I totally slept on the original Deus Ex games back in Ye Olde Gaming Times; I was a Mac/PS gamer, and PC gaming was a sort of terrifying black sewer complex of command line prompts and hardware incompatibilities. Many years later, I was intrigued enough by the reputation of Warren Specter’s open-ended FPS to give them a shot. Sadly, I found they just hadn’t aged well enough to retain my interest past the opening Statue of Liberty level. Maybe I suck, but as I recall the experience, Deux Ex was firmly rooted in the “I’m not telling you shit, Mr Player; just die until you figure me out” school of game design that’s been all-to-slowly dying out this last decade or so. It’s too bad really, as I normally tend to enjoy games with a strong non-combat component, but for whatever reason the experience not only didn’t grab me, but was actively repellant, so I mentally shrugged and set the whole thing aside.
And now, here’s Squenix with the trailer for a nice, current-gen entry to the franchise! Will it retain the previous games’ multiplicity of approaches and update them with nice modern design touches? Almost undoubtedly. Will it be able to set itself apart from all the other games that have built on its fight/sneak/talk approach to mission choice?
Uhhhhhh… Maybe. Watch the video after the jump and we’ll talk.
Continue reading Say It With Me, Children: “Day Use”, Not “Deuce”