Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition Review

  From time to time I really like to dip in some really old titles, especially ones that either spawned a genre or are considered classics.  Deus Ex: Game of the Year by Ion Storm spawned a well known and loved franchise.  It was considered innovative for its time and so I wanted to give it a try and see how it holds up.

The Game:   

  Deux Ex is a first-person shooter set in a dystopian future.  You will play as  JC Denton who is an augmented agent with a stock of abilities.  There are several augments that you will find throughout the game that you can attach, which includes things like faster movement and health restoration.  Most of these abilities can be can be improved further.  Using these abilities cost JC energy, which needs to be refilled via biocells or robots.

  You have a limited inventory which will restrict the number of weapons you can carry. Weapons can be upgraded with different augmentations.  Several weapons also have different types of ammunition you can utilize and can swap through them in the inventory screen.

  The levels are sudo-open world.  There is a lot of room to explore but you are still guided through quite a bit of it.  For its time the levels were pretty large.  NPCs you meet and those who contact JC over coms give you some hints of where to go and you can always check your mission log to see what you are supposed to be doing.  They also provided a notes section to keep track of the passwords and such you find lying around.  

My Thoughts:

  After spending what I felt was far too much time to get the aspect ratio correct so a small mouse movement didn't send my camera spinning I was able to start enjoying the game.  From the start, you can see the wrinkles on this skin of Deus Ex as it looks really old.  Even though it came out in 2000 it is a strong reminder what a few decades have done for gaming.  While old, this game carried with it it's own charm and if you remind yourself of when it came out, you can definitely see where this was novel.

  Around this time in gaming FPS shooters were some of the most popular games but the RPG aspect of the games was not something you would find in the same genre.  The ability to arm and upgrade skills add to the feeling that you are getting stronger through the game.  This can work in an opposing direction where it makes the game a little too easy when you realize that with a strong melee weapon and the ability to regenerate you can basically just run through most of the game.  You need some explosives for the big guys but those aren't too hard to come by.

  I was told the best way to play through is to go for the kill less win.  You have the ability to knock out enemies rather than kill them but this to me was a pain in the ass.  Once you tranqed a guy they still have a short amount of time to be able to shoot you and they do.  The contrast between shadow and not shadow wasn't easy to tell on my monitor and I was often caught.  It quickly became not worth playing this way.

  The graphics are, well they are pixelated old graphics.  Voice acting is not where they put their money and the story comes off a little lackluster.  The music is also ancient synth sounding but these aspects all kind of work together in a classic way.  It's like how Spaghetti Westerns can look dated and sometimes corny yet they still carry an air of aw about them.  An appreciation for the work achieved at a different time.  A Star Wars feel if you will.

  Even in today's world, the game is still pretty fun to play.  The way you need to be smart with your pathing, you need to look for items to help you further on, and the amount secret areas add to the autonomy of the game.  It also helps you gain an appreciation for several quality-of-life features now predominant in today's games.  Like a fucking auto-save.  After playing this I should make a sacrifice to the auto-save gods.

  To play this game today you really should be a fan of older games or want a nostalgia kick.  I am a fan of going back and I can stand some dated mechanic, which allowed me to enjoy the game.  I can definitely see why it is a classic but I can also see how far games have come.  It's not something I would scream to go rush out and get.  Maybe pick it up for a few bucks on sale and give it a try but remember you are playing a game that is near the bottom of the giant monolith that gaming has become.

TL;DR:

  Deus Ex has aged quite a bit and it really shows.  That being said you can definitely understand how this game was popular for its time and where it was being innovative.  If you are into classic gaming it's worth the playthrough but if not it's old style might be a little too raw to enjoy.