As a console player for most of my life it feels a little wrong to admit it, but Deus Ex feels like a swan song of the big PC era, which eventually had to bow down to the 'consolization' of the industry. You can tell this simply by looking at the sequel and how much more simplistic it had to be, to be released anywhere other than PC.
The third Thief and especially Bioshock and it's huge success hammered this home. Complex systems, player agency and open level design aren't what most people are looking for, and instead a cool setting and twist is enough apparantly. And I can't deny that I was one of those people who loved Bioshock around it's release. Granted, I WAS a pure console player at the time and simply did not play any other Immersive Sim, so it's streamlining went right past me, but it seemed to get praise all around, so it's hard to blame the industry for going more into that direction. But, this is supposed to be a review about Deus Ex, not the 0451 genre as a whole.
Deus Ex feels very much like a complete experience. I know nothing about it's actual development (might change that) but it seems like the developers weren't in a huge rush and able to just go all-out. You can tell this by the amount of little details and secrets all over the world, but also simply by the virtue of how long this game really is while never feeling dragged out. There was a point in the story where I felt like "this is the point where a modern version of this game would use a cliffhanger" and it just kept going.
It feels almost impossible to see everything of this game in one run. Surely you could explore every single room and route, but you'd really need to go out of your way to do so. And often it feels like the limited amount of lockpicks and multitools make that pretty much impossible ... which is good! It almost makes me want to go through the entire thing again and try different approaches this time around.
Exploring these open areas with the chilling music in the background is a great experience. Having these small hub areas with lots of density and stuff to find everywhere makes the open world craze seem more and more unreasonable. Familiarizing yourself with a small place, exploring each room and getting to know each NPC feels like you're actually getting to know the place. I think that's something modern Deus Ex still handles pretty well, however those new games almost feel a bit ... TOO designed if that makes sense? Like every corner there is a vent to go through, a terminal to hack or a giant crate to climb onto. Which is nice, but there is something appealing about some places being empty or just containing some local people you can talk to.
The gameplay might feel a little sluggish at times. Especially the shooting. But the cool thing is that this is totally by design. Your character starts off very inexperienced in shooting and it's your call to put your points into it. Having to aim for a few seconds, to get an accurate shot, because you haven't invested enough points into pistols is a decent trade-off for being able to get through more doors or hack more terminals. But it still can be a little infuriating to set up a shot perfectly, feeling you targeted the head accurately, only to see the enemy not get down by your arrow. It results in a very "Quicksave - Quickload" heavy type of experience, which was very common around that time, but I don't think it ruins the experience. It just makes every room become a puzzle to figure out and it's your call what ressources to invest. And I suppose you could always choose your own saving ruleset. Overall I was happy with the moment to moment gameplay. It definitely feels like a game focused on stealth, even though you can surely hold your ground in open combat with the right augmentations and weapons. Just be smart about it.
The augmentation system and how it controls make it feel like you're actually controlling a machine in a way. The amount of buttons on a keyboard and how you need to get your finger to the F12 button to turn the light on or the F8 button to activate your aiming mode give this game a computer interface feel, that fits surprisingly well with our protagonist being part machine. It's like you're actually "activating" something. This comes with the drawback of not being able to react fast enough sometimes and to be fair, is probably just a result of circle menus not really being a thing yet, but it has this neat side effect of feeling authentic.
The storyline was surprisingly engaging. Of course I was familiar with some of the memes surrounding this game and the voice acting sometimes made it hard to take things seriously, but the script is pretty great and fits perfectly into a time where Matrix and Metal Gear Solid just came out and X-Files was at it's peak. There is this charming sillyness to it all, while it takes itself 100% seriously. Meanwhile it actually tackles some serious societally themes and can get quite philosophical. The ending of this game is the only one out of the three Deus Ex games that I've played that actually seemed like it was doing something interesting and I like how your story progression and decision making isn't tied to markers or dialogue options but actual player agency. Your actions result in consequences, not your press of Button A or B.
Deus Ex is something that I should have played earlier, and a game that should have been more influential. The way this title has more complex mechanics and systemic gameplay than 99% of games coming out today is honestly pretty sad. It makes it feel like we took a wrong direction somewhere and this is the point where the split path began.
Okay, I'm being dramatic, but it really feels that way because this is preeetty much the point where the genre started to die and all the studios were closing that were making these games. Looking Glass was already dead, Ion Storm only continued to make simplified versions of older ImSims and died shortly after and Irrational Games were the ones who continued to thrive by creating the more simplistic Bioshock. System Shock 3 also seems dead at this point. Arkane being the shining star that still keeps the genre alive, but recently put out to bad to mediocre games in a row.
It makes me wonder how the industry would look like when consoles weren't the dominating thing around that time. Maybe ImSims weren't a niché genre most people don't even know about. Or maybe we would tire out of complex system driven games and crave more cinematic stuff, who knows.
Deus Ex is definitely a milestone in gaming that I finally got to. In a way it was pretty cool that I saved this for last, after beating the Thief and System Shock games. I was considering giving this the full 5 stars, but I typically only do this with games that are absolutely favorites of mine. Deus Ex is not quite there yet, but it might be in the future.
