Why is this game so replayable?

and all the characters are not only iconic and unique in their own right, but also reflections of one another in the game and how it unfolds.

"like your own reflection in a hall of mirrors" like walton simons says

welp time to reinstall

youtube.com/watch?v=g_CBF318nBY

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Lots of hidden things to find, lots of ways to approach problems and the core gameplay is good.

I don't know, game is kinda mediocre. VTMB is better.

it's game as player and player as played and vice versa. the moral ethical choice you can make early on on "liberty island" to sneak by and avoid casualties is immediately cancelled by the self deceit of working for a terrorist organisation that believes it's an anti terrorist organisation, that believes in its agency to police the world according to its laws, allowing for anna navarre's justified indiscriminate killing of nsf and whose impotency of power is reflected in the obsolete mech gunther with his attachments and complaints of inadequacy in the organisation as counterpart to anna navarre's cold and unchecked killer, a terrorist agency fighting a terrorist agency, the unchecked killing that results from this also present in the "enemy" terrorists criminality and killing, the conflict generated by failure to identify the real terrorist.

VTMB is remembered only because of the waifus, shut up

therefore the organisation can only be brought down from without by intervention from the game itself in the form of the ghostly ai, which is present throughout the game as authority eludes you, as you are ordered to apprehend the "terrorist leader" in the temporary makeshift command centre in the severed head of lady liberty, who informs you that you're "already too late," and that the ship's lights are already crossing the bay into the city, the deus ex machina that supercedes your temporary efforts as a free agent in a story that is already played out. paul, the wayward do-gooder brother of jc denton who betrays the one terrorist orginsation in favour of the "enemy" and destroys the false dichotomy that the illusory power structure creates, and they say if you save terrorist lives you are like your brother paul, for it is paul who is your false moral authority granted by the terrorist conflict and trickster whose self deceit the and belief in his own heroic efforts the game sets up to demonstrate the failure of your free agency as player without the parameters of the game, as he tricks you into betraying one terrorist organisation for another, the paradox of which lands you imprisoned like lucifer in chains in the basement of your own organisation only to be sprung from without by the game in the form of helios.

the game gives you choices, but game is all done, and the only way to play is the way you are playing, the replayability allows for multiple choices but it's the same choice each time.

hence deus ex is the both the intervention of the game and the player who initiates the game.

so the terrorist dichotomy undone the game world unfolds further and the temporary command structure installed by the terrorists, both the nsf and unatco together, in the beheaded lady liberty falls, and the game's higher stakes players further present themselves in the form of the triads, and the trickster lady who was an acquaintance of paul no less, the actress, or veil, maggie chow, who stole the sword, the symbol of authority, in order to trick the triads into a conflict, who of course turns out to be working at the behest of the splinter half of the illuminati which is bent on the centralisation of power for its own sake, but which is also indicative of the inability or impotency of group authority over the game world, to decide the outcome of the game the group fractured in half. if the "good half" of the illuminati is sided with by the player it's no different than if the player merges with the ai, as then the marriage of authority between the player and the game, the only true authority and choice is realised, same as if the player plunged the world into the dark ages, as all the game's technology is not literal, but merely a metaphorical manifestation of a false idea of self government and free agency within a virtual world.

you might have autism and not the good kind

thus all adversaries and enemies presented within the game world are not real, but merely illusions set up by the game. so therefore the only choice the game presents to you is the only choice that is real, the choice to play the game, whichever way you want, which is told by giving you multiple choices to the same objectives. see levedev's escape, the wealthy funder of the terrorist organisation fighting the terrorist organisation, and his outcome on the grounded jet (dead end) and death at the hands of navarre, who paul leads you to, the first moment you are presented with the question as to the mystery of your beginnings, which are of the game itself.

also notice how once objectives are completed, nsf terrorists seem to be automatically replaced with unatco troops. the game's metaphor is explicit.

as the game presents contradictions to you, you are forced to conform to something greater than your own organisation and sense of agency as policer of the game's chaotic, criminal, terrorist world, all of which is a manifestation of the existence of police, see police as manifestation of tyranny and false sense of authority over the lives of others, the police a criminal organisation by their very existence in fighting criminals, as true authority can only come over your own life in the context of the world, as above so below and all seemingly outward manifestations of authority are tricks on yours senses, but only undone when brought into questioning by outside forces.

you also tend to see it in the dialogue. the characters themselves fail to explain the truth, "a book no one can read" and so appear to be insane in an insane world, coming off as conspiracy nuts, denton in game questioning the illuminati thing, and lebedev seeming like a nut when talking about group of people hell bent on power. same thing in real life when people try to explain the game in desperate situations.

