By Jim Rossignol on August 29th, 2011 at 3:40 pm.
Come on now, you must have had some time to play DXHR by now? If so, head below and tell us what you thought of it. Let’s assume SPOILERS for this comment thread, shall we?
If you want to know our thoughts, check out The RPS Verdict, John’s thoughts on the game, my own story of lethality versus non-lethality, and Alec’s explanation of why he is not Adam Jensen.
Anyway, how are you getting on with it?
29/08/2011 at 15:41 BatmanBaggins says:
It was a lovely game that I enjoyed.
29/08/2011 at 17:50 Balobam says:
I too enjoyed this particular game.
But I wanted a New Game + dammit! Starting over with a Jensen that could bring down a robot with quick little spin.
29/08/2011 at 18:02 po says:
I’m sure that I will enjoy it a lot more if I don’t read any of the comments below this, on account of the spoilers ;)
My experience so far:
I’m impressed, and this game has reinforced my belief that modern games can be > modern films. This is something the developers should be proud of, as in many respects DXHR is as good as the original, thanks to the depth to the story, and actually having a plot.
If you’re having problems with those unavoidable boss fights, make sure you have the weapon specific upgrade for the assault rifle (along with damage, reload and magazine size upgrades). I’ve picked hacking, stealth and mobility augments, and having that weapon available makes the combat easier when it’s unavoidable. The rest of the time I rely on my pistol, or just knocking out enemies.
29/08/2011 at 18:09 Balobam says:
I couldn’t agree more, this game (along with Portal 2) have both entertained me far, far more than any recent film.
The stories are well written and the characters actually come across as human (or robot) to an extent that makes you actually feel something for them to the point that at a certain part of the game, I had to abandon my otherwise entirely peaceful playthrough just because I actually cared.
Plus I actually liked the ending (no spoilers, so don’t worry). It’s not the usual MEGA SATAN vs SUPER NUN endings that seem to be prevalent nowadays, they’re choices with total moral ambiguity, no right or wrong answer.
That’s my 2 cents anyway.
29/08/2011 at 18:22 Andrew Simone says:
I rather liked this game, but I would humbly suggest you are watching the wrong films.
29/08/2011 at 18:31 Balobam says:
It’s probably more to do with the fact I do in general much prefer games to films. But what I meant really, is that more recently games stories have taken on a more cinematic role rather than just running in the background like in the past.
So to compare a modern game to a film isn’t exactly outlandish as they’re a lot more comparable now, but the ending to Portal 2 just had me in complete awe, possibly due to the fact that over the course of the game I came to really like the 2 characters, whereas in a film, it’s about 2-3 hours max and then it’s over which gives you less time to feel for the characters.
But, I also meant recent films, which a lot I have enjoyed and some I really like, but those 2 games just really got me hooked
29/08/2011 at 19:28 Andrew Simone says:
I hear you. Personally, I think the issue is less about time and more about incompetent writing or directors who don’t understand how to exploit the medium to its fullest. Some of the most striking, vivid characters I’ve seen have been in short films (thirty minutes or less) and flash fictions. Well rounded characters are difficult and, sadly, are not what sells (or is not what’s sold, depending on how conspiratorial you want to go).
29/08/2011 at 20:00 Balobam says:
Yeah I can agree with that, there aren’t that many films that really make me relate to the characters, as a lot of the time they do stuff I wouldn’t necessarily do, whereas in a game such as DE, they don’t have a choice but to follow my lead.
But yeah, unfortunately that’s not what sells, especially in games it’s a rare sight to see competent writing.
It’s all about EXPLOSIONS! ROBOTS! BLOOD EVERYWHERE! NAKED LADIES! These days.
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30/08/2011 at 04:38 JackShandy says:
It’s the best Deus Ex-style game since Deus Ex.
30/08/2011 at 05:14 unlimitedgiants says:
I am dissapoint. The first reply to this article should have been “blue and orange”.
29/08/2011 at 15:42 bglamb says:
Best bit was the boss fights.
29/08/2011 at 16:39 Anthile says:
Karma.
29/08/2011 at 16:50 Crimsoneer says:
Even Chinese scammers think you’re wrong.
29/08/2011 at 21:23 foda500orama says:
What about Nigerian scammers?
29/08/2011 at 21:46 Balobam says:
Those Nigerian scammers made me laugh, I read the first email with them in and was thinking HOLY SHIT that’s a lotta credits, and wondered if there was a way I could acquire them, then after reading it for the 3rd time it suddenly hit me and I just cracked up.
I like the little things like that.
29/08/2011 at 22:57 grundus says:
I hacked a computer in the second to last chapter and there was an email where someone was saying that someone else in the place (trying hard to avoid spoilers here) was still receiving Nigerian spam emails even though they were supposed to be in an ultra-top-secret facility (or something to that effect). That made me laugh.
29/08/2011 at 23:50 bglamb says:
There’s a nice e-mail on Pritchard’s computer turning down his pitch for a TV series.
It explains how nobody will ever make something with a sneaky hacker for a lead character. You have to make them a discredited ex-cop who still fights for justice.
29/08/2011 at 23:58 Pattom says:
That bit with the Nigerian spam actually “confirmed” a deeply paranoid idea I had that the emails were fake, being the “calling card” of another hacker who had broken into those systems. As I could only recall seeing them on the computers of people involved in the conspiracy (my memory is awful, but I thought I saw them on: O’Malley’s home PC, a workstation in the TYM labs, the Hive’s security booth, and the office you’re talking about), I assumed it was a plan to lash out and sabotage Windmill’s associates if any harm came to him.
Suffice to say that since I didn’t preface this with spoilers, none of this happened. Sadly.
30/08/2011 at 01:20 xavdeman says:
@Pattom says: 08/29/2011 at 23:58 .
That’s a really interesting fan theory. Although I remember the mails to be on a lot more computers than only on the conspirators’. Hey, does anyone know the meaning of the e-mail / PDA found in Heng sha after you get back there and Belltower is looking for you. If you walk in the street of the LIMB clinic, all the way to the end and to the right. There is a lockup garage there which you can hack open. It contains a vault and a computer. In one of them (I don’t remember) is an e-mail to ANON@HENGSHADOW.FREE.NET. WHAT DOES IT MEAAAAAN?
30/08/2011 at 01:50 vagabond says:
Some of the joke emails are pretty funny. My favourite one is the one that tells the user that their mailbox has reached it’s capacity of 5 emails and is full and that they should delete some emails if they want to receive more.
30/08/2011 at 17:08 Ix Forres says:
@vagabond, the 4-email-limit thing is actually done by the IT guys there to help reduce the number of emails to track so they can spot dissidents and problem employees faster. “I Read Your Email” t-shirts on, everyone!
29/08/2011 at 15:42 ResonanceCascade says:
I loved it. It had some VO and graphics problems, and a few of the levels were inexplicably linear and frustrating, but overall it was probably the best thing I’ve played this year.
29/08/2011 at 15:43 Ba5 says:
Holy shit the ending was amazing. Who could ever forget that tiny room with 4 buttons in it?
Yeah, I did enjoy it, but the ending was terrible.
Here’s 4 options that are all equally shit, have at it. Nothing as awesome as fusing with a large AI.
Oh, and if you were hoping there would be an ending cinema of you reunited with Megan, or high-fiving Pritchard you’re shit out of luck. I was also hoping me saving the VTOL pilot in China would come back to help me, but nope. “Thanks Spyboy!” and you never see her again.
They put a lot of effort into the fluff, and it is an awesome world, but the characters are dull, and there’s no character arcs at all.
29/08/2011 at 15:57 Crimsoneer says:
Agree entirely…although
“thanks spyboy”
“see you around, flygirl”
Felt awesome. I really felt something for both Malik and Pritchard around then :)
29/08/2011 at 17:02 LockjawNightvision says:
Well she comes back to save the scientists in Singapore. I assume this doesn’t happen if you let her die.
29/08/2011 at 17:02 Burky says:
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/578932219559976308/59DEF6CC0A00F6118D29A71BF063509AF53B1F3D/
~player agency~
each one of those buttons triggers a faux-philosophical monologue dubbed over a slideshow of real-life stock footage
the end
29/08/2011 at 17:17 adammtlx says:
I didn’t save Malik. I wanted to, but I was playing non-violent and wasn’t really geared up for fighting and it looked like an army was marching toward me. Then she died, like, really quickly. And I suddenly realized I was mad about it. So I immediately went into ninja killer mode and dispatched every last one of them with my arm swords and silenced pistol within about 2 minutes, all without being seen. Headshot, headshot, murder takedown, headshot, etc. It was awesome. Like something in a movie, where it takes tragedy to get the latent badass in the main character to come out and start wrecking.
Of course, I was back to my pacifist tendencies immediately afterwards. But still. Minor spoiler sidenote: if you don’t save her, you can find her body on a Harvester operating table later on.
29/08/2011 at 19:18 DeathCarrot says:
Yeah saving Malik as a pacifist was definitely the hardest non-boss part of the game. It’s certainly doable if you have enough tranq rounds and an EMP for the robot, you just need to make every shot count to save her in time.
About the ending, yeah it really did deserve an epilogue to give some closure to the other characters in the game. It was just boss fight (that didn’t really tie into the rest of the game) followed by button press followed by end. (followed by insight into what happens between DE3 and DE1)
29/08/2011 at 20:12 1R0N_W00K13 says:
I thought they needed SOMETHING to wrap up with Megan, considering she’s the focus of the sub plot for 3/4 of the game; it wouldn’tve gone amiss. Maybe I just like having everything wrapped up perfectly though, I mean the DE universe is hardly an ideal world.
Personally I liked the endings – they made you think a little.
29/08/2011 at 21:40 macil says:
Agreed (with OP). I had other problems with the game, too, but the experience was enjoyable. I would not call the game a classic, however, like the original.
The fight to save Malik was great, though–I was doing a non-lethal play-through (which I apparently got screwed out of because of some bug somewhere)–and pulled some serious ninja shit there.
I used a max cloak, threw gas grenades up on the platform, stunned the guys on the ground, EMP’ed the robot (while making sure the dudes I knocked out were not in the self-destruct blast radius) and then sniped the snipers with the tranq-rifle.
By far the best moment in the game.
30/08/2011 at 00:04 SoupDuJour says:
“1R0N_W00K13 says:
I thought they needed SOMETHING to wrap up with Megan”
There was a little snippet at the end of the credits if i remember right… O_o
GOTY, imho.
30/08/2011 at 01:56 vagabond says:
I think killing people in the tutorial before you get aug’ed up counts, that may have tripped you up.
I’ve also had people I’ve dropped non lethally fall off ledges or into electrified water and die too.
30/08/2011 at 05:07 Azradesh says:
If you want the wrap up for Megan’s story, sit through the end credits after finishing the game.
30/08/2011 at 05:55 Gravy says:
I found that on Give me Deus Ex, saving malik without going into total mash overdrive, was nigh on impossible consider i hate tranq guns and pretty much used takedowns in every possible area, yeah even on bits you wouldn’t think is possible i did it.
Besides when you mess with fly girl your gunna get fucked on by spy boy.
30/08/2011 at 13:41 1R0N_W00K13 says:
The post-credits thing with Bob Page left me with more questions than answers IMO
30/08/2011 at 15:50 macil says:
@vagabond: I didn’t kill the dudes in the tutorial and was very methodical about checking corpses and making sure no one died due to fall damage, explosions, environment, etc … I probably added 10 hours or more to my play-through because of it. I was pretty upset that I didn’t get it–more upset that there’s virtually no recognition of it in the game, either. :P
30/08/2011 at 17:57 Wisq says:
I saved Malik on my Pacifist + Legend playthrough, but not with the tranq rifle… hard as hell to take them all down fast enough. Instead, I went at them head-on using cloak and the stun gun. Managed to reduce their numbers quickly enough that the few that took me longer to reach weren’t a threat to her.
29/08/2011 at 15:44 HelderPinto says:
I have one word: FUCKING GOTY
29/08/2011 at 15:44 Bayemon says:
Excellent game. Up there among my favorite single players of all time. One of the few I will replay again. Best game this year for me for sure.
29/08/2011 at 15:45 Jams O'Donnell says:
Oh noes! Now I’ll have to avert my eyes from “respond to our gibber.”
29/08/2011 at 15:46 Crimsoneer says:
Though the ending was a bit…what?
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER
Didn’t understand what the Hyron project was really for, or why she was so desperate to connect to it, and felt terrible shooting the drones…and the actual endings were a bit of a downer…the buttons just felt like picking the options out of a menu, without really thinking them through. I far preferred the original DX endings, where the other characters argued each of the solutions over with you as you went to complete the game.
29/08/2011 at 16:18 Anthile says:
Hyron is old Greek for beehive and consdiering that Icarus’ and Daedlus’ wings were glue together with wax, it might be another reference to this myth. It appears Zhao tries to do the same thing Page does at the end of the first Deus Ex. From the after-credits sequence we learn that either Hyron or Eliza (or even both together) will become the prototype for Morpheus and later on Daedalus, Icarus and eventually Helios.
29/08/2011 at 18:13 mrpier says:
I didn’t shoot any of the drones.
29/08/2011 at 18:35 Balobam says:
Me neither, I just ran in a circle pressing buttons before lasering the shit out of Zhao.
Which is a point, on the map when you’re pressing the buttons there are 3 X’s over each one, but each time you press them, the X’s never dissapear. If you keep running and pressing the buttons, do you not have to kill Zhao? Or is that the only way?
29/08/2011 at 19:55 glix says:
You can also convince Darrow to give you the code for the life support terminal on the Hyron hub, and shut it down. That’s what I did because I didn’t know you could get through it without killing them…? Though killing them almost seems like a mercy.
29/08/2011 at 20:40 Balobam says:
THAT’S what the code was for?! Blimey I ballsed that up. I got him to give me the code with my awesome dialogue choices, making him realise what a tosser he’s being, but I kinda forgot about the code….
Well in my 100% non lethal play through I’ll do that then, cheers for that.
29/08/2011 at 21:16 mwoody says:
Wow, I thought the code Darrow gave me was for the security system. Though really, if you’re shutting off a “life support” system, isn’t that going to be pretty much the same as shooting them?
30/08/2011 at 17:58 Wisq says:
Tranquilising the drones didn’t seem to work, but stun-gunning them did. I guess because of the electricity and stuff. I dunno if it killed them, but I don’t really care, because hey, I did my best. :)
29/08/2011 at 15:46 Lagwolf says:
While not as ground-breaking or amazing as the first Deus Ex its still damn good. I can think of no game in the last decade I would recommend more to friends than this game. Eidos delivered. And, as Bayemon said, one of the few games I will replay.
29/08/2011 at 15:47 HelderPinto says:
^ This!
29/08/2011 at 15:48 skinlo says:
Half Life 2, Portal, Portal 2? etc
29/08/2011 at 20:14 1R0N_W00K13 says:
^^ I couldn’t replay Portal 1, the solutions are too obvious to me now.
29/08/2011 at 15:47 Zaboomafoozarg says:
I never asked for it.
29/08/2011 at 16:19 Anthile says:
Yeah, rip.
29/08/2011 at 16:27 billyblaze says:
Thanks for nothing, Francis.
30/08/2011 at 02:48 JackShandy says:
His body can take it.
29/08/2011 at 15:48 DeathHamsterDude says:
Nope, not finished yet. In fact, still in Detroit after 22 hours. I’m going at a languorous pace to take the magnificence of it all in, and because I’m playing hardest difficulty, non-lethal, hack, explore and read everything. Although I could have left Detroit hours ago, I’m still looking for all the little hidey-holes etc.
29/08/2011 at 15:48 Metapyziks says:
I enjoyed it thoroughly, apart from the boss fights.
One other problem for me is that it just seemed to end too early. I was expecting the conspiracy to spiral up as I discover more like the first game, and played through it with anticipation for this amazing complex plot behind it all with Manderley and Page directly involved. But then it just stopped.
29/08/2011 at 15:48 Taverius says:
Excellent game, too bad 4 days of it baked my GPU, now I have to wait a couple of weeks before I can play ANY game … damn you nVidia and your crappy soldering.
29/08/2011 at 15:49 djbriandamage says:
I’m 2 hours in and I HATE this game. Not immersed or convinced whatsoever by this ugly beast. Here’s an example that I’ll try to keep spoiler-free.
I did a mission in a police station where I had to get something out of the basement. I cut through the main bullpen area with many desks and, with a cop staring right at me, I opened his desk drawer and stole $100. He didn’t care. I went up to another cop and took a shotgun and some ammo off his desk. He looked right through me and didn’t react. I then jumped on the desk, jumped and balanced on the cop’s head, and crouched repeatedly. No reaction.
So I went downstairs and accidentally tripped an alarm. Several cops came around the corner shooting at me. I hid behind a waist-high box while they attacked:
BANG BANG BANG, BANG BANG BANG BANG, “I’m gonna get you!” BANG BANG BANG, BANG BANG BANG BANG, “I’m gonna get you!” BANG BANG “I’m gonna get you!” BANG BANG BANG, BANG BANG “I’m gonna get you!”
I peeked around my box and sniped each guy with my SMG; one headshot each, got my quest objective, and went back upstairs. All the mannequin NPC cops were still friendly, oblivious that I had set off an alarm, killed several officers, and stolen evidence.
This is a roleplaying game? Plays like wolf3d.
29/08/2011 at 15:54 ResonanceCascade says:
“This is a roleplaying game?”
Nope, it’s not. And it’s not supposed to be.
29/08/2011 at 16:14 PickyBugger says:
Also you’re point isn’t exactly believable since it’s filled with hyperbole.
29/08/2011 at 16:20 Burning Man says:
Yeah, the concept of “Hostile”->”Alarmed”->Nothing should not exist once you’ve killed a few men. Considering that they seem to have pulled a few other tricks from Batman, they could have copied that game’s threat assessment as well. Panicking thugs never calm down, so neither should alarmed cops, and unless a hostile situation is localized, it should never become normal. If someone is killed, the whole place should stay on alert, at least untill all the cops are killed.
29/08/2011 at 16:21 wccrawford says:
I absolutely agree. Despite the replies, it actually was billed as an RPG. But it bears even less resemblance to an RPG than the first Deus Ex did. The ‘role’ elements only serve as a guide to the next task. They don’t color the world at all. Your actions basically have no consequences unless you go against something that’s stated in the quest.
