This demo has been quite widely publicised in the Deus Ex media, and is worth downloading now. With separate demos available for Mac and PC (an excellent thought), this demo has been cited by the developers as a 'first demo', perhaps to be improved upon and released again later.
Play starts off in the (aha- first criticism, I cannot remember the name of the company Mr Dominic Bishop (you) works for!) headquarters. This place is large but is a bit of a sprawling mess. Don't take this the wrong way, it is still a nice level to wander around and talk to the NPCs, but is no UNATCO HQ in terms of a proper military office building.
I congratulate the creators on the authenticity of the speech and data cube text. It is this single element I believe which immerses the player in a Deus Ex world. However, I strongly recommend omitting -text-, as it distorts the flow of the sentence. In some parts, interacting with NPCs opens up a 'black border' conversation for a single statement. This should be changed to a dialogue (small grey) box. There are plenty of characters to talk to, as well as some close friends of yours compliment the demo well.
After a lengthy exploration of the HQ, you are herded onto a chopper and flown to Moscow. Another credit to the developers is the choice of location- they could have just restricted it to New York. You have to speak to the commander of the rebels holding the bridge, complete a few sub missions as well, and escape in typical Deus-Ex-Add-On style when the enemy land in a fleet of helicopters. How convenient. Perhaps to enable crafty players to outwit the thugs on Moscow Bridge, how about slightly lowering the suspension cables so that the player could crawl all the way up to the top and down the other side? A nice location to play within, I reckon some falling snow would increase the atmosphere (it has been done in UT). Oh, add some Vodka as well.
We now move onto the cut scenes. These are as large in terms of file size as the levels themselves, and the Moscow Bridge cut scene is fantastically designed. However, the first opening cut scene lost me completely after about three or four seconds. The new music is good as well, although at one point, after a combat sequence finished, it seemed to get stuck on an incredibly annoying loop.
After outwitting the enemy, you end up in a subway station with about ten captive drug addicts, pimps and businessmen (how did they get in? The only way is the way you got in...). There is no mission objective here, you just talk and torch with the obligatory flamethrower.
All in all, a nice Mod to play around with. Needs tightening up but is an enjoyable experience with atmosphere.
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