Deus Ex - Part 1

                   Reviewed by Dave Booth

Reading the solution to Deus Ex, which was published in SynTax
from issue 75, reminded me of another FPS, Half-Life, that I had
played some time ago and enjoyed immensely.  It was a nice
surprise then while browsing the local software megastore to find
it on sale at a tenner - five minutes later the readies had left
my wallet and Deus Ex was in the bag.

It is a DirectX game, with DX 7 on CD ready to install.  There was
no need to though, having DX 8.1 already on the PC at home.  Two
minutes after hitting the 'Install' button I was ready to play.

As seems to be the standard with FPS these days, the game has a
number of options for configuring the keyboard, mouse, video and
sound.  The first port of call was the keyboard/mouse config.
Here were the usual suspects :  up/down, left/right, strafe, fire,
answer door, make tea.  I amended the defaults to my preferred
scheme, which is the keyboard for movement commands using the left
hand - so E/D/S/F is up/down/turn left/turn right for instance -
and the mouse was set up for fire/get/mouselook.  Mouselook is
another standard feature of FPS games, which as the name implies
means moving the mouse lets you have a butchers at what might be
above, below, behind or to the side of you.  That comes in very
handy in this sort of game.

The first part of the game is the training grounds.  This is where
you learn to move around, use weapons, and acquire rudimentary
tactics.  Already I was being reminded of Half-Life, and I was
particularly gleeful to find that there is a sniper gun in the
game.  Nothing is as satisfying as silently taking out an enemy
from afar.  Beats all that 'up close and personal fisticuffs'
fighting in my book.

(Cue resident SynTax game psychologist?)

As you progress from the training ground to the game proper, you
are treated to a cut scene.  This clearly shows the baddies, in
this case a band of evil cut-throat terrorist types going under
the banner of 'NSF', plotting to take over the world.

Your lot are sponsored by the UN and are therefore the goodies.
The NSF are making some sort of super-robot to seal their fate as
ultimate rulers of the known universe, so your job naturally is to
stop them.

You start your task at the Empire State Building in New York which
the NSF are attempting to dynamite into bits.  Working your way
through the complex, you pop off or incapacitate their operatives
and at the end, defuse their bomb.

The graphics in-game are fine by the standard of the time.  Given
the game is two years old, the scenery is nicely rendered in 3D,
including a cityscape of NY City and old Liberty herself.  Walls
tend to smudge into a goo of brown and green when you are right
next to them, but that is to be expected.


At the start of the game you acquire skill points to allocate to
attributes like rifle shooting, computer hacking, swimming and so
on.  These can be further improved as you gain experience.

On to the gameplay.

The artificial intelligence has had some attention paid to it.
Enemies will react if shot at - unless you stun them or get a
head-shot in which is fatal.  Otherwise they zig zag around, and
seem to use obstacles to block your shots, until they close and
open fire.  Nice touch.  I was glad I had trained rifle, and found
a pair of binoculars early in the game, which combined allowed me
to line up a baddie and take him out with a head-shot.

It's feasible to use the enemy's defences against him.  Dotted
around are boxes of high-explosive.  Run into a baddy's line of
sight then out, and as he pursues put a bullet into the HE next to
him.  Result, baddy gunk all over the place.  Similarly, the boxes
can be picked up and dropped from a height for the same effect
with less ammunition.

In the same fashion, proximity mines will emit a warning siren
when approached, but can be disarmed AND removed for your own use
later.  So plonk one on that wall, wake up the enemy with a shot
from afar, and watch as he trips his own mine.  Rather enjoyable.

These items come in handy particularly as ammo dumps are scarce,
even on Easy mode.  However you can, and at some stages must, use
stealth tactics to progress.  This could involve sneaking up
behind an enemy and stunning him with your tazer gun, or avoiding
a formidable gun-laden robot, or ducking and slipping past
proximity mines.  This is a nice touch, and is an improvement on
the Half-Life scenario which was 'shoot it or run past it' by and
large.  You have a choice of strategies depending on your ammo
stock, life points, local resources, and the type of enemy you
face.

Anyway - the Statue of Liberty is safe from destruction, so time
to move on to the next threat to be neutralised.  More to come.
                              - o -