The following is a transcript of a video review which can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/jumxIVfO2H0

Some video games transcend the era in which they were released. They become so notorious and popular that their quality is never questioned, and people who haven’t ever played them still hold them in high regard. Nintendo games held a lot of respect in this way, although that reputation has dwindled in recent years. Now, as indie developers have begun looking to the games from the start of the millennium for inspiration, an infamous type of game has started to resurface. The immersive-sim has returned, with all of its open-ended gameplay and heady, poignant narratives. Modern entries within this category often extrapolate on this mindful style of video game story and try to tackle some new challenging topics, but this was not a feature that was present in many of the games from the initial burst of immersive-sims. System Shock and Arx Fatalis aren’t overtly political. But Deus Ex is. And as society is now more capable of seeing governments and other large organisations conducting their actions in real time, Deus Ex’s story is just as relevant as it ever has been. So with this returned relevance and the resurgence of the immersive-sim gameplay style, I figured it was now the perfect time to finally experience what so many had told me was a masterpiece.

While it’s very easy to get a copy of Deus Ex that functions on modern computers, the Game of the Year edition I got from GOG has some problems out of the box. The game doesn’t natively scale to most common resolutions nowadays, sometimes it’s far too dark to actually see anything, and there was a consistent problem with layering across the entire game. Fortunately, there are a bunch of different avenues to fix these problems, which might be a problem unto itself. I typically gravitate to dgVoodoo for resolution rectification, but making the display wider didn’t fix the lighting and layering. Steam forum users recommend a launcher called the “kentie launcher” which did consistently resolve the lighting and layering problems, but the jury was still out on whether this launcher delivered a vanilla experience. I eventually came across a mod called the Deus Ex Community Patch that did the trick. It did smooth out the textures which I wasn’t too excited about but I can imagine this look is a little more palatable nowadays. If you haven’t played Deus Ex before, or not for a very long time, then I can whole-heartedly recommend the Community Patch.

I often make presumptions of whoever views my videos, as I’m sure any writer does, but in this situation I think there are prerequisite topics I should cover just to ensure that everyone is definitely on the same page. Deus Ex was developed by the short-lived Ion Storm and released worldwide in June of 2000. Directed by industry legend Warren Spector, Deus Ex follows the story of technologically augmented super-spy JC Denton as he tries to save the world from a plague that the rich and powerful are choosing to do next to nothing about. Each environment in the game is a miniature open-world, with a smattering of characters to speak with and collection of objectives that can be completed in any way the player desires. To facilitate this freedom, JC can be levelled to focus more specifically on certain specialties; the player can choose to focus on stealth and non-lethal takedowns, or build defences and conduct full-frontal attacks if they’d prefer. This aspect forms the backbone of the immersive-sim gameplay design style and can be seen in modern games like Cruelty Squad and Brigand: Oaxaca. The virus, the responses of the leaders, the rearrangement of government entities, “only following orders”: much of the same events are currently occurring within the world right now. While the dystopian representation hasn’t quite come to fruition, Deus Ex’s vision for the future seems to have been depressingly accurate. There are also a number of things that Ion Storm could never have seen coming, technological conveniences and video game industry conventions for example, but the game never seems overly outdated or awkward.

Despite being over 20 years old now, Deus Ex’s design is far from antiquated, and in many respects, it still surpasses the targets of the higher budget games being released today. Open-world games nowadays expend significant development resources on giving NPCs detailed schedules to simulate their lives, which is ultimately unnecessary because the same sense can be created abstractly for far less effort. Hong Kong is a claustrophobic tangle of alleyways, a crowded marketplace, there’s a bustling nightclub, and the local triad headquarters are both filled with secret rooms behind secret rooms. I got the sense that these NPCs had homes and lives despite the lack of those things actually being included in the game. And all of these characters are voiced, entirely. For better or worse. There has also been a bit of a 90’s electronic revival among indie musicians recently too, lending the Deus Ex soundtrack a surprisingly modern feeling. Similarly, the rising prevalence of the “Haunted PS1” aesthetic has become disseminated throughout the indie game industry, and many are choosing to present their games with low poly counts and low resolution textures, almost retroactively modernising Deus Ex in a way. However, it isn’t totally ageless, and it isn’t as visually cutting-edge as it used to be, but Deus Ex’s visuals have a charm that hasn’t been lost throughout the years.

