The Deus Ex Universe is a series of Cyberpunk, Action RPG video games, developed primarily by Ion Storm Austin and Eidos Montréal.
The franchise began with the 2000 PC game, Deus Ex. The game was an enormous success, with people complimenting its in-depth Genre-Busting mechanics, its engaging narrative and its immersive atmosphere. To this day, Deus Ex is widely considered one of the greatest games ever made.
Since the original was so successful, a sequel was inevitable. Unfortunately, lightning did not strike twice and Deus Ex: Invisible War was met with harsh criticism upon release. Invisible War had a tumultuous development cycle, largely caused by their publisher, Eidos Interactive, forcing the development team to both develop primarily for the Xbox, and use a game engine that, despite being a successor to that which powered the original game, simply could not handle a game like Deus Ex nor work properly on said system.
The series went dormant after Invisible War's poor reception, and Ion Storm Austin itself shuttered just over a year after it was released, after releasing only one more game and finishing their six-game contract with Eidos.
In 2009, Eidos Interactive was acquired by Square Enix, and work began on reviving the series with a new game, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, developed by one of Eidos' internal studios, Eidos Montréal. The game was released in 2011, and despite some skepticism caused by the switch to a new developer, the game received praise from both critics and players.
In 2015, a sequel to Human Revolution was announced, titled Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Along with it came the announcement of a new initiative by Eidos Montréal called the "Deus Ex Universe", a transmedia project to expand the universe of Deus Ex, which included numerous tie-in comics, spin-off games, novels, art books, and soundtracks.
While several things about Mankind Divided's plot seems to strongly indicate that that the game was intended as the middle part of a trilogy, and the development team briefly worked on a project called "MD2", everything seems to indicate that the last entry in the trilogy was Quietly Cancelled at some point in 2017.
In 2022, Square Enix sold off the rights to the Eidos Interactive name and some of its associated IPs, Deus Ex amongst them, to the Sweden-based holding company Embracer Group. However, in early 2024
, Embracer cancelled the game and laid off the staff, leaving the future of the series uncertain.
A film adaptation of Deus Ex was announced in 2002, though nothing came of it. An adaptation of Human Revolution was announced in 2012. Again though, nothing else has been heard about it. The Human Revolution film was also announced to be part of a potential shared film universe with Square Enix's other IPs, namely Hitman, Just Cause, Thief and Tomb Raider.
In 2004, Eidos published Project: Snowblind, which began life as Deus Ex: Clan Wars, a multiplayer-focused third entry in the series. Clan Wars was later repurposed into an original IP after the commercial failure of Invisible War. Instead of Ion Storm, Project: Snowblind was developed by Crystal Dynamics, who would later go on to develop Tomb Raider: Legend.
Video games in the Deus Ex Universe:
- Deus Ex (2000): The original game, featuring protagonist J.C. Denton. Released for...
- Deus Ex: The Conspiracy (2002): PlayStation 2 port of the original game.
- Deus Ex: Invisible War (2003): The sequel to Deus Ex, follows new protagonist Alex D. Released for...
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution (2011): First entry in the prequel trilogy, starring Adam Jensen. Released for...
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Director's Cut (2013): Updated Re-release of Human Revolution. Includes DLC mission "The Missing Link" and numerous gameplay tweaks and enhancements. Released for...
- Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (2016): Second entry in the Adam Jensen prequel trilogy. Released for...
- Deus Ex: The Fall (2013): First mobile entry in the series. First appearance of Alex Vega, and follow-up to the novel Icarus Effect. Released for...
- Deus Ex Go (2016): Turn-based puzzle game for mobile platforms. Released for...
- Deus Ex: Breach (2017): Stand-alone, free-to-play version of "Breach" mode from Mankind Divided. Released for...
- Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - The VR Experience (2017): Another free-to-play entry. As the name suggests, this is less a game and more an in-depth exploration sim of four different locations from Mankind Divided. Released for...
Expanded Deus Ex Universe:
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution (comic) (2011): Six-issue miniseries, side-story to the Human Revolution game.
- Deus Ex Universe: Children's Crusade (2016): Five-issue miniseries, prequel to Mankind Divided.
- Deus Ex Universe: The Dawning Darkness (2016): Another prequel to Mankind Divided, leads into the first mission of the game. Features Arun Singh as the protagonist.
- Deus Ex: Icarus Effect (2011): Prelude to Human Revolution. Features Ben Saxon and Anna Kelso as protagonists.
- Deus Ex: Fallen Angel (2013): Prequel to Human Revolution. Features Faridah Malik as the protagonist.
- Deus Ex: Black Light (2016): Interquel to Human Revolution and Mankind Divided. Takes place during the two-year Time Skip between the two games.
- Deus Ex: Hard Line (2016): Follow-up to The Fall, features Alex Vega as the protagonist.
- Deus Ex: Game Of The Year Edition Soundtrack (2001): Music by Alexander Brandon, Michiel van den Bos, Dan Gardopée, Reeves Gabrels, Bryan Rudge.
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution Original Soundtrack (2011): Music by Michael McCann.
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution Original Soundtrack - Limited Edition (2016): Music by Michael McCann.
- Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Original Soundtrack (2016): Music by Michael McCann, Sascha Dikiciyan, and Ed Harrison.
- Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Original Soundtrack - Limited Edition (2016): Music by Michael McCann, Sascha Dikiciyan, and Ed Harrison.
- Deus Ex: Breach Original Soundtrack (2017): Music by Ed Harrison.
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Design Work (2011)
- The Art of Deus Ex Universe (2016)
- The Art of Deus Ex Universe: Limited Edition (2016)
- Deus Ex: Mankind Divided – Design Work (2016)
