Neon lights deus ex series#

Neon Struct isnвЂ™t usually hard, but it favors perfectionism by grading your performance - whether you set off alarms, whether you had to incapacitate any foes - after each section. Neon Struct isn't usually hard, but it favors perfectionism There are only a few items and options, including temporary invisibility or footstep-silencing 'stims,' so youвЂ™ll spend most of your time exploiting light switches, hidden ladders, and security system hacks.

ThereвЂ™s a hacking minigame, a mainstay of the genre, but itвЂ™s literally a quick round of Breakout. ThereвЂ™s no map, so youвЂ™ll rely solely on your own sense of direction, keeping track of the secret entrances and enemy patterns.

Neon lights deus ex series#

The low-poly graphics, simple enemy behavior, and boxy levels turn the game into a series of stylized, satisfying puzzles. ItвЂ™s all potently nostalgic (and a little predictable), but itвЂ™s also creating a distinct language and aesthetic. ThereвЂ™s even a dramatic synth score that sounds an awful lot like Deus ExвЂ™s. If sheвЂ™s nice to pedestrians, one of them will invariably point her to the local black-market spy gear dealer. After Jillian inevitably discovers a global surveillance program, thereвЂ™s one of those ubiquitous prison levels where all her equipment gets confiscated and she has to find the random crate that holds it before escaping. She sneaks into compounds where guards walk in perfectly straight, never-changing paths, always carry keycards in their back pockets, and can be knocked into deep, peaceful sleep with a blow to the back of the head. Neon Struct places you in the shoes of a spy named Jillian Cleary, who works for the kind of covert agency that puts a giant glowing eye in the lobby of its headquarters. Instead of trying to fix the limitations of late-вЂ™90s sneaking games, it embraces them, paring away everything except the genreвЂ™s most basic tropes. I mention this because Neon Struct, a paranoia-inducing little stealth game, is the stripped-down Deus Ex I didnвЂ™t know I was waiting for. The more realistic it got, the more scripted it felt, like some kind of ludic uncanny valley effect. ItвЂ™s since seen a sequel and multiple prequels, but the original game owes a lot to its crudeness. Deus Ex somehow managed to feel both perfectly self-contained and open - each level was a living environment and a carefully designed map that could be traversed in any number of (usually stealthy) ways. If youвЂ™re a non-PC gamer who has expressed even vague interest in the medium, youвЂ™ve probably had a few dozen people beg you to play Deus Ex, the 2000 cyberpunk game in which all conspiracies are true and all rooms are connected by conveniently man-sized HVAC ducts.