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Prognosticating Deus Ex 3

Posted by Zonk on from the seeing-into-the-future-of-cyberpunk dept.

Deus Ex is a big deal(tm) for PC gamers, and the news of Deus Ex 3 now being on the way is well worth celebrating. Rock, Paper, Shotgun takes it to (perhaps) an unhealthy level. Kieron Gillen starts with the brand-new trailer, analyzes the imagery from the piece, and jumps off into an intensely detailed theory session about what the newest chapter set in our dystopic future might entail. "In a list, the themes are fairly striking - we hit the primary icons of the human body and perfection in nature, with Da Vinci's work as the perpetual primary shorthand. The other trend is that of social upheaval and prejudice - the signs are all deliberately retro, harking back to the more obvious prejudice and societal injustices. The key bit relevant to the plot is the Biopolitic vote of 2027, which places it twenty-five years before the start of the first Deus Ex game. Which would imply prequel or (as an outside bet, which is a shame, as it's my preferred option) alternate time-line story."

43 comments

  1. Big deal, eh? by Andrew+Nagy · · Score: 1

    Deus Ex is a big deal(tm) for PC gamers...
    Slow down, everyone. No need for everyone to post at once.
    --
    Yes, you can dance to Radiohead.
    1. Re:Big deal, eh? by rekenner · · Score: 1

      Really, I think it's just the total lack of real content in the post. DX3 is a big deal, even after the disappointment that was IW, but ... All this trailer has is some images that people have taken the time to freeze frame. The only relevant detail is 2027, and even that gives us little.

    2. Re:Big deal, eh? by Elemenope · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Well, yeah, it's a big deal. I think though that the /. crowd blew most of its load on the article that was posted about the original announcement. Crazy kids these days (tm) who think that good games started with Halo and ended with World of Warcraft need to get back to their roots...

      DX1 was fantastic because you got presented with a world in which it was possible to think about the philosophy of surveillance and posthumanism, and conversate with well-realized characters, and also in between the chats get to regulate the bad guys with some serious hardware.

      While many here have already expressed their disdain for DX:IW, I liked its presentation of a morally bleak world with many possible futures (of varying bleakness), all seriously discussed and described, and also how in between you got to regulate the bad guys with some serious fucking hardware.

      Me, if the thing is thoughtful and not an intellectual hack-job, and there is the possibility of some serious bad-guy regulation (preferably with hardware, though after Half-life 2 I've become more flexible on that point), then I think we'll have ourselves a winner.

      p.s. to the Editors...perhaps it would be a good plan to space out the almost-dupes a little more; it's hard to get excited today about a game that doesn't yet exist if we were just all excited about it *yesterday* and got it out of our systems.

      --
      All the techniques ever used to make men moral have been themselves thoroughly immoral... (Nietzsche)
    3. Re:Big deal, eh? by Elemenope · · Score: 2, Interesting

      And also, I am deeply indebted to DX1 for turning me on to G. K. Chesterton. If DX3 could do something similar for some other forgotten but important thinker, that would at least be a public service, regardless of all other considerations on plot, character, intellectual rigor, interface, or bad-guy regulating issues (with or without hardware).

      --
      All the techniques ever used to make men moral have been themselves thoroughly immoral... (Nietzsche)
    4. Re:Big deal, eh? by nrjyzerbuny · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The other thing that I believe really set apart Deus Ex and DX:IW was familiarity. The first Deus Ex was the modern world plus a few interesting and logical steps forward. Police and military units augment their force with armed robots. Government surveillance is increasingly pervasive. The voice of 'the people' is increasingly dismissed by those in power.

      Deus Ex started with real life and added to it logically, thus creating a world that was different, but still recognizable and 'real'. Which made the plot more relevant and interesting. The crappy part is how well it seems the writer(s) could forecast the future.

      The world of DX:IW was different enough that I couldn't relate to it in the same way. In Invisible War, I had to be told the 'rules', for the most part in Deus Ex, I knew the 'rules' already. This also helped set up plot twists that actually worked.

      As for prequel/alternate history, those would be my best hope for a great game. I don't think any real evidence exists either way at this point.

    5. Re:Big deal, eh? by Elemenope · · Score: 1

      That's very true, and I think it was both a strength and a weakness (you put your finger right on the weakness). The corresponding strength of having the world be too far divorced from ours to bear too much resemblance is it gives the writers a much freer hand in exploring ideas that might otherwise be shackled by our expectations of how the world works.

