Deus Ex

released on Jun 26, 2000

A philosophical first-person WRPG set in a dystopian 2052 in which JC Denton, a nano-augmented agent for the anti-terrorist organization UNATCO, is tasked with stopping the invasion of Liberty Island by the terrorist group NSF. As events unfold, Denton finds that he plays a large part in a world-spanning conspiracy which forces him to ponder his allegiances, beliefs, morality, and view of right and wrong.


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I loved absolutely everything about this game but gave up on it after being filtered so many times, I am such a stupid casual

Still extremely playable today in its unchanged form (not revival, not any fan mods - just the intended experience with a few technical fixes like increased FOV and running on OpenGL), and would probably be a joy to play for any imsim fan. Almost 25 years later, it's still one of the most open-ended ones even in the genre already emphasizing player agency and freedom to choose your own approach to solving problems.

The level design is definitely the undisputed highlight. Almost any given objective can be reached in a number of ways depending on your character build and playstyle, to the point where the few instances where the game forcibly funnels you into a specific approach (e.g. a door that can't be lockpicked or bypassed electronically so you HAVE to find the code) immediately jump out. Lockpicking, hacking, crawling through vents (usually still accompanied with at least some more skill checks), or bashing in doors are all perfectly valid approaches, and while the game still makes sure that any character is able to actually progress the main objective, it does feel a lot less obvious than in most modern imsims - getting a code or finding an alternative route will generally take a lot more effort than just picking the door if your character is equipped to deal with the lock.

If you're like me in being addicted to hoarding "optional" resources since you're used to game just handing over the solution as you progress anyway, the most important piece of advice for Deus Ex would be: don't. The game is genuinely so much more enjoyable if you let yourself play the character and use the infiltration routes available to you; unlike in, say, Prey, the maps here are definitely not designed for the player to see every corner and vacuum up every single object; instead, they are large and complicated to facilitate the freedom to choose a route and stick to it. Sure, most doors have codes or keys, but they are very missable, presumably exactly to insentivize using all the other tools in your arsenal, and if you let the game lead you instead of resisting this guidance, the quality of your experience is likely to improve tenfold.

From the gameplay perspective, the signs of aging are a lot more apparent than in the level design. Early on, I don't see Deus Ex being playable in an action-y style thanks to its famous aiming system (where the reticule takes up half the screen and slowly decreases to a point as long as you don't make any sudden moves); however, as your character progresses in skill level and gets more augmentations, the run-and-gun tactics become a lot more viable: by the end, you will be able to jump around at supersonic speeds headshotting bozos in mid-air, or tank an entire arsenal worth of bullets to the skull, should you be so inclined. Despite the slow start, once the augmentations really start rolling in, the power progression really becomes extremely noticeable and gratifying.

The shooting itself is fine, with the exception of enemies routinely taking several shots to the head to kill - seems like there are some hit detection shenanigans that make certain headshots count towards the torso instead. Speaking of - the complex locational damage system is pretty impressive, with body parts being targetable for both the player and all (humanoid) enemies; this isn't really used for anything interesting other than headshots as far as I could tell, but still surprising to think this was made in 2000. The game even supports non-lethal takedowns - and comments on it if this is your preferred playstyle. This doesn't have much of an impact on anything but I definitely appreciate the option being available.
The augmentation system is also neat in concept - having to choose between 2 mutually exclusive upgrades for every slot is interesting, and augments do genuinely have the power to completely upturn the way you play - the only obstacle to this is the default key bindings. Do yourself a favour and rebind the most used ones to something more ergonomic than the F- keys, and once you do, managing enabled abilities, toggling them on and off, becomes a fun element of extra challenge rather than an annoying drain on your finite bioenergy resource.

Story and voice acting - the absolute crackpot mash of a bunch of conspiracies is really amusing at the start, but surprisingly actually becomes pretty engaging as it goes on, the general tone shifting from a story about a cool gigacop with augmented vision to an illuminatipilled global conspiracy-driven paranoic mess is cool to witness, and the few reactive story elements are always fun to come by, especially the ones you aren't expecting. Honestly didn't expect to get invested, knowing what I did about the plot before going in, but did end up thoroughly entertained.

For the more negative aspect - the latter levels are falling into the same trap as a lot of other games of the era by ramping up the "difficulty" through throwing a bigger amount of more annoying enemies at you (ones that explode on death, or take little damage from bullets, etc.) but in an unprecedented move for imsims, the game actually sticks the landing with a good final boss fight, highlighting the freedom that defined most of the game up to that point instead of forcing combat that some builds may be unequipped for, or resorting to some awful gimmick.

Overall, Deus Ex is still a great game, still managing to hold its own against the present-day immersive sims thanks to its outstanding level design and breadth of possibility when it comes to problem-solving, with a lot of its DNA being easily trackable to much more modern games. Easy recommendation for anyone interested in the genre and not afraid of a little jank.

The pinnacle of Y2K expressionism, love to just load any level and just sink into its ambience.

camera whirring computer beeping radio voice: Get to the bunker and get the new pancake recipe, JC. Waffle House Corporate is depending on you.

note on a computer They'll never know that Waffle House is just IHOP's puppet. The pancake recipe is actually a greek omelet recipe. The code to my penis is 3118.


Great game, 24 years later, and it's still one of the best immersive sims, with a very unique, thought-provoking, and scarily foreseeing narrative. The only thing I can complain about is the backstab mechanic since you can fuck up minutes of stealth simply because you aimed at a wrong part of the enemy's hitbox. Everything else is honestly great; a must play!