Deus Ex - What am I missing?

So I've recently started playing Deus Ex, after abandoning it twice before. I just finished the subway mission and so far the game is good. Sadly there are some major things that just don't live up to my expectations.

While the idea of augmentation is great and it was very well done in HR, here I found it weak or unnecessary. I usually play stealthy/hacker type and augmentations didn't help me much as far as stealth goes. Enemies are mostly easy to avoid or knock down. I wish augmentations had a bigger impact on the gameplay.

Money has no value. Since there are no vendors except random soldiers/doctors selling a limited amount of gear, there isn't really much you can do with it. Gear is rare and I often find myself in need of a lockpick, or EMP or something.

This is just a rather general rant. I won't even mention the lack of c&c. Now the question: what am I missing? The game is enjoyable but it's far from being the gem that people say it is.

I'm thinking of buying Invisible Wars and Thief games. I know IW is not seen very good but I don't really care about that.

All the Thief and Deus Ex games have positive and negatives. I'll be the one to say I even enjoyed Deus Ex IW. Blasphemy I know.

Just stick with them and they become enjoyable over time. I'm not saying there the best games ever, but they provide good enjoyment. I do recommend mods especially the texture ones though.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
I'll be the one to say I even enjoyed Deus Ex IW. Blasphemy I know.

Not a blasphemy, I've also had fun with it.

bloodlover, I don't think you're missing anything. DX is a few times longer and bigger than it's successors and you can't judge the game by a few starting missions.
Just remember, E.T. phone home is not your friend in DX!

It is the gem that people say it is, but like any game, it's not going to have the same impact now as if you had played it when it was new. You waited 13 years to play it and you're wondering why it doesn't seem as good to you as people have described?

I didn't find augmentations weak at all, and, unlike Deus Ex:HR where you can be a jack of all trades, your upgrade choices actually matter because once you choose your upgrade for any particular category it's permanent. That's a significant level of c&c in itself.

I also thought the level design was superior to its sequels with larger, more open levels that give you a better sense of exploration.

Invisible War is total crap in comparison.

Invisible War was one of the first victims of the creative straightjacket that was the X-Box. Still, I enjoyed it enough to finish it.

Originally Posted by bloodlover
This is just a rather general rant. I won't even mention the lack of c&c. Now the question: what am I missing? The game is enjoyable but it's far from being the gem that people say it is.

There are many choices and decisions you should make in your playthrough that affect the outcome but most of them rely on how you choose to play and accomplish objectives, how violent you try to be or even how sharp you are about what's going on around not how you choose between dialogue options. Besides, you're still in first hours of playtime. There are some special choices with major impact you've yet to see.

So the game does get better even though I'm around 4 hours in it and I'm still not that impressed? I guess I'll keep playing then, the cyberpunk theme alone is enough to keep me interested.

@JDR13: It has nothing to do with age. I've played most of the good RPG's very later. Fallout 2 and BG2 I played in 2011 and still enjoyed them very much. I don't think age is relevant when discussing how good a game is.

To clarify the c&c part, I mean the choice in story or dialogue and not in the way I accomplish my objectives. Nothing to complain here, the game is great when it comes to this.

I'll just keep playing then.

Of course age is relevant.

No matter how old you are - there's no way to get around the fact that you'll be more impressed with an impressive game the closer to its release you're playing it.

Try playing Pong today and claim that it has the same effect on you as the people who first played it.

Games are to be enjoyed, not to be impressed by.
I'm not impressed by the audiovisuals of old games, but I still enjoy many of them as much (or in some cases, even more) as I did 15+ years ago.

Being impressed isn't a prerequisite to enjoying a game, but it would be silly to deny that it enhances the overall experience.

Originally Posted by PetrusOctavianus
Games are to be enjoyed, not to be impressed by.
I'm not impressed by the audiovisuals of old games, but I still enjoy many of them as much (or in some cases, even more) as I did 15+ years ago.

So, you're seriously trying to claim that "audiovisuals" have absolutely no effect on your overall enjoyment of any game?

Please say yes.

In any case, Deus Ex wasn't particularly pretty when it came out. Audiovisuals aren't really part of why the time you play it matters.

The reason it matters, is that Deus Ex was one of the first examples of combining stealth and shooting. It was like a marriage of System Shock, Thief and Unreal.

These days, we've seen many stealth games and several story driven shooters. But Deus Ex did a lot of unique things and that's bound to make a much bigger impression when you're seeing it for the first time - than if you've played games like Deus Ex: HR and Dishonored.

That's pretty obvious.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
No matter how old you are - there's no way to get around the fact that you'll be more impressed with an impressive game the closer to its release you're playing it.

Regarding the graphics quality this is of course true.

Don't know about the rest.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
So, you're seriously trying to claim that "audiovisuals" have absolutely no effect on your overall enjoyment of any game?

No, I don't.

Like most RPGs, you start out as a wimp. You're a wizard with 3 spells, a thief with +15% backstab, or a fighter with his +0/+2 vs. Giants Every Other Thursday short sword. (Though you do have the amazingly über needle gun.) The story is also just getting started, introducing you to characters and putting some tantalizing locked doors around the place.

The game gets better as you start to find your own particular way of getting through situations and as the story actually starts to progress.

P.S. Invisible War was pretty weak compared to Deus Ex but that still leaves room for a decent game. It's kinda like Dragon Age 2 in that respect: an OK game following on the heals of a great game.

I love how peoples standards for RPGs have sunken so low that Dragon Age is now considered a 'great' game.

That's called normalization.

Dragon Age 1 wasn't a good game, it was a great game. One of the best I've played in a long time.

Started Hong Kong area today. Dear Odin, this area alone is better than what I've seen so far in the entire game put together.

Modern buildings combined with traditional ones - check
Triads and mechs on the street - check
Cyberpunk atmosphere - check
Crapload of hightech - check

This game just went up from "meh" to "epic".

A little patience can go a long way!

Not to be a heretic but I think the C&C is being oversold here. I'll try to avoid spoilers but this is one of the first games I remember giving a great impression of C&C without it actually being there. It blew my mind what they did the first time I played but after play #2 I could easily see what they did and how linear it really was.

This is one of the few games that did augmentation skill trees correctly in my opinion. The aiming mods actually changed gameplay significantly and is one of the reasons I was willing to put it in the RPG bucket. Its still one of the best games of all time (certainly of its time).