Rating: 
Summary: FPS for SF fans!
Review: A friend, who clearly knows me pretty well, sent me a copy of this game. I've already returned the favor for a great friend of mine - it's the game we've been waiting for.The plot is futuristic and 'cyber' - you're a near-future supersoldier, a first-generation nano-bio-augmented replacement for the U.N.'s squad of mechanically augmented black op "robocops." Think Robocop meets Gibson meets X-files, with shades of Heinlein and Delany (there's a reference to 'Ashton Clark') thrown in in the beautifully crafted world that is your context. The complicated plot unfolds in real time as you progess through the game, and there is a bit of role-playing - choices you make affect how your game is going to go, to some extent at least. You can certainly affect how your character develops - is he going to be a LAW-toting grenade throwing gun thug a la Duke Nukem, or a slip-through-the-shadows backdoor hardware hacker? Choose your own adventure. Gameplay is based on the Unreal engine, as noted. It's fair to mention that you need a bit of hardware to make this puppy run well. For the scenic parts (i.e. briefings at HQ), I use high detail on textures and objects, but for combat I have to turn the detail down to medium, or else aiming is jerky and the baddies blast me in between frames. I'm running a B&W G3 with the stock Rage 128 card and 128MB of RAM - the game requires disk VM turned on so that its partition can be 160 MB. I run it with most extensions off (it needs RAVE) and it's only hard-crashed me once, although it tends to leak memory at about the 8-hour mark, requiring a civilized reboot. What else to say? Music is great and the game experience is totally immersive and great fun. The authors have the feel of the genre down perfectly. And having been on the NYC subway system too much lately, I had a bit of a thrill when (in-game) some young punk drug dealer mouthed off, then drew a pistol on me in the Battery Park station. BLAM. 5 stars. Buy it now. Then set aside a little free time and break up with your significant other. You can always buy him/her a bunch of flowers, after you've solved it.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor Play Ported from a PC
Review: After completing Pod Racer I was hoping to find a game with equal merit. Not the case with this PC port. The game is visually very dark and the game takes forever to load scenes at least for a new iMac 400DV with 196MB.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent FPS/Role Playing game
Review: As a friend of mine put it, "this game will beat you up and take your lunch money." It's based on the Unreal engine (think UnrealTournament) and the graphics are just as smooth. It has a fairly intuitive interface and a nice plot line. But the real strength of this game is the role-playing slant that it has. By making certain choices in the game you customize your character to be what you want him to be. For example, if you feel like going in guns-a-blazing, grab the huge weapon. Like the Thief approach? Grab the silent crossbow and the lock picks. In addition, you can also augment certain skills such as strength, weapons skills, swimming, lock picking, computer skill, electronics, etc that help you along. Become better at shooting rifles and the sniper rifle won't kick as badly every time you shoot. Get better as bypassing computer security and you'll be able to do it faster and stay undetected longer. Bottom line? Get this game. It's worth it.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent FPS/Role Playing game
Review: As a friend of mine put it, "this game will beat you up and take your lunch money." It's based on the Unreal engine (think UnrealTournament) and the graphics are just as smooth. It has a fairly intuitive interface and a nice plot line. But the real strength of this game is the role-playing slant that it has. By making certain choices in the game you customize your character to be what you want him to be. For example, if you feel like going in guns-a-blazing, grab the huge weapon. Like the Thief approach? Grab the silent crossbow and the lock picks. In addition, you can also augment certain skills such as strength, weapons skills, swimming, lock picking, computer skill, electronics, etc that help you along. Become better at shooting rifles and the sniper rifle won't kick as badly every time you shoot. Get better as bypassing computer security and you'll be able to do it faster and stay undetected longer. Bottom line? Get this game. It's worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: Genre-Bender and Modern Gaming Classic
Review: Before this game came along, the role-players and the FPS fans basically stayed in their own camps, occasionally wandering out to bash each other in online forums. Personally, I was an RPG nerd; I didn't like any game where I had to use my reflexes (which were slightly below average), and frankly, FPS's made me feel like an uncoordinated shmuck. Then this game came along. It was supposed to have role-playing, adventure gaming, and shooter aspects to it, all blending into a seamless, realistic world. Intrigued, I immediately purchased it. The plot is one of the best you'll see in a computer game today. Too many games have plots that either patronize the player, or are just a thin excuse to justify the action going on in the game (sometimes both). This game is a story involving the seedy New York underworld, a near-future dystopian America (Phillip K. Dick or William Gibson come to mind), a plague that may have been artificially engineered, and a complex conspiracy that reaches back into the very roots of civilization. Sound confusing? It is. But in a world of over-simplistic plots, a really convuluted one is a huge breath of fresh air for me. The gameplay itself is like nothing else ever done. You select certain "skills" for your character out of a set number of points, like in most RPGs. You gain more points when you gain experience for completing objectives. Unlike some RPGs, this game awards points for exploration and stealth rather then random killing. Deus Ex encourages players to tackle a problem in whatever way suits their particular style. There's always another way in, using either stealth, or going Rambo-style. I personally took the "silent assassin" route, picking off enemies before they even knew I was there. By now, you're probably wondering why I only gave the game four stars (still a respectable score, in my humble opinion). Well, there were two things wrong with the game. The first was the dated graphics system. I won't go into much detail over this, because if that were the only problem, the game would still deserve five stars. Graphics are a small part of any good game. No, the worst part was the lackluster A.I. I recall one instance when I picked off a terrorist, and the one standing next to him got . . . lost. He stepped into his friend's bloodstain, then seemed to forget he could just step back out of it, instead running around in circles. Small glitches like this aren't of much importance usually, but they ruin the atmosphere. These enemies are supposed to make you jump, not crack up. Nevertheless, I'd highly reccomend this game for fans of adventure games, FPS's or RPGs. Brothers and sisters of the gaming world . . . unite.
Rating:
Summary: no excuse
Review: Deus Ex is a very difficult game to classify, judging by the shoot-em-up feel of the first mission (which takes place on a destroyed Statue of Liberty, very poignant after 9/11) you would think its an FPS, but the game is much deeper and includes areas where puzle-solving, free exploration and stealth are key. The graphics are perhaps the weakest point of Deus Ex, the game relies on the somewhat dated Unreal engine, so many of the huge scenes seem a bit pixelated. However, the developers do their best to make the scenery look real, as a former resident of New York I recognized Battery Park, Castle Clinton, Liberty Island etc. and they seemed remarkably accurate. The building scenes (UNATCO HQ, the MJ12 secret lab, etc.) are also very well done and realistic. The plot of this game is simply the best written and most enthralling of any videogame I have ever played. I won't describe it in detail except to say that after a couple of days I had the following epipheny: "Deus Ex" was not pronounced "dooze ex" but "day oos ex" and was short for the literary term Deus Ex Machina, Latin for "God from the Machine" Also note that the main character's initials are JC and his brothers name is Paul. The plot is very deep, takes many twists and turns and despite its improbabillity it has a way of suspending your disbelief. In conclusion Deus Ex is simply awesome, but only play it if you have a couple of weeks to blow on a videogame, 'cause this one is seriously addictive.
Rating:
Summary: What a great game!
Review: Deus Ex is a very difficult game to classify, judging by the shoot-em-up feel of the first mission (which takes place on a destroyed Statue of Liberty, very poignant after 9/11) you would think its an FPS, but the game is much deeper and includes areas where puzle-solving, free exploration and stealth are key. The graphics are perhaps the weakest point of Deus Ex, the game relies on the somewhat dated Unreal engine, so many of the huge scenes seem a bit pixelated. However, the developers do their best to make the scenery look real, as a former resident of New York I recognized Battery Park, Castle Clinton, Liberty Island etc. and they seemed remarkably accurate. The building scenes (UNATCO HQ, the MJ12 secret lab, etc.) are also very well done and realistic. The plot of this game is simply the best written and most enthralling of any videogame I have ever played. I won't describe it in detail except to say that after a couple of days I had the following epipheny: "Deus Ex" was not pronounced "dooze ex" but "day oos ex" and was short for the literary term Deus Ex Machina, Latin for "God from the Machine" Also note that the main character's initials are JC and his brothers name is Paul. The plot is very deep, takes many twists and turns and despite its improbabillity it has a way of suspending your disbelief. In conclusion Deus Ex is simply awesome, but only play it if you have a couple of weeks to blow on a videogame, 'cause this one is seriously addictive.
Rating:
Summary: Awsome!
Review: Deus Ex is the best first/third person shooter available. Along with almost total freedom, this game takes technology to the next level bye using smooth 3-D graphics. The weapons are based on futuristic ideas and blue-prints. Everybody looks for a game that doesn't stop you when you reach the perimeter of the level. Deus Ex is the game. You can go almost any where. ...
Rating:
Summary: Might be my game of the year
Review: Deus Ex might be my game of the year. It's an adventure RPG that actually allows you to role-play to some extent. It looks great and plays great. Its closest predecessors are System Shock 2 and Thief, two games the Macintosh community missed. The missions are open-ended and large. You can explore huge detailed maps, finding the approach to your goals that suits your playing style. Want to sneak and use your silent crossbow loaded with tranq darts? Want to snipe from the rooftops? Or want to go in with assault rifle blazing? You can do all that and more. You can pick locks or blow doors off their hinges with bombs. Your choices affect how the NPCs react to you later in the game. Really! I liked the NPCs in this game very much. There are a lot of them, moving around, and they often have a lot to say to you. Or you can listen in on their conversations with each other. Some aren't so relevant to the game's plot, but are fun anyway. Listen for two homeless men talking about sculpture... How good is the Macintosh port? It's good. And what's more, the Macintosh version lagged the PC version by less than a month. Deus Ex is based on the Unreal Tournament engine, which helped make the port fast. Performance is great on my G4 with its Voodoo3 card, and should be acceptable on the ATI Rage cards that come standard in recent Macs. Anything with a G3 processor or better should be able to handle it. Make sure you check Inside Mac Games or Aspyr's web site for game updates. There's one update already at the time I write this review.
Rating:
Summary: Right-wing story, good game
Review: Deus Ex, as anyone will tell you, is a hard but enjoyable game that takes a lot of patience. No complaints there. I was loving this game until the story line unfolds. It seems that there is a UN conspiracy to kill all ordinary Americans. Hmmmm... a plot worthy of a Nevadan isolationist loon. It gets worse as you play. If you can stomach it, buy the game, but be warned.
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