There’s just something special about the way you pace things that just makes it so easy for me to actually sit through and enjoy actual 2 and a half hours of your content without feeling like i wasted any of my time. You’re cool man.
Man I totally agree. His tone and rhythm of speech mixed with the sharp, dry wit is just perfect. I just found this channel yesterday, but I think it's about to explode.
34:00 if you follow Walton Simons down into the cellblock, you can sneak through the door when he opens it and interrogate the prisoners yourself. Simons gets SO MAD.
@@Warlockracy No problem, man. Your content really is up there with the top dogs like Mandalore, Sseth and Civvie. And unlike some content creators who blatantly rip off other people's style (looking at you, discount Sse- i mean uberdanger) - you actually have your very own, unique and fresh way of representing stuff. Keep up this non-caricatular representation of Eastern European review uhm... style? and the insight and comparison to stuff that's happening in Ukraine is also really, really fresh. The small insights about buying games from the flee market is nostalgic for me, and probably interesting for the Western audience who don't know how us millennial kids experienced early post-soviet independence. And i also love that our ex-Soviet culture isn't joked about or meme'd/made fun of to death like Boris made it, and your reviews actually command respect. That's coming from someone whose from another ex-Soviet republic Warm regards from Lithuania!
of course because this was from a time 3d graphics were shit, so people focused onthe story 100x more... now they just use unreal engine 5 and make a communist version of games.
Deus ex is such a long game. Playing it feels like it just doesn't end yet you want to push on. Expierence more of it. It's unique. Such game in that scale with that quality rarely exists. It's truly one of the best games ever made
And according to authors it was planned to be even longer. Honestly it gets a bit dragging in the end with gas station and missile base levels but it still ends with a blast.
@@worndown8280 Or just make a save near the end and pick a different option. Replaying it is more to toy with different playstyles and explore all of the different outcomes and events you can get along the way.
@@planescaped The thing that flabbergasted me was that after the first mission, I had to actually run down to Manderley's office for the debrief - I had expected a static debrief screen with text and objectives ticked off as was the standard of the time. The way that the game just kept the player in control was just incredible.
Daedalus using that as its name isn't a plot hole. You start getting messages from a hacker calling himself "INTERNET" or "HYPERTEXT", you're not going to assume the actual Internet itself is the one talking to you, you're just gonna think he picked a weird code name.
As someone who got into the series by first playing Human Revolution and going back, I can say that the modern games are good but the original is on a whole different level. The Eidos people tried but I think they knew it was a bit too much so they scaled back the games to try and keep quality similar. I am still mad at Square Enix for their betrayal on Mankind Divided, where they forced the devs to prety much cut the game at the end of the 2nd act so they could allocate resources to that stupid Avengers game that was completly worthless of the money and time put into it.
I'm angry at them for implementing a very convoluted release scheme (they did similar with Hitman but luckily that game survived), not meeting their financial expectations and then postponing everything indefinitely.
When this game came out, it was rated the best game of all time. I am not sure I would go that far but the things it talked about in the game, even in the first mission, took you deep into modern politics the way few games did.
1:48:25 Fun fact: Anna doesn't have to die. It certainly wasn't intended but it's possible to abuse her AI into getting her to open the door, or clip through it bypassing the need for the key to unlock the door and allowing you to exit the level. What's even more interesting is that the game seems to have accounted for this and while she doesn't play any more part in the story, the game still acts as if she is alive with Gunther making no reference to her death, as he normally would.
Perhaps they planned on leaving Anna alive being an option, cut it late in development, and just left the line and code pointing to it in the game? I wouldn't doubt it. The first game alone has a fuckload of cut content.
All of this just makes me a bit sad that they don’t have a dedicated “spare anna” route intended in the game, it would’ve been interesting to see how the game would react to that.
I'm a bit surprised you didn't notice the receptionist at the ton acts so casual not because he's laissez faire about terrorists, but because right around the corner, there's an NSF terrorist holding him at gun point who you can confront if you go through the door to the receptionist's left.
For me, the Helios ending is the only one that makes sense. Destroying the net and everything seems like a band-aid fix at best, and in the mean time it feels like it would get a lot of people hurt or killed. By comparison the illumanti ending feels like a half-measure from a JC who just desperately wanted to be told what to do by someone of higher authority. Props to Tracer Tong, but he comes off as a science nerd who's thought about it way too hard, is sure he's right, and won't entertain any other option. Morgan Everett is an Illumanti member, which is the most comprehensive thing we know about him, but I think it tells us all we NEED to know. Even if the organization isn't objectively evil (It is), it can be made vulnerable and taken over by people who are due to its secret nature. I think they were really trying to show you this is a bad choice by putting you directly where Walter Simons was standing, with Morgan taking the place of the main bad guy. Helios is just a jump into a pool of water to see if you sink or swim. Who knows what will happen? Its immensely hard to predict, at least to me. He had the decency to choose you over page, at least. Its the most ambiguous ending, but I rather liked it that way.
I dislike how Invisible War handled the orange/lemon-lime thing. They were trying to make a cute reference to the original game, but, like, when confined to its own context, Gunther's argument with Anna means something more than that. I've always interpreted it to mean that even though Gunther is a skilled agent, his augmentations cause him to struggle adjusting to routine activities, like pressing tiny buttons with his clunky, metallic fingers. I imagine a lack of tactile feedback (being unable to feel a button with the nerves in your fingers) makes this even more difficult than it already appears at a glance. And of course the augmentations have turned him into an ugly "golem" too (quoting him). So it's like Gunther sacrificed his body, and even the ability to have a normal life, for the sake of maximizing his damage output as an agent. This deepens his character-he derives all his self-worth from being the best agent he can be, and chasing minute performance gains at the cost of his own body-and it further develops the world of the setting. His tiny, mundane struggle against his own augmentations also plays directly into the themes of the story, depicting them as something hubristic and tragic. Somewhere in the cathedral, after JC has [SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS] killed Anna, you can even find an email to this effect, describing how Gunther just stands down in the altar room staring up at the cross on the wall all day. He's (in my opinion) seething with rage and hatred not just to avenge a friend, but also to mourn the part HE played in failing to save her, having to struggle with the fact that all his augmentations, her augmentations, and all the augmentations in the world failed to protect Anna. And that being the case, what the hell did he chop himself up for? What good are all these metal parts if they're useless when it matters most? And then Invisible War turns around and confirms that it really WAS a conspiracy by the maintenance workers to fuck with Gunther, which negates all of this for the sake of an inside joke ...
@@Warlockracy No, thank you. You've only been at this for ten months and you've already covered three of my favorite games of all time. Looking forward to the inevitable System Shock 2 video.
@@nundulan You find a journal entry from a repairman who admits to deliberately switching the soda flavors in the vending machines just to fuck with Gunther.
"Did the US have a Perestroika" Yes actually we did. It happened in two places, the Rust Belt and the Deep South. In both places large amounts of abandoned infrastructure accumulated rapidly with the sudden withdrawal of nearly all manufacturing jobs, and previously lower-middle class families went into poverty.
@@thomaslabat8335 Perestroika refers to the economic reforms of the USSR under Gorbachev, reforms which were intended to help but only made the economy of the USSR worse. One could argue that the economic reforms in the USA towards free trade that led to the rise of the Rust Belt were the American equivalent.
@@cramer4506 They're just contrarians. Since the US didnt have a specific policy described in a specific Russian word, all comparisons to it just arent good enough. The idea of a decades long economic system growing steadily less effective in a changing world and the people therein being quickly disrupted and leading to a large amount of abandoned ghost town infrastructure, hardship and economic upheaval just isnt comparable if it isnt in Cyrillic. Sure, one was caused by government policy and one was private industry profit seeking, but when your government owns all your private industry at the start of the policy that line becomes quite heavily blurred. Hipsterism went out of fashion years ago, but the hipsters just moved on to something else. RUclips comments sections, apparently. TL;DR- Cover up any spraypaint tagging of pictures from abandoned major infrastructure in a soviet factory town and a rust belt town and tell me whether it was from Perestroika or outsourcing. You're gonna have a pretty hard time without outside clues.
"The Oceanlab feels like you're exploring Vaun Braun" Funny considering how the Cutting Room Floor found out the oceanlab's meshes and textures were recycled from the scrapped Moonbase level after Area 51.
I can still remember my older brother telling me about this game when it first came out. Sounded so cool, and I was super excited to try it. I also remember how much my mind was blown when on my third playthrough I saved Paul, and on my 5th playthrough where I killed Anna on the jet near the beginning(which I was amazed you could, as she is invulnerable every time before and immediately after this) and realized there was an extended convo with Lebedev, same thing with the NSF leader at the beginning if you incapacitate the UNATCO agent and help him escape. This was always _the_ game where I found something new each and every time I played it. Like the time I rushed to get into the interrogation cell with Walton Simons shown at 32:50 and found out it didn't break the game (as the door literally opens and closes in an instant, so it felt like you shouldn't be able to get in), and that you could join the interrogation, greatly extending and expounding the little scene. You can even prevent Simons from executing them. And I found out in a very early playthrough you could evade Simons at the underwater research facility and run into him at Area 51, as that place scared the crap out of me and I gtfo'd without fighting him. :P Anyway, Deus Ex is truly a masterpiece. There was a time where I could recite the entire opening from memory, and vividly recall the feelings and memories of just opening the game, seeing the symbol and hearing the title theme.
Another really hidden area is Jock's apartment in the canal district in Hong Kong. You have to do some platforming and even then I believe it requires specific biomods or patient and creative box stacking. Lots of useful stuff inside as well as lore tidbits and datapads. But for all the time I played the game it never occurred to be to use the GEP gun as a lockpick. I'm kicking myself for missing such an obvious and super useful trick.
I played this game at least 20 times and couldn't figure out how to get into the interrogation, eventually I gave up and no clipped thru the wall with a cheat
Great video but one more point about Triads. They settle their problems with blades not because of traditions & stuff but because there is a surveillance system in Hong Kong which detects and reports guns' usage, so criminals are forced to use melee weapons. Maybe you mentioned it in the video but I just wanted to point out that Triads use blades not out of traditionalism.
@@saisameer8771 "Diverse" American cities have been using acoustic gunfire location systems for years now. ShotSpotter was testing its tech in the 90s before Deus Ex came out, so if anything it's unrealistic that it isn't in every city in Deus Ex.
1:17:07 If HTTP was called Daedalus in real life 70% of hackers would use names from Greek mythology and 29% would use names from other mythologies thinking they were comedy geniuses. The silly thing is Alex concluding that HTTP is talking to JC rather than saying that it could be anyone
22:25 Yeah, that is a problem I also have with modern """cyberpunk""", if you can even call it that. At some point in the 00's people forgot about what the literary genre was about and started focusing _way too much_ on cyborgs, neon lights, synthesizer music and other unrelated stuff... And while it can look visually cool, it's like none of these people ever read a Philip K. Dick novel or even Neuromancer.
this is holding the cow to be sacred. most of the original authors of the cyberpunk genre were just turning over capitalism, drugs, and computers in their heads in short stories and e-mailing them to each other. Once P.K. was in the picture all they wanted to do was write like him. They constantly asked who the new P.K. would be. It turns out it was no one really. I think the author put it well in his Baldur's Gate video. This is only something that could really have been experienced at the time. It was only something that could be written at the time, as the 70s died in America and the Imperialist dogs set about to maiming millions upon millions of lives across the globe. Neoliberalism cannibalizing millions more. In the 90s and 00s the people who were grown and were writing hadn't seen South Vietnamese generals executing prisoners of war on television with a snub-nosed revolver like a thug. The press did not read the names of the war dead from the Gulf War. The United States created operational security and press pools to sanitize the brutal realities. War was seen through the eyes of a missile's camera as it destroyed abandoned factories in the Gulf. The outlook required for something like cyberpunk to grow didn't exist for the people who produced it after the 'heyday'. Even being able to piece this kind of idea together is difficult without proper historical understanding.
@Hamun002 "pow" actually, terrorists who sneak into cities 200 miles from the frontline JUST to murder women and children, and are caught leaving your fellow officers house with the blood of his wife and children coating his boots, are not POW's. But goes to show how easily your kind are propagandized.
