Deus Ex 3: It's Like This

God bless Future Publishing's bizarre self-cannibalisation. PC Zone might be currently carrying the world exclusive first Deus Ex 3 preview, but CVG has kindly summarised the most important bits for everyone to see. Hooway!

As widely speculated, it's a prequel, which may mean the arguably over-exposed Denton lineage is left well alone. Or alternatively that its backstory is further filled in, as the protagonist's forename 'Adam' is unlikely to have been one chosen lightly. Here's the basic plot setup:

You're cast as average joe Adam Jensen, who works as a private security officer at a technology lab specialising in biomechanical augmentations, a forerunner to the sort of nanotechnology shown in the original Deus Ex. One day the path of his life is unexpectedly altered as a team of black ops commandos break into his company's HQ, and using a security plan from Jensen's own hand, a mass slaughter ensues and the conspiracy begins.

Sure to start shouting matches and AIM accusations of "dumbed down" are the revelations that there'll be a Halo-esque auto-heal system and that your combat prowess is more about marksmanship than stats. However, in a clarification email to Voodoo Extreme, Eidos Montreal confirmed the game's definitely an RPG, replete with experience points. "The gameplay takes the form of a consequence-driven multi-path, multi-solution approach in a non-linear space" apparently, which seems to be a faintly tedious newspeak way of saying exactly what we do want to hear.

More details in the CVG story, but to see the screenshots (very pretty, apparently - a meld of renaissance and cyberpunk) you'll need to pick up PC Zone.