Uploaded July 2017 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
My Twitter: twitter.com/pfassett
Patreon: patreon.com/stratedgy
The How and Why of Deus Ex
For this video I tested two people who have never played any Deus Ex game before, and I found that on both occasions, both participants took the crossbow, believing it to be the safest bet, and when they used it to put someone to sleep, they found that it didn’t work the way they thought it would. Which makes sense. The guards when shot with a tranq dart, immediately turn and start shooting you.
People expected them to at least react to the sensation first. See most people associate getting shot with a tranq dart like getting stuck with a needle. We would at least look to see what we’ve been shot with before we turned to look for who shot them. The other issue is that the enemy automatically knows where we are and starts shooting. As players now, people at least expect to have to be discovered before someone starts shooting in random directions.
In a game of this tone, we tend to require a bit more of a simulation than an action game. If we get the jump on an enemy, we have come to expect a certain result. For me, I can’t think of a game that had done that before Thief. Hitting someone from behind with a club or a sword, or a carefully placed arrow, almost always resulted in a one hit incapacitation. In Deus Ex, it causes a minor annoyance. Except if you use a gun. A gun appears to be a one hit kill if you get a headshot, but with the addition of the shrinking crosshair, appeared to overwhelm the two participants.
Sources
arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/03/warren-spector-almost-made-an-rts-branded-rpg-instead-of-deus-ex
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Spector
giantbomb.com/warren-spector/3040-2978
ign.com/articles/2017/07/14/how-thief-inspired-warren-spector-to-create-deus-ex-a-ign-unfiltered
My Twitter: twitter.com/pfassett
Patreon: patreon.com/stratedgy
The How and Why of Deus Ex
For this video I tested two people who have never played any Deus Ex game before, and I found that on both occasions, both participants took the crossbow, believing it to be the safest bet, and when they used it to put someone to sleep, they found that it didn’t work the way they thought it would. Which makes sense. The guards when shot with a tranq dart, immediately turn and start shooting you.
People expected them to at least react to the sensation first. See most people associate getting shot with a tranq dart like getting stuck with a needle. We would at least look to see what we’ve been shot with before we turned to look for who shot them. The other issue is that the enemy automatically knows where we are and starts shooting. As players now, people at least expect to have to be discovered before someone starts shooting in random directions.
In a game of this tone, we tend to require a bit more of a simulation than an action game. If we get the jump on an enemy, we have come to expect a certain result. For me, I can’t think of a game that had done that before Thief. Hitting someone from behind with a club or a sword, or a carefully placed arrow, almost always resulted in a one hit incapacitation. In Deus Ex, it causes a minor annoyance. Except if you use a gun. A gun appears to be a one hit kill if you get a headshot, but with the addition of the shrinking crosshair, appeared to overwhelm the two participants.
Sources
arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/03/warren-spector-almost-made-an-rts-branded-rpg-instead-of-deus-ex
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Spector
giantbomb.com/warren-spector/3040-2978
ign.com/articles/2017/07/14/how-thief-inspired-warren-spector-to-create-deus-ex-a-ign-unfiltered