Man, imagine making a 2.5 hour video without any filler or unnecessary stuff, while others struggle to drag their videos for that sweet 10 minute mark. This really was a joy to watch. Thank you.
The UNATCO dialogue (Anna Navarre and Sam Carter) referencing a massacre at Castle Clinton is triggered depending on the number of NSF that die in that mission, no matter who kills them. If any NSF see you and decide to flee the Castle, Anna Navarre will execute them at the exit, then enter the castle and exterminate the remaining entirety of the NSF forces. I hate when this happens.
It's ironic that the Dragon's Tooth blade takes so much inventory space since....most of that space is taken up by the blade that is nonexistant until activated. It's just a hilt; one would think ease of concealment and transport would be selling points. I guess it takes up so many slots to make room for Jedi dignity.
2:05:14 It actually does take a while to launch an ICBM. Kennedy(I know right?) drastically changed the Air Force's ability to launch ICBMs. Originally, the system was essentially on a feather trigger. Full Send only required 3 of 5 Generals turning keys. However, the AF Brass had installed failsafes in all of the launch computers that would send full send after a short period of time, essentially negating the need for consensus on launching. Additionally, he had the AF remove all of the explosive bolts that would break open the launch bay doors and allow for the missiles to leave their silos. In a real scenario, someone in the military would have to climb like 400 something feet in ladders and install the explosive bolts themselves. I worked for the Defense sector before, and I am of the opinion that in the Deus Ex timeline, the AF wouldn't have changed, so you would need to electrically bypass the key, as well as emulate the signal to launch and coordinates from the central launch computers. Additionally some poor MiB SoB would have to go up there and install the explosive bolts required to get the missile out of the silo. Considering we're in Nevada, those are almost assuredly Minutemen multi-stage rockets, designed to reach out and touch the Western half of the Union. The flight itself is also an interesting question, because I don't know if you could get a rocket like that to target a very nearby facility without it having to expend most of its fuel in a huge upwards parabola. The missile itself isn't the payload, it ejects a reentry vehicle housing the actual nuke. I think in order to get the nuke to send you'd have to have it travel the full time, or risk destroying the missile.
Pardon my ignorance, but what is the difference regarding the installation of explosive bolts for a planned launch authorized by the US Military versus an Empty Quiver event where some group takes over a missile silo to initiate a launch? That is, do explosive bolts still need to be installed even for a properly authorized launch or are the launch bay doors capable of being opened (or "breaking the seal") another way given proper authorization?
And yet the code was still 00000000, just because that is faster to type. At least there is a reason for 8'' floppies: they are so low tech and large scale, they're pretty resistant to EM interference (like for example from nuclear explosions)
Funny thing is, there is no single actual reflective surface in the whole game. It is a very stupid and brilliant illusion at the same time - the whole level is duplicated and scaled to -1 at vertical axis while the floor is transparent. Real boomer tech!
Actually the fun part is that even in vanilla you are not forced to choose between augs as long as you have more than one local slot. That means you can get both cloak and radar transparency if you so choose, though in that situation you'll obviously miss out on ballistic protection. But that way you can build for full stealth - add Run Silent and Vision Enhancement and you'll know where everyone is at all times too, making you literally impossible to detect. GMDX makes the augs even better too.
Am I the only person who plays JC as just a regular donut munching cop? Lol it's way more fun being a really crappy realistic cop - much less the Terminator with an Elvis voice. Your builds sound way OP'd lol those enemies of yours they don't stand a chance. You want to do a dumb-cop playthrough though on a harder difficulty and treat it like a Permadeath game and role play yourself as a conflicated lazy ass cop. It's FUN you will never enjoy a game like you will that one :)
@@DailyCorvid I always like "trolling Paul" playthroughs. Agree with him on how stealthy and effective non-lethal takedowns are. Employ them, but only so you can later shoot the unconscious body in the head twice. Then Paul's mask comes off right away and he reveals it was never about stealth or effectiveness, but about saving lives! Terrorist lives! Ha.
I am 31 years old, played lots of games over the years, but this game still is the best one i ever played. Even on my first playthrough when i was only like 11 or 12 years old, i already knew it was a special game. And later on, when i played this game over and over again, it became clear that Deus Ex is just a masterpiece. No mater how many times you play it, there is always something different and unique to it.
First played this when I was 8 and I’ve probably played it through well over a thousand times. I am 21 now. Great part about is I still discover things I’ve missed in the previous 1000 playthroughs a I did
Have you ever figured out how to interrogate the prisoners before Simon's gets to them? I've clipped thru the wall before - but I can't find the in game mechanism to open the door!
I mean the Daedalus thing is actually great cover because its so obviously known. As long as you didnt know about the AI itself, there's nothing to suspect. If someone contacted you with a voice changer going by "HTTP" you wouldnt think "Oh shit its the internet contacting me."
I'm 33. My step dad introduced me to this game at about 11/12 years old. We were lower middle class. I am the oldest of 6. My parents worked 2--3 jobs each but we always had video games and new consoles. My step dad was into Pc gaming and building pcs. Because of that we had 2-3 family pcs going at a time. I played alot of games and one of them was Dues ex. It was so difficult and my step dad would not help me (at 11/12). When i finally committed and beat it he was so proud and it was awesome. RIP my step dad and ty for my love to this game.
Shoutout to my men Michiel van den Bos and Alexander Brandon. I listen to their songs pretty much every day. Also, I love DuClare Chateau so much, and exploring with Nicolette. One of the most memorable video game locations for me.
For a bunch of boomer era conspiracy theories Deus Ex predicted a scary amount of things, albeit in probably unintentional ways. I was always worried it would be a little stiff and unfun for a 20 year old game, but when I played it last year it was one of the most fun and challenging games I've ever touched, not to mention probably the most profound one. Amazing review as always!
Yeah, a terrorist attack that very well might have been a inside job in NYC, the twin towers being gone. A virus that kills people and is spread via air born transmission that was made in a government lab, that also has a vaccine that doesn't actually cure it. Rich people paying politicians in order to make more money, a war on terror that has no clear end goal and insanely massive government spending. And while were not just there yet, we are slowly moving to a centralized internet, just a few hold outs left at this point anyways.
@@thegreatgoatking.kingofall4001 Technically a vaccine could be a cure (look up Rabbies vaccine), this said the Covid Vaccine just gives resistance to Covid and not even immunity. (Which is unlike any other Vaccine in use)
@@ValdVincent No vaccine is going to give you complete imunity, where did you read your data? It’s always resistance, and having resistence is better than not have any.
I want to raise a point about the "beautiful misery" problem, Deus Ex actually helps to place emphasis on the misery by keeping things more grounded to current day aesthetics. Or at least current day when it came out. Everywhere you look there's trash and litter, there's a real sense that the neighborhood is going downhill fast. Almost every normal person you meet is homeless, many are sick, some are addicts. The 'Ton hotel is a run down squalid Hilton. Hilton's are usually high class places but this one is more of an apartment building than a hotel. Then you add in Battery Park and the nole people settlements and you get this real look at the kind of overwhelming poverty that is rampant in this world.
The entire New York area looks like it came straight out of Taxi Driver, which, fun fact, is actually due to the fact that NY trash workers were on strike during the film's production.
Yeah, there is aesthetic cyberpunk, the stuff with fancy neon lights and flying cars and cyborgs and that, and there is the more grounded cyberpunk that has these things, but just as part of the world, not the whole focus.
the funny thing is, while that unabomber guy's idea of technocratic future was pretty off, his core premise that properly implemented and well designed AI or algorithmic systems being able to manipulate the masses has proven to be true to a degree. the Ability for a massive entity like facebook or twitter to use their "algorithm" as one of many degrees of seperation from them and the deed itself allows for a wide margin of plausible deniability that makes it difficult to convincingly convey any conspiratorial ideas of what they might be up to without admitted proof. Proof like when facebook ran an "experiment" on hundreds of thousands of users to manipulate their social media feed by injecting more amounts negative or positive information and news than usual to see if it had any affect on their moods and mental health. which they concluded it did, and that they could induce feelings of depression by manipulating what people saw online. or when twitter was found to be willing and able to manually change the "trending" tab to steer people's interest towards causes or events that they want focus on, thereby generating artificial interest in something while directing focus away from other things they dont want seen. "That kind of power over people has the potential to change the course of History." - Ross Scott in his own Deus Ex video.
His diagnosis of society's illness was pretty spot on. He knew what was coming decades before anyone else did. His prescription for society, however, was way way off the mark.
@@donskiverHave you actually read all the reasoning behind his prescription or do you just reject it on impulse because it's extreme and would be incredibly difficult to attain?
I don’t think you ruined Helios in the last ending. Daedalus was a threat model, and if Daedalus oversaw humanity it would be the same as any old paranoid elite destroying anything it decided was a threat until nothing is left. Icarus was designed to centralize communication and concentrate power, so the world it would oversee would stagnate and slowly die because new ideas that aren’t slight modifications of old would be surpressed. Helios as a combination of the two is the worst kind of tyrant, one that would actively destroy anything it perceived as a threat to a perfect world model that very imperfect people created. This is what we’re starting to see in China: old men fixated on “better times”, which were only “better” because they were children, crushing the new changes and interests of the younger generation. Denton by the end is a freedom fighter working with every level of society, and would inevitably bring new perspective to a machine fully designed to maintain the status quo. It needs the human element of Denton to properly do its job. The true threat is whether Helios is prepared to bring new blood into its algorithm once in a while, or whether it will allow resistance to its tyranny to keep its subjects diverse. Good video btw :)
2:21:52 I remember reading something about that in a strategy guide, it is implied instead that the use of swords in place of guns by the triads is motivated by the installation of high sensibility sound sensors across Hong Kong. So it's not really a matter of honour.
@@ZacksRockingLifestyle Nahh if it's audio sensors, they aren't listening for Db of volume change, they are sensing abrupt changes in air pressure. So that pop shockwave created by the pin hitting the explosive part of the bullet - will set those off even if you have a magical silencer that makes zero noise.
@@DailyCorvid dude, this is about video game mechanics. Also, if that’s really how such gunshot detection devices work, then why aren’t they constantly tripped by combustion engines firing? Or are they?
Also, what mod/fix did you use to run it on modern systems? GOTy is just dark and I tried revision, but the character models and lighting ruined the atmosphere for me
As a kid I used to think it was ridiculous that supervillains would tell everyone about their evil plan, but as a touch and attention starved adult I understand wanting to tell people about every little thing you have going on when you’ve captured their interest.
Yeah, but 1:07:15, exposing a plan doesn’t actually tear it apart. Project 2025 has been right there and so many people don’t believe it’ll be implemented, even as it’s being implemented around them. May have something to do with media not blasting it because they’ve been captured by the people that want to implement it.
Yeah, but 1:07:15, exposing a plan doesn’t actually tear it apart. P 2025 has been right there and so many people don’t believe it’ll be implemented, even as it’s being implemented around them. May have something to do with media not blasting it because they’ve been captured by the people that want to implement it.
There isn't any, on the surface that is, logical conclusion that beats the Helios ending. However, if you were to look a bit deeper, I think you'd find that truly the best ending for the potential of humanity would be the Tong scenario; interestingly as well, Tracer is one of only so many characters in deus ex that is an expert/master class at tech. If anyone would have suffered most from a dark age, it would've been him. So, why would he so emphatically support the idea? Worth a thought or two, in my opinion.
@@iwannabethekid34xc I don't think he hates tech or wants the remove it completely. Rather he is in favour of government on a smaller scale with only necessary technology. Tech that would free people until enslave them
Loved the video, but as for the last point of ruining Helios, idk. As you pointed out yourself, Icarus, Daedalus serve different functions, but compliment each other upon merging. And if the point of adding JC was to incorporate the understanding of the human condition, I don't think JC's primate brain would be what ultimately calls the shots. I see it as him becoming just a resource for a greater system, with a clear cut goal of adding empathy to the equation. JC's animal brain, after all, is now but a third of his being. I think it's what makes JC's and Paige's merging different - Paige intended to remain fully in control, use Helios power to indulge his primate brain. Which is exactly why Helios turns on him, as it was created for the very purpose of becoming a higher form of government, not hand over control to yet another tyrant. All that being said, my theory stands on the idea that Helios itself doesn't have significant flaws in it's decision making. There is no guarantee that upon merging, the collective will run the numbers and decide that empathy isn't that great after all, and it should rule with an iron fist instead. Which really, only makes it more interesting to me. That's the whole point, JC becomes an entirely new life form. There is no telling how he will act.
