First Deus Ex 3 Details Emerge: Prequel Confirmed, Original Creators Approve

Prequel or sequel?

In addition to my other complaint, here's the major beef I have with this. In Deus Ex the augs gave you fairly basic abilities. Abilities such as running faster, better aiming, cloaks, run silent, etc. The game took place in 2052. Deus Ex 2's augs (Or biomods as they were called) aren't much different. You're considered to be one of the latest and greatest in terms of augmentations while other agents like Gunther are considered "a box of bolts". Essentially outdated technology.

Now with this game set 25 years before are these augs going to be better than the ones in Deus Ex? If you consider Gunther outdated he was probably just getting his augs during this time. What augs I don't think the game ever tells you, but if you take DX1's augs and tone them down then I think you can get an idea. However, if they're giving you crazy augs that seem way more advanced than DX1 then is it really a prequel? Is it only a prequel from the story?

I realize Deus Ex was based off the 1st Unreal engine so a lot of this stuff just wasn't possible. Even the environments didn't seem that much different from a game taking place in the present time. Some leeway I think is needed, however if they chose to do a prequel then I really hope that they take the timeline and the progression of technology into consideration. I'm not against the game being a prequel. It'll be great to see how the story goes and gives some clues that leads up to the events in DX1. However, as a Deus Ex fan it'll really break my experience if I'm flying around like Superman and having augs that are way too advanced for it's time. On the other hand I wish it was a sequel so I could fly around like Superman and kick major amounts of ass with awesome abilities. A sequel is much less attractive story-wise due to the disappointment that was Deus Ex 2, however it was still a Deus Ex game and I wouldn't mind seeing certain things played out.

They're balancing a tight line here. Above all I just hope it doesn't suck.

health system makes me want to cry...I'm so sick of it appearing in every game

Deus Ex is my all time favorite game. I loved the conspiracy storyline and the large cast of characters. The world was rich and each area was so unique. The storyline and plot seeped into every part of the game.

I love the game, however it has its “flaws”. Some are hard to dispute while others are pretty controversial.

The number one “flaw” it had, in my opinion, was its bar of entry. It wanted the player to learn a lot of things in a short amount of time and it required that the player put faith in the game. When you started out you immediately felt like you were in a typical FPS and needed to go do a basic mission. The plot was just not that interesting or clear when you started. When you spawned in you were immediately forced to make a decision without knowing what it meant to the game (your initial load out). You then proceeded toward the combat, where the initial frustrations began quickly. Because every facet of your character was augmentable, your initial character was hard to control and use. Aiming was not good and you had a hard time if you wanted to go in guns blazing (which was one of the options they gave you). The game did not tell you that you would be hampered starting off and that you needed to grow your character in order to be successful in basic combat. This all resulted in many people not even getting past the first level. They had no hope that the game would get better from a plot or a gameplay perspective.

Once you got past the first mission and you went to headquarters, the world was opened up. Augmentations were explained. The world became a rich environment with plenty of interactivity. You realized that there were many weapons and many upgrades to them. Many characters were introduced and your character became a part of the overall plot (though you still only knew a sliver of information). The people that made it to the city had world really opened to them with single maps having both combat and non-combat gameplay. However even with all of this eventually getting explained, most people never saw this because they played the demo and got bored/frustrated/confused.

In order to fix the issues and make a sequel I believe they do need to look at modern FPS games. Sure, they do not need to copy everything, but they also can’t just take the past and regurgitate it. They need a bigger audience then they did back when Dues Ex was released (although the first Deus Ex likely could have used more sales too). In order to make a big budget game today you have to reach a big audience. How you do that is a debatable question, however you really have to look at the market and ask yourself how many “new” things you can introduce to a player and not frustrate or overwhelm them. The other side of the coin is eliminating bugs or balance issues by simplifying design in some key areas. Games are much more complex under the hood then games of old, so if you have complex stats and data driven systems mixed in, the likelihood of it breaking or not feeling just right insanely more likely. None of this means your game needs to be simplistic. However it does mean that some changes are likely needed.

It is a 100% certainty that no matter what they do, they will not please all Deus Ex fans. Even if they simply had the first game with updated graphics, there would be fans that would either hate the updated art or complain that the game did nothing new. So then you are left with the question of “Why do people like the first game?” For many it was the plot. Well you can’t do that plot again, so what new plot can you do? Again, this is an area where you can’t please everyone. Complicating the task of developing a new plot further is the fact that the first game covered just about every conspiracy theory out there. I am certainly not saying a good plot can’t be developed, but many fans will simply not be please no matter what they do.

This gets me to my point about the mentioned features, none of them are too scary. Everyone who is a fan of the original is way too sensitive to any change equaling a bad thing. While many imagine doom accompanying regenerating health, I can easily imagine a scenario where it fits in well with the gameplay. The same is true with a cover system.

Bottom line: Updating the game will not make Deus Ex 3 bad, making a bad game will make it so. However there is just no pleasing the hard core fans. No matter what they do there will be many fans that will be unable to judge it fairly.

For my part, I don't have a huge problem with the health generation system in DX3 because as soon as I got the health regen biomod in DX1 I used it constantly. If I was near death I could hide around a corner and have full life within moments. Health regen just takes hide and heal element out of the game.

Don't get me wrong, I believe that the game would be better with the old system, but I can live with what they've done.

My biggest beef is that they're not bringing back the tradiitonal skill points system from DX1. Eidos started a facebook page and asked everyone what they wanted for Deus Ex 3. The top two things people asked for was to return to the immersive environments with interesting characters of DX1, and bring back the old skill point system!

