Editorial - What Happened to Deus Ex?

Gamingbolt asks the question 'What Happened To Deus Ex?'

While the critical reception for Mankind Divided was on average positive, it could still be fairly characterized as slightly less favorable than the previous three mainline titles. The sales for the game, compared to previous iterations and accounting for all its platforms, have generally been seen as underwhelming compared to past titles, a sentiment in part reinforced by Square Enix's limited commentary on the game's commercial performance. Though it should be said that this title was the Deus Ex series's debut on the current generation of consoles, and the limited install base at the time of release likely impacted commercial performance and momentum. Mankind Divided's story is accompanied by three pieces of DLC, collectively referred to as "Jensen's Stories." Mankind Divided's ending leaves a massive opening for a sequel that explores the tension between Adam Jensen and the Illuminati, the latter of which are portrayed as corrupt and evil and have infiltrated TF29, and Adam Jensen and the Juggernaut Collective.

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What Happened to Deus Ex?

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This happened:


No existing console can't run 1080p/60FPS with that hair. Most probably their next iteration won't be able to either.
Junk to console audience, a treasure to me. Buy and play now please.

The question remains why PC audience didn't save this gem. The answer is greed. Square Enix added pay2win microtransactions and moronic phonegame inside Mankind Divided. You don't have to do any of it, but it's still disgusting and instead moneyearning it turns people away from it.

joxer said:

This happened:

No existing console can't run 1080p/60FPS with that hair. Most probably their next iteration won't be able to either.
Junk to console audience, a treasure to me. Buy and play now please.

The question remains why PC audience didn't save this gem. The answer is greed. Square Enix added pay2win microtransactions and moronic phonegame inside Mankind Divided. You don't have to do any of it, but it's still disgusting and instead moneyearning it turns people away from it.

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not always agree with your opinions but in this case i am, unfortunately. Deus ex serie was great and it still can be.

Unfortunately the publisher messed up the sequel with their meddling. The failed pre-order DLC campaign, adding the phone app, and forcing the developer to launch early.

It was still a good game but it could have been great. From reading interviews the developer is busy with a new Marvel game so it may be another five years or more.

They didn't work with the aesthetics that made this such a wonderful game when it first launched. Instead, they went in very different directions which, in my opinion, served to dilute the great chemistry that the first game had, and led to the downfall of this series. When a formula works, you don't need to revise the bloody thing in the next iteration, a few tweaks and a great story will serve you well.

Carnifex said:

They didn't work with the aesthetics that made this such a wonderful game when it first launched. Instead, they went in very different directions which, in my opinion, served to dilute the great chemistry that the first game had, and led to the downfall of this series. When a formula works, you don't need to revise the bloody thing in the next iteration, a few tweaks and a great story will serve you well.

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( First) Deus Ex, is no doubt one of the most influential pc games, but really did not age well.
And I'm not talking about visuals ( which were pretty ugly, even at the time). Art style is completely bland, voice acting is entertaining, writing/dialogue is overall very poor ( with few, very rare exceptions...like with Morpheus ), rpg mechanics are more detrimental, unintuitive and pointless, AI, stealth and combat are perhaps the weakest in FPS games to date ( though it's hysterical when you smack enemy guard with a baton and he starts running around you in circles, like a headless chicken). Except for worldbuilding and level design, pretty much everything is of very poor quality.
If anything, it would sell even less if they kept it in it's form ( Immersive Sims fans are vocal, but very small part of "gaming community"). It's more a problem of series that's stuck in limbo: too expensive ( too produce) just for it's niche audience, not expansive enough to attract wider number of players, while it keeps revisiting the same themes.
I wouldn't mind something more in line with Mankind Divided ( the best exploration and gameplay in series), but with more customizable protagonist and less depressing tone, more colorful world in comparison.

I've been a PC gamer since the 80s. I also write fiction and studied fiction writing and even have a couple things on Amazon and Smashwords. Don't bother asking, I don't need the grief or criticism.
What I've noticed in gaming as a major weakness over the years is the prevalence of poor writing. This is especially true in the last 5-10 years with the rise of independent studios and Kickstarter game writers.
It includes poor grammar, cliches, plot holes, spelling, and just plain clunky syntax. The worst is dialog and overuse of the passive voice, adjectives and adverbs.
All this doesn't even touch on a basic good story. In my opinion, if you don't have a compelling and engrossing story, the game-play doesn't matter. They go hand-in-hand. Personally, even if the game-play/combat is smooth and well done, but the story and dialog doesn't grab me, then the game falls short. If you're wading through pointless exposition, clumsy, cliched dialog, and a weak plot then it kills the whole experience.