      Example: the only character turn in DX1 that never sold for me was Paul and J.C. up and deciding that merging with Helios was a bright and brilliant way to go. The justification (practical and philosophical) was sorely lacking, and it also was the most irritating ending because of its ease and abruptness. The biggest problem with it was that it was barely believable that the world we know would react in the manner they described. Fast-forward to DX:IW, and the fully fleshed out concept revealed in the "chat" with J.C. at the antarctic base (machine-regulated direct democracy coupled with a radical leveling of human potential, by solving the problems of information asymmetry and the evolutionary baggage that leads to unoptimized behaviors) that they were sort of reaching for with the J.C./Helios thing in DX1 became *explainable* and so it was explained, and well. Not that the idea itself was much more attractive, but at least it got to walk around and breathe a little.

      DX1 was a phenomenal game partly because you had to care about the world of the game because you could relate to it and its characters, and the freedom that DX:IW traded it for ultimately turned out to be a net loser. That is why DX1 is a brilliant game and DX:IW is merely good. One can only hope that the DX3 writers can write up a world that is not only emotionally engaging, but also free enough from our pre-conceptions for the discussions of Really Big Ideas (tm).

      --
      All the techniques ever used to make men moral have been themselves thoroughly immoral... (Nietzsche)
  2. Re:I feel horrible for doing this, but. by byteframe · · Score: 0

    I think the chance well get a good deus ex is just bad.

  3. Is this payola? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who can contewst that Deus Ex 2 was a total artistic and commercial failure? I enjoyed hurling bodies around -- a novel and new gameplay feature -- but only for a comic effect. Deus Ex 2 certainly doesn't deserve a sequel, and such a poorly developed franchise certainly doesn't warrant a press release-like "Prognosticating" zonkpost.

    If the story's being sponsored to support Slashdot, at least disclose that, Zonk!

    1. Re:Is this payola? by PylonHead · · Score: 1

      I loved DX1, and finally got around to DX2 (after avoiding it for a long time). It wasn't that great, but also probably not as bad as it was made out to be (dashed expectations and so on).

      But it is true that so far, the quality of DX games has been directly proportional to the involvement of Warren Spector. Since this next one doesn't involve him at all....

      --
      # (/.);;
      - : float -> float -> float =
    2. Re:Is this payola? by Zeio · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Have to disagree with regards to gameplay. Common ammunition in DXIW: suck. Weapons: suck. No skills system: stupid. Less biomods: dumb. Biomod efficacy: ranges from complete uselessness to moderately useful - sucked. Real choices actually effecting outcome, few and far between and more near the endgame. Weapon modes, a lot of mutual exclusion and mostly suck. Ammo consumption of the useful weapons: alarmingly high, even with mods. Hacking terminals defocused - dumb. Encumbrance / inventory system - complete trash, it was a horrible setback going from DX to DXIW in terms of game play with the total loss of a useful inventory system. Readable content related to the storyline (newspapers, computer hacks, etc): complete trash in DXIW. Depth of world (desire to look under every pillow to find everything: nearly zero in DXIW )

      I have never seen a game fo from such highs in DX to such horrible lows in DXIW. Everything that made DX great was either excluded or nerfed in DX.

      They seriously would do well to simply update the DX to UT2004 or better, and simply add content with the same characters, and forget what they are doing now. I have little faith.

      Without Warren Specter, this thing is doomed. I really feel bad how they are destroying the Deus Ex name and how they cater to horrible console play.

      --
      Legalize the constitution. Think for yourself question authority.
    3. Re:Is this payola? by fbjon · · Score: 1

      Deus Ex 2 certainly doesn't deserve a sequel, and such a poorly developed franchise certainly doesn't warrant a press release-like "Prognosticating" zonkpost. I think most people are saying that Deus Ex deserves a sequel.
      --
      True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
  4. I'll be excited... by Kintar1900 · · Score: 1

    ...if and only if they promise it's not going to be some half-assed PC/platform mutant like Deus Ex 2. :P

  5. Hope is fighting cynicism by roystgnr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    But I'm afraid that at the moment both are still overwhelmed by fear.

    The most interesting new rumor today: I see that someone at Wikipedia claims to have noticed "coop" as one of the listed features on a Deus Ex 3 whiteboard on the Eidos Montreal webpage. This could mean, in decreasing order of probability:

    A. Cooperative multiplayer was an idea they were tossing around but eventually dropped when they realized how much extra work it would be for the designers.

    B. The "storyline" is so noninteractive and linear that it can be played either in single player or coop without too much extra work (i.e. they're just using the "Deus Ex" name to sell more copies).

