Forums > Submission Feedback > JoeTheDestroyer's Deus Ex review

I seldom have time to read reviews these days. I'm glad I read this one!

I don't have to prove I'm refined - that's what makes me refined!

Thanks, man!

The only thing my milkshake brings to the yard is a subpoena.

Have you played System Shock 2? Lots of the things that people said made Deus Ex so cool seem to me to have been done better in that game.

Anyway, I'm glad you took the game to task the way you did--too many reviewers revisit old classics either to practice some revisionist history (this was never good!) or to pretend they haven't noticed how poorly some aspects have aged.

And incidentally, your comical description of the ventilation shaft killings reminds me of Stolen.

I don't have to prove I'm refined - that's what makes me refined!

Never played System Shock 2, though I've wanted to. If it's anything like Deus Ex, then I probably should get off my ass and give it a shot.

I try to make note of how poorly some games age. I think sometimes my sense of nostalgia gets the better of me, but that wasn't the case with Deus Ex. Mostly I was fed up with the overabundant darkness, though the visuals as a whole were actually pretty nauseating.

I keep forgetting Stolen exists. I think your review keeps reminding me. I've stumbled on it a couple times. The screens at GameFAQs kind of remind me of Rogue Ops.

The only thing my milkshake brings to the yard is a subpoena.

Your impression of this game is pretty interesting. You seem to praise the combat and RPG mechanics here, but I always felt these aspects were among its weaker points. The shooting was clunky, the melee combat was god-awful any time that you weren't sneaking around and backstabbing people, and the fact that you had to toggle your energy-guzzling augmentations on and off with the function keys every time you got into a fight was super annoying. Even the movement felt weird and bad; Denton's non-augmented run speed was laughably slow, like he had dwarfism or something.

And the RPG mechanics? Some of the skills you could slot points into were completely useless. Swimming was completely throwaway (as it often is in FPS games), and "environmental training" was just laughable. Slot points into a skill that lets you use disposable bullet-proof vests that somehow burn out and break (?) after 30 seconds of use. To top it all off, the weapon skills simply took the heavy-handed handicaps off of their aiming.

I didn't mind the voice acting as much as you did. I do recall a few painfully bad voice actors for insignificant parts, but I guess for me, the strength of the writing and the story overall compensated for that.

However, I certainly agree that the graphics were sub-par even for their day. It was based on the first Unreal engine, which was never the most attractive renderer, and the level designs also left something to be desired. Vast, wide, featureless grey hallways are never the best way to approach things even when trying to keep framerate in mind.

Good article, either way. I don't think I have enough to say that hasn't been written before to write a review of my own, but I just felt like sharing my impressions nonetheless.

placid like acid