Released in the year 2000, Deus Ex is the first installment in the popular science fiction first-person-shooter RPG series. Set in a dystopian future where cybernetic implants and modifications have become the norm, the series sets you as JC Denton the second in a new generation of cyborgs, using nanotechnology modifications instead of cybernetic ones. This is the game that started it all, including the quite obvious biblical references and massive global conspiracies.
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Deus Ex was developed by the now defunct Ion Storm and designed by Warren Spector, the man behind some of the greatest games of their time; Thief: The Dark Project and System Shock 2. Conceived as Troubleshooter, Spector began work on what would become Deus Ex after System Shock, having tired of traditional fantasy and science fiction but couldn’t get the project off the ground with either Origin Systems (makers of Ultima and Wing Commander) or Looking Glass Studios (System Shock, Thief). Then, thankfully, John Romero and Ion Storm came along and just told Spector “Make the game of your dreams. No limits,” and thanks to that offer, we now can enjoy this masterpiece.
I would love to say I played this game on its release and enjoyed it over and over again, playing hundreds of different builds and playing all possible allegiances, but the truth is that the first game I played in the series was the second one, completely ignorant of the existence of this title. It was thanks to one of the many fantastic Steam sales that I got my chance to play it, having read enough about Deus Ex to make me give it a go. When I first launched the game and right up to the point where the credits ended, this game awed me and I was too engrossed in the story and depth of gameplay to care about the aged graphics.
The scary looking thing on the right? That’s an ALLY!
The game stars JC (guess what the initials mean) Denton the second in a new generation of UNATCO (United Nations Anti-Terrorist Coalition) agents, their implants nanotech instead of cybernetic giving them a more human look compared to fellow agents Gunther and Anna who look monstrous. Which as you might guess causes some friction between these veteran agents and you and your brother Paul, the first nanotech Agent. The game opens up with Denton arriving at the UNATCO base to meet with Director Manderley for the briefing on his first mission, infiltrating Liberty Island to stop a terrorist group taking over it. After completing this mission he is sent on another one to track down a shipment of Ambrosia, the cure for a disease called the Gray Death, and it’s during this mission that the first of many of the game’s choices come in, though the only indication of it is Paul confessing to JC he’s defected and tells his brother about things not being as they seem. The search for the truth takes JC from Liberty Island to New York City to Hon Kong and Area 51, meeting a plethora of characters you can join, betray or kill as you see fit, though always with consequences.
As a game, Deus Ex is old-school and as such doesn’t hold you by the hand for very long before dropping you in the deep end letting you explore, investigate, and experiment with the different skills sets and upgrades; and as with previous Spector game System Shock 2 it’s very possible to be stuck at a particular point because the route you used isn’t particularly friendly to your chosen skill-set and equipment. Skills range from weaponry, divided by weapon type (pistols, rifles), to swimming and lock picking to even “Environmental Training,” without which you can’t even use bulletproof vests and hazmat suits. At the start of the game, or character creation, you get a fixed number of skill points to determine your starting skill-set, and you get more skill points by completing objectives, main and secondary, so it’s usually a very good idea to do every secondary quest to come your way.
Augments expand gameplay considerably!
As a nanotech agent, you can upgrade JC with augmentations on nine slots spread over the following locations: head, eye, sub-dermal (skin), torso, arms and legs. Upgrades come in nanotech canisters, each holding two upgrades, forcing you to choose between one of them. In addition, canisters don’t carry augments from a single location, forcing you, for example, to choose between a cranial upgrade or a leg upgrade. Augments can be further upgrades using Upgrade Canisters. Some upgrades are passive, giving you a flat bonus, while some are activated and consume bioenergy, your internal power reserves.
The last form of customization comes from weapon modifications, letting you add scopes, silencers and such to all your weaponry, though not all modifications match all weapons.
Inventory, like in most old-school RPGs, is grid-based, letting you Tetris-out your items and tools (ranging from healing items and power cells for energy, to smokes and alcohol, to tools helping you to pick locks, hack computers and overcome electronic systems) so you can carry as much as possible on you.
Queue Tetris music!
Gameplay is deceptively simple, just aim and interact; but depending on your play style, you can find many nuances to it, such as shadows and visibility, hacking options and manipulating security systems, how to use environmental dangers to your advantage, or just when to strafe and shoot or take cover or retreat. Skills in weapons directly affect their performance, the most important being your accuracy. Augments require strategic planning: will you get the melee damage bonus or the ability to lift big things? It all depends on your build and what you do with it. It’s the same with weapon mods and which items you stock, the game teaches you to carefully plan your moves, as if you really were a secret agent.
The story is presented in an interesting mix of exposition and player choice, in that some information is given to you, but there’s also a sea of knowledge out there waiting for you to find it, giving you insights on locations, characters, organizations and backgrounds. You can play and finish the game and enjoy the story just through the exposition bits, but you don’t get the bigger picture unless you’re willing to anger some characters and hack every machine, collect every password and forcibly take every scrap of information that comes your way.
This game was made well before Political Correctness was a thing!
The plot itself is a mix of conspiracy theories, biblical symbolism, philosophical arguments over the nature of humanity and what it means to be human, freedom of choice and Nietzsche ideals of supermen and transcending humanity. Brilliantly it never feels like these concepts are being shoved down your throat, instead they are subtly in the background or the characters and organizations embody these concepts; from the world-controlling Majestic 12 representing the ultimate shadow government, a group that transcended the Illuminati, the Chinese Triads working against them, to the Area 51 supercomputer capable of making someone the closest to being a God.
If there is a significant flaw to this game is how its ending, instead of being determined by your collective choices over the course of the game is instead decided by one of three choices right at the end, making your playthrough and all decisions, which in most cases took deep thought and planning, boil down to a multiple choice question and become ultimately meaningless. As the first in the series, this style of ending influenced the rest of the series, with further titles mimicking it.
Having said so, the multiple characters builds, alliances, characters to join or kill or use, and even the finite sets of endings, promise you’ll be replaying this game more than once trying to find everything there is to find from sub-quests to texts and computers to hack, and things to kill.
The Majestic 12 “logo” goes straight to the point!
Visually speaking, while the graphics feel dated now, they were top of the line at the time, and even now they don’t look that bad, and with the various HD texture packs available it’ll actually look pretty good although the flat faces and blocky hands are the only things that’ll remain out of place. Sound design is spot on, and you’ll forever remember the pitter-patter of JC’s running. Music like most of this game is a mix of different elements and styles, ranging from classical to jazz and techno, and just like the rest of this game, it has received critical acclaim. Interesting to note is how the music changes from its base form depending on your actions, similar to how LucasArts’ iMuse worked on titles such as Monkey Island 2.
Deus Ex, like many of Spector’s games is a masterpiece of storytelling and gameplay, giving you enough to understand and enjoy the story but leaving plenty for you to explore and find out on your own. The only flaw in this masterpiece is not deciding on the ending based on your choices but on one endgame choice which can, as you might guess, be completely against all you have done up to that point.
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