • Ajay #61 2 years ago

    Way back when it was first released, the very first thing I noticed upon opening up the options was that the game was offering me what seemed like several dozen colour scheme options for the UI. That actually made me stop and think, wondering what a thoughtful, unnecessary, addition it was, and how few people would ever use each one. That ended up pretty much being a metaphor for the entire design; it wasn't until my second playthrough that I even knew it was *possible* to save your brother - however you wanted to play it, it seemed to accommodate your thinking as if custom-built.

    There's one, very incidental, moment late in the game that's stuck with from my first playthrough. It's where (and I can't remember if it's the only way, but I suspect not) I gained access to the sub base thanks to a knowing soldier. His line was simply something like "Just because we wear a uniform they reckon we can't think for ourselves", before allowing me into the base intent on sabotage. Until that point I'd been mostly trying to avoid killing 'duped' military, but not worrying about it if necessary, but after that I was adamant I'd get through that base without killing any non-conspirators. Not because I had to, or that it affected the game in any manner either way, but because suddenly I *wanted* to. So I did.

    And, yeah, I haven't played it for many, many years now, so it may be the rose-tinted specs talking, but no game I've played since has done urban exploration as well as Deus Ex. Dropping into a new city hub, with dozens of unnecessary things to discover in a space that was believable, complex and rewarding if you wanted to take the time to discover it, just hasn't been replicated since. Hell, even a hub consisting only of someone's apartment seemed real and packed with things to do.
    Edited by Ajay at 14/06/10 @ 20:47

  • Boomerang #62 2 years ago

    I know it's been tried in fits and starts with varying degrees of success, but i'd love a full graphical update (textures, geometry, particles) and the rest of the game left untouched.

    ESPECIALLY the music.

  • metalangel #63 2 years ago

    I didn't really like Deus Ex (or Gayness Ex as I called it - instant negative Karma there) when I first played it. For all the so-called freedom, there wasn't any unless it suited the game. Rather than paraphrase myself, I'll just post my frothing rant that I wrote at the time. Bye!

    So is it excellent? It seems like it might be. First I wanted to know why, since the terrorists were ignoring homeless people, I couldn't dress up as one. Then, as I carefully snuck around, I hid behind crates, and waited for the guard to come past. After a minute, I got bored, and looked where he was. About 30 feet away. I waited another minute. I looked again. 25 feet. EVENTUALLY he came around, I got out my shock prod, shot him with it. He turned around, said 'FACIST!' and so I shocked him again. Then he finally fell over.

    Next there were two guys standing around the corner talking. I pulled out my pepper spray, and fired. The first guy started gagging. I aimed at the second guy and... for some reason I'd fired all three of my remaining shots with just one click. The other guy proceeded to murder me. Gah.

    Trying again (each time, by the way, I'm forced to listen to their tedious converstaion about Hermann) I sweep the pepper spray across them, incapacitating them both. I then pull out my crowbar, and bludgeon one of them. He immediately recovers enough to RUN AWAY. Gah. Reload.

    Incapacitate them both, then shockprod them. Fine. Moving along, I spot a guy walking past a underground entrance. I aim carefully with the crossbow, and shoot him. Nothing happens, except he seems to hear the dart. I shoot him again, and he jerks. Last dart, and still no effect. Fuck. He runs up and kills me.

    This time, I ignore him, climb up the crates, and see another guard coming at me. Foolishly use the tranquilizer. And he runs, stops, goes 'argh' then runs, stops, goes 'argh', then runs... away.

    Further on, I spot two guys talking. I shoot one in the head, and then fire a shot at his buddy as I duck behind the corner. He comes running down the stairs, TURNS TO FACE THE WALL and says 'Is somebody there?'. I shoot him again in the head, and he turns to face me. A SECOND headshot and he's down. Mission complete. I gather up one of the unconcious bodies and, Thief-style, throw him into the water. No gurgling sounds. Damn.

    Down into HQ. I run hack into the guard's email, smash open boxes, and make a fool of myself. But as I start going through the commander's books, he demands I 'behave professionally, that's an order'. I pull out my gun and shoot him in the head. 'You've gotta be kidding, right?' says the guard out in the hall. Another shot to the commander's head. 'You're better go and see Jaime on Level 3' says the commander. A third shot, again to the head. 'You'd try and kill me?' he bellows, and pulls out a gun from nowhere which in two chest shots kills me. Shock prods and crowbars produce similar results.

    Later, I pass the bathrooms and, misreading the fuzzy ill-defined symbols on the door, go into the women's washroom, where some librarian bint is standing, full clothed, in the stall (which has no door). 'What are you expecting, a show?' she drawls in the most irritating Anne Robinson's sister from the US voice. She walks to the mirror, and then turns and says 'Don't think I won't be reporting this. How unprofessional'. I hate her, and shoot her in the head. She jumps to one side after being shot, pulls out pepper spray and sprays me with it. The guard bursts in and shoots me. Back again, and I shockprod her. She shudders, then sprays me, the guard bursts in, and shoots me. Back yet again, I use the SILENCED pistol on her head. She sprays me, the guard bursts in, and shoots me. FOR FUCK'S SAKE.

    I didn't even try killing the doctor. This is 'realistic' damage? Is it just realistic for me, and not the NPCs?

    Then, in Battery Park, this kid comes up and demands food. I give him some, and in what must be the most (im)plausable dialogue ever: 'I sleep where the NSF unloads their stuff, and have watched them enter the secret doorcode, which is this number'. Disbelief. Window. The. Out.

    The police launch looks nice, though, especially the advanced technology which propels it without the propellors turning.

    Having successfully eluded (killed) the UNATCO soldiers in Hell's Kitchen, I make my way back to Battery Park and, on instinct, head straight for the air duct. I hear footsteps, and turn to see the intensely annoying Anna Navarre standing behind me. I kill her. I then make my way through the air vents to the shack, and peer out at the waiting troops, bots, and Gunther. Somehow, I manage to instigate a fight between Gunther and everyone else, that ends with the huge military bot destroyed, all the soldiers dead, and one of the regular bots disabled. Gunther wanders towards the shack, so I retreat back down the vent, and into the subway station.

    Coming out the main entrance, Gunther is still inside the shack, so I turn on my super strength implant, push a crate out of the way, and escape into the park. As I'm doing this, Jock's helicopter flies overhead, heads towards the landing area, but KEEPS GOING. I chase after it, but it escapes since I can't run through or over the park wall.

    I AM NOW FUCKED. I have tried killing Gunther (and used up all my ammunition for the assault rifle, sniper rifle, grenades (EMP and LAMs) and stealth pistol) to no effect. I have disabled and destroyed the three remaining bots, to no effect.

    After about 30 minutes trying everything I could think of, I read the offical Deus Ex strategy guide on Gameguides.com, and discovered I HAVE TO BE KILLED OR CAPTURED.

    LIKE FUCK. I have successfully eluded their attempts to catch me, and I should be fucking allowed to get on the fucking helicopter. BUT NO. I HAVE TO DO SOME RUBBISH 'ESCAPE FROM A PRISON WITH NO EQUIPMENT' LEVEL BECAUSE THIS GAME IS SHIT. OH YES, IT IS.

    So much for a non-linear storyline.

    And a friend (who I hope sees this) had this to say:

    If the AI was so great, when I crawled into a pub missing my lower half, surely someone would call an ambulance?

    (and)

    Going to the nearest pub to eat 500 candy bars to grow new legs never fails to amuse. Once again, I wish real life was like that.

  • Boomerang #64 2 years ago

    @metalangel

    That's a funny read, and entirely accurate. Still a good game though :)