Sweet, More Deus Ex 3 Concept Art!

Aye, it’s Garbled Zombie, your local Deus Ex fanboy and chief editor of all things Deus Ex 3 on StuffWeLike. What arouses me from my slumber? It seems that Gamereactor got some brand new concept art for Deus Ex, and by it looks friggin’ sweet to my eyes.

There’s also a crumb of extra info, i.e. we learn that the protagonist of Deus Ex 3, Adam Jensen is a security chief for a biotech company called Sarif. The company is raided by men in black, and everybody without the name Adam Jensen are killed. And of course, it’s upto Adam to find out who did this, and why. One important piece of news we learn is that the game will come sometime in 2010. That’s 10 years after Deus Ex. Hot dayum.

And now, I analyse the concept art.

This one seems to be set in Paris, with the bridge up there labelled “Passerelle 01”. What I believe to be some sort of a cafe to the left uses a neon sign saying “Le Canne”, so I think that kind of confirms it. The “Connaught” sign down their highlights “aug”, signifying Augmentation. Possibly an augmentation-related advertisement? Then we see a postmodern building to the right, with the name “DWM”, which must be some sort of a corporation’s headquarters.

With Paris around, I’m guessing we may see the origins of the Silhouette. Maybe even explore Everett’s Illuminati and even see Beth DuClare alive! This sounds like fun.


This one is a little blurry, but it shows the Renaissance influence on the game. Nothing particularly remarkable here, but to the left there’s an information terminal (or maybe a security terminal) that’s reminiscent of the news terminals in Deus Ex. This one looks bulkier and integrated into the wall, so I guess it’s a natural progression. To the right, there’s a computer with a holographic display. Again, reminiscent of Deus Ex. This one appears to be a Star Wars-ish hologram, since it’s blue-tinted and kinda faded, whereas the ones in Deus Ex were exact and colourful. So at least that’s one step in the right direction.


This here is Shanghai, according to the PC Zone scans we found. It’s also pretty clear since there’s a dragon illustration to the bottom-left. On closer inspection, I think there’s supposed to be some sort of a transparent display there. Screenshot is mostly a standard cityscape, a little futuristic. The cool looking guy to the right may or may not be Adam Jensen. I kind of hope he is, but what the hell.

PC Zone Issue 200 Scans; Deus Ex 3 Info

I can’t believe I missed this! While I did get you the deal on what little info was found about Deus Ex 3, it looks like somebody got their hands on the actual magazine scans, which have been put up here. Okay, they’re not scans, they’re outright photos and pretty bad ones at that: most of the text seems to have been clipped out.

So we’ll have to do with the concept art/screenshots, and they are definitely some tasty eye candy. The Cyberpunk/Renaissance art design becomes visible here, though I think making NPCs wear 16-century-ish clothes is a little overkill. I love the environments, though.

Augmentations are a lot more “in your face” says the caption, and that they are. With what looks like direct prosthetics for your arms, you won’t find the subtlety of JC’s nanotechnology-enhanced augmentations. This goes with the story, since JC and Paul were the first test subjects in augmented agents.

The protagonist of Deus Ex 3, Adam Jensen appears to be an agent with mechanical mods, like Gunther Hermann or Anna Navarre from the original game. In any case, he looks pretty cyborg.As for the Biomods themselves, here’s what I found from the pages:

  • Claymore: A last resort when facing unsurmountable odds, Jensen’s body can emit thousands of (clipped)
  • Multi-Kill: When faced with multiple opponents, Jensen an unleash a combo of devastating martial (arts?) (clipped)
  • Bungee Jumping: Hurl yourself off the edge of a building and tentacles will shoot out of your (clipped)
  • Wall Punch: Can be used in conjunction with the visual augmentation (clipped)

Another bit of info that can be found is about Stealth and Hacking, both of which disappoint me greatly.

  • Stealth is also receiving a major revamp and will now utilize cover more than shadow as its primary function., with a Metal Gear Solid-style cone of vision mechanic (available only through augmentation) used to ascertain an enemy’s field of view.
  • Hacking is another area receiving a makeover, taking the form of RTS-style mini game in which you (vie with?) a (mainframe?) for the control of nodes (?) (clipped)

Okay, I’m totally not sure about this. An RTS-style mini game for hacking? You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m also not comfortable with replacing the shadow-based stealth mechanic from the previous two games. Deus Ex had handled stealth without making it too technical, I’m not sure if Deus Ex 3 will be able to do it.

All in all, I’m both impressed and disappointed. Still, since its Deus Ex, I won’t be missing it. 😉

Deus Ex 3 First Details! Officially a Prequel!

