I have said it in the past but I'll reiterate it here. It is very unlikely that a Canadian studio and/or Canadian developers and writers can produce a worthy sequel to the first Deus Ex (2000), for a variety of reasons. In fact, we might not see a decent sequel ever, which is only slightly less unlikely. I'll attack each of these separately, starting with the latter.
First and foremost, coming to grips with the core themes of the first Deus Ex means engaging with what is most likely the greatest vehicle of American mythology: the conspiracy theory. If we didn't invent conspiracy theories here, we refined them into their current crystalline state of perfection. From the Kennedy assassination to fake moon landings to MK Ultra, the FBI framing Martin Luther King, the USS Liberty, FDR allowing Pearl Harbor to be bombed, Truman taking out Patton, Operation PAPERCLIP, Ruby Ridge, Jeffrey Epstein, UFOs (so many fucking UFOs!), Area 51, the Illuminati, MJ12, 9/11, fluoride in the water, crisis actors, the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, magnetic strips in 20 dollar bills, the United States is a corporation, the CIA inventing AIDS, QAnon, Pizzagate, Lizard People, Operation High Jump, aliens in Antarctica, Project Sunshine, and Bigfoot. We have the best conspiracy theories, and the most. And importantly, all of the really serious conspiracy theories, the ones that inspire an almost religious fervor in their adherents and believers, are about government control. This is hugely relevant.
So what, exactly, is Deus Ex about? A lot of people think it is about human bioengineering, the ethics of science, the ethics of fighting terrorism. And maybe those are a part of the story, but they're expressions of a greater, overarching theme. The primal, moral question the story attempts to grapple with is about control: control over man's evolution and, therefore, control over man himself. More specifically, it is about the locus of that control, whether or not authoritarianism is justified. It's a critique of self-government, demonstrating that once technology reaches a certain point, democracy becomes a liability for the survival of the species; at some point, you either ditch self-government or you ditch technology. The only way to have both is through a continuous and unrelenting stream of lies, propaganda, and repression. Your average human being is too frail, too greedy, to govern himself in the face of such temptations as are offered by high technology.
In order to tell this story, Ion Storm had to make up a fantastical mythological canon that borrowed from the most deep-rooted and, some would say, far-fetched American conspiracy theories. But, uhh . . . well, what does that paragraph above sound like to you? Because to me it sounds an awful lot like 2022.
So the first problem emerges, which is that a modern conspiracy theory video game will have to be very clever in order to bypass the simply unbelievable times we are living in, or one might say "enduring," right now. That's a tall order for a gifted writer of any persuasion, but it is almost impossible for the leftist, which brings us to a second issue: it is highly likely that any conspiracy theory-focused game made in 2022 will be made by a left-of-center, if not hard left, writer or studio. Which means it is also higly likely that any story will veer, eventually, into undisguised moralizing.
In much the same way as the Eidos Montreal Deus Ex games, leftist pandering on issues such as economic inequality and climate change will find themselves at the front of the story. It is easy to imagine that other leftist theology -- for example, the entire panoply of trans nonsense -- will find a natural home in the metahumanity suggested by, say, nanotechnology. The first Deus Ex, which is to say the only decent Deus Ex, reveled in the opposite of this mentality: This is why at the end of JC's first mission, he gets a lecture from the commander about the shift from self-employment to wage-based employment. It's the shift from Jefferson's agrarian citizen-soldier to FDR's New Deal wage slave. JC's enemies in the NSF are fighting the consolidation of government power, the latest in a long history of patriotic American rebellion. On the contrary, what aspirations are leftists capable of arguing for at this point? Socialized health care? It's a fucking joke to even ask.
Beyond the inevitable preachiness, however, lies a deeper problem. Conspiracy theories are by their nature subversive and they traffic in distrust against the edifices of society, the institutions. This was easier to swallow when our institutions were nominally neutral or inoffensively conservative, but now, in 2022, with every salient institution infested with leftist ideology, there is precious little for a leftist to subvert -- the only possible conspiracy theory here is that leftist institutions are secretly not as leftist as they should be, are insufficiently left because of some hidden nefarious force! The leftist version of a happy ending would be JC Denton fusing with Helios and then ushering in a socialist utopia. Or JC Denton working with the Illuminati, and then ushering in a socialist utopia. Or JC Denton causing the collapse, and society now freed from it's capitalist overlords, will evolve into a socialist utopia. To the leftist, the only possible conspiracy theory is the one that retards further leftism and, once removed, will see the utopia arrive.
