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Deus Ex - The Conspiracy

Here's some thoughts and information on Deus Ex: The Conspiracy, i.e. the PlayStation 2 version of Deus Ex. First of all: it supports USB keyboards and mice. One of the few PS2 games to do so, this means it's actually very playable if you're used to the PC version.
Apart from first-person aiming with a controller being of questionable merit to begin with, DX has so many functions, and odd mappings, that playing it with a controller is rather awkward. However, playing it with keyboard and mouse solves all this and affords extra functionality, such as the ability to toggle individual augs. See below for a list of keyboard/mouse controls. Another technical note: it's one of the few games that aren't HDLoader compatible. Believe me, I've tried. Update: the game does work with OPL, a more modern alternative to HDLoader. The game also supports its marvellous virtual memory card support (save/load on HD).

liberty island

Impressions

All in all it's a reasonably decent port job. Both the gameplay and (large) level design aren't really suited to the console, but they made the best of what they had to work with. There's a number of user interface and gameplay simplifications: the inventory is slot instead of grid based; JC has just one global health value instead of health for each body part; augs can be installed without a medbot; computers and keypads can only be used with logins that JC has in his datavault, no manual entry or guessing. These (and some other) modifications mean the game's a little more simplistic, but I don't feel it's that big of an issue. Note that it's still possible to save anywhere, just like on PC. Rare, for a console game.

inventory
Note the slot-based inventory menu: everything is categorized (lockpicks/multitools, low-tech weapons, etc), except firearms of which you're limited to four. Apart from that, the only limit is the amount of one item you can carry, such as 20 multitools. The yellow ticks indicate the item's part of the next/previous item rotation accessible from the D-pad.

As the PS2's specs are meager compared even to those of period PCs, there's quite some technical changes. Textures are blurrier than on PC, the character models are different (not strictly worse though). However, the most significant change is how the maps have been split up into small chunks, akin to what was the case for Invisible War. The load times between these chunks are rather long, although I guess the load times on PCs of the time might have been pretty significant too.

For example, Liberty Island is split up into a number of parts such as the dock and Unatco, a few parts outside the statue, the inside of the statue, etc. This means that there's a few changes to accommodate this , such as UNATCO hq being shifted towards the dock and the addition of an entrance booth (see the screenshots below). Furthermore, there are no windows and the upper statue levels, and they're surrounded by high walls; there's no outside to see anymore as this is another map. Some levels survived the transition better: Vandenberg, for example, has simply been split into an inside and outside area.

unatco hq
The starting dock leads into an entryway; after that, this road leading to either UNATCO or the island proper (separate map).

Some levels are rather different from the PC versions in ways other than the extra load zones, which is the main attraction of playing this. In fact, sometimes individual areas have been enlarged to compensate for the fact that they've been separated. For example, the upper level of the Mole People subway station is separate but much larger on PS2. In other instances, levels have been tweaked either to improve gameplay or to allow the player to circumvent loads. An example of the former is a ventilation shaft that ends in the roof of the room in front of Gunther's cell on Libery Island; as for the second case, an example is the 747 hangar on LaGuardia having a one-way door connecting it to the helipad, so that on his way back the player can skip a few outside loads. Finally, some levels are just completely different. Hell's Kitchen, for instance, has a different layout with the Free Clinic near the subway, a large street connecting the 'Ton to Osgood's, and a completely different park. See the screenshots. Other areas with major changes are the Hong-Kong hub area, the NYC MJ12 base and the Paris streets.

Despite all the changes, the frame rate sometimes bogs down to neigh unplayable levels, especially when there's heavy combat going on. There are PS2 games that look and run much better than DX; some offer larger areas too. The technical weaknesses of DX are probably due to its ported Unreal engine and its level design. In comparison, PS2 games with relatively impressive graphics are designed to have little on screen, have levels that aren't as open, etc. Had DX been a PS2 game from the start, it would probably have performed better.

Besides the level design changes, there are a few other gameplay tweaks too. For example, the Dragon's Tooth sword only does 10 damage compared to the PC's 100. Other melee weapons are weaker to compensate. However, the Tooth does seem more powerful than the PC's normal sword, which does 10 too. Regeneration and Ballistic Protection now share an augmentation canister; although it's still possible to take both augs this requires waiting until you come across a second instance. On the other hand, the healing augmentation uses much, much less energy than on PC. Some niggles have been fixed, such as the pistol skill level bug and if you don't have room for a body's items when trying to pick it up, the items just get dropped to the floor (on PC you had to make room to be able to pick them up, before being able to move the body).

All in all the PC version is superior for obvious reasons, but if you're a DX fan the PS2 version's worth playing: it's nice a remix and interesting to play and compare. At any rate, it beats playing Invisible War no matter the platform.

dx boxes

Differences with the PC version

Here's a list of the differences I noticed while playing through the game on PS2:

Misc

Inventory/user interface

Rebalancing

Levels

Screenshots

Here's a few screenshots I took by transferring my PS2 savegames to the PCSX2 emulator. I wish I had thought of doing this while playing the game, instead of months later, so I could have taken some more shots of interesting parts.

screenshot
The Goldeneye-style aiming
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Inventory
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The augmentation menu
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The skill menu
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Datavault
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Paul's more explicit code
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Using a found login
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Hacking (1)
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Hacking (2)
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News terminal model
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Reading some news
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Security computer model
screenshot
Using security computer
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Weaker 'tooth
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Using the quick-aug key
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Liberty Island docks booth
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Crossroads at UNATCO
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Free Clinic near subway
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Basketball court
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Park near basketball court
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NSF HQ entrance opposite bar
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Sandra in square behind 'Ton
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'Ton and Smuggler's
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Road to Osgood's
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Shanties near Osgood's
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Castle Clinton
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Gas station mostly unchanged
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No helicopter here
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JC
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Paul
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Two-eyed Anna
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Inverted trooper eyes

Keyboard controls

Additionally, as some menus don't have selectable options but instead require specific buttons to be pressed (such as 'Triangle = hack'), these keys have the functions of buttons in menus:

Created: Jun 23 2010
Modified: Feb 14 2011