The Nameless Mod

The Good

• Huge game world
• Good voice acting
• Humour
• Very meta

The Bad

• Essentially just more Deus Ex gameplay
• Very meta

The Bottom Line
The Nameless Mod is a total conversion for Deus Ex, completely overhauling the game's setting, plot, characters, and even weapons. The game world, called Forum City, is kind of a strange one as it is a metaphor for the online Deus Ex community where Deus Diablo, one of the moderators, has just been kidnapped. It is up to the player, as Trestkon, to find out by whom and why. Because of this setting, you can imagine there are a lot of meta conversations about the base game to be heard. Indeed, heard, as this mod features an enormous amount of quality voice acting, which is arguably one of its strong points. There may be some inferior performances, but, keeping in mind this is a non-professional production, nothing game-breaking.

Whether you like the topics of the conversations probably depends on how much you like to philosophize about Deus Ex and talk about the bizarre. Or what to think of two competing cults, the Llamas and the Goats, which respectively use sporks and foons as desired weapons? Besides the dialogues, there is also a lot to read in books or on computers. No matter how it is delivered, it is always done with a sense of humour. The game world is massive, consisting of fifty-nine new maps with an open world level design. After quite some hours spent in Forum City, I got curious about where I was in the story and consulted a walkthrough, just to find out I was not even halfway. Considering the story branches drastically early in the game because, contrary to Deus Ex, you can really choose which faction to join, it may take a while to beat The Nameless Mod and discover everything it has to offer.

So, is everything great then? Unfortunately not. Upon learning I was not very far in the story yet, I was hit by a feeling of disinterest. I do not care who abducted Deus Diablo nor what ulterior motives any faction has. The fact that I looked up how much longer the game would take makes me think I actually never cared. At first I wondered why. Clearly, a tremendous amount of work and love for its source material has been put into this mod, which was recognized in the good reviews it received. After some consideration, I blame it on the fact that at its core, The Nameless Mod is actually very similar to the base game, from the basic gameplay mechanisms like augmentations, right to the kind of bland environments. Deus Ex was already a tad long, repeating itself, and this mod just drags it out gameplay-wise despite some redeeming qualities. I am not in the habit of extending my time with a game by playing mods, so maybe I just expected too much from this one. There is only so much spoons and forks can do...