Mr. Coldforged's Deus Ex Review
posted at 2:20 AM on Tuesday, July 11, 2000
introduction
| Developer: |
Publisher: |
| Ion Storm |
Eidos Interactive |
| |
| System Requirements: |
| Win 95/98, 300Mhz PII, 64M RAM, 4x CDROM, 150M disk space, DirectX 7.0a, DX7-compatible sound and graphics cards. |
| |
| Reviewed Using: |
| 500Mhz PIII, 128M RAM, 48x CDROM, Voodoo3 3000, SoundBlaster Live!, Saitek Cyborg 2000 joystick |
I've come to the conclusion that I am not a "gamer" in the classic sense of the word. I don't enjoy "games". I obsess. I find a game that I try, I play it for a while, and if it strikes a certain chord, I play that game until death. There are few games that have done this to me over the years. The first was Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. I played that game for the longest time without owning a computer. How did I pull off this feat? I spent the night at "friend's" houses who owned Apple II computers, and stayed up all night playing. Note that "friend" is not used in the classic sense either, as generally I used that term to mean "someone that owns an Apple II computer". I never owned an Apple II, yet I completed Wizardry and pounded the berobed ass of Werdna more times than I can count. Obsession. My most recent obsession has been Quake III Arena. I've skipped meals, snuck out of bed, and sacrificed wombats to get time to play a few rounds. Just kidding, Mrs. ColdForged would decapitate me if I snuck out of bed. I was certain that nothing could topple Quake III from it's position of dominance on my machine, especially since Halo is never coming out for the PC (deal with it, it won't happen). Then I went out and bought Deus Ex on a whim. It was the subject of a previous Lust Pit, and I really had been looking forward to playing it, but with my limited play budget, for my money I usually had to get some QIII in. So, Deus Ex was really almost a cry for help.
I got home, installed it, and started playing. That started it. My new obsession. Deus Ex is definitely a contender for Game of the Year in my book. Who wouldn't want a rich, textured story, intriguing role-playing elements, and enough action mixed in to make the most diehard FPS fan *raises hand* dribble? It certainly appears that Deus Ex has it all. Let's get into more detail, shall we?
story
Who's a badass? You are, Sparky. You play the role of J.C. Denton, a sharply-dressed, rakishly handsome studmuffin in a black, leather trench coat and sporting abs that could cut better than a Ginsu 2000. J.C. is a member of UNATCO, a branch of the United Nations that deals with counter-terrorism and poodle abductions. Since few people actually even tolerate those curly-furred mounds of tripe, UNATCO can usually focus solely on the counter-terrorism needs of the world. Let's see, there is a horrendous plague, an antidote that's not widely available, a group of "terrorists" that want to steal it, and all kinds of fun stuff in between (like pimps, and other loonies). I won't go into any further detail about the story, since the story is what separates Deus Ex from the rest of the gaming world. Suffice it to say that the story unfolds rather appealingly in-game, and really takes the game to new levels. I'm not one to generally lollygag around in games... I get the job done and move on. But the story in Deus Ex contains so many interesting interludes that I tend to spend too damned long exploring every inch. Luckily ION Storm realized that there were mutants like me and usually reward such excursions with some extra goodies, like skill bonuses. Thanks, Warren.
gameplay
So, what kind of game is this, anyway? That's hard to say. If you held me down and punched me in the jewels until I answered, I guess I'd have to say it's a first-person action role-playing adventure shooter. Let's take these one step at a time. Deus Ex is presented in a first-person perspective (hallelujah). This is a Good Thing, since you are generally dealing with a lot of fine aim and a lot of hiding. I've never been fond of third-person perspectives, especially for this type of game, so they get 1 point just for this alone.
Role-playing elements abound in this game, from skills to nanoaugmentations. Essentially, J.C. can use whatever he finds in the game and perform various activities (like lock-picking, swimming, computer hacking, etc.) at some level. He might not be very good at it, but he can do it somewhat. However, like any role-playing game worth its Geritol, you are graced with a certain number of skill points that you can distribute amongst the various skills that you feel are important. For instance, if you really feel that swimming is important, you can bump up your swimming skill until you careen through the water like Flipper on uppers. Similarly, you are, by default, a decent shot with a pistol. Pump up that pistol skill and you can take out people with one shot from a pea-shooter. Not really, but you get the idea. Similarly, there are "nanoaugmentations" available in the game to help J.C. be all that he can be. These items provide super-human abilities to J.C., and are found hiding in the most unbelievable places in the game world. What makes them interesting is that these nanoaugs provide one of two distinct but related abilities that you must choose between when installing them. Make your decision wisely, AssPopper, because it's irreversable. Once installed, you then have opportunities later to increase the abilities of these nanoaugs to get really wild.
Gameplay initially involves receiving orders from your superiors to go to certain places and kick some quantity of terrorist ass. This would be a good time to note that "kicking ass" may not necessarily be used in the classic sense here, either. Depending on your personality and tendencies, you could theoretically never kill anyone in the game. I say theoretically because I don't know whether this is actually feasible in practice, since I'm pretty much a psychopath in Deus Ex. Let's say that you're a shy, reclusive type. You will probably be more into the skullduggery aspect of hiding, sneaking, hacking, and picking locks mode. And you can succeed if you plan your skills and nanoaugs correctly. Me, I try to sneak around, but once I find some hapless guard standing alone, I'll take his ass out quicker than you can say crowbar. There are a multitude of ways to tackle problems thrown at you, and the appropriate solution will depend on how you've played and how you've chosen to "specialize". I tend to pick locks, hack systems, and screw with security cameras, then cap most everyone around. You might say I'm a hybrid. You might try to be a heavy-weapons dude and blow doors off hinges, have armored robots trembling at his approach, and leave trails of dripping corpses at every turn. It's all up to you, and you'll get a different gameplay experience depending on how you approach the game.
