How, after playing Doom, Quake, Unreal, Half-Life and Thief, I didn’t come across Deus Ex is one of those mysterious happenings in my life that remain in my psychological Area 51. Seriously, my only explanation is that I probably realised I needed to go out more if I ever intended to find a girlfriend…
Surely, it’s never too late, right? Yes, I have a wife now whom I must answer to, two demanding kids who never accept “no” as an answer, a full-time job, and a hobby that takes up whatever little time I have left to remain sane.
But hey, who doesn’t find the time to play classic video games from 2000?
After my earlier experiences reviewing certain video games (ahem… Pathologic… ahem), you can’t blame me for approaching Deus Ex with slight apprehension. I was craving a game that would finally deliver some genuinely exciting gameplay.
And, YES, finally – a game worthy of its medium!
Review
The world is being plagued by a disease called Gray Death. JC Denton, an anti-terrorist agent fitted with nano-augmentations that provide him with superhuman abilities, is sent on a mission to stop a seemingly terrorist organisation (the NSF) from interfering with the supply of the rare vaccine. But not everything is as it seems, and JC Denton ends up uncovering a large conspiracy that puts him face to face with secret organisations such as Majestic 12 and the Illuminati.
The Good
Deus Ex was phenomenal!
One of the features that impressed me most was just how flexible the game is. There are so many ways to complete a mission that it’s almost overwhelming (in a good way). For example, say you need to infiltrate an enemy base. You could meet an ally who gives you a password to open a door; or you can force your way in by shooting everyone dead; or you can find a back entrance where there’s less chance of being spotted. You can even use console commands to mess with the AI (enter GOD mode).
Apparently, you can even finish the game without firing a single shot. A whole community has grown around finding creative ways to play Deus Ex. By far the funniest I came across was someone ostensibly completing the game using only TNT crates (LOL). Hell, what about finishing the game without using any items whatsoever?
Don’t believe me? Then check it out for yourself (video from PancakeTaicho):
I’ll be honest though – even if people keep telling me there’s no right way to play Deus Ex, I can’t help feeling that the real elegance lies in sneaking around and avoiding killing as much as possible (i.e., stealth mode). But that’s also the hardest way to play. I always tried to find alternative routes, either less conspicuous paths or login codes. The problem is that finding login codes isn’t always straightforward, and I often had to rely on a multitool or invest in the hacking skill to be able to progress. In fact, in many cases, the placement of login usernames/passwords and keypad codes was nonsensical, to say the least – at one point, I found a security code on the bathroom floor next to a toilet (!).
Of course, that doesn’t mean I completely refrained from taking out one or two enemies along the way. When playing FPS games, I often choose the sniper rifle as my weapon of choice – I find the idea of lurking in the shadows and delivering a single deadly blow as effective as it is elegant (hmmm… is that even the right word?).
In Deus Ex, I always carried a sniper rifle with me, but, to my surprise, it wasn’t the weapon I ended up favouring most. Instead, I awakened a totally different beast within: the GEP (Guided Explosive Projectile) gun. My God. Who would have thought I’d use this thing almost as an extension of Denton’s arm?
The bulky weapon was so versatile that I used it to shred pretty much everything (and everyone) to pieces: doors, windows, bots, greasels, Grays, Anne Navarre, Gunther Hermann (see video above), MJ12 troops – you name it. For some macabre reason, there was something satisfying about watching things explode into fragments at the click of a trigger. And I keep discovering new creative uses for it (watch until the end – superfun :D).
Fortunately, the environments are tightly designed and self-contained, so there is little risk of wandering too far off course. Each mission takes place in a manageable setting, meaning you’re rarely stuck for too long wondering where to go next.
Regarding the difficulty levels, I thought they were well-balanced. There are four to choose from: easy, normal, hard and realistic. I chickened out of realistic and went with hard, although once I got the hang of it (i.e., relying on stealth rather than brute force), I felt I probably could have managed realistic without too much trouble.
Not that it matters all that much, actually. Deus Ex is special in that respect. Even if you start on easy, you can effectively adjust the difficulty yourself as you go along – by choosing to ferret your way through without being noticed by security, by finding hidden passages instead of barging through the front door, and so on.
In fact, I’d find a playthrough on easy difficulty in which the player killed as few enemies as possible far more impressive than a playthrough on realistic where the player simply mowed down every single enemy in sight.
But it does take a bit of time to get into the game, as you need to familiarise yourself with the mechanics, such as the different weapon types, the skills system, and especially the augmentation functions. The augmentation canisters let you enhance certain aspects of your character, and I liked the extra challenge of tracking them down.
Initially, I wondered whether the augmentations I missed would complicate my life further down the road, but that worry turned out to be unfounded. There are so many duplicates lying around that you’re likely to find the exact same canister at some point during the game.
There are certainly situations in which an augmentation would prove useful. For example, being able to stay underwater longer allows you to reach areas that would otherwise be inaccessible without increased lung capacity. However, I soon realised that you can pretty much beat Deus Ex without using augmentations at all. In fact, I have to say that I started to feel that using augmentations was almost a bit of a cheat, just like using lockpicks or the multitool. There’s always a more creative (and more difficult) way to reach a location, which is why I partly stopped caring about collecting the canisters. In fact, I finished the game without really trying out most of the augmentations I’d gathered along the way (I used the flash enhancement quite a few times, and the invisibility cloak and healing augmentations a handful of times each, but that was about it). Perhaps that also explains why it took me around 60 hours to complete the game, when the typical playtime is closer to 23 hours.
