I miss the days when insanely over-ambitious maximalism was seen as a valid game design ethos. When thinking of the things you could do with a computer was still exciting. When a creator's natural response to "Your idea is too big" was "Shut up, you boring twat", as it should be.

Imagine it's the 90s, your name is Warren Spector, and you have an idea for the greatest game ever. It's a first-person-shooter, a stealth game, an RPG, an adventure game, all in one, and it's also a globetrotting dystopian sci-fi-cyberpunk-spy-thriller that tackles political and philosophical themes and has huge levels with highly interactive environments that allow the player to do whatever he wants. And then your buddy John Romero, who just got insanely rich from making DOOM, gives you an office, a dev team, tons of money and infinite creative freedom, says "Go get 'em tiger", and fucks off to throw coke-filled parties instead of working on Daikatana.

When I got the demo to Deus Ex from a magazine cover CD and played its first level over and over again, discovering new details, secrets or possible approaches each time, I remember thinking: "There is no way they can keep this up for a whole game." Spoiler: They could.

I love Deus Ex because I love hanging out in its world, exploring every nook and cranny, sneaking around, breaking into places, rummaging through drawers, hacking into computers, talking to people, listening to their conversations, reading emails and newspapers and bulletin boards, and above all, trying out different ways to get past an obstacle, and then reloading and trying a different one, just because. I'm hard-pressed to think of another title whose minute-to-minute gameplay (stealth, exploration, creative problem-solving, big and small decision-making) is just so damn enjoyable to me. Maybe because it drops you into a world that's similar to our own and makes you feel as if your actions really make a difference. In a way, it's the ultimate modern power fantasy.