So here it is, the greatest PC game of all time. Apparently. At one point, at least. Deus Ex, the first-person action RPG about conspiracies and cover-ups and augmented human-cyborg hybrid things who never had a choice. Only here, you do have a choice. Many choices.
Deus Ex is a sandbox of possibilities, enticing players to control JC Denton in any way they see fit: a sneaky, stealthy operative; a guns-blazing killing machine; a hacker avoiding everyone at all costs. They're all possible to various degrees, but which will we find the success with?
Fun Times
A sinister introduction to this dark world of the near future teaches us that a plague is sweeping across the planet, and the cure is available only to those who wield either power or money. To me, it reads as though we have unleashed this problem upon the world, and are right bastards for withholding the cure, but I'm not so sure.
What I do know is that we're heading to the Statue of Liberty to deal with some terrorists.
Frustrations
Holy shit is this game dark. You can just about make out the Statue of Liberty in the background. Her head isn't attached to her neck anymore, owing to a previous terrorist incident, and whoever is involved in this latest emergency is hold up in her innards.
The game uses an interface like System Shock 2, with lots of highlights helping you determine what is interactive and what isn't. Garbage probably doesn't have much use, though, but you can chuck it around if that's what you want to do. I don't. I want to find Paul and see what he has to say.
Further Fun Times
Paul gives some hints as to how we can approach the environment and outright giving us the choice of a sniper rifle, a heavy weapon or a crossbow goes even further than our choice of skills before we started playing would take us in terms of what type of character we'd be playing.
With hacking skills leading me down a non-violent route, I went with the GEP gun for the 'shit has hit the fan, abort, abort' contingency plan. I don't want to come up against a security bot, armed to the teeth with lord knows what, without a plan to deal with it in some way, do I?
The environment is littered with tools and supplies to help you on your way. A crowbar conveniently placed next to some wooden crates is not only a homage to Half-Life but a handy tool that'll give us more tools in future. A lockpick will pick mechanical locks, and your skill level will determine how successful it is, or how fast you are at picking the lock.
But it might not be needed at all. We might never come across a locked door. We might only see electronic locks, requiring keycodes to get in. We might blow a hole in a wall to make a second door. The approaches to problems are solved with your head thinking about the problem in the real world, rather than thinking about what game mechanics can be used to get this thing to do that.
Case in point, heavy metal crates can't be smashed but can be moved. They're small enough to jump onto. They can be stacked next to big crates that can't be jumped on. Suddenly, you can reach that gas grenade that alludes you.
Don't know what I'll use that for.
Your inventory is jam-packed with stuff, with nine items available on a hotbar for you to cycle through or quick select. Guns, items, health packs... you name it, you can make use of it, and I'm sure you'll find your favourites, or else quickly learn what is and isn't useful.
It's a right-click to interact, left-click to attack kind of game, and all these highlighted boxes and coloured targetting reticles will point you in the right direction for how to use them.
Further Frustrations
Look at this screenshot. Now, there is a spotlight function where you can flip on a little torch to help you see. If it wasn't utterly useless I'd have it on more often, but as this is a sneaking mission, I want to be hidden in the darkness.
This is perhaps too much darkness, though. It's absurdly black. My brightness settings are on the defaults, and this is ridiculous. There's an enemy in this screenshot. Good luck finding him.
Here and there, they mumble to themselves and others, revealing extra detail about the situation. I'd imagine they spill the beans about passwords or where items can be found, but even if they didn't, making these generic terrorists a little more human is a good thing, in terms of worldbuilding. They're all faceless in terms of their models, but they're human on the inside, which is why I've snuck around the back, climbed up a load of crates and insist on thwacking thugs around the back of the head.
It's a little easier to see in motion, trust me.
At the top, I'm treated to some defensive gas grenades stuck to the wall. Getting too close sets them off, which allows you to see the level, but, you know, isn't good. The terrorists are very temporarily alerted (on easy mode, at least) and you can snatch them off the walls before you set them off, if you're quick and accurate enough.
Having heard enough chatter, I descended into the inside of the Statue, frankly not knowing what I was doing any more. I assumed plot would happen at some point and make itself obvious.
Instead, it was I who made myself obvious to a security camera. Linked to a gun turret. Game over.
Highly augmented anti-terrorist JC Denton still succumbs to bullets, it seems. If only I knew...
Deus Ex is a highly regarded game, and if you own the PC version, you can also play the Deus Ex Revision mod, which is a project that spruces up the game quite a bit. Graphics, controls, even level layouts have been tweaked in order to provide a better experience, so I fired it up and had another look - maybe, like Half-Life and Black Mesa, I'd find a way to play that was more suited to what I liked.
Why is it still so bloody dark?!
The changes to the first level are immediately apparent, with a little toolshed-like hut containing the crowbar and crates, instead of them just being dumped on the docks. While I chose the same skills for Denton, my approach would be different. Instead of heading to the right, I'd go to the left. I'd still be quiet, but I'd be lethal instead. Guns were not off the table this time around.
Or dirty great big combat knives. They'll do too.
There was an entire helipad section I didn't know about on this side of the map, with a guard who will sell me supplies, as well as give me the code for a container nearby. Behind this mystery door was a computer controller, where you can turn cameras on and off, and open doors that were previously locked at so on. Here was another way you could get the job done, provided you have the information to log on or the skill to break in.
Cameras off, it was back to the mission, combat knife at the ready.
Alright, pistol at the ready.
Alright, restart the game at the ready.
Final Word
I am actually getting sick or dizzy or something, squinting at my screenshots, desperately trying to remember what I captured because I can't see a bloody thing. It's absolutely absurd how dark this introductory level is. I get that it is taking place in the dead of night, but that's no excuse for what's on show here. The remake just makes the darkness look better, not brighter, so it's no help either.
I've seen enough Deus Ex to know that - thankfully - this isn't the entire story of the game. Brighter environments are ahead if I can just push through this one, but I'm struggling. The controls aren't bad - once crouch is turned into a toggle - but there's a lot to juggle, and if you're caught in a situation where you need a particular weapon or item right now, switching over to it and actually equipping it before the situation changes can be a nightmare.
So that's where actually thinking about your approach comes into play, and that's where Deus Ex shines. It really does give you a fair bit of freedom in your playstyle. Previous games that have allowed you to do so have really required you to follow a certain path quite closely in order to actually make progress, but Deus Ex is more forgiving, so I read.
And reading, or watching, of course, is probably how I'm going to find out about Deus Ex. I do want to see what the plot is and how it develops, but I can't do that while juggling my inventory and faffing about with crate stacking and then getting instantly killed by a mere grunt, all on easy difficulty - which is even described as the tourist mode, for Gods' sake...
The annoying thing about it is that it doesn't strike me as a difficult game. Obviously, it's the first mission, it shouldn't be too hard, but with the number of options given to you, and the ability for you to tackle problems in your own logical way, Deus Ex should be a nice semi-open world game to really get stuck into.
Maybe, at some point in the future, I'll try again. I'm probably more likely to play the more modern Deus Ex instead. It's just who I am, I guess.
No matter who you are, though, try out the original Deus Ex. It really does seem worthy of the accolades. Ambitious, approachable, darker than the inside of your eyelids... what more could you ask for?
Fun Facts
Warren Spector wanted a game that wasn't science fiction or fantasy. With ideas of a present-day setting starting to form, his wife's love of The X-Files finally set him on the path towards Deus Ex, via Area 51, government-funded drug trafficking, assassinations conspiracies and more.
Deus Ex, developed by Ion Storm, first released in 2000.
Version played: Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition, PC, 2001
Deus Ex Revision, PC, 2015