Now, the story. To the best of my knowledge, first-person shooters prior to Deus Ex didn’t really combine action with such a multi-layered narrative. The thing is, the plot is incredibly complex and surprisingly current, dealing with a wide range of philosophical and societal issues. If you haven’t played the game, you’re in for a treat.
Granted, the graphics are dated (remember, the game came out 26 years ago!), but the various themes it explores (e.g., biotechnology, secret societies, AI) remain astonishingly relevant today.
I also greatly enjoyed the ability to choose between different endings. I went for the one where you deactivate the four reactors, but I was so curious about the alternatives that I ended up completing all four possible finales. The cutscenes themselves were a bit basic and slightly underwhelming, but the journey more than made up for this shortcoming.
Having said that, the game isn’t perfect.
The Not-So-Good
For one, certain gameplay elements aren’t very realistic. Most enemies appear to suffer from a severe case of retrograde amnesia. I might fatally shoot one of them and leave the body on the floor. The guards do come to investigate, but if you stay hidden and quiet for a few seconds, they simply go back to their routine as if nothing happened, muttering “Guess it was nothing” or “My mistake”. Your mistake?!? Mate, I just shot one of your colleagues! (see video above for other examples of this).
At one point, I even blasted a door open with a LAM (Lightweight Attack Munition) while an enemy was inside the room, who apparently didn’t think it might be a good idea to sound the alarm (despite there being one right there). There are other instances such as these, for example, see here.
You can also sprint past enemies and, if you are quick enough and break their line of sight for a few seconds, they won’t come after you. Some of those no-weapon, no-item playthroughs, like the one mentioned above, exploit these kinds of limitations.
The patrolling routes of enemy guards are limited to a rigid path and, unless they are alerted, they won’t deviate from it. In most cases, they even pause for a few seconds before turning around, making it ridiculously easy to sneak up behind them and tase them.
Combat can feel clunky at times, too. Using the prod charger at close range to knock enemies unconscious is a bit hit-and-miss; a sniper headshot doesn’t always bring the enemy down; close-range combat (knife or sword) is basic and not particularly satisfying; and enemies tend to shuffle side to side, instead of taking proper cover, which feels unrealistic.
And, let’s face it, the voice acting is terrible – consistently terrible. It’s clear that the focus back then was on delivering engaging gameplay and intricate plotting rather than strong voice acting. However, the blatant attempt at the Schwarzenegger-style accent of Gunther Hermann is especially cringe. In fact, most accents sound very inauthentic, exaggerated and borderline stereotypical (e.g., the Hong Kong and French characters speaking English were clearly voiced by non-natives).
Still, Deus Ex was a lot of fun to play. And do you know what I found most fascinating? After finishing a mission, I’d ask myself “How on Earth could someone complete this mission without firing a single shot or using an item? Nah, not possible!”.
Then, I’d watch the walkthrough I linked above and, lo and behold, it was entirely possible.
Damn you, geeks! :p
Star rating
What a phenomenal game!
Deus Ex does (almost) everything right, and, in my opinion, it has aged remarkably well. Sure, the graphics are dated (folks, it’s a 2000 game), but the narrative rivals some of the best storytelling in video gaming. Not only does Deus Ex involve mysterious secret societies such as the Illuminati, it also addresses philosophical questions that have remained strikingly relevant – especially now in the age of AI.
Also particularly impressive, even by today’s standards, is the sheer number of ways one can complete missions. I also applaud the care the developers took to make the game accessible to everyone, and the ability it gives players to adapt their gameplay as they progress.
I’m deducting half a star because I was put off by the voice acting, and I also felt some gameplay mechanics could have been improved, such as the rigid patrolling routes and somewhat clunky combat, something that contemporary games were already doing much better. Two minor points that do not detract from the grand achievement that has earned this game a place among the greatest of all time.
Deus Ex receives a star rating of 4.5.
Bizarrometer
Story-wise, Deus Ex sits somewhere on the strange end of the spectrum, but it isn’t bizarre in the sense of magical realism or unexplained supernatural phenomena. The characters do not behave erratically either; on the contrary, they mostly act as you would expect them to in such circumstances. The plot remains very down-to-earth and feels even more pertinent today. In terms of tone, I’d place its concept somewhere alongside the kind of weirdness found in Blade Runner or Equilibrium.
So why are we reviewing it then? Well, although some elements are undeniably strange (what the heck are those alien thingies?), for the most part it is the philosophical implications that make the story slightly bizarre. In a world where powerful factions compete for supremacy, what would the right course of action be? Should we allow the destruction of global telecommunications to give rise to free city-states? Should we accept the rule of a benevolent dictator who decides what is best for humanity? Or should we merge with AI and become something like super-gods if given the opportunity? Tricky questions, I know, but those are precisely the type of questions you will be asking yourself.
Deus Ex receives a bizarrometer score of 1.
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