Deus Ex
Created | Updated Apr 12, 2003
<p>"Once upon a time, there was a fair young maiden by the
name of System Shock 2.... She was not the prettiest of things
but she had an atmosphere around her that made men weep with joy...
There was also a man by the name of Soldier of Fortune... He too,
was not as pretty as many of the other people around, but he sure
as hell was much more graphic and realistic about the way he
maimed people... The two met, shared drinks, got drunk and never
remembered a damn thing... but the b*****d child born out of this
illicit liason goes by the name of Deus Ex..."</p>
<p>Deus Ex (pronounced Dayh-us Ex) is a First Person Perspective
Shooter (FPS) videogame for the PC and probably to be released on
at least one more format (most likely Dreamcast). Created by
developers Ion Storm and requiring these minimum requirements to
run:</p>
<ul>
<li>Pentium II 300 processor</li>
<li>64 megs of RAM</li>
<li>180 megabytes of drivespace</li>
<li>3D Accelerator (preferably a Voodoo chipset or OpenGL
native)</li>
</ul>
<p>Don't pay much head to the minimun specs, it will run on a P133
with 48 megs of RAM and a Voodoo3... Not very well, but it will
run... </p>
<p>Like the introduction goes someway to explaining, Deus Ex
looks very much like Soldier of Fortune, from the map design to
the NPCs (Non-Player-Characters: People who aren't you) However, unlike Soldier of Fortune, and several other FPS's, Deus Ex isn't made using the almost legendary (depending on how
geeky you are) Quake II engine. Instead, they used the newer, and more versatile Unreal engine. By doing this, the games
designers do not have to spend ages writing and entirely new
graphics engine and therefore save valuable time in making the
game better in other areas. However, Ion Storm have not coded as
graphic a damage system into Deus Ex. Rest assured, a head shot
will kill, but it won't blow the head open, leaving only a bloody
stump and bones and so forth as the victim falls to the ground.
In terms of feel however, it is much more akin to System Shock 2.
This is slightly because of the fact that in both games you play
cybernetically enhanced humans, and mostly because they operate
an almost identical inventory system... </p>
<p>Whereas Shock 2 had the several year old Thief engine, making
the game, however good, look slightly pants. Deus Ex is for the
people who never really got round to buying Shock 2 or didn't buy
it due to the rather poor graphics engine (NOTE: Graphics are NOT
everything, people). Deus Ex also nods it's hat to Shock 2 by
having a similar system of hacking computers and the like.</p>
<p>The plot of Deus Ex, is set in a Robocop-esque, day after
tommorow future, where society is almost on the verge of collapse.
This is due to a virus known as the 'Grey Death' of which the
cure, Ambrosia, is in very short supply. People who can afford
the cure are either very rich, powerful or both. This is causing
the comman man to revolt and take matters into their own hands.
You, play a member of a special branch of the Police force, who
allow themselves to be cybernetically enhanced. Only you are the
second off a new line of enhanced humans, who are
indestinguishable from the rest of society. Think about the
Replicants in Blade Runner and you are there...</p>
<p>You play in over 14 missions, where your actions can affect
the outcome of following missions... This is done by the way in
which you can complete the mission you are on... You could be a
sniper, silently taking out faceless people from half a mile away,
or you could charge in, alà Arnie, guns-a-blazing. But that is
just putting it simply, there are hundreds of ways in which you
could complete the mission... You could hack systems to make
enemy guns attack the bad guys or just disable them altogether...
The choice on how you approach the mission is entirely yours.
This kind of free thinking system is very rare in FPS and
therefore is very refreshing to see... Want to be an ultra bad
ass mo-fo? be one, want to be a ninja? be one... The game lets
you be who you want to be... </p>
<p>To help you accomplish this even further, Deus Ex also has an
upgrade system, allowing you to make yourself even better at your
chosen ability... Take aiming for example... Upgrading from
untrained to expert changes your sniping skills from not bad, to
Leon... It cancels out unwanted movement like breathing and shaky
hands, allowing you to take out targets quicker and faster than
you could if you were not skilled... </p>
<p>"Shock decided to make Half-Life a god father..."</p>
<p>Influences from the daddy of them all, Half-Life, are visible...
Superb set pieces abound in Deus Ex, although not as good... and
which one looks better is a matter of opinion... Although given
all the tweaking Ion Storm has done, and the two year gap in
technology, probably means Deus Ex nabs it...</p>
<p>Overall, Deus Ex is the biggest leap forward in the FPS genré
there has been since Half-Life blew us all away... The king is
dead? Difficult to say...</p>
name of System Shock 2.... She was not the prettiest of things
but she had an atmosphere around her that made men weep with joy...