It's Montreal, so likely it will be good, or am I thinking of the wrong dev team?

- Autoheal should be an augmentation. It worked just fine that way in DX1.
- I'm picturing stealth to work something like Metal Gear Solid.
- The bungee jumping augmentation sounds terrible.

"Eidos Montreal says it's more than aware of fan reaction to controversial second game, Invisible War, and promises mistakes, such as limiting ammo types to just one, won't be repeated."

What about the cover system and auto heal you jerks?

"You'll still garner experience points as you progress through the game. You'll then either choose to plug them into your self through your augmentations or your weaponry."

More skills please.

with all the fan base DX1 has, i wonder if somebody ever made a hi-res mod for DX1?
I remember one that was being made, but i don't know if they ever finished

At first I read that 2nd to last bullet as "Eidos Montreal says it's more than aware of fan reaction to controversial second game, Invisible War, and promises mistakes".

heh.

Well i just looked at the screenshots in the magazine, and they definately prove that this game will have a really awesome environment. Definately looks like Deus Ex should be today

So they are completely removing the original stealth aspect of the first game. It sounds like a generic action mash now. Are they even going to bother allowing you multiple ways of solving the game anymore? Because that, to me, was Deus Ex..

Would it be such a bad idea to take DX1 and just clone it in a new engine? It's not like most consumers would even know it wasn't a new IP.

ooooooh.... monster closets!!! /sarcasm/

auto health makes me much upset. what happened to games like heretic / master levels of doom that were insanely hard with ammo and health conservation?

i remember saving 25 hp medkits in doom2 for later use when i was above 75 health.

While the story sounds awesome and the environments are more like the original, they did not mention skills. I also do not agree with the Call of Duty auto heal escecially. But let us all hope they pull this one off

My largest problem with DX2 wasn't so much the unified ammo, or the console interface ... it was the lack of depth in the game.

DX1 had hours and hours and hours and hours of story. I remember that I played that game twice, and the second time took me even longer to play it than the first time. I found areas I hadn't previously noticed, or I set my augs differently to allow me access to certain areas earlier in the game.

I probably spent more time talking to NPCs in DX1 than I did shooting things. In DX2, that definitely was not the case.

Also, there was just something about the look of the first game. It looked ... austere, bleak, desolate. I hate to use the word cyberpunk, but insofar as that term is representative of the literature of Stephenson, Gibson, and other authors, I felt DX1 really fell into that mold. DX2? Not really at all, it was pretty much a scifi saturday morning cartoon.

If they can put together a deep story with hooks to the original game and a large world with complex areas of play, I'll buy this one for sure. Otherwise? It'd take some major convincing to play it.

The Deus Ex series is kind of like the Police Academy films. The first one is the best, then it goes downhill from there.

Except imagine that Police Academy 1 is Citizen Kane.

So they're making sure they won't screw up the things that people didn't like about DX2.........by screwing up everything else instead :(

Call me crazy and PC elitist, complexity-over-fun, bastard, but I like sequels that ADD stuff rather than CHANGE stuff.

I'd really like to see some screenshots, as the concept art looked really cool.

Smells like an Eidos money grab, crank out a couple more, then a movie.. Just like Tomb Raider.

Fallout 3's V.A.T.S. / Inventory system looks more "Deus Ex" to me than anything since DX1. Though, IMO, The next "Deus Ex" isn't going to be Deus Ex and that's cool w/me.

failure, Deus Ex 3 now set to auto ignore.

WHERE'S THE NEW MEDIA????

Eidos is set to develop this again. It'll be shite!

I'll give it a fair shake when it comes out; involving Pacotti is at least a good sign.

I'm not going to react to the gameplay decisions until I've gotten a chance to sit down with it; sometimes things that sound bad on paper work out when you play.

anyone else read that as "'bungee jump' testicles"

After Deus Ex 2 they are going to have to do a lot of convincing to get people interested I think

Prequels always worry me, mostly for continuity's sake. Can't remember any specific examples but I know it's happened before, where a prequel either has the same character who then mysteriously loses all his powers and abilities before the original games, or the technology in the prequel is improved over those in the original game despite it being set before hand. I don't remember bungee tentacles in Deus Ex or IW, after all, but I've got enough faith left that I'm sure they'll cover their bases somehow.

"Eidos Montreal says it's more than aware of fan reaction to controversial second game, Invisible War, and promises mistakes, such as limiting ammo types to just one, won't be repeated."

That game sucked because they simplified the original formula and also infused it with the current console trends for the Xbox. Health regen and what will probably be a 3rd person stealth/cover system sounds like they are on track to make similiar mistakes. :(

sounds good. i'm sure it will be better than the second one, and even the second one was better than your average shooter game. so while it might not have the impact and greatness that deus ex had at its time, i'm sure this will be an awesome game better than most crap released these days.

sure doesn't sound like DX, but maybe it will be a good game on it's own.

It's gone full circle. The destruction of my favorite game of all-time. From ambitious FPS with RPG elements to bland FPS-RPG with horrid design to generic sci-fi FPS. I'm half expecting this bastardization of Deus Ex to have Halo physics, monster closets, simplifed augments, and no customizable weapons.

I believe I read somewhere that your skill with guns isn't tied to a stat anymore, but is based on normal aiming as in normal FPS. :(

I'm kinda sick of those signs proclaiming the alienation of <insert group of freaks here>. Makes me think of Charlie Brown and the "NO DOGS ALLOWED" sign. Also, wasn't this a big theme of Xmen 3? Didn't see it, but I recall hearing about it.

You have Deus Ex 3 until DX2 gets made.