Anthropax's Old Blog

If the title for the utterly sublime game that is Deus Ex is created from a shortened form of Deus Ex Machina, then what does that mean? I recall a conversation with one of my lovely classics teachers about an Euripides play, either The Bacchae or Hippolytus (I can't quite recall which) and the literal translation means 'God in the Machine'. My teacher seemed to believe that this was a reference to the mechanics used to turn things round, make people seem to fly etc, but I had always been led to understand that it was to do with fate, in that once a person had been set down a path of action by the gods. The person would not be able to leave the path that had been set for them, no matter how hard they tried, and could only put of their fate for a while. Moving this to Deus Ex, I think it means that JC is bound to his general path (by the game itself) and is only able to make relatively small choices, as others manipulate his path for him, no matter what he does. He will always have to fight Simmons, as if you try to get away he still comes after you later. JC is dragged along in the general pathway, but can make choices along it. That is the why Deus Ex is one of the very best games ever. This may seem a bit garbled, but if anyone else gets my gist, then please comment or something.