Since Deux Ex: Human Revolution has recently caught my attention, I was wondering if I should play the first two games in the series first to get an understanding of the universe? Since I haven't really followed the development, and I really don't know a lot about the first two games, the only thing I really know about the franchise is 1: The original is considered a classic. 2: This new game looks really good. I don't know if this new one has anything to do with the old ones, but do the older games still hold up today, and since I haven't played them, is this a good time to do it?

human revolution is a prequel so it's not necessary, but it won't hurt to play deus ex 1. 

I had the same dillema earlier this week, but then I remembered that Human Revolution is a prequel. So I decided to skip the original games.

Yes. Though it's not important for the story of Human Revolution.

There's a decent cosmetic overhaul mod for Deus Ex 1 that makes it look like a game from 5 years ago instead of a game from 10 years ago. But its still kind of dated mechnically. Not a super long game, though, and cheap.

@ryanwhosaid:

There's a decent cosmetic overhaul mod for Deus Ex 1 that makes it look like a game from 5 years ago instead of a game from 10 years ago. But its still kind of dated mechnically. Not a super long game, though, and cheap.

Not sure my PC can handle the game with mods, lol, but how dated are we talking? Is the story not good enough to make up for it?

@DEMONOLOGY_24 said:

totalbiscuit says you should (atleast the first one)

Who is this totalbicuit, and is he credible?

Please play Deus Ex.

First Deus Ex game is worth playing.  Just don't expect modern day shooting mechanics.

@Rattle618 said:

Please play Deus Ex.

The first Deus Ex is a really good game, but you don't necessarily need to go back to it. The story is kind of bleh, and the core mechanics haven't aged particularly well, but it still does the dynamic approach thing extremely well. I'm in the process of playing Invisible War right now and from the 90 minutes or so I've messed with so far, I can tell you that I'm only doing it for my sake and you probably shouldn't go out of your way to do so.

I think you should play Deux Ex 1 first, to get a reference of the sort of style of gameplay. Visually and control wise, Deux Ex its definitely dated but  the game had great potential and was high concept for its time. it might be easier to go from 1 to revolution? 

@ArbitraryWater said:

The first Deus Ex is a really good game, but you don't necessarily need to go back to it. The story is kind of bleh, and the core mechanics haven't aged particularly well, but it still does the dynamic approach thing extremely well. I'm in the process of playing Invisible War right now and from the 90 minutes or so I've messed with so far, I can tell you that I'm only doing it for my sake and you probably shouldn't go out of your way to do so.

Pretty much this.

I have tried to play first Deus Ex with AhmadMetallic, I've lasted for 13-14 hours and understood that this game is too old to play it to the end. Everything is clumsy, graphics are not good and game play is so dated.
 
If you want just get a feeling of the game - you certainly can, but you missed your chance to get any satisfaction from the it .

Play the first one for sure. It's one of the very best games of all time, you owe it to yourself to play it.

@ryanwhosaid:

There's a decent cosmetic overhaul mod for Deus Ex 1 that makes it look like a game from 5 years ago instead of a game from 10 years ago. But its still kind of dated mechnically. Not a super long game, though, and cheap.

Not sure my PC can handle the game with mods, lol, but how dated are we talking? Is the story not good enough to make up for it?

@DEMONOLOGY_24 said:

totalbiscuit says you should (atleast the first one)

Who is this totalbicuit, and is he credible?

Deus Ex is my personal favorite game ever. It is without any doubt one of the best games ever made. Invisible War is allright.

So that means play Deus Ex I guess.

Play it !

If you don't like it you'll at least know what we're talking about when we say it's one of the greatest ! Do it for science !

I don't think you will need to but you should give yourself the pleasure of playing the original. (Invisible War is garbage, skip it.)

If you really want to play the original before HR, then by all means do it. But for the love of god stay away from Invisible War.

Coming from a guy who replayed Deus Ex last year the first game is worth it as long as you can accept two realities.
 
1: You can look at all the hype it's fanboi's have and realize "this is fanboi hype and basically BS"
and
2: This game is ancient.  It will look bad by today's standards (even with mods) an the gameplay itself is very very old and clunky.
 
The story is still solid and holds water and you have tons of options for how to play the game.  The core concept holds true in other words.  That said if you are going to play it for any other reason than learning the backstory and gaining an appreciation of the history of the IP I suggest you don't bother.
As for Invisible War.  No do not play that game for any reason, it is completely not worth the time.

I played Deus Ex for the first time a couple months ago. It's definitely worth, but realize that the first two or three levels are going to be shit because your character's stats blow. Once you start getting some upgrades, your options open up and it's fantastic. I'm replaying the second one right now. It's dumbed down compared to the first. It's not outright terrible though.

The first Deus Ex is a favorite game of all time for many people, myself included. It's dated as hell in some respects, and still yet to be matched in others. You can find it for really cheap too, so yeah check it out.

I have tried to play first Deus Ex with AhmadMetallic, I've lasted for 13-14 hours and understood that this game is too old to play it to the end. Everything is clumsy, graphics are not good and game play is so dated.  If you want just get a feeling of the game - you certainly can, but you missed your chance to get any satisfaction from the it .

If you haven't played Deus Ex then you either are awful or under 23.

So there are actually people who call themselves gamers who HAVEN'T played Deus Ex??  LOL