I wanted that good old UT engine RPG feel so I went to GOG, thinking I’d pick up Deus Ex there, and, well, it’s $10 (their high price point). Aw, hell naw.
So I got off my lazy behind, found my old Deus Ex CD, installed it, and decided to look for mods. I went for Project 2027, since it seems to be an all-new game based on Deus Ex, and it looks like they may have actually finished it.
So far, it definitely has the Deus Ex thing going for it: some expositional play that has you learning the game culture by strolling through an area mostly foreign to you, mysterious AI communing directly with my brains, lengthy conversations with NPCs, clues laying around all over the place, all that great stuff. (I wonder why I have patience for this but didn’t last more than a few hours in Mass Effect. Ah, I know why, I’m old and tired, and Mass Effect is so much work.)
Anyway, 2027. The first hour or so seems slow-paced, a lot of story is withheld, fed to you in NPC dialogue, overheard conversations, and bits of pilfered email. You seem to be encouraged to scour areas to find the way of attack that suits you, but the threat of retaliation seems very strong, perhaps to encourage stealth. I wonder if it level design will continue remain tight, or start to disintegrate? Will the plot resolve into anything? I wonder if it’s complete? I will report back….
Plotwise, it’s fairly similar to Deus Ex so far. I appear to be a mercenary on the run from MJ12, have lost half my memory, and probably a good deal of my personality. (This is more or less in line with JC Denton’s Dragnet deadpan, and his going rogue on his first night on the job.) The famed RPG-style skills have been shuffled around quite a bit and I’m not sure I picked the right ones, but I’m going to stick with them and see how it turns out. I know this means putting faith in a balanced game, not something we can always count on with mods, especially the variety that comes from Eastern Europe and Russia, which are often brutally difficult.
The visuals are good so far. It’s like coming back home. There are new textures to give the game an original feel and lots of new objects, some useful, many pointless. There is a ton of bloom everywhere in this game. It’s like the whole world exists in a nanotech fog, and no one really notices anymore. Also, there is no voice acting, but I’ve already gotten used to the weird silence. The only noise I’ve heard people make so far is footsteps, no throat clearing or anything. It’s really weird in contrast to nearly any other game.
Anyway, a few screenshots:
Project 2027 can be had in all its foggy glory here: http://project2027.com/en/#/
drfrog 