Deus Ex - An Entire Series Retrospective and Analysis 

I would have much preferred a sequel to Mankind Divided or a remaster of Human Revolution than that mistake of an Avengers game.

As a Czech person I found the npcs of Mankind Divided very funny. Some of them talk perfect Czech while others talk in English with a THICC Russian accent.

Fun fact, the voice actor for Adam Jensen, Elias Toufexis, used his normal speaking voice for the character of Jensen for the deus ex games. So its not actually him putting on a batman voice, thats just how he speaks.

One thing I'm surprised you didn't mention is how Mankind Divided somewhat fixes one of your complaints of Human Revolution's story - why everyone got augmented. A big part of MD is how lots of poor workers got augmented in order to get/keep jobs, where augmented workers were needed for complicated tasks. That angle of augments being imposed on the poor in order to compete is actually quite interesting, IMO - basically that bodily autonomy is a privilege for the rich in a world of augments.

The defining factor of an immersive sim is having a keypad with 0451 in it, right?

Somebody say Deus Ex?

Your idea of having contextual quest markers based on what your character actually knows is a great one and something I'd love to see in games.

2-hour Deus Ex retrospective? Absolute Madlad! You can have MY soyfood!

I can't believe you manage to upload these kinds of videos once a month. Its very admirable

Deus Ex died for Marvel Avengers. Press F.

Mankind Divided didn't grab me at release (I stopped about 2/3 of the way through), but I convinced myself to restart it this summer and ended up playing through it twice. It's.... so much better than I remembered or expected, and honestly, I think it may be the best immersive sim to date when it comes to moment to moment gameplay, exploration, and environmental detail. I liked the story more than I expected, but it's the way it shows you the world through its environments (one of many ways in which the game rewards exploration) that makes it truly special. I really hope Eidos Montreal gets to complete the story at some point.

Where is the orange juice???? All I keep getting is Lemon Lime!!! I tell you this is a conspiracy.

THIS IS GOLD like the entire color palet of Deux ex Human Revolution

I don't know what makes me more sad, how deus ex parallels with the modern world or we will probably never get a resolution to the tragic life of Adam Jensen

You haven't played Deus Ex correctly unless you've turned on every faucet in every apartment.

The OG Deus Ex will always be one of my all time favorite games. I love exploring every nook and cranny, and on the next play through I find something new. Fantastic game.

Had a really shite day over here. You have no idea how much better seeing you publish a video on one of my favourite games made my evening. Cheers!

Human revolution is an outstanding game, also great soundtrack and I greatly enjoyed the 50% of mankind divided released.

Mankind Divided is one of my favorite games of the generation. Hope Eidos Montreal gets to make another someday

If I remember correctly, human revolution does talk more about how augments affect employment/employability. There was a side quest in lower hengsha where you had to save a prostitute from being augmented against her will, which also gives us a glimpse at how augments can be used by the rich and powerful as a tool to use and manipulate those without power. I’m also pretty sure there were a few dialogue lines talking about how augmented construction workers were being used to build Darrow’s project in Antarctica. I’d imagine that would be an incentive for normal people to seek augmentation as without them they are unable to work on projects such as that one. Plus, Adams augments are state of the art military grade ones that are not available to the public and the game points that out many times, so the point about swords in your arms doesn’t really make sense

May sound like insult, but I'll fall asleep to this for a good week....it'll all get absorbed and enjoyed, though....

This might be a weird anecdote, but Deus Ex: The Fall actually introduced me into the franchise. I was going away on holiday and bought the game for my iPad to have something to do on the plane. It was in the recommended section on AppStore, and I always heard good things about Deus Ex so I bought it. It actually had pretty positive reviews back then. As a mobile game in 2014, I enjoyed it and it didn't seem unfinished because I assumed the sudden ending was a cliffhanger to get you to buy the PC game. I didn't much care for the story, but the gameplay loop was pretty fun, enough for me to actually buy Human Revolution when I got back home. I loved it, even though it didn't have anything to do with The Fall's story, or maybe because of it. Then I played the original Deus Ex and eventually Mankind Divided when it came out. But yeah, The Fall is pretty garbage if you play it today, even though I still remember it fondly.