There was also a man by the name of Soldier of Fortune... He too,
was not as pretty as many of the other people around, but he sure
as hell was much more graphic and realistic about the way he
maimed people... The two met, shared drinks, got drunk and never
remembered a damn thing... but the b*****d child born out of this
illicit liason goes by the name of Deus Ex..."</p>
<p>Deus Ex (pronounced Dayh-us Ex) is a First Person Perspective
Shooter (FPS) videogame for the PC and probably to be released on
at least one more format (most likely Dreamcast). Created by
developers Ion Storm and requiring these minimum requirements to
run:</p>
<ul>
<li>Pentium II 300 processor</li>
<li>64 megs of RAM</li>
<li>180 megabytes of drivespace</li>
<li>3D Accelerator (preferably a Voodoo chipset or OpenGL
native)</li>
</ul>
<p>Don't pay much head to the minimun specs, it will run on a P133
with 48 megs of RAM and a Voodoo3... Not very well, but it will
run... </p>
<p>Like the introduction goes someway to explaining, Deus Ex
looks very much like Soldier of Fortune, from the map design to
the NPCs (Non-Player-Characters: People who aren't you) However, unlike Soldier of Fortune, and several other FPS's, Deus Ex isn't made using the almost legendary (depending on how
geeky you are) Quake II engine. Instead, they used the newer, and more versatile Unreal engine. By doing this, the games
designers do not have to spend ages writing and entirely new
graphics engine and therefore save valuable time in making the
game better in other areas. However, Ion Storm have not coded as
graphic a damage system into Deus Ex. Rest assured, a head shot
will kill, but it won't blow the head open, leaving only a bloody
stump and bones and so forth as the victim falls to the ground.
In terms of feel however, it is much more akin to System Shock 2.
This is slightly because of the fact that in both games you play
cybernetically enhanced humans, and mostly because they operate
an almost identical inventory system... </p>
<p>Whereas Shock 2 had the several year old Thief engine, making
the game, however good, look slightly pants. Deus Ex is for the
people who never really got round to buying Shock 2 or didn't buy
it due to the rather poor graphics engine (NOTE: Graphics are NOT
everything, people). Deus Ex also nods it's hat to Shock 2 by
having a similar system of hacking computers and the like.</p>
<p>The plot of Deus Ex, is set in a Robocop-esque, day after
tommorow future, where society is almost on the verge of collapse.
This is due to a virus known as the 'Grey Death' of which the
cure, Ambrosia, is in very short supply. People who can afford
the cure are either very rich, powerful or both. This is causing
the comman man to revolt and take matters into their own hands.
You, play a member of a special branch of the Police force, who
allow themselves to be cybernetically enhanced. Only you are the
second off a new line of enhanced humans, who are
indestinguishable from the rest of society. Think about the
Replicants in Blade Runner and you are there...</p>
<p>You play in over 14 missions, where your actions can affect
the outcome of following missions... This is done by the way in
which you can complete the mission you are on... You could be a
sniper, silently taking out faceless people from half a mile away,
or you could charge in, alà Arnie, guns-a-blazing. But that is
just putting it simply, there are hundreds of ways in which you
could complete the mission... You could hack systems to make
enemy guns attack the bad guys or just disable them altogether...
The choice on how you approach the mission is entirely yours.
This kind of free thinking system is very rare in FPS and
therefore is very refreshing to see... Want to be an ultra bad
ass mo-fo? be one, want to be a ninja? be one... The game lets
you be who you want to be... </p>
<p>To help you accomplish this even further, Deus Ex also has an
upgrade system, allowing you to make yourself even better at your
chosen ability... Take aiming for example... Upgrading from
untrained to expert changes your sniping skills from not bad, to
Leon... It cancels out unwanted movement like breathing and shaky
hands, allowing you to take out targets quicker and faster than
you could if you were not skilled... </p>
<p>"Shock decided to make Half-Life a god father..."</p>
<p>Influences from the daddy of them all, Half-Life, are visible...
Superb set pieces abound in Deus Ex, although not as good... and
which one looks better is a matter of opinion... Although given
all the tweaking Ion Storm has done, and the two year gap in
technology, probably means Deus Ex nabs it...</p>
<p>Overall, Deus Ex is the biggest leap forward in the FPS genré
there has been since Half-Life blew us all away... The king is
dead? Difficult to say...</p>