As was rumoured, PC Zone got the first real scoop on Deus Ex 3 for their 200th issue, and goddamn, things have been revealed. Eidos Montreal, who’s working on the game have promised the game will learn from Invisible War’s mistakes and will cater to fans of the original. How much of it will they deliver?

To start with, the story is officially a prequel set in 2027. While I utterly abhorred the idea of a Deus Ex prequel at first, this actually sounds fine. It should be better than Invisible War, at any rate. You won’t be a Denton this time round, of course. You’ll play as Adam Jensen this time, so no female protagonist. Doubt if female Alex D will be missed anyways.

The story will be deep and layered, much like the original. To affirm this, the studio has drafted Sheldon Pacotti, writer of the Deus Ex for consultation. Sounds fine and dandy for me, especially since Harvey Smith and Warren Spector have given their blessings!

There are going to be a few changes to gameplay. Whether that is good or bad is going to highly debatable. Among the good stuff, there won’t be unified ammo like in Invisible War. The bad stuff? There’s going to be auto-healing, like in Call of Duty. That may have made sense for a biomodified human, but since its a prequel, I don’t see why JC Denton in Deus Ex shouldn’t have had auto-healing!

Stealth will rely on a cover-system, instead of shadows. How that works, I don’t know; but I sure as hell know I’m going to subtly miss hiding and crouching through shadows. There seem to be some creative new augmentations this time round. 20 have been confirmed, and sound totally awesome.

Among the ones given, one will let you “bungee jump” from walls of buildings. Woah, wait. We’re going to be jumping of buildings in this game. How cool is that? There will be the ability to punch through walls and grab enemies in the next room, which sounds totally awesome. Damn, I can’t wait for the other augmentations!

Full info comes on October 9th, when the issue goes on sale. I’ll be waiting!

Harvey Smith of Deus Ex fame working on “Immersive” FPS-RPG

Ask me my favourite video game genre and I’ll tell you it’s the FPS/RPG hybrid. Deus Ex, is of course, my favourite game of all-time, but other notable games in the rare genre are the System Shock games, or Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. But these games, like my second-favourite genre, Adventure games faded into an abyss.

But let’s hope this is set to change. With a Deus Ex 3 already in the works, we have some more optimistic news. Harvey Smith, who partnered Warren Spector to design Deus Ex now has his own studio: Arkane, which he is going to use to create “immersive” FPS titles, in the same vein as Deus Ex. Talking to Gamasutra, he says that Arkane’s focus will be on these immersive titles.

He didn’t release any specifics just yet, but that is as good an announcement as any. Oh, and they’re working on a strategy game for the iPhone, if you are interested in that, for any arcane reason.

Is this finally it? Are FPS/RPG games making a comeback?

Deus Ex 3 announced, teaser revealed, pants wetted

Screenshot from Deus Ex 3’s teaser

I’ve always maintained that Deus Ex is the greatest game ever made by man, and with good reason. It was thought-provoking, immersive, intelligent and its unique game mechanics were plain perfect. While its sequel never lived up to its predecessor’s timeless glory, I still liked it for just being. I’m in need of underwear right now, because Eidos has just announced Deus Ex 3. That’s right, folks – Deus Ex is back with a vengeance!

Of course, Ion Storm saddeningly dissolved a long time ago, so this is Eidos’ Montreal studio’s first game, and that’s a blazing inauguration. Gamasutra reports the company’s structure, their goals and other details not concerning Deus Ex. What I found to be interesting was that Eidos mentions that the new studio will have tightly-knit, multi-discipline groups (at the most 80 people) working on a single project. Also, their development cycles will reportedly last 24 months, as opposed to the much lesser numbers of their competitors.

Eidos also released the teaser for Deus Ex 3, which you can find below. It’s as ambiguous as you’d expect from a teaser, and depicts a bio-augmented foetus, along with some mysterious words from a narrator. There are also a series of pictures that run damn fast. There’s a list of what they are at Wikipedia, if you’re that interested. (UPDATE: We have just learned that the guys at Shacknews have spent a good portion of their lives taking screenshots from the series of images. They have 20 images here right now, and I have no idea if those are all the images or not.)

While this is all excellent news, I have a strange fear in the back of my mind that this may get “consolized” as well, just like (*shudder*) Invisible War. Also, the fact that Montreal is facing a development cycle, no matter how long, hints at the same. Deus Ex, the beautiful game, in its unadulterated form is one that can only be reasonably played on the PC in its entirety. I hope that Montreal tries to recreate that, rather than tossing this legendary franchise into the unwashed masses of multi-console video games.