It wasn't linear, sometimes 2 corridors right next to each other led to one unified corridor! When you picked one corridor, you totally missed what was going on in the other! .. well unless you were using powers of peripheral vision.

This is exactly one of the reasons why I think Deus Ex is overrated. It's not nearly every decision that counts. There's a handful of them, but they are placed at strategic points in the game and occasionally do surprise you. But it's mostly a very clever illusion, similarly like vertical space is an illusion in Doom. Very effective, and great for its time, but in the end pretty shallow.

Part of the problem with this game is that people remember the Statue of Liberty level very well, and some of them also Hell's Kitchen, but not much the rest of it. After leaving the frankly brilliant Hong Kong, which is some halfway through the game, all your further decisions become largely irrelevant, and the game becomes a very tedious experience indeed.
That was to a large extent deliberate, but I agree with you it feels very stupid. I'd accept it if they were mocking the whole thing a bit more openly, as playing it straight is ludicrous. I'd prefer less Da Vinci Code, more Foucault's Pendulum, to use a literary analogy.

Diablo and Torchlight are not RPGs. There's basically no character development and stats are pretty much there for show.

Basically yeah. I can't believe that the minds behind the original Unreal came up with the bland mediocrity of Gears of War.


What? Quake III is one of the best, most balanced deathmatch games ever made. That's all it's reknowned for. Nobody cares that it wasn't innovative or big and "throw everything at it and see if it sticks" like UT. That's not the point of the game. It's just a tight, incredibly polished vehicle for multiplayer fragging, and the fact that it's still played competitively to this day shows that it did a pretty darn good job of it.

Now, overrated in the grand scheme of FPSs both SP and MP? Maybe. It's certainly not as deep or engaging as games like STALKER, and it lacks the simple joy of Id's SP games. But as a MP game it's fantastic.

Yeah, I guess apples and oranges covers it :). I think Vegas 2 was ok, but in a whole other category than Splinter Cell and DX.

System Shock 2 might be overrated yes. It's considered holy by many (it seems), and even though it's a great game, I think it's one of those games you had to have played at the time to appreciate it fully.
I think that's the problem with games (and other media for that matter). There is a huge nostalgy factor, that creates a huge problem of alterity.

I can't believe someone with SHODAN as an avatar said that - in what way were the System Shocks not 'proper' FPS RPGs?
SS1 was the brain child of Warren Specter as was DE - they're related, like siblings!

Eh, bad wording there I'm afraid. I meant RPG as in 'choices and consequences,' not RPG as in stats. System Shock to rule them all, Systen Shock to find them, System Shock to bring them all and in the darkness bind them and all that.

Wait wait wait... You misunderstood me...
System Shock 2 is awesome. Full Stop.
I was simply stating that in my opinion both Deus Ex's and any Splinter Cell are distant second when compared to System Shock 2...

That being said, I compare the games based on the effect they have had on me when I played them, I mean, sure, System Shock 2 by today's standards is not that awesome... but when I played it, it was masterpiece (just like the original X-Com).

I understand what you say about Deus Ex but I think in execution it just doesn't work as well as you say. Playing on hard or realistic difficulty level one is literally forced to be stealthy as the damage received is increased substantially. Until you can acquire significant upgrades to your ballistic / energy / ADM augmentations (which won't be until more than halfway through the game) you will be very vulnerable to enemy fire. Thus making running-and-gunning impractical, if not counter-intuitive.

This may not seem like a problem for many, but my point in bringing it up is that, once factored in, there is no real choice; the choice is made for you. Thus the acclaims that Deus Ex is some free-form, open-ended game is rather debatable.

You assume this because I'm on my first playthrough? That's rather presumptuous. I've been gaming since the days of DOS; I know how to properly gauge games according to their respective era. And I'm sorry to say but even by 2000 standards Deus Ex isn't really that remarkable.

The question that the game begs to be asked is: is it an FPS with RPG elements? or is it an RPG with FPS elements?

As an FPS, it is a failure. It is saddled with poor controls and extremely poor AI, even by 2000 standards.

Enemies are dimwitted automatons. Once they've spotted you they will either run straight at you, stand in place while shooting at you - or - if you run away into cover will either give up or chase you around a corner where you can dispatch them easily. Recall, now, that 1998's Half-Life had AI which was able to flank your position and flush you out with grenades.

