Published by Edios Interactive
Reviewed by iceVic
on 7/13/00
Article
Discussion Forum
First
Impressions:
Ever
since the demise of our beloved Looking Glass Studios, fans of the
stealthy FPS games such as the Thief series and the System Shock
type RPG/FPS hybrids speculated about the death of their favorite
type of game, where stealth and strategy weighed more than sheer
firepower. Fear no more, dear brothers and sisters! A brave new
game has emerged with promise to let you relive the finest moments
found in games such as Thief and System Shock. Ladies and Gentlemen,
I introduce Deus Ex!
Deus Ex is one unique game. After the character setup screen, you
see yourself as JC Denton, one of the first two nano-augmented United
Nations special agents in the near future. Think of your body as
a huge plug and play platform that accepts new special-ability-upgrades
contained in various goofy looking canisters. Note: your system
is also very stable too, must have been patched multiple times after
release… Fresh out of academy in the wake of increased terrorist
activity, you learn that many high-ups in the government are watching
you closely, as you are a multi-billion dollar prototype. After
being briefed on your first mission on Liberty Island, NY, you are
soon thrust into the world of betrayal, conspiracies, buck loads
of daring escapes, intense action and a very well crafted storyline.
It is too bad that only the male model is available, it would be
interesting to use one of the female special MIB agents within the
game.
The RPG elements are heavily presented in this game, like they are
in System Shock 2. There are about a dozen skills ranging from three
types of firearms handling, swimming, lock picking, melee combat,
electronic interfacing, computer hacking, healing and such. Each
of the skills has four levels of advancement from untrained to master.
For example, a master in swimming can stay underwater like a fish;
a master in electronics can open a Federal Reserve Bank's massive
vault door with only one set of interference tools (whereas an untrained
agent has to use truck loads of them). The level of master has the
most significance in the area of weapons. Point a ranged weapon
to a target and your crosshair will zoom in, representing the increasing
chance you are going to hit with the weapon you are using. The more
focused the crosshair is, the more accurate your shots are going
to be. Another unique element of Deus Ex is that you cannot storm
into a room and shoot whoever is in sight because you will not hit
anything unless you are a master at the weapon you are using. That
means taking your time to aim is very important. You must survey
the area first, aim and then tackle your foes in the most efficient
way possible. Skill points are awarded through progress, completing
goals, finding secret areas and for getting extra information.
Aside from increasing your skills, you can also modify your body
by using dozens of canisters within the game. Each of these canisters
contains blueprints of two special abilities, such as having the
strength to lift a truck or a vision upgrade to see through concrete
walls. As with the skills, there are four levels of advancement
for each of the augmentations. For example, level one of "bionic
eye" only gives you night vision; level two gives night and infrared
vision; "pulse sonic sensing" is available in level four. Upgrade
supplies are limited, and you can only pick one of the two abilities
in each canister, so choose wisely.
Graphics:
Deus
Ex is powered by the Unreal engine, and it is really good to look
at. The problem with any Unreal engine powered game is that the
none-3dfx graphic card users will have some significant performance
problems in the game. Edios Interactive has confirmed that the
patch is now in the works, but the release date is still unknown
at present (7/7/00). I especially like the textures within the
game, as they are more detailed and alive than the Quake II engine.
On the other hand, I have to comment on our hero - JC Denton's
movement. It is rather stiff. I like the Half-Life Marine's animation
more than JC's. If you want proof, try to steer JC in front of
a mirror and jump. He jumps like a tree trunk. But that is only
a small gripe on the graphics/animation.
Sound/Music:
Deus
Ex's sound FX is awesome. Deep into an enemy installation, the
only clue about the enemy presence will be the noise they make.
Quickly you learn to identify the "whirr" sound of the surveillance
camera, the metallic sound of the "bots" and various footsteps
that give away the foot soldiers' locations. With hardware sound
enabled, you are able to tell from which direction the guard is
coming, how many friends have tagged along and how far they are
from you. Deus Ex's music scores are done by the same people who
brought us the awesome music from Crusader: No Regret/ Crusader:
No Remorse, Unreal, and Unreal Tournament. The techno and location
specific music is very appropriate. The Euro-themed music in Paris,
the Asian-themed soundtrack in Hong Kong and the action music
are all done superbly well.
Little gripe: The various accents in the game are done poorly,
contrasted by the generally great voice acting. I am from Hong
Kong; my mother has been to France a number of times, and we are
quite sure that most of the accents are a bit too artificial -
like they were done by native English speakers who are trying
to mimic the accents.
Gameplay:
Excellent!
The plot line is great! Finally, the AI is almost as smart as
those pesky guards in Thief. If you shoot a guard, you will alert
all enemies in his immediate vicinity unless you are using melee
weaponry (using clubs to knockout) or zap them with a zapper (even
sound-suppressed weapons can still be heard if fired at close
range). Also, most of the enemies can finish you off in quick
order if engaged in one-on-one combat. So stealth is the key -
zap someone unconscious and hide his body somewhere. A body lying
around is the fastest way to have someone sound the alarm. In
many missions, you will have to memorize enemy patrol routes or
finish off the enemy one by one in timed fashion.