To put this all another way, those most likely to get the greenlight to make a new Deus Ex will be your garden variety shitlibs, and they simply do not have the turn the of mind necessary to do this topic justice, as their worldview prevents it. In much the same way that they confuse a man dressed as a plastic bimbo and engaged in over-the-top sexualized behavior as embodying the essence of a woman, they may mimic the trappings of a conspiracy theory without understanding its soul. At best, they can produce a delicate, fragile facsimile of a conspiracy theory that, combined with perfume, lots of booze, and your desire to see what you want, will trick you for a few hours. But in the cold light of morning, that Adam's apple will reveal itself and you'll know you've been fucking had.
How do we get out of this quandary? The most immediate and obvious solution is to ask a non-American studio to do it, but of course this runs us into the second problem, which the Canadian versions of Deus Ex have so amply demonstrated: they just can't do it. It's like ordering New York pizza in London, or pulled pork in Sweden. These things might taste okay, but the toppings will be a little off, the bun a little bit weird. You'll always know you're not eating the real thing.
Every criticism to be leveled at the American left's inability to write a good conspiracy theory is therefore amplified in Canada. American mythology is steeped in conspiracy and rebellion, and despite the pervasiveness of leftist ideology in all of our institutions, there is still a healthy red-blooded streak of individualistic violence that runs through the American religion. Except for the extreme left, for example, most Americans are fine with shooting a home intruder, whether they're armed or not, as even the most liberal states have some version of a "stand your ground" law. Up north, the Canadian man defending his home may very well be hauled off to a ridiculous trial while the state comforts the burglar as a poor, misunderstood soul who was failed by society. In the US, I can shoot a guy in my living room for no other reason than he broke in at 2am and was trying to steal my vintage Voltron figures. Depending on the state I live in, I might not even go to a police station to make a statement. I'd be eating bacon and eggs for breakfast while the blood was still drying on the carpet.
This way of life is alien to the Canadian. He cannot conceive of it, not really. Any story he tells of American conspiracy theories will be akin to a British historian explaining Hinduism; he might get all the facts right but it's not his religion, no matter how fascinating he finds it. And he will be unable to convey the thing unvarnished, for no matter how hard he tries, he cannot overcome his own latent Christianity to avoid sneering at Shiva.
The central paradox of Deus ex -- not democracy per se, but self government -- is alien to the Canadian most basically because in the land of human rights tribunals, he doesn't really have self government. That is, the Canadian man is not allowed to govern himself. However far Americans have fallen (and we have fallen very far) the plain fact remains that just in our Bill of Rights alone we establish the basic assertion that certain rights are not guaranteed by government, but guaranteed against government. The mythology of American government is that it is not something we embrace, but something that we must begrudgingly tolerate. It is therefore a fertile breeding ground for conspiracies, and with good reason: if you were tasked with governing this mass of heavily armed lunatics, wouldn't you do all sorts of shit in secret and not tell people, and then when caught red-handed, lie about everything? I mean, how else are you supposed to rule these people?
The Canadian does not understand this. He can't. His approximation of the American conspiracy is going to be Swedish pulled pork.
On the other hand, most Americans get this, even if they despise it. Even if they've never believed a conspiracy theory in their life, they know what it could be like to to believe one, which is how it's possible to even do something like Deus Ex in the first place. Does Sheldon Pocotti or Warren Specter believe in any of the shit they wrote? Who knows. But it doesn't matter, because they grew up here and they know the national mythology. In much the same way that a former Catholic school student can likely tell you who wrote Acts of the Apostles, even if he's now an atheist. It's in his blood.
Now a counter argument here might be that I am being entirely too cynical, that a good writer of any nationality can adequately capture the uniqueness of this American mythology and, in that vein, tell a great yarn. I'll concede that this is possible, but I would pose a simple question: if they can, why haven't they? Look at the first Deus Ex by Eidos Montreal, and you will see the problems almost right away.
First, we should point out that apparently DX:HR was written by Mary DeMarle, who went to an American university but has lived and worked in Canada her whole career. Already we have a problem, in that conspiracy theories are for the most part the purview and wheelhouse of disaffected young men who have the time and inclination to delve into esoteric subject matter with the ferocity of an autist. And all of the best government-related conspiracy theories come from those men who have served the government (intelligence services, US military, and so on) which of course leans heavily male. It is no surprise that the Canadian version of Deus Ex is therefore missing all of the intensity of its predecessor. The story in DX:HR was anything but a triumph, and while defeat may be an orphan, his biological mother is an American woman living in Canada.
