Review of Deus Ex

Deus Ex is one nicely done game. I was surprised to find it on sale for less then $30 dollars at a local Best Buy. This game, while technically a first person shooter, easily competes with the likes of Half-Life and Thief.

You play as J.C. Denton, a nano-augmented super agent working for a united anti-terrorist coalition. The game starts out easily enough, you find members of a rebel faction and subdue them on your way to recovering stolen U.N. goods. But the plot quickly makes several complicated turns, and yet the story is still surprisingly easy to follow. The real beauty of the game isn't just the meticulous attention to detail involving the story line and real consipracy theories. Instead, it is the complete freedom to handle the individual puzzles as you see fit. Every situation has more then one (and many times more then 3) ways to be solved. As a first person shooter, you can waltz into a room of baddies with guns blazings, or find a fuel pump and purge poison gas into the barracks, or turn on an aquired stealth ability to slip past the security system. The game is practically an RPG, there is character development, skills to get better in, special abilities to choose between, and even multiple endings depending on how you handled most of the game.

There are some minor issues, the AI is good at first with how guards and enemies react initially. Unfortunately, they turn stupid real quick and sometimes will completely ignore you despite the obvious threat you pose. Also, the game uses the Unreal engine, 3DFx video card owners, just run it in glide and you'll have no worries. Anyone else using D3D, well, use the latest drivers, DirectX version, and latest patch for the game to get workable framerates.

I had to choose between Diablo II and Deus Ex, luckily, I couldn't afford Diablo II and wound up buying an incredible work of art by the geniuses at Ion Storm. Note, this is Ion Storm Austin, so don't expect the half-assed work that Ion Storm Dallas has been shoving in our faces. This game has been well thought out and the story exceptionally well produced. Voice acting is top notch and the plot is involving.

This, is my first review, I know it probably shows with my spelling, syntax, and terrible looping of ideas. But I hope my point gets across. If you have the time and the money, don't hesitate to buy this game. It's destined to be a classic and most likely a game of the year candidate for many PC Game publications.