Tech ramblings by Marcin

Deus Ex - what a game!

2011-02-17 00:05

Some time ago I'd become obsessed with one game. It kept me up late, fed my imagination, sucked all my free time - so basically did what good game should. It was not a new production, quite the contrary -it's release date was year 2000. And the game itself was Deus Ex.

The year is 2050 and you wake up as a rookie named JC Denton - you are an UNATCO (United Nations Anti Terrorism CoOperation) special agent. In the beginning your orders are clear and you're there to fight the terrorists. The first mission takes place in the depths of The Statue of Liberty, and it gets better further into the game. The plot wanders, there seem to be many foreign forces entangled, and it may become clear to you, that actually you're being used as a tool - a blunt one. Gradually the plot unfolds and you become aware of the whole conspiracy theory thing. You interact with Majestic 12 and Illuminati secret organizations and become part of a global terrorist warfare.

As for a game released so many years ago, even before 11 September 2001 - and the terrorist's attacks on WTC - the game is astonishingly predictive. It envisions cyberwarfare, the rise of China's economic importance, threads of terrorism and the whole range of technological topics. Well, mainly some sci-fi visions that became reality the following years since game's release ;-)

Deus Ex has extremely well thought world. Everything is well laid out and there are no major glitches. It also offers multiple solutions to almost each puzzle - you can fight your way through, but you can try to bribe, steal, sneak and stunt. And the engine supports these actions perfectly (I've tried sneaking when playing Fallout: New Vegas but failed miserably). The myriad of solutions are for you to choose from. It would be even better if you could influence the plot in even greater, more substantial degree - but perhaps it would be too much to ask for.

Of course the game has also some weak sides. Because it's a little bit dated the graphics are not up to today's standards. The other thing is that the world seems not too densely populated - but as a matter of fact it may be because of 2000's hardware limitations.

I got the game from Deus Ex Trilogy Pack (3 games in it, just for 20 PLN). The pack contains also other parts called: Deus Ex: Invisible War and Project Snowblind. Invisible War is still an RPG, but Project Snowblind is just a regular FPS - really daunting. I've played the original Deus Ex on Linux with Wine - it worked very well and I haven't experience any problems. I've tried the same approach with Invisible War, but it seems sooooo buugy that I turned it off after just an hour. Perhaps will try to run it under Windows some other time - first to see if the bugs are gone :)

Oh, and there is also a third part coming, which will be a prequel to the first game. It will be called Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Go see some trailers and gameplays on You-tube. It seems well worth the time and money it will cost.

UPDATED: some links from comments below:

Comments

@chester - a to niezłe, wygląda super. Szkoda że dopiero teraz się o tym dowiedziałem. Przecież nie będę grał jeszcze raz tylko dla tekstur

@Zal - Of course! This is a great phenomenon. A pleasent one.

A ja dodam tyle: http://www.offtopicproductions.com/hdtp/ :)
acz nie próbowałem tego

aż chyba spróbuję :) pozdro

In my opinion first Deus Ex is much better than the next part. I can't wait for Deus Ex: Human Revolution and I hope that it won't disappoint us, Deus Ex lovers :D

Do you know that every time somebody mention Deus Ex, someone will reinstall it? ;]