Originally, the game’s textures were very low res, verging on pixel art, and I do quite like that look. Unfortunately, the fan patch I used smoothed all of the textures out. This isn’t too bad overall, but something about those pixelated textures just attracts my attention more. Deus Ex certainly looks its age, the characters are all stiff and the environments are boxy, but everything is readable and effective at invoking what it intends. Hell’s Kitchen feels grimy and squalid, the air seems dusty and the sense that there’s a plague ravaging this place is palpable. The submarine base doesn’t quite give the impression that it’s deep underwater, but it’s very clear that some things that shouldn’t be happening are being done down there. These places, and all of the others do leave the game very drab overall. It is appropriate, and definitely fits the game’s narrative themes, so the lack of a vibrant palette is totally acceptable. That said, all of the tunnels and alleyways the player will be wandering through do begin to homogenise as the game goes on. Sometimes I found it hard to tell if I was sneaking around on a container ship or through a secret military base, and the game’s geographical settings almost totally vanish within some interiors. But Deus Ex’s presentation focuses more on delivering a very readable environment, rather than a detailed one. Enemies will always be clearly visible, so will the security cameras provided you’re approaching them from the right direction. For a game in its twenties, the total lack of important blobs is astounding and I’m sure the fan patch deserves some credit in this regard. But what cannot be ascribed to the patch is the game’s phenomenal sound design.

The audio portion of Deus Ex is utterly impeccable, in every respect. Ion Storm knew that the soundscape would be critical to their gameplay and they absolutely succeeded in tying the game’s spaces to the sounds. Listening for patrolling enemy footsteps is an effective method of locating them without risking being spotted, and their vocalisations are a more elegant means of informing the player they’re at risk, rather than some kind of UI pop-up. This does lead to some less exciting looking gameplay, as the player sits in a corner and listens to the world around them, but many games neglect to integrate the sound design as deeply as Deus Ex has. I did feel as though many of the sound effects were quite hollow and would have greatly benefited from more bass in the mix, but the quality of the sounds within Deus Ex is incredibly impressive for the time. Unfortunately, the quality of the voice recordings is suffering from its age. They’re a little muffled at times and they could use some extra treble, in my preference anyway. That being said, these performances are fantastic. JC’s delivery is especially enjoyable and has rightfully spawned a bunch of memes, with the writing’s humour certainly contributing. The quality of the other performances also do a lot to generate the atmosphere throughout the rest of the game. Walton Simons’ flat, monotone delivery makes his character hard to read and signals that the player cannot trust him. Now, the introduction makes Simons’ evilness immediately known to the player as he and Bob Page discuss their evil schemes for the camera, but if the player ignores that for whatever reason they’d get the right impression from the performances. The combination of the excellent sound effects, the quality music, and the tremendous voice performances make for an impressive soundscape.

So the world is full of NPCs who have places to be, there’s an open-endedness to all of the levels, and the game can be played almost blind, but what does playing Deus Ex actually entail? JC is a fairly capable combatant, able to use all sorts of firearms and hand to hand weapons to kill or pacify those who would block him from his objectives. The player is dropped into an environment while their objectives are explained to them, then they must use JC’s combat and stealth tools to complete the objective they’ve been assigned. Usually there’s a location JC needs to reach or a person he needs to speak with, at which point the game becomes a test of the player’s patience and spatial awareness. Human guards and mechanical enemies patrol the grounds of the areas JC must traverse, which the player can choose to travel through, or search for an alternative route around. It is usually possible to make it through most levels without ever being seen or attacking anybody, and doing this is a good challenge. Some of the level design makes this an exceedingly powerful strategy, while some other levels pull out all of the game’s tricks to prevent a sneaky pacifist approach. Being discovered and the resulting chaotic battle are much less enjoyable than the sneaking aspects. JC might be able to use a lot of different weapons, but the weapons themselves are mediocre, they’re either awkward or underwhelming and oftentimes non-functional. It certainly is an option, but I think it’s well dissuaded and most players will avoid direct confrontations if they can, although it is possible to build JC for combat if the player really wants to put themselves through that.

