Remember when John Romero failed to ‘make you his bitch’? I do.
While the Daikatana hype machine was turning into a sad joke (it was relegated to the bargain bin in mere weeks after its release), a lesser known branch of Ion Storm game studios was hard at work on what would become the game of year in 2000. Now, Mr. Romero is long gone, and the sequel to the groundbreaking Deus Ex is upon us… and it is good.
The second chapter of an epic story
Deus Ex had three possible endings, based on the final choice made by the player:
- Join the Illuminati and finalize their power as a global leader
- Merge with the Helios AI and gain a greater role in the creation of an evolved human civilization
- Reject the evils of technology and plunge the world into a primitive and chaotic state
It would seem inevitable that one of these outcomes would have to be chosen as the prologue to the new story, but instead the game designers chose to implement all three. In this way the sequel could pick up where the first game left off, no matter what choices were made in the first installment. JC Denton (the player character in Deus Ex) has indeed caused a great civil and economic collapse, but the rest of the possible outcomes are integrated into the story. Sure, I can explain in a bit more detail - but you’ll have to go elsewhere if you want a spoiler, tough guy.
Science fiction writers have speculated for decades about the potential effects of microscopic machines that could break down matter around them and self-replicate. The so-called ‘Grey Goo Theory’ is beautifully conveyed in the opening cinematic, showing the point of detonation and slowly panning back to show the entire city crumbling to the ground in amidst a growing cloud of consuming nano-machines.
The very first level consists of another terrorist attack on your new paramilitary training compound. (You were evacuated from the first one as nanites enveloped it.) The attacking force effectively raises serious questions as to the integrity of your superiors, providing tangible evidence that you have been lied to and manipulated by the very caretakers who have given you superhuman powers.
This bleak vision sets the stage for the most important philosophic question you must consider: Do you serve corrupt forces that wish only to rule over the sheepish masses, or do you feed the fires of rebellion and threaten the stability of an already fragile world peace? There are many variations on this theme, and several more basic moral questions are raised, but in the end it always comes back to this core conflict.
True Freedom
I’ve had the pleasure of playing through this game twice, and the more I play, the more impressed I am with the obvious effort the developers have put into it. Consider that it is entirely possible to play through this game multiple times without having to complete any one section in the same manner. The key here is character development; put simply, you have a limited set of upgrades that are used to bypass or neutralize a wide array of obstacles.
What makes this system so brilliant is the way that different skills and items can achieve the same results, but in different ways. There is a nanite program that converts energy into health, but if you require the same function and already have an important upgrade in that slot, use the black market version on a different upgrade slot – one that breaks down fallen enemies’ bodies and converts them to health. The hacking upgrade will allow you disable entire security systems, once you find a wall panel – but the ‘bot domination’ upgrade will allow you to take control and disable cameras, gun turrets and security robots on the fly (assuming you’re slick enough to sneak up on them).
Most of the levels are mandatory for any of the story arcs, but often the exact locations, mission paths and objectives vary drastically based on your decisions. It is impressive the first time through, thinking about how you want to attack any situation. It is simply sublime the next time through, as you take a different path and see the entire situation from a new vantage point, both figuratively and literally. It is also worth noting that you may choose to do all the missions available to you as opposed to sticking with one faction or another. So in essence, you’ve got either one sixteen-hour game or two eight-hour games, give or take, depending on how much time you choose to spend nosing around for extra goodies.
The one inherent problem with this gameplay system is the tunnels. It would be entirely possible to come up on a situation and not have the items or skills needed to progress. To bypass these areas, or to simply gain access to an area without being seen, there are grates that open up to air vents, tunnels, basements or whatever. These tunnels have attracted a good amount of critical scorn since the release, but what is the alternative? Would the public have been happier if Eidos delivered a game in which the player could get stuck and have to start the game over because of bad choices they made when searching rooms or installing biomods? I’m writing this one off as a necessary evil, and you will too (if you know what’s good for you!).
The next, next-gen
Before I get into some of the technical aspects of this game, I need to talk about the 1.1 Patch. I’ve been reading a lot of sour reviews stating that the game is laggy and has severe framerate problems. The patch fixes the mouse lag issue, allows users with older video cards to further scale back the graphics and addresses some issues with the interface. This review takes the patch into consideration and assumes the gamer has it. Of course, if you’ve got the XBOX version you needn’t worry about the patch.
Bump mapping is a technique that lays a transparent ‘map’ over a texture that causes light to interact with virtual ‘bumps’ to create some gorgeous shadow effects. This technology was used to excellent effect in Halo, and along with ‘vertex shaders’ make up the bulk of the directX8+ effects package. What this means to you, the gamer, is that you’re in serious trouble if you don’t have a card with decent shader performance. The Radeon 9000 and GeForceFX 5200 technically support directX8 shaders, but attempting to play this game on said hardware will likely result in a slideshow. I highly suggest that you upgrade your graphics card to at least a Radeon 9600 (which performed very well in early Half-Life 2 tests and can be bought online for just over $100) or GeForceFX 5600 for this game.
The graphical quality of this game is apparent from the first minute you play. The complex lighting and shadow system totally obliterates previous leaders like Splinter Cell, pushing the Unreal2 engine farther than I ever expected to see. Bump maps on clothing are a joy to just stand there and gawk at, every fold and wrinkle popping out at you. As the lighting system is totally dynamic, you can actually move an object to create a shadow, and hide in it. Aside from that, though, it’s really just eye candy – very impressive eye candy.
The Havok physics engine is employed here to great effect. I’ve spent many hours thus far piling bodies on top of each other, just to watch them settle into empty space, thanks to gravity. Tossing a body onto a railing and watching him fold and go head over heels is a riot. This new level of realism feels like a tech demo at times, as physics-based puzzles are impressive but scarce, and somewhere along the line somebody decided to make objects go flying this way and that at the slightest touch. It’s been described as “cartoonish” by some of my colleagues.
The environments are roughly the same size and scope of the previous game, with a couple of surprisingly fun re-creations of Deus Ex levels. There is obviously more geometric detail and higher resolution textures, but most of the feel had remained true to the series. The character animation is as stiff as ever, and the AI hasn’t gotten any better, either. In the end, though, you have to see DX2:IW for what it really is: A unique hybrid of RPG/FPS/Puzzle Solving elements. At the end of the day, the AI plays into the gameplay mechanics just fine, and the stiff animation (while contradictory to the rest of the gorgeous graphics) doesn’t really make a difference in the gameplay.
Side Notes
The sound here is adequate and the voice acting is great. Robots often announce their intentions, and people think out loud and generally emote whatever the AI routine is doing. It’s a nice touch, but would have been totally unnecessary had the animation was a bit more robust.
The interface has been simplified to accommodate the XBOX version. The skill system has been replaced by a more involved biomod system. What this really means is that the game is going to be more accessible, plain and simple. I know there are many people out there who need to constantly look at stat screens and cleverly micromanage inventory. Those people can get over it. The gameplay is still every bit as rewarding without all the extra fat.
Final Digs
We’re going to start seeing games with visual quality and physics model similar to this one. Hopefully these games will make an effort to allow the player this much freedom in forming his own character with his own destiny. Like its predecessor, DX2:IW is stunning both in technology and in design, and should be required playing for anyone interested in the evolution of gaming.
You owe it to yourself to play this game.
