Late to the Party: Deus Ex (is it worth playing today if you've never played it?)

for nearly 20 years I heard the legend of the original Deus Ex they used X Deus Ex date whatever how it was a certified classic a pioneer in video game storytelling and one of the greatest games of all time but 19 years of hype isn't the same thing as a good game so I want to know if Deus Ex is a good game or was just good at the time booting up Deus Ex was like jumping into a time machine and traveling to a point in history where text didn't scale with screen resolution and default controls were a twinkle in some developers seriously not only was WASD and left-click literally the only buttons that did what I expected the default controls had me using everything from caps lock to semicolon for functions I'd need in a pinch so after rebinding the keys and getting it to a playable state I was stoked to start for years I've heard how deus ex is full of mind-bending cybernetic augmentations pulse-pounding action tense infiltration set-pieces branching pathways and a story that rivaled movies at the time and if you've ever played deus ex without nostalgia vision switched on you are feeling that cold dread crawl across your skin over knowing what's coming because that's that really deus ex the majority of deus ex is gameplay is slow-paced exploration and stealth neither is bad but the stories I heard about it never mentioned those being the crux of the gameplay but to its credit Deus Ex handles some of those stealth mechanics well if you're willing to explore every corner of each level the game will reward you with bonus xp extra items and possibly reveal an alternative path and if you're patient during missions and study every room you can learn where cameras are and the guards pathing allowing you to bypass or disable both with proper timing if you're willing to spend the resources like bullets and multi-tools I don't hate stealth games but I strongly dislike when games rely on making you wait rather than using a proactive method of avoiding detection oh but what's this I start with a gun I don't have to be fully stealthy I can sneak around a bit and blast my way into and out of horrible situations then I tried using a gun the crosshairs takes so long to steady an NPC could walk out of range before I can reliably aim items and leveling your skills with guns can fix that both require limited resources and neither we're there to help in the early missions so I cheated I use cheat codes to get loads of skill points to make guns usable along with the modest Doomsday Preppers worth of ammo when playing Deus Ex like a stealth game I didn't really notice how awkward combat was due to how rarely it occurred when I was being stealthy I always chalked it up to me being startled because enemies caught me off guard but it wasn't that pistols shotguns sniper rifles even melee weapons all hit with the same underwhelming feeling of net combat doesn't feel rewarding and the enemy AI is also incredibly basic either chasing you with supernatural precision or running around in small circles when wounded every other aspect of the gameplay was just as underwhelming hacking and lock-picking simply make you wait for numbers to go down augmentations mostly just make things you already do easier even ones like summoning a drone didn't make the game any more fun the levels are large and conspicuously empty meaning you spend loads of time trotting along without anything happening being able to explore an entire city block with multiple explorable buildings in the year 2000 was probably an amazing spectacle but when the spectacle is no longer impressive only the substance they put into those levels matter I tried to love it I kept thinking about how interesting this story was and it is and if I could just keep playing I'd break through some wall and start enjoying it then while playing it on the TV my partner said something that challenged me on a fundamental level about this game she said are you playing blocky spy game again that games boring I opened my mouth to defend Deus Ex but I knew in my heart she was right I've been bored for hours nothing this game had to offer could make it fun for me so I quit so on a scale of milk to wine how did deus ex age the vanilla released aged like a milkshake in a hot car but that's actually because of an issue I haven't mentioned yet when I booted up the steam version it was so dark I literally couldn't play it after doing some research I managed to find a mod and fiddle with it enough to get the game into a playable state once I got it working the game aged more like leftovers from your favorite restaurant that's starting to grow mold on one side if you like what it is you know most of its still good so you should definitely understand why your friends would turn it down so I really hate giving such a celebrated game a review like that and not just because I'll get angry tweets because I disliked it I chose Deus Ex because I was sure I'd loved it and I wanted to kick off this series with a positive review not even my love for sunglasses long coats and cyberpunk could get me through it oh well maybe that one game with the cerebral bore live up to the hype

Channel: Jesse Galena

Views: 1,242

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Id: JjQ-AZ6UPU0

Length: 5min 21sec (321 seconds)

Published: Fri May 01 2020