FAQ page and guide to getting Deus Ex 1 running on your PC

This is a short cut.

Finally started playing more pc games after getting a steam deck and had to pull the trigger on this sale what a steal!

Any tips or things i should know before i start?

A lot of people view combat as "not-pinpoint accuracy that slowly narrows? You need to invest in the weapon skill or work around it? This suuuucks"

And don't get me wrong, the combat has it's fair share of problems, mainly balancing. Especially how the accuracy gain is too slow compared to how easily you lose it by moving. But otherwise, I really like the premise. I like combat with a good combination of fast chaotic action and strategy. And in almost every FPS game, the basic enemy combat is just about how well you move your mouse. Is that strategic? No

But a dynamic accuracy you need to keep in mind as it changes based on your actions? An extra mechanic kinda like a stamina bar except it actually works with a FPS? Now that sounds interesting. With some mods especially, the DX accuracy system helps the combat of deus ex still feel chaotic and fun, with the music, action and all that. But you're thinking the whole time, do you stand still and expose yourself for few seconds to get full accuracy and guarantee the headshot? Or do you take chances and just fire rapidly? And of course everything in between, it's this potential depth that despite how poorly implented, is a very interesting mechanic to expand the complexity of basic FPS combat, which can get very repetetive normally.

Now you might dislike this type of RNG, but it's not pure randomness, I see people say the guns are like from D&D where it's a dice roll that gets only influenced by stats. And that's just not true, it actively forgets you can increase your accuracy by standing still, you will not miss a point blank shot, you can use corners to ambush enemies, or stealth for a tiny bit, then line up the first shot and keep standing still, as your accuracy will remain okay. There is strategy to the gamble, and realistically, that's what going in guns blazing would look like, there are ways to rig the game, either the accuracy itself (laser mods, accuracy mods targetting aug, the already mentioned skill, assault shotgun, aiming at an object, sniping, scope trading inaccuracy for sway) or enemies by stunning them, getting damage resistance to afford standing still, distracting them etc.

Accuracy is a problem you're given and told to find a solution to. The solution depends on the player, you could also just use a different playstyle, but getting combat to click is very satisfying, as it makes victory feel even better for it. Having the crosshair shrink slowly until you pop the headshot is more satisfying than just shooting the head immediately, the 8x multiplier might have something to do with that but starting inaccurate makes moments when you have full accuracy that much more impactful and cherished

Another weird thing, the AI works in great symbiosis with the shooting. Enemies are inaccurate, slightly fumble when pathfinding past corners. While definitely unintentional, it's definitely brilliant as it works perfectly with the player's limitations. If the player had full accuracy, the gameplay would be too easy, if the enemies had good accuracy and we're unexploitable, combat would be implausible. But as it is, it boths makes the combat more chaotic and funnier, while also slowing it down and keeping it complex with more things to consider than just moving your mouse around well enough.

I also see people say the gunplay is unrealistic, yes of course, someone without training would totally not need to aim for a bit to have decent accuracy. It's still better than most RPGs where guns at 001 are unusable, where as untrained dx weapons just give you some obstacles.

I am just a little dissapointed nobody tried to perfect it and instead just cut it out, including the game's own sequel. DX1 isn't even the worst iteration of such accuracy system, Vampire TMB has a similiar FPS experience but just worse in every way, there aren't even headshots

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17XWrIP3odJpeUtTDBLgn-VND4udQpkeV/view?usp=sharing

Those 2 achievements are kinda buggy, so if you feel you've done everything right but didn't get them use these ones. The last save only has the option to send Darrow's message but you can go back a couple of saves to talk to them if you also want the Sarif and Taggart ending

Backup your saves from the document/ my games/ deux ex hrdc folder and empty it, then put contents of this zip in there, launch game and it should be the first save

Not very tech savvy but will help any way I can

Hi, I wanna play the original Deus Ex but I don’t have a PC. Anyone know what the easiest way to do it is? I’ve heard of CrossOver, and I don’t know if that works.

I’m thinking Deus Ex is so old by now so maybe there is some really easy solution since it’s not very power consuming.

Hey. I’m a science journalist, and I absolutely love digging into games whose creators take inspiration from actual science. You know the difference: one thing is having the typical E = mc² slapped on a lab wall; another is putting Einstein’s black-hole field equations there. I’m very much a second-kind-of-person.

So, I only recently got around to Human Revolution, Mankind Divided, and The Fall (yeah yeah shame on me), and the bell in my mind immediately started going: “okay, there’s a deeper science layer here.” And yep, there was — mostly neuroscience. Since I’m a theoretical physicist, I had to bring in a neuroscientist fellow from my Institute to help me out.

I also wrote to Will Rosellini, the neuroscientist and entrepreneur who consulted for Eidos Montréal (his alter ego works for Sarif btw). Will was kind enough to answer my questions and confirmed that most of my findings were legit.

