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Deus Ex is just so damn great. I know we say that a lot around here, but you can never say it enough, so I’m saying it again: Deus Ex is great. One of the greatest ever. And one of the most distinctive elements of that greatness is its soundtrack, which like the game itself is great. It’s so core to the experience, in fact, that when Eidos Montreal dropped the 2010 teaser telling the world that Deus Ex was back, it included the unforgettable opening bars of the Deus Ex theme song.
You can hear it kick in at the 40 second mark—and believe me, when that shit hit, it was like a bomb going off. I still get all a-tingly when I hear it.
(Here’s the full theme song, if you’re not familiar with it. Soak it in.)
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When Deus Ex: Human Revolution dropped, though, Deus Ex composer Alexander Brandon was not the man behind the music. The job was handled instead by Michael McCann. In an interview with PC Gamer’s Wes Fenlon, Brandon explained that Eidos Montreal, which had taken over the series, wanted to put its own stamp on it, and while he was given a shot at contributing a song to the soundtrack, it just didn’t work out.
“The message from the beginning was very clear that the Montreal team was going to own Deus Ex. The franchise was theirs,” Brandon said. “They consulted with people like Chris Norden, the original programmer, and Warren [Spector] and a bunch of other people. They had conversations. But it was like, this is going to be an Eidos Montreal produced and created project and series now.”
Brandon said Human Revolution audio director Steve Szczepkowski gave him an opportunity to do a remake of the original Deus Ex title theme, with the idea of playing it over the end credits to tie Human Revolution, which is a prequel, to the original game. So he did compose a track and send it in—but Szczepkowski decided that what Brandon came up with wasn’t “the right fit,” a decision Brandon says that he agrees with in hindsight.
“If I were Steve and I had more time, I might have gone, ‘Okay, let’s all get on a call.’ Because there’s audio directors I’ve worked with that sit down and they go, ‘Okay, here’s the deal, here’s the vision for this, here is how we handle instrumentation, here’s some detail work without telling you how to do your job,’ right? We didn’t really have that [time]. He just said, ‘Take this ball, run with it.’ And sometimes that’s fine. It just didn’t work in that case.”
Brandon actually sounds more disappointed by Deus Ex: The Fall, the mobile spinoff that launched in 2013 and stumbled onto PC the following year—possibly because he didn’t even get a shot at that one. Deus Ex: The Fall creative director Jeffrey Birns initially invited Brandon to score the whole thing, but Eidos Montreal “stepped in and said, nope, it’s gonna be Mike McCann,” Brandon said.
“And I was just like, I’m sad. I don’t like this. I would have even, you know, styled the music to blend with Mike McCann. And at that point I could have done a good job, but that’s just the way the cookie crumbled.”
I feel bad for Brandon, because the Deus Ex soundtrack is so damn great, but I can’t be overly critical of the decision because Michael McCann’s work on Human Revolution is, well, also great: Simultaneously different and distinct from the original, but still very Deus Ex. Here’s the Human Revolution theme for purposes of comparison, and it’s great, although my personal favourite has always been the grinding beat of Hung Hua Brothel:
Watch On
For the record, Brandon doesn’t seem to hold any hard feelings about it, and he said Szczepkowski was “throwing [him] a bone” with the Human Revolution offer anyway. “I’ve got a lot of respect for Steve, he’s really nice, really respectful,” Brandon said. “He did say, ‘Just so you know, you’ve had your spotlight, and this is Mike’s turn.’ And I’m like, dude, he’s done television! I’m a poor game composer! And yes, I worked on big titles—in 2000. We’re years later now!”
It’s understandable Brandon would want all the work he can get. He’s added numerous credits in the years since Deus Ex, including on some very big games. But he said in the same interview that he’s submitted 50 resumes since being laid off from Stormgate maker Frost Giant in 2025, and gotten one interview. It’s brutal out there.
