A bomb's a bad choice for close-range combat

Yo homeys,

Welcome back to another exciting edition of me talking! Since I have nothing better to do, (WOO SPRING BREAK!!!) I have decided to once again grace you with my inexhaustible wisdom.

I would like to talk about a little game called Deus Ex. Being a primarily console-focused gamer, I had not heard of this title until I saw it towards the top of one of those "100 greatest games of all time forever and for all eternity" lists. The brief description sounded interesting and I found it for 91 cents on Amazon, so I decided to give it a shot.

DX, as it is abbreviated, is the creation of the short-lived Ion Storm development group based in Austin. You may know them as the creators of the infamous Daikatana, but rest assured, this game was created by a different team and bears little resemblance to that bomb.

At first glance, Deus Ex appears to be an FPS, but attempting to play it as one will most likely get you killed. Despite Ion Storms claims that it can be played as one, the guns-blazing approach has not worked any time I have tried it, even on easy mode. Instead, this is an RPG. Or a thinking man's shooter. Or a stealth game. I am actually not sure how to classify it as it defies convention and blends genres.

You play as JC Denton, cop of the future and nano-machine enchanced superhuman. Throughout the game, you are given experience points to increase your abilities with skills ranging from weapon proficiency to hacking to medicine. This feature allows you to customize your experience and provides a huge amount of replayablity. In addition to this skill system, you can increase your abilities with canisters scattered throughout the game, yielding tricks like invisibility, health regeneration or greater speed. All of these augments can be upgraded three times, virtually guaranteeing that no two players will have the same JC.

The player-determined experience does not end there. Though you are given primary objectives that must be completed to advance the story, the game gives many secondary missions that can be completed at your discretion. Some yield equipment, others give experience and still others can help you out later in the game. For instance, at one point I told an ally to stay where he was and not leave the agency he was at. Later on, he contacted me and asked to meet in restaurant. When I got there, he informed me that an enemy had followed me, and that he knew the enemy's weakness. Though you cannot direct where the story goes, you always have a choice in what happens along the way. Characters can die, but it depends entirely on whether or not you make an effort to save them.

Game design is where Deus Ex really shines. Every obstacle has multiple solutions; a locked door can be blown open, the lock can be picked, a key can be found, or maybe there is an air duct leading to the room that you can crawl through. Short on cash? Hack an ATM. There are so many options, you are almost certainly not going to experience everything in the game the first time through. There are plenty of alternate routes and even whole areas that eluded my notice when I played.

Another strength lies in the story and atmosphere. DX takes place in a near-future dystopia ruled by conspiracies and paranoia. The game succeeds in this regard thanks to smart writing and some intelligent design choices. The world is fleshed out by newspapers and books that expand the universe without forcing the player through tedious exposition. The dialog is never too intrusive and can be skipped if you so desire. Players who do pay attention though will be rewarded with a well-thought out and believable vision of the near future, as well as an intriguing conspiracy driven plot.

Visually, there is nothing remarkable about Deus Ex. Much of this can be attributed to its age, as it is running on a modified version of the original Unreal engine. Artistically though, the game is very dark and nothing you encounter is likely to impress. The same goes for the animation, which is laughable by today's standards. This is besides the point however, as graphics fulfill their function and usually don't get in the way.

Sound-wise, the game holds up well. There is a ton of voice acting and the quality is decent or better. The music is generally very atmospheric but does a perfect job of evoking the dark and haunting atmosphere. Though it is unlikely you will find yourself humming one of the tunes throughout your day, hearing one will immediately bring you back to the world of Deus Ex. Sound effects are one of the game's weak points; the weapons are not satisfying to fire and nothing sounds terribly realistic but it is not a big enough gripe to actually hurt the experience.

A couple other things of note: The game should run fine on any modern computer, if anything too well. When I first installed my copy, it played too fast and I had to twiddle with my settings before it ran normally. Second, I found the default control scheme to be odd, but as it is fully customizable, it was not a large problem. Lastly, the game received a PS2 port, which you should stay away from. Though I haven't played it myself, I can't see how the complex controls could be translated onto a console with any success.

I would highly recommend Deus Ex to anyone looking for a shooter with a bit more brains than say, Halo. An ambitious game that rewards patience and intelligence, it is a unique experience that modern game developers could learn a lot from.

Holy Verbosity, Batman! I don't know what came over me. Apparently I just can't be concise when it comes to video games. Like everything I write, this could use some judicious editing but I know all you out there in Internet-land will forgive me for not spending more time on this.

Maybe I'll cap his ass too,
JC Denton