@@38procentkrytyk When did "richest" get rid of lowest wealth workers? That never happened. Are you pushing some conspiracy agenda? Get out of here, Stalker.
Deus Ex was the first game I bought after I left my hometown to study at university, so this game is a real touchstone for me. The look and feel, the sound design, the music, everything. I sends me right back to that very special time over twenty years ago where everything was so new and exciting.
I truely hope this becomes a series on your channel. I wont lie some of the political concepts like "accelerationism" kinda goes over my head but hearing these concepts used in an old cyberpunk expired game like this is just amazing to me. It took real balls to make a game lile this, I hope you do Invisible War and Human Revolution one day because the way you do these videos and discuss it is less about gameplay or voice acting but about the concepts being discussed in game and the real life irony in what implications are being discussed.
Found your channel about 2 months ago, and you already are on the level of Mandalore Gaming, Raycevick, Joseph Anderson, and Ahoy in my book with your clever structuring, nice editing, and well paced narrative! Yup, i think you'll gonna reach their level soon with your sub count :) And great vid btw!
I always love the idea these old games had with skills. They just threw these large spreadsheets at you which let you change every aspect of the character. You wanna jump higher? That's a stat. You wanna be ridiculously wealthy? That's a stat. You wanna talk talk to a rat? Stat. What a wonderful era of RPGs. I like Skyrim and Human Revolution but Morrowind and Deus Ex gave you so much wild liberty.
this is the kind of content I love, the unapologetic review presenting multiple sides of human nature and philosophy, while still being entertaining and covering the whole experience. you might wanna consider yourself a videogame anthropologist! thank you for the wonderful pieces of media
I come back to this video every now and then. I keep noticing more stuff I didnt pick up the last time or learn something new about my favourite game. Thank you Warlock, youve become my favourite creator here.
Very interesting that this whole "Nanomachines" kick happened at once at this time. Cowboy Bebop's movie was based all around a nanomachine conspiracy as well.
It was a popular concept in 90's sci-fi. At the time, I think, a lot of people thought the concept sounded very radical and cutting-edge. Neal Stephenson's books were huge influences on Deus Ex, too, and The Diamond Age is all about nano-technology as a world-changing technological revolution. (I honestly don't know anything about Cowboy Bebop, so IDK who influenced them to do it.)
I love that JC basically walked in, spent about a week to figure out this entire fucking thing and immediately fucked over everyone's plans that they've been working on for decades and somehow no one else managed to so far.
A theory: Daedalus and Icarus were playing the long game with MJ12 and the Illuminati, pretending to be on their side while manipulating events in such a way that would lead to their merger as Helios and get JC to Area 51 where he could merge with the AI. The game was rigged from the start.
The single most comprehensive overview of the game I've ever seen. I've tried and failed several times to play Deus Ex but thanks to you and all the other people who enjoy this game I get to see what it has to offer. Great video!
Games like these from the early 2000nds could have unending ambition because they didn't care about jank, bad textures, decent voice acting or animation quality. God I miss that.
They did worry about it. They cared for it. Heck even graphic wars are as old as video games. Vector? Color? 8bit? 16bit? Genesis does what Nintendont? Games today are still ambitious. It just so happens that there are so many that its almost like theres nothing left to explore.
This was excellent. Just the right blend of edgy humor and serious philosophical discussion. And I barely noticed the length because the pacing was so good. I hope you continue to do long-form content like this.
I actually like "point investment" mechanics but only in rare cases like Deus Ex, where it's more rewarding to play most of the game nonlethal. I think it was done on purpose because if guns were decently accurate on all skill levels it'd quickly turn into just FPS and there would be no incentive for players to think and upgrade. Classic isometric Fallouts have even stricter system where not only skill but also luck comes into play. Thong probably have never lived in anything remotely like a village or other rural settlement, he's a city dwelling tech-boy from privileged background and bear some very idealistic ideas about "pre high tech society". Choosing Illuminati is just rendering all we've done obsolete and returning to status quo instead of development. Makes JC just a high skilled servant instead of an independent actor. So I always chose Helios ending, no matter the possible threats and speculations (which rise from us projecting our nature on an AI), this is a step forward instead of step back or in place. Thanks for this amazing video. Also you made me google "fat sonic".
Out of all Deus Ex videos I’ve seen, this one finally pushed me to play it myself, and I thank you for that. Your Tamriel rebuilt video also pushed me to play Morrowind to completion, too. You’re one of the most unique creators out there. Great video as always dude.
when someone ask me something that i cant understand im gonna tell him ´´the french philosopher Goerge Bataille thought that the porpuse of life is to waste the energy of the sun´´
It's kind of funny that JC is paid so little in his elite job. The credits in game are basically synonymous with dollars, so the fact that JC is basically paid 1000 dollars is hilarious and fits rather well with the dystopia world he is inhabiting. Paul living in a run down hotel complements my reading; in 2052 nobody owns nothing and everyone is paid jackshit. I suppose that the agency can't afford to give their most effective agents a good salary because the maintenance cost is so high for augmented workers.
@@TheAnthonyMarlowe Ownership is indeed the crux of the problem, but private property the cause of the injustices we suffer. So few individuals having so much capital over the majority of humanity is not an efficient, logical or moral state of affairs. The working class should own the capital plan it rationally and spend it for the betterment of society, not for the vanity projects of some few mandarins. Proudhon asserted "property is theft" and while I disagree with him on the specifics, he is not wrong to posit that private ownership of the means of production is indeed the systematic robbery of nations, provinces, and people by the bourgeois, who gather in cockroach nests like the WEF.
Already better than Chris Davis' review who couldn't handle awesomness of this game... or had allergry for c0nspiracy the0ries? I still remember picking that game back then, felt like X-Files the videogame (there were official games but they weren't my cup of tea) and managed to beat it. It's one of the very few old games that you can still play today without pain. Unless you fully succumbed to modern handholding self-playing bar filling games... I think weapons skills are quite realistic - getting hit from character with low level weapons skill still hurt, when it land which is not easy at the early stage of field training.
lol no, Deus Ex is a a very clunky game tl start and get a hold off. A new player should certainly take a look at a guide. The game is a masterpiece, but it is dated. The tutorial is awful, there are useless skills in the character creator. The combat is weird. You are blinded by nostalgia. But sadly, fixing this game's problems would also come with taking away some of its magic.
@@arsenii_yavorskyi can't forget that "I'm totally not cancelling Vince" cancelling moment in his Age of Decadence review, it left me disappointed that he could do something like that... him and similar "we're good folks" using vile methods for their cause.
@@SpecShadow Yeah I completely gave up on that guy's channel after that video. Absolutely vile behavior. Asshole masquerading as a concerned citizen "good guy".
@@everythingiseconomics9742 I got through the game just fine without a guide on my first playthrough. Besides most of the "issues" you brought up aren't really issues, it's an RPG for a reason. You have to improve your skills for your character to do more things.
ok I have watched so many deus ex retrospectives, analasyis, reviews etc (probably 5-10?) and this is by far the best. I love your clips, your audio levels are perfection. Your commentary is great and your story summary and "red thread" throughout the whole review and making me understand how the game goes through storywise is truely some of the best I've watched. Hands down man, thank you for this. Earned a sub. You remind me of when I found Neverknowsbest at 20k subs.
Maybe I'm the only person who likes accuracy tied to weapon skill in FPS/action-RPGs.. Since well it is part of the RPG. Your character isn't skill enough. And I hate if bullets become stronger if your skill is higher.. You could argue the PC knows where to hit but meh. I choose bad accuracy over most of the alternatives used by ARPGS any day. If I want to hit, I just raise the skill o.o
It would be interesting seeing an indie game try their hand at Morrowind style combat in this day and age and see if they can pull it off. It'd never be something AAA would ever try. I'm not so sure it is archaic game design.
Sames. You can use gun even if you are unskilled, you are not a good shot, but bullets are still doing damage. Never liked idea of bullets making more damage after you upgrade skill. Also never liked leveled weapons. When somehow assault rifle lvl 3 stops being lethal against naked guy level 20.
I definitely prefer the skill mechanics for guns to be accuracy-based, too. Mostly because I hate bullet-sponge mechanics in general (making me hit the enemy more times is the most lazy, boring approach to difficulty--a system where hits count but they're hard to land is way more fun). I can understand why people who aren't familiar with the concept might find it confusing or annoying, though. I lucked out on Deus Ex because before that I was obsessed with the old Rainbow Six games--which also used a very similar "shrinking circle of RNG" mechanic to represent aiming. So I found the Deus Ex system intuitive from the beginning--but it might have seemed really weird if I hadn't seen the same thing before. FPS games typically condition you to think of your hand on the mouse as equivalent to your character's hand on the gun, so the idea that the gun muzzle isn't just pointing at whatever the mouse reticle is pointing at could feel pretty weird at first. (I assume.)
@@planescaped IMO the problem with Morrowind is that their RNG system is janky as heck and can be immersion breaking, especially with current level of graphics. Also, the system can be a bit broken at the time. Personally, for medieval arpg i prefer Gothic style than Morrowind. On lower level, your swing or punch will be slow, unwieldy, and repetitive, but the more skilled you are, the faster and gracef your swing become and you gain more combos (also imo it more realistic and fitting because swordfighting are different than shooting). It also still implemented in some modern games like Mount n Blade and Kingdom Come Deliverance if i remember, and it really cool stuff, pretty immersive and fit with modern arpg style and system while still give meaning to skill progression. But for more shooting arpg i agree that Deus Ex accuracy base system is pretty cool. Kinda wish beth try it with their Fallout installments.
Personally, there's no reason to apologise for the video length, as the video itself was perfect. I like long format content and I really enjoyed sitting through this one. Nothing wrong with the length of it, and I'm sure others wouldn't mind if you made more long videos like it. I certainly wouldn't mind. Regardless of length they're definitely a highlight of the day. Thank you for the great content.
I haven't been this hyped for a video in awhile. I literally muttered 'Fuck yes!' under my breath. Whether that speaks to the quality of your content or the peculiarness of my mannerisms, well, It's probably one of those.
I can't describe how grateful I am for this video. I have an urge to play Deus Ex every 6 months or so and your video provides nor only the experience I was seeking but also really great sense of humor. This two and a half hours were just splendid
I've been sick all week and discovered your channel in the middle of it. Your insightful commentary helped me through many hard hours and now this? Gorgeous stuff!
My man literally cut out one of the best scenes in the game. "OH MY GOD JC A BOMB" Otherwise great video. It honestly didn't feel like I was watching this for 2 hours.
I've been scrolling through the internet all day and was about to give up finding something to watch when this popped up. The fun thing is that I'm actually fed up with Deus Ex at the moment, or so I thought, because now I am really looking forward to the next 2.5 hrs.! Your content and perspektive is more than good enough to fill that amount of time, without padding, so don't apologize for the video length. Edit: Well worth the wait, and as I suspected, the lenght adds to your format in my opinion. Besides playing through the game several times, I must have seen close to every video made on this topic. This is the first video that gave me close to the same feelings I had while playing it, and is in a totally different league than almost every video I've seen about this game. It is so nice to see somebody capitalize on their love and knowledge of the game, rather than the games cult status. The only video I can compare yours to is the one by Ross' Game Dungeon, but your video surpasses his in many ways. You have somehow captured nuch of how it felt to play this game when it came out. I am thoroughly impressed! Keep up the good work!
