Deus Ex Deus Ex

[rusty_shackleford]

I can find and download a game faster than it takes to install from a cd

There are uses for CD drives other than installing games. Plus, as a game collector, I have several physical games that I haven't found on either digital stores nor the usual pirate sites.

CD drives aren't even interesting like say, zip drives. Boring format.

 

[IDtenT]

By the way, how did your replay go?

Never got going. But a good reminder of something to play.

 

[NJClaw]

Got a retail copy on CD ROM. LAWL. Not like anyone still has an optical drive.

I do. It barely costs anything to add it to a new computer, why cheap out?

I can find and download a game faster than it takes to install from a cd

Manually switching CDs is the only authoritative way to play Baldur's Gate.

 

[Nano]

Never got going. But a good reminder of something to play.

Maybe you could play System Shock 2 in the meantime.

 

[Gargaune]

I'm looking forward to the other parts of the franchise, even though from what I've read they are inferior to the first one.

Go for it, but strap in for the steep decline of Invisible War. It might have been passable as an unrelated game in the era, but as a sequel to Deus Ex it's catastrophic. After that, though, Human Revolution is an honourable attempt at a modern soft reboot and Mankind Divided is genuinely great - plot issues aside, it's the closest thing we've gotten to another Deus Ex.

 

[IDtenT]

Never got going. But a good reminder of something to play.

Maybe you could play System Shock 2 in the meantime.

Actually think I played Alpha Protocol instead.

 

[Nano]

Actually think I played Alpha Protocol instead.

Great choice. One of DX's spiritual successors.

 

[Lord_Potato]

I'm looking forward to the other parts of the franchise, even though from what I've read they are inferior to the first one.

You should try out the TCs, I personally recommend Zodiac, 2027 and Nihilum.

Redsun and Hotel Carone have lower quality, but are still enjoyable.

Another great TC is Terminus Machina- though it doesn't take place in the Deus Ex universe and it vastly changes many mechanics.

Haven't played The Nameless Mod (I might check it out after they finish the new update).

Thanks for the recommendations!

I am presently halfway through Zodiac. Level design seems inferior to the original game, but there are some cool locations. So far Buenos Aires was my favourite, not because of flavour - it was mostly lacking in this respect, but due to diversity of challenges.

Zodiac certainly does not have the intensity of the main campaign, it always provides all the lockpicks, multitools and emp grenades I currently need. Plus all the necessary medikits. But still it's fun experiencing what Paul was doing when JC singlehandely saved the world.

 

[Alphons]

Agreed on the Buenos Aires level. And the ambient music is just perfect for that level.


If I remember correctly Zodiac is the oldest Deus Ex TC. It definitely shows, in my opinion especially in the beginning, as if the creators were figuring out how to work with the editor on the fly.

It's way more consistent than Redsun (and it never got me softlocked, while Redsun did 3 times) and it has actual story unlike Hotel Carone (where it's just an excuse to stealth around the NSF in the hotel), so that's why I put it up with 2027 and Nihilum.

Hope you'll enjoy the rest of your playthrough!

 

[DraQ]

I'm looking forward to the other parts of the franchise, even though from what I've read they are inferior to the first one.

Don't. Invisible war is awful, and the modern sequels have the depth of a kiddy pool. The city of prague in mankind divided is pretty neat though, but the story in that game ends after the first act.

Eh, IW was indeed moronic, but the nu-DX prequels are at least decent, though not anywhere near DX1.

 

[Butter]

 

[Jaedar]

I'm looking forward to the other parts of the franchise, even though from what I've read they are inferior to the first one.

Don't. Invisible war is awful, and the modern sequels have the depth of a kiddy pool. The city of prague in mankind divided is pretty neat though, but the story in that game ends after the first act.

Eh, IW was indeed moronic, but the nu-DX prequels are at least decent, though not anywhere near DX1.

They're ok as games, but they're awful as deus ex prequels. They destroy the internal world consistency and they don't understand the philosophy on either a mechanical or narrative level.

 

[Zlaja]

So, the OP asks for tips on how to set up the game, but then doesn't end up playing it? I don't know about you, but I think that's worth at least 30 lashes.

 

[Lord_Potato]

Agreed on the Buenos Aires level. And the ambient music is just perfect for that level.


If I remember correctly Zodiac is the oldest Deus Ex TC. It definitely shows, in my opinion especially in the beginning, as if the creators were figuring out how to work with the editor on the fly.

It's way more consistent than Redsun (and it never got me softlocked, while Redsun did 3 times) and it has actual story unlike Hotel Carone (where it's just an excuse to stealth around the NSF in the hotel), so that's why I put it up with 2027 and Nihilum.

