Tribute - Ion Storm Inc.

Today we pay our respects to a studio that had a relatively short life, during which it gave us some truly unforgettable titles, before passing away into the abyss. Ion Storm Inc. entered the industry in 1996, with their first commercial release – Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3 for publisher Eidos in 1998, which didn’t go to well with critics or the community. Then in 2000, Ion Storm released their second game – Daikatana, and this time around they had very high hopes. However, the game was delayed time and time again due to some poor management, which resulted in the game featuring a highly aged (at the time) Quake II engine and some pretty outdated mechanics. All these factors made Daikatana something the studio could not afford – another failure. Where most companies would have given up, Ion Storm picked up the pieces of their crumbled spirit and gave their next title everything they had. And so the company enjoyed their first major success – Deus Ex.

Deus Ex

Deus Ex is an FPS / RPG that is, till date, considered among the very best of its kind. The game was an instant success when it launched back in 2000, thanks to its extremely polished mechanics which were of a level most game developers could never reach. The game took complex ideas and concepts (which we shall discuss further), and delivered them in the simplest of ways, so that they could be enjoyed by almost anyone. In fact the game was received so well by the industry, that it garnered an extremely high rating in most reviews and became one of the best selling titles of 2000. The game even received numerous Game of the Year awards amongst others. The question you probably want to ask me is: “So what’s so great about the game, you no-good rabid fanboy?”
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First off, I’d like to say this … calling someone a ’no-good rabid fanboy’ isn’t a nice thing, so please don’t do so again. I’ve got feelings too, you know. *Ahem* now where was I… ahh yes… the game’s greatness stems from the way Ion Storm merged the FPS and RPG elements seamlessly, in a way that each complimented and enhanced the other. From the FPS perspective, the game’s action was spot on and pretty realistic for the time; you couldn’t run into a bunch of enemies and expect to survive. Instead, you’d have to use a certain amount of tact at every step of the game. For instance, if you had to get past a room full of terrorists - you could either hack into the electronic sentry guns surrounding them and get them killed; you could sneak past them using the shadows; or you could draw your guns, cross your fingers and go gung-ho, hoping that you’d live at the end of it all. As you can see, the game did away with the scripted-event dependent linear gameplay most games at the time featured, forcing you to think your way around obstacles, making the experience very involving and immersive – something that all FPSes should be.

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On the RPG front, the game awarded you with skill points on the completion of objectives, which could be used to enhance different aspects of your gameplay. For instance - If hacking into electronic devices intrigues you, you could enhance your Hacking Skills to break into more complex devices; if you liked gunning people down, you could upgrade your Gunnery Skills to make your weapons more stable… the possibilities were plenty, through which the game allowed for a lot of customization, just like any good RPG does.
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To add even more to the customization the game already allowed, you could install nano-augmentations in your body which could be used to enhance your existing abilities or, at times, give you access to entirely new ones. You could upgrade upto 9 parts of your body using certain Augmentation Canisters, which were scattered throughout the game similar to hidden treasures for players to uncover. Other than the customization options, even the inventory system seen in the game was pretty similar to those seen in some popular RPGs like Diablo; it gave you a limited amount of slots which restricted the number of weapons/equipment you could carry, forcing you to drop the pack-rat attitude.

Could the FPS/RPG elements, even if extremely well mastered, be enough to make this game such a huge success? No, it takes more than just that. Until and unless there’s a good and stable base to place these features upon, they’re completely meaningless. And that is just what Deus Ex had – a superb storyline, an amazing setting to build the game upon. The game put you in the shoes of J.C. Denton, a nano-augmented agent working for the United Nations Anti-Terrorism Coalition (UNATCO). This organization had been formed to suppress terrorists in all corners of the world, who would make desperate and frustrated attempts to gain control of a substances named ‘Ambrosia’, which is a vaccine and the only cure to a deadly new disease named the Grey Death. Your fight against these terrorists takes you to New York, Paris, Area 51, and many other places, all of which are dark shadows of their former selves. To enhance the dark setting of the game, all the missions in the game were performed during the night, allowing for a good amount of stealth and making the story’s grimness reflect in the game’s setting. At the end of the day, Deus Ex was a long, open-ended and wholesome experience that would please anyone who enjoys a good story, along with some awesome gameplay.
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I’ve ranted enough about Deus Ex now. Although it’s amongst my favorite games, I think it’s time to take a look at some of Ion Storm’s other great titles…

Anachronox

In 2001 Ion Storm took a bold step, and instead of working on what they new best (FPS games), they released a role playing game. Unlike most RPGs of its time, Anachronox used a completely 3D environment fueled by a heavily modified version of the Quake II engine. However, the game’s visuals weren’t what made it stand out; it was the game’s subtle, sarcastic and witty humor and amazingly deep storyline that made fans out of many gamers. In Anachronox, the player was put in the shoes of Sylvester “Sly Boots” Bucelli, a washed up private detective. Sly Boots lived in a slum area called “The Bricks”, which was on an alien world called Anachronox. Being the social misfit that he was, Sly Boots had no friends other than his childhood Artificial-Intelligence controlled robot - PAL-18, and a digital simulation of his dead secretary - Fatima Doohan. Yes, I know, the story sounds rather vague and uninteresting for an RPG, but the way Ion Storm presented it, made it seem entirely unlike that. Thanks to some brilliant voice acting and the most incredible background scores I’ve heard in any game, the game formed a very surreal experience and pretty much drew you into it, making you itch to find out what happens further on in the game. In fact, each character in the game seemed to have more of a personality than half of the people you’d see in real life. For instance, the robot PAL-18, although not more than a tin-can to look at, was seemed kinda daft but lively and whacky, having a voice that matched his personality and quirks that fit his character perfectly, making him seem a real person; while on the other hand, the secretary Fatima seemed like a charming young woman who, like everyone else in the game, was fed-up with Sly Boots lazy ways. This was what stood out in the game – each character seemed like they had their own story to tell, and their own take on what was going on, making you feel like they’re real people. To add to it all, each and every bit of the game’s story and dialogues were so well written, that the game seemed somewhere between a great book and an epic movie.
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The game was rock solid on most fronts – presentation, gameplay and storyline, and it did really well with the critics too. Unfortunately, it was crushed by other bigger releases and just slipped by, turning into another financial failure for Ion Storm. This time around, the company couldn’t take the blow, and in 2001, the company’s main office in Dallas was shut down.

Ion Storm Inc. was a studio with a lot of potential, but very little to show for it. For fans like me however, those two games – Deus Ex and Anachronox, were of a different level and in a league of their own. No matter what, Ion Storm will always be special to many gamers out there, like me.
Rest in Peace, Ion Storm.