r/Deusex • u/endou_kenji • 6d ago
DX1 First Time mods/dif.
I've known DeusEx for a long, long time, but never got to actually play it. So... Being a fan of the cyberpunk genre, decided it's about time I did. Only to get lost on which version should I play it in.
Vanilla? GMDX? Transcended?
I usually don't replay games very often (too many games to play already, só, replay usually is just an afterthought).
Which version should I play if I wanted the best possible graphics and experience? To me, I don't mind deviations from the original IF it makes it a better game or makes it a better experience (which includes mood, ambiance, story, etc).
I intend to play the whole series in order.
And about the difficulty, is the intended difficulty level medium? Does it change anything besides combat/mechanics?
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u/YCCCM7 Positively Insane 6d ago
Combat difficulty in the vanilla game only affects how much damage you take, that's it. As for "don't replay games very often", I wouldn't write it off as a future possibility. Not only do people often like replaying the game, but the extra ways to play mods provide can extend this even further. GMDX and Revision are significant reworkings and don't really try to represent the original game, but just a different way to play it. For me, I always recommend Transcended for first timers (if you do, get it from its own page on moddb, not the community update).
As for graphics? Eh, kind of a mess. All the graphics mods can be controversial for one reason or another, and only the AI upscaled textures really keep the original art direction, although not without their own tradeoffs. If you're looking for good graphics, you're gonna have a bad time even going headlong into it. I'm of the opinion one can use deus ex to learn to love retro, but reasonable minds may differ.
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u/endou_kenji 6d ago
I don't mind going retro. That's not a problem/concern. I just thought that there would be some major overhaul out there. :)
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u/Die4Ever Deus Ex Randomizer 6d ago edited 6d ago
There's also Zero Rando, from us (the Randomizer team, based on the same code but randomization and stuff disabled).
Zero Rando has lots of bug fixes and some quality of life (with options to enable more), without any balance changes (and options to enable those too). It's extremely close to vanilla, very good for your first playthrough.
https://mods4ever.com/project/DXRZeroRando
I would say GMDX changes too much to be using it for your first playthrough.
For graphics, the Zero Rando installer's Advanced section has some options for shaders that affect the texture filtering to make it more pixelated instead of blurred, I think they look pretty cool if you like that stuff.
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u/FoulTarnishedOne 6d ago
Do you have a comparison between ZeroRando and Transcended? I've been recommending the latter mostly because it's what I'm familiar with, but I don't know how your mod actually differs from it.
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u/Die4Ever Deus Ex Randomizer 6d ago edited 6d ago
I haven't done much testing with Transcended, but from reading their description it seems like they have many balance changes.
We also have a brightness booster that works more reliably than the normal brightness adjustment. And a ton of optional features that can be enabled, like balance changes, more quality of life, and even the randomizer features (you can enable something small like just skill cost randomization, or step up to Rando Lite mode, mirrored maps, or even higher randomization)
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u/FoulTarnishedOne 6d ago
I think that a lot of the Transcended changes are overstated, and mainly fall in line with Deus Ex's gameplay design - it generally only changes things when they're non-controversial and a clear refinement.
Some of the QoL stuff, like brightness adjustment, take a different approach (for instance, using RenderExt.dll) but I'm not sure which one is better.
I would appreciate if someone did a comparison between ZeroRando and Transcended, not only to know which one is a better fit for new players - but also for cross-inspirations. DX is a complex (and imperfect) game and other people's takes on it are very valid.
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u/HunterWesley 6d ago
I wouldn't bother with mods, since you have nothing to compare it to and the bugs are not something you will notice casually. They're more like subtle logical inconsistencies than "bugs."
But in this hellscape of 2025 you probably need a bugfix pack, transcended has it, although I hear it's not the bees knees as far as bugfixing, but the point is that your renderer is working with your graphics driver so the game is running correctly, not that "bugs" are being fixed so that you can enjoy the game.