For instance… I was rampaging through the gangs, and decided to go and do quests. I end up with a new quest deep in gang territory with the admonishment not to get noticed by them… Well there wasn’t much chance of that, I’d already killed most of them. But my previous ruckus didn’t matter a bit. I had to be the most known face there, and only the fact that nobody saw me disable the antenna meant anything.
And then they flew in a VTOL to pick me up. Why not scream, “Hey, I’m up here disabling your antenna, and I work for Sarif!!!” ??? Maybe shoot some people in their face to really drive the point home.
No, it’s laughable as an RPG. And it’s not an FPS… You can’t run-n-gun due to lack of ammo and protection.
That leaves a stealth game, and those are really slow and boring.
29/08/2011 at 16:24 Donkeyfumbler says:
He does have a point though. I’m enjoying it a great deal, but it could do things like this better. You shouldn’t be able to steal stuff from someone’s desk while they stare blankly at you but then try and hack their computer and they kill you.
29/08/2011 at 16:29 ResonanceCascade says:
Deus Ex is not an RPG. Never was, still isn’t, never pretended to be. It has LIGHT elements that are usually reserved for RPGS, like upgrades and inventory management, but that’s it.
So why doesn’t the entire police station attack you when you kill some cops two floors down? Because that would be an awful game that discouraged experimentation because you’d be completely fucked every time you initiated violence. In a roleplaying game it might be OK to completely screw yourself over by causing an entire city to go hostile, but that’s not OK in a narrative-driven game.
It’s the same exact argument people use to bash Thief. Do you know how tedious those games would have been if the entire area realistically stayed on high alert every time they found a guard’s body?
29/08/2011 at 16:42 djbriandamage says:
Am I incorrect about my assumptions of what an RPG is?
I’m not just any guy, I’m THIS guy. He has a history known by others and he’s just been saved from the dead and given another chance to reinvent himself based on the player’s actions and decisions. I talk to people and their opinion of me matters based on what I say and how I say it. They give me fetch quests, I go fetch, and they reward me. I can be good or evil. I level up. I manage my inventory. I click NPCs whose only lot in life is to stand there and tell me things until they repeat themselves over and over.
So what about this game is NOT like an RPG? That your actions don’t carry long term consequences? In my (2-hours-in) eyes this game is exactly the same as Mass Effect.
29/08/2011 at 18:32 ResonanceCascade says:
Crap, I think I accidentally sparked another RPS “what is and what isn’t an RPG debate.”
*runs away in shame*
29/08/2011 at 20:19 1R0N_W00K13 says:
The whole selective hostility thing was evident in DE1 and I didn’t particularly care then.
IMO, I played the game for the story, combat & stealth, not to jump on people and expect a reaction. Also the list of modern RPGs which utilise a similar NPC “lack of reaction” is extensive…the Witcher 2 being a prime example, and I saw no criticism of this with regards to that game. I’m personally glad the production team put more effort into environment design, plot and solid combat/stealth mechanics than simulating NPC reactions in estranged situations.
30/08/2011 at 00:48 SoupDuJour says:
For as long as there’s no such thing as sentient AI (or something very close to it), people will probably just have to play along a bit, otherwise the story turns to shit. All you’ll accomplish with doing things the game isn’t set up to deal with is to ruin the experience for yourself, basically. Ideally, games should be 100% perfect but we don’t live in an ideal world.
I agree that it would be a good thing if characters would be slightly more responsive.
But what if the game DID have severe, gameplay-affecting consequences to every action the player makes? Does that make a game more fun? Because most of it will be negative for the player, probably? You do something “wrong” and you get punished… perhaps even permanently, i.e. for the rest of the game? For example, if you (accidentally or not) kill some cops and they know who did it. IRL cops wouldn’t stop looking for you. Would it really make a game better if consequences worked like in real life?
I think it’s probably a good thing that DXHR is more a sandbox style game in terms of lack of consequences, than a RPG. Otherwise there would be even more quicksave/quickloading going on. :P
30/08/2011 at 01:01 Janus says:
1. Deus Ex is not an RPG and this half-baked prequel isn’t either. It’s a simulation game, in the vein of System Shock and Ultima Underworld. You know, games that don’t get made anymore because people want Instant Cinematic Emotional Action Romance Sidequests.
2. BioWare doesn’t make RPGs anymore, so I’m not sure why Mass Effect is being discussed. Mass Effect is a third-person shooter with a few ~Moral Choice~ dialogues and an abominable date sim sutured to its distended gut.
30/08/2011 at 01:15 Janus says:
(As an aside, I find it hilarious that there are people who think binary Moral Choices constitute some kind of legitimate gameplay mechanic in RPGs. Playing Fallout – 1, not the shooter – must be an overwhelming experience.)
30/08/2011 at 18:12 Wisq says:
Re: not being seen in Derelict Row, yet having the VTOL land right next to you… The “disable the antenna” bit is part of the main quest line, while the “don’t be seen” bit is part of Jenny’s sidequest in DRB territory. So a) it’s not like Sarif asked you not to be seen there, and hence there’s no particular reason they shouldn’t land right in it, and b) you can go in, get the stuff, get out, fully complete Jenny’s quest, and arrest O’Malley, and it doesn’t really matter if anyone sees you in DRB territory after that.
What I really hated about that antenna thing was, if you disable the antenna first, THEN go to your apartment and mess with the chip thing, they decide that the best place to pick you up is BACK IN DRB TERRITORY on the helipad next to the antenna. WTF? There’s a helipad on my roof! Pick me up there!
Heaven forbid you decided to sneak into DRB territory and sneak back out without knocking anyone out … Now you have to sneak back in again, just so you can get picked up and taken somewhere else. They may as well have just locked the antenna until it was time to disable it, thus not bothering with the “player disables the antenna before we’re ready” stuff.
29/08/2011 at 15:49 mehteh says:
too console focused. it didnt feel like a true FPS and it has too many Japanese influences.
29/08/2011 at 15:50 Spoon says:
My main gripe is the cutscenes and how they were implemented. Not only did they set up those infernal boss fights, but they advanced the story in other dubious, my-Jensen-wouldn’t-do-that ways. Zhao getting to her panic room by distracting Jensen with feminine wiles comes to mind here. That, and the video quality was just bad on them.
Other than that, great game. Still a little on the easy side, though.
29/08/2011 at 15:52 djbriandamage says:
I especially liked the prerendered cutscene that teaches you “press C to crouch”.
29/08/2011 at 16:16 PickyBugger says:
I was looking forward to a decent tutorial ala the original game but we just get lazy videos.
29/08/2011 at 16:22 Anthile says:
She might have used pheromones on you. Pheromones – the wizards of cyberpunk.
29/08/2011 at 21:21 mwoody says:
It’s like Jenson sniffs glue before every main-story cutscene. “Herpa derp, I think I’ll let this clearly evil lady CEO get behind me, in a world where even the most innocuous-looking human can have the strength to punch through walls. Dumdy dum, I think I’ll turn my back on the one statue in this room of statues that is a) not moving, b) black, c) has a face, d) has cybernetic joints, and e) is clearly one of the three cyborg villains in the game. Ladee da, what could be the big secret about this stilted-talking, strangely all-powerful television personality who no one has seen in person and who resides in a giant underground server room?”
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the game. But every time a cutscene started, I would cringe at what new idiocy would present itself.
30/08/2011 at 01:32 liquidsoap89 says:
I enjoyed the cutscenes for the most part. What i didn’t like was how you would watch a video where the room was all dark in lit really nicely, and then the game cuts back to gameplay, and it looks like a dump. A little more consistency would have gone a long way I think.
30/08/2011 at 04:58 Eagle0600 says:
As to that statue room: Upon seeing the statues, my first thought was “ohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrap”. I was just WAITING for one/all of them to attack me.
29/08/2011 at 15:50 jon_hill987 says:
Still unable to have any fun due to mouse acceleration/lag. Gone back to playing the first one with Shifter/Biomod/New vision installed.
29/08/2011 at 16:01 thegooseking says:
Are you on an nvidia card? Have you tried going to Start:Control Panel:NVIDIA Control Panel:3D Settings:Manage 3D Settings and setting Maximum Pre-Rendered Frames to 0? I’ve heard that fixes mouse lag, but I did it before I started playing… I have no mouse lag, but who knows if it’s because I did that?
29/08/2011 at 16:09 ResonanceCascade says:
Yep, there’s no mouse acceleration. The latency is caused by the graphics card, usually Nvidia. I fixed mine by turning off vsync, but I might have to try the fix that thegooseking suggested, since screen tearing is OOGLY.
29/08/2011 at 16:48 djbriandamage says:
I had similar problems with my NVidia card and laser mouse. I disabled Vsync in-game and forced it at the driver level. It doubled my frame rate which fixed my mouse completely, except for during scenes where the game arrests control and all you can do is look around. During those scenes the camera moves at only one speed regardless of how fast you whip your mouse around.
29/08/2011 at 17:15 jon_hill987 says:
Yeah, I have tried all sorts of combinations of Vsync/maxprerendered frames and the like. Still no luck for me.
29/08/2011 at 18:32 TODD says:
SSAO is also a frequent culprit. Try disabling that.
29/08/2011 at 15:51 Lambchops says:
Actually no I haven’t had any time (he says scrolling wildly past the no doubt spoiler filled comments to reach the replay box) so I’ve just played the intro bit. Not even the intro mission. Some lassie moaned at me for not hurrying up and reading all her stuff (though I did like Adam giving her advice about being a silly sausage and leaving here computer unlocked). There was some mouse lag (though apparantly that is fixable). it all looked rather nice. I got all augmented, some guy was talking trash about me so I took him to task. I wandered around some vents in some offices reading people’s emails because that’s whay a head of security does rather than respond to an urgent summons from my boss.
Then I resolved to start again later, too much to do right now.
29/08/2011 at 15:52 AmateurScience says:
I still haven’t played it, and this situation is unlikely to change anytime soon :(
29/08/2011 at 15:52 akidderz says:
I think I’d just echo the review: I really enjoyed the game up to the first boss fight — which I banged my head against a wall doing like 10 times before beating it by realizing I should be throwing poison canisters and flamey barrels.
I was also disappointed that having broken into the police station and annihilating every cop in the building, the undercover cop I worked with didn’t seem to have an issue with this.
In summary: good, not great. Not sure what all the hype is about.
29/08/2011 at 15:56 Fneb says:
I thought, in general, it was a lovely mix of the Ghost in the Shell films and Mass Effect 2. Played it without killing anyone (except the tutorial and boss fights – the latter of which also felt totally different from stealthing around which was a bit meh).
Spoilzomg!
I liked when the game made me figure stuff out for myself – I rather liked the Singapore compound mission as there were no waypoints, and figuring out from information I had gathered that getting the recall chip would be a bad bad idea, but the lack of editorialising felt off at some points, most notably seeing Malik’s body. This last point would have been somewhat lessened if I had of been able to get into character a bit – Adam’s reaction would have been my reaction – but since I was forced to play a bloke that never happened in quite the same way as happened in Mass Effect/Dragon Age for me.
I avoided getting the cloaking until maybe half way or later on in the game? The first time I really relied on it was escaping the end of the China mission when the woman triggers her panic room, and I had to dart from a vent to the lift past all the guards. Once I realised how powerful it was, though, it kinda spoiled the stealthyness of the game somewhat. I stopped spending time figuring things out precisely how I should do things to stay undetected and approaching things carefully, and instead just cut corners and used the cloak to make up the shortfall. Speaking of the (first) visit to China, the later sections of that mission were just lovely – massive Ghost in the Shell vibe. Loved it.
29/08/2011 at 17:40 outoffeelinsobad says:
Singapore! Best mission, hands down.
I also felt somewhat disconnected from the narrative, though I was pissed off enough about Malik dying that I played through that part a few more times just to save her.
29/08/2011 at 15:59 LarsBR says:
I prebought it, preloaded it, and have been playing SpaceChem all weekend instead! Stupid SpaceChem. BRB.
29/08/2011 at 16:01 Tater Po says:
Spacechem is awesome! I’m glad I finished it before Human Revolution came our or I may have done the same!
29/08/2011 at 16:23 wccrawford says:
OMG. SpaceChem stole like 2 weeks of my life, I still haven’t finished it, and it made my new girlfriend think I’m addicted to video games. -sigh-
The worst part is that I know I’m going back for more eventually.
29/08/2011 at 16:05 tstapp1026 says:
I sneak to kill. What else can I say. The game is ace.
29/08/2011 at 16:06 John P says:
[The comments system won't let me post this (too long?) so I'll try posting in parts.]
I posted this at the Eidos forums, and it summarises my thoughts:
It’s not a patch on the original. Overall it’s a better game than Invisible War, though I’m not sure it’s a better Deus Ex game than Invisible War.
HR is designed in such a way that it becomes a designer-driven game instead of a player-driven simulation.
It’s a good game for what it is, but that’s a backhanded compliment. I know there are commercial pressures to make a ‘modern’ game with all the modern trappings, but at the same time the Deus Ex licence should give people who truly understand Deus Ex a chance to demonstrate that a lot of modern conventions are crap. But that was probably never going to happen with this development team, several of whom also worked on Splinter Cell Conviction which I’ve heard (have not played it myself) abandoned a lot of what made SC Chaos Theory good, in favour of a more action oriented game. You can see a similar result here. And it sounds like the same is being done to Hitman now. I await news of Thief 4.
I just don’t like the changes that make HR more like Metal Gear Solid, which includes things like
- the cover system
- the 3rd person cinematic takedown nonsense
- the stealth system which is more like problem solving (which crate has the level designer provided me with to hide behind here?) rather than organically hiding in the environment
- the cutscenes (particularly the ones in which Adam behaves counter to how you’ve been playing, like barging into a room to converse with a boss character, placing him in great danger)
- the boss fights of course
- the way situations are sometimes dealt with by choices in the dialogue wheel instead of through the simulation (Think of the situation with Anna and Lebedev in the 747 in the first game. In HR that would be handled through a dialogue wheel and a cutscene, not organically purely through your own choices at the time.)
- the level design that funnels you through a number of fairly boring environments; Eidos is capable of creative environments so it’s a shame they shoved so many generic offices in there, even if they have some nice decorations on the walls; there are no real world locations which I think is a major failing it shares with IW and something I expected them to address
- along with the level design, the lack of consumables like multitools and lockpicks and hazard suits and ballistic vests in the first game is a downside because it tends to make paths through levels more rigid: hacker goes through this door, fighter goes through enemies, or you can find the vents if you want. Consumables open up more possibilities regardless of your ‘build’, allowing you to play how you want at any particular time, which is important in a DX game
- most importantly, the reduced potential for emergence. The engine is designed so that emergence is possible, but other systems like the augmentations are not very creative in this regard. The lack of resources (things like explosive or gas barrels, few grenades and mines etc), the poor power management system that means you’re often low on power for using augs, the terrible inventory design where many items take up way too much space, restricting your ability to carry tools with you — all this restricts the creative possibilities.
All that said, what’s there is good quality. For what it is. It was still engaging enough to play (I didn’t have to force myself) except for one stretch of time through the middle section when I got very frustrated by the poor pacing: lots of running around, reading similar emails, talking to NPCs that repeat the same things, and very little ‘action’. It took me around 35 hours to finish which is a good about of game time, but a great deal of it was spent readings emails most of which I honestly could have skipped without missing anything of importance. But I wanted to read everything because sometimes there are interesting tidbits or references to DX1.
29/08/2011 at 16:11 John P says:
[Now I'm getting marked as spam, heh. I'm just typing a lot.]
As for the story, I felt the focus of this game was just too narrow. It focuses entirely on the augmentation debate, the haves and have nots. It’s not philosophical about this like DX1 is; the issue is front and center and dealt with in practicalities. That would be okay if there were a couple of missions or side missions that dealt with it, but basing the whole game on this one issue — and making almost every NPC line, every email, every newspaper related to it — just means the issue is well and truly done to death before you even leave Detroit. I loved the sprawling nature of DX1, how it seemed like a grab bag of every conspiracy they could think of (which it was) and yet it somehow managed to draw them all together coherently. HR by contrast is very narrow, and it almost seems embarrassed by this conspiracy stuff that was the basis of DX1.
29/08/2011 at 16:28 Burky says:
As someone who has played this and Splinter Cell Conviction, I can agree with everything outlined above. Eidos Montreal seems hell-bent on going through the back-catalogue of all the action-simulation greats and turning them into lazy, arcady, cutscene-driven, hyper-streamlined Mass Effect 2/MGS clones, with a few vents chucked in apparently equating to emergence in their eyes.
It’s actually quite incredible that they’re going to do it to thunderous applause.
29/08/2011 at 16:36 nimzy says:
I’m going to agree with all of this. The game really is Metal Gear Solid 4 in all but name, with less of a weapon selection and augment powers.
And just like in MGS, you can’t kill your own personal Naomi Hunter, because cutscenes.
SHE EVEN GOES ON TO MAKE THE GREY DEATH, WHY CAN I NOT STOP THIS FROM HAPPENING. :(
29/08/2011 at 16:45 noobule says:
goddamn, everyone in this thread should gather by the warmth of this comment
29/08/2011 at 16:47 Burky says:
I don’t quite agree on the “good quality for what it is” front. More like, kinda enjoyable for the first 7 hours before you get really sick of going through identical-looking office complexes, playing the same bloody hacking minigame (which has replaced lockpicking, multitools and hacking, so you’re using it every 50 seconds) over and over until you just want the whole experience to end and give you some closure. And it ends terribly, because the writing hamstrings itself by cutting down the entire rich Deus Ex universe to just the augmentation aspect, which isn’t all that interesting. It’s an incredibly weak story that the developers have made core to the experience with endless cutscenes, to the detriment of gameplay.
29/08/2011 at 16:49 kyrieee says:
Splinter Cell is made by Ubisoft, just sayin’
29/08/2011 at 16:51 Burky says:
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory is one of the greatest stealth games made.
