Deus Ex Humor

by Darius Kazemi on July 4, 2008

in best game ever,Deus Ex,humor,narrative

Speaking as a Deus Ex fanboy, this is about 7,000x funnier than it has any right to be. (But you probably won’t find it funny at all if you haven’t played the original game.)

It’s also reminded me of something about the real opening cinematic to Deus Ex. The first time I played it was just a bunch of weird references. What’s UNATCO? NSF? Why are we talking about FEMA? What are those weird lizard things? Why is someone in a vat? Who is this Senator? There’s so much information in it out of context that by the time you’re dumped into the game you can barely remember any of what was said. And it works perfectly that way to set the conspiratorial oh-my-god-I’m-deep-into-something-much-bigger-than-me tone.

But the second time you watch it, it seems like the most spoiler-laden thing ever. “Wait, why did I trust the senator at all? He’s named as a co-conspirator in the opening cinematic!”

(via Rock Paper Shotgun)

{ 1 comment }

Darren Torpey July 25, 2008 at 5:14 am

I’m always amazed at how many Hollywood movie trailers pull the same trick.

Many are purposefully obtuse with what they give away, but others are very obvious.

Nonetheless, the directors, writers, and editors are artists who can pull you in and make you want to follow along naively if they do their job right and you are willing to go along for the ride.

For some reason, Deus Ex got me to give in an let it pull me into its world, despite the fact that I had very little background in conspiracy theories, disliked the Matrix-like look of the game, thought the (combat) gameplay was rough and animation rougher, and found the dialog to be somewhat painful to follow.

Despite all that, Deus Ex still worked for me. I think that’s a big part of why I consider it such a great game. (In fact, similar things can be said of my favorite game, Final Fantasy VI).

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