Deus Ex is a game that should rightly be remembered as a true masterpiece of gaming - overshadowing every game of its time and remaining one of the best and most playable games even now, five years after its release, and after such Behemoths as Half Life 2, Far Cry, Morrowind etc. It managed to create the perfect fusion of FPS, RPG and story there has ever been.

For those who don't know, you play as JC Denton (though that is just your code name, a clever part of the game that allows all people to talk to you whilst you still play yourself), a nano-augmented agent for UNATCO - a security force for the United Nations. Your augmentations mean you are a lot more than human, and provide one of the aspects of character development seen in the game. Throughout the game you may find augmentation canisters - some are obvious and others need some searching to find, or work to get hold of - which fit into slots in your body. When activated they drain your bio-electricity, but allow you such feats as seeing through walls, becoming invisible and detonating enemy rockets. Each one has four upgrade levels, reducing bio-electric drain or adding new features. They are amazingly cool when upgraded to higher levels, so searching for them is always important.

To do said searching you must move around the game world - standard FPS fare but with a lot more to interact with. There are many items around just to be chucked at walls, shot through hoops (a basketball court in the city of New York) and hurled at terrorists (in the case of TNT crates). Doors can be locked, and you will have to find special keys called 'nano-keys' in order to open them - throughout the game these are stored in your nano-keyring. If a door cannot be nano'ed, you can lock pick it, or maybe there is a security panel you need to get a code for - unless you use your electronic tools to bypass it. Maybe there is even a computer around that will open it, or tell you the code in an email. Lock picking, electronics and computing are all skills in the game - these skills are the crux of most RPG games, and they are important in DX to - but the advantages of the skills are always more apparent than in generic D&D 327. Upgrade hacking skills, you get more control over computers, upgrade heavy skill, you can run around at full speed carrying enormous rocket launchers. Skill points are gained for exploration, completing mission critical objectives, meeting characters and sub-quests. For some of these, you will also be paid by UNATCO, and there are always credits lying around in empty houses, behind the counter in bars and in government safes - and if you find them you might be able to find a dodgy dealer to get you that scope you wanted, or buy some wine for a girl in a club. Credits by no means have the importance which money does in other RPGs, but it is yet another way to get stuff in DX.

Missions are the best part of Deus Ex, emphasising full freedom, whether you are on a set course mission objective - raid this building - or are exploring a section of a town in search of your objective, or in search even of what to do - one level in particular can be quite confusing if you don't get stuff, or you wander off the beaten track to much, though the rewards are worth the fumbling. Enemy AI is not the best in an FPS game, but the way the AI enemies have patrol routes, instead of relying in scripting to know where you are, means missions are tactical, and can be played super stealth, tranquillizing and stunning enemies, instead of mowing them down with machine gun fire - though both alternatives are fun.

Finally the story must be discussed, since without it there would be little reason to progress - well apart from the promise of ever better weapons, augs and skills, and many wonderful locations to go and... well ill get back to story. The story progresses excellently in dialogue, datapads and email - so you can get as little or as much as you want. There are always twists in the story and the end result will NOT be what you are expecting.

So now I feel like I'm wasting my time. Surely with a game this great, everyone has played it in the last five years? Well I've given twenty minutes of my time to make sure that if you haven't played it, you now know what you missed. But its not too late - the game is still available on budget, so go, become kings - or better than kings. Gods!