Splinter Cell Conviction is an abomination and, as mentioned by the OP, was made by a considerable proportion of the Eidos Montreal devs.
just sayin’
29/08/2011 at 17:00 TillEulenspiegel says:
the way situations are sometimes dealt with by choices in the dialogue wheel instead of through the simulation
Sad. I was already going to wait for a sale; guess it’ll have to be a big one.
Now I want to go play Deus Ex again. Well, it’s been a while.
29/08/2011 at 17:20 Burky says:
I really agree about the consumables thing. DX1′s skills and augmentation systems were about making you more efficient at certain tasks, but didn’t lock you out of pursuing alternative solutions on a situational basis, because you may have collected a few spare lockpicks or a hazmat suit.
DXHR’s augs are all about unlocking pre-defined pathways. I can breath gas, so I can go through the gas. I don’t get damaged by electricity, so I can walk on electrified floors/win the second boss fight The Proper Way.
29/08/2011 at 17:48 kyrieee says:
Splinter Cell Conviction came out in 2010, the leads on DX:HR started on the game in 2007
29/08/2011 at 22:09 macil says:
I enjoyed DX:HR, but agree with this comment (the OP) 100%.
30/08/2011 at 01:10 Janus says:
Haven’t bothered playing through DXHR due primarily to comments like the OP, and my own confirmed long-held suspicions. The developers, at least based on what they conveyed through countless interviews, went into making the game with only a superficial understanding of what Deus Ex was, and a disturbing enthusiasm for the kinds of (mostly Japanese) games whose design principles stand in utter opposition to the ideas that inspired Deus Ex.
I’ve noticed that a lot of the dissenting comments in these threads seem to be labelled as “nostalgia” by people who likely didn’t enjoy Deus Ex when it came out, or only played it recently and decided that While It May Indeed Be Influential, It Just Doesn’t Compare To My Favourite Intense Cinematic Modern Games Like Call of Effect 2: Origins.
This is the state of the games industry, though. It’s likely another Deus Ex will never be made, because even the vast majority of consumers don’t want simulations anymore – they want Cinematic Action Extreme Romances.
With Moral Choices.
And Realistically-Rendered Elf Coitus.
30/08/2011 at 11:30 coldvvvave says:
Way to accuse people of generalising ‘good’( true) fans into ‘bad’( nostalgia) category and then doing the same, Janus( oh! They probably didn’t like original Deus Ex when it came out thus they are not as hardcore as me, that explains everything!).
29/08/2011 at 16:06 PatrickSwayze says:
Just got to the second hub, but I might stop playing for a while. I’m getting graphical glitches that no tampering will fix on both dx9 and dx11 modes.
It’s a shame because it runs so bloody well too.
Anyone else have trouble with amd/ati 6xxx series of cards and this game?
Takes the piss seeing that Video when the game loads…
29/08/2011 at 16:48 Vandelay says:
Runs flawlessly on my 6950. I don’t think it looks as ugly as everyone keeps saying either. Compared to how poor the first game looked at release, this stands together with most current multi-platform games as looking pretty good. The art design obviously helps there.
29/08/2011 at 17:37 PatrickSwayze says:
Damn. Wonder if it’s specific to my pc.
I’ve tried different drivers and all sorts.
Hope that not another ATI card is crapping out yet again.
Maybe a windows update will help.
29/08/2011 at 21:28 JiminyJickers says:
I have a 6870 from Gigabyte, using Direct X 11 and also have had no problems. Shame you are having issues because I love the game.
29/08/2011 at 21:50 Balobam says:
Wow, I’m only using a 5770 and it’s running maxed out with great framerates, and that’s not an expensive card by any means.
I don’t have that SSAO thing on though as that shit royally fucks my fps, Amnesia was brought down to permanent bullet time when I had that on full, so I hate to think what would happen to DE:HR with it on
29/08/2011 at 16:10 CMaster says:
Part way through Shanghai now, which is seemingly huge but not much to do.
I think it’s a very good game, surprising rough around the edges (most of the characters jitter like they just downed a litre of espresso in conversations) and the serious overuse of filters and repeated character models makes a game with quite deep art design a really ugly game. So far it’s far from matching the best of Deus Ex’s level design (there are few, if any real-places to break in to – instead there are lots of “broad corridors” with the routes for the player fairly clearly planned. The hubs are good, better than any of the original’s even mind). I’m half loving, half hating the deadliness of it all – lots of reloading, but it feels like being a real special agent when I can die to 4 rounds in the chest – as can my opponents.
Oh, and the cut scenes are stupid and infuriating on oh so many levels. Force me to kill Barret if you like, but don’t repeatedly force my Jensen, who carefully sizes up each room in hostile area before entering it, to slowly walk into the middle and go “What’s up, doc?”. It makes no sense, regardless of if you are playing combat, stealth or something else.
Cover system is excellent for stealth, so-so for combat. I’m not a fan of how frequently the game switches between first and third person (ladders especially). But for moving around sneakily, I find it so easy to attach and detach whenever suits best. Actually shooting around the cover I find awkward, often aiming well away from the target when I pop up and poping out + using iron sights is a pain.
29/08/2011 at 16:48 Gnoupi says:
I agree for the animations. I understand they wanted to make them look “alive”, not robotic (ironically)…
But I don’t know people who twitch that much during a talk. It’s just weird to see that amount of movements
29/08/2011 at 16:56 CMaster says:
It’s not so much the arm movements and stuff – it’s the way they jitter throughout them. Doesn’t happen to every character – the more composed ones like Sarif and Jensen of course are fine. But anyone sat down when you talk to them… Seriously, off the meds, secretaries!
29/08/2011 at 17:02 John P says:
I thought Jensen was one of the worst actually. He titters about like a sparrow.
29/08/2011 at 16:10 ophite says:
This is a narrow point, but here’s my most unique take-away: the architecture in the Tae-Yong penthouse was incredible. It does what the Louvre should have done rather than put up that awful glass-and-steel pyramid: set up a fascinating contrast between a baroque framework and a modernist garnish.
I also think people are willfully forgetting what was wrong with the original Deus Ex: the combat was miserable. The combat in HR was a joy.
29/08/2011 at 16:16 kyynis says:
Let me tell you a story about vending machines.
Somewhere, probably near the midpoint of the game (still haven’t finished it), comes a moment when you need to defend a room with two entrances while waiting for a very, very slow elevator. You are given appropriate tools to protect yourself: grenades, mines, turret.
I could have used mines to defend the room strategically, but that never seemed to pan out – there would always be a couple of strugglers that made a short work of me after their buddies had been knocked off.
I could have hacked the nearby turret and let it turn attackers into mince meat. However, I had decided to play pacifist, so that was out.
I could have hided in a vent below the floor while the stupid goons scanned the room without any luck. Turns out that it could have worked – if I’d only had the cloaking augment.
After experimenting and deliberating for a surprisingly long time, I proceeded to block the two entrances with vending machines. And giggle like an idiot for the rest of the day.
29/08/2011 at 16:47 medwards says:
ahahah I did this too. Except by then I was getting angry so I blocked off the big entrance to funnel them into a turret and mine-laden entrance of death. To be honest, I expected them to be able to mantle over vending machines so I didn’t think one machine per entrance would be enough (One entrance is wide enough you would have to put the machine down on its side).
29/08/2011 at 16:57 kyynis says:
Now that you mention it, I think I blocked the smaller entrance by placing two boxes on either side of the door. Other entrance needs the both of the available vending machines.
29/08/2011 at 22:42 ResonanceCascade says:
That part was absolutely killing me for a while. I blew up the turret like an idiot instead of disabling it and had very little ammo. I ended up blocking one of the entrances with a vending machine and making a minefield in front of the other entrance. Worked like a charm.
29/08/2011 at 16:18 ya209 says:
One of the Best Games I ever played.
Dues Ex 3 > All Bioware Shit
29/08/2011 at 16:19 Thule says:
I thought it was the bomb.
29/08/2011 at 16:20 thegooseking says:
Yeah, I’m not going to read the comments. Not because I don’t want spoilers (although since I’ve only just reached Montreal, there’s that too), but because I don’t want my enjoyment of one of the best games I’ve played in a long time soured by unreasonable quantities of hate the way my enjoyment of Portal 2 was.
Some people are never happy and just have to whinge.
29/08/2011 at 21:53 Balobam says:
I can relate to this, I stopped frequenting a certain video games board due to the unrelenting hate that emanated out of it ruining my fun.
30/08/2011 at 04:46 JackShandy says:
Yeah. I was caught up in an argument in another HR thread, and after a while I realised – this is honestly harming my appreciation of the game. When I play the game after arguing so much, I’m not enjoying it for it’s own sake – I’m distant from it, thinking “Ha, I should mention this to that thread, then they’d see. Then they’d ALL see.”
Guess you gotta disengage and let the haters hate.
29/08/2011 at 16:20 lethu says:
Not to troll, nit-pick or anything, I installed it, played around 20 minutes through, got pissed off, then uninstalled it. End of story.
I can’t believe such a development studio with such a budget which apparently almost completely went into advertising alone, made such a cliche’d and unevolved, old-fashioned game with outdated elements.
It has flaws, which I have not seen in supposedly AAA games since the 90′s.
I think I will just go through HL2 or some other similar genuine gaming experience again, and force myself to believe nothing has happened.
My honest two cents.
29/08/2011 at 16:33 billyblaze says:
20 minutes? Really? That barely gets you past the intro. The following, you did not experience:
* Exploration
* Conversation
* Augmentation
* Stealth
If I assumed the game had none of that, I’d dislike it as well. I’m so glad that my attention span is augmented and I got to the tutorial-intro-bit and came to realize that this is my favorite game since the original came out a decade ago.
29/08/2011 at 18:00 Megagun says:
I like the bit of your post where you elaborated on which flaws exactly the game has.
29/08/2011 at 18:43 TODD says:
That’s funny, because this reads exactly like a troll post.
- It has flaws I haven’t seen in AAA titles since the 90s (but I won’t tell you what they are).
- I played the 20 minute linear tutorial mission (so I know what the entire game is like).
- Here is another game that is infinitely better (but I won’t tell you why).
29/08/2011 at 18:45 Jim Rossignol says:
Most people who buy a game persist for more than twenty minutes.
29/08/2011 at 19:11 nrvsNRG says:
idiot and a software thief.
29/08/2011 at 19:52 Maktaka says:
Quite the troll there. Say something inflammatory without providing any actual facts to disagree with or evidence to support your claim, just post something spectacularly disagreeable and scuttle away while whooping like an idiot like a digital equivalent of Zoidberg.
30/08/2011 at 05:12 lethu says:
Zoidberg, no less! Know, sir, that there is no better compliment for me.
I admit that the fact of not having sufficiently elaborated was not very bright on my part. Having said that I had other fish to fry, a busy day, so I did not have time to lay paragraphs as square as those of other readers.
You asked me my opinion, I shared honestly and sorry if it did not please everybody. But to call me a thief, an idiot and this without any evidence, I wonder what kind of community I have been lying in all these years.
In my defense, I just asked a friend who bought the game to lend me his Steam account so I can take a look above it to get an idea before I buy it myself, was it so hard to imagine such a possibility?
Or is even this considered an act of thievery? To take a glance on something before buying it? Or are we required to buy stuff with blindfolded eyes nowadays? Weren’t game demo’s distributed freely for this very purpose not so long ago?
I intended to catch myself writing a good block on which things repulsed me in Deus Ex: HR, but came to this paragraph I no longer have such an envy, now that I have seen how this community can be rude and aggressive. I think I don’t even want to come back to RPS now, maybe I was just making illusions about the only news site on which I spent the last 4 years.
Ah well, this site was well going pear-shaped anyway, no remorse, good times here.
30/08/2011 at 11:04 Phoenix says:
“Question my poorly-thought out and phrased opinion and correctly guess that I didn’t buy the game, will you? Well you guys suck anyway, I’m leaving this ENTIRE SITE!!!!!”
30/08/2011 at 11:11 Burning Man says:
I liked Phoenix’s summary.
29/08/2011 at 16:20 Coins says:
I think it was a good game on many points, but it failed a lot, too. I understand you can’t have truely non-linear games with production costs this high, and it’s nice that the levels allow you to make a few rather simple choices, but for a game which was lauded for its user input, there should’ve been no cutscenes at all. Everything that you can do which is awesome (Typhoon, jump slowing, takedowns, wallpunches) is taken out of your control. It just doesn’t rhyme with the rest of the game. That’s a real shame.
The boss battles and talking cutscenes are, as many people have already said, really bad, and they should just be taken out.For example, they take control from you in the very first part in game, where Megan walks you through the labs. Why can’t the player just walk Adam himself? Why can’t you be a bastard and kill the Purity First gangster, and later, the party’s co-leader?
However, there are some really clever and creative ways to solve stuff. I adored the bit at Tae Yong Medical (sp?) where you can just bluff your way in if you have the correct item. It’s a shame that doesn’t happen all that much, though. At least, I haven’t found more of those examples.
I really liked some of the characters, Malik especially. How the interaction between Prichard and Jensen changes over the course of the game is also really nice, and it was a real shame the ending didn’t refer to any of the characters in any way.
29/08/2011 at 19:56 Maktaka says:
“Everything that you can do which is awesome (Typhoon, jump slowing, takedowns, wallpunches) is taken out of your control.”
Um, what? Exactly what control could possibly have been added to any of those things? You hit the button, that is all the control that can be provided for those actions. The only thing that could be added for “control” would be an inane multi-button QTE on top of the events.
29/08/2011 at 22:29 1R0N_W00K13 says:
@Maktaka – OP is saying that the cutscenes don’t allow you to utilise those abilities because they are out of your control. E.g. in one cutscene you might have thought using one of your aug abilities could have allowed things to play out differently, but because you have no control in the cutscene you are forced to go with what the designer had chosen.
30/08/2011 at 18:34 Wisq says:
There were times where I would run off the edge of a roof towards an opposing fire escape (or other multi-level platform set). The gap was roughly the same as my jump distance, and I figured if I happened to miss the top platform, I would land on one of the lower ones.
Instead, the moment it decided that I was a maniac who had just leaped to my imminent death, it switches to the Icarus animation and cancels all horizontal velocity, leaving me Icarus-ing straight down to the ground far below.
Had it remained in first person, slowed my descent or just nullified fall damage, maybe put a glow effect underneath me (which, incidentally, enemies should notice), I would have landed roughly where I expected.
Then there’s the countless times where I would wait around a corner for an enemy to show up, push the instant takedown button, and we’re both instantly teleported to somewhere where there’s enough room to perform the takedown. Sometimes that’s to my advantage, like sucking them into the office I’m hiding in (making it easier for me), sometimes to my disadvantage.
These are the problems with taking away control and playing a pre-created animation. It looks cool, but it breaks gameplay.
29/08/2011 at 16:21 The Sombrero Kid says:
best game i’ve played since the original.
29/08/2011 at 16:22 smi1ey says:
I loved SO much about this game. Realistic AI, fantastic environments, great voice acting, etc. However, the NPCs animated like CRAP. Conversations were painful to sit through, watching everyone bob their head like a cheerleader at a high school competition! For a game based hugely on one on one discussions, I can’t believe how little seemed to be put into proper animations and facial expressions. Anyone else feel me on this?
29/08/2011 at 16:23 PickyBugger says:
Did anyone else miss lockpicks and multitools?
I enjoyed the hacking and never really found the minigame a chore but there was just far too much of it. Every door from a high security armoury door to a garage door in some piss filled alley was locked with one of these bloody electronic locks. Because of this there was never anything limiting where you could go, you never had the option of missing a room because you were out of lockpicks or the door was too strong to smash open. Alright you had to have put points into the hacking aug but early on I din’t really see any other practical option other than upgrading said augs.
I enjoyed the game quite a lot but the story towards to end got pretty poor and the final room with several buttons was disappointing. It seems like they just ran out of time or didn’t really want to make a challenging ending.
29/08/2011 at 20:47 1R0N_W00K13 says:
Personally I have two thoughts on this. I didn’t like that lockpicks and multitools were expendable in DE1 in all honesty – it just didn’t gel with me and got annoying at points. I think a skill-based system where whether or not you can enter a certain room is determined by your characters adeptness not his lack of supplies is a much better way of doing it, however HR kind of failed on this front by making very few hacking terminals >4 security rating, and the ones that were 4 or below required little more hacking augments than the basic capture upgrades in all honesty.
Also I think I was somewhat spoilt by the pre-order bonuses – those auto hacking “AUG” things were really useful but every time I used one I felt a bit like I was copping out.
30/08/2011 at 19:07 Wisq says:
The big thing about hacking in DX3 is, it removed most of the non-linearity from the levels. You could now get to your objective through a combination of taking out guards and hacking, forget any of the other more interesting ways.
My last game was a hack-free game. That is, I still hacked things that were level one (since all truly essential hacks are level one), but never upgraded my hacking capture any higher than that. Suddenly, I was finding all kinds of ways to get to my objective. Breakable walls, codes found in unlocked computers or in a pocket secretary somewhere, air vents I hadn’t bothered with before, etc.
DX1 made all the important locations (and most of the unimportant ones) accessable via two or more methods: Lockpick, multitool / keypad code, hacking / computer login, explosives, air vents, legs aug and/or stacking stuff, or just plain head-on combat. Until the endgame, chances are you were either better at one of the three core “unauthorised entry” skills (lockpick / electronics / computers), or you had more of a particular expendable resource available (lockpicks / multitools / explosives).
Assuming you’ve found all the possible entry points, your decision in DX1 typically depends on the choices you’ve made up to that point — your skills, and your remaining available resources. These are typically different for each encounter, and for each playthrough. Over the course of several different playthroughs, you get to experience a bunch of different ways to accomplish the same goals, based on your situation at the time.
By contrast, DX3′s answer to “how do I get there?” is typically “you hack it”. How do I get through these lasers? Well, you could burn your precious energy with the stealth aug … or just hack it. How do I get into this room? You could find the air vent, find the means to bust through the wall … or just hack it. How do I get into the armoury? You could scour all the computers and loot all the enemies hoping to find the armoury code … or just hack it.
You can try to avoid hacking. And yet, there’s so much optional game content and loot that is only accessible via hacking, often level 4 or 5. Plus some of the alternate methods carry some pretty hefty disadvantages, like wall-breaking making a bunch of noise and immediately triggering an alarm if anyone sees the broken wall.
