I am ready to be done with this game. Hong Kong was a nightmare. It's a funny thing about science fiction - it's easy to extrapolate from existing trends, but almost impossible to predict something genuinely new. Thus JC Denton can have all sorts of borderline-magical nanotech augmentations, and yet I would gladly trade half of them for a modern smartphone. It seems obvious in retrospect - carry around a little portable computer around with you that communicates with gps satellites and pinpoints your current location on a map. The reason you'd need such a thing is that if you were dropped in an unfamiliar urban environment, and you didn't have a guide, you'd quickly become hopelessly lost. It's possible that Deus Ex deliberately left out map functionality in order to create a particular gameplay challenge, but it's still disappointing when video games are less convenient than real life.
It made me a little cranky, and as a result I'm inclined to judge the game more harshly than it deserves. It's sort of the opposite of Fallout 2. That was a game that had some serious flaws, but because I played it at a critical juncture in my gaming life, and because, at the time, I'd never experienced anything more advanced, I was able to play it with one eye in the past without holding it to a standard it could never possibly meet. By contrast, Deus Ex is a game with many great qualities, but I'm having a hard getting by it because I've played it long after its historical moment.
It's a problem with video games as an artistic medium. They aren't just art, they are also technology. Over time they become increasingly sophisticated. New games learn techniques from older ones and build upon what came before. As a result, appreciating an older game requires appreciating its historical context. However, that appreciation can feel abstract and removed. You may enjoy a Model-T for its craftsmanship and the ingenuity of its construction, but you wouldn't necessarily want to drive it down the road.
Or maybe I wouldn't have enjoyed Deus Ex even when it was new. I've never had a great deal of patience for stealth, and you spend a lot of time wandering around, and the shooting and resource management are unforgiving. It's definitely a "hardcore" game, and thus speaks to a certain sensibility that not everyone possesses. It's really impossible to say.
Plotwise, things have gone sideways fast. There is a difference between working with a rebel group to take down an evil conspiracy and assisting criminal gangs by stealing high-tech weapons for them, and then brokering a deal by which the largest gangs can consolidate into a super-gang. When I returned to New York City, UNATCO may have demonized me by framing me for the very terrorism I once thwarted, but when they said I had links to the Hong Kong Triads, they severely understated the case.
Now I'm working with the Illuminati (who are, apparently . . . good) to destroy a boatload of the virus (I'm assuming this is not as reckless a plan as it appears for handwavy sci-fi reasons), and I've basically just given up all pretense of being a law-and-order sort. The boat is guarded by a bunch of Chinese and American soldiers that don't have any obvious connection to Majestic-12, so now I'm just shooting people for doing their jobs. On the other hand, it is easier doing it that way . . .
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