Deus Ex is truly a product of its time. I know that term gets thrown around a lot these days but this time it’s actually the case. A game like this couldn’t be made today, it just isn’t possible.
To be blunt, Deus Ex’s storyline is essentially a cyberpunk hellscape where every single conspiracy theory about higher powers and government overreach on an unprecedented scale are actually true and actively happening. The game’s story goes through many twists and turns as more of the conspiracy is unraveled before you.
While I think this is objectively one of the best games ever made, I do think that really comes down to the dialogue and writing, along with the art design. As much as I love Deus Ex, I can see that it’s gameplay is a little outdated.
Let’s get that out of the way now. Most of the game is about walking around open hubs and talking to people. There are main objectives and small things you can do on the side for bonus equipment or money. This is the best part of the gameplay, as the world is detailed, fun to explore, and filled with tons of NPCs that either give you interesting information that helps flesh out the world, or say the most ridiculous, batshit stuff possible to keep you entertained.
Now it’s time to discuss combat and stealth, these are the aspects that I believe are the weakest. Deus Ex lacks a lot of modern tools that make stealth combat more satisfying and fun, this mostly comes down to responsiveness and a general lack of understanding as to how stealth even works. It’s hard to tell if you’re ever truly concealed sometimes, and enemies will just immediately agro if you are noticed. With practice the mechanics can be learned and understood but this takes time, and a gameplay style shouldn’t be this difficult to grasp.
Next is combat. Deus Ex has a massive array of weapons, both lethal and nonlethal. What I really love is that a lot of weapons are tools, not just for killing. The GEP gun for example is a rocket launcher that is honestly way more useful for things like opening doors over any actual combat. Combat itself is very simple, you aim your implements of destruction at the target and click until they die. Weapons work differently and have their own funny quirks to them, like the sniper rifle being completely accurate while noscoping, or being able to use LAMs to climb walls. Enemy variety is.. honestly pretty bad. The AI isn’t very good either, they will mostly just circle around you and fire until they die. There are a couple combat robots in the game as well, though they are ridiculously annoying to deal with, and also incredibly easy to disable so there’s really no reason to engage with them. My biggest issue with the combat is how stale it gets. Most enemies will die from a single headshot as long as you’re leveling skills. Many weapons also seem fairly redundant or awfully balanced, never pick up a shotgun in this game. A lot of the tool tips and in game descriptions are just flat out incorrect too, listing incorrect damage numbers or mechanics that literally do not actually work.
Deus Ex is very open ended, and characters will say different things to you depending on how you play. Most tasks can be completely stealthily or loudly, and never require you to actually kill anyone if you don’t want to. This makes the game very replayable, and a good player that knows what to do can really speed through the game.
Lastly let’s talk about the upgrade system. There are skills and augments. Skills can be upgraded with skill points you acquire by completing objectives, finding secrets, and generally exploring. They improve your ability to use objects and generally interact with the world. Some of these skills are useless, and I think the game drip feeds you skill points too much instead of giving the player more to work with. Skill levels can really decide your build and what items you choose to use, so I wish the game gave the points more constantly and in a higher amount. Things like Swimming and Environmental skills are absolutely useless while weapon skills and things that let you get more value out hacking devices are incredibly useful.
Now, augments. These are found in the world or given as rewards for completing certain objectives. They are not made equal and some are just outright complete garbage because of how situational they are. Augments have a feature where you can only have one assigned to an F key and every key has two augments to choose from. I get the idea behind this, it’s supposed to give the player the choice to build the character however they want. In reality this just makes it way more annoying because you will often see two good augments or two trash augments since they will usually be similar to each other, and picking one just locks you out of the other. This feature would be perfect if you could simply select augments and equip them to the F key of your choice, because some of the keys are pretty annoying press while you’re trying to move or shoot.
Lastly lastly this game starts to REALLY fall off near the end. It devolves into constant combat and little to no character exchanges. The hub worlds are much more linear and are moreso combat gauntlets with occasional puzzles or secrets. The storyline will keep you going, but it’s really a slog near the end.
Despite my complaints about the gameplay I really do love Deus Ex, the storyline is interesting, fun, and keeps a good pace. Gameplay can feel a tad stale especially near the end, but there are always fun mechanics thrown in you can abuse to make things a bit more interesting. The game is an absolute meme, and an absolute masterpiece.