Plus, you always have the option in DX1 to go at something you’re not very skilled at, and just expend a bunch of resources to do it. In DX3, it’s “hack for free” or “don’t hack at all”. Not a very interesting choice.
So yes, I do think that the combination of all entry skills into hacking, and the removal of expendables in favour of minimum aug requirements, is a major cheapening of the entry system as compared to DX1.
29/08/2011 at 16:24 godkingemperor says:
Deus Ex is the brooding older brother, HR is the younger sibling playing fancy dress as them
29/08/2011 at 16:26 Isometric says:
http://youtu.be/Y414Q7vVgYU
29/08/2011 at 17:05 Man Raised by Puffins says:
Hehe. Yeah, the Jensen Shuffle never gets old.
29/08/2011 at 17:12 Burning Man says:
Try this too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whtNHRYJnrU
29/08/2011 at 17:15 Chikiwikie says:
HA! I wanted to do a Video like that but were to lazy. Glad somebody else did. :)
29/08/2011 at 18:31 Sobric says:
Haha amazing – I noticed it too but the video is great.
29/08/2011 at 22:54 VelvetFistIronGlove says:
I made a video of Adam Jensen dancing in the Sarif lobby in the leak — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7AG7zpCnCg — but that Safety Dance one is much better done! Very funny.
29/08/2011 at 16:27 rhizo says:
Played it for 9 hours now, mostly couple of hours at a time. Impressions:
- Shootery bits are frustratingly lackluster
- Stealthy stuff seems to work well
- Augs/upgrades are a bit disappointing
- Story and delivery seem above average, though the central debate seems pretty uninteresting
- I get a strong Bloodlines vibe from the city hubs and overall atmosphere, which is nice
- Unfortunately the graphics are badly outdated and this really shows in places
- Hacking minigame is decent, though I’m absolutely sure it will get very boring soon
- Having several options and consequences for missions is probably the biggest positive thing, I learned this in the first mission when
***SPOILER BEGINS***
the bomb went off while I was reading my emails at my office
***SPOILER ENDS***
29/08/2011 at 16:30 Tyshalle says:
Loved the game. Was the best narrative I’ve seen in a game since Half Life 2. Not to say that the story was the best. It was fine, even adequate, but nothing particularly special. But the way the story was told really worked for me. I didn’t particularly think that any of the characters were all that great, save Sarif, and a lot of parts felt kind of ham-fisted, but overall I really enjoyed it.
The gameplay was superb. The combat, outside of the boss fights, I thought was just fucking perfect. The boss fights themselves were not good, but I don’t think I found them quite as appalling as most of you did. I have no problem with the first three boss fights in terms of them happening. I think that even in a game like this, within the confines of the story it makes perfect sense for you to kill those three people. The final boss fight was just retarded though. And in all the cases, I really don’t love how much damage those guys could soak up. I guess I get that for it to be a challenge they need to be able to take a lot of damage, but just once I’d like to see a game where a boss fight could be ended with a single bullet. I’m pretty sure I’ve only seen that once, in one of the Hitman games, and while it made the fight admittedly super simple, I think a lot of that was that it was the one game in which you could actually soak up much, much more damage than the boss you were fighting. But I digress.
A lot of people seem to have complaints about this game that don’t make a lot of sense. I mean sure, okay, there are games out there that will be super responsive to everything you do, like Oblivion or something. And sure, this game really felt like it was coded way back in 2002 or something. But I’m not sure that complaining that you jumped on top of a friendly cop’s head repeatedly and the cop didn’t acknowledge you is a huge defect in the game. Certainly if you go around trying to break the game, you’re going to find issues. I’m not saying that the game is perfect by any means, but I do think that if you run around treating the game like a videogame, and doing stupid shit that nobody in real life would ever do, you shouldn’t be too surprised if the NPC’s don’t recognize that you’re jumping on their desks or whatever.
Personally, I took the game seriously, and managed to play it the whole way through without having a clue that the AI was as bad as others have said. In fact, there were a few times I thought it was pretty good, such as when I took a gun off of a guard’s desk, and he immediately noticed and turned around and attacked.
29/08/2011 at 17:19 GTRichey says:
Ugh those boss fights… only gone through the first one so far and after dying several times (being in cover when he throws a grenade makes it very difficult) I beat him in the most hilariously broken way. Apparently you’re supposed to throw barrels or something? I found I could rush him, take his punch, fire a couple shots at him while he was spinning up his gun and then rush him again without having to worry about my health getting too low to take the punch… It will be impossible for me to see the boss fights as anything other than a joke after that.
29/08/2011 at 19:19 nrvsNRG says:
this is what i was tyring to say but you’ve done it better!
dont try and break the game and its awseome,
……and another thing is that i went into it without the expectation that it’ll be a full freedom sandbox,and that i played it while following certain paths, so maybe that is a key to enjoying it more?
29/08/2011 at 16:32 broken_symmetry says:
First, theres a lot of unresolved issues; for instance, you dont know what happens with any of the endings, just what is expected from your actions… except we know how the original deus ex turns out, so basically none of your choices matter. (Especially given the events after the credits)
Also, you save Megan and the scientists, but, judging from what namir says and from the way she says his name when you walk in, she was bad all along- but then we kind of casually sweep that under the rug and she runs off, despite being the main impetus (as jensen says) for the entire game.
Also, sarif has basically been playing you the entire time, but you never seem able to openly confront him about/even bring it up, or deal with the fact he tore off an extra arm and a leg to augment you (implied in email at Detroit LIMB clinic) – Non of the illuminati/mj12 leadership appears (Page, Simons or even manderley); you basically never seem to come into contact with the main conspirators, just get caught up in the sidelight of Darrow and panchaeaeaeaea (sp). Admittedly, its a big sidelight, but given that we know what happens in the original deus ex, it all seems kind of pointless, yes?
A lot of the decisions dont really seem to have an impact: saving malik means she shows up to save the scientists, which, if she dies she obviously cant, but some other random craft appears instead.
I convinced sandoval not to kill himself, but other than maybe the ending suggesting that contributed to my morality, no real consequences. Which is also ridiculous, as the game clearly points you towards being a good guy (consider: extra experience points for being merciful as opposed to lethal).
I guess the endings also just seem too cookie cutter – Jensen ends up never being more than a pawn, he never blazes a new trail, the options you are given are always someone elses choice, never your own. Very cyberpunk, but not in a meaningful way.
Theres almost no reason not to kill everyone at the end, because you’ve no purpose now and basically everyone is so intensely pursuing their desires they would happily kill you given the chance – why not return the favor?
I actually was very disappointed that the RPS review did not mention any of this: I think they saw the studio making the motions of Deus Ex, but missed the fact that EM apparently never *understood* the original.
29/08/2011 at 16:33 EhsanKia says:
Am I going to be the only one hating on this game? The original was a classic, but this one was just like any other big AAA game. What almost every single big budget game gets wrong nowadays that I cannot stand is voice acting, lip syncing and body gestures. They’re just so exaggerated and over the top. Specially after playing Bastion with that beautiful narration, this was like a joke to me.
Also, these games just fail into grasping your attention right away. You need to play at least a good hour to start slowly getting into the vibe, whereas Bastion or Portal 2 get you right in from the very first second you enter the game, and pull you wherever they want you to go. In this game, you have to search for the fun yourself, and get yourself interested. I personally gave it up after 30 minutes, even if I had spent 50$ on it.
29/08/2011 at 16:41 ResonanceCascade says:
“The original was a classic”
Agreed.
“What almost every single big budget game gets wrong nowadays that I cannot stand is voice acting, lip syncing and body gestures”
DOES NOT COMPUTE.
29/08/2011 at 17:00 Burning Man says:
Try Witcher 2. One of the worst offenders in recent history. Nearly rendered every conversation/character unbelievable until I got used to it.
29/08/2011 at 17:09 Whenn says:
@ResonanceCascade
I think he’s talking about the game looking something like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sqV5k4UiHg&feature=player_detailpage#t=186s
29/08/2011 at 17:15 ResonanceCascade says:
Oh I know what he was talking about — and it is a legitimate issue in this game. But when you mention how great Deus Ex was, then immediately complain about voice acting and animations in Human Revolution, I’m going to have to at least chuckle.
29/08/2011 at 17:54 EhsanKia says:
Well in older games, everything looked a lot less realistic and you could barely see peoples lip anyways, everything was lower quality, and for back then, it was fine. But when you have insanely beautiful graphics and mind blowing music, these small little things pop out a lot more, and can ruin the whole experience and immersion.
29/08/2011 at 18:39 nrvsNRG says:
i actually got immersed into the story quickly and is one of the things i’m enjoying the most.
nice change for me, as most games i find boring.
29/08/2011 at 16:33 Hey What? says:
I honestly had no fun with the game. There was response lag for every thing i did which made the combat impossible, and even then its just yet another cover based shooter. Story didn’t interest me at all and the main character seemed just as likable as a piece of cardboard. Atleast valve was nice enough to ensure people would get some thing out of it.
29/08/2011 at 17:01 zergrush says:
Setting “Maximum pre-rendered frames” to 0 on the nvidia control panel and disabling v-sync solved the input delay problem for me.
29/08/2011 at 16:35 Lazaruso says:
I hated it. Mainly because It could have been a great game if it weren’t for a few dozen horrible design decisions.
The bosses are shit. Way overpowered, don’t fit with the rest of the game… just, shit.
The hacking is shit. Boring, tedious, and THERE ARE TERMINALS WHICH YOU HAVE TO HACK TO PROCEED WITH THE MAIN STORY THAT ARE TOO HIGH FOR YOU IF YOU DIDN’T AUGMENT YOUR HACKING LIKE YOU WERE NEVER TOLD TO DO.
I got to the last fucking level, the Hydron Project. The terminal in the back has a rating of five. You must hack it to finish the game. You can’t gain any xp at this point.
I had a rating of 3. I was fucked.
The ammunition scarcity is bullshit. I’m a goddamn security manager for a billion dollar firm and I can’t find shotgun shells anywhere to save my ass. WTF?
The melee takedowns are bullshit. Unless I carry a backpack full of energy bars(which are rarer than gold), they’re useless.
No fast travel system? I have to run everywhere? Excuse me, I mean WALK EVERYWHERE. And good Lord, were the designers wheelchair bound or something? People in lousy shape can run faster than Jensen for hours on end. That was bullshit too.
I liked the story, the combat, the graphics – everything else was fucked up. I really don’t understand some of the review scores for this game, and I don’t understand the Hivemind saying they liked it. I almost put my fist through my monitor dozens of times, I was so disgusted.*
*but not really. I paid $200 for that thing, which by the way only buys you five fucking shotgun shells in Human Revolution. WTF?
29/08/2011 at 16:54 TillEulenspiegel says:
I was fucked.
Seriously? It’s like old Sierra games, where you literally cannot finish the game if you made the wrong choices early on?
That’s hilarious.
29/08/2011 at 16:59 Lazaruso says:
Hilarious? That was the last straw on top of a thousand other teeth-gnashing incidents in the game.
By the way, the codes for all the terminals and computers in the game are online, I found out after the fact.
Except that one terminal at the end.
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-
29/08/2011 at 17:22 Man Raised by Puffins says:
Spoiler spoiler Spoiler spoiler Spoiler spoiler padding so this doesn’t show up in the sidebar Spoiler spoiler Spoiler spoiler Spoiler spoiler
You don’t need to hack for the final fight. Manually exposing the drones by pushing the purge buttons should also work and *checks* it does.
Edit: Yeah, whoops.
29/08/2011 at 17:25 Antsy says:
Needs more padding.
29/08/2011 at 17:46 Kieron Gillen says:
“The melee takedowns are bullshit. Unless I carry a backpack full of energy bars(which are rarer than gold), they’re useless.”
Wow. I actually have trouble understanding this. It’s like someone saying “The smart-bomb is underpowered”. With a little running, I was taking down the zombie mobs of the bad guys by the end.
EDIT: Heh. I didn’t even know there was a terminal to hack in the final battle. I just pressed the purge buttons. I have to presume you turned off the mission guides or something?
KG
29/08/2011 at 17:53 Zelos says:
The final boss has multiple ways to win. You can just manually purge the pods, you can turn off the life support, or you can open the pods safely using the three computer terminals.
All of the computer terminals and the life support panel have passwords that are easy to find or GIVEN TO YOU.
It’s not the game’s fault you were too dumb to figure out the method given to you, or too dumb to understand at the end of the game that a non-hacker needs to find passwords.
After my first playthrough I realized the game was too easy because of hacking, and played it through again… never leveling hacking above rank 1. It was more difficult, and there were some things I couldn’t find, but every single quest was completable.
EDIT: Every mandatory hack is level 1 or has a nearby password.
29/08/2011 at 18:13 Megagun says:
With caps-lock on, you walk. With it off, you run. When holding shift, you sprint.
My laptop doesn’t have a caps-lock light, so this somewhat pissed me off. Try hitting caps-lock, though; perhaps you too were affected by this. The speed difference is quite noticeable. :)
29/08/2011 at 18:52 VelvetFistIronGlove says:
Zelos: How did you deal with the triangulation antennas in the Bar Tab sidequest without hacking them (Level 2 or 3 hack IIRC)?
29/08/2011 at 19:25 RedYama says:
For the last boss, you can also avoid all that fluting around with computers and such and just give it some laser love right from the off. I was playing without all the mission guides/glowy stuff on in my first playthrough, probably missed a lot of the subtle ways to finish things.
29/08/2011 at 20:07 Reefpirate says:
As far as I can tell, the antenna side quest and Malik’s side quest in Shanghai both needed rank 2 or 3 hacking to complete… Not part of the main plot though. Also, maybe I overlooked another way to beat them/find passwords?
29/08/2011 at 20:18 glix says:
The bosses are shit, yes.
Darrow will give you the code for the terminal if you convince him he was wrong.
Stealth a bit and avoid having to shoot people?
Get the increased energy regen augment? Though I did hate how that will only recharge ONE energy cell when I had five.
30/08/2011 at 00:12 Lazaruso says:
Yes, I made it through the entire game up to that point, but I was too dumb to get through that one little section.
What a shame, eh?
30/08/2011 at 01:00 Zelos says:
@VelvetFistIronGlove
You can find her manually without hacking the triangulation terminals.
Or
You can just kill the bartender.
As for malik’s side quest, the computer doesn’t need to be read. However, these is a password hidden somewhere either in the hotel or the apartment building(I can’t remember, I never actually read password secretaries. They never have anything interesting).
You don’t even need to say that the girl was pregnant to complete it properly, the other clues are more than enough.
The myth that hacking is required just comes from the mistaken idea that quests either complete fully or fail. Most Deus Ex quests have multiple levels of failures and success, and typically you are rewarded for any of them, and worst comes to worst, almost every single quest giver has the reward on their body. You don’t get any achievements, but that hardly matters on a second play through.
30/08/2011 at 04:00 Yosharian says:
Well, I can’t say I agree with you on the vast majority of your points there. The only thing I agree with is that there should have been more ammo available at the shops, both in quantity and variety.
Hacking is rarely necessary. The only places I found where hacking was compulsory was a sidequest where you needed level 2 hacking. The rest of the time, hacking was optional or you could find passcodes in other places. Granted, this isn’t as straightforward as simply hacking all the time. I don’t agree that hacking was boring – I thought it was fine. You know, it is hard to design a minigame which is absorbing but not too difficult for the majority of players. I thought they did ok with this one.
I used melee takedowns to perform about 99% of my kills due to the extra XP you get, so I know what I’m talking about when I say … wtf? They are useless? How did you get this? They are totally overpowered. Walk behind enemy, press button, own. How hard is this? You never have energy cells.. are you playing the same game as me? Your last energy cell fucking recharges on its own. Just wait about 40sec and you can do a takedown again. And fuck, I was swimming in those energy bars… I hardly ever used them, ended up selling most of them.
Frankly, the fact that you are moaning about the lack of fast travel says more than I ever could about your post.
29/08/2011 at 16:36 Tater Po says:
Overall I thought Human Revolution was awesome. Excellent upgrade system, entertaining combat, takedowns never got old, good story, satisfying hacking (though frustrating), decent cover system, mediocre boss fights.
I thought that the inventory system was horribly unintuitive. Left mouse button opens a context menu? Not good. Organizing inventory automatically changes the quick keys? I don’t want a hotkey for beer. Using an item from the hotkey bar instantly? This needs some audio visual feedback. In the original Deus Ex every item could be held and used in first person. In Human Revolution I accidently ate all my candy in a firefight while trying to switch to my shotgun.
The hacking minigame, while decent, had a bad interface. Context menus for nodes were not necessary as stop worm and nuke were available through menu buttons. I repeatedly found myself clicking the stop worm button instead of a node. When there is more than one clickable button for an operation like that you know it needs to be streamlined. Some reductive design through playtesting could have solved this.
30/08/2011 at 04:07 Yosharian says:
Oh god, the clicking in the hacking game… It pissed me off. So obvious that it was a console interface badly hacked (pun intended) to fit the PC. *stop worm activated* NO! I DIDN’T WANT TO DO THAT!
29/08/2011 at 16:37 kyrieee says:
Quick things:
I miss multitools and lockpicks because they were a limited resource. The fact that you can hack keypads makes finding the combination rather pointless, in DX finding a combination was a big deal because it saved you multitools.
I wish there were more opportunities for improvisation, more simulation, more emergence. I liked having to unlock doors with my nanokey in DX, it’s the little things that bring the world to life IMO.
The whole Panchea part was trash. It was Deus Ex: L4D
Overall the game was startlingly similar to the original. Versalife = TYM, the harbour = the harbour, you visit the place your pilot used to live, your pilot can die, optional hostage objective on the first mission, Zhao = Maggie Chow, Detroit feels like Hell’s Kitchen. It’s more than simply an homage, it’s almost a re-imagining of the first game.
The ending:
I thought it was terrible in so many ways. The obvious way being that you press one of four buttons to choose which lame video you get to watch, but I think it’s flawed on a much deeper level. Most of the game tells a personal story, the story of how Adam goes on the search for the people who snatched his ex and eventually the ex herself, but also how Adam views his own situation. There are a lot of thing going on in the world parallel to that, the conspiracy to control the world through augmentation technology, the societal conflict pro- and anti-augmentation people etc.