As mentioned above, the chief weakness of DX:HR's story is the Canadian (of if you prefer, leftist) preachiness of the story. There's nothing new here, nothing original - the tech billionaires are all jerks (surprise!), augmentation technology can be used to control people without their consent (surprise!), the only "good" billionaire, Darrow, was actually trying to help mankind but those evil capitalists subverted his technology (surprise!) and by the way you can tell he is a good guy because is trying to fix global warming!
This lack of originality results in a senseless aping of the first game. Instead of walking through Area 51 with three entities asking you to swing things their particular way, you walk through Panchea with four options. Instead of the Helios project, someone has merged with the Hyron project. Instead of your pilot Jock getting blown up, your pilot Faridah gets ambushed. And so on. These are not callbacks. These are robocalls.
The story also betrays an almost comical view of the US in several regards, once again giving the impression that it was written by someone who doesn't live here, and who has also never met a cop (or a billionaire, for that matter). Your first mission as an augmented Jensen has you raiding a corporate office wherein you can choose to solve a hostage crisis peacefully, or with violence. That's all fine, as far as it goes, but the violent path will put you in a position of being scolded by some SWAT team members. I remember the first time I played this game and laughing out loud at such an adorably naïve portrayal of American SWAT police officers, who in real life are mostly roided-out wannabe Navy seals and who, in the history of American policing, have never criticized anyone, ever, for excessive use of force. I remember thinking: has the person who wrote this ever met a fucking cop in the United States? Ever?
There are other, even more ridiculous tells, such as the hilariously-named "Motor City Bangers" and "Derelict Row Ballers." Not only are these names ridiculous (seriously, just google a list of US gang names to see how it's done), the story reveals that unlike every other gang in American history, these are not gangs based on race and/or ethnicity, but instead are based on who is augmented and who is not.
One of two things is happening here: 1) The Canadians don't know that every gang in the US is based on race or ethnicity, and they think a bunch of street-level thugs would organize themselves around a religious fervor that is either for or against augmentations, all while still keeping the trappings and mannerisms of a 21st century urban American gang or 2) Their politics will not let them make a racially segregated gang, so they made up this silly horseshit instead. In either case, is hilariously inept, betraying a complete ignorance of the most basic component of American urban strife.
Anyway, all of this pales in comparison to the chief complaint: that the failure of DX:HR is that it misses the most crucial aspect of not the conspiracy theory (though it does fumble this) but instead the conspiracy itself. For despite all our haranguing and browbeating of "Big Tech," and despite the power these companies undeniably wield, they are not the unscalable edifice that is the US Government; that is to say, they cannot send the FBI to your house to shoot you on your front lawn. As the events of even the last few days have shown, Big Tech is a toady of the US Government, a stool, a simp, a willing partner. Practically, another arm of the US government. Maybe an eccentric, rocket-building, electric car making, multi-billionaire can wrest one (one!) of these tech tools from the government for the astronomical fee of 45 billion dollars, and maybe that will do something. But probably, it will not make a fucking dent.
Which brings us back to the central theme of all the great American conspiracies, those of the government against its own people. DX:HR is at it's core just leftist railing against "The Corporations," and never deals with the much more salient issue of government. The reason for this -- my argument for it anyway -- is that Canadians in 2011 were unable to conceive of government in this fashion and 11 years later would only be able to conceive of it from the leftist's perspective. To their credit, burdened with the lore of needing to turn FEMA into a bad guy, they did an okay job with that part. But FEMA takes a back seat here, and instead nearly the entire story is exhausted on the chicanery of corporate espionage and warfare.
As far as any new games in the franchise, color me skeptical. The Canadian woman in charge of the story is not in any way suited to tackle the philosophically thorny issue of an overbearing and corrupt US Government, and especially not now. Everything coming out of Eidos Montreal is destined to be some shade of safe progressive propaganda, for in 2022 the very idea of a conspiracy in which your government -- American or Canadian -- is complicit will be targeted as "dangerous." I don't think they have the stomach for it, but even if they did they likely wouldn't do it for simple reason that it doesn't align with their politics. Any game worthy of the name "Deus Ex" will have to grapple with the conundrum of the God From the Machine, but you can't do that if you think the Machine is your friend and you don't believe in God.
