Interactive Narrative Wk5: Deus Ex

2. Are the “choice situations” in the game obvious or subtle? Do you know the outcomes of your choice prior to making a decision?

Deus Ex is a game where you play as JC Denton to execute missions as a UN Anti-Terrorist operative. Deus Ex was a very risky yet innovative game for its time because it attempted to combine four different video game genres: the apparent first-person shooter and adventure, as well as role-playing and simulation. What established this game as a classic and the best game for its year was the fact that it managed to combine these genres effectively, allowing for great use of player choice within the game. However, the question to ask now is: Were the prompts for choice situations appropriate and were they effective for the player?

Deux Ex's gameplay is like a double-edged sword. Having been dropped into its world, the game clearly established that it would not be holding my hand like in more recent games. Game progression entirely relied upon my choices in how I approached a situation: where I went, how I tackled an obstacle and also my dialogue choices. The positive side of this choice of system is that the player explores the options set within the world on their own, rather than having it laid out for them to progress the narrative in only a linear fashion. This would become the charm of the game in which players are rewarded with surpassing difficulties of their own accord. However, not having a polished establishment on how to progress the game may have its steep downfalls. "In the case of no information, the choice will be completely arbitrary and cannot therefore be made rationally. Also, there cannot be any desire attached to the choice, as there can be no reasonable expectation connected to it, other than those constructed by the agent without any rational basis. Such a choice would hardly be experienced by the agent as a choice at all." With no information being given beforehand, choices will only seem experimental and at times random. This makes the choice situations very subtle in terms of both direct gameplay and dialogue options in which you have no idea what to expect of this world and its NPCs.

With a game such as Deus Ex, its beauty is experienced through discovery with exploration and experiencing everything that the world has to offer on your own, rather than being pulled along by gameplay they guide you through.

References:
- Ion Storm (Developer). (2000). Deus Ex [Video Game]. United States of America: Eidos Interactive
- S. Domsch (Author). (2013). Storyplaying: Agency and Narrative in Video Games [Article]. De Gruyter