DaveW on 23/7/2007 at 21:14
Hasn't this been known for ages from the Deus Ex bible? Some AI (ADA, was it?) was on the Moon and you went there to stop it. The whole titanic-like space station would have been very cool, though.
Ostriig on 23/7/2007 at 21:16
I'm quite happy it didn't happen. I prefer the "down-to-Earth" version, seems easier to digest.
And I don't have a great deal of love for Harvey Smith anyway. I may be wrong on this, but if I recall correctly, Spector kinda let him have his way with Invisible War. And we know how that turned out.
Jashin on 25/7/2007 at 01:39
Not many people remember this, but Harvey Smith was the lead designer of Deus Ex when Warren Spector was the project lead. Smith contributed a lot to Deus Ex itself.
He became the project lead on Deus Ex: IW. Everyone kinda moved up "a notch," Spector became studio director (though he was to begin with). When the time came to adapt DX to console, that's when concessions were made due to xbox, engine trouble, etc.
I have no love for IW, but it's not just Harvey Smith.
Ostriig on 26/7/2007 at 13:58
Quote Posted by Jashin
[...]
I have no love for IW, but it's not just Harvey Smith.
I suppose it is possible he just got stuck with the scapegoat role more than others.
An interesting read. Relating to the motivations given for simplification, though, we have to take it with a grain of salt. After all, Spector was adressing the press, and saying "We think this is better" always sounds nicer than "We hate it too, but we gotta make the damn thing work on consoles".
Jashin on 26/7/2007 at 21:54
So what's your point?
You linked to an old 2003 interview when Spector was still in denial BTW.
negativeliberty on 27/7/2007 at 23:27
Interesting read. It sounds like it would've made for an (even) larger game. Oh well, A51 was awesome (though not as large as you first think on your first playthrough, in some ways the end disappointed me), but I'd love to see some long lost piece of concept art of this initial idea regardless. The shattering Space Station bit kind of reminds me of NOLF2 (or was it the first?), and it was an excellent level there, perhaps it would've fit in DX too (after all, it's sci-fi in the future, plus with all the new-found Helium-3 on the moon, a moonbase by 2050 wouldn't be far-fetched at all, in fact NASA wants a permanent human presence on the moon by 2025 - ie a moonbase).
Quote Posted by DaveW
Can't be arsed to go through this again,
Then why do? Besides, that whole interview sounds like self-denial and self-defense. The game he's describing, the one with the "core gameplay experience" (blahdiblah), which supposedly only lost a few things "on the surface level" (blahblah) doesn't sound like DX:IW at all. It sounds like he's describing the game he
wanted IW to be, or perhaps what he
chose to see in it.
DaveW on 27/7/2007 at 23:55
Ah, I love how even in the face of an interview with Warren talking in-depth about how he wanted to streamline the game, the fanboys still manage to pull shit like "He was in denial! It was all the console's fault!!1111". Not only that, but the PS2 version of Deus Ex seems to conviniently be forgotten, which
retained the skills system and received (
http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps2/deusextheconspiracy?q=deus%20ex%20the%20conspiracy) good reviews. So, what you're saying is that the thought process was:
"Ok, we got really good reviews for the PC version and quite good for the PS2, what should we do?"
"Let's get rid of all the things the reviewers liked! That will surely make the reviews better!"
Really logical.
It wasn't the console. Get over it.demagogue on 28/7/2007 at 00:06
I never knew about this.
Well, this explains one thing. I still remember reading one of the newspapers in Hong Kong ... there was something about the moon and some Nigerian something, and I remember thinking at the time, wow, are they going to slide that into the game? It reminded me a little of Total Recall. And then I don't remember hearing about it again. So I guess this explains why. They decided to scrap it, but kept the little reference in for the record.