It’s all intertwined but to me at least the larger events taking place were just context for Adam’s own story. Finding Dr Reed was a huge anti-climax and it’s inferred that Adam was wrong to chase her for personal reasons, that she’s lost to him. However that’s quickly brushed aside as the background plot rises to the surface and Adam has to go save the world. That’s where things went wrong.
Adam gets to choose the future of augmentation technology; how he’s come to view what happened to himself will be mirrored by the world. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t work because the world can’t support such polar opposite futures with such a late branching point. Whatever state the world ends up in is unjustified. It would only have worked in a fixed narrative where Adam has a fixed character arc, the world has a fixed arc and they both end up in the same place, independently. Since this is a game and you can choose how Adam feels the only way for the future of the world to match Adam’s convictions is for former to be a direct consequence of the latter. That’s why you end up with this contrivance.
Furthermore, Adam’s ultimate feelings are never explored, despite it being his story. His relationship to Reed is not satisfyingly resolved, nor the relationship with anyone else. It’s a character driven game for fuck’s sake! The characters are more important than the world. Of course it’s inferred how Megan feels, but that’s not enough when avenging / finding her is the driving force of most of the game.
You should never have saved the world, you should never have had a profound impact on the world. It’s not that the story of the world shouldn’t have been there, it’s just that Adam shouldn’t have played such a big part in it because he never meant to. The ending just killed the game for me, it bums me out so much.
edit: I guess I should say that I did love most of the game. The art design got a lot of attention pre-release and my god did it deserve it. Such a gorgeous game.
29/08/2011 at 19:54 broken_symmetry says:
^ agree: gameplay great, story not
29/08/2011 at 16:37 PoulWrist says:
I have not. It’s still in the mail.
29/08/2011 at 16:38 Burning Man says:
I appreciate all the hacking minigames and stealth and beautifully crafted areas, but having played FONV recently, I’m looking for a lot of similar things that are missing.
-> The worlds are extremely detailed, which makes them very pretty, but each major area is also small, and features very very little interaction with the environment/people. Walking into a L.I.M.B. operation theatre, and seeing all those beautiful objects just sitting there like paintings frustrates me. Having somebody deliver a random line just doesn’t work for me. Ambient conversations are interesting, but always discuss ongoing events, never the people involved.
-> Sidequests are very few in number, and are delivered as the story goes along, which is irritating, because I like choosing when to do them. The quests themselves are wordy and interesting, which is good, and often make me strongly support some form of righteously indignant murder, which is what I suppose video games are for.
-> I would also like combat to be a tad more visceral and bloody. I’ve taken to stabbing most people in the chest because that’s the only real way to get a fun kill. Shooting them in the face has them shaking their heads before they fall over their own feet. Then again, I suppose this game makes it a point to not be about killing.
29/08/2011 at 16:48 Kent says:
I think the game had several strength and several flaws.
First off. I loved the Augmentations, they’re much better than the ones in Deus Ex 1 and far more streamlined. I loved the style: It’s nice to see some European art styles instead of these cliché american ones for bloody once. I loved the graphics in the game. I loved the gunplay for the upgraded guns. I loved the characters (except Megan Reed). I loved the minigames. I also liked some of the stealth mechanics. I loved the sidequests which never seemed like they were wasting my time like so many other RPGs! I also loved how it sets up events for Deus Ex 1.
But what I hated with it is that the game is very cheapish with Praxis Points, also the augmentations doesn’t allow for real specialization. Most of them seem more like convenience tweaks that Jensen should pretty much start out with. Also the game has far too little ammo lying around, with only 5 bullets per item at best. This is fine in survival type games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. but not in a game where you play a “head of security” guy.
The NPCs doesn’t actually shoot at you but they roll a die to see if they hit you and that’s just barely restricted by their LOS. They’re also extremely alert and very good at turning, running and shooting Jensen. Which is unrealistic and breaks the gameplay in shooting scenes.
You only had one damn energy cell that recharged and had to recharge the other ones manually which took precious inventory space.
Lobbing grenades were annoying.
Damn game were way shorter than the original Deus Ex.
To summarize. The game does a lot of things right and a lot of things wrong. It’s a very special title in my book and it’s definitely better than Vampires: The Masquerade Bloodlines. But it’s no Deus Ex as far as I’m concerned. The original Deus Ex actually had far better gunplay and was way more enjoyable as a combat oriented game. This game got stealth right but not combat and only because of simple design mistakes. The rest in the game is gold.
29/08/2011 at 16:48 michal.lewtak says:
Please help a fellow OCD completionist!
Treading carefully among this possibly spoiler-infested land, I’d like to ask one thing to the people who already passed the game or are close to doing so. Please be aware I’m myself spoiling everything up to the end of the first city hub.
I’m a disgusting completist and therefore I like discovering all the paths (and getting the XP for that), knocking out all the hostiles, doing all the side quests and discovering all the hidden places in the city hub(s). I just disabled the antenna in Detroid and Malik is waiting for me on the adjacent helipad, and here’s a small list of places I haven’t been to yet, because they seem like sidequest-related places:
-The room inside the dealer’s house in one of the apartment buildings, there’s a prostitute lying on the bed. When I enter, they turn hostile, so I quickloaded;
-The apartment close to that one, with a level 2 lock on it. I don’t remember what was there but the emails on the computer sounded sidequest-y;
-An apartment with a level 5 lock, it has some medical equipment inside it (a bed and stuff). It’s in the building with the gate and a blue light;
-The entrance to the convention center, where, currently, gang members are hanging out. I know for sure there’s a vent I can enter.
Do you ever return to Detroid later? If so, are there sidequests later that make you go inside all of those places? Because I don’t wanna go to these places for no reason if they have a story to them later on. On the other hand, if I go there now, will they reset themselves for the sidequests anyway? Or will I just immediately get the sidequests’ goals completed because I already read some information or opened/discovered/entered a place? There’s a conference expected at the convention center, and I fear those gang members will disappear when I get back to Detroid, along with whatever they were hiding there. Will they? Just how exactly does the game handle things you already did, when presenting you with a sidequest that was supposed to make you do them for the first time? I don’t wanna ruin my next city hubs…
And last, I cleared up the whole police station, zeroth floor included. Had I convinced Haas to let me in, would I have been able to grab any sidequests from the people inside, who are now laying on the floor drooling? (Because I’ll shoot myself if that’s true).
Malik is asking me if I’m ready to go. What do?
Oh, P.S. – how do I know what parts of the hub will change and what parts will remain exactly the same, bodies lying on the floor and all, when I get back to Detroid?
Any spoiler-free help is greatly appreciated :)
29/08/2011 at 16:52 kyrieee says:
You do return and there are more quests. I don’t remember ever damn apartment sorry, but you do go to the convention center. The vent is unrelated though, it just contains a stash.
29/08/2011 at 18:25 nrvsNRG says:
You get a warning by the game that sidequests will be cancelled and to finish up what you have to do, when you leave detroit properley. (NOT the first time malik picks you up from roof).
29/08/2011 at 20:28 Vandelay says:
Except it doesn’t warn you for the mission after disabling the antenna. It is only when you leave Detroit for the east that it says you lose the side quests. I missed out on the “Mysterious Strange” quest, as it disappears when you come back from that mission, although the other side quests were still there.
29/08/2011 at 16:52 Daywalker13 says:
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
I’ve played through it once, staying pretty much non-lethal. Though when the badguys attack you in that pod hotel in ShengHua [sic] and kill all the civilians once they cordon off the place I went postal and murdered all of them.
I really enjoyed the game, my only real criticism was that it didn’t go as far as I’d hoped it would into integrating your choices and actions into the moment-to-moment world of the game. Mostly that’s just disappointment that games still haven’t really gotten “there” yet. I thought that the “during the cutscene” actions were a little annoying sometimes. For example, going back to that pod hotel, I was really annoyed that in the unshown action of the cutscene, the baddies killed EVERYONE in the hotel but me and my dude. I would have loved the opportunity to try and prevent the mass murdering.
On that note, by far my favorite moment of the game came after the hovercraft? crash near the end of the game. After coming out of the cutscene I basically dithered a bit on what I would do and all of a sudden the ship blows up and the pilot’s dead. And that wasn’t cool, so I reloaded. After the reload I immediately went on a crazy attack to save the pilot.
I stealthed and ran through, doing a double takedown of two dudes who happened to stand next to each other at just the right time. Still stealthed, I tazered a baddie. Used my improved legs to jump straight up to a second level and takedown a dude from behind. Let stealth expired, grabbed an explosive barrel and threw it at a machine gunner on the ground. Ran to the top of the scaffold and took out a sniper with a takedown. EMP grenaded a giant robot. Jumped from the 3-story scaffold to the ground in a big golden glow, then quickly tazed/tookdown/whatevered the remaining 2-3 guys and saved the day.
It was fricking awesome. Everything about my augmentation and playchoices just came together in this fantastic moment that beat anything so far in the game. I actually saved and reloaded the previous save before the fight to try it again and see if I could do better. I couldn’t. Tried several times, kept dying. But that one moment through it felt truly cinematic and awesome and was the most immersive point of the whole game for me.
Other random points:
1. Went all hacky-hack on everything. Fun, but felt a little silly after a while compulsively hacking anything in front of me.
2. I, too, got really annoyed by the latter third of the game at the lack of energy consumables anywhere. I mean, if you’re going to give me a augmentation tree to increase the number of batteries I’ve got, don’t restrict me from taking advantage of it by never having the ability to add energy. ESPECIALLY when the coolest thing in the game is the takedowns, and they require 1 energy each.
3. I felt like the plot got a little muddled towards the middle of the game. I had several moments where I was all “Why am I here again?”. Partially my listening skills, but also a byproduct of the tendency of the game to lead you off to a side area for an hour which dilutes the main story.
29/08/2011 at 16:55 Wozzle says:
Severely disappointed in the lack of chin augments. I was expecting a third-fist option.
29/08/2011 at 20:01 broken_symmetry says:
That will be part of the Chuck Norris DLC
29/08/2011 at 16:56 zergrush says:
It’s a pretty nice game. Running around doing takedowns/throwing dumpsters on random people is awesome, I spent more time just generally jerking around and killing the dancing dude in various ways than doing the missions. Also, having the “holster weapon” key mapped right next to the “grenade” one led to some quite funny incidents. But I fucking HATE how you have to do non-lethal takedowns to maximize experience. I’m unable to ignore the XP bonus, so I make it a point to shoot every single unconscious fucker in the head.
All things considered, the 10 or hours I put in it were already worth the price, and I didn’t even get to the first boss fight.
It also made me want to replay Thief and Bloodlines.
29/08/2011 at 17:03 Tei says:
One of the best parts of the game for me, is entering a building (whoo, it as corridors, is not a facade), then entering some dude home hacking his door, and stealing his stuff. I love this level of detail.
So for my first hours in detroit, I was just exploring, and stealing people stuff from his houses. The things you do in a good RPG, but here you have these things in a Mass Effect-ish “walk and shot” game.
29/08/2011 at 17:08 Vandelay says:
I’m loving the game very much. Having just played the original right before this, I do think it is completely wrong to compare the two, but taking on its own merits it is an all round excellent game. If you do have to compare it to something, you are probably better looking towards something like Mass Effect, maybe even Alpha Protocol (personally of the opinion that Kieron’s comment of this being like Alpha Protocol if it wasn’t shit is pretty accurate, but I know people got grumpy with that line.)
I do have a few downers with it, such as levels being mostly linear, not enough side quests, and longing for a return of the likes of multitools and lockpicks to offer another few alternative routes, but I this still exceeds magnificently in so many regards. Again, compared to it’s contemporaries, there is nothing that is as good. Game of the year? Any year that didn’t have The Witcher 2 and it would be certain, but that depends how well it holds up towards the end. If it takes the downward spiral that The Witcher 2 did in its last chapter, then it will be a close call, but if it doesn’t then it is, without a doubt, my game of the year.
29/08/2011 at 17:14 Azhrarn says:
11 hours into my first playthrough (on “give me a challenge”), just arrived in Henshai, enjoying myself a lot, the game feels right, the choices appear to matter and combat is nice and crunchy.
Work gets in the way of playtime a lot, but this is a game I’ll certainly finish sooner rather than later. :)
29/08/2011 at 17:26 Snuffy the Evil says:
In short- the gameplay and art are (for the most part) much better than the first Deus Ex, but the plot and how it’s presented fall short.
SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS.
I felt like it didn’t explore as much as it could have, what with Panchea, the Illuminati, etc. All of the elements were there, but the WIT is accurate- as much as I love it, it’s not really a game that makes me think, especially towards the end where the plot threads about Panchea/Hyron/etc seem tossed together.
On the other hand, while I didn’t like how I got to choose the endings, I liked the endings themselves. I liked how the developers didn’t take some awkward reverse-Invisible-War method of trying to tie all of the endings to Deus Ex. Each option could conceivably link to the original, but nothing is explicitly stated. The endings made me think, and it’s a real pity that the last act isn’t presented quite as well.
That being said, it’s still one of my favorite games of all time. Is it a worthy successor to Deus Ex? I’d say so. It has flaws like the first game, but in different areas. Like the original, it’s much more than the sum of its parts.
29/08/2011 at 20:03 broken_symmetry says:
I think several of the problems would have been alleviated by making the conspiracy group the bildeburgers, or so. Calling this small conspiracy the illuminati brings too much baggage in the Deus Ex universe, since I had the expectation of meeting Lucius DeBeers, Everett, etc.
29/08/2011 at 17:26 Cross says:
Factor out the technical hiccups and the creative, but out of place boss fights, and this is a well earned candidate for game of the year. I loved every second of it.
29/08/2011 at 20:21 Fox89 says:
I’ve said before that if this game doesn’t end up being my game of the year, I’ll actually be quite pleased as it means we’ve had an astonishingly good year.
29/08/2011 at 17:29 Man Raised by Puffins says:
I think “pretty stonking great” just about covers it.
29/08/2011 at 17:30 Lusit says:
I remember a lot of noise and Adam Jensen having dreams about Icarus or something. Was this actually in the game? I never encountered it.
29/08/2011 at 17:31 Demiath says:
Have played about 20 hours so far should be roughly halfway through the game (just before what I assume will be the second boss).
I love the stealth implementation, the character development/skill tree and player choice in how to tackle each level. The often surprisingly bland and uninteractive “hub” areas with their labyrinthine design can get pretty tedious, though, and the dialogue/VO is consistently questionable. The hubs feel sparse and unfinished due to a lack of proper side quests (not counting the very beginning of Detroit, which was rather busy) and distinguishing features – architecturally or otherwise – in many parts of the cities. Also, console limitations keep the presentation back on every level, which is a bit of a shame, and I can’t say I’ve felt particularly engaged in the plot so far but that might change.
Overall the actual gameplay mechanics are far more solid than in the first game but the world and its inhabitants frequently come off as a bit empty and difficult to care about. Often I feel like I’m just going through the motions, which is something I never experienced during (for example) my obscenely blissful two Mass Effect 2 playthroughs.
29/08/2011 at 17:36 adammtlx says:
Loved:
1. World, art design, overall setting.
2. Dialogue, story, characters.
3. Stealth mechanics (cover system, takedowns).
Liked:
1. Augmentations (mostly, some were boring/useless), weapons, weapon upgrading.
2. Most locations, in general.
Disliked:
1. Immersion factor, only because I enjoyed other parts of it so much. I disliked the unrealistic reactions to my actions (stealing, killing). I disliked that guards would return to normal a while after encountering dead bodies, or that I could steal stuff from anyone and they wouldn’t care.
2. Related to #1. I wished the locations didn’t feel quite so small and somewhat fake, but that’s to be expected. Not everything can be perfect. It just broke the immersion for me a little bit.
3. Also related to #1: Vents serving no purpose other than to very obviously get you to your objective.
4. Punching through walls forces you to kill anyone on the other side. What’s up with that?
5. The endings. I wanted them to show the consequences of my choice, not just get Jensen’s internal musings. Interesting, but I would’ve liked more payoff. As was mentioned by a previous commenter, it’s debatable whether or not Jensen should have had the choice in the first place. Yes, alternate endings seem obligatory but what they could have done was allowed your choices throughout the game have consequences throughout the game and then given you some ambiguity as to the fate of the world and augmentation technology, something to make you wonder if anything you did mattered. Did you save the world? Or did you just stop a murderer and make room for worse? etc. I feel like the studio got slaved to the idea of multiple endings and shoehorned them in at the last moment, in the last chapter. Didn’t really do it for me, especially since the narrative had such potential power going into it. Quite disappointing.
Hated:
1. Boss fights. I didn’t care that playing non-violent I couldn’t get past them without killing them. What bothered me was how incongruous the experience was compared to the game up til that point. Just didn’t jive. Like the fact that on the hardest difficulty, they are approximately 10x harder than any preceding section.
Sounds like more bad than good, but I’m critical of it because I enjoyed it so much and would have loved to enjoy it more. 9/10 for me. One of the few story/narrative-based games in my entire life I may actually replay (Mass Effect 2 is the only other on that list right now).
29/08/2011 at 17:45 Aufero says:
All the endings are nonsense, and three out of four boss fights feel pasted in. Aside from those two problems, I loved it.
SPOILERS
Seriously, every ending is complete garbage. I have the records from every terminal in the place and access to the most sophisticated media network in history, and my only choices are broadcasting one of two sets of self-serving lies or the insane ravings of a megalomaniac? Oh, or kill myself and everyone in the base I just worked to save. Yes, that’s rational.
Why can’t I just turn off the signal?
Edit: The above sounds unduly negative, considering I had a great time playing the game and will undoubtedly play it again. It’s a fantastic game, and the problems that stick out do so mostly because the rest of the game is so good.
29/08/2011 at 19:05 TODD says:
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
The answer to this is actually obvious. Turning off the signal solves no problems. Each competing interest would then try to convince everyone of its version of events, and the Illuminati would probably win any spin war. The only way to ensure that no message leaves Panchaea is to kill everyone inside.
I don’t mean to defend the morality or “correctness” of that choice, I’m just explaining the rationale.
29/08/2011 at 19:45 RedYama says:
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER
If you watch the little scene at the end of the credits, that’s exactly what happens no matter what ending you choose. Page spins it his way no matter what you do.
