As a young gamer who is losing hope for this money-demanding industry, I tend to take sneak peeks at the wondrous games of the past. The ones that took gamers' hearts, and changed game design perceptions forever. When PC gamers experienced their System Shocks and Starcrafts, I played on my N64, experiencing other classics that, too, changed me. Then, after years of translation, I would soon experience more than one platform, thus being the owner of both a PC and a console.
I have not experienced the games that many adult gamers today consider to be masterpieces. I await my chances to delve into the luscious juices of the unplayable classics, leading to deniable pirating and fair STEAM buys. One of the games following two of those those game-obtaining tactics is Deus Ex.
Deus Ex (Game of the Year Edition, that is) takes place in a cold-hearted cyberpunk world that's in an unbearably catastrophic economic depression. The US is under siege by a terrorist group known as the NSF, and civilians are doomed by these bastardy, dastardly devils. To make things even worse, a hurting diseases is contaminating the far reaches of the world, and the cure is held captive by the NSF. It's up to a UN-crafted force, UNATCO, to defeat these evildoers and save the God Blessed USA and end this horrendous disease!
As upbeat that story summary may have sounded, the actual game is far from such a tone; Deus Ex is a depressingly sad game full of seriously exposed conspiracy theories, street whores, political refuge, and human augmentation. It feels like a message-filled piece of art than an actual game at times, thus causing probable censures from many players. Conspiracies can be disbelieving, but heed not; Deus Ex takes it to the level to where you want to believe the conspiracies. It's well done, and very interesting. Many of the things shown and expressed in the game can be true, as the small hints demonstrated can be realized both today and maybe tomorrow: the lack of Twin Towers in New York, the economic depression, augmentations, population decreasing diseases, and ect.
The presentation, even today, holds up well. The graphics may seem dated by today's standards, but they still carry their charm with solid voice syncing, great character design, and inspiring sound. The voice acting is top notch with Jay Frank doing the voice as the bad-ass sounding JC Denton. The supporting actors and actresses can be pretty bad, or even cheesy, but they all add some heart to the game and get straight to the point without being melodramatic. The main attraction is the soundtrack, however. It's cyberpunk trance at its finest, and it does a phenomenal job at toning its world. You will throb your head at the beats, and will want to forcefully ruin your stealth spree just to hear the action segments of the area's looped song. It never gets mind-numbingly derivative, and you will remember every song for a long while. Maybe even forever.
One of the things that this game does that no other can do, and why Deus Ex is considerably amazing by the special individuals that have witnessed it, is the open gameplay. Depending on your stats, you will have the ability to reach your objective in any possible way, could it be stealth, hacking, info snooping, persuasion, or good ol' belligerency. Depending on your activities in each mission, the story will change dynamically and you will be rated by what you have done throughout, like being merciful or not, completing secondary objectives, or random gray-scaled choices that alter the story completely. You will gain experience by finding new locations, secondary paths, and completing objectives. You will use this experiences to build up particular skills for your character.
I've built JC Denton to be good at small, single-handed weaponry (pistols and throwing knives) and hacking devices. There's no way to build up your skills in stealth, for that is entirely up to you. If you want to play the game as a shooter, build up your explosives and weaponry skills, and ignore the rest. The design of the levels you are placed in are simply ambitious by design, but there's not one area where I thought may have seemed taxing to the developers; it's as if Ion Storm knew what they were doing as they developed this game. It's quite shocking, and you will enjoy every minute of it. This isn't your typical, linear shooter -- this is something you probably have never experienced before. Ever.
Deus Ex is an amazing game. I have not even beaten it yet, and I can tell you it goes beyond the level of games today. Why game developers have not copied Deus Ex's innovative design schemes is beyond me... And that's where the third game, Human Revolution, comes into play.
Before Screwattack's leaked footage of the game dropped by the ignorant developers that are too scared to show off gameplay, I've seen it all. I can safely say that Human Revolution, while following the design schemes of the original, will be a trash game full of overlong animations, recharging health, Rainbow Six Vegas cover system, and no RPG elements. All of it will be streamlined enough to where it loses the uniqueness of the original, and bellows in the confines of mediocrity. What's the point of open-ended design if the main mechanics that support it are fucking horrible?
The yellow/black art style may have seemed promising in the CGI trailers, but they do not intertwine very well in-game. It looks almost like MGS4 with the colorless post-processing effects and the shitload of wrinklies on people's faces. They were aiming for a Japanese inspired Ghost in the Shell theme, but it ends up as unoriginal and pointlessly dissimilar to the original game. The only great asset I can really point out is the trance music, which is kept intact from the predecessors and, of course, sounds really cool. It's just too bad that the music doesn't match very well with the universe that's presented.
I know there hasn't been many out there that seen the gameplay demonstration at E3, but coming from a guy who has actually witnessed it and hasn't even beaten Deus Ex yet, Human Revolution is going to be bad. Consider this a foreshadowing of the gameplay yet to come at some following point. This is not going to be a good game. If you're going to make something as good as Deus Ex, expect Ion Storm to do it.
Log in to comment