There's a lot of jank here that wasn't good for its time, and has only gotten worse with age. But the fundamentals are still good enough to be worth experiencing. Deus Ex handles player choice, both mechanical and narrative, better than many games that come out today and, finally playing through it myself, its clear to see why so many other immersive sims drew their inspiration from here.

While Deus Ex isn't the best of the genre (the weaker elements being either refined or removed from later games) it still deserves credit for its ambition and creativity relative to its contemporaries.

I'd probably recommend playing something more recent if you're not familiar with immersive sims. I think playing Deus Ex after having played the games that it inspired can give you a lot more appreciation for it than what you could get playing in chronological order. But, jank and missed opportunities aside, Deus Ex does enough well that it still warrants a playthrough for anyone interested.