The intention of this FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) is to provide answers for the most commonly asked questions about Deus Ex, not to be an exhaustive and encyclopediac compilation of everything ever said about the game. If you either think something really needs to be added, or you see something that incorrect, then please email the maintainers.
This FAQ was created by Bruce 'Gwog' Ladewig and Lucas 'TheZealot' Davis and is maintained by the staff of PlanetDeusEx. A good portion of this material was provided by many people on the ION Storm Deus Ex forums, including but not limited to BrokenStereo, kunwara, Roll-Ex, Darth Denton, jomark, Zarathos, KK, and Exalted Weenie. PlanetDeusEx is an ION Storm devoted site run by fans and is in no way affiliated with ION Storm or Eidos Interactive. PlanetDeusEx is a part of the GameSpy Network.
v1.0 - February 14, '00
Initial document created on Stormtroopers' Deus Ex Incarnate.
v1.1 - March 31, '00
Updated weapon list, team list, Mac info, music info, added augmentation info, moved to RPGPlanet hosting.
v1.2 - January '01
Complete rewrite due to game's release and creation of PlanetDeusEx.
While every attempt is made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this document, readers are warned that we are not responsible for any of it being incorrect or out-of-date. If you either think something really needs to be added, or you see something that is incorrect, then please e-mail the maintainers.
Deus Ex comes from the Latin phrase Deus Ex Machina -- or god from the machine. In Greek tragedy, the "god" descended onto the stage via a crane to quickly and neatly resolve the drama. Warren Spector chose it because he thought it sounded cool and mysterious, and would also get people thinking. If you know where it comes from you know a little something about the plot.
No one knows. Might be that they picked names they liked for their games that they thought were appropriate, and didn't worry about ease of transcription or pronunciation.
Deus Ex is a first-person perspective RPG developed by ION Storm's Austin office. The game uses a heavily-modified version of the Unreal Tournament engine. Set in the near-future, Deus Ex places the gamer in the role of an anti-terrorist agent named J.C. Denton. Your character works for an organization called UNATCO, and eventually finds out that this company is not all that it seems. You will develop certain skills as you play, depending on what abilities you want your character to have. Players will also be able to add a limited number of 'nano-augmentations' which will allow special abilities such as jumping very far, infrared vision, and increased running speed. All situations can be solved in a variety of ways, dependant upon individual playstyles and character abilities.
Deus Ex is NOT a shooter like Unreal. The games only share the same underlying technology; every other element (from storyline to gameplay, feel, art assets, and design) is fundamentally different. The entire focus of the game is to allow different playstyles, and to present situations that can be solved in many different ways, depending on the player's chosen abilities and preferences. So while some people may choose fast movement and a lot of shooting, others will cloak and sneak their way through the game.
In addition, Deus Ex multiplayer is a very strategic affair, much less reliant on twitch skills and more focused towards emphasizing your character's unique abilities.
"The year is 2052 and the world is a dangerous and chaotic place. Terrorists operate openly, killing thousands; drugs, disease, and pollution kill even more. The world's economics are close to collapse and the gap between the insanely wealthy and the desperately poor has grown to the size of the Grand Canyon. Worst of all, an ages old conspiracy bent on world domination has decided that the time is right to emerge from the shadows and take control. No one believes they exist. No one but you. In this thrilling roleplaying adventure you play the part of a powerful, nanotechnologically augmented anti-terrorist agent. It's up to you to stop the conspirators from achieving their goals. But this world is full of lies and betrayal, a world where nothing is as it seems and entire nations can seemingly be turned against you at the push of a button. To succeed, you must travel the globe in a quest for knowledge, develop your character's strengths as you see fit, build a network of allies to assist you, determine when stealth and strategy are more important than action. And each time you think you've got the mystery solved, the game figured out, there's another, deeper mystery to be unraveled. You will never know who to trust, who your friends are, who's in the conspiracy and who's innocent. Maybe no one is..... " (ION Storm's description)
In your Deus Ex adventures you will explore all over New York City, Hong Kong, Paris, California, Nevada, and even spend some time underwater in secret ocean labs.
As with everything in the game, the weapons provide a wide range of use and functionality in order to accomodate different game playing styles. You've got everything from standard ranged weapons (sniper rifles, rocket launchers, shotguns, and pistols) to the silent and melee ones (mini-crossbows, throwing knives, batons, swords, and stealth pistols). Hell, there are even four kinds of grenades. And to add to the fun, many of these weapons can be upgraded to increase ammo capacity and reduce recoil, add silencers and laser sights, use different types of ammo, and much more. All in all there are more than twenty weapons (more like 25). Weapon ability and effectiveness can be boosted through skills and augs.
