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Deus Ex
Developer: Ion Storm
Publisher: Eidos Interactive
Category: : 3D Action/Adventure
System Req: PIII, 128 Mb RAM, 750 Mb HD, 16 Mb 3D Card, 8x CD
Might look like: System Shock 2
Date posted: 10 December 2000
Written By: Jochen
- This game was reviewed on PIII 600Mhz, 128Mb Ram, Geforce 2 GTS 32Mb, Win98SE -
We also test other games on
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Hybrid of the Year!
Let's get this straight from the beginning !
Deus Ex is the best action/adventure/RPG game of year 2000 and there's no discussion about it ! I would not hesitate to say that this is THE best game I ever played, and yes, I played Half-Life, but Deus Ex is deeper and better.
Of course, I will have to come up with some hard facts to back that up and that's exactly what I'll try to do.
Deus Ex Machina
In the game you play the role of J.C. Denton, a special agent of UNATCO.
UNATCO is the "United Nations Anti-Terrorist Coalition" and responsible for countering NSF raids. I know this doesn't tell you much, but trust me, throughout the game the flood of information will make things more understandable.
And all this information is necessary as the people behind this game have created an incredible world, including it's complicated history. Without giving away to much about the story, I will try to explain the game setting.
Beginning with the general feeling I would describe Deus Ex as a 'Matrix-meets-Blade Runner-meets-Half Life' hybrid. It has the overall polish of 'The Matrix', the city scapes found in 'Blade Runner' and a strong story-line like the one found in 'Half-Life'.
Top all this with some RPG influences like those found in 'System Shock 2' and you should know what to expect. That's what makes Deus Ex so damn good : it takes the best elements from all these existing settings and combines them into one hell of a thrill ride !
  
As for the story; I already said it's quite complicated and at the start there will be many questions without an answer.
The main plot goes like this : you are JC Denton and a new member of UNATCO. What makes you so special is that you are nano-augmented, which means that you are a kind of a cyborg.
The game kicks off as the NSF ( the bad guys ) have raided a New York harbor and have stolen a shipment of Ambrosia, a vaccin for a future plague. You meet up with your brother Paul, also an agent, who tells you what you should do. Conversations will pop up regularly throughout the game, with different conversation choices leading to subtle differences in the overall story.
The same goes for mission objectives. Not all objectives are primary, so you don't have to complete them, but it all has an influence on other things. It's not major, but it's there.
I'll give an example from the first mission. When I meet Paul he says I should avoid killing people. The first time I played I just ignored that and killed about everyone who got in my way. At the end of the mission this resulted in a sentence like "… you killed a lot of people tonight …".
The second time around I only killed 2 guys and then Paul said I "did a fine job". Ok, it's not much, but for me it feels like I'm really in a living and reacting gameworld.
Missions are very varied and take you all over the world, uncovering subplot after subplot, ultimately leading to three different endings fot the player to discover. I will not tell a single thing about it because that would seriously ruin your gaming experience, but trust me when I say it goes very, very deep !
Deus Shock
I compared Deus Ex to System Shock 2, but that's not really fair for both games.
There are however some gameplay mechanics that are undeniably similar. First of all, Deus Ex is not all action. There is a lot of room for strategy and that is in fact encouraged. Storming every enemy in the game will get you nowhere becausea) you'll get killed
and
b) you'll run out of ammo fairly quickly. Every mission offers several paths to completion, giving you the opportunity to try out several methods.
  
Secondly, Deus Ex has the same RPG influence like the one found in System Shock 2 : the experience system and the inventory. Forget dragging around 10 different weapons and 999 health kits.
You'll have to make choices as J.C. has only limited space in his backpack.
The experience system is handled in two ways. The first one is by completing objectives, by exploring and by uncovering big lines in the plot. These will earn you points you can spend on abilities like swimming, hacking, pistol skills, rifle skills etc. Each of these abilities has several degrees of experience levels : the higher the skill level, the more points it will cost, so you will have to make choices. This also results in people playing the game in different ways as you'll never amass enough points to max out every skill.
The other thing you can do to build up your character is equiping augmentation canisters. Remember me saying that J.C. is a kind of a cyborg ? Well, the people who 'made' you have been so kind to leave you with some spare slots in your body to gain new capabilities. The augmentation canisters are usually found at the end of a mission, but later on they will be seen throughout the gameworld as an incentive to solve some hacking puzzles or 'search for the switch' type of quests.
The same goes here that you will have to make choices as there are more types of augmentations than you have spare slots. All the augmentations can be upgraded, but once you have installed one you can't switch it with another. Activation of these abilities will draw energy from your system, adding another factor you should take into consideration. You can replenish your energy level with the help of batteries or by visiting one of the maintenance robots found in some buildings.
The same goes for your health : you can use medikits or go to a clinic where a medbot will heal in matter of seconds. Medbots are also needed to install augmentation canisters. Upgrade canisters are installable by the player.
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