Over 22,222 downloads within ten years of release! DXN - Deus Ex: Nihilum is a First Person Shooter mod set in an alternate Deus Ex continuity. It features made-from-scratch original content while also extensively featuring material from the UNATCO Born mod (used with permission from fender2k1, UB's project leader) and Deus Ex: Revision (2011 build - used in accordance with the mod's license).
This review may contain spoilers
Quick and dirty pros/cons list;
+A pretty well told Deus Ex story, with your classic web of conspiracies and betrayals. There's a few odd discrepancies with established canon. Overall, though, it's very well executed and well written.
+Characters are interesting, if not particularly memorable.
+I'm not going all affirmative action on you here, but I really appreciate the main character being black. More games need that kind of diversity.
+Maps are beautifully well made and filled with plenty of secrets - enough to delight any explorer.
+Locations are classic Deus Ex stuff, with seedy nightclubs and illegal laboratories.
+New guns are interesting and well implemented.
+Difficulty isn't too challenging nor easy.
+Lot of interesting new elements and mission ideas.
+Music is absolutely amazing and perhaps my favorite aspect of this mod. If there's a soundtrack around somewhere, I'd love to download it.
-Mad Ingram's voice acting... is not that great. And that's being charitable. He sounds stilted and addicted to Valium - if you intend to make another release, or patch or whatever, consider getting someone else to voice act Ingram. Most of the VA work is pretty good, though.
-The maps, while beautiful and well constructed, are almost too large and too empty at times. Berlin and Hong Kong are the worst offenders here. It felt like you could have decreased the map size, or at least filled these locations out more adequately.
-Some of the story beats are muddied or not well fleshed out.
-I wasn't a huge fan at the attempts at humor in this mod - both the fourth wall breaking references to Deus Ex itself and the obnoxious ham sandwich jokes. It's not funny just because you keep referencing it.
-There is a frustrating amount of backtracking in this mod.
-There were a few bugs, but I'm not sure if this is the mod's fault or Deus Ex's.
Anyway, overall I really enjoyed it. Had a few obvious problems with some of the writing and voice acting, but yeah. Good work.