29/08/2011 at 21:03 Aufero says:
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
I guess it’s the fact that every ending is completely passive (at the end of a storyline in which Jensen is an active agent in almost every situation) that bothers me. It would certainly have been possible for the ending cutscenes to depict active endings which varied depending on your decisions earlier in the game.
For instance, if you chose to let the renegade Belltower merc go, Jensen could shut down the signal and recruit his help in assassinating Illuminati targets who tried to take advantage of the situation. (Inadvertently clearing the way for Bob Page.) If you chose to play out Sarif’s version of the story, the cutscene could follow an argument between Sarif and Jensen with interjections from Malik (if you saved her) or Pritchard on how to proceed.
Pushing a button to get a slideshow with a voiceover that tries to rationalize whichever stupid decision you made just isn’t very satisfying.
29/08/2011 at 17:45 Colej_uk says:
GOTY probably. I was a huge fan of the original, and during the start of the game I found myself immediately picking holes in a kinda ‘well that’s not as good as the first one, is it?’ Kinda way.
Then I realised for every tiny thing this game doesn’t do as well, or did differently, it’s improved infinitely on the first game in many other other areas: Graphics obviously, but stealth, hacking, augs, voice acting etc. Now, looking back at the two games (yes, two) having played through the original a few weeks ago and comparing them directly I think I can say this is the better game.
It’s not perfect, the boss fights sucked. But let’s not pretend the first one was perfect, even at the time. It may have some rough edges in terms of it’s design choices here and there, but I’d rather have a rough diamond than a polished turd any day. Great piece of work.
29/08/2011 at 17:47 kyrieee says:
reply fail
29/08/2011 at 17:55 malexmave says:
I enjoyed the Game very much (just finished it). The one part that really threw me off were the Bossfights, like you would imagine. The second boss took me 25 or so tries, since I was built solely around stealth and hacking and was lacking the Anti-EM-Shield.
All in all, I feel like I got my moneys worth, and I would recommend it to anyone.
29/08/2011 at 17:56 Mendrake says:
Alright, evrybody seems to be comparing this to Mass Effect 2 for some reason, probably because they are both cover based talk/choice/shoot things, so to get this out of the way:
I will not be using the words “dumbed down” in this short comparison. the very idea that making something less complex inferently makes it worse is idiotic. Sure, there are reasons that removing some features make something worse, but when you use the words “dumbed down” it describes nothing but the fact that there is less complexity.
with that out of the way, Here I will state my opinion: while Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a good game, and Mass Effect 2 is also a good game, and on the surface you see a bunch of similarities, the games are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. ALL CAPS MAKES YOU LISTEN TO ME I THINK. I WILL STOP NOW. anyway, DXHR has combat that is focused around stealth. mass effect 2 sucks balls at stealth, the arrival dlc proved this. mass effect’s shootery is based upon coodination of a team and strategic use of skillsets, while DXHR is about hiding in the shadows and shooting/punching/performing yoga on people. second, the plot is completely different. a lot of people start complaining when a game like mass effect 2 deviates from the standard “movie plot order of occurance” that most games follow quite directly. in DXHR, sure there were choices, but they were guided in such a way that the game’s plot was a movie, all fitting together and folding back on itself. as a concequence, what adam did felt like all that mattered in that world. sure there were side stories, but they all came back to one central plot line in the end. with Mass Effect 2, the plot diverges into so many littler stories, because this is the middle game. mass effect’s plot was a movie plot because they wanted you to get to know some of the major allies and enemies of the world. Mass Effect 2′s purpose is to give you such a broad range of ideas, each coming from the recruitment/loyalty missions, that you get a much better picture of the world that in the third game you will control the fate of. at the end of DXHR you get told whether you were a “bad man” according to some inane counting system and got a cinematic that told you nothing about the concequences of your choice. both are good games, but they cannot be compared because they live to serve such completely different purposes: one to put you in the shoes of a man, and the other to give you the idea of a galaxy.
TL/DR: quit trying to compare two totally different games.
29/08/2011 at 17:56 The_Great_Skratsby says:
Very enjoyable so far.
Shame about the silly amounts of jarring cut scenes, terrible terrible introductory sequence and boss fights. Otherwise, glorious!
29/08/2011 at 18:01 Mendrake says:
oh, and about the boss battles:
1 was impossibly difficult until I started throwing explosives and gas at him, that made it only mind-bogglingly difficult instead.
2 was when I really wished I had the anti-electric upgrade but it was somewhat easier, especialy with the target tracking aug
3 was amazingly easy. with no replacement aug, a target tracking aug, and a revolver outfitted with exploding bullets and a laser pointer, this was the easiest boss yet, I got emp resistance at this point.
4 was a cakewalk. all the turrets could take was four explosive revolver rounds before dying a horrid death, the robots were easy to kill, and I had emp resist. I could take all the time I wanted and the machine could not hurt me in the slightest.
29/08/2011 at 18:05 nrvsNRG says:
It seems most of the ppl not enjoying it, are not playing it the right way.I know that sounds arrogant but i really think its true.
like when ppl complain about the police station mission, they clearly havent gone about it in the way the game is trying to get you to do it.
I know its possible to do it in lots of other ways but i think there is a main correct way that is the most satisfying.
I personally did it by getting into the station “officially” then sneaking into all the rooms to gather intelligence and working my way around to finish without any need to hurt anyone.
Whe it comes to taking things off desks in front of NPC’s, you are allowed to take credit chips and look in desks, just like you are allowed to do in most of all the other RPG’s ive played, but the game mechanic does not allow you to hack in front of NPC’s so i really dont get why thats so hard to understand and whay some have flipped out over that.
I’m half way thru and thoroughly enjoying it and i think thats because i’m not going around killing all NPC’s, but doing it in the way the game is suggesting i do it.
29/08/2011 at 18:16 Lazaruso says:
Not arrogant, just stupid. Half the lure of games like Deus Ex is being able to approach objectives however you want.
Oh, and you know what I hate about most games? They give you amazing abilities and then make everything so ****ing difficult that the game is no fun whatsoever. Space Marine is the only modern game I’ve played that hasn’t fallen into this idiotic trap. Ammunition everywhere, armor that isn’t made out of fucking swiss cheese, and I can run around like I have normal legs, not sodding tooth picks! Gah!
Deus Ex is like, just… why give me the ability to sodding turn invisible and then only allow it to last SEVEN SECONDS? WHY?
WHY let me punch through walls and then make it so only ten walls in the whole game are punchable?!
WHY give me dozens of awesome weapons and then make ammunition for them scarcer than diamonds?!
WHY set all my opponents to have a certain level of difficulty and have a certain amount of armor and health, and then throw a guy at me who has ten thousand times more of it all?
WHY put security codes on objects that I HAVE to get through to complete the game – that have a higher rating than I can get through?
29/08/2011 at 18:56 nrvsNRG says:
now i definately know i’m right.
29/08/2011 at 19:08 Jesse L says:
@ Lazaruso: Hush, my friend. There will be a place for you and I soon. Saints Row 3 is coming…
29/08/2011 at 19:14 TODD says:
Lazaruso, there are no mission-essential hackable doors in the game that do not come with some other way of getting past them — either you’re missing an alternate route, a computer or pocket secretary with the passcode on it, or some NPC dialogue. There is absolutely no main mission in the game that requires a specific augmentation to complete, although a specific augmentation may make it considerably easier.
29/08/2011 at 18:11 Bloodloss says:
Great game, but holy mother of God were the loading times ridiculous – worst I’ve seen since the PS2 gen. Better once the patch came out, but still. Also was disappointed by the lack of choices and consequences. Like most games nowadays, the only relevant choice is right at the end of the game and merely changes which ending you get, which is a shame and a real wasted opportunity. The endings themselves were pretty bad as well, and I was hoping my actions would actually show me an ending explaining what happened next, showing the effect i had on the world and whatnot. But no, just some stock footage with some cheesy philosophical voice over.
29/08/2011 at 18:34 nrvsNRG says:
+1 to bad loading times (probably my only gripe about the game)
in the end i just accepted it as a way the game is trying to put me off from quick saving and loading too much :s
29/08/2011 at 19:13 Fox89 says:
Were we playing the same game? I found choices and consequence aplenty. Maybe my second playthrough will show that actually all my choices were just false ones, but that hasn’t happened yet. Even in just the first mission there are about 6 ways to deal with Zeke, with each one yielding different results.
Then there was weather or not to give Windmill a gun, how to deal with Jaya, whether or not to go to the LIMB clinic when my chip was acting up, whether to abandon Malik. Even massacring the DRB guys in Derelict Row led to a reaction later in the game… so compared to nearly every game bar the original DX I’d say this gave me more choice and consequence, and compared to the original it’s pretty damn close.
29/08/2011 at 18:12 SpinalJack says:
I thought the back and forth between Jensen and Pritchard was pretty good. That bit where Pritchard says something like: “You may have had many modification but you haven’t become a woman, stay out of the women’s toilets” was pure fan service (without the porn). The only thing that they were missing was a vending machine that gave out the wrong drinks when you used them.
30/08/2011 at 08:42 SpinalJack says:
Strike that, found the guy who talks about vending machines lol
29/08/2011 at 18:21 LockjawNightvision says:
My longer post got lost in the mail, apparently. But suffice to say: I thought it was pretty good.
29/08/2011 at 18:27 Lagwolf says:
I found the hacking tedious and dull. I rather wish everyone could get those hacking-over-ride devices some pre-orders got. The scarcity of ammo, which makes no sense story wise, is similar to DX:IW. I too am trying to go everywhere possible and sometimes frustrated by the linearity of it.
I liked Mass Effect (yes I preferred 1 to 2) quite a bit, but DX:HR is just that much better.
Frustratingly DX:HR could have been a classic but is merely damn good. Still its one of the few games I have played in a long while I will even contemplate re-playing.
29/08/2011 at 18:37 The Kid says:
I HATED the game…for the first two hours. Then, it sort of grew on me. There are plenty of faults: AI, Boss fights, voice acting, lack of consequence to moral choice, and more. But parsing my critique, I can label most games in a similar fashion leading me to believe that the problems are with the industry, not with the game. Its fun for what it is. Though, I am constantly agitated that stealth games like this that claim to be flexible in their styles of play and then when you play them, there is one set of options for character development that seem to make the game easier and more fun to play, so much more than the alternative routes. Guns ablazing, I found, was not an option–pure, unadulterated Badass is what I was craving (like lethal take downs caused alarms and non-lethal did not, why?). As my expectations for the game changed, I realized it could still be fun but not in the way I imagined it to be.
29/08/2011 at 18:46 Andrew Simone says:
The game started incredibly strong, the characters were vivid and alive, but it found itself lost in the middle. It’s as if they weren’t quite sure how to flesh out the characters in the game world and spent too much time having them pontificate. The old “show, don’t tell” critique is a tired narrative argument that applies here, I think. (Darrow is the pontificating sort, so the critique doesn’t apply to him.) I also think they didn’t do enough with Malik, There was the side quest about her friend, but, honestly, that could have been a random PC, it didn’t really feel Malik-y.
The games plot is like every good idea that’s been turned into a bad essay. They knew where they wanted to go and how to start, but just through stuff in the middle to over-sophisticate it, to make it seem intelligent.
As a stealth genre game, the UI and environmental interaction was brilliant, but it still has the problem every stealth game has: the movements of the the NPCs is too predictable, they lacked the fluidity that would make the game ‘real.’ I recognize how difficult that is to actually execute, but I wait for the day when a game engine can do it.
The ending were smartly written, but I do think the press a button get an ending is a bit of a cop-out. I don’t really have any reason to replay the game outside of trying a different early game Aug load-out or polishing up on achievements. If the game ending would have been contingent on decisions IN GAME, it would have made the ending more compelling and given further replay value.
29/08/2011 at 18:47 Andrew Simone says:
This is not to say, I didn’t enjoy the game, but it could have been better. They plot felt rushed, the game engine did not. Such are the sort of decisions that need to be made in the games business.
29/08/2011 at 18:58 Wulf says:
Yeah, it did feel a bit rushed. But then… so did Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. I can forgive rushed if it was a bit good, which it was. It didn’t sate my spyish threelseeking desires like Alpha Protocol did, but it was still quite, quite good. It was definitely a Deus Ex. I can find things to praise and condemn. It could have been better, certainly, but it could have been so much worse. As it stands, it can call itself a Deus Ex game.
29/08/2011 at 19:29 Andrew Simone says:
^ Truth.
29/08/2011 at 18:56 Wulf says:
Boss fights were incredibly shit and felt forced.
Ending was kind of crap and felt forced.
Everything else was quite enjoyable indeed.
Not a Deus Ex successor but definitely a Deus Ex. I can think of no better praise for it than that, can you?
29/08/2011 at 19:07 Paraquat says:
Sarif sounds like a cross between Elzar and Bob Fossil. Amiright?
29/08/2011 at 19:15 Fox89 says:
I started a thread on the Eidos forums out of curiosity. As for me, this is pretty much the best game in half a decade, but other impressions seemed to suggest it was falling short. So I asked “What games in the last 5 years or so have been better?”
So far Witcher 2 is a pretty common choice, and had a couple for Mass Effect. What about you guys, especially the ones that don’t think HR is all it’s cracked up to be: what do you think is better?
29/08/2011 at 19:22 Inglourious Badger says:
Still only half way through, so I’m not going to spoil anything by reading the other comments, but so far… it’s very good. The opening intro and mission felt an awful lot like Invisible War actually. They’re good, but I was starting to wonder why everyone was getting quite SO excited about DX:HR. But then the Sarif Industries’s doors open to the Detroit hub and it has just got better and better and BETTER since then.
My only issue then, so far, is how much of a dick Jensen is. Even though your choice and actions are meant to make him ‘my’ Jensen he’s still too much of a arsehole in my eyes. And yes, the one boss fight I’ve seen so far was fine as a boss fight but, as much stated by RPS, the following cutscene totally ruined any pretence I had about having any control over the story.
It’s not Deus Ex, but it is the best game I’ve played since…..Bioshock? Oblivion? Hell, maybe since Deus Ex.
29/08/2011 at 19:23 VelvetFistIronGlove says:
This game is every bit as good as Deus Ex was, and also equally flawed.
It’s a winner.
29/08/2011 at 19:24 Keroton says:
Is it ok if i think of HR as Vampire: Bloodlines with augmentations?
29/08/2011 at 19:30 Explosif.be says:
For me they made one big mistake: the RPG element.
Here is what I think: The RPG aspect is a good aspect, leveling up, choosing what to say and having some influence… but whatever choices you did in the end it didn’t matter at all, you’ll still be able to pick whatever ending you want.
Plus, it’s already been pointed out in the previews, if you choose to go ninja style or rambo-like in a mission, you’ll still get the same cinematic.
And because of the little influence your choices have there is little to no replay possibilities, sure you could go rambo on every mission because your first playthrough was on ninja style… but its not very interesting.
Didn’t really liked the forced fight bosses (somehow managed, though the second one was easy because of a bug where she ran continuously into a wall whatever I did to her).
And one last thing: The AI has HORRIBLE detection, I played on Deus Ex (Hard) and I could sneak up to enemies without them noticing me, most of the time a “normal” human would have seen me immediately… basically two guys standing in front of each other won’t notice a thing, not the sneaky guy lurking around the room at less than a meter from them, nor the door opening 2 meters behind one of the guy and the AI won’t even notice you staying in the left corner, right next to the door when they come in and go right.
But in the end it was a good game, good plot, good gameplay, good mechanics, very nice graphics…
29/08/2011 at 19:53 DeathCarrot says:
Anyone else failed to get the Pacifist achievement solely because they killed the four or five people in the tutorial? :D
29/08/2011 at 20:04 QualityJeverage says:
Yep! I finished the game last night and quickly realized that was the reason I didn’t get the achievement.
Frustrating, but my own fault. And it’s not like I won’t play through the game again countless times…
29/08/2011 at 19:56 TODD says:
Much of the criticism for Deus Ex: Human Revolution stems from nostalgia for the original. Having played DX1 for the first time this past July and enjoyed it, I can say that DXHR is a worthy successor. DX1 was innovative for its time, but you crotchety old fanboys really need to take off the rose-colored glasses and see it for what it is today: innovative yet crudely formed and lacking basic quality-of-life features typical of modern games. I appreciate its brilliance in the same way as the movie Gone with the Wind, an incredibly ambitious, sweeping epic that by modern standards exhibited stiff acting, laughable special effects, reprehensible racial stereotypes, and uninspired cinematography.
DX:HR is one of only two games in YEARS for which I could justify spending full price in retrospect. It is an excellent game with minor flaws, but Rock Paper Shotgun commenters are mainly elitist sperglords; they WILL admit that it is excellent, but that admission will be buried under an avalanche of nitpicks designed to showcase their encyclopedic knowledge and mastery of All Things PC Gaming.
If you asked for RPS commenters’ thoughts on Gears of Duty: Cataclysm XIV, you wouldn’t get “The boss fights ruined my immersion” or a 2000-word essay on its “reduced potential for emergence.” They’d either pan it or say they found it to be an enjoyable diversion; that Deus Ex is attracting so much criticism only shows that it made its players care.
29/08/2011 at 20:08 broken_symmetry says:
To me, the big debate here is not if this is a good game, but if it reached its’ potential. I think the gameplay was sufficient that had it been coupled with a better plot, and slicker/better boss fights, it would be regarded as a hall of fame game.
Instead, it is just, ‘very good’
29/08/2011 at 21:05 TODD says:
What would you regard as a “hall of fame game”? To me, DX:HR fits into that category neatly, along with a few others in the last decade:
Half-Life 2
EVE Online
SimCity 4
Portal
Battlefield 2
Alpha Protocol
The Witcher 2
Starcraft 2
Not all of those were the “best” games (or even good games – looking at you, EVE), but they may have been groundbreaking in other ways. DX:HR belongs in the list just because it’s easily one of the n best games in the last ten years.
29/08/2011 at 22:45 nrvsNRG says:
TODD, you are my new hero.
p.s
i agree,RPS is full of ppl who dont know how to enjoy a good game even if it came up and bit them on the cock.
