Deus Ex: Conspiracy (PS2) vs. Deus Ex: GotY (PC)

100 screenshots compared side by side!
[Warning: Image heavy]

Introduction

The purpose of this arcticle is not to show which version is superior, but rather to show level design differences between PS2 and PC versions of Deus Ex. Credits for PS2 screenshots goes to fantsu from Offtopic Productions forums, please visit original thread for author commentaries http://www.offtopicproductions.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=10193.

What is Deus Ex: The Conspiracy?

"A PlayStation 2 port of the game, renamed Deus Ex: The Conspiracy (although kept as Deus Ex in Europe) was released on March 25, 2002. Along with pre-rendered introductory and ending cinematics that replaced the original versions, it features a simplified interface with optional auto aim and motion captured character models. There are many minor changes in level design, some for the purpose of balancing gameplay, but most to accommodate loading transition areas, due to the memory limitations of the PlayStation 2."
— Wikipedia.

Technical data

PS2 screenshots:

• 640*480 PAL version (i cropped black bars from 640*512 source images)
  
• Obviously running on PCSX2, not sure which version (something from 2010)
  
• Quite noticable jpeg artifacts.
  
• I know nothing else about these screenshots.

PC screenshots:

• Set to render at 640*480.
  
• NO graphical mods, only enhanced dx10 renderer (AA enabled)
  
• Brightness is set to 0.6 (from default 0.5)
  
• All GUI elements aside from crosshair are hidden.
  
• Default FOV.
  
• I tried to re-create screenshots as close to the original as possible. 100% unique PS2 level bits were skipped.

PS2 screenshots are on your LEFT, PC screenshots are on your RIGHT.

New York, first visit

Near UNATCO HQ compound.

Statue of Liberty 1rst floor, near Ghunter's holding cell.

Secret vending machine entrance to Castle Clinton.

Castle Clinton main entrance.

Castle Clinton basement area.

New-York city, Osgod & sons building.

Ton Hotel fire staircase view on the alley.

Hell's Kitchen Park.

Osgod & son's Roof

Roofs.

Outside of generator building.

Roof of the generator building.

One of the floors.

Brooklyn metro station.

Route to second floor.

Rooks territory.

Intersection.

Signs.

Vendomat corner.

Ticket booths.

Crashed train.

Airfield

Undeground bridge.

Entrance to ambrosia room.

Ambrosia barrel near helipad entrance.

Helipad on Lebedev's airfield.

747 hangar.

Second exit.

Hong-Kong

Hong-kong landing bay.

More landing bay.

Hong-kong Wan-chai street.

Lucky Money entrance.

Robot near Luminous Path base.

Other view.

View on the Temple.

Boat. The bridge is on the other side of the canal on PC version.

Other view.

View from Maggie's apartment window.

Maggie's bathroom.

Dining room.

Secret Buddha entrance.

Lucky money second floor.

Versalife level one.

Level two.

Glass walkway.

Universal Constructor

Paris

Cafeteria in Paris.

Main street.

Security booth.

Chateau main entrance.

Chateau toilet.

Mainframe.

Graveyard.

Paris cathedral main entrance.

Chapel.

Computer room.

Cozy Paris metro lobby.

Metro patrool bot.

Metro fight.

Ocean Lab

Gas station attic.

Sub base drop off.

Main entry.

Wall.

Side windows.

Underwater part.

Underwater entry gate.

Window.

Submarines.

Ocean lab view from outside.

Shaft.

Flooded sector.

New York, second visit

Vault with goodies in NSF base basement.

Unatco HQ, maintenance area.

Medical sector.

Greasel pit.

Nanotech.

Miguel.

Destroyed Osgood & sons building.

Smuggler secret celeing walkway.

Stanton Dowd.

Dockyard

Shipyard drop off.

Crane.

Top of the crane.

Ship.

Ship control room.

Ship hangar.

Silo

Missle silo area view #1.

Missle silo area view #2.

Rocket inside the silo.

Silo takeoff.

Area-51

Area-51 dropoff.

View on the vault.

View on destroyed hangar from control tower.

Main elevator.

Elevator shaft.

Secondary entry from the hangar.

Reactor core.

Helios chamber.

Helios merging device.

Credits roll.


Thanks for watching!

[JacquesPatat]

interesting. Some of ps2 screenshots looks better then pc but most of PC looks better, for me at least. But the ps2 looks like a early version of Invisible war and a combination of judge dredd didn't play the ps2 version, so i'll stick to the pc version

[OneEye]

I was the Director of the PS2 version.

The PC levels were massive in size (for the time), many pushing over 100mb in size. The PS2 only had 32mb of memory - so that was the start of the process. How do we reasonably divide the levels without sacrificing the gameplay? We tried our best to ensure that the pacing was similar - but there were places where we just couldn't do it because of the PS2 constraints. We did push the texture quality in some places (while reducing it in others for performance). The character textures were generally always of a higher quality than the PC.

Many levels were tweaked based on feedback from the PC version. Things were added. There are new easter eggs. Several of the original DX level designers made these changes directly. The other LDs were pulled from our team on Invisible War.

We changed the UI to be more console friendly (but to be honest, it was most of our team's first try in the console space) so I have regrets :).

[eLeCtrOssSnake]

People who are yapping about the PS2 version looking better are tasteless.
PC version looks like a distant, dark dystopian future accompanied by the color palette and lighting. That's not even considering the fact that the PC version has better texture resolution, can run the game at higher resolution and FPS. The models of the PS2 version are also goofy, they look as if somebody made the animations in Blender in five minutes. While the PC version doesn't boast some insane quality animations, they look well-made and fitting in with the theme, just subtle movements in dialogues somehow make the whole thing look believable throughout the entire game.

[eLeCtrOssSnake]

I can’t be completely negative about the PS2 version, after all, it was inferior hardware to the PC, even back then. I do not know the implications under which the Deus Ex Console Team had to change the game's content, but I am certain that the levels, lighting and textures had to be reduced in quality because of the hardware capabilities of the PS2. Perhaps, they thought the exclusive levels would bring more story with how choppy were the edited maps of the PC version?
We might never get to know.

[zaidert]

its not even consistent, the underground is sometimes still warm as well

[zaidert]

there's definitely a few spots with the level geometry in the ps2 i like but i feel like they messed w/ the colour scheme a bit too much, some spots are far too bright, for some reason the colour palette was flipped for some reason. normal DX has cold overground and a warmer underground, which makes sense, but why is it flipped in the ps2 port?

[rjgj6]

I played the PS version first, honestly, I prefer it.

[Panceggs]

the npc models looks like dogshit

[Danny Dark Soul]

Thanks for this comparison.
This port was a hint at what was to come with Invisible War.

[Storm Lord]

Played both, I actually prefer the PS2 version