The third Thief and especially Bioshock and it's huge success hammered this home. Complex systems, player agency and open level design aren't what most people are looking for, and instead a cool setting and twist is enough apparantly. And I can't deny that I was one of those people who loved Bioshock around it's release. Granted, I WAS a pure console player at the time and simply did not play any other Immersive Sim, so it's streamlining went right past me, but it seemed to get praise all around, so it's hard to blame the industry for going more into that direction. But, this is supposed to be a review about Deus Ex, not the 0451 genre as a whole.
Deus Ex feels very much like a complete experience. I know nothing about it's actual development (might change that) but it seems like the developers weren't in a huge rush and able to just go all-out. You can tell this by the amount of little details and secrets all over the world, but also simply by the virtue of how long this game really is while never feeling dragged out. There was a point in the story where I felt like "this is the point where a modern version of this game would use a cliffhanger" and it just kept going.
It feels almost impossible to see everything of this game in one run. Surely you could explore every single room and route, but you'd really need to go out of your way to do so. And often it feels like the limited amount of lockpicks and multitools make that pretty much impossible ... which is good! It almost makes me want to go through the entire thing again and try different approaches this time around.
Exploring these open areas with the chilling music in the background is a great experience. Having these small hub areas with lots of density and stuff to find everywhere makes the open world craze seem more and more unreasonable. Familiarizing yourself with a small place, exploring each room and getting to know each NPC feels like you're actually getting to know the place. I think that's something modern Deus Ex still handles pretty well, however those new games almost feel a bit ... TOO designed if that makes sense? Like every corner there is a vent to go through, a terminal to hack or a giant crate to climb onto. Which is nice, but there is something appealing about some places being empty or just containing some local people you can talk to.
The gameplay might feel a little sluggish at times. Especially the shooting. But the cool thing is that this is totally by design. Your character starts off very inexperienced in shooting and it's your call to put your points into it. Having to aim for a few seconds, to get an accurate shot, because you haven't invested enough points into pistols is a decent trade-off for being able to get through more doors or hack more terminals. But it still can be a little infuriating to set up a shot perfectly, feeling you targeted the head accurately, only to see the enemy not get down by your arrow. It results in a very "Quicksave - Quickload" heavy type of experience, which was very common around that time, but I don't think it ruins the experience. It just makes every room become a puzzle to figure out and it's your call what ressources to invest. And I suppose you could always choose your own saving ruleset. Overall I was happy with the moment to moment gameplay. It definitely feels like a game focused on stealth, even though you can surely hold your ground in open combat with the right augmentations and weapons. Just be smart about it.
The augmentation system and how it controls make it feel like you're actually controlling a machine in a way. The amount of buttons on a keyboard and how you need to get your finger to the F12 button to turn the light on or the F8 button to activate your aiming mode give this game a computer interface feel, that fits surprisingly well with our protagonist being part machine. It's like you're actually "activating" something. This comes with the drawback of not being able to react fast enough sometimes and to be fair, is probably just a result of circle menus not really being a thing yet, but it has this neat side effect of feeling authentic.
The storyline was surprisingly engaging. Of course I was familiar with some of the memes surrounding this game and the voice acting sometimes made it hard to take things seriously, but the script is pretty great and fits perfectly into a time where Matrix and Metal Gear Solid just came out and X-Files was at it's peak. There is this charming sillyness to it all, while it takes itself 100% seriously. Meanwhile it actually tackles some serious societally themes and can get quite philosophical. The ending of this game is the only one out of the three Deus Ex games that I've played that actually seemed like it was doing something interesting and I like how your story progression and decision making isn't tied to markers or dialogue options but actual player agency. Your actions result in consequences, not your press of Button A or B.
Deus Ex is something that I should have played earlier, and a game that should have been more influential. The way this title has more complex mechanics and systemic gameplay than 99% of games coming out today is honestly pretty sad. It makes it feel like we took a wrong direction somewhere and this is the point where the split path began.
Okay, I'm being dramatic, but it really feels that way because this is preeetty much the point where the genre started to die and all the studios were closing that were making these games. Looking Glass was already dead, Ion Storm only continued to make simplified versions of older ImSims and died shortly after and Irrational Games were the ones who continued to thrive by creating the more simplistic Bioshock. System Shock 3 also seems dead at this point. Arkane being the shining star that still keeps the genre alive, but recently put out to bad to mediocre games in a row.
It makes me wonder how the industry would look like when consoles weren't the dominating thing around that time. Maybe ImSims weren't a niché genre most people don't even know about. Or maybe we would tire out of complex system driven games and crave more cinematic stuff, who knows.
Deus Ex is definitely a milestone in gaming that I finally got to. In a way it was pretty cool that I saved this for last, after beating the Thief and System Shock games. I was considering giving this the full 5 stars, but I typically only do this with games that are absolutely favorites of mine. Deus Ex is not quite there yet, but it might be in the future.