Deus Ex - Retrospective @ Harcore Gaming 101

Hardcore Gaming 101 is offering an in-depth look at the original Deus Ex and its Mac and PS2 ports, including screenshots comparing the different versions.

Note the article does contain spoilers.

A common problem with games that try to mix different genres and accomodate different playstyles is that they end up not being particularly good at any single thing. This is also true for Deus Ex, which is a clunky first-person shooter, a stealth game that gives more loud and lethal solutions than stealthy ones (and the stealthy ones you're given are often not the most reliable) and a fairly shallow RPG. Forunately, in this case the whole is much bigger than the sum of its parts and Deus Ex manages to be a great game in its own right regardless.

Deus Ex players control JC Denton, an anti-terrorist secret agent employed by United Nations. The character's abilites can be modified by distributing experience points (received for completing mission objectives and exploring different locations) to a set of skills ranging from the use of different weapons to hacking and lockpicking, as well as by installing and upgrading 'augmentations': nanotechnological devices inside Denton's body that allow him to use special skills like health regeneration, silent movement or resistance to bullets. Skills are fairly straightforward - just increase the ones you're using the most - but augmentations require a bit of strategic thinking as augmentation of each body part is permanent and usually requires choosing one of two mutually exclusive bonuses (e.g. either being able to lift heavier objects or doing more damage with melee weapons). Bonuses that come from skills are passive, while augmentations need to be activated and require energy to use.

Thanks Dark Savant.