i find it absurd and amazing people are attempting to compare half-life to deus ex. well, maybe its not that amazing, i've seen online gamers try to push hl and valve off their pedestal for years with their shallow insights and subjective claims. i still remember the months (years!?) of postings around here of the sort "valve is a one trick pony!", "hl2 is never coming out!" and similar crap. now what do they say? at best, nothing. at worst, "d3 will kick hl2 ass!"
if u really want to compare dues ex to something, compare it to system shock 2. system shock 2 was the first modern rpg/fps and even though it came out slightly before deus ex, i found it to surpass deus ex in almost (read: ALMOST) every respect. Imo ss2 was more atmospheric (oh yeah, great production all around), more graphically appealing (better art direction) and with more solid gameplay (a more delicate balance of RPG/FPS). really, the fact that deus ex gets all the attention wouldn't make me as upset if i wasn't so much into games.
if u think deus ex was good (and even if u think it was crap), play ss2 (it could spark ur interest in the rpg/fps genre).
http://www.irrationalgames.com/shock2/default.cfm http://www.fileshack.com/file.x?fid=550