Editorial Deus Ex Retrospective with Warren Spector at GameInformer

[Crooked Bee]

Tags: Deus Ex; Ion Storm; Warren Spector

GameInformer offers a video retrospective of Deus Ex, featuring Warren Spector and a bunch of other folks, including the one attempting to play the game, who is amusing to watch.

Ben Hanson, Adam Biessener, myself, one of Epic Mickey 2's producers Raul Ramirez, and Warren Spector all sat down only to stand right back up and take a stroll down memory lane, making sure to stick to the shadows wherever possible. Spector talks about how he was moments away from signing a contract with Electronic Arts to create a Command & Conquer RPG, when John Romero called him up and made him an offer he couldn't refuse. We also take a look at at one of Warren's favorite games that influences his work even today with the development of Epic Mickey in our Replay Roulette.

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tl;dw Warren Spector loves Suikoden and doesn't care one bit about focus tests.

 

[Sleepwalker]

Great interview, horrible playthrough. The guy playing this was so bad it hurt to watch.

 

[SoupNazi]

god it is so fucking annoying how that guy sucks at the game

 

[EmoBunny]

"A sandbox within a story"

Definition of crpg?

 

[belated]

Can't watch any more. That guy playing....

 

[Ion Prothon II]

That's what happens when a man plays FPP on a laptop, using touchpad.

 

[EG]

So it's Spector to blame for the horror of C&C Renegade . . .

 

[Ion Prothon II]

So C&C Renegade wasn't good for what it was?

 

[EG]

So C&C Renegade wasn't good for what it was?

The only thing good for what it was was the marketing, you son of a bitch!

 

[Ion Prothon II]

And what's your problem, that it wasn't a turn- based isometric RPG with a shit- ton of C&C ( )? Then yeah, it sucked. That it was a bad game? Fuck you, C&C:R was a decent shooter and an interesting attempt at making an action game based on strategy. In gameplay terms, it's still technically superior to the most of nextgens.

 

[EG]

It was just a normal late 90s shooter, without much story, and a focus on vehicles. Or, that's all I remember of it. I've got the disk somewhere . . .

 

[SoupNazi]

I loved C&C: Renegade for the freaking awesome multiplayer. Great classes, base destroying and upgrading, vehicles, hell - it had a DoTA-like mechanic, I think, where the bases automatically churned out vehicles and troops to attack the other base in one of the three (or more) directions, and you could accompany them (had to if you wanted to win). That was way before DoTA even existed, I think.

 

[catfood]

That's what happens when you're used to playing popamole covershooters on the Fagbox.

 

[Average Manatee]

C&C Renegade was a great game and would have been far better if EA hadn't been busy raping Westwood at the time. There was originally supposed to be 6 different multiplayer modes and it was slashed to 1...

 

[EG]

I loved C&C: Renegade for the freaking awesome multiplayer. Great classes, base destroying and upgrading, vehicles, hell - it had a DoTA-like mechanic, I think, where the bases automatically churned out vehicles and troops to attack the other base in one of the three (or more) directions, and you could accompany them (had to if you wanted to win). That was way before DoTA even existed, I think.

Huh, don't remember any of that, beyond running around in a prebuilt base to press buttons to make vehicles appear. Though, I don't often touch multiplayer aspects of games.

Your description, though, reminds me of the console game Future Cop, L.A.P.D.'s multilayer. Run around a base, produce vehicles in a multitude of directions, and chase after them to win.

Fine! Fine! I'll give it another shot . . .

 

[deus101]

So it's Spector to blame for the horror of C&C Renegade . . .

OY! RENEGADE WAS GREAT! YOU SEE! YOU CAN BE INSIDE! A HAND OF NOD!

 

[EG]

But wouldn't it be better if C&C Renegade was Dues Ex?

 

[deus101]

But wouldn't it be better if C&C Renegade was Dues Ex?

Oh...right ...

 

[Average Manatee]

I think Renegade is the one we have to thank for being able to call in a tactical nuclear strike in FPS games. Multiplayer was great and required a lot of strategy and coordination, though with too many players the maps tended to get bogged down since defenders have a large advantage and the game would end in a victory for whatever side had the most points (which were horribly, horribly implemented).

Single player was good, but mostly for the cool feeling of having seamless open battlefields and intricate NOD buildings in the same maps, which did a good job of making it feel in the same vein as the RTSs. Beyond that it was pretty simple. If Warren Spector was in charge we probably would have gotten even less multiplayer in exchange for a better single player. I'm not sure how I would feel about that.

 

[Ion Prothon II]

Is there any detailed info on what C&C:R was planned to be?

I remember how the game was initially said to be focused more on stealth and tactics, than just emptying the clips. It was before Westwood started dealing with EA. I've seen an interview, or an article paraphrasing the interview, where one of devs described how smart the AI was. In one of tests, he said, enemies used chains to climb up and flank the PC.

All of this sounded too good to be true. It wasn't unbelievable- there were already smiliar games, doing it worse or better: Spec Ops, Thief, Hidden & Dangerous, maybe even the first Hitman was released then. But it was also clear it's a lot of marketing talk, mixed with reviewer's wishful thinking.

Then, from what I know, the game kinda turned into Duke Nukem Forever, to be finally released under EA. 100% shooter with surprisingly good MP, and with no chains player could climb at. That makes me wonder how much the game was simplified, if it was simplified at all.

 

[EG]

Is there any detailed info on what C&C:R was planned to be?

I remember how the game was initially said to be focused more on stealth and tactics, than just emptying the clips. It was before Westwood started dealing with EA. I've seen an interview, or an article paraphrasing the interview, where one of devs described how smart the AI was. In one of tests, he said, enemies used chains to climb up and flank the PC.

All of this sounded too good to be true. It wasn't unbelievable- there were already smiliar games, doing it worse or better: Spec Ops, Thief, Hidden & Dangerous, maybe even the first Hitman was released then. But it was also clear it's a lot of marketing talk, mixed with reviewer's wishful thinking.

Then, from what I know, the game kinda turned into Duke Nukem Forever, to be finally released under EA. 100% shooter with surprisingly good MP, and with no chains player could climb at. That makes me wonder how much the game was simplified, if it was simplified at all.

An RPG.

Not that I have the magazines that articles and concept art appeared in for two years prior to its release.

 

[thesheeep]

I really liked Renegade. Really wouldn't say that it was a great game. But it certainly wasn't bad.

 

[J1M]

He doesn't like focus group testing, but he is a big fan of getting people in to test his game and watch them play. Can someone translate this into english?

 

[EmoBunny]

He doesn't like focus group testing, but he is a big fan of getting people in to test his game and watch them play. Can someone translate this into english?

He likes getting info by watching the players play, but he doesn't want to hear them actually voice their opinions.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Sounds like a good thing to me.