    C. They're managing to take the complex universe, huge multipath levels, engaging writing and interactive branching of the original Deus Ex story to make something which is just as brilliant but which still works seamlessly when you and your friends/significant other play together.

    I'm pretty sure C can't be true... I mean, the "Baldur's Gate" games only pulled it off because even the single player game included a party of characters... but I WANT TO BELIEVE.

    1. Re:Hope is fighting cynicism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or they've finally got nanotech augmentations for chickens, they've escaped their coop, and you need to defeat some cock with laser-eyes.

      Actually, that describes most of the cooperative players anyways.

    2. Re:Hope is fighting cynicism by toddhunter · · Score: 1

      Or maybe you have to buy the game twice with another person in order to play it?

  6. Wake me when it comes out by Pluvius · · Score: 1

    Deus Ex - Warren Spector = don't really care. Especially not enough to read another pretentious article by that anal wart Kieron Gillen.

    Rob

  7. I think the smart geeks have better things to do. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    . . . than jibber-jabber over far-flung theories about a game that isn't going to come out before Christmas. There are far better things to discuss at the moment.

    Now, discussing how so few are posting on this thread might be worth even an Anonymous Coward piping in for one quick jab! ;-P

  8. Re:I think the smart geeks have better things to d by Elemenope · · Score: 1

    Geeks have something better to do that geek out about something geeky? Whaaaaat?

    --
    All the techniques ever used to make men moral have been themselves thoroughly immoral... (Nietzsche)
  9. orly? by festers · · Score: 1

    Deus Ex is a big deal(tm) for PC gamers, and the news of Deus Ex 3 now being on the way is well worth celebrating I'm too busy trying to forget DX:IW ever happened to give a flying fuck about the next shitty sequel that's planned.
    --


    -------
    "Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief."
  10. Big download, eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Well, yeah, it's a big deal. I think though that the /. crowd blew most of its load on the article that was posted about the original announcement. Crazy kids these days (tm) who think that good games started with Halo and ended with World of Warcraft need to get back to their roots..."

    And yet you all forget the story we had last week about all the new games coming out this month and last. Just about wet yourselves over that.

  11. Re:I think the smart geeks have better things to d by ari_j · · Score: 1

    Geeks have something better to do that geek out about something geeky? Whaaaaat?

    Yeah, we have to finish our grammar- and spelling-naziing before we are allowed to do that. :P

  12. DX2 wasnt that bad... by KrazeeEyezKilla · · Score: 1

    Why all the DX2 hating? I remember picking up the xbox version for cheap a while after it was new and it still seemed pretty fun. I thought it was fairly comparable to the first game and didnt seem as dumbed down for consoles as Bioshock was compared to System shock 2.

    1. Re:DX2 wasnt that bad... by Spad · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But it *was* dumbed down.

      No locational damage, horrible menus that were clearly designed for a controller not a mouse, only one type of ammo, no weapon reloading, skills removed, ATMs gone. The excellent storyline and the characters were still there, it just wasn't Deus Ex.

    2. Re:DX2 wasnt that bad... by lucas+teh+geek · · Score: 1

      see, you played it on it's target platform and could understand it's limitations were because of the platform. the PC version is truly identical to the xbox version right down to having to use the keyboard to make many of the menu selections (even though you have a mouse pointer on the screen, for some reason clicking it doesnt do anything). There were a lot of downright stupid design decisions, stuff that could have been rectified in a mornings programming, but they opted to just do everything the xbox way. people who tried to play it on PC were left bitterly disappointed that they completely ignored all the stuff that made the first one great and gave them an xbox game on their pc.

      --
      TIAEAE!
    3. Re:DX2 wasnt that bad... by ZJVavrek · · Score: 1

      Uh, ATMs were still there. Just like soda and candy bar machines were still there. It's just that the hacking interface was horribly simplified.
      And I believe there's some amount of locational damage, at least in version 1.2. Just not as much as there *should* be. (Three pistol shots to the head to down someone.)

    4. Re:DX2 wasnt that bad... by ZJVavrek · · Score: 1

      The horrid irony is that they didn't intend on targeting the Xbox... they just didn't want there to be some feature on the Xbox left out of the PC version, or a PC feature left out of the Xbox version. They just didn't realize that to make a good game, they need to optimize for the specific platform: Make it feel just as natural on the Xbox as the PC, so while the features are different you get the same low value of Suck. There is an imbalance of Suck when it comes to Invisible War.

  13. From the people who brought you... by jacobw · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The only thing you can conclude from this trailer is that video game trailers are now being generated by the same VoiceOver 3000 Random Voiceover Writing Machine that seems to generate every film trailer. All that's missing are the phrases, "In a world where..." and "Now, one man must..."