Deus Ex is one of my favorite games of all time, and this is a terrific kind of Let's Play meets Retrospective meets Review. You've got a great balance of straight up reporting, analysis and jokes. More than that, I actually learned several things about the game and the lore that I didn't even realize, even after dumping hundreds of hours into it! I appreciate the editing going on too, how you introduce each section with a simple title card and a choice line of dialog from the game, which are themselves a good mix of hilarious and thoughtful. Minimal, but effective. You don't sit down and talk about/explain EVERY plot point or game quirk - as that would indeed take a long time, given that the game has a TON of content. But you do a good job of focusing on the key points, commenting with your own personal outlook now and again, and honestly, just letting the game speak for itself. Your cuts to the guy singing "Our Country Tis of Thee", for instance, was a great way of breaking from your main points/footage to showcase a snippet of the game's world, unadulterated, for us to make up our own minds about. I thought that was a wise choice throughout, and I like how you use this tactic for both the emphasis of a certain point, theme, mechanic - or just for the lulz. I also loved how you left in the random coughs as Jock takes JC back to New York. Or this gem: "Welcome to Brooklyn Bridge Station" *kills rat*. It's like the game wrote jokes for you. LOL I also really appreciate how you had sort of a "middle" approach to the choices you made in the game. I think it was the best way to show off just what the game allows you to do. An "all non-lethal" playthrough or a "I'mma be a dick" playthrough would've been fun, but would've missed a lot of details. Some of those details speak wonders to the terrific design of the game. And some are being able to cheese locks forever with a GEP gun. XD ALSO: random theory. In your playthrough, Anna Navarre claimed that Castle Clinton was a graveyard, despite your non-lethal run of that area, right? I was thinking...maybe she wasn't bugged. Maybe this still fits. You remember how AFTER Castle Clinton, your JC basically tooted his own horn and threw shade back in Navarre's face? What if this showing of backbone and competence actually impressed Navarre, despite JC not being a slaughterhouse. She says "At least you are not timid like Paul." Maybe she's covering for JC because she kinda likes his style. Like an opposites attract kinda deal? We know there's dialog about how JC and Anna would "make a cute couple" (sarcastically of course). Okay maybe that's too fanfictiony, right? How about this: what if Anna is actually trying to set JC up for failure? Like...your JC already made a bad impression on Anna, given that he didn't rescue Hermann and talked shit to her about mechs in front of the other soldiers. So when your JC basically aces Castle Clinton without killing anyone and talks shit, Anna's like "Fuck this guy." She reports a bloodbath to Manderly and recommends JC for a higher-risk assignment: an assassination. She EXPECTS JC to fuck it up because he's a non-lethal boi like his brother. So the writing, the words are the EXACT same, but it actually kind of fits your actions in this playthrough, even though you took the non-lethal path in that mission. Though yeah, it's probably just a bug. LOL
I don't think Helios was "ruined" by merging with Denton, after all, the ai has the capacity to assess and judge who is the most suitable candidate to bring the human perspective Helios desires. One of the arguments I've seen online is that Helios betrayed and discarded Page and it can do the same to Denton, which is absurd. Helios's programming was made with the purpose of assimilating with the most suitable candidate, Page being very narcissistic saw himself fit for this as no one has ever questioned him, no one had marked his flaws, he always gets what he wants, when he wants; he sees himself as the superior being which is why he was certain that the assimilation would happen. Helios doesn't play by Page's rules, only the ones that it's programming dictate, which is to find and assimilate the most suitable individual to acquire the human perspective in order to better guide humanity. Page's plan was doomed from the start.
in addition jc has a very complimentary personality he's driven skilled creative, decisive but well you've seen how he talks edit: and if he isn't then helios couldn't be ruined it was always worthless for it's role
I never got frustrations with the existence of weapon skills in RPGs that affect your actions. With incredible clunkyness of it - sure, systems could be done better, but not with the existence itself. It's an RPG, not a reflex-based action game, what else one can expect? That one's character would be professional at every thing in the world without even trying? Meanwhile everyone is fine with random non-telegraphed recoil in most action games with guns. Personally can't stand most shooting games besides borderlands and destiny because of that. Having bullets flying under 45° angle away from the barrel is way less natural than anything from games with weapon-based combat.
The lack of professionalism can be communicated in a different way (by making animations awkward and slow, by having a limited repertoire of combat moves etc).
@@Warlockracy Funilly enough, Madness: Project Nexus does exactly this, ie, making the player slow, inaccurate, and limited in their ability to use firearms at lower levels. If you haven't played or heard of Project Nexus, I recommend it. It's a very fun game based off of the Newgrounds flash series Madness Combat.
The only problem is the combination of 1st person perspective and character skill based systems. One is there to increase immersion by literally putting you in the character's shoes, the other is there to separate the player's skills from the character's skills. Why have a player controlled first person shooting system where the player has to aim and pull the trigger, but then have the outcome be decided on the character's gun skill. Imagine the opposite: the aiming and shooting is dependent on the character's skill, but to decide if it hits or not the player has to play a reaction-based minigame or a logic puzzle. And Borderlands and Destiny both follow the random bloom system (and Destiny curves bullets, even if you aim outside the visible enemy model) , while other games like CS or Planetside have gun specific recoil patterns/directions that can be learned. So you as player control recoil manually with your own skill instead of relying on random spread and attachments that "reduce" recoil.
I just noticed that the email at 21:11 is signed Harleen Quinzell. "A frown is just a smile turned upside down...". I love easter eggs like this in old video games. Ah, a different era.
Don't apologize. I know I'm gonna love every second of this video. EDIT: This was absolutely phenomenal from start to finish. Deus Ex has been my favorite game of the last 20 years and watching this felt like my first trip through the game. Most underrated RUclips channel and it's not even close.
Just came across this in my recommended feed. I'll be binging and liking all your videos for the next week or two. Thanks for all the hard work and good humor.
Gawd...this is a throw back, i remember my brother and i used to make bases using the console commands and spawn all sorts of items and structures in the game. When i first learned of greys and the genetically modified chicken thing irl then i see them in game made me go nuts lol, the greys in this game are just radioactive apes though.
You're such a phenomenal storyteller. I don't have time to play everything, so getting to enjoy some of these games through your lens is the perfect way to do it.
@54:00 this is almost exactly where the game clicked for me when I was a boy playing it for the first time, too. When I later found out you could save Paul, it blew my mind
This game is taking my mind off my heavy depression 😌 So it makes me happy to see this video, I take pleasure in simple things Thank you , who ever you are
Wow, just wow. 2.5 hours of Warlockracy talking about my GOAT game? This is going to be right up there with when I got to spend 30 minutes talking to Warren himself about Deus Ex!
@@junioraltamontent.7582 Huh, never got a notification for this, so sorry for the late answer. I didn't go into it with specific questions, which in hindsight I really wish I had. The conversation wasn't actually all about Deus Ex, but the part that did relate was us talking about conspiracies and what they left out [Denver airport was the main one he brought up], he said they had tons of stuff they wanted to include but were unable to due to time and hardware constraints. He also hinted at the team wanting to create even more options for resolving situations than what made it into the game. Interestingly, out of all his games he seemed proudest of Epic Mickey. Might have to find a LetsPlay of that sometime.
When you've played a game through about 5 times, will play it through at least another 5, and you watch 2+ hour videos on it, several times over. What a game, great review, too!
Thank you for this video bro it's really is an awesome video. Very entertaining, easy to follow and by God I had no idea the PC game Deus Ex could be this awesome! Thank you so muchos for making it!
Great video friend. I liked the Helios ending. At the time of playing I read a sick book about a man who fought against his inner concerns for the people he once loved. It turned out his "love" for his family, especially his daughter was engineered by an algorithm that some egheads in a lab came up with and he fought the AI that was beginning to form in his own brain.
@@Warlockracy i forgot about your video because right after i beat deus ex my first kid was born he just had his first birthday time for this video now!
There’s just something special about the way you pace things that just makes it so easy for me to actually sit through and enjoy actual 2 and a half hours of your content without feeling like i wasted any of my time. You’re cool man.
Also really excited for the next part of enderal. I loved that game and I’d love to see you going through the rest of it.
Man I totally agree. His tone and rhythm of speech mixed with the sharp, dry wit is just perfect. I just found this channel yesterday, but I think it's about to explode.
@@neofromthewarnerbrothersic145 dude same, he's really good
I didn't realise the video was that long until I read your comment
But you are wasting your time though
34:00 if you follow Walton Simons down into the cellblock, you can sneak through the door when he opens it and interrogate the prisoners yourself. Simons gets SO MAD.
i want to see this now
I'm not going to sit here and let you badmouth the greatest democracy the world has ever known
"I apologize for the video length."
Don't be silly.
Agreed.
Long live long form content!
Thank u Gay Weed Dad 69!
@@Warlockracy No problem, man. Your content really is up there with the top dogs like Mandalore, Sseth and Civvie.
And unlike some content creators who blatantly rip off other people's style (looking at you, discount Sse- i mean uberdanger) - you actually have your very own, unique and fresh way of representing stuff.
Keep up this non-caricatular representation of Eastern European review uhm... style? and the insight and comparison to stuff that's happening in Ukraine is also really, really fresh. The small insights about buying games from the flee market is nostalgic for me, and probably interesting for the Western audience who don't know how us millennial kids experienced early post-soviet independence.
And i also love that our ex-Soviet culture isn't joked about or meme'd/made fun of to death like Boris made it, and your reviews actually command respect. That's coming from someone whose from another ex-Soviet republic
Warm regards from Lithuania!
i suppose some of the ppl here did watch that 8 hour Morrowind video.
Lebedev: "I surrender!"
JC: "What?"
JC's writing in this game is brilliant.
He's absolutely stodgy and kinda weird but it works for him really well.
of course because this was from a time 3d graphics were shit, so people focused onthe story 100x more... now they just use unreal engine 5 and make a communist version of games.
He was so ready to kill that guy, lol.
The game showed `John Wick´ before the movies were ever made!
J.C. is literal Weaponised Autism.
Deus ex is such a long game. Playing it feels like it just doesn't end yet you want to push on. Expierence more of it.
It's unique. Such game in that scale with that quality rarely exists. It's truly one of the best games ever made
And according to authors it was planned to be even longer. Honestly it gets a bit dragging in the end with gas station and missile base levels but it still ends with a blast.
I think everyone who played it going in blind was awestruck after reaching Hong Kong and realizing you were only about 40%-50% through the game.
And then you have to re play it two more times to get all the endings. lol
@@worndown8280 Or just make a save near the end and pick a different option.
Replaying it is more to toy with different playstyles and explore all of the different outcomes and events you can get along the way.
@@planescaped The thing that flabbergasted me was that after the first mission, I had to actually run down to Manderley's office for the debrief - I had expected a static debrief screen with text and objectives ticked off as was the standard of the time. The way that the game just kept the player in control was just incredible.
Daedalus using that as its name isn't a plot hole. You start getting messages from a hacker calling himself "INTERNET" or "HYPERTEXT", you're not going to assume the actual Internet itself is the one talking to you, you're just gonna think he picked a weird code name.
As someone who got into the series by first playing Human Revolution and going back, I can say that the modern games are good but the original is on a whole different level. The Eidos people tried but I think they knew it was a bit too much so they scaled back the games to try and keep quality similar. I am still mad at Square Enix for their betrayal on Mankind Divided, where they forced the devs to prety much cut the game at the end of the 2nd act so they could allocate resources to that stupid Avengers game that was completly worthless of the money and time put into it.
I'm angry at them for implementing a very convoluted release scheme (they did similar with Hitman but luckily that game survived), not meeting their financial expectations and then postponing everything indefinitely.
I still think that it can be redeemed. As a middle man in a trilogy, MD will always feel stilted and constrained.
When this game came out, it was rated the best game of all time. I am not sure I would go that far but the things it talked about in the game, even in the first mission, took you deep into modern politics the way few games did.
Holy fuck. The avengers game was in development that fucking long?
money talks, bullshit walks
1:48:25
Fun fact: Anna doesn't have to die. It certainly wasn't intended but it's possible to abuse her AI into getting her to open the door, or clip through it bypassing the need for the key to unlock the door and allowing you to exit the level. What's even more interesting is that the game seems to have accounted for this and while she doesn't play any more part in the story, the game still acts as if she is alive with Gunther making no reference to her death, as he normally would.
Perhaps they planned on leaving Anna alive being an option, cut it late in development, and just left the line and code pointing to it in the game? I wouldn't doubt it. The first game alone has a fuckload of cut content.