Hope you'll enjoy the rest of your playthrough!

I've finished Zodiac today. The level design improved dramatically during later levels. Holloman Air Force Base was a true joy to explore, with layout that made sense and extensive corridors underground. It also provided nice variety of things to do. Even the mission in which you lead President Mead to safety was cool (and I usually hate escort missions), even though my non-optimized for combat character had some difficulty in keeping the man alive. It had a frantic pace with lots of desperate shooting and slashing enemy groups to death, a good thing I upgraded combat speed to the max, saved myself a lot of headaches. I don't know how pure stealth builds managed to succeed.

The final mission in the hidden location was also very battle-focused. Going through all those hordes of enemies was a pain in the ass, but again - the location itself impressed me with its interesting design and sheer labyrinthine size.

Overall, it was a very interesting TC. Next I think I'll try out 2027.

 

[Ol' Willy]

I'm looking forward to the other parts of the franchise, even though from what I've read they are inferior to the first one.

There is only one Deus Ex game

 

[J1M]

Cassandra mod is an interesting premise for a Deus Ex game. A shame it never inspired a salaried designer.

 

[Joggerino]

Got a retail copy on CD ROM. LAWL. Not like anyone still has an optical drive.

I do. It barely costs anything to add it to a new computer, why cheap out?

I can find and download a game faster than it takes to install from a cd

Manually switching CDs is the only authoritative way to play Baldur's Gate.

You just brought a tear to my eye.

 

[somewhatgiggly]

I got 1 for a dollar. Liked Human Revolution better TBH....

 

[T.Ashpool]

I got 1 for a dollar. Liked Human Revolution better TBH....

here, catch

 

[ghostdog]

Agreed on the Buenos Aires level. And the ambient music is just perfect for that level.


If I remember correctly Zodiac is the oldest Deus Ex TC. It definitely shows, in my opinion especially in the beginning, as if the creators were figuring out how to work with the editor on the fly.

It's way more consistent than Redsun (and it never got me softlocked, while Redsun did 3 times) and it has actual story unlike Hotel Carone (where it's just an excuse to stealth around the NSF in the hotel), so that's why I put it up with 2027 and Nihilum.

Hope you'll enjoy the rest of your playthrough!

I've finished Zodiac today. The level design improved dramatically during later levels. Holloman Air Force Base was a true joy to explore, with layout that made sense and extensive corridors underground. It also provided nice variety of things to do. Even the mission in which you lead President Mead to safety was cool (and I usually hate escort missions), even though my non-optimized for combat character had some difficulty in keeping the man alive. It had a frantic pace with lots of desperate shooting and slashing enemy groups to death, a good thing I upgraded combat speed to the max, saved myself a lot of headaches. I don't know how pure stealth builds managed to succeed.

The final mission in the hidden location was also very battle-focused. Going through all those hordes of enemies was a pain in the ass, but again - the location itself impressed me with its interesting design and sheer labyrinthine size.

Overall, it was a very interesting TC. Next I think I'll try out 2027.

2027 is probably the best in level design and gameplay, not to mention it has a pretty great look too. It's a little dodgy when it comes to dialog since it's translated from Russian, but serviceable nevertheless.

 

[ghostdog]

My reviews/thoughts on Deus Ex total conversion mods:

Zodiac
First ever total conversion. Nice story, decent dialog. Good levels. Overall a very cool package

The Nameless Mod to (depends on your priorities, it's somewhere in the middle for me)
Most anticipated mod for a decade. Great level design, great visuals. Shitty inside-joke story based on the deus ex forums, about people nobody even remembered after 10 years. What a shame.

I just finished 2027. It was very enjoyable all and all.

The writing is a bit amateurish and the translation to English dodgy at times, but the main story and style are 100% Deus Ex and the atmosphere is fantastic. I enjoyed it more than TNM, even though TMN had better dialog. I just could not get over TNM's silly premise. When it comes to area design I'd say they're about equal, TNM had some more complex areas maybe, but 2027 feels tighter when it come to design. So:

Visuals/Area Design :
2027 looks fantastic and it's probably the best DX mode visually. The excessive bloom in the initial settings is annoying, but It can be toned down from the ENB.ini. Both Paris and Moscow look great and have an immersive atmosphere and the various facilities and buildings are pretty well made. Rain and snow have been added with an impressive effect. All the areas are big and complex and connected with multiple ways. Not maze-like, but exploration is rewarding.