There are also some problems with the AI. Sometimes the guards
are too vigilant and sensitive. If you snipe one guard from a
mile away, the guard will know your exact position and will start
running toward you. Shortly, the guard will find out that you
are not in the vicinity and will return back to post. However,
one flaw is that concrete walls seem to be as "sound proof" as
a sheet of paper. For example, if you are walking in a concrete
building a guard outside might yell: "Stop there, whoever you
are." The problem is that while the guard and you are separated
by at least two feet of concrete block, the guard can still hear
you. In the earlier mission this is ok since the area is wide
open and full of neutral NPCs, but in later missions I don't want
to crouch all the time to avoid making noise, only to be heard
by a guard on the other side of the concrete wall. Other than
that, the AI is great and smart.
On the storyline, the conspiracy theory is interesting and will
get you hooked quite easily. You will have to travel around the
globe, which is quite fun. I especially like the New York, Hong
Kong and Vandenberg AFB missions, as they are very open, filled
with NPCs to interact with and can be accomplished in various
ways. The only let down relates to the villain. He is way too
egomaniacal and that gets old really fast. I actually consider
his henchman a more sinister fellow and a better villain.
Talking about NPCs, I have to say that Deus Ex has done a great
job with the NPC interactions. If you play aggressively, the pacifist
NPCs will be disappointed and refuse to aid you in the future.
If you play as a pacifist and take down the entire army of terrorists
with an electric prod or with a rubber black jack, the gun slingers
will get annoyed and will say something unpleasant to you. On
the other hand, this time around the pacifist NPCs might just
offer some valuable items to you as a gesture of good will. During
conversations, which use automated third-person camera angles,
you can pick appropriate responses.
There are also many side quests. Most of them are very interesting
and involve moral decisions: would you kill a prisoner under direct
order or follow your heart as a peacekeeper? Would you answer
a man's plea to end his life by turning off his life support system
or leave the man to his torment? These issues are irrelevant for
completing the game, but they can add more background stories
and pull you deeper into the world of Deus Ex.
When working to accomplish your goals in the game, there will
be always more than one way. For example, if you have to break
into a military controlled complex, there might be several guards
and a big bad robot on patrol around the main entrance. There
might also be a back entrance, also guarded by cameras. There
is usually also a hidden entrance that is intricately locked.
If you are a gung-ho type, you can go in from the front, turn
the robot against its friends and then eliminate the weakened
robot. Or if you are a hacker, you can hack the security terminal
to turn off the camera at the back entrance then gain access through
there. Or if you are a clever locksmith, you can pick the locks
on the hidden entrance. Of course these are just examples, as
the puzzle solutions in Deus Ex are sometimes well hidden and
will require some smart searching and common sense. The point
is, that there is always more than one way to accomplish any goal.
Enjoyment:
I
like Deus Ex very much because of one of the best villains (WS),
interesting characters and complex plot lines. I especially enjoyed
the freedom to explore the entire level and the multiple ways
to accomplish any goal. The RPG system is very interesting and
the stealthy play added much more tension. On the down side, the
game has some really nasty bugs that cause major problems with
nvidia-based card users. My 500Mhz TNT2 locked on the start of
the second mission, but thanks to the people on the Deus Ex forum,
I tuned down the detail and bypassed the problem. Other than that,
the game is a smooth ride. I heard that the 3dfx users were having
a blast with the speed increase over the TNT or Geforce users.
Little RPG gripe: too bad they didn't include the female agent
as a playable model (trust me, the female Men In Black model in
the game looks VERY cool, deadly and menacing.) I know it is hard
and expensive to have another voice talent to do the voice script
again, but it would be AWESOME if they did. I believe some people
can do a mod sometime in the future and include this feature.
Multiplayer:
NA
Overall
Impression:
If
you think you are interested in this game, try the demo first.
It is exactly the same as the first level from the full game and
will let you know how it is going to run on your system. If you
are having problems, visit the tweak guide here.
Also, if you want to discuss the game, check out the great forum
at www.ttlg.com.
There is also an official forum at the ION
Storm UBB, but it has really high traffic and sometimes it
is harder to find help (you have to constantly "bump" your topic
to the top of the page so others can see J).
Marketing
Efforts Towards Women:
It
is decent. Even though there are some females in the game who
wear very revealing outfits, it seems appropriate since they mostly
appear in nightclubs. I believe this is the first FPS that included
females in business suits and deadly female MIB agents. Interestingly,
there are also some not so skinny female models (which I have
not seen in any other games), which adds to the realism in the
game. It is a shame that they did not include the female agent
model as a character you can play. That would have made the game
more gender-neutral.
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