Few games have garnered the accolades that Deus Ex has. Even 19 years later it maintains an almost impenetrable sheen of glowing reviews and fond memories, topping many a ‘Greatest PC Games of All Time’ list because of its innovative gameplay, intricate systems, and scarily prophetic story.

Against the odds of its technical blemishes and problematic development, Deus Ex withstands the test of time and continues to be the prolific masterpiece that many hold it to be.

Deus Ex’s story is one of mystery, espionage, and conspiracy, masterfully woven with intercom dialogue, cutscenes, and supplemental materials littering every desk, trashcan, gutter, and filing cabinet. Each location is dripping with atmosphere and bursting at the seams with this content that fleshes out the setting in a way that makes it feel very lived in.

Lending to this believable world is its populace. Everyone has flaws, history, and their own function in society. This becomes particularly interesting when considering the ways that your actions can cause a butterfly effect that ripples throughout the globe. Killing the CEO of a company impacts their family, employees, the company as an entity, and its business partners; details normally left unchecked in most games, yet this is the beating, cybernetic heart of Deus Ex that will make you hesitate to kill those blocking your path.

I would describe the game’s plot as something like a National Treasure spinoff featuring 007 as portrayed by Neo from The Matrix. Our stoic, badass protagonist, J.C. Denton, trots around the globe on the hunt for clues and peoples to solve a myriad of mysteries. Said mysteries culminate in a scheme that will have you question your government, the company you work for, and the nature of humanity itself. It’s too bad that the endings don’t live up to the rest of the story, but it’s worth noting that I walked away satisfied in the decisions I made all the way to the end regardless of the way it fizzles out.

Gameplay is where the game is clunkiest. Deus Ex began its life as a Frankenstein’s monster with separate teams working on essentially different projects, intending to stitch it all together later. This proved troublesome in practice and the repercussions of this development process can definitely be felt in the end product. Platforming is cumbersome, combat feels weightless, and simple things like using the function keys (F1, F2, F3, etc.) for powers is so awkward that I found myself rarely using them at all. It wasn’t until at least half-way through the campaign that I was desperate to find alternatives and discovered the ability to map the function keys themselves to other keys on the keyboard, making their use far more feasible.

On the other end of the critical spectrum, Deus Ex has some stellar level design that is further-elevated by the game’s approach to its narrative structure. Truly ahead of its time, player choice is everywhere and has drastic effects on the gameplay and story experiences. Each level and mission present the player with opportunities for each of J.C. Denton’s unlockable or innate abilities to shine, whether it’s hacking, lock picking, or using melee weapons. One might need to rescue a hostage from a room that’s sealed shut and guarded by terrorists. You could take down the guards, grab a key from their corpses, then use that to unlock the door. Perhaps instead you climb into a vent that leads into the sealed room then unlock the door and drop a grenade at the guards’ feet. Alternatively, maybe you throw an object down the hall to distract them then pick the door’s lock. Every moment of the game is filled with situations like these and carving your own path is intensely satisfying.

This happens to be one of my favorite graphical eras. The low-poly style sits in a unique spot between artistic vision and the photorealism that most games strive for. I think Deus Ex is a particularly great example of how this era does a great job at conveying information in its level design, models, and effects because none of these details are lost in a muddy attempt at graphical fidelity that the technology simply wasn’t prepared for. It’s clear the development team understood this limitation and didn’t even try, opting for a more cartoony style that makes for a clear and visually consistent experience that I find endearing.

Deus Ex renders a relatable vision of our own world with subtle cyberpunk undertones, harkening to works like The Matrix. A street in New York City is easily recognizable as such, yet looking deeper at the citizenry and within storefronts makes it clear that this machine has traded its cogs and levers for circuits and processors. It’s a visual parallel to one of the many themes and concepts in the story, instilling a discomfort that the familiar is being corrupted and controlled by the unknown.

Something I appreciate about the sound design of Deus Ex is its implementing sounds for every action and reaction, adding a lot of life and tangibility that so many games overlook.

The voice acting is assuredly rough around the edges, but I must commend the game for having all of its dialogue voice-acted to begin with. This game was developed and released in a time when the industry wasn’t as respected by acting talent; before the days of portraying Kevin Spacey and Kit Harrington in Call of Duty, Keanu Reeves in Cyberpunk 2077, Norman Reedus in Death Stranding, or even having ‘big-name’ voice actors the likes of Nolan North (Uncharted, Assassin’s Creed) and Jennifer Hale (Mass Effect, Metal Gear Solid). As such, slighting this title for what was fairly typical work of the time feels unjust. As it turns out, there is a standout that deserves mention: Bob Page. His actor’s delivery is flawless and the character exudes a corporate candidness with maniacal undertones that’s as repulsive as it is magnetic.

The game is backed by a suite of curious synths as you meander through the decrepit streets of the world, punctuated by poppier electro-house beats when the tough gets going. Much of it fades into the background but knows when to call attention to itself in order to establish tone. Some of the songs can be slightly abrasive, but these tend to be the exception to an otherwise fitting musical score.

Deus Ex has a very early 2000s user interface in the worst way. Navigating it can be mind-numbing at times due to the sheer number of menus and options, and the visual design of said menus and the HUD are nothing to write home about. They provide a ton of information, but the presentation is lacking due to their bulky and invasive nature. One cool feature of the menus, though, is the ability to jot down your own notes in a journal, which is useful for the rather free-form nature of the missions and puzzles.

Of the three possible endings in Deus Ex, I chose to merge with Helios. I believe it to be the canon option that results in the most likely and thematically relevant outcome. The endings are very short and thus you aren’t given much time to sit on what happens in them. Having every road carefully paved by the player funneled into one of three couple-minute cutscenes followed by walls of text hinting at the implied futures you’ve created is an unsatisfactory slap in the face of every action the player took.

Deus Ex is cool, intellectually stimulating, and plain-old fun. While it irrefutably inspired countless games since its release, I have yet to play one quite like it. The game transcends time and expectation, and this cannot be understated for a title developed in a yet-young industry still finding its footing in popular media.

It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re from, the games you like, the ones you don’t: you have to give Deus Ex a moment of your time. If not for the sake of playing a great game, then out of respect for a game that has shaped the very fabric of the industry.