Remembering Deus Ex: A Game with Real Choices

Between GameTap’s addition of the game to its free play library and my purchase of it as part of the “Eidos Everything Pack” a few weeks ago, Deus Ex has been on the brian lately. MTV Multiplayer’s Patrick Klepek has been thinking about the game as well; he wrote an interesting article that does a good job of explaining what made the game so special. If you’ve never played the game, you should absolutely check it out.

There are several opportunities to kill off one of the main antagonists, Anna Navarre — but you don’t have to. You have several chances to take out Navarre, though all but one are forced on you. Another character, Gunther Hermann, actually starts attacking you. Your first instinct may be to take him out — but you don’t have to.

If you’re smart, there are ways to avoid fighting Hermann. The character lives on and continues to play a part in the storyline. You might never realize this was an opportunity the first time you played through Deux Ex, and that was part of the beauty of it. You discovered the replayability by sharing your stories with other players and realizing, “Wow, I could do that?”

The system was far from perfect, but it’s still something very few — if any — games have accomplished since.