1:17:57 is a very good point that I often also mention. Some games may give you the option to disable quest markers, but if the game is built from the ground up with them in mind, disabling them likely won't have the same effect as if the game was made without them in mind.

i just played and finished Deus Ex, the first game, and imo still holds up as a great game in 2022, i was surprised how complex the game is for it's year and how the story flows, i really liked it, now, based on this video, i don't like how Deus Ex evolved and i won't be playing the games, it misses the investigative approach that first game had.

Technically aren't the Grays from Deus Ex genetically engineered rather than actually aliens? To be honest in some respects it's even goofier than the relatively vanilla conspiracy theory of the government hiding aliens.

Yeah...Deus Ex conspiracy theories seem far fetched in some ways...until you remember that MK-Ultra was a real thing the CIA actually did to people.

This is probably my top five channels to just binge watch, I love how engaging yet chill your video essays are. Wow

"There isn't much time to build cybernetic augments or a universal gold filter over everything..." Hahaha, thank you for the dead dry delivery of that line. My favorite part of this year.

Jensen is out there doing the good work. I'm just hoping he didn't get the middle-road ending in our universe.

FYI the plural of Knight Templar is "Knights Templar"

A tear came to my eye when the first few notes of your foreshadowed next video connected me to years of nostalgia for the 100s of hours i spent playing the game along with the friends i talked to while i did. All it took was a few musical notes for me to become incredibly excited for you next video :)

Can confirm that Mankind Divided's moment in TF29 where the one guy (can't think of his name) says he's noticed you snooping around is entirely dependent on whether you've been doing a lot of that. In my second playthrough I had avoided hacking any computers in the office at all and that conservation was much different as a result.

"I did ask for this" - Adam Jensen

A number of these "conspiracies" aren't conspiracies anymore. They've already happened.

I never forgot "The Fall". It was the first experience I ever had of a truly awesome game on mobile. It was supposed to have been releasing further episodes but got cancelled. It is a sham e, could have been something.. new.

WHY did you not talk about the god damn music. I mean ... HR OST is just. ... wow.

The craziest thing about Deus Ex 1 especially is, that all it's views and comments about our politics and society have become true.

your appointment to fema should be finalised within a week

You're also able to save Paul from the apartment raid, the gas + LAM combo never fails

Exceptional work! I can barely fathom the amount of time and effort spent playing, recording, researching, writing and editing something like this. A true work of art. Bravo, Sir.

You don't know how happy this makes me. As someone who both loves DE and your format

You are my favorite essayist on youtube, and listening to you talk about videogames also helps me plan dnd games. glad to see you get sponsored

Just took a look at your other videos and instant subbed. It took me a couple of days to listen through this but you are exactly the kind of person I go to youtube for. Thanks for your content. Game design is my favorite passion and you make excellent video essays

Everytime you mention Deus Ex, someone else is reinstalling it...

I'm leaving a comment for the algo and hope more people get to see your videos soon, because I enjoyed them very much. I can't imagine how much work it is to put them together, yet you expand the discussion even further and always end with satisfying conclusions.

Thanks for including all the games in the series, and not just the first, you spoil us.

My favorite part of Mankind Divided was the paranoia. tbh at one point I thought that I might even be the mole, being unwittingly manipulated into it by the Juggernaut Collective

”What a shame” *lip smack* ”What a rotten way to die”

38:05 "there's a clear message behind Deus Ex: ... it's simply to **be skeptical of power**" probably the simplest description of my political stance I've ever heard

NKB's makes videos of astounding quality. The amount of work needed to even just play the games and gather information is just immense, but on top of that this dude produces insightful, thorough commentary on just about every aspect of the games he covers. And the production quality is on point, not unnecessarily over the top. All that work for an ASMR channel, it's crazy.

Love your tone w/ the subtle humor. The commentary is great. Good job.

I absolutely love this series. I really hope they bring this back to life.

