It’s kind of sad that one of the greatest video game series is on hold for now.
Conspiracy theories, multiple ways of solving a mission, game lore hidden in computer inboxes…
Are there any (pre-2010) games that gave you the same feeling or do a similar thing?
There are some story-rich RPG shooters that are almost pre-2010 I could recommend, like maybe Dishonored or Fallout 3/New Vegas. But pre-2010 is tough, only ones I can think of are the System Shock or maybe Thief games.
System Shock doesn’t really share anything with Deus Ex except that it’s also cyberpunk.
The original 2 System Shock games are Immersive Sims. They have systemic game design as the core focus of how the player interacts with the challenges presented.
Thief is the only one that comes to mind from that era that holds a candle to Deus Ex’s open-ended level design. Lots of different approaches to take on many of the stages. Well, as long as you didn’t play on high difficulties, anyway.
There still aren’t many games that go quite that hard on it. Open world games have a tendency to keep their set pieces much more simple. Maybe we’ll see more of it now that Baldur’s Gate 3 has made a big splash with the concept.
You should check out System Shock 2, Prey, Dishonored, Ctrl Alt Ego, EYE: Divine Cybermancy, and other Immersive Sims, or “Box Stackers.”
I bounced off both Prey and Dishonored early on specifically because of how linear they were. I’m guessing they open up later?
Dishonored is about as linear as Thief, open-ended level design, generally. Prey is closer to System Shock 2 in that it isn’t quite level based but not quite open world.
If you mean linear in terms of level design, they are both pretty open overall, similar to Deus Ex. If you’re referring to the actual Systemic game design providing new unique emergent solutions, then they actually beat Deus Ex in many ways.
Ctrl Alt Ego is new, but is a fantastic immersive sim. If you want pre-2010 though, you’re limited to System Shock 1 and 2, Thief Gold/2: The Metal Age, Hitman: Blood Money, and the original Deus Ex.
Immersive Sims are coming back, but pre-2010 cuts you to essentially the formative classics of the Immersive Sim genre.
If you want to branch out of the strict boundaries of Immersive Sims, Fallout: New Vegas and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines are both incredible.
