Deus Ex

Deus Ex is foremost a unique game in its field. It is really quite unlike any other game I have ever played. It shares territory with titles such as Half-Life and Tomb Raider, but also takes inspiration from some role-playing games as well. It seems to have carved out or invented its personal little niche in the game market, by mixing two normally contrasting game essentials. It manages to successfully combine puzzle, shooting and RPG elements to create a really exceptional atmosphere. While it may have several middling faults which will occasionally make you cringe, it is mostly an extremely fun and thought-provoking game, inspired by both modern conspiracy theories and philosophy.

The storyline is based in the near future, and revolves around nano-augmented (basically this just means technologically enhanced) Agent J. C. Denton, who works for the United Nations Anti-Terrorist Coalition (UNATCO), based out of Liberty Island, New York. As is normal, the world of the future is not a safe place to be, and UNATCO must protect the citizens of the Earth from various terrorist plots and evil denizens. Primarily in the first mission of the game, you must regain control of the Statue of Liberty and Liberty Island, which has been seized by an organisation known as the NSF (National Secessionist Forces). The plot is far to complex to go into detail, and it would also spoil the game, but save to say that the basic premise is that Denton must work to solve problems relating to deadly viruses (which has the lovely sounding name Grey Death), corrupt governments and world domination attempts. The plot is really the best aspect of Deus Ex, as without it, it would not have anywhere near the same novelty value. The game is also extremely long, taking often upwards of twenty hours to complete, and if you were to go hunting for all the many hidden locations, objects and side-quests it will take much longer. Luckily, there are only a few dull moments during this, as you will be visiting New York, Hong Kong and Paris on the globe-hopping crusade. It can however become slightly annoying when you must retrace your steps several times in order to return to previous locations in each city. During this epic journey Denton talks to literally dozens and dozens of other characters, all of whom have a great array of responses, and can be conversed with many times. However, this leads me to probably one of the largest faults of Deus Ex: the character voices.

Although every character talks a great deal, and the scripts themselves are very good and involving, the voice acting is frankly rather below standard. Absolutely no characters (with the possible exception of arch villain Bob Page) seem to have any genuine emotions in their voices at all, and instead inhabit a world where emotions have seemingly been destroyed, or at least mainly forgotten about. Denton and his brother Paul both speak like they have walked out of the Terminator films as reincarnations of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Even when people are hurt, they shout or scream only in a vaguely half-hearted manner. Listening to all of these emotionless and mainly blunt conversations can sometimes get a bit tiresome; although you will often be too engrossed in the subjects they are discussing to notice this. On top of this, the mainly musical score is also rather dull, and mostly sounds very similar and unremarkable (though it will inevitably slowly grow on you anyway), apart from the classic main title theme. However, general sound effects and ambient sounds are quite good.

Thankfully, gameplay itself is consistently solid throughout. It is theoretically possible to get through the entire game without killing anyone (save from one or two characters who must be incapacitated), as you are given a wide range of both lethal and non-lethal weapons with which to take on enemies. However this can get extremely difficult (as you will be frequently running out of non-lethal ammunition) and furthermore, you are given no incentive to do so (apart from the honour). It is much easier (and often all the more fun) to go in with all guns blazing, although this may not always be the best way to handle a given situation. Shooting and targeting is relatively easy, although it can be tricky earlier in the game when skill levels are lower. Furthermore, you cannot reload manually and must instead wait until you finish the entire clip before automatically reloading. Graphically, the game isn't much to look at today, but that just gives it the much sought after "classic" feel.

A nice touch is to give Denton the various abilities to learn skills such as lock-picking, hacking computers, swimming and making aiming easier, through the reward of skill points, which are earned by achieving certain goals or fully exploring the different maps. This can make your own version of Denton able to complete certain tasks much easier. At first, this system seems overcomplicated, and to be frank it often is leading to an RPG-ish feel, and could have probably been implemented more simply, though the scheme is easily workable. The gameplay also has several nice problem-solving virtues, and situations can be resolved through a number of ways. The game makes use of a detailed inventory menu, from which you can see objects picked up, check health and review known information and objectives. Also, you handling of situations will influence other characters views and opinions of you, subtly changing the storyline. Due to this, it is very unlikely you will ever replay exactly the same story.

Deus Ex is simply different from anything else, and stands out from the crowd on its own plinth. It is a welcome change from the more stereotypical action-adventure, and blends many different elements almost seamlessly together. Although it does have some minor faults, I still highly recommend it to anyone, as everyone should be able to overlook the mediocre voice acting and still thoroughly enjoy this game, in all its "cyberpunk" glory. In retrospect, Deus Ex has to be looked upon as a worthy contender in any "Greatest Games" list. Its true value lies in the morality, philosophy and conspiracy themes the story focuses upon, which help to stimulate both the mind and psyche.