Once again, more high quality content from one of my favourite creators. How do you manage to make vids this long and this good so quickly is beyond me

Incredible retrospective, thank you very much for such a thought-provoking and detailed analysis of this amazing gaming series. Those two hours genuinely flew by, and It's already made me re-download the games for another round. Easily one of the best video essays I've seen in a long time.

Plot twist: these super dystopian government conspiracies you reference? They're already happening.

I just discovered this channel. Wow! Great analysis. I love how you break things down, especially the quest marker / detailed map dilemma. Going to watch all the rest...

they gotta find a way to end the Jenson trilogy man. like honestly i think that is my all time favorite fictional interpretation of the future. very few non-shooter games actually try to incorporate real life groups and corporations in to the story and gameplay and its just so cool to see. long live the deus ex universe

It's kinda dumb but can you imagine an immersive sim that as a character you've got a life, bills and so on. So when you turn on all your lights and leave the water running while your out playing the game at the end of the in game month your hit with a massive utilities bill you've got to deal teaching you that even small actions in game can lead to big consequences.

Great relaxing video. I played and finished some of these games years ago, but with every new rig and the chance to flawlessly play older games on ultra ( that is the PC magic ), watching your videos gives me the chance to recap the stories and motivates me to replay some of 'em, especially now 'cause newer games seem to get too pretty or too complicated for an old timer like me. Cheers man 👍

Dude just wanted to say nice vid. I’m amazed how you can upload these videos constantly

"some kind of magic GPS system to track your every move and signpost your destination" Modern GPS can pretty much do that anyway. It's not hard to believe that in the far flung future of 2027 GPS will be slightly better than it is now, going to very zoomed out satellite images that don't show enemy locations seems like a step backwards if anything. What I do like the idea of is JC starting the game with a modern minimap and quest system, but needing to give it up to avoid being tracked.

Thank you for your work. Each time I watch I am blown away all over again by the quality of analysis and overall polish.

21:40 - "He almost starts to sound like he's talking a lot of sense until you remember he's a terrorist" That doesn't mean anything though, the points he makes are still completely valid lmfao

Thank you for making my comedowns less quiet. These are great.

Great video and congrats for getting a sponsor, since RU-vid monetization incentivizes the opposite of long format videos. Good luck with your next project, which will be quite the endeavor I imagine and have a happy new year.

NKB just dropping by to say, man, this was awesome. Essentially a documentary on Deus Ex, one of my favorite franchises ever. Cannot say how many times I have clocked DXHR and DXMD, but it's at least 10-20 between both titles. Really nice to see this retrospective, you've got a sub from me and I will be checking out your other content as I have already noticed a few more I am keen to watch. Thanks for making excellent content.

As soon as the Human Revolution soundtrack started, I got emotional... I played all of them and non of them stood out for me, but I love HR. Great video, thanks ! Now I gotta go replay HR...

Human Revolution is probably one of my top 5 games of all time, but I completely agree with all the points you made.

One thing that wasn't mentioned: Alex D from Invisible War can be a woman too Also, boss fights in HR are a step down from Deus Ex 1 because they offer little choice in how to handle them, this is mostly due to boss fights being outsourced to another company. In the original Deus Ex most bosses have a kill phrase that allows the more methodical or tactical players to quickly achieve victory, and Anna can be killed with a preemptive mine in the airplane skipping the whole conversation.

God damn, I love the vibe and rhythm of your videos. I’ve been following you since almost the beginning and I’ve watched as your videos and production values have gotten progressively higher. I’ve watched as your channel grew from 5-10k subs to almost 100k now. I really feel like you’re on your way to becoming youtube’s next big video game critic. Keep up the good work, man!

I had one playtrough with Mankind Devided now and I basically just kept clearing my inventory by selling everything before every mission. Still found a way to complete missions with no starting items. Well designed game.

From 35:46 that monologue with the soundtrack.... Gives me goosebumps. Dude I don`t know much about your career apart from youtube , but I honestly think you should try writing if you don`t already doing it.