To be blunt, Deus Ex’s storyline is essentially a cyberpunk hellscape where every single conspiracy theory about higher powers and government overreach on an unprecedented scale are actually true and actively happening. The game’s story goes through many twists and turns as more of the conspiracy is unraveled before you.
While I think this is objectively one of the best games ever made, I do think that really comes down to the dialogue and writing, along with the art design. As much as I love Deus Ex, I can see that it’s gameplay is a little outdated.
Let’s get that out of the way now. Most of the game is about walking around open hubs and talking to people. There are main objectives and small things you can do on the side for bonus equipment or money. This is the best part of the gameplay, as the world is detailed, fun to explore, and filled with tons of NPCs that either give you interesting information that helps flesh out the world, or say the most ridiculous, batshit stuff possible to keep you entertained.
Now it’s time to discuss combat and stealth, these are the aspects that I believe are the weakest. Deus Ex lacks a lot of modern tools that make stealth combat more satisfying and fun, this mostly comes down to responsiveness and a general lack of understanding as to how stealth even works. It’s hard to tell if you’re ever truly concealed sometimes, and enemies will just immediately agro if you are noticed. With practice the mechanics can be learned and understood but this takes time, and a gameplay style shouldn’t be this difficult to grasp.
Next is combat. Deus Ex has a massive array of weapons, both lethal and nonlethal. What I really love is that a lot of weapons are tools, not just for killing. The GEP gun for example is a rocket launcher that is honestly way more useful for things like opening doors over any actual combat. Combat itself is very simple, you aim your implements of destruction at the target and click until they die. Weapons work differently and have their own funny quirks to them, like the sniper rifle being completely accurate while noscoping, or being able to use LAMs to climb walls. Enemy variety is.. honestly pretty bad. The AI isn’t very good either, they will mostly just circle around you and fire until they die. There are a couple combat robots in the game as well, though they are ridiculously annoying to deal with, and also incredibly easy to disable so there’s really no reason to engage with them. My biggest issue with the combat is how stale it gets. Most enemies will die from a single headshot as long as you’re leveling skills. Many weapons also seem fairly redundant or awfully balanced, never pick up a shotgun in this game. A lot of the tool tips and in game descriptions are just flat out incorrect too, listing incorrect damage numbers or mechanics that literally do not actually work.
Deus Ex is very open ended, and characters will say different things to you depending on how you play. Most tasks can be completely stealthily or loudly, and never require you to actually kill anyone if you don’t want to. This makes the game very replayable, and a good player that knows what to do can really speed through the game.
Lastly let’s talk about the upgrade system. There are skills and augments. Skills can be upgraded with skill points you acquire by completing objectives, finding secrets, and generally exploring. They improve your ability to use objects and generally interact with the world. Some of these skills are useless, and I think the game drip feeds you skill points too much instead of giving the player more to work with. Skill levels can really decide your build and what items you choose to use, so I wish the game gave the points more constantly and in a higher amount. Things like Swimming and Environmental skills are absolutely useless while weapon skills and things that let you get more value out hacking devices are incredibly useful.
Now, augments. These are found in the world or given as rewards for completing certain objectives. They are not made equal and some are just outright complete garbage because of how situational they are. Augments have a feature where you can only have one assigned to an F key and every key has two augments to choose from. I get the idea behind this, it’s supposed to give the player the choice to build the character however they want. In reality this just makes it way more annoying because you will often see two good augments or two trash augments since they will usually be similar to each other, and picking one just locks you out of the other. This feature would be perfect if you could simply select augments and equip them to the F key of your choice, because some of the keys are pretty annoying press while you’re trying to move or shoot.
Lastly lastly this game starts to REALLY fall off near the end. It devolves into constant combat and little to no character exchanges. The hub worlds are much more linear and are moreso combat gauntlets with occasional puzzles or secrets. The storyline will keep you going, but it’s really a slog near the end.
Despite my complaints about the gameplay I really do love Deus Ex, the storyline is interesting, fun, and keeps a good pace. Gameplay can feel a tad stale especially near the end, but there are always fun mechanics thrown in you can abuse to make things a bit more interesting. The game is an absolute meme, and an absolute masterpiece.