Though their quality assurance did not see major Direct3D issues, players noted "dramatic slowdowns" immediately following the launch, and the team did not understand the "black box" of the Unreal engine well enough to make it do exactly what they needed.[51] Spector characterized Deus Ex reviews into two categories based on how they begin with either how "Warren Spector makes games all by himself" or that "Deus Ex couldn't possibly have been made by Ion Storm".[69] He has said that the game won over 30 "best of" awards in 2001,[35] and concluded that their final game was not perfect, but that they were much closer for having tried to "do things right or not at all".[69]