Deus Ex (video game)

Did You Know?

• A marketing website for UNATCO caused a government website to crash due to excessive traffic.
• The game was originally titled 'Troubleshooter' and later 'Shooter: Majestic Revelations'.

Synopsis

Deus Ex is set in 2052, a dystopian cyberpunk future where the world is ravaged by the Gray Death plague and its limited Ambrosia vaccine. The player controls JC Denton, a UNATCO agent with nanotechnology augmentations, who investigates terrorist attacks on vaccine shipments. The story involves multiple factions, including the Illuminati and Majestic 12, and takes place across locations such as New York City, Hong Kong, and Paris. Key characters include Paul Denton, Tracer Tong, Morgan Everett, Daedalus, Walton Simons, and Bob Page. The plot follows a main thread but is subject to player decisions, with subplots that may or may not be encountered.

Development

Warren Spector conceived the game in the early 1990s under the title Troubleshooter while working on Ultima Underworld II. After pitches to Origin Systems and Looking Glass Studios were rejected, and a later project called Junction Point was cancelled, Spector joined Ion Storm in 1997, offered complete creative freedom by John Romero. Pre-production began in August 1997 under the working title Shooter: Majestic Revelations. Spector served as producer and lead director, with a team that included lead designer Harvey Smith, lead programmer Chris Norden, and lead composer Alexander Brandon.

Development spanned six months of pre-production with a team of six, followed by twenty-eight months of full production with a staff of twenty. The game was built using the Unreal Engine, which caused coding and NPC behavior issues, leading to some features being downscaled or cut. The game went gold in June 2000.

Release

Originally planned for Christmas 1998, Deus Ex was delayed multiple times. The title was derived from the phrase deus ex machina. Eidos Interactive published the game for Microsoft Windows on June 23, 2000 in North America, July 27 in Australia, and August 4 in the United Kingdom. Post-release patches addressed framerate issues and added a multiplayer mode. A Game of the Year edition was released on May 8, 2001, including a soundtrack CD, and was later released on Steam on March 29, 2007. A Mac OS port, developed by Westlake Interactive and published by Aspyr, was released on July 13, 2000. A Linux port was in development at Loki Games but was never released due to the company's closure in 2002.

Reception

Deus Ex sold over 1 million copies worldwide as of April 2009. It received a score of 90 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 28 critic reviews. Critics praised the gameplay variety and player freedom, while the graphics and audio received more mixed reactions. Jeff Lundrigan of Next Generation called it one of the best PC titles available. Kieron Gillen of PC Gamer UK highlighted the freedom of choice and depth of systems. Edge praised the customization through skills and augmentations. Rob Fahay of Eurogamer noted that unconventional solutions did not break the game. Tal Blevins of IGN praised the gameplay options and level design. Greg Kasavin of GameSpot faulted individual gameplay parts like combat and hacking for lacking depth. Gino Gard of GameSpy noted erratic enemy AI. The game won multiple awards and has been ranked among the best video games of all time.