I am a creature of nostalgia. I like delving into things
from times past, to remember good moments and see how far I’ve come since the
way back when. For example, I recently dug up poetry I wrote as a teenager.
Admittedly, I immediately wanted to burn all traces of them off the Internet,
then travel back in time and give my teenage self the mother of all
ass-whuppings for what he did, but nonetheless, it is...somewhat...pleasing to
know that my writing skills have greatly improved since then.
One of the biggest nostalgia trips I go on is with video
games. I have possession of my Nintendo 64, the first console I owned. Slowly
but surely, I’m acquiring what PC games I had in my youth on Steam, just for
that added peace of mind of knowing they’ll always be there.
For added bit of contextual nostalgia, I shall refer readers
to a blog entry from 2012 when I listed my (as of 2012) top
ten favourite video games. I may revisit this list soon, as a few changes
need to be made, but one remains the same. The Big Kahuna. Numero Uno.
Ladies and gentlemen, Deus
Ex.
I never thought this game could get better. I thought it
simply impossible. Then a bunch of awesome people called Caustic Creative came
along and gave us Deus Ex: Revision.
The world as I knew it inverted itself and the game I thought I knew like the
back of my hand changed dramatically.
Before I proceed any further, in spite of the fact that Deus Ex has been around for fifteen
years now, I am going to issue a spoiler warning. I am going to discuss aspects
of the game’s plot/later missions. I don’t know how spoiler-ish people will
think these are, but the warning’s here anyway. Do with it what you will.
Rather than being a reboot, reimagining or what have you, Deus Ex: Revision is a fan-created mod
for Deus Ex. Free on Steam to
download, incidentally. In a nutshell, it’s a massive environment overhaul. All
of the locations have been revamped – in some cases expanded, such as Hell’s
Kitchen in New York City and the Wan Chai Market in Hong Kong. The gameplay
itself is the same, the plot and dialogue are largely the same. It just...it looks SO MUCH
PRETTIER! Multiple squeal-gasms were had as I played what felt almost akin to a
new game. In places there are new enemies, guys with sniper rifles or some such
who weren’t there before, or impertinent security bots that I really wasn’t
expecting. But you know what, I didn’t give a frak. Because it looks so
godsdamned pretty. Moreover, the unexpected additions made the game so much
more thrilling. I will now cite the specific, possibly spoiler-ific, instance
where my nerves were on the verge of being shredded.
The abandoned gas station west of Vandenberg. Your objective
is to rescue Tiffany Savage, the daughter of Doctor Gary Savage, who is a
critical ally at this point in the game. Now whether Tiffany lives or dies
doesn’t affect the game all that much, except in dialogue. Doctor Savage
acknowledges you tried to save her and you don’t get rewarded. If you save her, a
shiny augmentation upgrade canister is yours for the taking.
Anyway.
Save Tiffany. That’s the mission. Of course, my first hurdle
here is “Oh gods, oh gods, the layout of the gas station is totally different.”
Fortunately for me, it turns out that Tiffany was in the same building as
before. Just the buildings are a bit different, as are the Majestic-12 troops
on guard duty. Things were going well. I was getting past all these new guards,
taking them down nice and quiet-like. Avoiding the MJ12 commando who would give
the whole game up if I tried to take him down, lethal or non-lethal.
So I’m going in the usual way – climb up to the roof of the
gas station itself, then across to the garage building where they’re holding
Tiffany. In Deus Ex it’s an easy jump
across, then down through the hatch in the ceiling, kill the MiB and MJ12
trooper inside, job done, take out everyone else and Tiffany’s safe and sound.
Not so easy in Revision.
The garage is now firmly out of jumping range. There are, however, a pair of
sturdy cables stretching across from building to building that you can walk
across. Simple, right? NO. There’s an MJ12 guard down below. Standing right up
against the gas station. No way to jump down and stun him quietly without
alerting the others.
This is where borderline nerve-shredding occurs. It’s a
mixture of “oh crap this is going to take a couple of tries to get right” and
“oh my gods this is so frakkin’ cool I love this game all over again!”
Deus Ex: Revision
is pure, absolute joy. The same core game. Dialogue, character interactions.
But with amped-up action and amped-up locales. I got lost in Hell’s Kitchen.
Lost. In Hell’s Kitchen. Shouldn’t be possible. But it is. Paris, a city I despised
in my first playthrough of the original so many Moons ago, now stands as a
beautiful beacon, a rich environment I want to explore again and again. Much as
I will do with Hong Kong and New York City.
But the real spine-tingler came at the end. Naturally, I
completed all three possible endings – the New Dark Age, Illuminati and merging
with the Helios AI. Now this is where I have to say a massive, huge SPOILER
ALERT because I thought this was so frakkin’ cool to discover on my own. So
please, exercise caution when scrolling down. As it is going to be a picture,
I’ll do a sort of summation now. First off, Caustic Creative, my hats off to
you. You beautiful bastards. I love you all. Keep up the good work, I look
forward to your future projects. Secondly, everyone else, especially Deus Ex fans, get Deus Ex: Revision. Right now. Right. Frakkin’. Now. You’re still
sitting there, reading this? For the love of the gods, go! NOW!
Okay. To the spine-tingling spoiler.
In a minute.
I want to make sure no one scrolls to the picture by
accident.
Really.
I’m that nice of a guy.
Honestly.
Really nice.
Almost tediously so.
Okay, you get the picture now.
Speaking of pictures...
It’s a simple thing. A detail. But it’s in the details,
isn’t it? The beauty, the sublimity of it all. I think you get the point now. Deus Ex: Revision is amazing, it has
revitalised a classic and is just so beautiful. I’m going to have so much fun
replaying this in years to come.