All of this just makes me a bit sad that they don’t have a dedicated “spare anna” route intended in the game, it would’ve been interesting to see how the game would react to that.
@KnoxCarbon probably this it makes the most sense
I'm a bit surprised you didn't notice the receptionist at the ton acts so casual not because he's laissez faire about terrorists, but because right around the corner, there's an NSF terrorist holding him at gun point who you can confront if you go through the door to the receptionist's left.
For real? I legit didn’t know that.
@@Warlockracy typical Deus Ex! Always making you reinstall it!
@@bigch33se11 Yeah over and voer again after it suddenly stopped working till i gave up.
Oh shit
Was looking for this comment 👍🏼
For me, the Helios ending is the only one that makes sense. Destroying the net and everything seems like a band-aid fix at best, and in the mean time it feels like it would get a lot of people hurt or killed. By comparison the illumanti ending feels like a half-measure from a JC who just desperately wanted to be told what to do by someone of higher authority.
Props to Tracer Tong, but he comes off as a science nerd who's thought about it way too hard, is sure he's right, and won't entertain any other option. Morgan Everett is an Illumanti member, which is the most comprehensive thing we know about him, but I think it tells us all we NEED to know. Even if the organization isn't objectively evil (It is), it can be made vulnerable and taken over by people who are due to its secret nature. I think they were really trying to show you this is a bad choice by putting you directly where Walter Simons was standing, with Morgan taking the place of the main bad guy.
Helios is just a jump into a pool of water to see if you sink or swim. Who knows what will happen? Its immensely hard to predict, at least to me. He had the decency to choose you over page, at least. Its the most ambiguous ending, but I rather liked it that way.
Apparently Invisible War went with all three endings somehow.
Helios ending is also the classic Cyberpunk decision.
I dislike how Invisible War handled the orange/lemon-lime thing. They were trying to make a cute reference to the original game, but, like, when confined to its own context, Gunther's argument with Anna means something more than that. I've always interpreted it to mean that even though Gunther is a skilled agent, his augmentations cause him to struggle adjusting to routine activities, like pressing tiny buttons with his clunky, metallic fingers. I imagine a lack of tactile feedback (being unable to feel a button with the nerves in your fingers) makes this even more difficult than it already appears at a glance. And of course the augmentations have turned him into an ugly "golem" too (quoting him). So it's like Gunther sacrificed his body, and even the ability to have a normal life, for the sake of maximizing his damage output as an agent. This deepens his character-he derives all his self-worth from being the best agent he can be, and chasing minute performance gains at the cost of his own body-and it further develops the world of the setting. His tiny, mundane struggle against his own augmentations also plays directly into the themes of the story, depicting them as something hubristic and tragic.
Somewhere in the cathedral, after JC has [SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS] killed Anna, you can even find an email to this effect, describing how Gunther just stands down in the altar room staring up at the cross on the wall all day. He's (in my opinion) seething with rage and hatred not just to avenge a friend, but also to mourn the part HE played in failing to save her, having to struggle with the fact that all his augmentations, her augmentations, and all the augmentations in the world failed to protect Anna. And that being the case, what the hell did he chop himself up for? What good are all these metal parts if they're useless when it matters most?
And then Invisible War turns around and confirms that it really WAS a conspiracy by the maintenance workers to fuck with Gunther, which negates all of this for the sake of an inside joke ...
Great post, tyvm.
@@Warlockracy No, thank you. You've only been at this for ten months and you've already covered three of my favorite games of all time. Looking forward to the inevitable System Shock 2 video.
Can you elaborate on the last part about IW?
@@nundulan You find a journal entry from a repairman who admits to deliberately switching the soda flavors in the vending machines just to fuck with Gunther.
you can also see it in the way he types, all his emails are barely legible from all the typos
53:39 Fun fact: you can actually defeat all the UNACTO troops, saving Paul in the process and proceed to the subway to be taken away by Gunther.
I knew this beforehand and decided to try it. It was difficult, but doable and required a few grenades.
"Did the US have a Perestroika" Yes actually we did. It happened in two places, the Rust Belt and the Deep South. In both places large amounts of abandoned infrastructure accumulated rapidly with the sudden withdrawal of nearly all manufacturing jobs, and previously lower-middle class families went into poverty.
@@thomaslabat8335 Perestroika refers to the economic reforms of the USSR under Gorbachev, reforms which were intended to help but only made the economy of the USSR worse. One could argue that the economic reforms in the USA towards free trade that led to the rise of the Rust Belt were the American equivalent.
@@cramer4506 miss me w that take
Sorry you didn't get enough oxygen when you were born
@@AC-hj9tv Please, do explain what is exactly so incorrect in your viewpoint.
@@cramer4506 They're just contrarians. Since the US didnt have a specific policy described in a specific Russian word, all comparisons to it just arent good enough. The idea of a decades long economic system growing steadily less effective in a changing world and the people therein being quickly disrupted and leading to a large amount of abandoned ghost town infrastructure, hardship and economic upheaval just isnt comparable if it isnt in Cyrillic. Sure, one was caused by government policy and one was private industry profit seeking, but when your government owns all your private industry at the start of the policy that line becomes quite heavily blurred.
Hipsterism went out of fashion years ago, but the hipsters just moved on to something else. RUclips comments sections, apparently.
TL;DR- Cover up any spraypaint tagging of pictures from abandoned major infrastructure in a soviet factory town and a rust belt town and tell me whether it was from Perestroika or outsourcing. You're gonna have a pretty hard time without outside clues.
"The next one shouldn't be as long"
What a shame
-JC
Let me boost this man's algorithm real quick
My algorithm optimization is augmented
Warlockracy: "My algorithm is augmented."
I hope this helps too
Yep, exactly, just what should be
Let me boost your comment real quick
"The Oceanlab feels like you're exploring Vaun Braun"
Funny considering how the Cutting Room Floor found out the oceanlab's meshes and textures were recycled from the scrapped Moonbase level after Area 51.
I can definitely see SeaLab 2052 being on the moon given the design
I can still remember my older brother telling me about this game when it first came out. Sounded so cool, and I was super excited to try it.
I also remember how much my mind was blown when on my third playthrough I saved Paul, and on my 5th playthrough where I killed Anna on the jet near the beginning(which I was amazed you could, as she is invulnerable every time before and immediately after this) and realized there was an extended convo with Lebedev, same thing with the NSF leader at the beginning if you incapacitate the UNATCO agent and help him escape. This was always _the_ game where I found something new each and every time I played it.
Like the time I rushed to get into the interrogation cell with Walton Simons shown at 32:50 and found out it didn't break the game (as the door literally opens and closes in an instant, so it felt like you shouldn't be able to get in), and that you could join the interrogation, greatly extending and expounding the little scene. You can even prevent Simons from executing them. And I found out in a very early playthrough you could evade Simons at the underwater research facility and run into him at Area 51, as that place scared the crap out of me and I gtfo'd without fighting him. :P
Anyway, Deus Ex is truly a masterpiece. There was a time where I could recite the entire opening from memory, and vividly recall the feelings and memories of just opening the game, seeing the symbol and hearing the title theme.
what the christ I had no idea about the expanded interrogation scene
I had no clue you could Free the Commander!! Time for a new Playthrough
Another really hidden area is Jock's apartment in the canal district in Hong Kong. You have to do some platforming and even then I believe it requires specific biomods or patient and creative box stacking. Lots of useful stuff inside as well as lore tidbits and datapads.
But for all the time I played the game it never occurred to be to use the GEP gun as a lockpick. I'm kicking myself for missing such an obvious and super useful trick.
Holy shit you just blew my mind. Now I need to replay the game to see this shit with my own eyes.
I played this game at least 20 times and couldn't figure out how to get into the interrogation, eventually I gave up and no clipped thru the wall with a cheat
Great video but one more point about Triads. They settle their problems with blades not because of traditions & stuff but because there is a surveillance system in Hong Kong which detects and reports guns' usage, so criminals are forced to use melee weapons. Maybe you mentioned it in the video but I just wanted to point out that Triads use blades not out of traditionalism.
I used to think that that excuse was a bit contrived, but gunshot detection is apparently a real thing.
@@YourXavier I would be very surprised if modern day China isn't attempting something similar.
@@saisameer8771 "Diverse" American cities have been using acoustic gunfire location systems for years now. ShotSpotter was testing its tech in the 90s before Deus Ex came out, so if anything it's unrealistic that it isn't in every city in Deus Ex.
@@saisameer8771average ameritard falling for the scapegoat
1:17:07 If HTTP was called Daedalus in real life 70% of hackers would use names from Greek mythology and 29% would use names from other mythologies thinking they were comedy geniuses. The silly thing is Alex concluding that HTTP is talking to JC rather than saying that it could be anyone
They would point out how weird that is. Daedalus doesn't seem to be that old of a system (?) Sentient algorithms were invented decades ago.
I just found it weird that Daedalus got dommed by his son and merged to create a sun god
22:25 Yeah, that is a problem I also have with modern """cyberpunk""", if you can even call it that. At some point in the 00's people forgot about what the literary genre was about and started focusing _way too much_ on cyborgs, neon lights, synthesizer music and other unrelated stuff... And while it can look visually cool, it's like none of these people ever read a Philip K. Dick novel or even Neuromancer.
To summarize, they forgot the "Punk" in "Cyberpunk."
this is holding the cow to be sacred.
most of the original authors of the cyberpunk genre were just turning over capitalism, drugs, and computers in their heads in short stories and e-mailing them to each other.
Once P.K. was in the picture all they wanted to do was write like him. They constantly asked who the new P.K. would be. It turns out it was no one really.
I think the author put it well in his Baldur's Gate video. This is only something that could really have been experienced at the time. It was only something that could be written at the time, as the 70s died in America and the Imperialist dogs set about to maiming millions upon millions of lives across the globe. Neoliberalism cannibalizing millions more. In the 90s and 00s the people who were grown and were writing hadn't seen South Vietnamese generals executing prisoners of war on television with a snub-nosed revolver like a thug. The press did not read the names of the war dead from the Gulf War. The United States created operational security and press pools to sanitize the brutal realities. War was seen through the eyes of a missile's camera as it destroyed abandoned factories in the Gulf.
The outlook required for something like cyberpunk to grow didn't exist for the people who produced it after the 'heyday'. Even being able to piece this kind of idea together is difficult without proper historical understanding.
@@Hamun002 This is happening to many genres of music. I’d even say some human concepts we had are starting to wither away
Coincidentally, I only just started reading Philip K. Dick’s novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” two weeks ago.
@Hamun002 "pow" actually, terrorists who sneak into cities 200 miles from the frontline JUST to murder women and children, and are caught leaving your fellow officers house with the blood of his wife and children coating his boots, are not POW's. But goes to show how easily your kind are propagandized.
Man, imagine making a 2.5 hour video without any filler or unnecessary stuff, while others struggle to drag their videos for that sweet 10 minute mark.
This really was a joy to watch. Thank you.
Just me, but here on YT MKIceAndFire did a `House of Ashes´ video that was better than half the vampire movies I watched in my lifetime. It happens.
compressing your content into 10minutes of relevancy is way harder....
you don't understand how media works Sir
The UNATCO dialogue (Anna Navarre and Sam Carter) referencing a massacre at Castle Clinton is triggered depending on the number of NSF that die in that mission, no matter who kills them. If any NSF see you and decide to flee the Castle, Anna Navarre will execute them at the exit, then enter the castle and exterminate the remaining entirety of the NSF forces.
I hate when this happens.
It goes by how many NSF the game *registers* dying. Throwing unconscious NSF into the water to drown doesn't count!
Castle Clinton is where interns blow you
It's ironic that the Dragon's Tooth blade takes so much inventory space since....most of that space is taken up by the blade that is nonexistant until activated. It's just a hilt; one would think ease of concealment and transport would be selling points. I guess it takes up so many slots to make room for Jedi dignity.
