Platform: PC

Developer: Ion Storm

Publisher: Eidos Interactive

Release Date: June 17, 2000

Genre: First-Person Shooter/Role-Playing Game

Nerd Rating: 9 out of 10

Reviewed by bushtika

“Better to reign in Hell, than to serve in Heaven” – “Paradise Lost”, John Milton

Life is not good in the universe of Deus Ex. It’s the year of 2052. Poverty is at an all time high, millions are infected with a mysterious pathogen, and civil unrest is breaking out across the world. The United States and Europe are a constant target for terrorism while China has become overrun by gang warfare. The world is not a happy place. You enter this dystopian setting as JC Denton, a cybernetically enhanced rookie agent on his first day on the job at UNATCO, a global anti-terrorism military force. I hope you have an updated passport as JC’s adventures take him all over the globe, from New York City to Hong Kong. This is the world of Deus Ex and I appreciate the choice of real life settings. During a recent trip to New York, I found myself trying to visit the locations from the first act of the game, from Castle Clinton in Battery Park, to Hell’s Kitchen and the Statue of Liberty. While not completely accurate, it was still cool to imagine finding the secret keypad leading to the home of the mole people in the subway.

Deus Ex‘s open-world gameplay gives you multiple paths to achieve your objectives, and it is entirely possible to avoid directly killing any hostiles throughout an entire game, minus a few bosses. Taking the scenic route typically results in much needed experience to upgrade skills. Many useful items hide in vents and access-ways, because for some reason in this dystopian future, people leave assault rifles and bank account information tucked away in dark construction sites and subways. Skills and augmentations canisters are your friend here as they add permanent abilities like regeneration and the ability to prematurely detonate enemy explosives. You have a full arsenal of weapons to choose from, with non-lethal and heavy weapons included. Stealth is a big component of the game, and while it is entirely possible to take on an entire shadow government with guns blazing, a little sneaking can add some fun to the levels.

My favorite method to play through is to try and talk to all the people I can and complete as many of the side quests to see the different outcomes as the game progresses. For instance, if you aid a weapons dealer in one of the earlier NYC missions, he will help you out later on when you’re in desperate need of some help. Even minor little dialogue choices can save your friends and co-workers from encountering “accidents” when the shadow government decides they’re too dangerous. One of my favorite minor characters, Jaime Reyes, can be saved by something as simple as letting him know you’re leaving for the day, and you may even get a reward from doing so.

The narrative is incredible, and hard to describe adequately without spoiling. You uncover a global conspiracy alongside your brother, Paul. Things are never what they seem, and I particularly like that it shows a large moral gray area with multiple sides and ulterior motives guiding your every action. Tertiary information in the game accurately touches on many post-9/11 issues such as prevalent terrorism, gun control debates, and environmental peril. From a nerd who loves his fictional fluff, I have to say the writers did their research and wrote some of the most grounded sci-fi that I’ve come across. For all you conspiracy nuts out there, you will love references to paranormal occurrences like the existence of “Grays” and the Illuminati. As far as the actual story goes, the entire plot is a roller-coaster ride and you never really know who is on your side. While JC Denton doesn’t really develop as a character, the world around you develops as your eyes open to the dark reality of the cyberpunk nightmare. The largest twist in the game had me stunned when I first encountered it, and I actually had to check several times to make sure I didn’t just lose terribly or broke the game.

In comparison to games of the era such as Half-Life, Deus Ex has clean graphics and varied environments. Like many millennium games, the character models are simple flat textures on a basic frame. In non-tech speak, characters look like painted mannequins. While it’s not game breaking, it can be a little obnoxious when you see the same character models used repeatedly, and the awkwardness of speaking animations during dialogue. With some recent PC ports, such as the one found on steam, minor graphical bugs can occur, such as an inability to adjust the brightness. As far as the setting, the environments are spot on in reflecting where the player is visiting, whether it be the ghettos of New York or the depths of an underwater research lab. The walls might be blocky, but offer reasonable variety and detail when traveling through the world.

Ferry is Closed

Deus Ex has spawned off one sequel and several prequels. While the other games deserve their own reviews, it should be noted that the original Deus Ex stands above the rest of the series by a wide margin. The sequel Inivisble War, is less than stellar, but the series is greatly redeemed with the prequel, Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The prequels are able to stand on their own within the universe, but compliment the story told in the OG Deus Ex quite well through its story development and even some character appearances.

This cyberpunk RPG gets a well deserved 9 out of 10. The graphics may not have aged well, but they still stand above other games of the era like System Shock 2. Prepare to play through one of the most in-depth games of the early millennium and then play through again a few more times to make sure you didn’t miss anything.