"Lets do what Cyberpunk couldn't!"

Let's not.

We are looking at a new dawn for Eidos Montreal now that they've escaped the clutches of the big bad Square Enix, and though I have my considerable misgivings about where they currently reside, big names from Eidos antiquity seem to be adamant that the company is in better hands right now and that the mismanagement of Square is what led them to rough shores initially. Now I don't know about all that, I just know that 'The Embracer Group' sounds like a paramilitary group of post-apocalyptic nut jobs who prescribe the virtues of togetherness by a very literal and violent take on their adopted mantra: "Kill 'em with kindness". But choosing to believe against my gut I guess we can turn our minds off and look at this coming dawn as a new potential start for Dues Ex. And Legacy of Kain. I've never played Legacy of Kain, but so people seem to be excited about that too so I guess I'll be excited for them. Woo.

But this isn't just idle speculation on the many avenues that a free Eidos could go down without Square's boot on their neck, crushing their tracheas. In fact, the only man with a clue in the game's journalism sphere, Paul Tassi, seems to believe there's enough water in this well to parrot what was otherwise idle talk during a podcast about the early days of a new Deus Ex project. Now I know how that sounds, some guy reports on a rumour that some other guy said on a podcast; but Tassi ain't no chump, he does his homework. I trust his reporting a who lot more than I trust anyone else's. So when I see his name in a byline of an article talking about the ambition of a new blossoming Deus Ex game, I'm in the mood take that with a grain of salt and a celebratory cheer. Which I will because my god; it's been far too long since the last Deus Ex game graced us.

Deus Ex is often referred to as one of the greatest PC games ever made, and having played it myself more than two decades after it's release I can attest to the robustness it exhibits even in the modern day. Personally, however, it was Eidos Montreal's 'Human Revolution' that sold me over to the franchise. An incredible Stealth Immersive Sim with huge branching levels, an engaging globe-trotting conspiracy narrative that unfolded across a futuristic-but-grounded sci-fi setting, great script great cast, fun gameplay, timeless set pieces; it was everything to me at the time. It quickly became one of my favourite games of all time. Mankind Divided did so much right, but got so much wrong in the same breath as a sequel. By pure merit of the design direction it felt like a distinctly smaller game so that even though it's length was actually decently comparable to Revolution, it felt like the first act of a three part narrative. (Which is what it was supposed to be.)

Square Enix screwed over the game by assuming it would be enough of a success, whilst defanged, to lure players into sticking around for a three part franchise, even when that style hurt the body of a story in a game series that always delivered fantastic stories. Adam Jensen's narrative was teased heavily to swoop into the original Deus Ex cannon in two huge ways, but we never got to see that play out because Mankind Divided didn't sell well and Square immediately shoved the planned sequels on ice. Another step on their road to throwing in the towel and just going "Welp, we don't know how to make money from these franchises. They must be broken." I don't exactly know where a new Deus Ex would go, but I would hope that Eidos don't abandon Adam Jensen's story in spite of how Square screwed them. (Even if I'm pretty sure I already knew where that narrative was going, who he was going to end up crippling as the final boss and who he maybe ended up being related to from the original game.)

As the apparent rumour goes, Deus Ex are currently looking at their next project to achieve what Cyberpunk couldn't. On it's own that's a pretty decent sentiment, as Paul Tassi himself says it's a pretty confidant goal to shoot for, emulating the runaway success of Cyberpunk only with a landing that doesn't cost the company 75% of it's stock price in the proceeding years; that seems like a win-win all round! But, of course, there's just as many raised eyebrows as there are raised expectations. Such as the question of: what exactly is it that Cyberpunk couldn't do? Except for 'release when it's done', which to be clear would have been no great achievement if it had, that's the bare minimum we hope for. Is it the failure to be the branching RPG epic that people wanted? The failure to create that open-world Cyberpunk immersion that the trailers teased? Failure to provide a meaningful character customisation process that had consequence down the line? Or maybe just failure to stay in people's heads for the right reasons. Because I have to be honest; Deus Ex isn't really primed to tackle a lot of those.

Deus Ex is a single player RPG series with great stories and some choice and consequence, it isn't typically open world or character customisation heavy. In fact, character customisation tipped games usually don't have very well fleshed out leading characters, which would be a stark contrast to Deus Ex's Adam Jensen who's shoes fans have quite enjoyed stepping into over the course of the past two entries, even if Mankind Divided felt more like we were doing side-steps rather than any proud strides in those loafers. There are no fully realised open cities with dynamic crime and punishment systems, both angles that Cyberpunk attempted and failed on (to differing degrees) nor are there tons of meaningful side missions, which Cyberpunk... actually they didn't utterly screw up that department; they just forgot to bring side content that was more than just 'do this fight'. But then, Deus Ex isn't known for it's engaging and encapsulating side content either. In a nutshell; a Deus Ex that does what Cyberpunk doesn't, wouldn't actually cover any of the expectations Deus Ex fans have for a game like that. It would be something totally new altogether. 

So now we've followed Eidos into their lofty dreams, let's confront the practicality because it is stark. A big issue with what CDPR's dreams were, was that they believed themselves to be creating the next tier of open world game in order to steal that throne from Rockstar. Despite the fact that Rockstar have decades of experience making games like that, and a curated team of developers who specialise in those fields. CDPR didn't have the numbers to challenge that. Eidos don't have the numbers to meet CDPR's numbers, let alone to take over from that dream; especially not after they were just sold to a megacorp. Dreaming big is a part of equation and I'm glad that the next generation of minds attacking the Deus Ex franchise aren't doing so without ambition in their step; but letting that ambition slip into blind optimism can be dangerous; and it seems like they're starting right slap bang in that danger zone if their reported planning sentiment holds any real merit.

At the end of the day, Deus Ex doesn't need to be Cyberpunk in order to make all of it's fans happy; that's not what we come back to that series for. Even in the heights of Cyberpunk 2077 hype, people were happy for this game to serve as a companion to the Deus Ex games, not a replacement; and trying to leap frog the trainwreck to start your own steam train seems like a recipe for disaster. I don't want the Cyberpunk genre to become a synonym for 'cursed genre' after two well known Sci-fi franchises live and die at it's door. As much as Kotaku articles want to kill it off; Cyberpunk is still an incredibly cool and fruitful aesthetic and I'd miss it if it were gone. Deus Ex is coming back, and that's the good news I want to take away from this and thus I am going to; all the while hoping that the hopped up lunatic talk dies down by the time development kicks up.