Deus Ex Remastered was one of the many big reveals at this week's State of Play and, while the remaster doesn't look very good, watching and writing about the not-good trailer means that I am once again thinking about the very good Deus Ex.
Ion Storm's original is one of the most important games ever made, an RPG/shooter hybrid that broke through to the mainstream in a way that few immersive sims have, before or since. It routinely ranks among the greatest games ever made, inspired a generation of developers, and gave valuable experience to key figures like Harvey Smith and Austin Grossman who would go on to play lead roles in the development of Dishonored.
The God In The Machine Is Sleeping
And yet, I’m always shocked to be reminded that, in its quarter-century of life, there have only been four mainline Deus Ex games.
To put it in more specific terms, there have been two Deus Ex series starters paired with two sequels that killed their momentum. The original Deus Ex was followed by Invisible War in 2003. Though it reviewed well at the time, it only sold okay, and Ion Storm closed up shop two years later. Invisible War now tends to be the least-liked entry, an attempt to branch out and make the series more accessible that backfired and alienated fans of the original.
The series went into hiatus for eight years, before finally returning with 2011's Human Revolution. Though this prequel to the original game looked quite different — swapping out protagonist JC Denton for the spiky-haired Adam Jensen — it felt like a modernization, bringing the original's versatile gameplay into a new era. Then, its sequel, Mankind Divided, sold poorly and Square Enix dropped the series until it sold the IP and developer Eidos-Montréal to Embracer Group in 2022. And then Embracer canceled a new game and laid off a bunch of devs in 2024.
This Is An Immersive Sim Problem
Though Valve gets memed for not being able to count to three, it's rare than an entire genre putters out after a few entries. And yet, the most prolific immersive sim series I can think of currently has just four mainline entries. That's Thief, which will finally get its fifth when Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow launches this year. BioShock, the most popular immersive sim series of all, has only seen three mainline entries. There have, similarly, been three Ultima Underworld games, three Dishonored games, and just two System Shock games.
Looking at the numbers like this is interesting because immersive sim fans and developers know that this is a genre that produces cult classics, not huge hits, but it's rare to see that lack of mainstream appeal in such concrete terms. When you study the release schedules, you can see companies thinking, "Well, we tried that and it didn't find an audience. But, ten years have passed, maybe tastes have changed." And then finding out that, no, tastes have not changed.
Well, that was the case last time immersive sims got a mainstream push, with Dishonored 2, Prey, and Dishonored: Death of the Outsider in 2016-17. But, to paraphrase Tobias Funke, it might work for developers trying it in 2025. One of this year's biggest hits was Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. It's an expansive open-world action RPG, which sounds mainstream, sure. But at heart, it's crunchy, sometimes off-puttingly oblique, and supports multiple playstyles. Baldur's Gate 3 is similarly open-ended, and Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom have introduced millions of kids to immersive sim design principles.
So, while the remaster may end up being a dubious entry point, this still might be the perfect time for Deus Ex to return. BioShock 4 and Judas will show just how much appetite there is for more traditional takes on the formula. But even if immersive sims don't sell in that form factor, the recent Zeldas, IO's Hitman games, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle show that there's an appetite for open-ended gameplay. Developers may just need to take inspiration from im-sim protagonists and try a different approach.