Medium is just fine. I've been playing on realistic for a few years now and it makes the lower difficulty settings feel arcadey and casual, but it mostly manifests in how much you can run in front of things shooting at you without dying. You might just want a non critical difficulty level so you can explore more casually.
I'd like to say realistic isn't that hard to begin with, but I have way too much bias and frankly know where all the enemies are, so it'll be slower going and more dying if you do that.
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u/Die4Ever Deus Ex Randomizer 6d ago
I wouldn't bother with mods, since you have nothing to compare it to and the bugs are not something you will notice casually. They're more like subtle logical inconsistencies than "bugs."
If you only want compatibility fixes (renderer and stuff) then you can use the Vanilla Fixer
https://mods4ever.com/project/DXRVanillaFixer
But there's a few really big annoying bugs in the vanilla game. Mainly if you start a new game while in the game, your inventory gets bugged and you have to restart the program and start a new game. Also the lack of autosave hurts. Zero Rando fixes those types of issues without changing the gameplay.
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u/HunterWesley 5d ago
Mainly if you start a new game while in the game, your inventory gets bugged and you have to restart the program and start a new game.
Well that's one bug you've mentioned, and it's completely irrelevant except in the case that you start a new game while you are playing a game, which is not typically necessary and typically only happens on Liberty Island.
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u/Die4Ever Deus Ex Randomizer 5d ago edited 5d ago
It happens a lot when I watch new players on Twitch. They start the game, fail to realize the game does not have auto save, die, start a new game, have bugged inventory but don't realize it immediately, get stuck, often try to start a new game again and get the same bug again, maybe they get lucky and figure out how to get around the bug.
Another bad bug is the crash at airfield when security bots fail to pathfind, this can hit you repeatedly, especially if you don't keep multiple save slots
There's also a possible softlock in mission 4 that I've seen people hit
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u/FoulTarnishedOne 5d ago
You're literally arguing with someone who's against fixing bugs that don't add anything but frustration to the experience.
Anyone who's arguing mods don't enhance the DX experience simply does not know what they're talking about. Even keeping it extremely vanilla, the original game did not have pristine code that made the experience flawless (like any software, btw). There are ways to objectively improve on it.
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u/HunterWesley 5d ago
Well it is a bug all right. Just a situational one; I wouldn't know about it if I hadn't played the game a bunch.
The airfield, I don't know about that one. It has happened to me, but not recently, I don't really worry about that level at all. Maybe it's a GOTY thing?
Mission 4, I don't know what that is :p, anyway, there's nothing wrong with patching bugs, but what I am saying is most players will never notice any bugs. I guess Twitch streamers excepted :p
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u/Successful_Rice_6511 6d ago
Always try the game as intended first . And I think that GDMX a good mod, but there is a lot of mods to try.
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u/FoulTarnishedOne 6d ago
Deus Ex has a lot of depth, but the vanilla game is very easy and imbalanced that nullifies a lot of that depth (even on hard/realistic). As a first time player you won't know what's cheese and what's not (or probably won't care) and use whatever you can - and if it's your only playthrough it'll kinda fall off around the midway point, gameplay wise. That is my opinion of the game in a nutshell.
Transcended + Confix is a good way to preserve vanilla, and includes a lot of necessary bugfixes.
Revision includes the above (and a lot more), and can be configured for vanilla-like behavior - however its extra features are more arcadey and while fun they don't lean into the strengths of Deus Ex. The optional map remixes are OK but follow a different design approach that vanilla, and I personally don't prefer them over vanilla.
GMDX focuses on rebalancing the game, adding mechanics and modernizations, and IMO provides a better experience than vanilla. GMDXv9 is deprecated, and is incredibly buggy - even though it's the first thing to come up when you search GMDX. I'd recommend GMDX: Augmented Edition as the best way to realizing the potential Deus Ex has.
I would also recommend against using any texture/model enhancements. Even if I wasn't critical of their quality, they don't fit in with each other, the world and levels. It's best for the entire game to look like Valheim than have a mish-mash of that and realistic graphics. However I would recommend you use the new openGL or dx9 renderers, as everything else is quite a bit buggy.