2:05:14
It actually does take a while to launch an ICBM. Kennedy(I know right?) drastically changed the Air Force's ability to launch ICBMs. Originally, the system was essentially on a feather trigger. Full Send only required 3 of 5 Generals turning keys. However, the AF Brass had installed failsafes in all of the launch computers that would send full send after a short period of time, essentially negating the need for consensus on launching. Additionally, he had the AF remove all of the explosive bolts that would break open the launch bay doors and allow for the missiles to leave their silos. In a real scenario, someone in the military would have to climb like 400 something feet in ladders and install the explosive bolts themselves.
I worked for the Defense sector before, and I am of the opinion that in the Deus Ex timeline, the AF wouldn't have changed, so you would need to electrically bypass the key, as well as emulate the signal to launch and coordinates from the central launch computers. Additionally some poor MiB SoB would have to go up there and install the explosive bolts required to get the missile out of the silo. Considering we're in Nevada, those are almost assuredly Minutemen multi-stage rockets, designed to reach out and touch the Western half of the Union. The flight itself is also an interesting question, because I don't know if you could get a rocket like that to target a very nearby facility without it having to expend most of its fuel in a huge upwards parabola. The missile itself isn't the payload, it ejects a reentry vehicle housing the actual nuke. I think in order to get the nuke to send you'd have to have it travel the full time, or risk destroying the missile.
Pardon my ignorance, but what is the difference regarding the installation of explosive bolts for a planned launch authorized by the US Military versus an Empty Quiver event where some group takes over a missile silo to initiate a launch? That is, do explosive bolts still need to be installed even for a properly authorized launch or are the launch bay doors capable of being opened (or "breaking the seal") another way given proper authorization?
And yet the code was still 00000000, just because that is faster to type.
At least there is a reason for 8'' floppies: they are so low tech and large scale, they're pretty resistant to EM interference (like for example from nuclear explosions)
Funny thing is, there is no single actual reflective surface in the whole game. It is a very stupid and brilliant illusion at the same time - the whole level is duplicated and scaled to -1 at vertical axis while the floor is transparent. Real boomer tech!
Man, the usage of boomer as an adjective is all over the place...
@@planescaped so tiring
@@doomguy1167 I mean, I guess it's just a general catch-all term for something old these days.
That's Half-Life. Deus Ex used a virtual camera for mirrors. You can no-clip through the reflective walls and surfaces in Deus Ex to confirm this.
@@planescaped Boomer in its recent overuse reflects the powerful counter-culture reaction to the older generations are modern youths. I blame Twitter.
Actually the fun part is that even in vanilla you are not forced to choose between augs as long as you have more than one local slot. That means you can get both cloak and radar transparency if you so choose, though in that situation you'll obviously miss out on ballistic protection. But that way you can build for full stealth - add Run Silent and Vision Enhancement and you'll know where everyone is at all times too, making you literally impossible to detect.
GMDX makes the augs even better too.
Am I the only person who plays JC as just a regular donut munching cop? Lol it's way more fun being a really crappy realistic cop - much less the Terminator with an Elvis voice.
Your builds sound way OP'd lol those enemies of yours they don't stand a chance. You want to do a dumb-cop playthrough though on a harder difficulty and treat it like a Permadeath game and role play yourself as a conflicated lazy ass cop. It's FUN you will never enjoy a game like you will that one :)
Based
@@DailyCorvid 🤔
@@DailyCorvid I always like "trolling Paul" playthroughs. Agree with him on how stealthy and effective non-lethal takedowns are. Employ them, but only so you can later shoot the unconscious body in the head twice. Then Paul's mask comes off right away and he reveals it was never about stealth or effectiveness, but about saving lives! Terrorist lives! Ha.
@@DailyCorvidAh, the Adam Jensen build.
"Absorbed some of its story details via cultural osmosis" you killed me with that line
It's a real term pretty cool
He smark
I am 31 years old, played lots of games over the years, but this game still is the best one i ever played. Even on my first playthrough when i was only like 11 or 12 years old, i already knew it was a special game. And later on, when i played this game over and over again, it became clear that Deus Ex is just a masterpiece. No mater how many times you play it, there is always something different and unique to it.
Hello I'm also 31 and I agree
First played this when I was 8 and I’ve probably played it through well over a thousand times. I am 21 now. Great part about is I still discover things I’ve missed in the previous 1000 playthroughs a I did
Have you ever figured out how to interrogate the prisoners before Simon's gets to them? I've clipped thru the wall before - but I can't find the in game mechanism to open the door!
@@FrederSnorlax Follow Simons down the hallway as he enters the cells and walk in with him
Reject guns and meta skills, upgrade swimming only.
I mean the Daedalus thing is actually great cover because its so obviously known. As long as you didnt know about the AI itself, there's nothing to suspect. If someone contacted you with a voice changer going by "HTTP" you wouldnt think "Oh shit its the internet contacting me."
I'm 33. My step dad introduced me to this game at about 11/12 years old. We were lower middle class. I am the oldest of 6. My parents worked 2--3 jobs each but we always had video games and new consoles. My step dad was into Pc gaming and building pcs. Because of that we had 2-3 family pcs going at a time. I played alot of games and one of them was Dues ex. It was so difficult and my step dad would not help me (at 11/12). When i finally committed and beat it he was so proud and it was awesome. RIP my step dad and ty for my love to this game.
Shoutout to my men Michiel van den Bos and Alexander Brandon. I listen to their songs pretty much every day. Also, I love DuClare Chateau so much, and exploring with Nicolette. One of the most memorable video game locations for me.
For a bunch of boomer era conspiracy theories Deus Ex predicted a scary amount of things, albeit in probably unintentional ways. I was always worried it would be a little stiff and unfun for a 20 year old game, but when I played it last year it was one of the most fun and challenging games I've ever touched, not to mention probably the most profound one. Amazing review as always!
Yeah, a terrorist attack that very well might have been a inside job in NYC, the twin towers being gone. A virus that kills people and is spread via air born transmission that was made in a government lab, that also has a vaccine that doesn't actually cure it. Rich people paying politicians in order to make more money, a war on terror that has no clear end goal and insanely massive government spending. And while were not just there yet, we are slowly moving to a centralized internet, just a few hold outs left at this point anyways.
@@ValdVincent y’all know the difference between a vaccine and a cure, right?
@@thegreatgoatking.kingofall4001 Technically a vaccine could be a cure (look up Rabbies vaccine), this said the Covid Vaccine just gives resistance to Covid and not even immunity. (Which is unlike any other Vaccine in use)
@@ValdVincent No vaccine is going to give you complete imunity, where did you read your data?
It’s always resistance, and having resistence is better than not have any.
@@KeyUSeeCZ Looks up the data coming out of Israel and the like, all it does is mitigate symptoms.
I want to raise a point about the "beautiful misery" problem, Deus Ex actually helps to place emphasis on the misery by keeping things more grounded to current day aesthetics. Or at least current day when it came out.
Everywhere you look there's trash and litter, there's a real sense that the neighborhood is going downhill fast. Almost every normal person you meet is homeless, many are sick, some are addicts. The 'Ton hotel is a run down squalid Hilton. Hilton's are usually high class places but this one is more of an apartment building than a hotel.
Then you add in Battery Park and the nole people settlements and you get this real look at the kind of overwhelming poverty that is rampant in this world.
The entire New York area looks like it came straight out of Taxi Driver, which, fun fact, is actually due to the fact that NY trash workers were on strike during the film's production.
Yeah, there is aesthetic cyberpunk, the stuff with fancy neon lights and flying cars and cyborgs and that, and there is the more grounded cyberpunk that has these things, but just as part of the world, not the whole focus.
the funny thing is, while that unabomber guy's idea of technocratic future was pretty off, his core premise that properly implemented and well designed AI or algorithmic systems being able to manipulate the masses has proven to be true to a degree.
the Ability for a massive entity like facebook or twitter to use their "algorithm" as one of many degrees of seperation from them and the deed itself allows for a wide margin of plausible deniability that makes it difficult to convincingly convey any conspiratorial ideas of what they might be up to without admitted proof. Proof like when facebook ran an "experiment" on hundreds of thousands of users to manipulate their social media feed by injecting more amounts negative or positive information and news than usual to see if it had any affect on their moods and mental health. which they concluded it did, and that they could induce feelings of depression by manipulating what people saw online.
or when twitter was found to be willing and able to manually change the "trending" tab to steer people's interest towards causes or events that they want focus on, thereby generating artificial interest in something while directing focus away from other things they dont want seen.
"That kind of power over people has the potential to change the course of History." - Ross Scott in his own Deus Ex video.
Give it more time, and it won’t be so “off” I’d wager. We’re getting closer to that future all the time.
How was it pretty off? Have you read isaif?
His diagnosis of society's illness was pretty spot on. He knew what was coming decades before anyone else did. His prescription for society, however, was way way off the mark.
@@donskiver I swear I've read this exact comment before
@@donskiverHave you actually read all the reasoning behind his prescription or do you just reject it on impulse because it's extreme and would be incredibly difficult to attain?
"You mechs have copper-wiring to re-route your fear of pain, but I've got balls of steel." --- Oh wait, that's Duke Nukem.
I don’t think you ruined Helios in the last ending. Daedalus was a threat model, and if Daedalus oversaw humanity it would be the same as any old paranoid elite destroying anything it decided was a threat until nothing is left. Icarus was designed to centralize communication and concentrate power, so the world it would oversee would stagnate and slowly die because new ideas that aren’t slight modifications of old would be surpressed. Helios as a combination of the two is the worst kind of tyrant, one that would actively destroy anything it perceived as a threat to a perfect world model that very imperfect people created. This is what we’re starting to see in China: old men fixated on “better times”, which were only “better” because they were children, crushing the new changes and interests of the younger generation. Denton by the end is a freedom fighter working with every level of society, and would inevitably bring new perspective to a machine fully designed to maintain the status quo. It needs the human element of Denton to properly do its job. The true threat is whether Helios is prepared to bring new blood into its algorithm once in a while, or whether it will allow resistance to its tyranny to keep its subjects diverse.
Good video btw :)
ehh the daedalus does understand crossing the line but he freely admits that governing the world would cause endless failures on his part
2:21:52 I remember reading something about that in a strategy guide, it is implied instead that the use of swords in place of guns by the triads is motivated by the installation of high sensibility sound sensors across Hong Kong. So it's not really a matter of honour.
It's mentioned in game. Use guns in HK and the cops swarm
@@LOLHAMMER45678 unsuppressed, specifically, I believe. Is it all firearms?
@@ZacksRockingLifestyle Nahh if it's audio sensors, they aren't listening for Db of volume change, they are sensing abrupt changes in air pressure.
So that pop shockwave created by the pin hitting the explosive part of the bullet - will set those off even if you have a magical silencer that makes zero noise.
@@DailyCorvid dude, this is about video game mechanics.
Also, if that’s really how such gunshot detection devices work, then why aren’t they constantly tripped by combustion engines firing? Or are they?
> I love her accent
and we love yours Warlock
Also, what mod/fix did you use to run it on modern systems?
GOTy is just dark and I tried revision, but the character models and lighting ruined the atmosphere for me
I used something called Kentie's launcher that fixes a bunch of compatibility issues and allows you to scale-up fonts etc
@@Warlockracy Danke broshaka
As a kid I used to think it was ridiculous that supervillains would tell everyone about their evil plan, but as a touch and attention starved adult I understand wanting to tell people about every little thing you have going on when you’ve captured their interest.
These days... Wouldn't surprise me.
Yeah, but 1:07:15, exposing a plan doesn’t actually tear it apart. Project 2025 has been right there and so many people don’t believe it’ll be implemented, even as it’s being implemented around them. May have something to do with media not blasting it because they’ve been captured by the people that want to implement it.
Yeah, but 1:07:15, exposing a plan doesn’t actually tear it apart. P 2025 has been right there and so many people don’t believe it’ll be implemented, even as it’s being implemented around them. May have something to do with media not blasting it because they’ve been captured by the people that want to implement it.
I have a love/hate relationship with accelerationism but I would probably always choose Helios.
negarestani collab when
There isn't any, on the surface that is, logical conclusion that beats the Helios ending. However, if you were to look a bit deeper, I think you'd find that truly the best ending for the potential of humanity would be the Tong scenario; interestingly as well, Tracer is one of only so many characters in deus ex that is an expert/master class at tech. If anyone would have suffered most from a dark age, it would've been him. So, why would he so emphatically support the idea? Worth a thought or two, in my opinion.
