Zappian Plays Old Games Episode 1| DEUS EX:

[zappian]

Zappian Plays Old Games Episode 1:

 

 Disfranchised with modern games our “hero” zappian goes to gog and seeks out the most amazing revolutionary pieces of gaming from gaming’s golden past.

 

Deus Ex:

 

 

Preamble:

 

Deus Ex is one of those games that REFUSED to adhere to any of gaming stereotypes and broke new ground . Like Half Life 1 it was a paradigm shift for single player FPS games and it introduced mechanics games have been using for 15 years after its launch.

15 Years after this game was launched it still makes most modern games look like utter garbage in almost every aspect .

 

Gameplay:

 

Deus Ex is hard to describe . Its a cyberpunk spy action FPS / RPG / Stealth infiltration game thingie . Honestly the types of things you do in the game are very varied . It mostly consists on sneaking on enemy military bases , passing brought security systems and sabotaging material , scuttling a ship or simply stealing information

It sounds like a spy movie doesnt it ? Its because it honestly plays like one , a very good one at that.

Deus ex is extremely free form on how you approach scenarios. For example when sneaking one of the factions base in the beginning you can simply go gun ho thought the front dealing with the security bots , or quietly climb thought the warehouse in the back stacking case to reach a nearby window .

The easiest way to play deus Ex is to sneak ALL the time and disable every camera and turret on the way , but the freedom is there . You can do non lethal play-troughs , or just play like Rambo himself . The latter is not advisable since the gun play is terrible and wonky and honestly felt like it relied in some dice rolling to land the shots and the enemy AI is plain dumb sometimes.

Even thought the game is old and has its share of problems it really comes together with an amazing atmosphere , on its best moments when you are sneaking thought the catacombs in paris avoiding enemy patrols or when you scuttle a freighter and watch it roar and sink , or simply when you sneak past an enemy patrol and manage to drop everyone of them without dropping a single alarm . Its these moments that make the game amazing and make it feel like an amazing game version of say a cyberpunk minority report , you really feel like an anti terrorist agent at UNACTO .

To compliment this emerging game play you have several powers called “augmentations” that come really useful late game . Things like spy drones , a cloak to sneak , or simple being able to regenerate wounds on the fly make combat scenarios IMMENSLY complex making it possible to deal with a particular situation in a almost infinite number of ways.

 

Graphics:

 

Well the art style is striking and the environments are very varied and diverse , and that’s all the good things I have to say about the graphics in the game really.

Its an old game , you can COUNT the polygons on characters faces and models , in fact some of the models on the game look like a handful of polygons glued together.

And the animations , well the running animation is so bad it looks like the NPCS are rushing to the toilet .

At the time the graphics were serviceable , the game does a lot of things with these basic graphics letting the imagination of the player take over some times and providing tons of data cubes and books to read to paint a picture of the lore and the stage of the game.

Honestly most of the gun models are very well designed and most of the enemy models too , its just that the engine was probably too weak to fill out the ambition of the art direction .

The NPCS are pretty cringe , when they are talking it looks like a polygon flapping instead of a mouth.

 

Sound :

 

One of the best soundtracks in gaming . Every single piece of music does an excellent job to create atmosphere and convey a particular feel of the environment and situation at hand . You have a wide swath of music since the jumpy battle music of hong kong that tries to imitate some of its traditional instruments , to the more sober tune that plays at unacto . The game revels on displaying a futuristic and electric OST that fits perfectly with the tonality.

Also the deus ex theme is AMAZING , almost every gamer recognizes that tune .

The nagging aspect of the sound design is the voice acting , well its terrible I will leave it at that to keep this review short. Here is an example:

Story :

The story is a conspiracy theory . You have tons of super secret anagrams that you will encounter throughout the game all piloting and scheming and its your job JC to stop them!

Yeah the game goes a bit cliché on that one doesn’t it , it also has a cliché villan.

The story is interesting ,fulls of turns and twists while being easy enough to follow even though sometimes it went over my head .If you like movies like borne identity and minority report you will love this game´s story of rivaling secret spy organizations scheming against each other , to possibly dominate the world .

It meshes this idea with some cyberpunk aspects like sentient AI and augmentations so its a pretty compelling and gives a unique twist to the usual spy fare.

 

Conclusion:

The Hype is very justified . I have been waiting for so long to finish this game and I can say despite its age its still very relevant today . Extremely fun game , a true masterpiece in almost every way , games like this are the reason gaming should be celebrated globally . Deus Ex , Food of Gods.

 

TLDR awesome stealth action game with indepth mechanics and story

[NicekillBG]

play half life

[ShadowCaptain]

great review also awesome game, one of my all time favourites

 

 

(also this jedi mind tricks song lyrics makes me think about this game

"Of Area 51 and 57, separate the schoolkid and reveal the reptilian

I seen the CIA transform into the species of Greys

The Sabbath seven adding up to seven levels of the Majestic 12")

[DimasRMDO]

Wooo, I miss this.

[Sauron]

Play quake 2

[DimasRMDO]

Try playing Tropico 1.

[ThomasD]

Alpha Centauri