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While Deus Ex 2, the sequel to one of the most popular story-driven first-person shooters to date, has been long anticipated, details have been scarce. Fortunately, GameSpy recently published an update on DX2 by Project Leader Harvey "Witchboy" Smith.

Smith notes that most of his team's time has been spent in designing such things as maps, bot classes, plot-relevant characters, factions, and synthetically-engineered creatures. They aim to provide veteran DX players with familiar aspects of gameplay as well as to introduce new ones that add to the intrigue and conspiracy which characterized the original game.

For example, a substantial addition has been made to the character-building choices that players make at the start of a game: players must now choose a gender as well as a name and skin.

The story will take place on Earth in a post-DX future. Characters and organizations from the first game will make appearances, though new players will be added as well.

Smith's team seems to have DX2's technical enhancements well in hand:

DX2 will feature a much higher poly count for architecture and models than players saw in the first Deus Ex game. Plus, the models are fully boned and are being animated with a skeletal IK system, allowing for more animations and higher quality (motion captured) animations. The effects are really satisfying and reach into many areas of the game, improving it in both high-impact and subtle ways. For instance, we always wanted characters to have facial expressions, but could not afford it until now; we believe this feature alone will seriously improve the quality of the game's conversations and character interactions.

Deus Ex was an amazing game, and judging by the details recently provided, it seems Deus Ex 2 will be even better. Be sure to check out the project update at GameSpy for all the details.

GameSpy: Deus Ex 2 Project Update

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Westlake Interactive

Aspyr Media

Deus Ex

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