Deus Ex is a series of cyberpunk-themed first-person action role-playing video games.
The series was developed by Ion Storm for the first two games and Eidos Montreal for
later entries in the series.
The series, set during the 21st century, focuses on the conflict between secretive factions
who wish to control the world by proxy, and the effects of transhumanistic attitudes and
technologies in a dystopian future setting.
The series currently consists of four games: Deus Ex, Deus Ex: Invisible War, Deus Ex:
Human Revolution, and Deus Ex: The Fall.
Eidos announced in October 2013 that future entries in the series would go under the umbrella
name Deus Ex: Universe.
The series has received much critical acclaim over the years, and sold over 4.5 million
units worldwide.
Series overview
Note: given the freedom of choice found within each game, the section below only gives the
general outline of the world and the individual plotlines.
While each game has a distinct story, they are all set within the same world: an Earth
of the future which has evolved a dystopian, cyberpunk society.
In this setting, several organizations compete for overall control of the world.
Several of the societies mentioned or shown are inspired by real-world and invented secret
societies and conspiracy theories.
The one constant through the series is the Illuminati, although FEMA, Majestic 12, and
the Knights Templar are also featured.
The main characters in the series possess artificially acquired superhuman abilities,
generally referred to as "Augmentation", and more specifically called "Human augmentation"
in the third game.
Deus Ex takes place during 2052, while the world is facing a crisis caused by a mysterious
nano-virus called the Gray Death.
In the midst of the crisis, JC Denton, a nano-augmented rookie agent for the United Nations Anti-Terrorist
Coalition, is sent to eliminate terrorist cells, but ends up drawn into the various
schemes of rival factions and secret societies, who are responsible for the epidemic.
Once he arrives in Area 51, Denton has the choice between neutralizing technology and
plunging the world into a second dark age,. allying with the Illuminati, or merging with
an advanced AI so as to impose a benevolent dictatorship.
Invisible War takes place twenty years later, after a massive economic depression and period
of war called the Collapse that was indicated by Denton's actions and a combination of possible
events from the first game.
The game's protagonist, Alex D, a clone of Denton, is drawn into a conflict two seemingly
opposing factions, and learns of conspiratorial factions which seek to drastically change
the world, including JC Denton: Alex can perform missions for any of them, and eventually becomes
able to choose which organization should rule the world.
Human Revolution is set in 2027, twenty-five years before the first title, where corporations
have extended their influence past the reach of global governments and the development
of bio-mechanical augmentation by a few elite and powerful companies threatens to destabilize
society.
The game follows Adam Jensen, the security chief for bio-tech company Sarif Industries.
After a devastating attack on Sarif's headquarters which leaves him near-death, Adam is forced
to undergo radical augmentation surgery, and he becomes embroiled both in the search for
the attackers and the political and ethical repercussions of augmentation technology.
The Fall is a parallel story, set after the spin-off novel Icarus Effect.
It follows the story of Ben Saxon, an augmented former British SAS mercenary, who is on the
run from his former employers, a group of augmented mercenaries that play a crucial
part in the plot of Human Revolution.
Gameplay A unifying element across the series is the
combination of gameplay styles from several different genres, including RPGs, shooters
and adventure games.
Role-playing elements are mostly linked to augmenting the character in a specific way,
spending skill points to create characters that can be focused either on stealth or combat,
or a balance of the two.
Player choice is a key feature of the series, with the actions of the player character affecting
both the world around them and the way NPCs react to the character: depending which faction
they belong to, NPCs might praise and be helpful, chastise, ignore, or even attack them.
This emphasis on player choice is most evident in Invisible War, where players can choose
the gender and skin color of the main character before starting, and have the option of running
quests for and allying with four possible factions within the game.
Development history The original Deus Ex was conceived in 1995
by Warren Spector in 1994 under the working title Troubleshooter.
The main drive behind Deus Ex was Warren's growing dislike for straight fantasy or sci-fi
video games, and the want to create something new and different.
In an interview, he stated that he wanted to emulate the immersive playing styles of
games like Ultima Underworld, and eventually, after being rejected by Origin Systems, the
company he was working with at the time, and Looking Glass Studios, Spector's project was
picked up by Ion Storm, who, according to Spector, asked him to "make the game of [his]
dreams".
The title Deus Ex was meant to both represent aspects of the plot in the game and to poke
fun at the design techniques that were prevalent in the majority of games at the time.
The second game in the series, Invisible War, was first unveiled at E3 2002.
For this game, the designers chose to allow the players to choose which sex their player
character would be, an idea conceived for the original game.
After the release of Invisible War, both Harvey Smith, the main designer for Deus Ex, and
Spector left Ion Storm in 2004, with the former citing health problems and the latter saying
he wished to pursue his own projects.
Later, because of restructuring at Eidos Interactive, Ion Storm was closed down the following year.
A multiplayer-focused third game titled Deus Ex: Clan Wars was originally being made at
Crystal Dynamics, but because of the commercial underperformance of Invisible War, it was
distanced from the Deux Ex series and renamed Project Snowblind.
Human Revolution was announced in 2007 under the working title Deus Ex 3.
The game's creation was handled by Eidos Montreal and the developer's parent company Square
Enix, whose Visual Works department created the CG movies for the game.
The game became the first entry in the series to receive DLC in the form of The Missing
Link, an extra episode designed to fill a narrative gap in the game.
In 2013, a new title was created for iPhone and iPad.
Titled The Fall and set within Human Revolution's timeframe, the game was created by the previous
game's core team and a team from mobile phone developer N-Fusion.
In October 2013, Eidos Montreal announced that they were working on another title in
the series for PC and next-gen platforms, and that it would be the first part of a larger,
transmedia project called Deus Ex: Universe.
Related media CBS Films has acquired screen rights to Deus
Ex, after Eidos was purchased by Square Enix.
An announcement was made for a film adaptation of Deus Ex: Human Revolution in July 2012.
Human Revolution inspired a tie-in comic book, a spin-off novel, and action figures.
Alongside the announcement of a next-gen entry in the franchise, Eidos Montreal announced
the "Deus Ex Universe", a multimedial project involving video games across all platforms,
books, graphic novels and other unspecified mediums.
Reception Overall, the Deus Ex series has received critical
acclaim reception, with its storylines and freedom of choice being the main point of
praise.
The first game won multiple awards from various video game publications, and was lauded by
critics at the time, although its graphics came in for some criticism.
Invisible War was also well received, but did not enjoy the success of its predecessor,
with many elements of its gameplay and story being targets for criticism, but many praising
its branching gameplay and the high level of paths the player could take through the
story.
Human Revolution received high critical praise roughly equal to the first game, with many
reviewers praising the open-ended nature of the game and the weight of social interaction
on the outcome of events.
Reviews for The Fall were slightly more mixed, with praise going to the game's attempt to
bring the Deus Ex universe to a portable platform, but many other aspects coming in for both
praise and criticism.
Notes
References