NKB: "Deus Ex is overly generous with the items it gives you, which forces you to make choices that actually matter". JC: "Give me the GEP gun".

When you were talking about the removal of map markers and exploration in Human Revolution, it made me really want to see your analysis of the dishonored series. I love turning off the waypoints in those games and navigating through the environment, the games are actually really well designed for it and it is such an interesting experience that I don’t think I’ve truly had anywhere else.

1:12:12 the issue was there was only ONE WAY TO BEAT THE BOSSES: SHOOT IT A TON AND DON'T GET SHOT TO HELL! This was especially egregious with the first boss who is a literal tank on two legs armed with an GAU-8/A Avenger for an arm.

I've rewatched this video several times. Thank you

I'm glad this popped up in my recommended. Never seen your channel before. Instant sub, loving the vids!

43:00 "...like a bored, sociopathic housecat" Implying that housecats aren't all sociopaths already.

I put this video on to fall asleep but you kept me up all night this time! Great video dude!

Great insights. Glad to see there is still so much love out there for my favorite game.

Aside from HL, deus ex human revolution is one of my favorite gaming memories of all time.

What timing, I just started playing Human Revolution again and a few days later this pops up :). Some points of a small voice that doesn't matter: - Regarding Deus Ex 1, hacking was actually the skill I first maxed. It is not necessary to access stuff in general, but hidden behind hacking is also a great amount of worldbuilding through E-mails, and the time limits to read them are extremely annoying for immersion. That's also one thing I absolutely LOVED about the original : Newspapers, mails, notes, books - there's tons of stuff lying around fleshing out the world you are in, and in most cases they are very interesting to read. I still remember some "advertisement" to essentially get a big amount of money for your family if you kill yourself so that insurances remain stable - it's grotesque, but a surprisingly interesting joke considering the growing issues of overaging. It's just a smart game through and through, something I never experienced to this degree again ever. - I'm ashamed to say I quite enjoyed Invisible War. Imho it was a fun game and I played through it several times. As is often the case, it just suffered from being called Deus Ex, and the way they dumbed down JC rubbed me the wrong way. - Human Revolution: I actually agree with the boss fights. Even with 0 skills in combat the fights were still very manageable, and I was quite proud of myself when I e.g. used the environment to my advantage in the Barrett fight to overwhelm him due to me not being able to gun him down. Now that I'm replaying the Director's Cut I don't see much value added with the new options, it just seems ridiculously easy now. What I didn't like about them was just that they were just that - boss fights. Coming from the way you can defeat bosses in the original earlier if you pay attention it just seemed disappointing to just be thrown in front of a boss in a designated fighting area without meeting them earlier on. But that is a minor thing and in general I absolutely love this game and think it's a worthy entry to the series. The art style is absolutely amazing and combined with the music stunningly beautiful, the game even inspired me in my home decoration (plant-like lights, my gaming area is also black/gold). I still remember getting goosebumps when the Penthouse track started playing combined with the stunning visuals of it. A+ for that. I quite enjoyed the augmentation plot in general and found it a great gap to use from the original game, where augmented people basically were second-class citizens of forgotten times. Imho the game also makes enough points to answer why people augment themselves: If they don't, they fall behind everywhere. Noone is interested in non-augmented workers in well-paid jobs, art is starting to be dominated by augmented people, even sexuality-wise people got accustomed to the higher standards offered by augmentation and "aug fetishes" seem common. The point, for me, was that the initially optional thing becomes more and more mandatory in order to keep up in society, and I found that idea quite intriguing. While I agree the ending choices were a bit meh, it was a bit evened out for me by the style of the ending videos...they just got me with the atmosphere they built up during them. - Mankind Divided: Honestly, I was surprised how much you had to say about the story. I remember 0 of it and just have it in my memory that it ended when I thought it would just really start. The clear star was the level design in Prague - I especially loved how every single apartment had a story to tell, even to the point of finding out personal details of your coworkers accidentally just by exploring random apartments. Unfortunately the price for this was a disappointing main game. One thing I always missed in general in this series is emotional moments. Despite the dystopian premise, you never really feel for anyone. I would have hoped for some successor to go a bit into the Philip K. Dick style and explore the emotional impact of technology a bit more. Jensen's struggle with augmentation in HR was a great opportunity that - as you mentioned - was just not taken. This seems to be a thing with SciFi games in general, they usually go more by the rule of cool rather than diving into emotional areas. I really hope Cyberpunk will take up on this, but what I've seen so far looks like yet another rule of cool entry unfortunately. Getting detached from your body, a feeling of emptiness when all your desires can be fulfilled with the click of a button etc. are all great topics for emotional explorations that this series just never takes despite having the fitting topics. Anyways: Amazing video, I can't believe I just watched two hours of someone talking about a game series without pause. Great summary of the series and portrayed in an engaging way.

