Deus Ex (PS2)

This is a hugely impressive game. You are more-or-less free to do as you please - you can deliberately disobey your mission orders (and the game engine somehow tidies things up for you so that you can progress), you can turn traitor, you can even commit casual murder if that's your thing. If something can be done within the limitations of the game engine, you can do it.

Actually, you're not quite free to do as you please. For example, if you run into a new area, guns-a-blazing you're likely to end up dead very quickly, or run out of ammo at the very least. Instead, 'Deus Ex' rewards a cautious approach to play - you sneak around trying to take out enemy agents cleanly with a head shot. Indeed, if you're of an ethical bent you can simply render enemies unconscious with tranquilizer darts. Often you then need to hide the bodies so as not to alert their colleagues. This does mean that playing 'Deus Ex' takes a VERY long time, but you never feel that it is tedious - the atmosphere and constant tension mean that you never get bored.

The game world is wonderfully realized. Yes, we're in the classic distopian future beloved of game designers, and it's always dark, but you really feel that you're in a living world. You can talk to everybody and they all have many different things to say. You can talk to even the most miserable of bums several times before his dialogue starts to loop. As for plot characters, you can talk to them all you like. They often give out crucial information (such as keypad combinations and passwords) after several conversations; even if they don't they still impart information that deepens your understanding of the world and the events going on in it. More impressively, ALL the dialogue is voice acted.

The game design is peerless. The environments are highly interactive: you can flush toilets, read newspapers and books, turn on desk lamps, hack unattended PCs, hack ATMs for cash, all sorts. If you need to get into an enemy stronghold, there are always multiple ways of doing it: you can go in the front door and face whatever welcome has been prepared for you or you can smash a window at the side and sneak in or you can pick the lock of a grating and come in from the basement or you can climb a fire escape and get in through a skylight, whatever suits your style of play. Last night I was trying to get into a warehouse over rooftops crawling with enemy snipers. At one point I found myself crawling on a billboard ("Holy Smokes Cigarets - They're Saviorific"), hundreds of feet above the ground lining an enemy soldier up in the sights of my sniper rifle. Did that feel good? You bet it did!

'Deus Ex' may look like a first-person shooter, but it's really an RPG, like 'System Shock', for example (another Warren Spector game). You have upgradable skills, such as lockpicking, computer hacking, swimming, various weapons, etc. and because of your unique nature you can fit yourself with various nanotechnological augmentations which make you faster, stronger, able to see in the dark, hold your breath, etc. However, as far as I can tell, you never become more resilient.

The plot is deep, involving and well told. However, I do have an issue with the paranoid-UN-taking-over-the-world-by-stealth conspiracy nonsense that the plot hinges on. It's the sort of idiocy spouted by American white supremacists and gun nuts who then stockpile enough hardware to furnish a decent sized army and start firefights with justly concerned BATF agents. I don't know whether the story reflects Warren Spector's world view - I sincerely hope not.

The graphics are perfectly OK, if far from the best I've seen. The models are quite good and the environments are often spectacular. However, I do wonder why the game looks slightly inferior to the PC version given that the game was released on PC in 2000 and the PS2 should be more than equal to PCs of that time. Sound is also very good and the music is among the best that I've heard in a game, all dark and futuristic.

The controls are quite good and very intuitive. Moving using the left analogue stick is much easier than moving using the cursor keys of a PC keyboard, although using the right analogue stick for aiming is harder than using a PC mouse.

I'm not sure yet, and I'll know when I've finished the game, but 'Deus Ex' may be the best game I've ever played. Certainly I recommend it without reservation.

Quick aside to people who've not played the game yet: 'Deus Ex' has an optional training section which is quite tedious. Do not judge the game by this as I did initially.

I once read prior to PS2 release - that it wouldn't work well on consoles; as the PC version uses most of the buttons on the keyboard, it would have meant a 'wrestling combination' i.e. X, X, up, left, triangle, O, O, X just to whip your bi-noc-u-lars out! as I suspected - this was just a little exaggeration from a bitter PC reviewer, angry that the consolers had access to PC's sacred game. Controls are not overly complicated - (you can always press pause or access yr weapons / augs menus to give you some breathing space and time to get your head together). Deus Ex makes use of the analogue sticks to move around - a little tricky at first (and similarly after completion and you revert back to other games with the D-pad - mega confusion). Also main configuration utilises R1 button to shoot - I actually liked this set-up as felt a bit like a trigger, if needing a bit of getting used to. The other good thing was the vibration mode. Should a humungo security bot walk by you can feel their footsteps. ditto electric shocks / bullet wounds - actually any health deteriation gave a little tingle... this was a nice touch even if evocative of pins and needles to the hands ( does anyone else get this?!)

although a couple of years between playing PC and PS2 versions - I really noticed differences in the game. And I must say I do prefer it on the PC. Apart from small areas of maps which have been shaved off to reduce memory usage, it was small things I missed. such as being able to type passwords/logins in (even guess at them in some cases). with PS2; if you had been given a code - then it worked. if not - it didn't. I guess I just felt like more of a hacker when typing.

As a summery of the game - You play JC Denton, a nano - augmented special agent in the anti terrorist division. (augmentations make you stronger / faster / see further; basically do amazing things) you start off on liberty island to 'clean up' a terrorist situation. as you progress through the game and interact with different characters - you go to different world locations to unravel the master plot & mysteries surrounding this recent terrorist threat. The great thing about this game is the freedom of choice - depending on how you choose to deal with situations affects your game and which road you go down. the final section even gives you multiple choices on how the game ends. You can interact with the world you are in. most things can be used / picked up / thrown - even down to a plant pot / basketball / can of soda. You can choose / install & upgrade your augmentations as you see fit, similarly you can upgrade your skills accordingly (ie rifle training / enviromental skills). You can handle a situation in many different ways - do you go in like the proverbial Rambo? or sneek in through that unlocked airvent? hold on, couldn't you hack into the security mainframe and reprogramme their own security system against them? So many choices - and that is why this game is so so good - Choice. Lots of them. You feel as though you are controlling the game rather than just playing through it.

With the best storyline I have ever experienced - and the most intriguing characters this is a must play game. if you haven't played on the PC, go play it on either format. if you owned and liked the PC version - would still recommend giving it a go on PS2: you will be pleasantly surprised - tis good to relive the experience + using a controller certainly adds a new dimension to it.