The game pushed the envelope in a lot of ways. At the time I was simply shocked by how immersive the game was, from the backstory present in everything to the freedom you had as a player to approach situations. Sure, today we have those things in a lot of games, but they are formulaic, dumbed down and became stale with overuse.

Today you can really only see innovation in indie games - which have limitations because of their resources. Deus Ex was a innovative triple A.

Above thoughts are ramblings, I know. Truth is I don't know what I would like to see in a modern equivalent. And that's how I want it too, I want to be surprised, overwhelmed, I want to see the best in the business come up with something I can't even imagine.

Instead I get remakes and ubisoft like formula "open world" full of busy work and chores.

Amazing to look at, but not innovative. There's very rarely that combination of a big AAA game combined with gameplay innovation these days that Deus Ex (and some other groundbreaking games in the late 90's) represented.

The big blockbuster games cost so much money to make today that those who provide the money are extremely risk averse, so you get rehash after rehash after rehash of proven formulas with shinier graphics.

All the (gameplay and storytelling) innovation happens in smaller indie games. Some of them actually have incredible production value, but rarely the marketing power of AAA productions by the big publishers.

It's much like Hollywood in the 70's vs Hollywood today.

(some edits to make it clear that I'm talking about innovation outside the pure rendering technology, that's where AAA productions are leading, no doubt).

At the time, DE was mindblowing and revolutionary. There had never been anything like it.