30/08/2011 at 03:07 John P says:
So you think HR is an ‘enjoyable diversion’ and that’s okay? You’re okay with the Deus Ex series being reduced from ‘greatest game ever made’ to ‘enjoyable diversion’?
Congratulations, you represent what is wrong with the modern games industry. It’s attitudes like that which allowed the industry to move from the highs of Underworld and Fallout to the lows of Dragon Effect 2.
30/08/2011 at 03:26 Janus says:
I think TODD is right. Gone With The Wind is a terrible movie Let’s Just Be Honest. I’d much rather watch 2 Fast 2 Furious with its incredible special effects, masterful acting, electric script, heartwarming racial sensitivity, and incisive cultural insight. People who think Gone With The Wind is a classic are just wearing rose-tinted glasses. Things that are new are invariably better than things that are old.
Honestly, TODD, you are everything that is wrong with both the games industry and probably humanity.
Deus Ex doesn’t enrapture you precisely because it catered to a calibre of
humanGamer who wanted to play intelligent, emergent, interactive games, not Intense Action-Packed Cinematic Emotional CGI films.30/08/2011 at 03:27 Vinraith says:
@John P
1) You’re aware that “best game ever made” is very much a matter of opinion, right? I think it’s pretty obvious the folks you’re responding to don’t think the original game qualifies for that label. I know I don’t.
2) Even if we were to take it as a given that Deus Ex was the “best game ever made,” the series has already deteriorated at least to the degree you describe, in light of Invisible War.
30/08/2011 at 03:33 Janus says:
What other videogame – other than maybe the first Fallout – could possibly vie for the label? What other videogame so actively and consistently represents the absolute apotheosis of what can be considered good games design? (That is, design that emphasises player agency, emergence, interactivity, and creativity.)
It’s hardly a matter of “personal preference” when the pool of candidates is so tragically small.
30/08/2011 at 03:34 dxmt says:
Fucking “crudely formed”
Deus Ex is one of the most perfectly-rounded self-contained games in existence
The graphics and voice acting, as well as the technological aspects of the game, have nothing to do with the quality of the gameplay
Remember gameplay? It’s what actually makes a game a game
30/08/2011 at 03:37 Janus says:
I know. It’s astonishing how little attention is paid to what actually defines videogames – that is, gameplay. The vast majority of videogames rely on the most mind-numbingly rudimentary, repetitive gameplay to carry along all the Voice-Acting, Impressive Visuals, “VIsceral” Action, and Emotional Cinematic Narrative that seem to be all “gamers” care about these days.
30/08/2011 at 03:38 Janus says:
We’re a dying breed, dxmt. Oh, well, at least we have Dead State.
30/08/2011 at 03:44 Vinraith says:
Me: You’re aware that “best game ever made” is very much a matter of opinion, right?
Janus: What other videogame – other than maybe the first Fallout – could possibly vie for the label?
Me: So that’d be a no, then.
30/08/2011 at 03:44 JackShandy says:
People who like games I dislike embody all that is wrong with society.
When will they stop? When the game industry is a smoking carcass? WHEN?!
30/08/2011 at 03:53 Yosharian says:
Alpha Protocol… haha!
There is nothing wrong with dissecting a game intellectually to see what worked and what didn’t work. I’d rather be an intellectual dissector than a brainless Gears Of War fanboy any day.
And by the way, Deus Ex has its flaws, yes, but not in the way you suggest. In many ways which DEHR is not, it is peerless.
30/08/2011 at 03:55 Janus says:
It’s not a matter of “taste”. If 99.9% of all works of literature marketed as “novels” were actually technically and structurally verse, and only one or two of them could genuinely be considered prose, you would have no choice but to vote those novels the greatest of all time. Deus Ex triumphs through scarcity.
It’s also incredible, but that’s beside the point.
30/08/2011 at 03:57 Janus says:
Oh, and JackShandy, we can only hope. Perhaps if the games industry could somehow utterly collapse, something genuinely worthwhile and beautiful might just emerge from its over-corporatised, creatively bankrupt corpse.
30/08/2011 at 03:57 Vinraith says:
So, to be clear, games that aren’t like Deus Ex aren’t games?
Do you actually read the things you type?
30/08/2011 at 04:02 Janus says:
To Be Clear (I thought I was, but whatevs), games that do not facilitate systemic emergence, ludonarrative, and player agency, in whatever form that takes (because, yes, not all games need to be simulation shooters with secret agents in them), are not games.
Chess is a remarkable example of player agency and emergence within a system. Why is it that with all available computational resources to create vastly more sophisticated (and potentially somewhat less abstracted) experiences, it and games like it have yet to be surmounted?
30/08/2011 at 04:04 Janus says:
I’ll tell you why: because of TODD. I’m laying it all on TODD.
30/08/2011 at 04:18 Burky says:
I’m starting to like this Janus guy.
You can pretty objectively say that Deus Ex holds the greatest design of any game, ever. Fallout may compete for that, and STALKER’s work in AI and world-simulation holds some promises for the future beyond Deus Ex, but for now, it’s still #1.
Of course, you may have a Greater Emotional Connection with your Dragon Effect 2 with lesbian romances options. You may well think it to be the best game ever. But then you’re being irrational.
Games are interesting in the art-scape because so much about it is how they mechanically function, and analysing the mechanics is not that subjective, all things considered.
and DXHR is just sad
30/08/2011 at 04:39 Britney.S says:
@Janus
you sound like a coke crazed game nazi.
chill the fuck out.
gn.
30/08/2011 at 04:49 Janus says:
Oh, my fingers are just trembling as I hammer these stilted passages out to appease my own turgid insecurities! Someone ban me before I wear my skin down to the bone!
PLEASE!
30/08/2011 at 05:03 Vinraith says:
games that do not facilitate systemic emergence, ludonarrative, and player agency, in whatever form that takes (because, yes, not all games need to be simulation shooters with secret agents in them), are not games.
Ah, and it’s your contention that, using this definition, only Deus Ex and Fallout 1 qualify as games?
30/08/2011 at 05:08 Burky says:
why would you draw that conclusion?
he’s saying that they’re the best realisation so far
not the minimum standard
(though I wish they were)
30/08/2011 at 05:11 Janus says:
No, not at all. They’re just some of the best of a relatively small group. Relatively. I mean, I think everything Paradox has ever released or published fits into those criteria very comfortably.
30/08/2011 at 05:13 Vinraith says:
@Janus
Indeed. In fact I’d suggest that nearly every grand strategy game, wargame, military simulation, and many pre-2000′s RPG’s fits that bill pretty well, along with a smattering of random others. I’m curious why my only options for best game ever are Deus Ex and Fallout 1, as a result.
30/08/2011 at 05:37 Vinraith says:
You’re still talking about a relatively small pool and you know it.
Actually no, the pool I just outlined encompasses thousands of titles, and significantly outnumbers the high production value, linear narrative games you’re dismissing.
Not that it matters.
So, to summarize, your contention appears to be:
1) Janus’ definition of “game” is the only objective and correct definition of game.
2) Janus’ assessment of which game best fits the criteria in said definition is the only objective and correct one.
3) Therefore Deus Ex is objectively the best game ever made, and any opinion to the contrary is “irrational.”
Have I got that right?
30/08/2011 at 05:43 Burky says:
It runs the risk of essentialism, but it’s a definition I can’t find any reasonable objection to.
So yes.
Unless you can think of a better one.
30/08/2011 at 05:47 Burky says:
Because really, that argument is an attack on any attempt at forming a rationalistic critical ethos.
Which is silly.
30/08/2011 at 05:48 Janus says:
I have no idea where my reply went nor how you have access to it (or part of it) when I don’t, but we’ll soldier on regardless. As I said in that elusive reply, the pool is relatively small, unless you’re privy to some vast undiscovered portion of games that have somehow escaped my scrutiny over the years. (Not impossible.) Either that, or your interpretation of what I said is way too broad to be useful.
At any rate, yes, those are pretty much the defining characteristics of what constitutes a “game” from any rational viewpoint. And I do not simply refer to videogames when I say that.
As I also said in that reply, Deus Ex is the logical conclusion of years of innovation at Origin and Looking Glass, and is, in my rather considered opinion, the exemplar of those principles, both in philosophy and execution. There are certainly more primitive games than Deus Ex that easily conform to the criteria I specified, but that’s kind of the point – Deus Ex isn’t primitive.
Finally, I also asked in my reply to humour me: what’s your number 1? What could possibly compare?
30/08/2011 at 05:49 Janus says:
And this reply shows up immediately. Bizarre.
30/08/2011 at 05:52 Britney.S says:
@ Janus
If 99.9% of all works of literature marketed as “novels” were actually technically and structurally verse, and only one or two of them could genuinely be considered prose, you would have no choice but to vote those novels the greatest of all time. Deus Ex triumphs through scarcity.
So are you saying that Deus Ex wins by default because no other game should even be considered a game?
edit:
FYI post @5:48 wasnt there when i replied.
30/08/2011 at 05:53 Janus says:
Are you serious?
30/08/2011 at 05:53 Burky says:
Yeah, there’s a really small word limit on comments, and your post just disappears if it’s too long, with no feedback.
It makes me wonder if there’s all these people who posted long, well thought out comments here and didn’t double check to see if the system actually accepted them.
30/08/2011 at 06:08 Britney.S says:
@Janus
erm…yes i’m serious.
if i’m wrong about what you meant by that comparison,please enlighten me.
30/08/2011 at 06:13 Janus says:
You know what? I’m going to take a rain check on “enlightening” you considering that someone else already drew that stupid conclusion based on my analogy and I kind of, you know, elaborated on it? Only a few posts up? I think?
Maybe?
30/08/2011 at 06:21 Britney.S says:
you didnt elaborate,all you did was reinforce your fucked up delusional way of defining games.
30/08/2011 at 06:29 Burky says:
settle down Britney
you’re derailing what has otherwise been in interesting argument
just relax mate
30/08/2011 at 06:29 Janus says:
Stipulating that systemic emergence, rules, and player agency within those rules defines games is “delusional”.
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. I’m dealing a master of rhetoric, here.
30/08/2011 at 06:35 Britney.S says:
to me its delusional if you think only two fuckin titles deserve to be called games, which is what you were suggesting?
anyway fuckitt your off your trolley man.games are for fun.thats my fucking definition.
30/08/2011 at 06:50 Janus says:
What can be said, really? I’m floored.
30/08/2011 at 06:52 John P says:
Is Britney saying that anything ‘fun’ is necessarily a game?
30/08/2011 at 06:54 Janus says:
I think he/she/it is. After all, “thats [Britney's] fucking definition”.
30/08/2011 at 06:59 Burky says:
games are about farken FUNS you wankers
the story was really high in FUNS but the boss battle wasn’t so FUNS but the takedowns were really FUNS so all in all its pretty FUNS I rate it 9.48593476754 FUNS
i didn’t like deus ex 1 because it was visceral enough in its FUNS
30/08/2011 at 07:01 John P says:
Keep this up Britney and you’ll land a job with Bioware no problems. That’s where all the ‘press buttan 4 awesome’ magic happens.
30/08/2011 at 07:06 Burky says:
the best game ever will have just one button
and when you press it
it’ll inject dopamine into your brain
press button
fun
press button
fun
30/08/2011 at 07:17 Britney.S says:
lets not be silly now.
wouldnt say no to one of those injections tho.
30/08/2011 at 07:24 Janus says:
hahaha “lets not be silly now.”
We’ve just been discussing the raw criteria that comprise “games” and you come out with some nonsensical platitude about the sole descriptor of games being “fun” – thereby implying that absolutely everything that is “fun” can be considered a game – and you’re surprised by the response, you homunculus.
30/08/2011 at 07:48 Britney.S says:
no, games are not fun….they iz serious bizness.
30/08/2011 at 08:14 Janus says:
you got me there!!!
30/08/2011 at 09:06 Robin says:
I agree with Janus.
(Hopefully my reply will show this time)
30/08/2011 at 15:49 1R0N_W00K13 says:
I think what everyone needs to remember is there is a collective of people for whom no sequel would do the first game justice. In all honesty, increased production costs and time consumption in general means an AAA game these days would find it near-impossible to match the scope of the original. In that sense you can’t really compare it to DE1. Just like DE1 was unique and innovative in it’s time, HR stands out significantly from other similar games available today – Mass Effect, Alpha Protocol, etc. etc. I think whats important is that it keeps the Deus Ex feel, fleshes out the story, and gives everyone a taste of a modern rendition of a Deus Ex game; take it or leave it. Unlike Invisible War, on the most part HR avoids stupid design decisions and actually runs with nice environment designs (if a little repetitive by the end-game, although the same could be said of many of the DE1 levels in all honesty) a strong plot (IMO) and nice, solid combat mechanics. Human Revolution isn’t DE1 – DE1 is DE1.
04/09/2011 at 01:24 FunkyBadger3 says:
I’d rather be an intellectual dissector than a brainless Gears Of War fanboy any day.
Fat chance of either.
29/08/2011 at 20:02 QualityJeverage says:
I adored the game, more than any other game in several years.
It had its problems. The pre-rendered cutscenes and bossfights come to mind, but other than that, it’s about as close to “My perfect game” as anything. That’s not to say it’s THE perfect game, that’s impossible. But it pushes so many of my buttons, and does almost everything right as far as what I enjoy in video games.
Cool abilities and wildly varied options in playstyles. Gorgeous art, even with all that gold. Terrific music, with some nice tiny nods to themes from the original game that aren’t ever too obvious (Except for the fan-service UNATCO theme near the beginning). Sharp writing that isn’t afraid to get into cheeseball-crazy-conspiracy-Illuminati territory, because I love that stuff.
Oh, and it’s LONG. Good lord. I finished it last night, clocking 40 hours. I’m looking forward to at least one additional playthrough (I went non-lethal the first time around. I’m itchin’ for some killin’). Certainly there are those for whom a 40-hour game is run-of-the-mill, but for the sorts of games I enjoy, 40 hours is a gorram godsend.
There are legitimate complaints abound, and I’m sure many people won’t like it as much as I did. But I’m confident in saying that it’s one of the best games I’ve ever played, and it made the whole industry look bad in comparison. I haven’t enjoyed a game this much in a very, very, very long time.
29/08/2011 at 20:03 csuzw says:
I just completed it and I’m in 2 minds. On the 1 hand it’s very polished, it plays well and aesthetically pleasing. In many respects it captured the feel of the original very well. On the other hand it’s still not better than Alpha Protocol in terms of branching storyline and replayability (and I can’t decide which has worse boss battles). Also the fact I completed it without setting any alarms off or killing anyone and then didn’t get the achievements or any warning that I’d failed (if I did) was mildly annoying.
29/08/2011 at 20:03 RedYama says:
I completed it and quite enjoyed it, took my time (30 or so hours). I played on the highest diffuculty with all the fancy mission guides off, investing all my points into hacking and mobility augs (eventually got typhoon, cloak, aiming stability towards the last 3rd, never got armor) .
I have similar complaints to everyone else (i.e. stupid plot). I didn’t mind the boss fights all that much, but I do have a complaint about the weapons.
Compared to the first, there seem to be far too few upgrade kits, only enough to really kit out 1 weapon. In the first DX, each weapon had a niche and you could get 2 or 3 pretty well beefed up by the end. In this one, a fully upgraded 10mm pistol seems to be the best ever. It kills nearly anything with a headshot, and even takes down smaller bots in 10 or so rounds.
The other weapons had cool gimmicks, but were never really useful. I used the assault rifle for a bit, as the homing upgrade is fun with blindfire, but it would take 20 rounds to do what the pistol did in one. I found the heavy weapons completely underwhelming, and some came far too late in the game (plasma rifle, apparently made for shooting heavy armor, what heavy armor do you actually face after you get it?). I’m sure they’d be nice if upgraded, but are you expected to hoard the upgrade kits from the first half of the game to do so, with their ridiculous inventory size?
29/08/2011 at 20:10 broken_symmetry says:
laser rifle and the see through walls vision makes the fight with the head of the tyrants trivial — just run away and shoot him through walls!
29/08/2011 at 21:51 RedYama says:
I just chucked a gas grenade at him, then charged and typhooned him twice while he was stunned. I wish the laser rifle had more use than in just that fight and the final one. It’s not even that great at killing bots, the pistol (fully upgraded) does it just as quickly.
29/08/2011 at 20:08 GhostStrelok says:
It is very beautiful and intresting game in my life!
29/08/2011 at 20:23 eclipse mattaru says:
I’m with the general opinion that echoes what the RPS review(es) said: It’s pretty much the second coming, most definitelt GOTY material, and well deserved at that, but oh dear god the boss fights :( –so there’s that.
I also agree with John in that I miss the literary aspect of the original -the bits of Chesterton, the fantastic Jacob’s Shadow, all the quotes-; and I sure would’ve rather have them back, pretentious as KG thinks they were, over all those technical mumbo-jumbo pieces. Seriously, I appreciate that you’re basing your fiction in somewhat convincing pseudo-science, congratulations and whatnot, but by the 17th time I read a doc about how the functionality of the human eye can be mirrored with a tiny camera or whatever I was simply skimming through them for the XP rewards.
Also, I don’t think I’ve seen this mentioned anywhere, but I also missed the funny aspect of the original DX: I remember dozens of chuckle-worthy small details and nerdy winks to be found in emails and notes, and there’s nothing like that in HR. Maybe I’m spoiled for having been playing too much Bloodlines recently, but I thought that stuff like the email policy at Tai Yong Medical or the 419 scam mails were horribly wasted opportunities in that regard.
29/08/2011 at 20:27 jquinn914 says:
I guess I’m alone here. Here’s my opinion:
1. Regarding lethal vs non-lethal: I didn’t see ANY real persistence in this system. I went non-lethal for the warehouse. I didn’t think the mercs deserved life sparing. Then when I got the hengsha, I really realized just how superficial this system was. I had a little trouble getting past a group of the police, so I murdered them all. What came of it? Absolutely nothing. The world moves on the same way it always did, the cops don’t hold it against you, you mine as well never have done it. Also, in terms of believability, you’d figure those thundering groups of enemies are best crept by, yet it was FAR easier to become a one man elite army and obliterate that pathetic yet intimidating looking army using tedious and obvious tactics like cover-pop-shoot-cover.
