Ended the original "
Deus Ex" last night. Easily amongst the top five RPG games I've ever played. Ancient PC and backwards-compatibility *cough* is a match made in heaven. I'm a bit late to the party but glad I ended this absolute classic.
Coming to the game, the environments were expansive, open, involved a lot of running around and backtracking. This was in contrast to Human Revolution which proved to be fairly linear in comparison. Voice-overs were monotonous and emotionless. But I didn't mind it too much as it suits the entire grim cyberpunk-themed setting of the game. HR was no different in this regard either.
Mission structures were very well done. Lots of alternative routes to complete objectives. Many games have a broken system but Deus Ex was flexible enough to cater to both playing styles. I liked how you could go full stealth, all guns blazing or settle with a mixture of the two.
Exploration rewarded bonus points which were redeemable in the form of skill upgrades. It was virtually impossible to fully upgrade all skills early in the game so my protagonist never felt over-powered at any point. My main gripe was with the augmentations. Apart from a few augs, I never really found any utility for the others and I tried a variety of playing styles.
The story was excellent! It was rich but not too convoluted or branched-out as is the norm in RPGs these days. The plot was focused and almost all side missions had relevance to the main storyline. And the story characters were largely interesting, in a peculiar sort of way.
Some observations about its prequel, Human Revolution. I like how it stuck to its roots and also fixed many of the original's shortcomings. Hacking, for instance, was a much improved feature and augs were better utilized.
In terms of similarities, playing style was appointed at the very start. You get to choose between a knife (if you like hand-to-hand combat) or a crossbow (if long-range is your preferred method). Some unforeseen choices determine the fate of your friends and allies. Boss fights were, again, laughably easy. And not to forget, multiple endings right at the final juncture.
I loved this game. Had the option to apply mods to improve the textures and lighting but I chose to play it in its original glory. Even after more than a decade, this game not only holds but has also aged very well.
Necrokiller:
SolitarySoldier:
XPremiuM:
faraany3k:
