Developer: Ion Storm
Publisher: Eidos

Once in a blue moon a game comes along that leaves a deep and lasting impression. Titles such as Doom, Half-Life, Outcast, the System Shock and Thief series all raised the bar for future efforts and were something memorably special. I'm now adding Deus Ex to that list of exalted games without the slightest hesitation.

At its heart, Deus Ex is all about conspiracies. Rumoured government groups and other secret organisations such as Majestic 12 and the Illuminati are made real and woven tightly into the plot set in a dark future of crumbling governments and frequent acts of terrorism. And what a plot it is, drawing you in at every one of its countless twists and turns, forcing you to play on as UNATCO Agent J.C Denton just to discover what happens next, or who this mysterious person is that's contacted you. What makes the story even better is the quality of its telling. The developers recorded a huge amount of dialogue for this title and its countless unique individuals, and while I wouldn't put the voice acting quality up there with System Shock 2 or Outcast, I can't find any major reason for complaint either (apart from maybe the odd terrible foreign accent attempt) and found that the voice acting served the title well. In addition to a ton of conversations, the plot is driven along by extracts you'll read in newspapers, personal logs, and even the occasional extract from a well known literary work that serves as a clever metaphor for the events currently at hand in the game. It must have taken a huge amount of effort to create all these written extracts and recorded dialogues to go with the intricate and involving story, but having finished Deus Ex I appreciate such a Herculean effort on an equally huge scale.