Deus Ex - Interview @ Vice

Deus Ex turns 15 this year, having been released on the 26th of June 2000, but its vision of the future is startlingly relevant. It's a world of corporations being uncomfortably cosy with governments, of haves and have-nots, of high property prices, of constant terror threats, of police militarisation, of web surveillance, of increasingly sophisticated AI, of military drones. Even some of its "that will never happen" moments have turned out to have a prescience that shits all over Nostradamus' track record.

If Deus Ex is still on your "to play" list and you don't want to know any plot twists: stop reading. This piece will throw out spoilers with the zeal of a six year old who, just before attending a kids' Christmas party, discovers that Santa Claus isn't real.

Set in 2052, you play as JC Denton, a nanotech-enhanced government agent in a trench coat. So far, so irrelevant. Trench coats have become the sole reserve of Matrix cosplayers and sex offenders, and we're still getting used to the idea of wearing computers on our wrists, let alone shoving them into our brains. Where the game resonates most strongly is via its most accomplished character: the setting itself.

I spoke to Sheldon Pacotti, the game's lead writer, about its increasingly uncanny predictions.