the nano augmentations denton has are nothing more than the game teasing you into becoming it's own toy superhero, like obsolete gunther, a parody of an action hero, wanting a skul gun for his head. the nano augs are the extreme, only given to you by the game so you can complete it.

the ideas manifest in the level design too, if you notice the subway where the homeless reside on the way to the mole people hideout, one way has been stopped off by the terrorists and the other route is the only way to go. the homeless in the game are also a manifestation of the wandering aimlessness and lack of authority or government of the anarchic police state, the tyranny. you can see all of this manifest in real life too in one way or another.

the inadequace of gunther in awe and envy of the player's nano augmentations is the player's sense of being the agent of the game and in wanting upgrades and more power simply for its own sake, complaining to manderley and demanding upgrades. as manderley himself says "we don't give you the authority to make that kind of decision," which is true, he doesn't, the organisation that tries to restrict your power actually tells you that you have it by reprimanding you for taking action, by acting as player in the game where the player can the only true authority. the player cannot be played by any other character in the game, who are all mere reflections of the characters' journey and are all of the game, just as the player is, in a sense they are all the player, as the player initiates the game.

>thinking choices only exist in dialog in immersive sims
You crack me up, little buddy.

and of course the actions of the terrorist to thwart you only enable you, blocking off one way, the other way the only way to go, the terrorists again just telling the story of jc denton in their fictional efforts to stop him. fiction telling the truth, deceit in the game set up to reveal the truth by characters programmed into thinking they have free will but only within the game world the ghost in the shell as it were.

actions of criminality and deceit, all the conspiracy set up by the game, a game with no real boundaries except as a game.

that's why the idea of crime is such a great storytelling tool. everything becomes phenomenology

>the replayability allows for multiple choices
no it doesnt

it's fun

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classic webm, now we just need the prod one

oh fuck, well that says a lot.

Didn't you play the game?

great level design and pacing along with a whole slew of memorable dialogue, most just being from random npcs in the street

Because even though the plot is linear and there are few choices the gameplay offers a lot of "choice" regarding how you get past obstacles, which routes you take, etc.

VTMB after the midgame point is the definition of mediocrity

I like its atmosphere. Deus Ex feels really campy at times, either intentionally or not, but it never goes overboard, and the game still manages to cover some interesting themes

Whenever I think about replaying deus ex I think about the france catacombs and the needs goes away

The catacombs are nowhere near as bad on replays. Paris as a whole is still pretty bland though.

It was fun once, but after that all the mystery goes away.

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this music tho
youtube.com/watch?v=JqL4n7SlDB8

reminder to play TNM

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also this

it's that bit where you make contact with the daughter of the illuminati leader's dead wife and you're contacted by the ai as if by doing so you make it aware of your presence as if by touching some nerve. also run while you can, you cannot run as icarus is the game and has set it up, it's a great tease for the final revelations.

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what the fuck is that?

What I like about Deus Ex is how you can change your playstyle on the fly. Upgrading your stats obviously makes some strategies more effective, but you can still try something else if you feel like it.

one of the most fun ways to play is to be really tight with multitools and lockpicks and find ridiculous ways to open or get around doors or over lasers by exploiting the game's physics and stacking up crates. even if nudging that one crate into just the right position is painstaking and the game is simply not a platformer. besides those multitools come in handier later in the game in the more high tech facilities.

I was actually thinking of replaying this game this morning, then thought about how much I hated those mechanical spiders in the later levels.

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that one area below the nsf warehouse comes to mind. carefully stacking up crates to get past the intricate web of lasers and get it all in just the right position because god damn those multitools and lockpicks are expensive and hard to come by.

oh god dammit i remember those things. worst enemy in the whole game. seriously. that and greasels. greasy green greasels.

>multitools and lockpicks are expensive and hard to come by.
You could get a lot of them if you went to your brother's apartment and do the smuggler quest.

Whats the best way to play this on PC? The controls always jarred me

Get D3D9 or OpenGL renderer and rebind your keys.

a total conversion mod for deus ex which takes place in digital world representation of an old forum (a Deus Ex one, specifically)
it's very good

a few of them. some in his cupboard/safe room, and one or two in smuggler's hideout, but generally running out of lockpicks or multitools could be really frustrating later in the game, especially when you get to versalife and beyond and there's so much more tech to contend with.

>dead mistress sorry

stepping out metaphor, illegitimate child etc.,

for fractured/misplaced power.

the whole game is fractured metaphor.