The Deus Ex That Never Was

Deus Ex lead designer Harvey Smith sounds off on just how far a game can come from conception to release. His original vision for Deus Ex was much different from the actual Area 51 setting used in the hit game. PC News has his comments on the change:

“I didn’t want to put Area 51 in Deus Ex!”, its illustrious lead designer told PC Zone magazine recently. “I didn’t find it that interesting. In fact, initially it was a moonbase. You were going to use the rocket to get to the international space-station (which in our fiction was just sagging and falling apart and barely held together), and from there you were going to use a shuttle to get to a luxury space-station which was going to be like the Titanic.”

“From there, you were going to go to the moonbase, where the game was going to end.”

Would Deus Ex have had the same impact if the setting had been faithful to Smith original concept? Who can say? I personally really enjoyed the game as it came out, although with my love of hard sci-fi, if they had gone with the space station concept I’m sure I would have been just as happy if not more interested in the story.