The original DEUS EX is an all-time classic, no doubt. There’s a reason why there are so many ‘O451’ and ‘You’re gonna burn all right’ memes plastered all across the internet, 17 years after its’ original release and it’s not solely because it’s ‘catchy’. People who’ve experienced it fully, have nothing but fond memories of it and every little thing that even moderately reminds them of it ,leads to them reinstalling the GOTY edition/REVISION mod and start playing it again.
Well, now it’s time to switch to GMDX.
Nothing against the REVISION mod of course, but see, DEUS EX can be a game that’s hard to get into for newer players. Justifiably so, as the controls in the original weren’t really cutting-edge to begin with and visually it was a game that was a step behind the competition. Most of it was owing to its’ complex nature, not short-form laziness. Whilst DEUS EX is perfectly playable with those original settings as well, there is now thankfully, a new way for modern players to get into ION STORM’s 2000 FPS/RPG hybrid classic.
The GMDX mod (now finally complete in version 9.0 after 5 long years) doesn’t overhaul the game completely visually like REVISION does, but it makes much needed changes that are mostly for the better, especially in terms of the UI and controls. Thanks to it, you can get all around smoother movement, more precise gunplay (that controls like a pure FPS now), improved AI, physics and animations. Take all that together with a modified UI, a changed stamina bar with many tweaks here and there throughout the game, and what you have is altogether a much smoother experience, without ever dumbing down the core.
JC’s awkward jumping has been replaced with smoother parkour-esque movement that helps him climb over boxes and fences, the somewhat buggy stealth has been tweaked towards accessibility (enemies don’t just flail around for 10 seconds after being hit by tranqs, they flail around for 5), the shooting is crunchier, the aiming is much better. A LOT of the darkness that the OG was notorious for has been cleared up and the textures are much smoother. There seem to be more enemy animations and environmental physics as well.
It’s not a visual overhaul like REVISION, but the textures seem sharper and the game now plays at a much higher resolution than the OG. There seem to some work done to improve the facial animations of the characters as well (which apparently was a problem to some people I talk to). Bottom line is, the game now plays much, much better and the holes/ mistakes that the game was infamous for back in its’ day have now been filled up.
Bottom line, play this game. Whatever minor drawbacks DEUS EX had that kept some players at an arms’ length have now been addressed via this superb Mod. I played through the game from the opening Liberty island level to the MJ 12 headquarters (you know what I’m talking about) in the course of a single night. Of course that comes with my familiarity with the base game but I swear that the mod made it even sweeter.
My sincerest thanks and deepest of gratitude to TOTALITARIAN for this gift. DEUS EX is something I never fell out of love with ever, but GMDX sure made it feel like the first time again.
You can avail the mod here: http://www.moddb.com/mods/gmdx