Spector Made Deus Ex to "Shame His Peers"

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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Spector Made Deus Ex to "Shame His Peers"


Legendary designer Warren Spector says a desire to "shame his peers" into thinking about new ways to make games inspired him to create Deus Ex [http://www.amazon.com/Deus-Ex-Pc/dp/B00003OPES/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296068722&sr=8-1], in which both combat and stealth are viable play styles.

Warren Spector has an impressive list of credits to his name but the one he is perhaps best known for is the 2001 masterpiece Deus Ex. One of the most noteworthy aspects of the game, aside from the muddy graphics, poor character animations and horrible voice acting, is the way it lets players approach nearly every situation in different ways. Charging through the front door with a rocket launcher or sneaking in the back with a taser are equally effective approaches to almost everything in the game.

He was inspired to build that kind of flexibility into Deus Ex, he told Xbox World 360 (via CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/285479/news/thief-limitations-inspired-creation-of-deus-ex-spector/?attr=CVG-General-RSS]), because he was "so frustrated by Thief." Spector worked briefly on the Looking Glass Studios classic Thief: The Dark Project before joining John Romero at Ion Storm, where he created Deus Ex.

"Deus Ex exists today because I said, 'I'm going to show these guys that I can make a game where you can sneak and fight and make it work'," Spector said. "One of my goals for Deus Ex was - and I used to think about it this way - 'I want to shame developers; I want to shame my peers and force them to make different kinds of games'."

CVG wrote that Spector's frustration arose from the way Thief "forced players into combat," but I think the opposite is actually true: the protagonist in Thief was such a delicate flower that players were almost forced to stay out of combat, and any confrontation that spiraled into more than a two-on-one fight was just about a guaranteed reload. The potential for frustration was still very real - some gamers prefer a straight fight to all that sneaking around, after all - but I'm pretty sure CVG has it backwards here.

I'm also not sure that I go along with Spector's implication that all games need to cater to all gamers. Then again, Warren Spector made Deus Ex and I, well, I just played it, so take that for what it's worth.


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maantren

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One game among MANY that did this before: Hero's Quest, 1989, Sierra. Three paths through the game using force, stealth, or magic. Deus Ex is a great title but I've never understood how it's revolutionary. And good call on the animations and voice acting...

Cheers

Colin
 

BoogieManFL

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Bad voice acting? I thought it was just fine overall.. Still one of the best games ever.
 

Atmos Duality

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mireko said:
Then explain Invisible War.

EXPLAIN, SPECTOR.
Simple: That game was made to shame himself.
Spector makes an interesting statement: After Ion Storm's first...release...(must..not...utter its name) I don't think Romero needed anyone's help in being shamed.
 

Hawk of Battle

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I thought this was already common knowledge? Hell he named it Deus Ex as a comment on other games having shitty storylines so, yeah, this has been known since the game was released.
 

Motiv_

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You know, I'm not gonna buy into the hype here. I've seen far too many games say that you can play through the entire game stealth like. And then "Stealth" equates into "Sneaking around so you can stab some oblivious merc in the tits."
 

A random person

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Whatever inspired him to make Deus Ex, I support it (though I think it's worth noting that while it's not Thief, at the very least you have to be cautious enough to effectively be sneaking).

Oh, and the voice acting didn't get bad until Hong Kong, and the American characters were fine the whole way through.
 

mindlesspuppet

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mireko said:
Then explain Invisible War.

EXPLAIN, SPECTOR.
Invisible War wasn't terrible, it just had the misfortune of being the sequel to one of the best games ever made.

That aside. Deus Ex didn't preform to great commercially, Invisible War seemed like an attempt to dumb things down a bit a try to have a more mainstream appeal.
 

impcnrd

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i'm trying to get through Deus Ex for the first time and i'm hating it. the aiming sucks, stealth is shit, and on top of that, a computer that should run it perfectly fine is making the game worse
RAGE!!!
 

JayDub147

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SlainPwner666 said:
You know, I'm not gonna buy into the hype here. I've seen far too many games say that you can play through the entire game stealth like. And then "Stealth" equates into "Sneaking around so you can stab some oblivious merc in the tits."
Deus Ex doesn't require you to stab any oblivious mercs in the tits. You can beat the game without killing anyone.

Also,
impcnrd said:
i'm trying to get through Deus Ex for the first time and i'm hating it. the aiming sucks, stealth is shit, and on top of that, a computer that should run it perfectly fine is making the game worse
RAGE!!!
Use the OpenGL renderer; It seems to run better on newer systems. Also, stick a laser sight (but not a scope) on your pistol, and the aiming won't be a problem. Actually, if you have a laser-sighted pistol and a GEP gun, you can basically destroy during the first half of the game. Then you can take a sniper rifle and destroy the rest of it.
 

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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I don't think anyone can seriously say that the voice acting in DX wasn't terrible. It was. At best it was flat, at worst it was Hong Kong. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juqT9wNqrGY [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juqT9wNqrGY]

I'm not saying that to be critical, although it is a criticism; it's really just to drive home the point that DX is so much greater than the sum of its individual parts.

I'm also a bit surprised that there's not more reaction to CVG's take that Spector was frustrated over Thief forcing players into combat. Is that not, like, completely wrong?
 

Sacman

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mireko said:
Then explain Invisible War.

EXPLAIN, SPECTOR.
He explained it in an interview... he and Harvey Smith both agreed that they tried streamlining it too much for it to appeal to more people outside of PC gaming and that's why it failed...<.<
 

Sacman

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Andy Chalk said:
I don't think anyone can seriously say that the voice acting in DX wasn't terrible. It was. At best it was flat, at worst it was Hong Kong. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juqT9wNqrGY [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juqT9wNqrGY]

I'm not saying that to be critical, although it is a criticism; it's really just to drive home the point that DX is so much greater than the sum of its individual parts.

I'm also a bit surprised that there's not more reaction to CVG's take that Spector was frustrated over Thief forcing players into combat. Is that not, like, completely wrong?
I thought the voice acting was great... especially hilarious when you get to France...<.<