Deus Ex (PC) (2000)

The screenshots below belong to the original game. However, I have since upgraded the textures and graphics by installing a mod called New Vision (see Improving the Graphics of Deus Ex at the bottom of this post).* If I ever get the chance, I will augment and/or replace the screenshots below with screenshots from the texture update.

*20190706: In 2015, a community-made mod called Deus Ex: Revision was released. It available on Steam and exists as a bundled collection of other mods, including New Vision.

[20120726 Assumed Entry Date][20190706 Edit]

My original choice of skill upgrades. I eventually had to start another new game and choose slightly different upgrades.

20120713:
I played through the game's tutorial.

The only room I had trouble with was the stealth room. From the tutorial, I find that stealth in this game isn't as fun as in the Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell series. Though to be fair, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell was released in 2002. On mentioning stealth, I'm reminded of Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (2004) (GCN), a remake of Metal Gear Solid (1998) (PSX), whose stealth is fun, but has a much different flavor than the stealth found in Splinter Cell. Of course, Deus Ex is an action RPG, whereas Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid are stealth-action games.

Ultimately, this shouldn't hurt the real game's experience, but trying to get through that part of the tutorial was frustrating. Hiding in the shadows didn't work. Hiding behind boxes was only useful part of the time. Throwing vases wasn't even half as useful as I thought it should be. Guard pattern appeared slightly unpredictable and the game didn't make observing their pattern, if there was one, possible.

Technically I also didn't finish the tutorial with flying colors, as I found the code to get across the river. But I just ran, entered the code, and darted across the bridge while taking damage from the machine. I didn't know how to make use of the TNT. I look forward to playing the real game and hoping it changes my initial impressions on it.

New York City

[20120717]

20120726:
I got to trying out the real game today.

After watching the opening cutscene, I pressed F12 to take a screenshot (Steam screenshot hotkey) and was reminded that F12 is also Deus Ex's key for turning the flashlight on and off. This was inconvenient and I went into the game settings. I tried binding a different key to F12 in Deus Ex's settings, but the key only acts as an additional key to turning the flashlight on and off. It doesn't keep F12 from turning the button on and off. The first webpages I came across didn't help. They merely suggested changing the Steam hotkey or rebinding the flashlight to another key. The first suggestion isn't practical for me because it would have the chance to affect my other games. The function keys are typically not used in any games I play and least of all F12, so keeping it as the Steam hotkey was preferable for me. The second suggestion helps only for players who don't want to take a screenshot every time they need the flashlight, but not for players who want to take a screenshot without using the flashlight. I did, however, eventually find the answer:
Flashlight key conflicts with Steam screenshot key
Deus Ex default flashlight key is F12, which is also default key for taking screenshots in Steam. You can resolve this conflict by binding flashlight to another key:
Open user.ini in "..\Deus Ex\System\" folder
Locate "F12=ActivateAugmentation 9" line and cut the ActivateAugmentation 9 part
Find a key you would like to bind flashlight to (for example F)
Set it to F=ActivateAugmentation 9 and save the file
Or alternatively you can change screenshot key in Steam settings (View > Settings > In-Game > Screenshot shortcut key).
I would like to add to the above and say that "F12=ActivateAugmentation 9" appears in two places in my user.ini and I had to change both of them to "F12=" before my F12 key was freed from toggling the flashlight.

Some of my key changes. I might eventually change more.

I also took the time to unbind a bunch of strange and/or unnecessary key bindings, as well as binding the flashlight to my F key.

It was hard at first, because I didn't even know where I was heading and I couldn't remember the objectives. I tried pressing the escape key and seeing what was in the menu, but there was only the main menu options and settings.

There was something about a statue and it wasn't until after some wandering around and taking the back entrance climbing up ladders and jumping around that I learned I was to enter the Statue of Liberty.

A decapitated Statue of Liberty

Note: There was a gap I was having trouble with for two or three attempts. I realized I couldn't make the jump because I was toggled in crouching position.

I got inside and went downstairs.

At this point, I knew I was picking up items, but I had no idea where they were going. That's when I tried pressing the "I" button and sure enough it brought up my inventory. There were plenty of other important tabs, such as images and goals.

Inventory screen.

I freed a captured agent by first going through some vents. However, after freeing him I was still confused. Looking back at the goals tab, I realized that I completed one of the secondary objectives, but the other secondary objective required leaving the Statue of Liberty. Yikes. I was losing some of my patience.

