Deus Ex

Fri, 22 May 2026 19:03:00 -0400

In Deus Ex, hour after hour of slices of the world perfectly align into a living playground of roving militants and hapless civilians. Rarely does a game ever make its missions feel properly explorable while keeping it taut and linear at the same time, and yet Deus Ex routinely weaves both together. For every underground lair with traps laid out in sequence, an open oasis follows – see the suffocating catacombs that give way to the Champs-Élysées avenue of Paris, with a bakery to pilfer contraband drugs from, a hostel with full bar access, and an arms dealer’s loaded apartment, all off the beaten path from your main objective. Military bases and science labs exhibit believable layouts, and locker rooms, rows of cubicles, and break rooms feature just as prominently in the dungeon crawling as warehouses with guards patrolling or tightly wound mazes of laser tripwires and turrets. The authenticity and legibility of these areas comes first, and yet more often than not the designers still manage to weave in appropriate challenges without violating each location’s fidelity in the process.

Ion Storm on

Deus Ex