@@iwannabethekid34xc I don't think he hates tech or wants the remove it completely. Rather he is in favour of government on a smaller scale with only necessary technology. Tech that would free people until enslave them
@@themagalanium9491 ironically I think his end monolog in the ps2 deus ex is better than the original.
@@graye2799 what happens there
Loved the video, but as for the last point of ruining Helios, idk. As you pointed out yourself, Icarus, Daedalus serve different functions, but compliment each other upon merging. And if the point of adding JC was to incorporate the understanding of the human condition, I don't think JC's primate brain would be what ultimately calls the shots. I see it as him becoming just a resource for a greater system, with a clear cut goal of adding empathy to the equation. JC's animal brain, after all, is now but a third of his being.
I think it's what makes JC's and Paige's merging different - Paige intended to remain fully in control, use Helios power to indulge his primate brain. Which is exactly why Helios turns on him, as it was created for the very purpose of becoming a higher form of government, not hand over control to yet another tyrant.
All that being said, my theory stands on the idea that Helios itself doesn't have significant flaws in it's decision making. There is no guarantee that upon merging, the collective will run the numbers and decide that empathy isn't that great after all, and it should rule with an iron fist instead. Which really, only makes it more interesting to me. That's the whole point, JC becomes an entirely new life form. There is no telling how he will act.
Your vision is augmented bro. Also play Invisible War, the ApostleCorp ending is exactly this.
Deus Ex was more prophetic than anyone wanted
Well said..
It really wasn't, no
The boomer conspiracy theories aged like milk
@@RazorsharpLT So there wasn't plague around the world, richest get rid of lowest wealth workers, vending machines didn't take control over the world?
@@38procentkrytyk When did "richest" get rid of lowest wealth workers? That never happened. Are you pushing some conspiracy agenda? Get out of here, Stalker.
@@nerevarinenwah3690 The Zone awaits...
Deus Ex was the first game I bought after I left my hometown to study at university, so this game is a real touchstone for me. The look and feel, the sound design, the music, everything. I sends me right back to that very special time over twenty years ago where everything was so new and exciting.
I truely hope this becomes a series on your channel. I wont lie some of the political concepts like "accelerationism" kinda goes over my head but hearing these concepts used in an old cyberpunk expired game like this is just amazing to me.
It took real balls to make a game lile this, I hope you do Invisible War and Human Revolution one day because the way you do these videos and discuss it is less about gameplay or voice acting but about the concepts being discussed in game and the real life irony in what implications are being discussed.
Found your channel about 2 months ago, and you already are on the level of Mandalore Gaming, Raycevick, Joseph Anderson, and Ahoy in my book with your clever structuring, nice editing, and well paced narrative!
Yup, i think you'll gonna reach their level soon with your sub count :)
And great vid btw!
Thanks!!
Joesph Anderson is a pseudointellectual hack. He wishes he could be in Warlockracy's shadow.
lol diapers
"An incel sex tourist"
God the delivery of this line kills me every time I hear it.
I always love the idea these old games had with skills. They just threw these large spreadsheets at you which let you change every aspect of the character. You wanna jump higher? That's a stat. You wanna be ridiculously wealthy? That's a stat. You wanna talk talk to a rat? Stat. What a wonderful era of RPGs. I like Skyrim and Human Revolution but Morrowind and Deus Ex gave you so much wild liberty.
this is the kind of content I love, the unapologetic review presenting multiple sides of human nature and philosophy, while still being entertaining and covering the whole experience. you might wanna consider yourself a videogame anthropologist! thank you for the wonderful pieces of media
I come back to this video every now and then. I keep noticing more stuff I didnt pick up the last time or learn something new about my favourite game. Thank you Warlock, youve become my favourite creator here.
Very interesting that this whole "Nanomachines" kick happened at once at this time. Cowboy Bebop's movie was based all around a nanomachine conspiracy as well.
It was a popular concept in 90's sci-fi.
At the time, I think, a lot of people thought the concept sounded very radical and cutting-edge.
Neal Stephenson's books were huge influences on Deus Ex, too, and The Diamond Age is all about nano-technology as a world-changing technological revolution.
(I honestly don't know anything about Cowboy Bebop, so IDK who influenced them to do it.)
No Time to Die has Nanomachime as main plot too
I love that JC basically walked in, spent about a week to figure out this entire fucking thing and immediately fucked over everyone's plans that they've been working on for decades and somehow no one else managed to so far.
A theory: Daedalus and Icarus were playing the long game with MJ12 and the Illuminati, pretending to be on their side while manipulating events in such a way that would lead to their merger as Helios and get JC to Area 51 where he could merge with the AI. The game was rigged from the start.
the wrong man at the right time makes all the difference they say
The single most comprehensive overview of the game I've ever seen. I've tried and failed several times to play Deus Ex but thanks to you and all the other people who enjoy this game I get to see what it has to offer. Great video!
Games like these from the early 2000nds could have unending ambition because they didn't care about jank, bad textures, decent voice acting or animation quality. God I miss that.
They did worry about it. They cared for it.
Heck even graphic wars are as old as video games. Vector? Color? 8bit? 16bit? Genesis does what Nintendont?
Games today are still ambitious. It just so happens that there are so many that its almost like theres nothing left to explore.
Omg Warlockracy covering Deus Ex. I need to get some wine, snacks and a blankie!
nice to see the skyrim guard get a new career in videogame analysis
roflmao
I gasped when I saw "Deus Ex" and "Warlockracy" together, let's go
This was excellent. Just the right blend of edgy humor and serious philosophical discussion. And I barely noticed the length because the pacing was so good. I hope you continue to do long-form content like this.
By the grace of material dialectics let this channel grow.
I actually like "point investment" mechanics but only in rare cases like Deus Ex, where it's more rewarding to play most of the game nonlethal. I think it was done on purpose because if guns were decently accurate on all skill levels it'd quickly turn into just FPS and there would be no incentive for players to think and upgrade. Classic isometric Fallouts have even stricter system where not only skill but also luck comes into play.
Thong probably have never lived in anything remotely like a village or other rural settlement, he's a city dwelling tech-boy from privileged background and bear some very idealistic ideas about "pre high tech society". Choosing Illuminati is just rendering all we've done obsolete and returning to status quo instead of development. Makes JC just a high skilled servant instead of an independent actor. So I always chose Helios ending, no matter the possible threats and speculations (which rise from us projecting our nature on an AI), this is a step forward instead of step back or in place.
Thanks for this amazing video. Also you made me google "fat sonic".
Out of all Deus Ex videos I’ve seen, this one finally pushed me to play it myself, and I thank you for that. Your Tamriel rebuilt video also pushed me to play Morrowind to completion, too. You’re one of the most unique creators out there.
Great video as always dude.
I was 15 when it came out, and the nostalgia is always through the roof playing it or watching videos.
when someone ask me something that i cant understand im gonna tell him ´´the french philosopher Goerge Bataille thought that the porpuse of life is to waste the energy of the sun´´
It's kind of funny that JC is paid so little in his elite job. The credits in game are basically synonymous with dollars, so the fact that JC is basically paid 1000 dollars is hilarious and fits rather well with the dystopia world he is inhabiting. Paul living in a run down hotel complements my reading; in 2052 nobody owns nothing and everyone is paid jackshit. I suppose that the agency can't afford to give their most effective agents a good salary because the maintenance cost is so high for augmented workers.
“In the future, you’ll own nothing and love it!” Real life elites at WEF
@@TheAnthonyMarlowe Larry Fink
@@TheAnthonyMarlowe Ownership is indeed the crux of the problem, but private property the cause of the injustices we suffer. So few individuals having so much capital over the majority of humanity is not an efficient, logical or moral state of affairs. The working class should own the capital plan it rationally and spend it for the betterment of society, not for the vanity projects of some few mandarins. Proudhon asserted "property is theft" and while I disagree with him on the specifics, he is not wrong to posit that private ownership of the means of production is indeed the systematic robbery of nations, provinces, and people by the bourgeois, who gather in cockroach nests like the WEF.
Already better than Chris Davis' review who couldn't handle awesomness of this game... or had allergry for c0nspiracy the0ries?
I still remember picking that game back then, felt like X-Files the videogame (there were official games but they weren't my cup of tea) and managed to beat it. It's one of the very few old games that you can still play today without pain. Unless you fully succumbed to modern handholding self-playing bar filling games...
I think weapons skills are quite realistic - getting hit from character with low level weapons skill still hurt, when it land which is not easy at the early stage of field training.
lol no, Deus Ex is a a very clunky game tl start and get a hold off. A new player should certainly take a look at a guide.
The game is a masterpiece, but it is dated. The tutorial is awful, there are useless skills in the character creator. The combat is weird.
You are blinded by nostalgia. But sadly, fixing this game's problems would also come with taking away some of its magic.
chris davis is a typical sjw. he cares more about pushing his agenda than speaking the truth.
@@arsenii_yavorskyi can't forget that "I'm totally not cancelling Vince" cancelling moment in his Age of Decadence review, it left me disappointed that he could do something like that... him and similar "we're good folks" using vile methods for their cause.
@@SpecShadow Yeah I completely gave up on that guy's channel after that video. Absolutely vile behavior. Asshole masquerading as a concerned citizen "good guy".
@@everythingiseconomics9742 I got through the game just fine without a guide on my first playthrough. Besides most of the "issues" you brought up aren't really issues, it's an RPG for a reason. You have to improve your skills for your character to do more things.
ok I have watched so many deus ex retrospectives, analasyis, reviews etc (probably 5-10?) and this is by far the best. I love your clips, your audio levels are perfection. Your commentary is great and your story summary and "red thread" throughout the whole review and making me understand how the game goes through storywise is truely some of the best I've watched. Hands down man, thank you for this. Earned a sub. You remind me of when I found Neverknowsbest at 20k subs.
Maybe I'm the only person who likes accuracy tied to weapon skill in FPS/action-RPGs.. Since well it is part of the RPG. Your character isn't skill enough.
And I hate if bullets become stronger if your skill is higher.. You could argue the PC knows where to hit but meh.
I choose bad accuracy over most of the alternatives used by ARPGS any day. If I want to hit, I just raise the skill o.o
It would be interesting seeing an indie game try their hand at Morrowind style combat in this day and age and see if they can pull it off. It'd never be something AAA would ever try.
I'm not so sure it is archaic game design.
Sames. You can use gun even if you are unskilled, you are not a good shot, but bullets are still doing damage. Never liked idea of bullets making more damage after you upgrade skill.
Also never liked leveled weapons. When somehow assault rifle lvl 3 stops being lethal against naked guy level 20.
I definitely prefer the skill mechanics for guns to be accuracy-based, too.
Mostly because I hate bullet-sponge mechanics in general (making me hit the enemy more times is the most lazy, boring approach to difficulty--a system where hits count but they're hard to land is way more fun).
I can understand why people who aren't familiar with the concept might find it confusing or annoying, though.
I lucked out on Deus Ex because before that I was obsessed with the old Rainbow Six games--which also used a very similar "shrinking circle of RNG" mechanic to represent aiming.
So I found the Deus Ex system intuitive from the beginning--but it might have seemed really weird if I hadn't seen the same thing before.
FPS games typically condition you to think of your hand on the mouse as equivalent to your character's hand on the gun, so the idea that the gun muzzle isn't just pointing at whatever the mouse reticle is pointing at could feel pretty weird at first.
(I assume.)
@@planescaped IMO the problem with Morrowind is that their RNG system is janky as heck and can be immersion breaking, especially with current level of graphics. Also, the system can be a bit broken at the time.
Personally, for medieval arpg i prefer Gothic style than Morrowind. On lower level, your swing or punch will be slow, unwieldy, and repetitive, but the more skilled you are, the faster and gracef your swing become and you gain more combos (also imo it more realistic and fitting because swordfighting are different than shooting). It also still implemented in some modern games like Mount n Blade and Kingdom Come Deliverance if i remember, and it really cool stuff, pretty immersive and fit with modern arpg style and system while still give meaning to skill progression.
