DEVELOPER ION STORM PUBLISHER EIDOS INTERACTIVE
Deus Ex represents the culmination of PC gaming’s innovations throughout the 1990s. Here was a game that gave you the shooting of Doom, the sneaking of Thief, the ability to talk your way around a problem a-la Fallout, all in one astonishing package.
It was a long-awaited triumph for the immersive sim, an offshoot of the RPG that emphasised systems-driven worlds designed to facilitate player agency. Immersive sims had been pioneered by Looking Glass Studios throughout the 1990s in games like Ultima Underworld and System Shock. Yet while beloved by those in the know, their commercial success had been negligible.