Deus Ex Creator Laments Half-Life Game Cancellation

Deus Ex creator Warren Spector recently took part in a reddit AMA, during which he discussed a cancelled Half-Life game that his Junction Point Studio was working on, which was to feature what Spector describes as the “magnetic gun”, which may have rivalled the gravity gun as Half-Life’s coolest weapon.

In his AMA answer, Spector describes to Valve bailed Junction Point out of a difficult financial position by giving the company the opportunity to work on the sadly cancelled Half-Life episode:

“Junction Point had a project cancelled (we can talk about that, too, if you want). There was no money. Basically, Valve came in like a white knight and offered us some work on a Half Life episode set in a part of the Half Life universe that hadn’t been explored deeply. In addition, just because my team couldn’t just do anything the easy way, we decided to add a new tool to the Half Life universe – the magnet gun. We came up with some COOL stuff to do with the magnet gun. Valve decided to move in another direction but I still wish they’d do something with the magnet gun. It was fun.”

Spector was also complimentary regarding Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the Eidos Montreal sequel to his 2000 classic Deus Ex, saying the game – which he had no hand in, apart from creating its predecessor – had him hooked:

“What did I think of DX:HR? Well, for starters, I don’t finish a lot of games and I finished DX:HR. That’ll tell you something. When I DID finish it, I kinda sat back and thought, “Wow, I just had a Deus Ex experience.” It sounded like DX and felt like DX. It was pretty cool.

The Eidos Montreal guys made some design decisions I wouldn’t have made, but overall, I was really pleased.

Now, having said that, my one regret is that the movie deal I had back in 2000 never made it to the screen and now there’s no chance it ever will, ’cause DX, the original, is kind of old news.”

Thank you Dark Side of Gaming for providing us with this information.