Deus Ex - the future of games? (Deus Ex (PC))

Member Name: The Duke

Product:	Deus Ex (PC)
Date:	14/08/00 (48 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Addictive, Atmospheric, Excellent storyline

Disadvantages: Long loading times of levels and saved games

You start the game as a rookie UNATCO (futuristic version of the UN) agent just out of training, but you are no ordinary agent. You have been enhanced with the use of augmentations. This is basically a modular technology which enables you to choose the type of upgrade you require, although the choice is permanent. You are “J. C. Denton” the second agent of this type (the first is your brother “Paul”) and you have been called to the Statue of Liberty in order to retrieve a canister of a special medicine used to cure a super disease which is sweeping across America, and soon, the world. Terrorists have stolen a shipment of this medicine, and it’s up to you to secure the canister, and bring the terrorist leader into custody for questioning. You start armed only with your pistol, one longer range weapon (of your choice – given to you by your brother) and a radio link to a contact back in UNATCO headquarters who provides you with information as you go along. All alone, it’s up to you to fight, sneak and explore your way into the statue…

As an RPG/FPS, this game has a lot to it. Each puzzle (or task) that you have to solve has multiple ways of being completed, so anything you do during the game shouldn't hinder you at a later stage. For example, you may need to access a certain room which is the key to progressing further, and the door to this room is locked. You realise that you have used up all your keys – does this mean you cannot go any further? Usually there will be multiple ways to access the room - if you have lock picks (and the skill) you can enter that way, there may be a window that you can break and climb through, if you have explosives, you can blow the door, or there may be a way in through ventilation shafts.

The game plays whatever way you want it to - if you want to shoot people, you can. If you prefer sneaking, you can. The RPG element works with this mentality, so you can stock
up all your skill points and use them to become skilled at hacking, swimming, ranged weapons, hand held weapons, medicine as well as other skills.

The game areas are very large, and you are rewarded for exploring every last nook and cranny with skill points and/or items and weaponry. The first level is an example of this - you are required to capture a terrorist leader who has taken control of the ruins of the Statue of Liberty. It's a fairly difficult mission anyway, but if you take the time to explore (and it will take time if you are avoiding the terrorist patrols) you will find more equipment and ammo, and sometimes get exploration bonuses in the form of skill points.

It is incredibly atmospheric, with lots of stuff going on outside the actual story of the game - paying attention to conversations between NPC's for example will lead you to sub-quests which in turn means rewards of skill points or items. This is also true of newspapers, books and data pads lying around the game. These provide sub-quests (as stated before) as well as passwords for computer terminals and bank ATM's.

If this type of game is your cup of tea, then I have no hesitation whatsoever in recommending this to you. On the other hand, if you don't like RPG's or FPS's, then I would suggest getting a hold of the demo and trying that first. This also applies to people who don't think their computer is up to the task.

I'm running this on a K6-2 500 / 64Mib RAM / GeForce graphics card and a 40x DVD-ROM and it works very well indeed, although a faster processor and some extra memory would mean better sound quality and better graphics quality. I've just upgraded the program with the patch which helps Direct 3D performance because this is an issue with the Unreal engine which Deus Ex uses.

Installation was a breeze, with the program auto detecting all my hardware, and adjusting the graphics and sound levels accordingly. Th
e intro movie provides the player with the atmosphere for the game, and some information that only comes into it's own once the game has started properly.

I've played it through to the end and found it to be a great game with a fantastic storyline, although for some reason, some of the endings (there are multiple endings which you can choose!) I thought were weak given what had happened in the game to that point. The things I think most impress me about the game are the small details that you overlook the first time, then when you play it again, you notice. There are some things that happen the first time you play because you are not prepared for them, but you can actually change them and it is this level of interactivity that will define this genre over the next while, although we're still waiting for a game to match the AI of Half-Life, so we may hold our breaths for a game that lets us have as much freedom as this.

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