When Deus Ex dropped in 2000, it was nothing short of a revolution. Not just in how it plays but in what it represents.
This game shouldn't have come together, yet it does, with a strange mix of RPG mechanics, shooter elements, and stealth.
It took risks most developers wouldn't dare: wrapping it all up in a cyberpunk conspiracy thriller that somehow feels more relevant now than it did in 2000.
It had a lasting impact, and so many games are built on its DNA, but we might never see anything like it again. The industry has moved on. Deus Ex was a game that came from the perfect storm, and that storm is long gone.
The late '90s and early 2000s were a golden era for PC gaming. The industry was in a space where devs could take risks without stressing over live service models, microtransactions, or algorithm-driven design.
Before you can understand Deus Ex, you need to know what made it all possible. Warren Spector had a dream game in mind, something that merged the best parts of shooters, RPGs, and immersive sims.
The industry was at a crossroads back then, with technology catching up to bigger ideas. Thanks to a rare mix of creative freedom, a big budget, and the right team, Deus Ex came to life. But pulling together a game that ambitious was no small feat.
The team had a tough time balancing playstyles, went back and forth on whether to focus more on RPG mechanics or stick to a straight-up shooter, and ended up somewhere in the middle. The result was a game where the sum was far greater than its parts.
Deus Ex didn't have the best shooting mechanics. Its stealth wasn't as refined as Thief. Its RPG elements weren't as deep as Baldur's Gate. But how everything fell into place is what made it special. There was no need to stick to just one playstyle.
You could approach missions however you wanted. You could play as a hacker, sneaking through vents and disabling security cameras. You could brute-force your way through with heavy weapons. You could rely on dialogue to manipulate situations. The world didn't just make room for choice. It lived for it.
The game was made to react to you, so no two playthroughs were ever the same. The story painted a future full of conspiracies, hidden groups, and tech overreach that, in hindsight, feels disturbingly prophetic. It wove real-world anxieties about government surveillance, corporate power, and the erosion of personal freedoms into its narrative.
And it did this while giving players control over how much of that world they wanted to engage with. No need to read emails, talk to NPCs or wander off the beaten path. But if you did, you uncovered a web of interconnected stories that made the world feel alive.
The sad truth is that games like Deus Ex aren't made anymore. Not because the genre is dead but because the industry that allowed Deus Ex to exist is gone. The risks it took are unlikely to happen in an era where big-budget games are focused on safe bets. Most studios can't justify the cost and complexity of giving players that much freedom.
Fair enough, we've had the Human Revolution and Mankind Divided. Both were great in their own ways, but they were made in a different era, one where Deus Ex had to be more digestible for a modern audience. And right when the series was supposed to tie everything back to the original, it was canceled.
Square Enix sold the rights, and Embracer Group ended the final chapter. The story of Adam Jensen never got wrapped up, and now we won't see how it ties into the original Deus Ex.
But even if a new Deus Ex were announced tomorrow, would it really be the same?
The industry now prioritizes open-world sandboxes over handcrafted hubs filled with meaningful content. Games aren't built with Deus Ex's level of reactivity anymore. Even immersive sims, the genre Deus Ex defined, have become a niche. Arkane gave it their all with Dishonored and Prey, but they couldn't even make it work commercially.
Despite all this, Deus Ex has left a lasting mark. It influenced tons of games, from Bioshock and Dishonored to modern RPGs that try (but don't always pull off) the same freedom.
Even without it, you can feel its influence everywhere. Fans keep coming back to it, modders keep it going, and now and then, someone brings up how ahead of its time it was.
It's one of those rare games that still feels as groundbreaking now as it did when it first launched.
The only thing left to do is reinstalling it and reawaken the feeling of why it was so remarkable.