This or Deus ex (first one)

[Loopmaker]

i got system shock 2 already and cant deside if i should get deus ex or compleate the system shock series.

any thoughts?

[KnightWing]

My thought is...that's a friggin' painful choice! Some time passes between System Shock 1 & 2, so you could plaly Deus Ex in between to "simulate" that. =oP Or not. Honestly, they're both "must plays" IMO. I'd do them in whatever order excites you more.

[BanOphobia My Struggle]

^^ +1

Too close too call imo.

[Loopmaker]

Originally posted by Met306:

deus ex is def better, longer, and much easier to get into than SS1 honestly
just wait for a sale and get both tho, both are classics

Whats the diffrence gameplay wise? (pacing, gunplay, etc.)

[ULTRA]

System Shock is more of a dungeon crawler-style game, from the era of Ultima Underworld, Pathways Into Darkness, etc. It takes place in a closed-in area with a simple premise. It's sort of like a John Carpenter film (Assault on Precint 13, The Thing, Escape from New York) in that it focuses on different little aspects of the same claustrophobic place. For a more direct comparison:

Pacing: There is a lot of backtracking and searching in System Shock, but also a lot of secrets. In Deus Ex, it's more about adventure and moving the plot along - usually there is a "field" segment and then a collection/dialogue segment and this theme mostly repeats until the end which is one big long mission. System Shock is not a stealth game at all, while stealth is a central mechanic of Deus Ex. In a way, it's you who are the prey in System Shock, whereas the enemies are the prey in Deus Ex.

Gunplay: Revolves around finding weapons and using the right ammo types in System Shock, and the shooting is sort of similar to Goldeneye or Perfect Dark if you've ever played those. In Deus Ex, weapon accuracy is based on (character sheet) skills to where you can only risk open combat if you are an expert with a modified weapon or a master in a given weapon type, other than that you usually need to stealth everything. System Shock is more of a shooter than Deus Ex in that it's more necessary to engage enemies in System Shock and you're given the ability to do so straight up.

Etc.: System Shock is more about a premise, and that premise is the cyberpunk genre crossed with an I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream scenario, whereas Deus Ex has a detailed story with several twists and a lot of commentary about government, corporations, and power.

Personally the way I look at it is that Deus Ex is more interesting for its innovation in story and thematic detail and System Shock is more interesting for its innovation in gameplay mechanics that are still only rarely seen in games today.

[Daikatan]

Maybe both? For some reason i treat SShock 1 as "deus ex of its time".

[Appetite4Deduction]

Two words: False dichotomy.

[Scorrp10]

Deus Ex is roughly on level with SS2 in terms of graphics and controls. SS1 is an eralier generation game, could be hard for a modern gamer to get into. Might be worth waiting for the remake to come out (try the demo)
DE mostly has wide open environments, lots of people to interact with, even if the interaction is essentially a one liner. You get Hong Kong market district, a nightclub in Paris, and other places like that.
SS you are alone on a station far out in space, and anything that moves is out to get you.

[Binary_Blues]

The original Deus Ex is still one of my favorite games of all times. Vanilla, with no mods.

[Dark Redshift]

Deus Ex is better in quite a few ways except for the augmentations, which suck. The one you'll be using 97% of the time is a damn torch and it isn't a very good one either. The Night Vision mode looks awful on both the aug and separate goggles, the best augs like cloaking or bullet-resistance either take up too much power or are not powerful enough with the possible exception of the healing aug, and upgrade modules are very rare.

You also are forced to choose between 2 or 3 augs for a given slot, and you can't swap out a crap aug for a better one so if you make a bad choice, then unless you reload a game before installing it then you are stuck with that aug for the rest of the game.

System Shock 1's augs are actually useful, though they are treated more like Metroid powerups with hardware upgrades. The rear view mirror augmentation is more of a novelty, but that's because it's designed for classic edition and I'm used to the mouselook mod in the Enhanced Edition.

I played Deus Ex 1 before System Shock 1 but you can choose what one you want. Try Deus Ex Revision after finishing Deus Ex 1 though.

It's a free "Black Mesa" sort of mod for the original that improves on the enviroments and elements via new, but similar at times level design, a remade soundtrack and mutator modes such as the Biomod mode that makes the Deus Ex 1 Augmentation system suck less. It even adds some new ones like the Skull Gun that Gunther Hermann keeps going on about.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/397550/Deus_Ex_Revision/?snr=1_7_15__13

[Daikatan]

i also always name Vampire Masquerade Bloodlines as real Deus Ex's succesor in many ways.