Those of you who have played Messiah might remember that this is what Shiny Entertainment tried to do by allowing you to possess different people and thereby approach the game differently. Where Messiah tried, Deus Ex does. What makes Deus Ex different in this regard? I would have to say that aside from the obvious differences in possession compared with skill selection, the primary difference is a more open game world. Messiah tried to provide a vast gameworld, but I still felt that I was "on rails" more or less, with a well-defined and specific path that must be traversed. With Deus Ex there truly is the suggestion of an open and realistic game world. We're not talking about square miles of space here, but at least you don't feel like a hamster in a maze. Explore the environments and you're likely to find different ways to solve a problem or get to places that appeared impenetrable. Therefore, you truly have choices in approach.
graphics
Deus Ex is based on the Unreal engine. As such, it is perhaps a touch dated (my, how cynical we have become... 3 years ago people would have simply exploded from the visuals in this game) but still plenty attractive enough to be immersive. A lot of the environments are visually rich. As I said in my Deus Ex Lust Pit, the depiction of a run-down Liberty Island is damned near spot-on. Due to the size and scope of some environments (like the aforementioned Island), there is some framerate chugging in places. But it doesn't matter as much for this type of game as it would for a standard FPS.
Plenty of the locales in the game have a rundown appearance, typical of the future-dark storyline genre. Every environment is convincing and effective, from the subways in New York to the hangers in Area 51 (oh yeah, you go there too). There's considerable darkness inherent in many of the levels... enough to please fans of The X-Files and irritate those who attempt to play in well-lit rooms. I resorted to exclusive night playing to facilitate actually seeing what the hell is going on around me. Sure, J.C. has an augmentation that makes his tits emit light (well, where else would it come from?) but it's hard to be stealthy with a 40,000 candlepower set of knockers.
All of the models are very well done, and the movement is convincing enough. Textures are detailed and sometimes vibrant, and there's plenty of skanky, barely covered woman-flesh to keep dirty ole me satisfied.
controls
Controls are about what you would expect from an FPS. An interesting addition is the ability to lean around corners to see what's going on. I know they're not the first, but I was pleased at the inclusion. Anyone who has played System Shock will recognize the inventory system, and it's effective. You have a certain amount of inventory "cells" that you can fill. Some things, like sniper rifles or flamethrowers, take up more than one cell and have specific cell shape requirements (like an open row of 4 consecutive cells). One quibble with the inventory system that I have is that there's no way to tell how many cells and what cell orientation an item requires. This can be a problem if you've just rendered unconscious a flamethrower toting thug. If you don't have enough room for the flamethrower you can't pick it up. This might not be a big deal, but if you want to pick up the thug's body you can't until you pick up what he carries. So, if this particular thug is lying in a well-traveled path that you'd rather not have him lie on, you're screwed if you don't have space. Then comes a rather tedious reshuffling to make space, including dropping things and rearranging them. But then you don't even know what shape the thing is. So you have to rearrange some more until you happen on the right shape of free cells. I understand the reason for the mechanism, but I think it was an oversight to force you to pick up the weapon before you can pick up the body. Cuts out an interesting game mechanism of planning where to stash the body.
The interface to your health, skills, notes, conversations, goals, and images is very well done. Basically this provides a windowed environment that is apparently presented right in your eyeballs through another augmentation. Everything anyone says to you is carefully recorded so no salient detail can be forgotten when you need it later.
sounds
The sound is very well done in Deus Ex. Obviously sound plays an exceedingly important role when trying to sneak around a place successfully. While some sounds do not make a whole lot of logical sense (I've never heard grass that crunches as much as the Deus Ex grass... perhaps they have a beetle infestation problem planet-wide), most sounds are appropriate and well-executed. The in-game music is non-obtrusive. I'm rarely impressed by in-game music, and this is generally no exception. I prefer to hear the in-game sounds more than some soundtrack. But, if you're the kind that had to have music 24-7, then at least it's not bad music here.
The voice acting is decent. Remember the StarLancer review? I'm a picky bastard.
conclusion
I really only have a few niggles with this game. The inventory system has a chink in the armor, and some of the skills feel decidedly non-interactive. For instance, when you become a computer hacker, the primary addition is a new display that appears when attempting to log in to a system that has a button to allow you to hack it. No, I don't expect that you should be able to insert manually written backdoors into systems and run password-guessing programs or anything like that. Hell, I don't know how you'd do it differently... I'm not a designer. But a bit more interactivity would have felt more immersive to me. That's it. That's the worst I could come up with. Deus Ex provides a wealth of gaming lubrication that's hard to resist. I'm certainly glad I ponied up the green for it. I firmly believe that you will be too.
visuals: 4.5/5
Pretty damned good for the genre.
sound: 4.5/5
It's got a nice beat, and I can quilt to it.
gameplay: 5/5
Couldn't be better unless they provided Denise Richards for post-game rubdowns.
value: 5/5
There's more replay value here than you can shake a cattle prod at.
theVerdict: 5/5
This is the game to have. Run, don't walk, to the store and pick it up. |
