And it was.. good. Not the epiphany of video gaming art that I was led to believe, but it was good. Think of it this way: the last game I beat was 3 months ago. The ending(s) was(were) a let down (Destroy world, Become AI and rule world, Suck Illuminati dick forever.), some of the points in the game seemed like I was given a choice, but I couldn't actually choose to do anything other then what the game had provided me tools for (I don't think it's possible escape from whatsherface in the subway station.), some of the levels were poorly though out (X-51, Jesus Christ X-51). But the amount of different ways to confront a situation, the cool story, the memorable moments and characters (Flatlander Woman, A BOMB, Sticks and stones, The whole of Hong Kong), made it a pretty damn good game.

Now I'm wondering, where to next?

Well, if you want to be completely disappointed, go play the sequel, Invisible War. I disliked it so much, I allowed my wife to sell it in a garage sale.

I tried, a long time ago.
It sucks forever.

You actually can kill Anna in the Battery Park subway.

If you want to play something similar, I'd recommend Thief. It doesn't have the character interaction and complex plot, but it has the stealth, and a pretty interesting setting.

Eh, I'm all about the character interaction.

Gunther too?

Uh.. yeah. You can kill Gunther.

I mean in the subway, how would you end up in that cell then? The game just skips the area?

I don't recall being able to kill Gunther in that area.

I've only played the sequel. I killed everyone at the end because I was so tired of being jerked around, and one of the factions still managed to benefit from my wanton bloodlust. **** that noise.

Apparently you can go through the entire game and only kill one person. Don't remember who it is though...

The mechanic?
It's Gunther, INTERNET confirmed.

But anyhow, I sort of agree with you there. I think the game was solid awesome until the supertanker mission - so that would be roughly 50-60% into the game. I just think the game's mood, mission and atmosphere just changed after that. I could delve into a 20-page essay on the matter but in any case, I thought the game just turned into "good" after the tanker mission. I guess one of the key elements is the decrease in open-endedness in the latter missions.

In any case as far as the second part of the game goes, the DuClare Chateau, Vandenberg and Ocean Lab levels were really great. The Chateau has somewhat lacking archi (as do the Paris levels in general, the streets level is pretty horrible IMO) but great atmosphere (<3^400 the music). The same goes for the Ocean Lab except I also really like the archi (a major inspiration for TODOA, in fact if there had been more time/interest I would have made the missions very Ocean Lab-like). Vandenberg mission had neat archi and good atmosphere.

[Edit] Judging by the many edits I've made to this post, it seems like I do rate most of the latter part of the game very high as well... OH WELL

You can't kill Günther at the subway station, he's invincible there. The only person you need to kill is the weapons expert (or whoever) in the bottom floor of the missile silo, and even then if you crouch correctly (or sometimes you just stand normally) he'll kill himself. You can just run away from Günther in the cathedral if you can. DEUS EX NERD CONFIRMED.

I've learned in the past to keep my opinions of Deus Ex out of massassi

Everybody seems pretty rational.

You can also knock out Gunther in the cathedral rather than having to run away from him but it's extremely convoluted as he is almost completely immune to knockout-weapons. Many quicksaves required. I once decided to do a no-killing and maximum-lifesaving playthrough. My view was that, in my eventual endgame where I merge with Helios, the character and behaviour of this new world dictator would be greatly influenced by the kind of person JC is prior to merging and the only way to define that is by your actions in the game. Not only did I not kill anybody, I went to bloody stupid lengths to avoid deaths in any situation where they might otherwise occur. So, for example, I incapacitated everyone on the superfreighter then carried them off the ship to a safe distance before I scuttled it.

I think I must have been bored at the time.

I ran out of interest in the playthrough before I got very far in the silo mission. That might be a good thing, because aiming a nuke at Area 51 would surely have killed somebody. I do tend to lose interest towards the end of Deus Ex whenever I go back to the game for another play through.

I tried some of those intentionally limited playthroughs a few years back but didn't reach the end of the game with those. However, the only limitation I have these days is to avoid all alarms (not counting 1 or 2 alarms triggered by the game no matter what).

Funny tidbit, the Liberty Island level is the only one where the game makes a difference between "unconscious" and "dead" which is sort of disorienting when Paul says "we don't want another Anna Navarre bloodfest" in the second level even though I haven't actually killed anyone at that point. Hum.

There's a way to get through Battery Park without triggering the battle between Anna and the terrorists, which then means you don't get Paul saying that. I can't remember exactly, but you have to avoid the front exit, and go in through the secret entrance behind the vending machine. I think you have to exit the same way as well, or maybe you can go near the front once you've found the cannister?

Giraffe, wtf

One of my favorite all time games. Have you seen the SA Megathread, Tibby? It showed me some stuff to look for on my second play through (which was a lot better than my first, which was still better than 99% of games I play today).

Umm, what?

As long as you don't trigger Anna going off after the terrorists you're fine. Even if you've already knocked everyone unconscious, if Anna goes in Paul will complain about the bloodbath.

I assume she just murders them because she's a *****.

I drugged everybody on level one, and still got a telling off from UNCLE SAM CARTER telling me to use non-lethal force.

I changed my tactics after that and killed everyone I could. <_<

I never played Deus Ex but this thread makes me want to, more than any review or gameplay video I have seen.

Triscuit, if you haven't played it, you can pick it up for a bargain bucket price. AND YOU SHOULD.

I wish I could play it... but every time I load it... I end up shutting it down because the graphics are just too old

Next steam sale I guess.

Probably wouldn't even have to wait for a sale. It's so old, I can't imagine it being more than a few bucks.

I think mb got it for $5 a while back. No sale.

I got it for $5 on sale, but it looks like steam has it for $10 right now.

Also, Deus Ex doesn't work properly on my machine. I can't remember what it was specifically, but I'm pretty sure it doesnt let me reload or switch weapons.

Were there ever graphic updates made for the game?

Surely there'd be mods for that by now

There are plenty of graphical mods to make the game function with DX10 and stuff like that. I'll try to dig them up later if I remember to and link them, or you guys could hit up google.

Also, Shifter is amazing for a second play through. I don't think I can stress how much the second play through helps you love the game.

Nothing, just haven't seen you around here in quite some time.

Way to read my past Deus Ex threads! Man they never even got this many posts!

Anyhow, I just finished my 2010 playthrough and I must pull back my earlier assesment... the game always seems to slump at Paris in my opinion but the missions after those are actually pretty good. Even if the first half of the game is more solid anyhow.

The new DirectX 10 driver with rudimentary HDR is available from here.

The latest beta for the texture revamp is available from here.

Project HDTP (revamp of all the models and then some) might be out someday.

Shame I dont have DX10. I figured I could play this on my pc with some mildly better models and textures. But as it is, it feels like I'm looking at square boxes in the shape of people

Really? Paris was my favourite level. The best parts for me were the cathedral and that area near the catacombs entrance (the part patrolled by a few commandos with the office where Icarus phones you).

DirectX 9 renderer and some others. No faux-HDR, though. (Not a big loss)

The Paris levels weren't bad but I didn't like them compared to the others (except for the Chateau, it's probably my #2 favorite level in the game). Agreed on the Icarus interactions, even though my favorite convo there was at the bar in Paris streets where you practically describe the plot of the game to the bartender who certainly isn't impressed by your conspiracy shenanigans. Ah, greatness.