Deus Ex and Paranoid Storytelling
Jun. 13th, 2004 11:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexxkaySo I finally started playing Deus Ex 2 yesterday (I know, I know, I'm late to the party), and spent about eight hours on it. The technical issues that many have complained of are indeed bothersome, but that's not my biggest beef with the game. Even at this early stage, I perceive some extremely poor decisions about how to structure their story, especially when compared to the first Deus Ex.
Both stories are fundamentally paranoid. There are many competing factions, and the storyline is full of deceit, betrayal, and the revealing of secret agendas. Your character will switch allegiances at least once over the course of the game, possibly several times. In the end, some groups may remain as Clearly Bad Guys, but they are opposed by only Ambiguously Good Guys. So far, so good.
But Deus Ex 1 eased you into that paranoid world-view a lot more smoothly. At the start of DX1, you work for Group A, the Good Guys, against Group B, the Bad Guys. There are various hints over the first few missions that you may be mistaken about who the good guys actually are, but these all occur in "plot". The actual gameplay strongly reinforces the status quo of A=Good, B=Bad. B characters are always shooting at you, A characters aren't. This helps make the eventual reversal dramatic.
Moreover, A characters are actively supporting you. Many of these NPCs are friendly, decent people, who seem trustworthy. Indeed, the first character you speak to in the game is your own brother! As the game continues, you find that your trust in these support characters is, on the whole, well-placed. When you find convincing evidence that Group A is actually Bad, many of the support characters also defect to opposing groups, and continue to support you while you work for those groups. This helps clearly indicate to the player that these new groups are at least Ambiguously Good Guys.
At the start of Deus Ex 2, you are once again working for a Group A of nominal Good Guys, which is opposed to a Group B of nominal Bad Guys. But within the first half hour, it becomes clear that Group A are, at the least, deceitful and manipulative, perhaps downright Evil. Meanwhile Group B, although they are shooting at you, are broadcasting messages on the PA system saying that they're here to free you from the evil oppressors.
An hour into the game, Group A has gone underground. Groups B and C are both trying to manipulate me. They are each, in some sense, Ambiguously Good Guys, but no real trust is ever established between them and me. Neither of them will tell me their actual agenda, and each badmouths the other group as being deceitful manipulators (which is clearly true). A number of smaller factions are also trying to use me as a tool to advance their ends, but they won't share any secrets either.
The gameplay doesn't help settle who is Good and who is Bad, either, as the friendly/hostile stance of various groups is entirely situational. All the groups will be friendly to me in some locations, but shoot on sight in others.
There are some NPCs that were working with me in Group A, and who join other factions afterwards. But none of them are particularly friendly. There has been no build up of trust between me and them, so their new allegiances, rather than swaying me to sympathize with their new groups, simply makes me think of them all as disloyal and untrustworthy.
In the world of DX2, at least at my current point (eight hours in, just leaving for Cairo), my character has no friends. There is no one I trust, or even particularly like. Every one in the world appears to be greedy, selfish, and manipulative. Including me. Since no one has told me what their agenda is, my actions have no obvious impact on "the greater good". I do them because people will pay me to do them, and for no other reason. I'm using lethal force much more than I did in the first game, because, hey, why not? It's not like any of my targets were good people either.
In DX1, by contrast, my actions were always in a moral context. I always had a clearly justifiable moral stance for the actions I was taking. Sometimes it would turn out that I was being lied to and/or manipulated, and my actions may not have had the effects I intended. But there was always at least good intent. In DX2, I don't have that any more, and it makes the game much weaker. Perhaps moral clarity will appear later in the game, but it's going to be hard work to establish it after such a murky first act...
Both stories are fundamentally paranoid. There are many competing factions, and the storyline is full of deceit, betrayal, and the revealing of secret agendas. Your character will switch allegiances at least once over the course of the game, possibly several times. In the end, some groups may remain as Clearly Bad Guys, but they are opposed by only Ambiguously Good Guys. So far, so good.
But Deus Ex 1 eased you into that paranoid world-view a lot more smoothly. At the start of DX1, you work for Group A, the Good Guys, against Group B, the Bad Guys. There are various hints over the first few missions that you may be mistaken about who the good guys actually are, but these all occur in "plot". The actual gameplay strongly reinforces the status quo of A=Good, B=Bad. B characters are always shooting at you, A characters aren't. This helps make the eventual reversal dramatic.
Moreover, A characters are actively supporting you. Many of these NPCs are friendly, decent people, who seem trustworthy. Indeed, the first character you speak to in the game is your own brother! As the game continues, you find that your trust in these support characters is, on the whole, well-placed. When you find convincing evidence that Group A is actually Bad, many of the support characters also defect to opposing groups, and continue to support you while you work for those groups. This helps clearly indicate to the player that these new groups are at least Ambiguously Good Guys.
At the start of Deus Ex 2, you are once again working for a Group A of nominal Good Guys, which is opposed to a Group B of nominal Bad Guys. But within the first half hour, it becomes clear that Group A are, at the least, deceitful and manipulative, perhaps downright Evil. Meanwhile Group B, although they are shooting at you, are broadcasting messages on the PA system saying that they're here to free you from the evil oppressors.
An hour into the game, Group A has gone underground. Groups B and C are both trying to manipulate me. They are each, in some sense, Ambiguously Good Guys, but no real trust is ever established between them and me. Neither of them will tell me their actual agenda, and each badmouths the other group as being deceitful manipulators (which is clearly true). A number of smaller factions are also trying to use me as a tool to advance their ends, but they won't share any secrets either.
The gameplay doesn't help settle who is Good and who is Bad, either, as the friendly/hostile stance of various groups is entirely situational. All the groups will be friendly to me in some locations, but shoot on sight in others.
There are some NPCs that were working with me in Group A, and who join other factions afterwards. But none of them are particularly friendly. There has been no build up of trust between me and them, so their new allegiances, rather than swaying me to sympathize with their new groups, simply makes me think of them all as disloyal and untrustworthy.
In the world of DX2, at least at my current point (eight hours in, just leaving for Cairo), my character has no friends. There is no one I trust, or even particularly like. Every one in the world appears to be greedy, selfish, and manipulative. Including me. Since no one has told me what their agenda is, my actions have no obvious impact on "the greater good". I do them because people will pay me to do them, and for no other reason. I'm using lethal force much more than I did in the first game, because, hey, why not? It's not like any of my targets were good people either.
In DX1, by contrast, my actions were always in a moral context. I always had a clearly justifiable moral stance for the actions I was taking. Sometimes it would turn out that I was being lied to and/or manipulated, and my actions may not have had the effects I intended. But there was always at least good intent. In DX2, I don't have that any more, and it makes the game much weaker. Perhaps moral clarity will appear later in the game, but it's going to be hard work to establish it after such a murky first act...