We usually don’t share such news, but this is Deus Ex we’re talking about. ION Storm’s classic RPG/shooter hybrid has turned 15 years old today. Deus Ex is a classic PC game, that brought a lot of interesting things to the table. Powered by the Unreal Engine and being as unoptimized as possible, Deus Ex proved that sometimes a title’s tight gameplay mechanics, interesting level design, and captivating story are more important than its technical problems and underwhelming visuals.
After the release of Deus Ex, we all pretty much know what happened. A sequel, called Deus Ex: Invisible War, was released and did not appeal to anyone as it was dumbed down due to Xbox’s inferior hardware. The word ‘consolized’ started appearing during that time, and is now used to describe games that cannot achieve their visions due to being developed with consoles in mind.
Truth be told, the first Deus Ex was released on PS2. However, that console version was developed after the release of the PC version, and was based on it. So don’t misunderstand PC gamers dear console gamers; it’s not like they don’t want their games to appear on Microsoft’s and Sony’s consoles. No no no, far from it. It’s just that – like it or not – the inferior hardware of consoles had/has/will have an impact on the game’s mechanics, level design, AI, etc. And that’s sadly something that has been proven not once (Deus Ex) but several times (Crysis anyone?).
It took the series several years to return. After that awful sequel, EIDOS Montreal decided to show people that a proper Deus Ex game could be made. Thus, Human Revolution came to fruition. And while the game was not as deep as the first Deus Ex and had its issues, it was a “Deus Ex” game.
EIDOS Montreal’s Human Revolution met critical acclaim, and the team is currently working on Mankind Divided. And from the looks of it, this new Deus Ex game will be even better than its prequel. And that’s good news to everyone.
So happy birthday Deus Ex (do note that the final 25-minute gameplay video from Mankind Divided contains spoilers from 18:25 to 22:20)!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
Contact: Email
Probably one of my favorite games of all time! Can’t wait for deus ex revision to come out!! Though why post this article today?
Because Deus Ex came out 15 years ago on this date.
doesn’t seems so according to wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_Ex
Deus Ex wiki says otherwise: http://deusex.wikia.com/wiki/Deus_Ex
Splinter cell 3 on PC looked amazing, and this game was made also for xbox. Back in the days xbox classic has still quite good specs. Deus Ex Invisible War didnt appeal to anyone, because it was simply bad game, that’s all.
Graphics were not the issue. It was the fact that xbawks couldn’t handle the open levels characteristic of the series (hence the linearity), a big inventory (hence universal ammo) and the augmentation system (it was severily simplified in IW)
And PC could handle open levels quite well? I remeber first Deus Ex, I had TNT2 pro and perfromance was really bad, even geforce 2 didnt helped that much. Only years later I was able to play Deus Ex 1 really smooth, when custom OpenGL driver come out.
I played the original DOOM at like 3-8 fps and I loved it. I remember I had turning and firing down to an art – I needed to press the fire button like a second or two(!) before my character actually aimed at the monster. I think my computer was 25 megahertz.
But at the time that was a massive leap in PC gameplay. I can imagine that Deus Ex was a similar leap for many, and frames-per-second as a metric wasn’t really used back then. For many if you could run it AT ALL you just considered yourself lucky!
I remember that times, now if game cant run 60fps + 1080p it’s considered damaning 🙂
Maybe you should have used a Geforce 256 or better yet, a Radeon.
I had geforce 2 PRO, with DDR memory, so it was even better compared to geforce 1 (256). DeusEx requirements were quite big
Search this video on YT, and you will see how bad DeusEx run on top hardware in 2000:
“Deus Ex on a Pentium 3 @ 1000 Mhz with a Voodoo 5500”
I loved this game so much! When it came out, i played it in a net caffe over here and i was blown by the gfx and the world. IW was a let down, but still a pretty good game compare to some of the sh*t i had to play back then.
True, IW was definetly not anywhere near the first one, but it got a bit too much sh*t IMO. It was still OK.
I never played the original because I played the sequel and hated it. I really like Human Revolution, though. It had some issues but it clearly had enormous potential for the series.
It seems as though Mankind Divided will be the pinnacle of the series, 15 years in the making.
It definitely looks like it’s going to be a high quality game with tons of effort put in. Beating the original is no easy task and I’m not picturing that happening but I hope they come close.
Time is a strange thing. It’s been 22 years since Jurassic Park came out, and I still consider that a ‘modern’ movie.
There may be something to the notion of the ‘Singularity’.
http://www.kurzweilai.net/images/image002.png
http://www.kurzweilai.net/images/countdown1.png
Someone mentioned it…so I’m re-installing it 🙂
I never played these games but am thinking of getting into the series. I wanna start with Human Revolution though so I don’t now if that’s a good starting point for someone new to the series.
Hmm.. Gameplay mechanics wise human revolution would be a good place to familiarize yourself with how to customize your approach to dealing with a situation, since human revolution is not quite as in-depth as the original Deus Ex. On the other hand, going from HR to Deus Ex (1) graphically is going to be very difficult. Besides, Chronologically, HR takes place before Deus Ex.
Yep the first game is so old now, I don’t think I’ll be able to get into the game as easily as with Human Revolution.
That was my thought too, but I tell you, it’s totally worth it getting into, apart from the animations (my biggest complaint with old games), it is a wonderful and deep experience.
The 7th Guest – Game
Lmao! loved it!
Safe!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y414Q7vVgYU&list=RD6j8jMn2Kcgs&index=7
I can remember initially being reluctant to play the game because I didn’t like how JC Denton looked. A couple years after it was released I found it for 5 bucks at a swap meet and it became one of my favorite games ever.
Hey, I very much enjoyed DX2: Invisible War! Sure, it was dumbed down but it is the conclusion of the DX1 story and every bit as worthy character and story wise as DX1. Anyway, one of the best franchises ever!
Deux Ex main theme has to be the greatest game soundtrack of all time…atleast for me!
It is the greatest soundtrack of all time.
This is the greatest game of all time
Great article John… Thanks for mentioning this amazing game and you also made some very good points there.