Deus Ex's poor AI also explains the inconsistent pacing of the game. If playing a stealth character the game quickly becomes boring. At first it's cool to sneak around levels, using your stealth pistol you can easily double pew-pew guards in the head. However, once you've done this numerous times it loses its appeal. The only thing that breaks up this monotony are the mechanical bots and cameras and turrets that inhabit the same levels.

As an RPG, Deus Ex isn't so much a failure as it is just...flat.

Yes I agree that it explores certain philosophical / political issues that few games have touched - admittedly it is this aspect that has kept me coming back to the game - but the handling of these issues is so feckless that any semblance of depth is purely superficial.

Additionally, there's no real sense of drama. Take for instance the events that happen later in the game as MJ12 and Bob Page move in to take over the government. There is no sense of urgency. You read about martial law in the United States through a newspaper, something this grandiose and dramatic deserves nothing less than a cutscene, yet you read about it instead.

Moreover, You have no real control over these events either, they happen regardless of how well you play. In truth only a few choices you make through the game are going to affect one of the three endings you'll get.

Now you take the original Fallout for instance, a game where most of your choices make huge differences in the game's outcome, including the finale; not to mention the sense of urgency of finding the water chip for your vault, the success or failure of which resides purely in how well you're able to do. This is a perfect example of where Fallout succeeds whereas Deus Ex fails (or at least flounders).

So as you can see, I'm not judging Deus Ex through a modern lens but holding it up to the standards of its day.

I hope this clears up my position on the game.

StarCraft II.

Rehash of the first game. Outdated gameplay mechanics. RTS has evolved beyond boring resource gathering and base building, yet StarCraft II still uses the old gameplay from the 1990s.

Awful, awful story and plots. Atrocious cinematic direction and voice acting. The cinematic cut-scenes were so horrendous that they made me cringe.

It really does, and I found it very interesting to read. You make very valid points. Which I find strangely hard to contradict. Yet, I still feel it was and is a great and brilliant game. Maybe nostaligia is getting the better of me, I don't know. But I still think you judge a bit to harsh on some aspects.

Yes, the Half-Life AI was much better. But it was years ahead of its time, I can't think of a second game out of that timeframe that had an AI even comparable to HL. Tbh, I found the AI in Half Life better than in Half-Life 2.

And it dosen't play as a good shooter, because it doesn't want to be a shooter. But you can or a "violent" or "loud" approach if you take a cautions and tactical approach. It was, in a way, a bit like those old Rainbow 6 games. You could play it as a shooter, but you have to play by "their rules". I found my "loud" playthrough highly enjoyable.

I disagree, those issues were sufficently presented and explored. They weren't the main stay of the game because, well, it's still a game. I found the way Deus Ex presents you an issue a lot better than that of those "very special episodes" style ways other games (I'm looking at you Metal Gear) employ. It brought the issue to the table, but wasn't (very) "preachy", just enough to get you thinking.

I found there was a lot of "drama", espically on a personal level. Every person you have to save can die. An outcome is never given, always in your hand. But yes, in the end it was lacking in the grander story presentation department, sadly DX:HR does make a similar mistake.

Actually, you did have. A lot of people could be dead or alive at the end of the game. True, it's nicer if you get a round up like Fallout, but sadly very few games to this and so it's left to the imagination of the player. But even in Fallout, without the ending slides, it would always be "Master dead, Base destroyed, Player exiled".

You still do, but not in a way you first thought. When Deus Ex came out it was one of a kind. The first "hybrid" since System Shock with an awesome setting and a brilliant level design. This "jack of all trades, master of none" syndrome wouldn't have mattered, because you wouldn't try to divide the elements, you would be immersed by the game.

And before you can blame all my opinions on nostalgia. The level design and general atmosphere was brilliant and is so still today!

No you can't. Neither can I. Nobody can. When you play a game is still a huge factor on how you "feel" about the game. I could write an essay about my current HL2 walkthrough, but I've written enough already ;-)

Max Payne

Painful to play...so repetitive, total snoozefest..I have no idea why it's always been so highly rated.

Because bullet-time was really fun! :D

It had some pretty unusual presentiation as well, the dream sequences for example, even if the one where you're walking on a maze of blood ledges in space was a bit of a pain...