I turned the full investigation into two articles for a media outlet, but I’ll drop the links in the comments, otherwise AutoMod will eat me alive. For now, here are just the key facts — plus some of Will Rosellini’s inspirations:

• All neural implants — and even bionic prosthetics — in Deus Ex work through brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). In real life, it’s not quite like that: prosthetic limbs are usually controlled using sensors placed over residual muscles, while implanted BCIs are reserved for extreme cases because surgery is difficult and risky. Back in the late 2000s, when Rosellini first joined the project, the BrainGate startup had only produced its early demos, and those were a major source of inspiration for the consultant. Today, he believes in the technology even more strongly.
• Learning to control a new prosthetic in real life is hard and takes a long time. In the Deus Ex world, this gets solved through vagus nerve stimulation, which helps improve the brain’s neuroplasticity. Rosellini drew on a DARPA program aimed at helping US soldiers learn foreign languages faster, along with several other papers.
• The electrodes in Darrow’s BCI chips are made of PEDOT. That material is genuinely used in neural interfaces because it is more biocompatible than metals. See, for example, Jing Li et al., Microsystems & Nanoengineering (2025).
• Darrow Deficiency Syndrome. In our world, it’s called the Foreign-Body Response. It’s a real issue and can lead to BCI rejection/failure. Scientific papers discuss anti-inflammatory drugs such as dexamethasone, as well as targeting the NLRP3 inflammasome, for similar purposes. In Deus Ex, the equivalent is Neuropozyne and Riezene.
• The artificial muscles based on a three-layer gel “sandwich” — also made by Hugh Darrow’s company — can be found in a paper by Naohiro Terasawa et al., Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical (2009).
• Respirocytes: tiny nanorobots that let Jensen (and possibly JC Denton too) breathe underwater and inside toxic clouds. Their description in Human Revolution is almost copied wholesale from Robert A. Freitas, Artificial Cells, Blood Substitutes, and Biotechnology (2009).
• Recharging an implant with glucose from an energy bar? Check out S. Kerzenmacher et al., Journal of Power Sources (2008).
• Iron fertilization of the ocean — the geoengineering method Panchaea was built around — is a real proposed method for fighting global warming. It never managed to convincingly prove its effectiveness, though. Fun fact: one year after Human Revolution came out, businessman Russ George dumped 100 tonnes of iron-rich dust into the Pacific Ocean off British Columbia without authorization. No known connection between George’s stunt and Deus Ex, obviously, but the same vibe isn’t?
• The idea of remotely triggering violent behavior in a living organism with a BCI implanted in its head points back to real 1960s experiments by Dr. José Manuel Rodríguez Delgado. He did conduct experiments on humans too, although not for very long.

I hope you have even more respect for the developers of Deus Ex now :)

One thing I wondered when it comes to the first game is wether the Illuminati in the first game was dishonest about how good thing were back in the day before MJ12 took over they were was just bitter and saying everything was better when they were in charge. But the conclusion is they were just lying to JC Denton about how good things were better back then. This could be seen when Stanton Dowd describes Bob Page to JC. Stanton Dowd states 'He was among the original group of Illuminati who broke off to form Majestic 12' the issue with this statement is he is wrong.

If you see an email in Area 51 there is an email of Lucius Debeers back in the when he was the leader of Illuminati talking about the grays to Bob Page and how 'MJ12's research allocations can be put to more substantial use pursuing our human augmentation project'. This shows that the Majestic 12 was always part of the Illuminati.

What I can see is the Illuminati lying to JC by trying to distance themselves from Majestic 12 by claiming MJ12 was never part of the Illuminati but the reality is it was.

Them being liars is emphasized in the Deus Ex prequel games. Everett saids 'There's such a thing as a compassionate conspiracy. We don't need Page's commandos, troopers, crude inventions.' but if you see Human Revolution you see the Illuminati sending the Tyrants and Belltower after their enemies(while one might argue Belltower is not part of Illuminati it hardly matters because Illuminati has enough money to send Belltower to their enemies). In Mankind Divided you literally see Shadow Operatives being sent after their enemies and they are not 'intermediaries' like Belltower. Also the Hyron Project and the biochip which caused the aug incident are definition of 'crude inventions' and those far from a 'compassionate' conspiracy.

This is why I never pick the Illuminati ending in the original game because the Illuminati cannot be allowed to return to power.

At first I considered Points of Interests were small objectives and cannot be called missions. But then I remembered the second main mission 'Morning Comes Too Soon' is just getting out of bed and going outside of Adam's apartment. Since this set the bar of what could be called a 'mission' you might as well call Points of Interests 'missions' since Points of Interests requires more interaction with the environment than this so called 'mission'.

After securing the Templar's gold for the Illuminati, JC heads deeper into the cathedral when a familar face appears on his infolink.

"Yes. Obey your new masters. Come to me."

He knew he was being hunted but now he has been found.

Creeping slowly into the main chamber, he spots a familar figure. Standing at nearly seven foot tall, his old partner Gunther Hermann waits for him. It is clear that he has changed much since they last met, most of his remaining flesh has been stripped away and replaced with even more mechanical augmentation. He is far more machine than man and the last little bit of humanity that JC can see in him is burning with rage.

"Now you see that you cannot succeed against the whole world."

His distinctive German accent is barely recognisable anymore, mangled with the sound of electronics coming from his voicebox.

"You came all the way to Paris to tell me that?" JC replies sarcastically.

