Deus Ex- Full of clichés, ridiculous bugs and scenarios that instantly break immersion. The choices you make at the end can have serious moral consequences, but this is never explored in the game. Your character is emotionless, and the NPCs one dimentional.
Actually, I think Deus Ex had a lot of potential and intent for being so-called high art. The final choice is, of course, meaningless, as it is not reflected in any way in the game. There is, however, one part of this game that truly reached out to me. It's quite possible most players didn't experience this, mostly due to bad design (or, I should say, insufficiently good design).
My recollection of details is a bit fuzzy, but basically, there is a part, in the airplane, you're talking to the man, and Anna Navarre comes in and asks you to execute him. For me, the moral outrage was so great, that I tried to kill Anna Navarre. If you know video games at all, you know that would never be possible, to kill a main character at random. And in fact, it was impossible. She's insanely tough, and when she dies she detonates and kills you. I had to utilize a save before that part, and plant explosives along the corridor where she comes in, and that killed her. But the game let me do it, and it actually mattered to the story.
I've played a lot of games of various types over the years, but it's this moment that really stays with me. I actually felt the internal conflict, until I couldn't push it away anymore, and acted even though I knew it was futile to even try.
Actually, these guys are trying to do just that -- create emotionally meaningful interaction with game characters, where the experience is designed by the author of the piece.
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Actually, I think Deus Ex had a lot of potential and intent for being so-called high art. The final choice is, of course, meaningless, as it is not reflected in any way in the game. There is, however, one part of this game that truly reached out to me. It's quite possible most players didn't experience this, mostly due to bad design (or, I should say, insufficiently good design).
My recollection of details is a bit fuzzy, but basically, there is a part, in the airplane, you're talking to the man, and Anna Navarre comes in and asks you to execute him. For me, the moral outrage was so great, that I tried to kill Anna Navarre. If you know video games at all, you know that would never be possible, to kill a main character at random. And in fact, it was impossible. She's insanely tough, and when she dies she detonates and kills you. I had to utilize a save before that part, and plant explosives along the corridor where she comes in, and that killed her. But the game let me do it, and it actually mattered to the story.
I've played a lot of games of various types over the years, but it's this moment that really stays with me. I actually felt the internal conflict, until I couldn't push it away anymore, and acted even though I knew it was futile to even try.
Actually, these guys are trying to do just that -- create emotionally meaningful interaction with game characters, where the experience is designed by the author of the piece.