Deus Ex contains some RPG aspects that can vary the weapon types JC would prefer to use, or drastically change the way the player approaches upcoming obstacles. There are actually two separate systems for customising JC: the more standard points based system, and the exploration based augmentation system. Skill points are awarded whenever the player completes certain actions within a stage. In the level in which the player is trying to infiltrate the Battery Park castle siege, the player earns points for entering the secret tunnel system, unlocking a particular door, and locating the secondary objective barrel. These skill points can then be used to improve JC’s ability to use individual weapon types, each of the damage mitigation and healing items, the different tools used to access computers and doors, and get JC to swim really fast. These skills aren’t especially impactful in the grand scheme of the game, but they can be the difference between accessing safer routes through areas or being forced to take the hard way. The more interesting levelling system has significantly more impact on the way the player engages with the game, but these augmentations must be found in the world. Sometimes the augmentation canisters are out in the open, but they’re mostly hidden in locked boxes or require some kind of puzzle solution to retrieve. Whenever the player picks up an augmentation canister, they are given the choice between 2 active abilities to upgrade a particular aspect of JC’s physiology. I found this augmentation to change JC’s skin, allowing him to either be invisible to humans and animals or robots and cameras. These almost act as keys to areas blocked by too many patrolling guards or locations littered with too many cameras and allow the player a perspective on an environment they may not be able to reach otherwise. Since I chose to sneak through most places until I was caught, I rarely used this invisibility power, but there were instances where I would have been discovered without it. The way the player chooses to approach the enemies is only commented on by some characters, and barely ever impacts the upcoming level or narrative.

The player must use these tools to defeat the schemes of a host of extremely powerful organisations all across the world. JC Denton is one of the first in a new line of physically augmented super spies, a project commissioned by the United Nations Anti-Terrorism Coalition, or UNATCO for short. JC’s first day on the job involves something small and inconsequential: taking down an invading enemy force that has managed to infiltrate and take control of UNATCO’s base on Liberty Island in the heart of New York City. This group, the effectively organised National Secessionist Forces - NSF - have come to steal a barrel of Ambrosia and distribute it to the public. Naturally, this cannot stand. This is America, baby, can’t have anyone stealing government property. What is this Ambrosia stuff for anyway? (It’s the cure for a plague that’s ravaging humanity? And the wealthy are hoarding it all to themselves?) … Don’t be poor, I guess. With the occupation broken, JC gets to enter the UNATCO HQ and meet the game’s cast briefly, before being sent to another NSF attack on the mainland. It turns out that the NSF had managed to steal a lot more than a single barrel of Ambrosia and so JC is sent throughout the city to retrieve whatever he can. There are NSF stationed in the abandoned subway tunnels under the city, they’ve occupied a huge building from which they can send long-distance communications, and the NSF have even taken over a small airfield where they plan to fly their final barrel of Ambrosia to Paris where another organisation can distribute it in that city. JC stops all of these plots, but before he can reach the NSF plane and confront the organisation’s leader, JC is approached by his brother Paul. Paul has defected to the NSF and he hopes to convince JC to do the same. Paul has noticed that the plague is extremely dangerous, and his conscience isn’t pleased with the methods UNATCO is using to select the recipients of Ambrosia. Upon entering the aircraft, the player gets the opportunity to speak with Juan Lebedev, who they have been sent here to kill. I chose to hear Lebedev out, but fellow UNATCO agent Anna Navarre burst in and killed Lebedev for me. Paul’s defection means that the entirety of UNATCO is assigned to hunt him down and kill him, so JC is flown to Paul’s apartment to speak with him before Gunther and Anna show up. It’s also around this time that JC starts receiving contacts from a mysterious character known as Daedalus, who will become relevant later. Paul reveals that Simons’ is actually working for a splinter organisation that formed from the dissolution of the Illuminati, called Majestic 12, and Paul encourages JC to escape to Hong Kong where he may go into hiding. JC is ultimately captured by UNATCO, but escapes and manages to make his way to China with the help of his black hawk pilot Jock. In Hong Kong, JC learns that a former Illuminati member’s super tanker ship is being used to deploy a more deadly strain of the plague in New York. He also learns that aliens are real, and that there are genetically engineered animals which can spit poison, and he also learns the power of friendship from a couple of Chinese triads.

So it’s back to New York to stop the catastrophic plague event, before that helpful ex-Illuminati member advises to finally head to Paris to meet with some of his former conspirators. After wading through the catacombs and spending some time in a nightclub, JC meets with Morgan Everett, the Illuminati’s current leader. Everett knows of a group of scientists who possess the capability to create a device called a Universal Constructor, that can then be used to synthesise a cure for the plague. JC travels there to release the scientists from Majestic 12’s control, and then travels to an underwater lab to get a schematic necessary for construction of the UC. While under the ocean, JC confronts and defeats Simons, leaving only Bob Page left to topple. The final location, Area 51 is left to conquer, and within the many layers of secret bases lies Page and Daedalus, the advanced AI system Page intends to merge his consciousness with. Here, in this final area, the player may select JC’s fate. Will he take Page’s place and merge with the AI himself, transforming into what is functionally a god? Will he destroy Page’s security systems and kill the man, then take all of the secrets for himself and rule alongside the rest of the Illuminati? Or will JC destroy the base, plunging the world into a new dark age as all planetary communication networks are somehow contingent on a system within Area 51?