    --
    Arr! Read The Government Manual for New Pirates!
    1. Re:From the people who brought you... by Culture20 · · Score: 1

      The writers have to write for something while they're on strike. Think of their starving children!

    2. Re:From the people who brought you... by Mitaphane · · Score: 1

      In a world of pretenious machine-automated videogame trailers, one man must stop the recycled cliches before they stop him. Coming this summer, Pretentious Voiceover II: Revenge of jacobw.

      --
      -Shawn "If the Name Don't Rhyme It Ain't Mine" Conn
  14. God I loved DX1! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So this is great news. If they want me to buy it, it'd better work on GNU/Linux though.

  15. That game got this shit slapped out of me. by KlomDark · · Score: 2, Funny

    I stopped liking that game after I asked for Deus Ex II for Christmas. I asked my mom for it, and she whapped me across the face hard.

    I was completely shocked and scared by that, until I realized that asking my mom for "Deus Ex II" sounds a lot like I was asking to "Do Sex Too".

    What kind of fucking name is that for a game? Right up there with Windows Sex Pee.

    1. Re:That game got this shit slapped out of me. by the_rtb · · Score: 1

      Or, you just pronounced it wrong. You need to make it sound elevated and mighty, ergo not chuch latin. An approximation would be dayoes eks, kind of like jesus x, but completely different.

    2. Re:That game got this shit slapped out of me. by Scipher · · Score: 1

      Day-Us Ex.

      Silly.

    3. Re:That game got this shit slapped out of me. by biovoid · · Score: 1

      As others have pointed out, that's not the correct pronunciation. However the correct way sounds a bit like "Day o' Sex" (Day of Sex) so that doesn't really help either. :)

    4. Re:That game got this shit slapped out of me. by manicalic · · Score: 1

      Not to be a language nazi, but english way of vocalizing letters is not the only one out there and "Deus Ex" is a latin expression. Pronounciation is way different than in english - it's very strict in vocalizing letters.
      The closest you can get is propably:
      "De" - like in "debris"
      "us" - 'u' is almost typical 'oo' but short; think "goose" but short 'u' and 's'
      "Ex" - 'e' is again like in "debris"

      And I know - the game is developed by english-speaking company and they can spell it however they want. So do you.

  16. Prequel? So... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    can we get to kick Gunther Hermann as a baby? I mean, there's *gotta* be a reason why he became such a brutal f*ckwad.

  17. BioShock by ehiris · · Score: 0, Troll

    If you loved Deus Ex, BioShock is your game.

  18. Conspiracy theory about a conspiracy theory by Alzheimers · · Score: 1

    Considering the games are all about Conspiracy Theories, is it really so wrong to examine everything about the game *as* a conspiracy theory?

    I'm going to stay reservedly interested until I see more, like a proper demo. But I won't discount it outright just because Spector's not involved. After all, neither is Witchboy, which can only be a good thing.

  19. Lies. by ZJVavrek · · Score: 1

    If you loved System Shock, maybe. I'm a big fan of Deus Ex, it was one of the first games that left a mark on me. And I can't think positively of BioShock. All that ever comes to mind are its flaws.

    Perhaps I just hold games like that to different, higher standard.

    1. Re:Lies. by What+the+Frag · · Score: 1

      No, if you loved System Shock (1 and 2) you'll be disappointed with Bioshock, because it's just an ordinary FPS without any noticeable RPG elements.
      Not saying Bioshock was a bad FPS, but it's a game for the masses: Just point and shoot and follow the hallway.

    2. Re:Lies. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I never played Bioshock and probably won't because this is what I am hearing about it. I love Deus Ex and both System Shock games, so my expectation for Bioshock was nothing short of perfection.

      Surprisingly I was fine with DXIW even though it was dumbed down and extremely short, but I think this had more to do with the story. The DX story set up such a great and memorable world that I was willing to "suffer" through DXIW simply to get more of it.

  20. Re:That game got this ** slapped out of me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not getting your face slapped... the benefits of a classical education.
    Dee - Us Ex

    Proper pronunciations will also save you from going into EB and having the clerk reply "sorry we don't carry 'Dude sex 3'"

    for reference
    The phrase deus ex machina (Latin IPA: [deus eks makina] (literally "god out of a machine") describes an artificial, or improbable character, device, or event introduced suddenly in a work of fiction or drama to resolve a situation or untangle a plot (e.g. an angel suddenly appearing to solve problems).