The game that would become Deus Ex originally starred Jake Shooter, supercop

Deus Ex cover art — (Image credit: Ion Storm)

Deux Ex is the PC classic we all love to bang on about: the FPS that arguably created the immersive sim, releasing players from the shackles of linear corridors and mindless baddies into a world where freedom of approach was the secret sauce. Its plot and stylings were also sophisticated for the time, with the player a blank slate in a world full of grey areas and ethically dubious choices.

Knowing that this is where Deus Ex ends up makes its starting point all the funnier. Before Deus Ex designer Warren Spector joined Ion Storm in 1997, which would ultimately develop the game, he was pitching it to his then-studio Origin Systems as "Troubleshooter."

The pitch didn't land at Origin, partly because of Jake Shooter, but mainly because Spector's fellow devs couldn't quite see the endpoint under his melange of ideas. "Deus Ex was part shooter, part stealth game, part RPG. I mean, how do you sell that?" says Spector. "The argument I got from the Thief folks was that if you give players a gun, they won't sneak. I was also asked, 'Why don't you just make a shooter?' I learned the power of the word 'no' when pitching Deus Ex, let me tell you!"

I am guessing that, at some stage, Spector also learned the power of calling your protagonist something like JC Denton. You can read more in PC Gamer's full interview with Spector in our next issue, which arrives with subscribers July 15.

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."

With contributions from

Robert Zak

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