I think you're the first person that i've heard speak positively regarding the boss fights in HR, and I gotta say, you kinda convinced me. I think there's a tendency for players to say they WANT meaningful choices and consequences while at the same time complaining when they can't experience all the content of game in a single run through, or that their choices made some content harder.

I hated the energy recharge in human revolution. It was one of the major issues I had with the game past the mid point as a large part of my inventory became dedicated to energy bars. One of the things I did like about the directors cut is they made the recharge apply to two bars.

Yo I have been waiting for something like this let’s go.

Idk why, but I love mankind devided so much.

Adam Jensen is probably the coolest protagonist in the last ten years.

Human Revolution's "trust humanity" ending literally bring tears to my eyes. Such powerful writing. I think people focus too much on nitpicking when it comes to the new deus ex games, really gets repetitive. There is so much inspiring moments and so few were mentioned in depth that I couldn't finish the video, honestly

My phone is listening to me. I started Human Revolution yesteday (it's been amazing so far), and I see this video in my recommendations.

NeverKnowsBest is a serious legend

I have been a gamer for more than 20 years. I have played in the arcade halls of old, grew up with the NES and gameboy into gaming pc’s and all playstations. I have played more titles than I can count. Whenever I am asked what my favorite game of all time is, I still say: Deus Ex (the original). What an experience. The soundtrack, story and endless possibilities to solve levels... unequalled to this day in my opinion. I haven’t played the game for almost ten years, but watching this video, it is incredible how familiar all the gameplay felt to me. Your critique is awesome and thank you for the feels. A thousand thumbs up. I need to play this again!

Work horse. Your rate of uploading never fails to amaze

To anyone considering replaying Deus Ex after watching this, I'd highly recommend the New Vision 2.0 mod, which uses AI to upscale the game's textures and the result is too impressive for words!

I've never played any games in this series but I'm sure as hell interested in doing so. That tease at the end....oooh boy, something to look forward to next year!

I am so happy to see a Deus ex retrospective on this channel. I remember Deus Ex and the original Hitman so well. I will finish my homework on Friday and then it was game night. As a kid I could never finish either game but years later I went back and as a law student I could really appreciate the rich dialog and the lesson Deus Ex taught us and that's the Lord Acton observation that power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I played Human revolution as well and I really liked it, not as much as the original but still a bloody good game. Now after Deus ex retrospective is done I would really like to see Hitman series retrospective o n this channel. Keep up doing the good work mate.

This was fantastic! Agree with almost everything stated here. My only point of contention though is that the cause of Aug racism in MK was pretty clear to me: the Aug Incident caused the majority of augmented people to go on murderous rampages. Witnessing that would give PTSD and Aug-phobia to a large number of people. Even if they knew that it wasn't technically Augs' fault, it would still provoke them to fear augs on an instinctual level. It was also called out at the beginning of the game that Prague was uniquely anti-Aug compared to the rest of the world, which is another reason why the racism was dialed up to 11 in the game.

Man, please continue these series retrospectives. They're amazing! Consider doing Elder Scrolls and Mass Effect.

What a freaking amazing retrospective. Liked and favorited!

Wow, 2h videos in that frequency with that quality? Respect!

Malick's death was the saddest in any game... because it felt it was my fault