But for more shooting arpg i agree that Deus Ex accuracy base system is pretty cool. Kinda wish beth try it with their Fallout installments.
I would prefer if the firearms skill affects the control of recoil and the speed of use of the weapon.
Personally, there's no reason to apologise for the video length, as the video itself was perfect. I like long format content and I really enjoyed sitting through this one.
Nothing wrong with the length of it, and I'm sure others wouldn't mind if you made more long videos like it. I certainly wouldn't mind. Regardless of length they're definitely a highlight of the day. Thank you for the great content.
I haven't been this hyped for a video in awhile. I literally muttered 'Fuck yes!' under my breath.
Whether that speaks to the quality of your content or the peculiarness of my mannerisms, well, It's probably one of those.
I can't describe how grateful I am for this video. I have an urge to play Deus Ex every 6 months or so and your video provides nor only the experience I was seeking but also really great sense of humor. This two and a half hours were just splendid
I've been sick all week and discovered your channel in the middle of it. Your insightful commentary helped me through many hard hours and now this? Gorgeous stuff!
My man literally cut out one of the best scenes in the game.
"OH MY GOD JC A BOMB"
Otherwise great video. It honestly didn't feel like I was watching this for 2 hours.
I've been scrolling through the internet all day and was about to give up finding something to watch when this popped up. The fun thing is that I'm actually fed up with Deus Ex at the moment, or so I thought, because now I am really looking forward to the next 2.5 hrs.! Your content and perspektive is more than good enough to fill that amount of time, without padding, so don't apologize for the video length.
Edit: Well worth the wait, and as I suspected, the lenght adds to your format in my opinion. Besides playing through the game several times, I must have seen close to every video made on this topic. This is the first video that gave me close to the same feelings I had while playing it, and is in a totally different league than almost every video I've seen about this game. It is so nice to see somebody capitalize on their love and knowledge of the game, rather than the games cult status. The only video I can compare yours to is the one by Ross' Game Dungeon, but your video surpasses his in many ways. You have somehow captured nuch of how it felt to play this game when it came out.
I am thoroughly impressed! Keep up the good work!
Deus Ex is one of my favorite games of all time, and this is a terrific kind of Let's Play meets Retrospective meets Review. You've got a great balance of straight up reporting, analysis and jokes. More than that, I actually learned several things about the game and the lore that I didn't even realize, even after dumping hundreds of hours into it!
I appreciate the editing going on too, how you introduce each section with a simple title card and a choice line of dialog from the game, which are themselves a good mix of hilarious and thoughtful. Minimal, but effective. You don't sit down and talk about/explain EVERY plot point or game quirk - as that would indeed take a long time, given that the game has a TON of content. But you do a good job of focusing on the key points, commenting with your own personal outlook now and again, and honestly, just letting the game speak for itself.
Your cuts to the guy singing "Our Country Tis of Thee", for instance, was a great way of breaking from your main points/footage to showcase a snippet of the game's world, unadulterated, for us to make up our own minds about. I thought that was a wise choice throughout, and I like how you use this tactic for both the emphasis of a certain point, theme, mechanic - or just for the lulz. I also loved how you left in the random coughs as Jock takes JC back to New York. Or this gem: "Welcome to Brooklyn Bridge Station" *kills rat*. It's like the game wrote jokes for you. LOL
I also really appreciate how you had sort of a "middle" approach to the choices you made in the game. I think it was the best way to show off just what the game allows you to do. An "all non-lethal" playthrough or a "I'mma be a dick" playthrough would've been fun, but would've missed a lot of details. Some of those details speak wonders to the terrific design of the game. And some are being able to cheese locks forever with a GEP gun. XD
ALSO: random theory. In your playthrough, Anna Navarre claimed that Castle Clinton was a graveyard, despite your non-lethal run of that area, right? I was thinking...maybe she wasn't bugged. Maybe this still fits. You remember how AFTER Castle Clinton, your JC basically tooted his own horn and threw shade back in Navarre's face?
What if this showing of backbone and competence actually impressed Navarre, despite JC not being a slaughterhouse. She says "At least you are not timid like Paul." Maybe she's covering for JC because she kinda likes his style. Like an opposites attract kinda deal? We know there's dialog about how JC and Anna would "make a cute couple" (sarcastically of course).
Okay maybe that's too fanfictiony, right? How about this: what if Anna is actually trying to set JC up for failure? Like...your JC already made a bad impression on Anna, given that he didn't rescue Hermann and talked shit to her about mechs in front of the other soldiers. So when your JC basically aces Castle Clinton without killing anyone and talks shit, Anna's like "Fuck this guy." She reports a bloodbath to Manderly and recommends JC for a higher-risk assignment: an assassination. She EXPECTS JC to fuck it up because he's a non-lethal boi like his brother. So the writing, the words are the EXACT same, but it actually kind of fits your actions in this playthrough, even though you took the non-lethal path in that mission.
Though yeah, it's probably just a bug. LOL
Warlocky: Wanna see me make my longest video yet ? Wanna see me double that video’s length ?
Fans : *Y E S*
>JC
>source of human ethic for AI God
what a shame
This looks great. I love hearing different takes on this game.
I could listen to your commentary all day. This video really helped me pass the time at work tonight.
Люблю твои видеоигровые эссе, Кирилл.
If this means "I love your videogame essays, Kirill" then I'm surprisingly good at understanding Russian, despite not speaking it.
@@JarlFrank that's exactly what it says
Твой комментарий не лайкнул, а англоязычный ответ к нему лайкнул. Совсем нас Батя не любит.
@@TheMinatoST Русофоб
I speel my drink.
26:45:
Jock: "Listen to your brother, JC. Respect his experience."
JC: Shut up, old man, you're not my Dad!
*squints*
"Oh my god."
No lie I whooped and hollered when I saw a new video from you that was two hours. Favorite youtuber of 2021.
I don't think Helios was "ruined" by merging with Denton, after all, the ai has the capacity to assess and judge who is the most suitable candidate to bring the human perspective Helios desires. One of the arguments I've seen online is that Helios betrayed and discarded Page and it can do the same to Denton, which is absurd. Helios's programming was made with the purpose of assimilating with the most suitable candidate, Page being very narcissistic saw himself fit for this as no one has ever questioned him, no one had marked his flaws, he always gets what he wants, when he wants; he sees himself as the superior being which is why he was certain that the assimilation would happen. Helios doesn't play by Page's rules, only the ones that it's programming dictate, which is to find and assimilate the most suitable individual to acquire the human perspective in order to better guide humanity.
Page's plan was doomed from the start.
in addition jc has a very complimentary personality he's driven skilled creative, decisive but well you've seen how he talks
edit: and if he isn't then helios couldn't be ruined it was always worthless for it's role
I never got frustrations with the existence of weapon skills in RPGs that affect your actions. With incredible clunkyness of it - sure, systems could be done better, but not with the existence itself. It's an RPG, not a reflex-based action game, what else one can expect? That one's character would be professional at every thing in the world without even trying?
Meanwhile everyone is fine with random non-telegraphed recoil in most action games with guns. Personally can't stand most shooting games besides borderlands and destiny because of that. Having bullets flying under 45° angle away from the barrel is way less natural than anything from games with weapon-based combat.
The lack of professionalism can be communicated in a different way (by making animations awkward and slow, by having a limited repertoire of combat moves etc).
@@Warlockracy Funilly enough, Madness: Project Nexus does exactly this, ie, making the player slow, inaccurate, and limited in their ability to use firearms at lower levels. If you haven't played or heard of Project Nexus, I recommend it. It's a very fun game based off of the Newgrounds flash series Madness Combat.
@@ryguy9876 Ey, M:PN fans representing! Too rare to see it brought up in the wild; that game's an underrated gem.
The only problem is the combination of 1st person perspective and character skill based systems.
One is there to increase immersion by literally putting you in the character's shoes, the other is there to separate the player's skills from the character's skills.
Why have a player controlled first person shooting system where the player has to aim and pull the trigger, but then have the outcome be decided on the character's gun skill.
Imagine the opposite: the aiming and shooting is dependent on the character's skill, but to decide if it hits or not the player has to play a reaction-based minigame or a logic puzzle.
And Borderlands and Destiny both follow the random bloom system (and Destiny curves bullets, even if you aim outside the visible enemy model) , while other games like CS or Planetside have gun specific recoil patterns/directions that can be learned. So you as player control recoil manually with your own skill instead of relying on random spread and attachments that "reduce" recoil.
The GEP Gun is best used for silent takedowns.
I see you are a man of culture aswell
Don’t mind me, just boosting your algorithm as recompense for a 10/10 video on one of my favorite games of all time
I just noticed that the email at 21:11 is signed Harleen Quinzell. "A frown is just a smile turned upside down...". I love easter eggs like this in old video games. Ah, a different era.
Don't apologize. I know I'm gonna love every second of this video.
EDIT: This was absolutely phenomenal from start to finish. Deus Ex has been my favorite game of the last 20 years and watching this felt like my first trip through the game. Most underrated RUclips channel and it's not even close.
Just came across this in my recommended feed. I'll be binging and liking all your videos for the next week or two. Thanks for all the hard work and good humor.
Your political literacy makes for very, very entertaining content. Wish more gamer content creators were as clever with their political jokes.
You can just put a period after clever. ;-)
that would mean they would have to actually study sociopolitical theory
He's russian. Every eastern European is a political expert.
hbomberguy has some cool politcial-gaming stuff if you didnt know already.
who need they surplussy ate?
Gawd...this is a throw back, i remember my brother and i used to make bases using the console commands and spawn all sorts of items and structures in the game. When i first learned of greys and the genetically modified chicken thing irl then i see them in game made me go nuts lol, the greys in this game are just radioactive apes though.
You're such a phenomenal storyteller. I don't have time to play everything, so getting to enjoy some of these games through your lens is the perfect way to do it.
@54:00 this is almost exactly where the game clicked for me when I was a boy playing it for the first time, too. When I later found out you could save Paul, it blew my mind
This game is taking my mind off my heavy depression 😌
So it makes me happy to see this video, I take pleasure in simple things
Thank you , who ever you are
Saving all your zyme from the start of the game can be a really good investment for credits when you arrive to paris and meet the drug dealer
Wow, just wow. 2.5 hours of Warlockracy talking about my GOAT game? This is going to be right up there with when I got to spend 30 minutes talking to Warren himself about Deus Ex!
Please speak on that, king. What did you ask him?
@@junioraltamontent.7582 Huh, never got a notification for this, so sorry for the late answer. I didn't go into it with specific questions, which in hindsight I really wish I had. The conversation wasn't actually all about Deus Ex, but the part that did relate was us talking about conspiracies and what they left out [Denver airport was the main one he brought up], he said they had tons of stuff they wanted to include but were unable to due to time and hardware constraints. He also hinted at the team wanting to create even more options for resolving situations than what made it into the game. Interestingly, out of all his games he seemed proudest of Epic Mickey. Might have to find a LetsPlay of that sometime.
@@Tekisasubakani Aye! Appreciate the response! That's so cool
When you've played a game through about 5 times, will play it through at least another 5, and you watch 2+ hour videos on it, several times over. What a game, great review, too!
Thank you for this video bro it's really is an awesome video. Very entertaining, easy to follow and by God I had no idea the PC game Deus Ex could be this awesome!
Thank you so muchos for making it!
no, ❤ you! 😊
Did I just discover a new longform channel to binge?
Yes. Yes I did.
Great video friend.
I liked the Helios ending.
At the time of playing I read a sick book about a man who fought against his inner concerns for the people he once loved.
It turned out his "love" for his family, especially his daughter was engineered by an algorithm that some egheads in a lab came up with and he fought the AI that was beginning to form in his own brain.
What is the book named?
@@zulfaikhsanuddin6043 I was hoping some saint would go with: " Oh yeah [Book name] that one was alright.
I honestly forgot, sorry.
@@Ezekiel_Kleyer oh, alright then
saving this video for when i finish my run-through.
just got the dragon tooth sword.
you still have 1/3 of the game ahead of you
@@Warlockracy i forgot about your video because right after i beat deus ex my first kid was born
he just had his first birthday
time for this video now!