Overall, I think Deus Ex’s narrative is at its best as a video game narrative. When everything is a conspiracy and there are so many conspirators, demonstrating that on a television program would be horrendously tedious and would become excruciating within a movie, as each character would have to be shown acting as part of the organisation. In Deus Ex, each character is clearly doing something else off screen. The world doesn’t move when JC Denton decides he should go to Hong Kong, Page and the rest of Majestic 12 are still actively doing things while JC is halfway across the planet. And since the player sees the events from JC’s perspective, those other characters conducting their own schemes don't have to be shown. The majority of other characters in the game don’t do much of interest anyway, and sometimes they’re just wandering around in blown-up buildings and mausoleums for no reason. The animosity between JC and the older models of augmented spies also comes off as arbitrary. Gunther likes JC if the player rescues him at the start of the game, and he finds attacking JC in Paris regrettable. Anna can also become amiable toward JC if the player follows UNATCO orders well, so whatever animosity there was supposed to be between these characters doesn’t seem real. Moreover, I found that some characters were functionally indistinguishable from each other. Stanton Dowd and Morgan Everett are almost the same character, the Triads kind of blur together even with Tracer Tong behind one of them, and Maggie Chow is the only female character who isn’t totally interchangeable with the others.

I may have laid some criticism at the game there, but it really is the most damning thing I can say about Deus Ex. Throughout my 18 hour playtime, I never encountered something that felt antiquated, nothing that seemed poorly balanced or badly explained, no game-breaking bugs or crashes, no negative experience at all. If you haven’t played Deus Ex before, then I highly recommend that you do.

Deus Ex is held in such high regard for good reason. Ion Storm has left nothing of substance in need of additional attention. The moment to moment gameplay can be almost anything the player wants it to be, and most options are a great time. The presentation has aged, but is currently within the retro-stylings of the modern indie scene so it isn’t a problem. The game is technically flawless and only the jumps between operating systems have prevented the base files from being as healthy as they were, and a little tweaking gets the game up to modern standards in no time at all. It’s hugely ambitious from a narrative perspective, with world-ending consequences and reality-bending revelations, but the writing has also managed to keep a playfulness that doesn’t allow the grandiose plot points to get too pretentious. If an indie studio released Deus Ex today, it would be widely lauded as the greatest indie game ever made. If a big studio made it, people would be mad about the shooting and the fact that you can’t tell which one of JC’s teeth has a crown on it. As far as digging up secrets from within Deus Ex to help us now, I don’t think there’s much that hasn’t already been thoroughly and relentlessly reappropriated throughout the last 20 years. The people who played it as children are gaining access to the more creative roles throughout video game studios, so we’ll likely see its influence return again.

Next time, I have something different in mind.

In a dystopian cyberpunk future, 2052: JC Denton, agent of UNATCO, unravels an elaborate scheme by megacorps, crime syndicates, and secret societies to hegemonize humanity. Psychotic headlines of these titles are bound to captivate the interest of its players, a haunting tension arises the thriller of being a part of a never-ending causal nexus of machination. A recurring theme of Deus Ex is transhumanism or unnatural selection, and the corporate elite's control over technology and how it endangers personal freedom, themes not explored in today's society are explored in a "What-If" futuristic universe.

Part RPG, part first-person shooter, Deus Ex is one of the first to merge the two genres together, with skill trees opening the door for open-ended game design, mainly the multiple player choice and multiple narrative paths earning it numerous Game of the Year awards in 2000. The game stills hold up to this day, thanks to its conspirational atmosphere unrivaled by newer titles.

If you're a fan of the Adam Jensen Deus Ex's, you owe it to yourself to play this game. It's definitely dated, and can be clunky at times because of the limitations, but it's still a wonderful ride. I definitely had fun with it, and enjoyed the story and the feeling of being overpowered with the GEP and Nanoblade hehe. There's a reason this is a cult classic and that is because it is good. If you can get past the old clunkiness, and give it an hour or two to grow on you, you'll find something to like, no doubt about it.