Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth.

Best RPG I've ever played. download the revision mod.

This is an overall cool game and a very important one in video game history but it is unlikely to feel like Jesus Christ himself descended to deliver this adventure despite what the usual nostalgia battalion says.

Story wise it is decent and maybe doesn’t hit as hard now with how saturated many of the topics it covers now are. It is definitely a product of its time but can still have some unique worthwhile moments. Most characters are pretty bland and forgettable if not a bit of a meme but they’re not really the focus. The big draw is choices in how you approach things and how npcs react to what you have done in the world space. You can miss certain characters entirely, kill many of them off and the game will hold together. If you’re expecting some mind-blowing weave here by modern standards you might be a bit disappointed but for it’s time I can see why it was praised.

Gameplay is going to be pain point for many players who are not used to some old school jank. Weapons in general feel pretty floaty and not very satisfying to use. Now many fans will immediately cry out “guns should never be the focus in deus ex” but for players who wish to use them it is important to note. Melee weapons feel like they don’t hit what you think they should be hitting and can lead to many of them coming across as unresponsive but not a dealbreaker. Gadgets and grenades are also at your disposal and those feel fine enough aside from you have the most weenie hut jr arm. The actual act of exploring all the different avenues around each of the maps to approach your objectives is the real draw of the gameplay, however. Guns blazing, creeping through vents, going under to the sewer, stealthing in the open shadows, its all available to you. Levels can be a little bit of a pain to navigate because everything looks very samey but you should be able to get through it without too much trouble. AI is very basic and won’t be difficult to outsmart. Lastly, dialogue will change slightly if you kill rather than use non lethal approaches but don’t worry because it has to real affect on the story.

Visually it’s…. an old ass game. Characters are low poly, environments are very empty looking, lighting is bad, cityscapes are low res, and the actual area buildings are like 1/10th the size they should be (almost like you’re playing on a tableset). But if you don’t mind the usual late 90s early 2000s games look you have nothing to worry about.

Technically it has some problems. You are going to want to at bare minimum use the alternate launcher from kentie to add some modern options. I had some initial problems with certain renders that had to be sorted out but never quite got it to work flawless. The biggest issue I ran into was audio bugs. Constant audio glitches and distortion/cracking that got worse as I got further into the game. They would resolve on game restart but then reappear within minutes. Also you need to rebind some of the keys because the default layout is terrible.

This is one of those games from that era that is instrumental in how video games developed from then on and it is important to recognize and respect that. However, it clearly falls behind compared to modern renditions in many areas and that’s okay. This does not need to be mindlessly propped up as a depression inducing ride that will destroy your want to play any other games. That kind of discourse is so hyperbolic and ridiculous. This is an oldschool game that has a lot of charm and is absolutely worth experiencing despite the jank, just don’t go in expecting the key to life being presented to you by the end.