Daily Radar ends their Deus Ex week with a brief interview with Warren Spector, talking to the ION Storm designer about his upcoming 3D action RPG. Here is a quote about the game's inspirations:

But I hope people look a little further back and see Deus Ex as the next logical step in the progression from Underworld 1 and 2 to System Shock to Half Life to Thief to Shock 2... All of these games were, at least in part, designed to make players feel like they're in an alternate world -- a world that responds to their actions in direct, obvious (and very cool) ways. We're trying to take design ideas introduced in those games and take them a step further than those games did. And, of course, we're throwing in some new ideas of our own!