First Person Shooters (FPS) don’t usually take on much of a Role Playing Game (RPG) element. Even when they do, they usually fall on their faces because either they are done as an afterthought, or the game maker is not good with the genre, or in some cases they just give up on it in the middle of game. Luckily for the people who play Deus Ex, we’ve found the exception.
Deus Ex has a very good core FPS gameplay. If it were to be rated on this alone, it would stand up to many of its time. As an RPG, it is good. Put those two together, like Ion Storm did, and you have a great hybrid game that almost outdoes all the others.
I would say the game is more of an FPS. It almost doesn’t matter what type it is, because Ion Storm managed to underpin the game with things that are needed to make all games great. One of these would be its futuristic story. This game plays like a great novel. It’s long. It progresses nicely. It even throws a few curves at you. As shooters go, this would be enough. As RPG’s goes, it might be enough. The good news is that you can actually change events by your actions, i.e. people dying or participating later. This is so greatly done, and truly appreciated considering this is not a short game. In long games, plots get pretty hairy when you add player flexibility.
The RPG element is even improved upon by giving alternative options to solving challenges. If you want to, you can go through the front door with your guns blazing. Or, you can try some other more stealthy method. You can even find some secret hatch. The even cooler part to this is that just because you find the secret hatch doesn’t mean that you will always have the easiest route to overcoming the task. Just like in real life, some things may backfire.
The alternative options set with a robust story naturally give way to non-linear action. This in turn keeps the repetitive combat a break. You don’t notice as much that you are killing over and over. Of course, having twenty different ways to kill or knock out a person isn’t bad either. They even let head shots kill off the opponent. So, a skillfully placed snipe is equal to the multiple shotgun blasts. That kind of methodology really advances a game. I’ve played so many games where once you get up a few levels, all of a sudden it takes ten shots to kill every monster. It’s nice to just be able to take people out with a one-shot even at the highest level.
They also place safe spots within their levels. In another words, they don’t have a person in every room to take out. There are parts in the game where you won’t meet a robot or human for long stretches. Some might want more action in these cases, but I found them a nicely administered lull in the roller coaster. It’s fun to relax a little a survey your surroundings, find different types of ammo and find/investigate clues to the next step.
A couple things were held back a little. The one thing that handcuffed the plot a little was the introduction of your character choices on whether to do things peacefully or forcefully. Peacefully meant knocking people unconscious as opposed to blowing them up. “Held back” is a phrase to use in this part, because I felt I was held back a little too much even though I wanted to go the peaceful route. First off, it’s good to knock them out when they aren’t looking (which you can do), but when they shoot at you, you should at least be allowed to shoot back. What am I supposed to do? Tell them to hold still so I can taser them? Of course if you do shoot, you are looked at as an enforcer. Also sticking this up is that you usually don’t have enough ammo to go totally peacefully anyway. You really can’t go either way effectively at first. Each way requires a patchwork of enforcer and peacemaker.
Gameplay experience is hampered a little by the interface that deals with your interaction with the environment. Ladders are hard to get on, devices are not easy to understand, and the whole thing is a little hard to pick up. This isn’t a function of learning curve but just poor functioning reaction models.
Other parts of the gameplay and environment are very interesting. For example, they have this multi-tool which you can essentially turn off security electronics. You build skill up using this and you can turn off, say, a camera with it. Not only is this a fun thing to do in the game, but if you never built up that skill, there are other things that you can do. Like, if you learned a lot about computers, you can hack in to the net and turn the cameras off that way.
The flexibility of the game captivated me. I think it would do it to anyone. As the game went on I found that I was enjoying it more and more. I don’t know if it had the addictive powers of some of my other five starred games. However, it pulled pretty much everything else those five-star games did, with great success. It’s hard not to put it in to the same category. So, I won’t. Five stars to you Deus Ex. Now, on to Invisible War!
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