Others say...

"Outstanding"
Deus Ex gives the player a LOT of control--there are tons of different weapons, weapon modifications, supplies, cybernetic augmentations that are upgrad-able, skills that are also upgrade-able, different items and routes to take advantage of. Roughly, your tactics fall into two categories--stealth and confrontation, but by combining various assets, there can be many approaches.

For instance, you may bypass a chokepoint by swimming underwater, using cloak to sneak past it, masking your approach by stacking large crates at key locations, unlocking ventilation ducts, disabling the security cameras and laser grids, walking on ledges and jumping off buildings, sniping from a distance, taking out the guards using silent darts, temporarily blinding them with gas grenades, or, if you've practically become a walking tank, by shooting explosives at them as your nano-augmentations absorb the damages. Your enemies may use different weapons, such as the sniper rifle, the flamethrower, and the plasma rifle. Your enemies may be immune to gas, flame, or bullets, may be augmented agents like yourself, or even transgenic creatures or space aliens. When you open fire, you may draw their attention even if you're cloaked. When you fire your stealth pistol, they would still hear the shots if they are close enough. You will have to consider the trade-offs as you budget your skill points, augmentation slots (minimizing toxic effects vs. carrying oxygen underwater, jumping higher and farther vs. running more quietly, being able to see a target's health points & LOS vs. being able to see through nearby walls, enhancing all augmentations vs. reducing their total battery consumptuion), and inventory space (a big rocket launcher vs. a smaller rifle with space for items such as biohazard suits and augmentation canisters).

The setting of the game is the 2050s, where the powerful Bob Page almost succeeds in merging with the machines and the computers, while at the same time tightening his control over the greater population and thwarting attempts from informed individuals, such as the player's character JC Denton, to intervene. The transition from mission to mission is smooth and natural as you become immersed in the story. Although the main objectives are fixed, your choice of optional secondary objectives often tweaks your situation in later missions. Exploration is awarded with rare items and/or skill points. There are three ways to end the game, each one reflecting a different faction and ideology, which may not be 100% appealing, but is nonetheless agreeable to some extent.

One drawback is the graphics, which at some point comes across as almost sloppy, but then again, the game is not nearly as taxing on memory, the CPU, and the graphics card as its peers were.

"Easily One of the Best Games Ever Made"
First of all, why four stars?
Without giving a spoiler, there is a point in this game where you are given the illusion of a choice. You can go through all the motions of making the choice the game is designed for you to make and then decide not to. You can go back to the place where your choice path for this level was started in conversation and there is a conversation option that makes it seem like you actually have two options.
You do not have two options. You must make the choice the game is designed for you to make or your game will not continue.

In a game designed for you to make decisions that affect your future, I found this slightly, VERY SLIGHTLY disappointing. This and this alone is why this game in my opinion did not receive a perfect five star review.

The story in this game is vibrant, very engrossing and enjoyable to everyone whom I have ever introduced to it, bar none. Even people who did not enjoy first person shooters or people who disliked role-playing games enjoyed this game which incorporates aspects of both.

While still being a first-person shooter, you have complete control over the level of violence you use. You can use gas grenades, a baton, a stun prod and sedatives to take down your enemies and threats non-lethally if you so choose with very few exceptions (three that I counted). It is possible to play through this entire game with nearly no body count, and it is more challenging and fun often to attempt this.

You have control over the development of your main characters development (what abilities he gets, how powerful those abilities become) and his morality as well. Even now, as the game has become slightly dated, it is still one of the best games I've had the pleasure of playing.

This is one of the few game purchases that I've made with no regrets. I cannot recommend it enough to any type of player.

"FOUR AND HALF STARS!!!!"
Dear gamers, estimated colleagues, just when I thought I wouldn't see anything better than Fallout, Diablo, and some strategies for PC , friend made me get Deus Ex. As I see, amazon offers used discs for cheaper price EVEN THEN SOLD OUT BRITISH EDITION, so GET IT!

Why would you get it? It is game from 2000. or so, graphics are much better today, you can play good online games like Guild Wars or World of Warcraft with buddies and then some...but!

Deus Ex is a game WITH A STORY: story is like fast paced Ludlum and Bourne's identity type of novel, which doesn't mean it's a copy.

Deus Ex is a game UNLINEAR: you can be a butcher who does what he is told, OR try to follow higher moral system of value and never take anything for granted or black and white. Choices decide how others interact.

Deus Ex is a game that can be HUMANE: why kill someone when you can just make them unconcious if you creep behind guy's back and whack him with a crowbar or baton?

Deus Ex is a game that has RPG elements: more you do, more points you get, and then you distribute them between different skills: you can make yourself computer and electronic hacker OR you can make flamethrowers, pistols and rifles your forte, if you are Rambo fan.

What? I didn't hype it enough? GO GET IT FOR 4 BUCKS YOU CAN't GO WRONG!!! I would even pay up to 40 bucks to get it although it is old and graphics is bad for today's PC best machines.

PS
Don't give up after level one, you NEED to spend time to learn how to play but later it becomes GREAT!!!
PPS
If I had to pick greatest game for PC since nineties, I guess I would have to pick some of Real Time or Turn strategies, Pirates! from 2002 by Sid Meyer, Diablo II, Fallout part one and maybe two and Deus Ex!

Best pure shooters would be Alice by American McGee and Clive Barker's Undying.

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SOME MINOR SPOILERS AND MUST READ ADVICES (AFTER COMPLETING GAME):
You have to chose between assault rifle and assault shotgun. I think shotgun is better so don't spend upgrades on rifle. Later, unfortunately, it's easier to get rifle ammo.

What you really need in the game are fast legs to run away so upgrade JCs body with leg implants.

Don't forget to install and upgrade recovery ability, it's useful to turn it on with F9 when you fight mechs or men in black.

Use rocket launcher , it opens all doors except infinite. SAVE rockets, lockpicks, bio cells and multitools and try to find nano key cartridges or codes for doors and stuff. I spent lotsa exp on hacking, in the beginning, then lockpicking and electronics.

YOU MUST have at least one level of heavy weapon and one level of rifle...

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"Nothing too impressive about this game"
With all the great reviews this game had, I was looking forward to playing this. Maybe it's just me, but I had trouble finding anything that this game had that made it any different from any other first person shooters. It adds extra abilities or augmentations that you can use like enhancing your jump, improved aim, resilience, etc... All which of course take up your battery power to have these abilities. Now one complaint that I had about this though, is that one of the abilities you get is a flash light. It becomes handy at different points of the game, but why the He** does it take up just as much power as your other augments? For some reason, you only get about 2 minutes of light off the same battery that also gives you the strength to lift a crate that's 10X your weight.

This game offers nothing new to me that I haven't seen and I'm a little bit confused about what all the hype is, but if you like First person games then maybe you'll like this one. It's really cheap now do to it being an old game, so I say give it a try and see what you think.

"Immersive and gripping."
I gave up playing games about a decade ago, but I had a few days off recently, and I picked this game up because I heard it was the best game ever made... and it is! I honestly don't think I've ever enjoyed a computer game so much as I did this one. It plays like an action game, but your character develops like in a role-playing game, and the story's so compelling (excellent writing, on par with any TV show and with many films) that I found myself playing on and on because I wanted to see what would happen next. Truly a unique experience, and easily the best computer or video game I've ever seen.