Gameplay:
I played in realistic and it certainly seemed harder than original DX. Head to head combat is lethal and the enemy AI also seemed better. Camera placement and general security was well implemented and not just there for the player to disable. Consumable tools were also hard to find, so don't expect to be carrying dozens of multittols/lockpicks/grenades. Expect to be avoiding many of the bots, because those nifty LAMs are hard to get. Apart from augmentation abilities and skills you also get to choose some perks when you get enough XP.
In general it seems that the augs and skills are well balanced. Napalm grenades have been added and they are pretty fun to use. Various new weapons have been introduced, mostly rifles and pistols (they look good, probably extracted form counterstrike). Skills and perks matter more, so don't expect to be any good in pistols, rifles, or melee, unless you invest much on the respective skills. Also, you'll soon run out of lockpicks/miltiools of you are not skilled at using them. Another addition is the option to use portable bots and drones if you have the required skills. Fun to use and very effective.
You can overcome obstacles in multiple ways, though I would have liked more options in some situations. You can also choose to help, or not, certain factions and this will eventually lead to three different endings. There is some lite C&C that both affects certain situations in-game and also changes somewhat the endings. The game is long, it takes about as much as the original DX to finish.
It doesn't get 5/5 because of two unavoidable scripted combat sequences. In both cases you're just thrown into combat without many options and it's pretty annoying. Especially one of them is extremely frustrating since a headshot in realistic difficulty is instant death, and you're swarmed by enemies. I had to be pretty creative and lucky to win this one and the lack of options was very un-DX like. Even though you can stealth most of the parts of 2027, you can't totally avoid combat.

Story/Writing:
I'm being generous here, because the writing is pretty amateurish, but I cut them some slack because some of it can be accounted to the translation and Russian is always a difficult language to translate. Trying to live up to DX's writing is always a daunting task.
The general plot is pretty good though. You play the role of a mercenary/spy that has to get into the labs of Human Horizon (A mulinational bio-tech indstry) and steal something from their server. When you do this a virus(?) enters your cyber-brain and all hell breaks loose. From then on you get to go to Paris, Moscow, Siberia and Nevada, USA while trying to get that program out of your mind and getting mixed up with various factions fighting for power. The story takes place several years before DX, and there are nods to the events of the original game.


Conclusion:
This is the best full-length DX mod I've played, and if you're a DX fan you should try it. Be patient with some of the writing, especially at the beginning, and I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

I just finished Nihilum. Pretty good, not as good as 2027, but an impressive mod especially considering the fact it's basically an one man job.

Visuals/Area Design/Sound :
I admit I was spoiled by 2027, Nhilum doesn't reach its visual quality, but it's pretty good nevertheless. Most areas are big and complex with multiple ways to move around and various "secret" areas. Hong Kong especially is impressive, it's massive and rewards exploration a lot, though it's a little too maze-like for it's own good. Berlin, NY and the other facilities aren't that big, except for the last area, which is also rather huge, but it lacks HK's depth. Visually both HK, NY and Berlin don't resemble much the aforementioned cities and could use some extra work in that regard.
The game also has full voice over. It sucks big time. Only a couple of voices are bearable but the rest are as bad as it gets and the protagonist's voice is especially bad... it's a bad black-man's-talk impersonation by a dude that reads the script like he has just learn how to read. Anyway, you can always mute the voices so it's no big deal in the end, although since the endings didn't have subtitles (at least none appeared for me) you'll have to endure them for that part.
On the other hand the music is fantastic, it's almost equal to the original game, if nothing else just grab the awesome soundtrack. Really this soundtrack is better than 99% of the soundtracks in AAA games. For the soundtrack's quality I'll give it a 4/5 instead of a 3/5.

Gameplay:
Multiple ways to reach your goals are a DX staple and this mod does well in that regard. In the beginning it seems like resources are scarce but soon you'll get a lot of them, which makes the game rather easy after a while especially for DX veterans. By midgame you'll be literary swarming with multitools and lockpicks, not to mention you'll also have explosives to do your dirty work. The only very tough moments are "Boss" battles in realistic, but they can actually be avoided, so thumbs up for this. In the C&C area things are pretty good, nothing major, but in the end of the first mission your boss reads a report of your various actions in certain situations and rewards you accordingly, it was pretty cool. Other than that there is a rather clever way where you can avoid a combat situation and save someone's life. I also liked the "enforcer" type enemy whom you couldn't sneak up to crouching (because he walks fast) and is generally an enhanced MIB-type enemy.
The game is almost as long as the original so thumbs up for that. I was a bit disappointed where at some point the game gives you a false choice for a branching storyline. On the other hand the branching in the end with the various conflicting groups is done pretty well, but frankly their rhetoric didn't sound very convincing, which brings us to the writing.