The inventory is space/capacity based, similar to Diablo. Every weapon and item takes up a certain amount of space, and at some point there will be items you cannot acquire unless you drop something. Ammo, however, does not go in your inventory and can be accumulated freely.
Augmentations provide players with cool abilities, almost like super-powers. They can be upgraded also (up to four levels) in order to increase effectiveness. Examples include the ability to see through walls, the ability to increase speed and jumping height, advanced targeting, self-regeneration, extre strength, and cloaking.
Augmentations are resourced based, using bioenergy, and deplete this energy at different rates. Augs and upgrades can only be installed by a medbot, and bioenergy is increased by either repairbots or biocells.
The skills are super cool, and increase the player abilities that are most-needed for the type of situations encountered in Deus Ex. You can improve your ability to use the different types of weapons (low tech, pistol, rifle, heavy, and demolition), gain better access to hacking computers and security systems, and become more adept at swimming and medicine. Completing missions and gaining access to certain areas award experience points, which the player can then apply towards skills. Note that dedicated exploration will many times reward the player with lots of experience point bonuses.
Matrix mode is not something that can be described, it has to be experienced. Enable the cheats in your current game as usual. Then hit for the menu screen. Click on CREDITS. As they start rolling, type thereisnospoon You won't see anything but each letter will make a "click" sound from your speaker. If you typo, it makes a "wonk" noise, and you can't continue. When it's done, a bunch of words appear about tricks. back to the game and you'll see all the scrolling numbers.
There are at least 19 aug upgrade canisters in the game. Also, it is not possible to install duplicate augs, but it is possible, if you find a duplicate canister, to install both augs from one canister.
(for information about the augs: http://www.planetdeusex.com/dx1/player/augmentations/)
It depends. You can loot the sniper rifle and mini-crossbow off of enemies in the first level so common sense would say the GEP gun. But if you spent skill points on small guns then you might want the crossbow right away, and same with the rifles skill -> sniper rifle. Also, if you want to go non-lethal, then it might be wise to pick up the crossbow first. And there is no real reason to need the gep gun on the first level except to blow up the security bot, but it can be avoided.
It seems that the only distinction between dead and unconscious is made in the first couple of levels. After that there is no technical reason to knock someone out rather than kill them right off.
You will get more of a Credit Bonus from Manderley, You will be able to receive ammo from Sam Carter, your brother will like you better, and anna navarre will not be pleased with having a pacifist for a partner.
You have three options on the 747. You can kill Lebedev and please Anna, you can kill Anna and please the NSF, or you can let Anna kill Lebedev thereby pissing everyone off.
Think simple. All you have to do is align all of them at one time and you're done. I don't even think this part was meant to be complicated so just take it easy and you'll get through it.
Yes, as long as you don't exit the 'ton through the window, he will be alive. If you exit through the window, no matter what, he will be accounted for as dead later in the game.
After you break out of MJ12 prison, you need to hack Anna Navarre's computer (or Alex Jacobson's) to get half of Anna's killphrase, and you need to hack Manderley's computer to get the other half. You don't need to hack either if you know the passwords. To get Gunther Hermann's killphrase, right after MJ12 prison, talk to Jaime Reyes and tell him to stay at UNATCO to be your informant. Later in the game, at a diner/bar opposite where you need to meet Nicolette, Jaime Reyes will be there and will give you Gunther's killphrase. Unfortunately, though, if you decide to keep Jaime as an informant and thus getting Gunther's killphrase, you miss out on an Aug Upgrade in Hong Kong. So it's your call.
In the freezer behind the bar on tonochi road there are crates stacked in the middle of the room. Climb the crates and to one side there will be three grates, open and get in the middle one and continue as far as you can until you reach the end. Take a swim from there and you'll come up with the employee. Be prepared for a couple karkians.
There are several ways, but as far as i know, only one of the enemies in the shed will try and kill Tiffany (whether it be the trooper or the MiB), so the most important thing to note is to just occupy both, a gas grenade works great, or if you don't have one a master sniper shot to the MiB and a few rounds of 10mm into the trooper work wonders and just make sure that tiff stays hidden to the other guards until you are sure she can safely make it to the chopper.