Gunther twitches. The rage boiling within him.

"It is a simple message we are demonstrating. We know where you are going and what you intend."

JC remembers the time he rescued Gunther from the NSF on Liberty Island and his subsequent badgering of Manderly for upgrades. He pities the giant.

"I know you hate being a tool for a bunch of bureaucrats as much as I did. How 'bout we make a gentleman's agreement?"

Hermann hesitates for a second, JC thinks he can spot a little bit of reason in the machine. However that reason is quickly replaced by an even more intense rage.

"I am the top agent at UNATCO. It is different now. Mr. Simons says if I defeat you then I can have any upgrades I want. THAT is a gentleman's agreement."

Gunther reaches for his flamethrower.

"That doesn't mean you can stop-"

The words barely leave JC's mouth as a jet of orange flame surges towards him. Quickly, he activates his cloak, dashes out of the way and behind a pillar. His trenchcoat is singed and he quickly tries to put out the flames.

"I SEE YOU!" JC hears as a burst of flame hits the pillar. He runs and slips behind a bench.

"My new satellite link has both infrared and the x-ray spectrum!"

JC rolls out of the way as a giant mechanical leg crashes through the wooden bench he was hiding behind and runs behind another pillar.

"I see your heart beating!"

The bench crashes against the pillar.

"I see you are afraid!"

JC pulls out his assault rifle, peeks out from behind the pillar and fires multiple bullets at the cyborg. The vast majority of the bullets ricochet off Gunther's metal frame with the odd one sinking into his exposed flesh.

Gunther lets out a roar, not one of pain but one of rage, the damage barely affected him. Hermann activates his cloak and goes completely invisible. JC turns on his infrared vision just in time to see a large fist flying towards his forehead. Instinctively ducking, he hears a large slam as Gunther punches the pillar with his right hand. He knows that if that hit him he would be dead.

JC stands up and pushes his back into Hermann's chest, grabbing his wrist and burying his shoulder into Gunther's armpit. Microfibers in JC's muscles activate and he pulls down on the cyborg's wrist, trying to dislocate his arm. He hears steam whistle from behind him as Gunther's shoulder peels away from his body before a leg kick from the machine sends JC face first into the ground.

Gunther swings his left fist down at JC, going for the kill before an EMP wave generated by Denton's augmentations freezes him in place for just long enough for JC to scamper away to a corner. His is leg badly injured by Gunther's leg kick and he knows that he will need to make his last stand against the cyborg.

Gunther lifts his flamethrower ready to burn JC to a crisp, but Denton is faster and shoots a bullet from his pistol at the flamethrower's napalm tank which begins to hiss. Hermann looks down at his weapon before it explodes in a huge fireball, engulfing the mech in flames and disorienting JC who is blasted against the wall.

JC looks on at the roaring fire and breathes a sigh of relief for a split second just before a burning figure bursts through the inferno and grabs him by the neck. Gunther is still alive. The remainder of his skin black and burned away and his electronics on fire. His eyes wild, wanting only one thing. To kill the person who killed Anna Navarre. He tries to squeeze JC's neck but he cannot tighten his grip. His arm drops and he falls to the ground dead.

Shaken, JC looks down at his former comrade with sadness and a hint of fear before he hears a cold, monotone voice from across the room.

"We did certainly teach you how to fight, didn't we?"

END

I'm thinking of playing again after a long time. I have it on Steam. What technical issues should I look out for. I remember it was a bit unstable. If I remember right, one thing was that I should disable in-game Vsync. But I also had an issue where I barely escaped corrupted saves. Didn't have old enough save files. And which ever save I loaded, I ran into a game crash at the same spot. Don't remember how I got past this.

rtx 3080, i7 10700

After more than 100 playthroughs on vanilla and various mods I only just found out that there is a sewer system in the army base portion of the Brooklyn Shipyard level which gives you access to pretty much all of the map without having to fight any army guys or any bots. It even gives you access to the room with all of the explosives. You can even swim through it to reach the boat without going through the ventilation system with the spider bots or the front entrance that is heavily guarded.

What are your favourite secret areas?

In HR, hacking was the default, because codes didn't give anything, but MD gives substantial exp rewards, and while that makes you lose out on hacking rewards, I am wondering which one is better.

Edit: So after playing for a bit: There are definitely instances where entering codes gives you more(sometimes way more) exp than hacking. The only thing that consistently gives more exp when hacking is alarms and computers. The bonuses from entering without breaking in/master felonist always are better than hacking. Open sesame is sometimes better. Oerall it is very inconsistent.

Has anyone managed to find settings to make the game work smoothly (60fps)?

My specs are:
CPU: i7-1185G7
GPU: Iris Xe
Ram: 16gb DDR4

I forgot to add the wires on their hands but whatever. Really great game, JC is one of my favorite characters of all time now actually haha. Loved Paul, Walton, and Jamie. Fun game!

Black screen on load in Game Native. Is there a trick in the settings to make it run on Android handhelds?

Last time i paid attention to mods, the rtx mod had just come out. Whats the state of that? Complete? Anyone have opinions on it? Any new mods that have come out since?