<P>(After all, after two years a fraction of the ideas which ran wild through the heart of Half-life have still yet to be assimilated into its peers. Most FPSs are still pretending its maintained genius never happened, hoping everyone will forget how sublime the genre can be.)
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<P>Despite all the ultraviolence (or lack of it, depending on your inclination) at its centre, Deus Ex is a role-playing game, featuring a strong level of character development in various areas. Firstly, you have the skill system. There are eleven of them, varying from the expected weapons (Pistol, Rifle, Heavy Weapons, Melee and so on), survival (Swimming) and intrusion (Lockpicking, Computer Hacking), with you only having a bare minimum points to spend on advancing them. While each only has four levels, the price rises almost exponentially, with the highest master abilities being incredibly illusive- but oh-so-desirable.
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<P>This extreme price means that, unlike the superficially similar System Shock 2, by the end of the game your character won't be extremely competent in all of the abilities. You're forced into hard decisions in which you'll spend your hard-earned experience points into enhancing. To reach master in one - let alone multiple - categories will mean sorely neglecting others, leading to a truly unique character. And thus a truly unique experience.
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<P>However, dissimilarly to Shock2, being unskilled in an area doesn't usually bar you from having a layperson's crack - you'll just be less impressive. Untrained swimmers doggy-paddle slower than the Duncan Goodhew's in our midst, as well as having a lower lung-capacity. This differential is most clearly seen in the use of weapons, using a targeting reticule method similar to Rogue Spear. The longer you stay still, preparing your shot, the tighter the cross-hairs get, thus the more specific a shot results. Unskilled? They start with a massive expanse between, then narrow slowly. You're a master? Almost instant unnerving accuracy.
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<P>The implications of this is devastatingly important. While there are some narrowing of your options depending on choices - without any hacking training you'll be unable to break into security systems without their codes - generally you can still try. This contrasts neatly with Planescape Torment, a game which featured a similar amount of freedom of approach. In the more traditional RPG, the thrill was seeing your choices being limited by how you've wandered its moral maze. Deus Ex takes a radically existentialist approach, claiming that nothing is written in stone. You can always try something else, re-making your own game-image as many times you choose. In the intricate sprawl of the level, there's always some other approach to try. Never has being condemned to being free been so heavenly.