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Deus Ex Clan Wars Morphs Into Snowblind

Posted by simoniker on from the lost-in-the-rush dept.

Thanks to Edge Magazine for confirmation, in its July issue, that the Eidos console FPS Snowblind, shown at E3, "was originally designed to be a spin-off from [Deus Ex], but has since gone its own way." The IGN PS2 product page for Snowblind also backs up this little-reported fact, following previous Slashdot Games news discussing the cyberpunk-influenced PS2/Xbox title, then called Deus Ex: Clan Wars. Additionally, the IGN PS2 E3 preview mentions "Crystal Dynamics looked to Warren Spector and Ion Storm for inspiration and advice on this game", further confirming info on the "Winter 2004"-due title whose E3-dated preview at 1UP explains: "The city environment was dark, neon-lit and vaguely Deus Ex-like, but the feel of the action was closer to something like Call of Duty."

14 comments

  1. Interesting. by LordPixie · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A shame they didn't do this with Deus Ex II: The Invisible War. That game would have been much less criticized had it not carried the stigma of being a DE game.

    Of course, if it didn't say Deus Ex in the title, it probably would have sold even worse. But at least we could still respect the franchise. Maybe even respect Ion Storm too !


    --LordPixie

  2. Rumor On The Street by Slyght · · Score: 4, Funny

    I heard a crazy rumor that Deus Ex: Invisible War was also a spinoff of Deus Ex. Lies, all lies.

    1. Re:Rumor On The Street by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought it was a remake?

  3. something wrong with me? by The+Other+White+Boy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    so i picked up deus ex invisible war for pc because it was $19. yes it was unplayable until i put the patch on, i can see people's beef with that. but this game is really not bad. i mean its by no means a masterpiece, but i'm greatly enjoying playing through it.

    yeah, unified ammo is stupid. so is having a 'health bar.' but on the other hand, the voice acting isn't complete crap, which no matter what anyone's ruby lenses tell them, the original's voices were terrible (still love the game though).

    i think you're right that people were hard on it just because of it carrying the Deus Ex name, but i dont think its really that bad, so much as its just different, and apparently that bothers people. my $0.02 i guess.

    whoa that was kinda offtopic eh?

    1. Re:something wrong with me? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I played it before I played the original, so it wasn't that bad for me. I found it enjoyable, but exciting, good, but not great.

      But I have to admit that after playing the first one afterwards, I know I would've reacted completely differently to IW. Which is what prompted my decision to play it before the original (upon reading IW comments).

    2. Re:something wrong with me? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I haven't picked up DX2 yet (where did you find it for $19?) but having played the demo, I agree with your comments.

      Incidentally, if you liked the original DX, check out the Redsun2020 mod. This is a multimap mod that seriously kicks ass. I downloaded it a few weeks ago and have been amazed at the quality. Great music by Steve Foxon too, who did the music for the Zodiac series of mods.

    3. Re:something wrong with me? by The+Other+White+Boy · · Score: 1

      Walmart last week had it for $19. i'm not sure if it was a sale or anything. they had Morrowind with all the expansions for $29 too. good times in bargainland. =)

  4. DE:IW was mediocre. by LordPixie · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Honestly, Invisible War wasn't horrible gameplay wise, once patched. It was basically a mediocre adventure game. However, Deus Ex was an amazing game. Had Ion Storm simply made more levels with the DE engine, and released it as a sequel, it would have turned out better than IW. This is what irks many people. Not that the game was amazingly crappy, but that it had fallen quite far from an amazingly good game. Plenty of the design decisions subtracted from what they had to build on.

    Secondly, DE:IW gets flak for the slipshod way several features were implemented. Without the patch, the lighting engine killed performance on the PC, with no way to turn it off. The .ini configuration file contained values set for the X-Box. (And clearly marked so: 'This is for X-Box, should be ## for the Pc...') In designing the game with the X-Box limitations in mind, the game had cramped level design, and a horrific game interface. And this ignores the abysmal way they stored things like video settings in the save game, so the game starts up at 800x600 until you load your game. A necessary evil on the X-Box, but an insult to PC gamers everywhere.


    --LordPixie

  5. Inspiration and Advice by superultra · · Score: 3, Funny

    Crystal Dynamics looked to Warren Spector and Ion Storm for inspiration and advice on this game

    Crystal Dynamics: Mr. Spector, can we make a Deus Ex inspired game? If so, do you have any advice?
    Warren Spector: Sure, what the hell, I'm out of here in a month anyway. Um, advice? Make it dark. Yeah, dark but with nanites.

  6. Thank God by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't need another inferior shit title fucking up and devaluing the "Deus Ex" name. Sure, DX:IW wasn't the worst game ever, but it was perhaps the worst sequel ever, and certainly wasn't a good "Deus Ex" game.

  7. Well by foidulus · · Score: 1

    This will be banned(well, through official channels anyway) in China. They flipped when a game told an accurate history that wasn't very flattering to China(namely that Tibet was independent and the Japanese controlled Taiwan) imagine when they get a load of this game. The Chinese republic fighting the PLA. They will flip!

  8. But by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How good can a multiplayer FPS be if everyone has to stop and load every two minutes?

    At least you won't have to worry about ammunition or headshots. Actually seems very appropriate for the consoles. Console gamers get very frustrated when they don't have unlimited ammo.