There is factor that will heavily play into whether or not you are going to have a smooth or rocky experience when playing Deus Ex; your video card. If you happen to have a card from 3Dfx (i.e. part of the line of Voodoo cards), Deus Ex will run at a nice frame rate, with it only slowing down occasionally when it has to load a new group of textures. Unfortunately, however, if you happen to be using one of nVidia’s lines of cards (TNT or GeForce), Deus Ex is about to head into a long string of choppy frame rates because it will have to run through Direct3D. Deus Ex runs on the Unreal engine from Epic Games (not the Unreal Tournament engine, which has much improved Direct3D support), and Direct3D is something that doesn’t agree with the engine very much. There’s likely to be a patch issued at a later date that will remedy the situation somewhat (there are even some tweaks that have been proved to help the frame rate considerably already), but until then, nVidia owners will not be able to bask in the silky smooth frame rates that they’re used to.

Similar to System Shock, Deus Ex takes place in the future, a future where the Statue of Liberty has had its head blown to bits thanks to a terrorist attack. You play as JC Denton, who has just joined up with UNATCO, a government agency designed to keep the peace throughout the world. JC’s brother, Paul Denton, has already been enrolled into UNATCO for a while now. Paul has become a respected UNATCO agent, though recently he has begun to slip up in certain situation. Starting with the first mission of the game, there are suspicions regarding Paul and the choices he is making during the missions he is assigned. Deus Ex’s plot is full of conspiracies, lies, deception and a fantastic cast of interesting characters to interact with. There’s almost never a dull moment in the plot; there is always some new character or group causing trouble.

Even though many PC titles have centered around multiplayer gaming, Deus Ex is all about an engrossing single player experience. Some multiplayer purists might be a bit disappointed; there’s no multiplayer to be found, but the single player included in Deus Ex’s package is undeniably one of the best that money can buy. Likely the most impressive feature that has been put into Deus Ex is the amount of freedom that the player has over how they tackle the mission objectives given to them. There is always more than one path to reach a goal, and numerous times at least three. Which path will be the easiest depends on the types of skills that your character has developed (i.e. an elite hacker who takes the safer, stealthier path or instead waltzes from room to room with a rocket launcher); different paths will require certain abilities. In the first level of the game alone, I was able to count at least three points of entry. One would require either taking out a security bot using an EMP grenade or hacking into the security console nearby to disable it; one would require stacking boxes on top of another, thus avoiding many potential guard encounters; and the last would require taking a more dangerous and longer approach on the outskirts. Having played through the game, I can confidently say that this type of freedom is present throughout the entire game, and gives the player a sense that he would have much to do if he were to go back and play through the game again.

The skills that were mentioned earlier are determined through skill points that are earned by completing mission objectives. Primary Objectives end up giving up the most points (ranging anywhere from 100 to 500 skill points), while there are a few times where Secondary Objectives will give a little something up, too. Exploring the game’s environments and discovering secret locations and objects will also reward the player with bonus skill points. These skill points are then applied to various skill sections, including hacking, how useful a type of weapon will be (i.e. rifle, pistol, demolition, etc.), lock picking and a bunch more. All of the skill levels can be upgraded four times, with each upgrade providing a better control over the skill until it’s finally mastered. It’s impossible to try and be in great shape in all areas of skill, so likely a few select areas will have to be picked and concentrated on. Since I’m the cowardly type and wanted to snipe and stay stealthy, I ended up pumping up the computer, hacking, lock picking, pistol and rifle skills.

Key to a game like this is the artificial intelligence, and this is an area where Deus Ex still does rather well, though not all of the time. The current game that I have been playing, has been on the medium difficulty setting, and this has provided a nice balance between the enemy being able to see me, but not so often that it becomes frustrating to make it through an area without an all out fire fight. On the medium difficulty I can usually sneak away from enemies, even when they know I’m around. By simply crouching around them; they are immune to hearing me shuffle around. I’ve heard complaints that this makes the game seem unrealistic and too forgiving, but before any complaints are fired, make sure to try playing Deus Ex on the “realistic” difficulty, and see how easy it becomes. Careful planning for each situation is required, as the enemy will start hunting you down at the first mistake that is made.

It is not often that we see outstanding voice acting in a game, but Deus Ex does exactly that throughout practically the entire duration of the adventure. Every character comes across very believable, and JC’s own voice, along with his “I’m-cool-as-hell-so-don’t-mess-with-me” look, makes him an awesome character to play as. Ion Storm has to be commended for their excellent work on the massive amounts of dialog (each of the NPCs in the game has at least a couple of lines, in addition to a true conversation that they might have with you) and the voice acting; it isn’t too often we see that much care taken.

When writing this review, I truly wanted to give the game a full-blown A; it whole-heartedly deserves it. It’s unfortunate, then, that I cannot because of the shortcomings when it comes to the poor performance under Direct3D, and the, at times, questionable artificial intelligence. Even so, Deus Ex is an incredible PC title, and shouldn’t be missed by anyone.