Deus Ex

Although the UK version of the game is finished, we're going to have to wait until August before we see Eidos' fantastic futuristic RPG Deus Ex. The reason for the delay is due to the games 9,000 lines of spoken dialogue, and the necessity to translate them into French, German, Spanish and Italian. Due to Eidos wanting a simultaneous worldwide release, we're just going to have to wait until all the other languages have been recorded. Still, never mind, at least there aren't masses of bugs that still need fixing or any huge problems with the game engine. Let's just be glad that the only delay worries we have now, are that the actors may fluff their lines.

Ten Years! Ten whole years! Ten! And still, nothing has bettered it. Sure, there are superior shooters around. In fact, there were better shooters out at the time. But in terms of freedom, and in terms of an otherwise linear game wrapping itself around your actions, only the first few hours of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines has ever come close to matching JC Denton's throne.

However, let's not remember Warren Spector's classic for the spirit of adventure you felt when you first discovered a secret Majestic 12 lair beneath the streets of Hell's Kitchen. Let's not get bogged down by the game ticking a box in Manderley's brain when you went into the ladies lavatory to snoop around for LAMs, cigarettes and candy bars. Everyone knows about that stuff, obviously.

I mean, sure it was pretty awesome that the game let you kill Anna Navarra as soon as the twist started to roll around - and the way the bravest among us could save our collective brother from the Men in Black - but that doesn't mean every PC gaming website and its sort-of offspring has to bang on about Deus Ex all the time Instead, let's remember the stuff that was rubbish about Deus Ex, yet also every sort of wonderful. The way you could break with the somewhat earnest fiction and behave like a lunatic within its dowdy moon-lit walls.

After all, a mission briefing when you're not squatting on your boss' desk and staring intently at his moustache can pretty much be seen as a wasted cue. Otherwise, with a tender misuse of the save games, you could happily gun down Sandra Renton's father - right in front of her face: "Oh my God. Daddy...", "What a shame."

Stack 'Em High

Better still was the simple joy of piling as much room furniture as you could find on an NPC's desk and listening to them moan about how unprofessional you were being whenever a flying pot plant connected with their head. And how about the ability to lean over someone's shoulder and hack into their email while they sat in their swivel chair twiddling their thumbs?

"Excuse me Gunther, I'm just going to check out your bank details..." Then again, brilliantly it was the freedom in moment-to-rnoment gameplay that not only let you act in a manner unbefitting of a nano-augmented superagent - but also let you experiment with the way you played the game proper.

You could plant a LAM mine underneath an alarm switch, then as soon as you'd nicked a guard with a tranquilliser dart watch him run towards said alarm (saying 'oof and stopping every now and then) before collapsing into a fiery and explosive sleep when he finally reached his target.

Instead of fighting through a building packed with former allies who suddenly wanted you dead, you could leap off a five-storey roof, smash up your legs and drag yourself to safety. A tactic that could only work in a game where gingerly pulling yourself towards a vending machine and eating a load of chocolate could miraculously bless you with the ability to walk once more.

Play And...

It's web folklore that every time you mention Deus Ex online someone else will feel a sudden compulsion to reinstall it. And in these days of it being a mere $8 (less if you catch it in a sale) there's little doubt that one and all should cave into the temptation. Sure, the nano-upgrades seem to be more of an avenue of progression cul-de-sacs rather than true advancement these days, the wobbly-snipe is more of a bugbear, and the enemy AI is creaky -but the game will still surprise.

Play Again..

Take the moment at which I, with a hearty giggle, attacked an MJ12 trooper armed with a flamethrower from the presumed safety of underwater.

I certainly wasn't expecting him to whip out a knife and leap in after me.

What's more, if you haven't played it since it first came out you'll be amazed as to how much you've forgotten since your first merry jaunt through futuristic New York, Hong Kong, Paris, and all the mysterious paramilitary facilities in-between.

Take the, frankly brilliant, hostage rescue situation in an abandoned service station that crops up at the tail-end of the game. Coupled with a potential reunion with Sandra Renton outside, if she hadn't died in a pool of innocent blood earlier in the game.

If Deus Ex: Human Revolution even conies close to matching the wide-open array of personal tactics that can be used in the original, or how the latter mimics the way that conversations and encounters wrap themselves around former actions, it will be on its way to being a bona fide classic. Here's hoping, eh? Otherwise that killswitch will be engaged...