Randy Mootooveran
Sci fi, Fantasy, Horror Lit
April 18, 2018

Deus Ex: A Future Gone Mad Slowly Becomes Our Future

In the year 2000, conspiracy theories ran rampant through the masses. With the Internet still in its infant stage, it was only natural to speculate where it could lead. Ion Storm decided to create a game where every wild raving about mole people, the Illuminati, Area 51, and anti terrorist organizations that operate on the whims of the 1% were all true. Not only did it win every game of the year award in circulation for its groundbreaking interactive elements, Deus Ex turned out to be one of the best examples of modern speculative fiction.

Deus Ex is set in the not too distant future of 2052 and follows JC Denton, a man implanted with nano- augmentations that are invisible to the naked eye. With them, he can continue looking like a human while far surpassing their physical capabilities. In response to a plague that is ravaging the streets of major cities across the globe, the United Nations Anti Terrorist Coalition (UNATCO) is formed to put a stop to the violence, with JC and his brother Paul joining their ranks. The game starts when a terrorist cell known as the National Secessionist Forces or NSF steals a shipment of the vaccine and launches an attack on UNATCO headquarters located on Liberty Island. After making his way to the top of what's left of the Statue of Liberty, JC confronts the man behind the operation, who reveals it was headed to the very people UNATCO claim they are protecting: the lower class that comprises the majority of society in this future. Later in the game, JC discovers that the very anti terrorist organization he serves is actually a front for the Illuminati, as well as the plague in their gambit for world domination.

The Illuminati may not have taken control of the world, but what makes Deus Ex stand out from many other pieces of entertainment is how it is actually becoming a self fulfilling prophecy. It's still unsettling to read documents sitting on a UNATCO desks about the World Trade Center being bombed by terrorists in a game released in 2000. The recent bombing in Syria should tell everyone chemical warfare is fully capable of being put into effect. Human augmentation is slowly exiting its infant stage and has seen practical use in hospitals globally. Groups like UNATCO and the NSF have real world counterparts caught in a self propitiating conflict that always leads to money being put into the pockets of high ranking officials if not the 1% as well.

What makes Deus Ex work is how its world represents a dark future our own reality is fully capable of creating. Most authors tend to look at what comes after the present, but Warren Spectre chose to ponder how the present could evolve into a cyberpunk dystopia with the right sequence of events. Speculative fiction should always have one foot in reality in order to work. The meaning of the story would be lost of there was a disconnect between what the audience sees on the page or screen and how it could be applied to the world they see when looking away. It not only manages to excel as a video game, but also weave an intricate tale of corporate espionage, transhuman philosophy, the political and economic agenda behind terrorism, and how corruption exists in one form or another in every world government. It may end in an over the top battle at Area 51 against the leader of the Illuminati, but its real world implications should not be ignored, especially in todays political climate.