I went outside and tried to reorient myself. I was going in circles until I saw the top-left had a compass and I headed north hugging the wall. I found where I was suppose to go and completed that objective. Coming back to the statue, I came upon a security panel and tried to hack it. After making it into the system, I was playing around too long and apparently it used a bunch of my energy. The system alarm went on and the security system was on lock down. The second time I hacked it, after the system was done with its lock down, I turned off the remaining camera (I had previously destroyed the other two). At that point, I felt I quite thoroughly explored the area and didn't know what I missed. Eventually, I made my way back towards to what I thought was the top, only to learn that I happened to missed a set of stairs going up. After going up, I tried to take down the two guards standing by the top of the stairs by force, and died. At that point, I lost my patience and had no desire to pick up from my last save point.

The two guards from which I initially went down the stairs to rescue Gunther. Then later went upstairs and gave up.

Overall, I had more fun than the tutorial, but I wish I understood how to be stealthy. I mostly treated the game as if it were like Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, but it's really nothing like Splinter Cell. The graphics, compared to today's 3D graphics, sometimes feel dated to me. I'd be less upset if the game had a good story, but I'm a little lost in terms of the story. While I have some problems with the game, one of the elements I like about the game is the degree of realism. For example, you take damage in segments of your body, as opposed to an ordinary health bar. Also, shooting you gun is typically inaccurate, unless you hold still. That is, don't expect a head shot if you're in motion.

As I'm only at the beginning of the game, I didn't get to fully experience the upgrading of skills and I flat out didn't get to experience the upgrading of my body.

Note: The game records how many times you save. I don't care about keeping this number low, so I just go ahead and save a lot anyways.

Which choice do you think I chose?

I didn't realize the screen was so dark. Either that or the screenshots come out darker than the colors used in the game.

[20120726 Assumed Entry Date][20190728 Edit]

20190728 Comment:
Steam Game Time: 3.7 hours on record

Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition (PC) (2000)

Relevant Links:
Flashlight key conflicts with Steam screenshot key (F12)
How to Play Deus Ex on Your Windows 7 PC (www.pcworld.com)
Deus Ex on modern systems (kentie.net)
Deus Ex Modifications (www.atomicgamer.com)

Improving the Graphics of Deus Ex:
While writing this post, I came upon some information pertaining to graphical updates to the game.
Here are some links followed by the steps I took that applied to my installation of Deus Ex. Your changes may differ.

Useful Links:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/243946/how_to_play_deus_ex_on_your_windows_7_pc.html
http://kentie.net/article/dxguide/index.htm#downloads
http://kentie.net/article/dxguide/page2.htm

Steps I Took:
Step 1: Installed `Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package`.
Step 2: Enabled 32-bit color, but I did't change any other options until restarting.
Step 3: Checked that I had the latest version of the game: v1.112fm
Step 4: Downloaded `DeusExe-v4.2.zip` from kentie.net
Step 5: Renamed `C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Deus Ex\System\DeusEx.exe` to `C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Deus Ex\System\DeusEx [Original].exe`
Step 6: Extracted the contents of `DeusExe-v4.2.zip` to `C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Deus Ex\System\`
Step 7: Downloaded `NewVision1.0.zip` from www.atomicgamer.com.
Step 8: Installed `Direct X Jun 2010 Redistributable`
Step 9: Copied the `NVTextures` folder to `C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Deus Ex\`
Step 10: Downloaded `d3d10drv-v28` from kentie.net
Step 11: Copied the contents of `DeusEx` to `C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Deus Ex\System\`
Step 12: Launched Kentie's custom Deus Ex launcher (i.e., run `DeuxEx.exe` that came from Step 6), select `Configure` and choose `Direct3D 10 Support` under `Renderer`.
Step 13: Opened `Documents\Deus Ex\System\DeusEx.ini` and added the line `Paths=..\NVTextures\*.utx` above the line `Paths=..\Textures\*.utx` found under the heading `[Core.System]`.

Top Left: Original, Brightness 0.5
Top Right: Original, Brightness 0.7
Bottom Left: Kentie's renderer, Brightness 0.5
Bottom Right: Kentie's renderer + New Vision, Brightness 0.5 

Step 14: Downloaded `NewvisionV1_Hotfix.zip` from www.atomicgamer.com
Step 15: Copied the `NVTextures` folder to `C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Deus Ex\`, overwriting two files which were already there.

Conclusion: I like the update graphics and there's a chance I end up playing more of this game because of it. Unfortunately, "[o]nly world textures are replaced, [...] not weapons, characters, items, and all that jazz." (www.shacknews.com)

[20120726][20190706 Edit]

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