Finished my replay of this game on hard mode. There wasn't much of a difference with normal except that obviously you take fewer hits before you go down. Perhaps one day I'll play on realistic but something tells me that will cross the line into being annoying for my playstyle.

If you've followed me for a while or even if you've been in the same room as me for more than 15 minutes you might now that I despise stealth games. I've tried, but I genuinely hate them all. MGS, Thief, Dishonored, even stealth sections in games I like (shenmue, max payne, disaster report 4). I've had bad luck with so called Immersive Sims because of it, as most of them are essentially stealth arpg hybrids like Deus Ex, but so far its basically only the OG (and consortium by virtue of not having stealth) that I mess with. Its not exactly a mystery why, and consider this a plea for other games to follow suit : let me murder everyone. Give me an actual choice between stealth and combat and not just stealth and "you fucked up the stealth you idiot! you might as well reload a save"

Importantly, Deus Ex's combat is deceptively fun to get to grips with. Its so simple but really effective the way that you start out as someone who takes 2 business days to line up a pistol shot to being able to run around with the gep gun blowing people up like nothing. I'm surprised no one else has tried emulating the system, with your RPG esque weapon stats determining how fast your crosshair takes to narrow and become fully accurate, presumably imitating how it takes someone to aim down the sights and prepare to fire a shot.

Now, obviously for this kind of game there has to be push back, and even with a combat build your ass is not going to last if you're trying to play the game like half life, which is precisely why its satisfying to completely forgo stealth and murder everyone through traps, ambushes etc. This playthrough I discovered how useful the non lethal gas grenades are for murder runs (ironically) cause it makes enemies freeze up to rub their eyes, lining up to get headshot with the pistol for maximum murder efficiency.

The playthrough did however highlight Deus Ex's biggest flaw : the save system. Its one of those systems which is simultaneously too annoying and too forgiving. Its annoying because I am forgetful, and losing 15 mins of progress because I forgot to save is just... frustrating. On the other hand, there is basically nothing stopping you from hardcore save scumming every 5 seconds. Ironically, there is nothing more appropriately "mean" for a choice based rpg than an aggressive auto save, as it is, you can basically game most of the big decisions and encounters. Maybe even a save room system like RE4 might be appropriate? Could even lock them behind doors with an interesting weighing up of resources if its worth risking a loss of progress for a lockpick or multitool? Idk now Im playing armchair designer but either way.

Area 51 is still kinda annoying, I didnt use console commands to noclip through it this time but I still fused with Helios because it was the fastest way to complete the level, the later bits of the game are kind of a downgrade from the initial half of the game.

In 2013, when I was a grease faced teenager I walked into a used games store and found a copy of the original deus ex, priced at an absurd 95 cents (really). I thought "Hey, thats that really famous game thats supposed to be a classic" so I went ahead and bought it. I had just played Half Life 1 and really liked it, so I wasnt a stranger to games made before my time.

I think I got as far as the subway level. I let the terrorist leader live and listened to his spiel. I cant remember what made me drop it but I suspect it was getting blown up repeatedly in the subway.

Years passed and I revisited games that gave me trouble in the past, most of them I was able to break through with my hardened gamer tm skills, as I was wiser and older. Deus Ex however, was the exception. After playing through one of the worst tutorials ever designed by a human being I played through the statue of liberty and this time smoked the chubby man in the trench coat. I was scolded for it. I guess that reactivity is the big selling point? Im not particularly impressed. I lost interest and played something else.

I was still haunted by it, everyone sings the praises of this cyberpunk masterpiece; I knew I had to somehow break through and find the good stuff. This time prompted by the Hbomberguy essay on Deus Ex Human Revolution (which Ive played through twice) I gave it another shot. I didnt even make it through the tutorial, it is so unbelievably tedious and boring. "Just skip it" you say! Well this game has a lot of systems (stealth, combat, upgrades, rpg elements, augmentations etc). How the hell am I going to know what to do if I dont atleast know the basics?

Truly this has been the biggest monkey on my back. I dont know why of all the classics from this era this is the one I just cant get into. Its not the visuals, Ive played games that looked much worse. Its not that combat is discouraged, I got that pretty soon after discovering how to aim. I guess its just the general clunkiness and design philosophy from a time before more modern sensibilities. Idk, maybe Ill give it a fourth try (which is more than Ive ever given any game) but for now it will remain the monkey on my back.

So yeah, get it all out of the way Deus Ex fans : "Filtered", "Stupid zoomerbrain", "Soylent Green eater or whatever" etc but you are right, truly Deus Ex is too big brain for me, cause I just dont get it.


Edit : Alright. I gave it another shot without playing the tutorial and clearly that was the right choice, cause it sucks really hard. Anyways I actually made it to Hells Kitchen. Its weird cause the actual shooting/sneaking/hacking etc generally works fine (except for a bug where I couldnt switch weapons or put away my weapon) but there is a whole lot of Jank. I was impressed when I went into the Unatco womens toilet by accident and my boss commented on it. That being said jesus christ why is this game so dark? I cant see a fuckin thing and the bioelectric light makes the game drop frames. Even quake 2 had better dynamic lighting. I dont know if Ill finish the game but Ill definitely play more of it. If I cant warn newcomers then, my advice is to skip the dumbass tutorial and just figure it out by fucking around. The AI is braindead anyways, youll be able to mess up and not be totally fucked. Also this game has basically no autosave, so save often.

Final Edit : Okay. I finally finished all of Deus Ex. I actually really enjoyed it. The multiple ways of doing everything and level design achieves (for the most part) that sweet spot between not just being too obvious that you feel condescended to but not too obscure and stupid that you feel frustrated.

I did a very murder heavy run, cause I suck at stealth and unlike Dishonored im not aggressuvely punished for it. That being said I came close to quitting during that dumb superfreighter level, the lack of any autosave had me once redo a massive amount of progress cause I forgot to save, and at the end when I was already kind of tired of the Area 51 level and the game as a whole, I nocliped from the computer terminals to the Helios A.I so I could finish the game and I have 0 shame in that.

Anyways this game is actually really good but the earlier more open ended "real world" levels like Hong Kong, Hells Kitchen etc were a lot more enjoyable than the later corridor heavy facilities.

Even Finaler Edit : I am on my second playthrough. I just killed a child with the GEP Gun to get my soy food back. 10/10