Appendix N: The OSR of the first level of Deus Ex
25 years ago a videogame introduced me to sandbox level design. Spoilers ahead.
Deus Ex (2000) is a game that sits within a lineage which extends all the way back to the earlier Ultima Underworld games and continues spiritually until at least Prey (2017). But as this is Appendix N we’ll begin with a longer list of inspirational videogames for me, before we zoom in on just one.
Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat (1995, Mindscape)
Sid Meier’s Civilization II (1996, Microprose)
Fallout (1997, Interplay)
Half-Life (1998, Valve)
System Shock 2 (1999, Irrational Games/Looking Glass Studios)
Deus Ex (2000, Ion Storm)
Baldur’s Gate 2: Shadows of Amn (2000, Bioware)
Left 4 Dead 2 (2009, Valve)
Dishonored (2012, Arkane Studios)
FTL: Faster than Light (2012, Subset Games)
Invisible Inc (2015, Klei Entertainment)
DOOM (2016, id Software)
Return of the Obra Dinn (2018, Lucas Pope)
Disco Elysium (2019, ZA/UM)
Roadwarden (2022, Moral Anxiety Studio)
Now, I didn’t play all of these in their year of release, so what’s important is the context of my experience at the time I first played it. I was obsessed with Half-Life, its expansions and the burgeoning mod scene, but had come into PC gaming via turn-based and real-time strategy games (“look Mum, Civilization II teaches you history!”). I was familiar with the idea of secrets and easter eggs via the Doom/Quake/Duke Nukem shareware releases, but that’s pretty much it.
So this was my first real introduction to multi-route levels and variable approaches to problem solving, and I think there are several reasons why OSR dungeons appeal to me (as a player, GM and designer) today that can be traced back to this game 25 years later.
A Clear Main Goal
Admittedly not “grab a bunch of treasure” as per the classic OSR maxim, but if you strip all the plot away it’s “you see that big statue over there? Get to the top of it” — you do not have to speak to anyone except your brother and you could theoretically speed run/sneak past every single obstacle (it is possible — even without using the prod to stun enemies).
There’s also a secondary objective (rescue someone who, if you choose to arm them, immediately shoots his way out and can’t be killed while doing so) and what might be thought of as a tertiary objective (get a way to solve a puzzle by speaking to someone,
The genius of it is that by scattering all of these goals around AND presenting lots of useful things to find and pick up and use AND lots of enemies to fight/avoid AND lots of information you create a very natural gameplay loop even if you aren’t focused on the goals at all (which I certainly wasn’t the first time I played).
A Looping Map
It’s with the level design itself that we really get into the Jaquays of it all — the simplified map above doesn’t even capture how many possible loops there are on the main circle, due to the ability to ‘cut corners’ and the large spaces and low lighting allowing for evasion of enemies rather than being stuck in corridors.
It also feels like a real place, in a way that not all the later levels in the game do (a number of those are also somewhat linear, small or fall into the trap of having multiple parallel routes rather than loops).
You get an in-game map of limited value (an entertainingly low-resolution satellite photo) — this is something more OSR modules should do, a basic clue about the main areas but no secret doors/tunnels and limited detail.
Interaction, Puzzles and Secrets
Three computer terminals to hack (or find the password for), two of which control gun turrets as well as doors. Multiple things to blow up (which don’t just create explosions, there’s also some barrels of toxic gas) which you are also in danger from — crucially these can be moved around, and the noise of setting them off will lure enemies. You’re vulnerable while moving them as well, an important factor worth considering when ruling on player-created traps and ambushes.
The game avoids trapping itself in FPS weapon progression — you can pick up a lot of tools in this level, ranging from pepper spray to a sniper rifle and even a rocket launcher. There’s a lot of crate bashing (thanks Gabe) but at least that makes noise as well. The puzzles seem basic now but didn’t at the time, and the HUD gives a very clear ‘it will take this much resource to get through this obstacle’ — with almost all doors offering a choice of lockpicking/electronic tool or explosives.
The secrets themselves (once you’ve passed the puzzle) do a good job of offering you those tools or upgrades that you can’t get elsewhere. It’s never ‘oh cool, some more ammunition’ (even though that itself is deliberately kept somewhat limited) it’s ‘I didn’t know this kind of grenade was in the game’ or ‘this game has a weapon upgrade system? Amazing!’. You are rewarded for your exploration and puzzle solving with a new way to interact with the game.
Information Everywhere
Clues are a constant feature (note I recommend skipping the opening video that manages to not only spoil some of the plot but also doesn’t really explain anything about the world beyond ‘there’s a plague happening’) but it’s more than that. Deus Ex has probably the best ‘worldbuilding through clues’ of any game ever made. They are typically brief, but written in distinct voices (often characters you’ll never meet) and assemble a desperate world around you from fragments.
Newspapers, books, datacubes, dialogue and computer terminals all combine to form a rich tapestry where you’re rarely reading for more than thirty seconds at a time. Something that the later Deus Ex games miss is that not all the lore is plot relevant — my personal favourite being that around 40% of the way through the game you read about an unrelated news event that is clearly holding the public’s attention far more than anything you’re up to (at least until an event immediately before the final mission, and even that is probably written off as an accident).
Enemies to Defeat/Threaten You
The combat is reasonably deadly, at least on Realistic difficulty and/or if you’re inexperienced (personal dexterity with mouse and keyboard is of course a major factor here). Scoping out the number of enemies you’re taking on in each encounter is important, so that you can prepare. More patrolling enemies would have been nice, as there’s a few too many standing around (even if that does lead to some good worldbuilding conversations you can overhear).
One enemy is only vulnerable to certain weapons (the sentry robot on the most obvious route requires explosives or EMPs to defeat) which dramatically ramps up the difficulty and is again something that could be more widely used. Again, noise is a big consideration here, with the trade-off of melee (silent but risky), pistol (noisy) and tranq dart (silent, but takes time to knock an enemy out) creating interesting choices.
You’re going to want to loot these bodies, but that will almost always only yield ammunition (in this level it’s the only way to get a sniper rifle, later levels sometimes yield useful but not essential keys or grenades on bodies).
Loot/Merchants
The game posits a strange setup where you’re a UN special forces agent who is… paid immediately after each mission by your boss, including occasional performance-based bonuses. There isn’t much hard currency around to pick up but you can hack random ATMs for money. There are people to buy useful things from but they are never signposted as such, creating an organic black market feel to everything.
One interesting quirk here is that you can buy things throughout the game but (almost) never sell them, and there aren’t many ‘plot coupons’. Consequently, inventory management is purely about whatever combination of offensive/defensive/utility objects you want to haul around, based on their slot count (heavy weapons take up far more space than simple pistols).
What’s Missing
This mission doesn’t have usable factions– or rather, there are two factions and your relationship to them (one friendly, one unfriendly) is fixed and cannot be changed. Luring enemies into friendly security bots is an option I suppose, as is changing the allegiance of the gun turrets. There’s also no time pressure or respawning (System Shock and Prey both feature this, in conjunction with a more megadungeon-esque setting rather than discrete levels).