Some games are essential parts of the PC gaming canon. Doom, Half-Life, Baldur’s Gate, World of Warcraft, Disco Elysium, and many others all form a web of PC gaming that inform the direction the medium has taken over the decades. The Deus Ex series stands tall among that number, and now you can own all of them for less than $10. So if you haven’t played them, now’s the perfect time.
While Deus Ex didn’t completely invent the concept of an immersive sim – that honor probably lands with something like Ultima Underworld or System Shock – the genre wouldn’t exist in the form it is today without these brilliant FPS / RPG hybrids. The first especially could make claim to being one of the best PC games of all time, and it still is nearly 25 years after release.
What makes Deus Ex so special is its heady mix of cyberpunk conspiratorial thriller and a gameplay approach that lets you decide how you’ll approach any given obstacle. Even from the first mission on Liberty Island you can choose how you’ll get past the numerous guards and deal with the different objectives. You can crawl through air vents, hack turrets and robots, stun enemies to take them down nonlethally, talk your way past certain parts, or just go in guns blazing armed with a rocket launcher. It really is up to you, and that’s an attitude that sticks through all of the following titles.
Follow-up Invisible War didn’t land quite as favorably as the first game but it’s still a solid immersive sim in many ways, albeit one that is considerably less ambitious. 2011’s Deus Ex Human Revolution is a return to form, however, especially after many patches helped sand off the rough edges, in particular putting the decision making back into the game – most notably around its once-controversial boss fights. Also it has a soundtrack that, if you let it, will seep into every part of your life.
Human Revolution spawned a sequel, Deus Ex Mankind Divided, which again isn’t as highly regarded as its predecessor yet still holds plenty to enjoy. That’s especially true if you’re interested in a game that lets you go wild fully exploring every part of an area, with everything rendered in incredible detail. While it can feel oddly truncated, it’s still an immersive sim that gives you the series’ trademark freedom and lets you enjoy a conspiracy-laden narrative filled with twists and turns.
Also included in this collection is Deus Ex The Fall which is the most poorly-received title in the series, being a port of a mobile-only title first released in 2013. The less we speak of this installment the better, but to be honest at this price for the full set who cares if there’s a stinker included too.
You can get the entire Deus Ex Collection on Steam for $9.55 / £8.00, down from its normal price of $88.94 / £74.44, until Wednesday November 6. So act fast if you want to grab this deal, and head over to the collection page now.
If you’d like to check something else out, our guides to the best story games and the best classic games you can play on PC will help you find exactly what you’re looking for.
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