Prime crotch said:
The entire gameplay was stats gunplay and stealth (or the option for it), the two aspects you singled out, if they have never worked that well how can it still be a great game?
I'm not against improvements, Lord knows the AI needs an update, but from the preview this doesn't sound like it.
The entire gameplay? No. There are dialog trees, exploration, fetch quests, some simple puzzles, and all that other RPG good stuff.
But yeah, the gameplay does revolve mostly around shooting and sneaking. Still, neither of these things are implemented particularly well in Deus Ex. I don't think that's even been contested much and I don't know why you would deny that. The best thing about the gameplay, undeniably, is the choices it gave you in how to approach a level.
Deus Ex is the epitome of FPSRPG, that's what makes it so great. The only game that comes close is System Shock 2, and even that lacks so much of what Deus Ex has to offer. Character development (unless you count Shodan as a character), dialog trees!!!, towns, non-hostile NPCs...
A way to describe Deus Ex would be the ole' "jack of all trades, master of none". Those are often the kind of games I tend to enjoy the most, for some reason. It's a great game because it's unique in its kind, to this day that still is the case. It's large as hell and incorporates so many elements from so many genres and the music is awesome and the writing is sometimes awesome, the levels are awesome... it's awesome in how complete it is.
But let's not kid ourselves and say that it's a good game because of its shooting and stealth mechanics. Even for its time, neither of those held up to games in the FPS and stealth genres, and I don't recall ever seeing them touted as the best of what Deus Ex has to offer. That would be as much a lie as saying Deus Ex has pretty graphics.
And the AI? Yeah, extremely flawed as well. Sure needs improvement like so many other things. But the AI isn't even mentioned once in the preview!! How can you make claims that it doesn't seem 'updated'?
EDIT:
"As a result, they're... placing a renewed emphasis on experience points and the levelling up of your character"
Fucking hell... Yeah, totally got rid of all the RPG elements. Seriously, some people should just stop posting altogether.