On the top deck in the science lab on the ocean freighter that you have to destroy. If you give the ambrosia to him he will give you a picture of Nicolette so you can recognize her later.
Yes, you have to kill and report the mechanic at everett's place (the "Odd Mechanic" who serviced jock's heli). He is a spy. It is also said that you can shoot his coptor blades at Area51.
There are a couple ways to do this. In the maps folder of the DX directory there is a file named "DX.dx", copy that file and also make a copy of 99_endgame4.dx. Rename the copy of 99_endgame4.dx to DX.dx and then load Deus Ex. You will see the fourth "ending" in place of the moving Ionstorm/DX logos at the beginning of the game. The alternate version of this is, instead of using file DX.dx, use the file 00_intro.dx. That way, you will see the 4th ending when you load up Deus ex and click on "Play Intro". You could also enable cheats, goto credits, and type in danceparty. Note that this is not a proper ending.
Sadly, yes. However, ION has released a patch that greatly increases performance for non-3DFX based video cards. If you're using a TNT or GEForce, make sure to turn detail textures off.
Deus Ex provides two forms of Multiplayer; Deathmatch, and Team Deathmatch. You have to download the patch to get this new game mode.
Multiplayer is very tactical, as it involves all of the fun stuff found in the singleplayer game like hacking turrets, picking locks, and using skills and augmentations to gain the upper hand.
You'll find a lot of people used to playing Quake and UT will gravitate towards the GEP gun, since they are so used to using rocket launchers. These people are in for a big surprise, though, since the aggressive defense aug and a handful of throwing knives can make them run crying back to their twitch shooters faster than you can say "Just Not L33t Enough".
Absolutely. In addition to Deus Ex's built-in server browser, Gamespy 3D also supports the game and you can also hang out in Gamespy Arcade's chat room and launch servers from there.
Absolutely. It is possible to do just about everything, from adding new music, textures, sounds, and models... to creating whole new missions and maps.
Yes, there's actually a huge editing community. Take a look around the hosted sites to see big singleplayer and multiplayer mods in progress (some of which have been spotlighted in the biggest gaming magazines in the world), editing tutorials, addons, and more.
Depends. If you're already skilled in mapping, coding, or whatever, then join up with one of the existing mods or try your hand at creating fan missions. Don't be shy about writing tutorials while you're doing it, either, to help out other people in the community. Put something cool enough together, and maybe you should start up a site and host it right here with us!
Executive Producer - Warren Spector
Programmers - Chris Norden, Albert Yarusso, Scott Martin
Designers - Harvey Smith, Bob White, Steve Powers, Ricardo Bare, Monte Martinez
Artists - Jay Lee, Rob Kovach, Nghia Lam, Russel Hughes, Terry Manderfield, Clay Hoffman
Assistant Producer - Peter Marquardt
Writers - Sheldon Pacotti, Chris Todd, Austin Grossman
MIS/Internet Story Assets - Chad Warren
Sound - Will Nevins
Music - Alex Brandon
QA - Jafo Flores, Marsh Andrews, Dane Carruthers
Additional Programming - Doug Church
Eidos Interactive develops and publishes interactive entertainment products for the PC, Sony PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Sega Dreamcast, as well as the Internet. Visit Eidos Interactive.
ION Storm, based in Dallas, TX, is a revolutionary new computer game design company where the designer's vision is law. Led by industry legends John Romero, Tom Hall, and Warren Spector.
ION Storm currently has six titles either released or in development:
Dominion: Storm Over Gift3, a sci-fi real-time strategy game
Daikatana, a fast-action 3D adventure game
Anachronox, an epic sci-fi role playing game
Deus Ex, a 3D role-playing espionage game
Deus Ex 2, the sequel to the critically-acclaimed original
Thief 3, the third installment of the successful franchise
Founded in November, 1996, the company will break down the barriers between computer game genres creating a more immersive and engrossing gaming experience. Visit their Web site.
Chapter IX: Where to locate more information on Deus Ex
The information in this document was collected from various interviews, forum posts, articles, and chat logs. Thanks to the Deus Ex team overall for their willingness to keep in close contact with the gaming community through forum participation, in particular Bob White, Harvey Smith, Warren Spector, Scott Martin, and Albert Yarusso. In addition, special thanks to ION Austin MIS manager Chad Warren for his invaluable personal assistance.
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