Story/Writing:
It sure has its heart in the right place but eventually the writing is lackluster. You play the role of UN's the very first nanotechnological agent (yep before Paul Denton) , Mad Ingram. He is sent to Hong Kong to find who is behind a terrorist attack there and he is eventually thrown in between the machinations of the Majestic12, the Illuminati and a new power with soviet origins, called XVA. The main idea is pretty fitting but the execution is amateurish. Dialog isn't very well written, especially the parts where attempts at humor are made. Fourth wall breaking and various DX-lore puns are also rather clumsy. Finally the goals and ideals of each organization aren't very clearly stated or very articulate, at least in their attempts to woo the protagonist to their cause. Since it's done by a Finnish guy he deserves to be cut some slack, the end result could have been much better with some good editing.

Conclusion:
Very good mod, not as good as 2027 but not very far behind either. I enjoyed this a lot (enough to play it for at least 15 hours) and even though TMN is maybe superior to area design and gameplay I found Nuhilum much easier to digest because it has an actual DX setting. Certainly an impressive achievement from just one dude and good for quenching some of that DX thirst.

Another total conversion that hasn't really seen much of the spotlight is Redsun2020 and it's pretty good with nice big complex levels, it's only problem IIRC being a little unfinished in the end levels.

 

[Lord_Potato]

2027 is probably the best in level design and gameplay, not to mention it has a pretty great look too. It's a little dodgy when it comes to dialog since it's translated from Russian, but serviceable nevertheless.

Today I started playing 2027. A truly beautiful TC, with some unique mechanics. Currently I'm in Paris, trying to figure out what's the whole Justicians vs. Shadow Legion situation about.

I have a question though: is it normal that there was no intro and no cutscene between Human Horizon mission and arrival in Paris? I felt that without such introductions the plot became difficult to understand. I basically know nothing about my protagonist and why he's doing the things he does. I thought it was a glitch in my install, but I'd like to be sure about it.

 

[ghostdog]

2027 is probably the best in level design and gameplay, not to mention it has a pretty great look too. It's a little dodgy when it comes to dialog since it's translated from Russian, but serviceable nevertheless.

Today I started playing 2027. A truly beautiful TC, with some unique mechanics. Currently I'm in Paris, trying to figure out what's the whole Justicians vs. Shadow Legion situation about.

I have a question though: is it normal that there was no intro and no cutscene between Human Horizon mission and arrival in Paris? I felt that without such introductions the plot became difficult to understand. I basically know nothing about my protagonist and why he's doing the things he does. I thought it was a glitch in my install, but I'd like to be sure about it.

I'm not sure about the cutscene. Better check out a LP on youtube

 

[Alphons]

I have a question though: is it normal that there was no intro and no cutscene between Human Horizon mission and arrival in Paris? I felt that without such introductions the plot became difficult to understand. I basically know nothing about my protagonist and why he's doing the things he does. I thought it was a glitch in my install, but I'd like to be sure about it.

It's normal. 2027 has the blandest protagonist across all TCs. If he had some character or backstory it would really improve the plot for me.

Though one cool thing I have to highlight is the ability to actually lock yourself out of certain endings.
One is unlocked by certain side quests while the other is locked without certain character present in the final area (KOd/ killed in previous level or died on the way to the objective).

 

[Lord_Potato]

I have a question though: is it normal that there was no intro and no cutscene between Human Horizon mission and arrival in Paris? I felt that without such introductions the plot became difficult to understand. I basically know nothing about my protagonist and why he's doing the things he does. I thought it was a glitch in my install, but I'd like to be sure about it.

It's normal. 2027 has the blandest protagonist across all TCs. If he had some character or backstory it would really improve the plot for me.

Though one cool thing I have to highlight is the ability to actually lock yourself out of certain endings.
One is unlocked by certain side quests while the other is locked without certain character present in the final area (KOd/ killed in previous level or died on the way to the objective).

Today I finished 2027. A beautiful TC, as beautiful as the original game with GMDX mod. Some original mechanics, like a completely reworked perk system. The story is a rehash of the original campaign - two AIs, three possible endings, one apocalyptic and two ambiguous. Completely forgettable main character. Very atmospheric locations though - moody streets of the Latin Quarter in Paris and tired splendor of Moscow. Final laboratory is a crazy multilevel maze with almost no loading screens. Very impressive, when you take into account an old and obsolete engine.

Enjoyed it a lot, though I feel Deus Ex formula is slowly getting exhausting. I think I'll try Nihilum and then move to a different flavor of RPGs to change the palette. Perhaps a party based tactical one.