2. The multi-path design layout of levels had me wondering what on earth everyone was going wild for. Have our standards for games reduced so low in this new era that given non-linearity minus the challenge of discovery and differing outcomes is so great. Not to mention that there were the SAME EXACT alternate solutions to everything: vent, hack, smash wall.
3. The character development system never once gave me the satisfying feeling of achievement and progression. Maybe because I didn’t like the obvious extra paths the big augs opened up or because one was enough or just the number of outright useless augs. What was most definitely a factor was how most of the augs sought to simplify simple points of the game completely robbing those points of the little challenge they had, like all of the hacking aid augmentations or the vision cone/radar/sound range augs.
4. I couldn’t even pretend that I liked any of the characters or dialogue in this game. It wasn’t just the really, really poorly animated dialogue animations and gestures. I just felt every character was gimmicky and superficial. Malik reminded me of the tough army brat pilot from Avatar, David Sariff the stereotypical (though admittedly well done) secretive CEO, and Jensen was probably worst of all and his voice added a little bit to that in all seriousness. In VtM: B, I loved every character from Tourette to Gary, damn even LaCroix and his sheriff. This game was nothing like that, the characters just don’t have the levels to them.
5. Hub design was just about the only thing that stood out as good to me and didn’t drop too many loading screens on you. The side quests and sub-stories within the hub, while sometimes elaborate in design, were just never anything but typical: dirty cops were pretty much the whole of Detroit. You never heard those really different, interesting stories or requests, you could see half of them coming before the quest-givers even got to the point.
29/08/2011 at 21:27 csuzw says:
I completely on agree on points 1 and 2 – the only game I can think of recently that has come close to getting this stuff right is Alpha Protocol.
29/08/2011 at 20:27 krankyboy says:
I wanted to love it, but sadly, I only liked it. I did not like the cover system (I hate them), and I did not like that it was basically a shooter on rails, expect you could find a vent (and knew to look for one). I missed, from DX1, the open outdoor environments where you could climb a building and snipe until your hearts content. Why did they even have a sniper rifle in this? Also do we REALLY need a laser AND a plasma gun? I also found the augs sort of uninspired and in the end I had almost all of them but it did not change how I played the game much. Anyway, I just could not get into it too much.
Oh and I enjoyed the boss fights! =)
29/08/2011 at 20:31 Soon says:
I can’t read the comments to avoid spoilers. But I’m pretty impressed so far after some initial scepticism and things not feeling right. It’s certainly grown on me, even Adam’s voice.
Haven’t even left the first Hub yet, but on my way to meet the helicopter (for the second time). Trying to work out how to get on top of Jensen’s office… I’m sure I saw something up there before falling to my death. Which, incidentally, is something I’m really liking: all the “secrets”.
29/08/2011 at 20:54 NOVICIUS says:
It is all great and cool that you guys enjoy the game..Well…There is to many who can not say the same. Check forums….
NVIDIA users were left alone with their problems. After spending quite a lot of money they face unfinish product which need I do not know how many patches to work properly.
Minimal requairmants are a joke. Players with much better settings crash constantly and most of them did not get that far from the release to tell you whjat they think about the game.
I can tell you what I think. Concept is great. Visual effects are great. The series is amazing. Question?
Why you going backwards? Why the best game you made was the first Deus Ex? Why every next one is progresivly worst in any way? I give you example:
1st Deux – graphicly great and smooth with no stability issues, with great story behind it, with minimal requirmants at the time, with posibility to interact with almost every object plus in rather instictive than obvious way
Now Deus Ex – tottally unstable for majority of users, graphicly overdone with so many detiles but not so much of atmosphere, highlited object with which you can interact are for kids and idiots as well as annoying tutorials (which do not remember that they once was and they come back over and over again once you find yourself in the same location) and “press this” instructions which take away all fun to play on PC. (why I have not buoght PS3 version?).
To developers: DO not rush things. Work longer. Take your time. Christmas would be much better to relase date for such a game. In few weaks 50%(probably 80) of players will go to school anyway.
Do something about crashes and bugs or prepere to pay refund to NVIDIA clients who not anjoy at all and who become more and more frustrated.
29/08/2011 at 20:58 Reefpirate says:
“To developers: DO not rush things. Work longer. Take your time. Christmas would be much better to relase date for such a game. In few weaks 50%(probably 80) of players will go to school anyway.”
Some day in the future you will realize that things like this cost money. A whole LOT of money. And it might not be your money, which makes the people who own the money very nervous.
29/08/2011 at 21:11 TODD says:
“1st Deux – graphicly great and smooth with no stability issues”
lmao
This is taking rose-colored glasses to a whole new level.
29/08/2011 at 21:15 NOVICIUS says:
Do not treat me like a baby mate…
It cost money..I know..So what? It is made TO MAKE MONEY. With unfinished product which COST ME MONEY I can not be entirly happy? Can I? Crashes are ridicules. Patch brought just more damage. No patches for INVIDIA. NO appologies or any comment at all on the issue. Everybody seams to be happy and in good mood while forums are spammed with complains.
Get serious. It is business not charity. If developers want make money on product they have to spend time and money on it to make costumer happy. They rush it and effect of it is frustrating for majority of players (not raleted to what comp you have..complains on dx9 as well on dx11, bad or good graphic card)
This is just not good enough and I like to see somebody to care about it rather that saying everything is fine and game is great.
30/08/2011 at 02:08 Snuffy the Evil says:
That’s not really the case- if Deus Ex’s visuals, stability and balance were so great, then we wouldn’t really need the Deus Exe launcher, or the DX10 renderer, or New Vision, or HDTP, or Shifter, or anything else anyone recommends as “mandatory” to play it on a modern system.
Additionally, I’m a Nvidia user and, save for a few loading hangups (remedied by the recent patches) had any significant performance or visual issues with the latest drivers.
30/08/2011 at 04:08 dxmt says:
@Snuffy: The thing is, you DON’T need any of that dumb shit to play the first DX. All that stuff was created by ignorant grognards who are too stupid to get past the fact that yes, it’s a 10 year-old game, and will therefore appear dated, albeit superficially. Attempting to alter the appearance of DX is irrelevant; attempting to alter the game mechanics is ignorant.
30/08/2011 at 04:19 Pointless Puppies says:
I have absolutely no clue what you’re talking about. The game hasn’t crashed or given me any problems whatsoever on my GTX 460. Zero. None. Nada.
And here’s a protip: If you hate the yellow outline, you can turn it off in the options. There’s something to be said about people who whine and moan about something that can be fixed right in the game itself.
30/08/2011 at 12:33 JackShandy says:
“To developers: DO not rush things. Work longer. Take your time.”
I think it’s worth mentioning that this game took four years to make.
30/08/2011 at 20:10 1R0N_W00K13 says:
IMO Deus Ex 1 GOTY is perfectly playable standard, and I wouldn’t play it any other way to be honest. The HD textures are a nice touch but clearly with DE1 I’m not playing to be amazed by graphical supremacy, so I can allow the low-res textures.
29/08/2011 at 20:55 Reefpirate says:
I really, really liked the game.
I made a point early on to try and forget everything I knew about the original Deus Ex, and to try and appreciate this game on its own merits. That’s what I did, and I had a blast! I also look forward to replaying it again some time. It did have its weaknesses (personally I found hacking to be a little annoying after a while), but overall it’s quite easily my GOTY.
I think some of these other commenters should’ve tried to judge it on its own, and not against the original so much. Obviously you can’t ignore the original’s impact, but to try and compare it bit by bit to the original definitely will lead to over analysis. Grumpy bastards…. This game is awesome!
29/08/2011 at 21:10 leetSmithy says:
It’s not the end of the world, but I can see it from here…and I’m so scared. Greatest game ever !
29/08/2011 at 21:17 Makariel says:
About 20 hours in, not quite done but so far: I love it! Hot contender for my personal GOTY and that in a year with games like battlefield 3, skyrim, dark souls etc.
29/08/2011 at 21:18 NOVICIUS says:
““1st Deux – graphicly great and smooth with no stability issues”
lmao
This is taking rose-colored glasses to a whole new level.”
at the time..obviously
I have never crashed to blue screen on 1st game
29/08/2011 at 22:12 Typhuseth says:
I’m sure you didn’t crash to a blue screen in the first deus ex, but wow the game was ugly, it was the ugliest Unreal engine game I can think of. Might be time to polish those rose tinted specs.
29/08/2011 at 21:29 Nonoga says:
For comparison points I’d quote 3 games, Deus Ex that is obvious and expected, Mass Effect 2 as many people highlight it, Batman Arkham Asylum. But I would add a 4th that isn’t at same polishing and professional level and too unknown to be a good comparison point but interesting to compare anyway, EYE Divine Cybermancy.
For Deus Ex I think the challenge was high to follow it, and it’s quite successful. There’s even many points i consider improved, like more polished infiltration, the shooting not at top but still better, and some other points. But DXHR suffer of being second when Deus Ex was a fresh approach on many points even if it was in part in the continuation of System Shock series. Also I feel the story was stronger and more emotional. So even if overall DXHR is perhaps a bit better than Deus Ex, the story plus being the first made Deus Ex quite stronger than DXHR is now. DXHR is still a very well done follow up of Deus Ex.
I haven’t finished DXHR yet but for me the story feel too much like a classical detective story with artificial Cyberpunk theme put on it. That’s where DXHR also suffer a lot a comparison with EYE Divine Cybermancy. EYE is a mad game not well written but with a strong, impressive and highly Cyberpunk story, and even the game as a whole is strongly Cyberpunk. On that point DXHR is very pale in comparison with EYE.
Now there’s Mass Effect 2, I won’t consider ME1 which is a too flawed game for me. I can’t disagree ME2 is a step on the road of simplification of computer RPG. But it’s definitely for me just a great game, perhaps not a fully fledged RPG but a great game. Objectively DXHR has many elements improved when compared to ME2, it’s mainly larger area, less linearity, more players choices like infiltration or various type of shooting, much better class system, much more pleasant and comprehensive weapon upgrade system. But the usage of companions was strange as they overwhelm the game but generating a fascinating gameplay and story construction, plus I found the ME2 story quite more interesting with its feet deep into a joyful deep SF adventure mood.
Adn then there’s Batman Arkham Asylum. That game is almost a RPG and DXHR is like a cousin to this RPG not really RPG game. DXHR also bring many improvements to this game, at price of a much heavier power requirement. For example, infiltration is deeper, the area are larger with more often alternate paths, the class system offer quite more features, and some more elements. But once more for me Batman Arkham Asylum wins for a comparison with DXHR, because the mood is quite stronger, the story quite more fun, there’s many nice little puzzles when not that much in DXHR, the story and lore telling is just great, very well done in DXHR too but just more interesting, more captivating and fun in BAA.
But but, modern AAA RPG, there’s quite more released those last years than before, but when you count those very good it’s quickly much less, and at my surprise DXHR is a fully fledged RPG, more than Deus Ex, more than Mass Effect 2, more than Batman Arkham Asylum, more than EYE Divine Cybermancy. And that’s still my favorite game genre, it’s refreshing to see some modern AAA RPG bringing successfully a new approach to the genre, even if just a follow up to Deus Ex. So I’m very happy with this game, and if it goes as well up to end the final overall feeling could be even better, RPG wining in emotional impact through play duration.
So my own pointless rate scale, Deus Ex 93% > Batman Arkham Asylum 92% > Mass Effect 2 90% > DXHR 87% > EYE 80%
But knowing EYE is a cheap indie game, not very professional, not really among my favorite genre which is RPG when EYE is more in line of a Diablo fps, it is the real winner of this ladder, a mad thing, an obscure stuff, but with time I bet it will stick longer stronger than all up to reach Deus Ex in my heart.
29/08/2011 at 21:31 DevilSShadoW says:
Best 36 € I’ve ever spent. A perfect blend of mass effect and splinter cell all rolled up unto a huge ball of SUCCESS. Any game that lets me 1shot most of it’s enemies with a silenced handgun from stealth is a game that automatically wins points in my book.
Every thing about this game is perfect in my not game journalist eyes (except the boss battles since I’m playing mostly stealth and i find it rather difficult to start running and gunning in boss fights but i can ignore that marginal flaw).
PS:
I’ve never played the original Ex games so this was a wholly original experience for me.
29/08/2011 at 21:53 jjs132 says:
I’ll probably end up repeating a lot of what has been said before…
Played through and really enjoyed it. Found it more reminiscent of Bloodlines than the oiginal DX1 (in fact if you like this and haven’t played Bloodlines – why are you still here).
There are a number of tired game mechanics in play (vents, exploding barrels, crates, boss fights, everyone sending user names and passwords in emails or leaving them lying around the office), but I’m happy with that; they go with the territory. They’re only there to give alternatives and variety. A more realistic approach with less gaming cliches could have strangled the fun out of it. They have to be done well, and not overused, and in general this is the case. Perhaps the exception was the hacking – by the time I was level 5, I could have done with not having to play the minigame for every level 1 or 2 lock.
With the exception of the first I found the boss fights far less annoying than I though I would. This is largely because I had the right augs (by chance) for the second, and I brought a turret all the way from the beginning of the level for the third. I was expecting it to have miraculously disappeared after the cut scene, but it didn’t. Namir didn’t see that coming. Surprisingly, Megan didn’t bat an eyelid when I turned up with said turret, but unfortunately, I couldn’t take it with me on the shuttle to Panchea.
While the literaray references of DX1 were missing, I did like the computer chatter – particularly The Office references and the Nigerian scam emails. Not as good as the email chatter in NOLF2 perhaps, but pretty good.
For me it’s probably the second best game I’ve played this year… after SpaceChem, but better than Portal 2
29/08/2011 at 21:55 Rath says:
Enter is not a bindable key, and fucked if I can find a way to run it windowed.
Other than that, I approve.
29/08/2011 at 22:03 Iokanaan says:
the game is shiny boots of leather.
and now a question:
it might be that I remember it from the trailer, but isn’t the quote “the flesh (or body, I thought they said ‘flesh’ in-game) may heal, but the mind is not always so resilient” from somewhere outside the game?
29/08/2011 at 22:15 blissend says:
I refuse to go past this point http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S3a3caK7SA
29/08/2011 at 22:16 GunsAkimbo says:
Horrible graphics,
dreadful voice acting,
AI that would seem ropey 12 years ago (playing on the hardest difficulty),
shitty cover system,
hacking mini-games that suck balls,
awkward movement… jumping correctly never seems intuitive
I’ve not finished it yet; so i’ll reserve final judgment … but it’s really not looking very good.
29/08/2011 at 22:29 sebmojo says:
Flipping through the comments, the people who are holding up the original as a paragon of game design have glasses that are so rose coloured as to be an almost opaque crimson.
Deus Ex had terrible voice acting, cavernous spaces filled with a few poorly-modelled robot lookalikes, unvisceral gunplay with absurdly drifty crosshairs, abysmal, random stealth, and performed like an absolute dog on contemporary hardware.
Now it’s still a great game because of what it tried to do and, often, succeeded at. Unparallelled (at the time) options, a widely read script, a sense of scope and scale, lots of ways to accomplish missions and modification potential in weapons and augs.
But it was often not a good game.
30/08/2011 at 04:02 dxmt says:
How can you list all those great things in your third paragraph and then go on to say it wasn’t a good game? Because of the voice acting and the quality of the models? Things like that only exist to service the gameplay; they are completely secondary to it.
29/08/2011 at 23:25 Text_Fish says:
Playing it slow. That’s the mark of a truly classic singleplayer experience. It’s reminiscent of the so called “golden age” of PC gaming, definitely.
My only complaint is that I wish I could pick up stiff rubbish bags. :(
29/08/2011 at 23:33 Robin says:
I’m far from its conclusion, but I think it’s a bit overhyped. I think in time its valuation, while still good, will shrink to a more objective measure.
I agree with what Janus said in other posts about this game (but without his “spiteful tone”): this game follows different game design principles than the original Deus Ex. This new is clearly more rigid and predetermined, to keep the player more in line with the cinematic component.
Also some mechanics are bad.
Like the cover-shooting (it succeeds at being worse than the original), and you constantly have to deal with a ridiculously low amount of ammunition.
Stealth is.. I’m indifferent; it’s not more realistic than the original DX and it’s more rigid (that is: it need a specifically tailored level design to work.. Old light based stealth needs it too, but its less blatant).
“Push-button-to-win-button” are an example of the awful modern game design we have to deal with nowadays (and the energy requisite is.. ridiculous); normal melee combat is infinitely better.
Third person switch is bad as it felt since they first showed it.
Health regen is, as always, terrible.
Why the new PROD takes a huge amount of inventory?
And finally: where is my pepper laser-blocking spray?
That’s obviously my opinion.
My English is bad so apologize if my tone was somewhat offensive.
29/08/2011 at 23:35 paco says:
I spent 26 hours just in Detroit before heading to Hong Kong. I expect to spend a similar amount, if not more in Hong Kong. The game is fantastic, best RPG I’ve played in years, my ONLY complaints are:
Bad face and animation models for NPCs
Technical problems on PC that are resolvable
And uh…that’s pretty much it. Oh the energy regen system is full retarded and should be revamped in a patch.
That’s literally it. I had no problem with the first boss, despite being a stealth character with no combat upgrades and playing a full no kill stealth run, because I carried around grenades and machine gun + rounds anyway, so I don’t really see that as an issue except for in preparation, there’s no reason to leave your inventory completely open like some people do anyway, I rarely have more than 4-6 blocks open, at most, everywhere I go and it works out.
29/08/2011 at 23:39 Robin says:
Why my comment are not shown anymore?
29/08/2011 at 23:44 Herbert_West says:
I find it very, very interesting that people played this as a personal story. I played AJ as something akin to Geralt. I have a task, I have to deal with it. Yes, Sarif pissed me of more than once, but he was my boss, and my company, my people, were under attack. I had to do my job. Period.
It had some moments where AJ was getting personal, but I could, and sometimes did, ignore them. I did not care much about Megan, and I think the game did a good job at setting her up as a focal point, but not necessarily a love interest. My Jensen was over and done with her. She was a collegue, and someone my enemies kidnapped. Not my love interest, maybe a friend, or an ally.
And this somewhat ditanced attitude of the game was great for me. If I chose so, AJ could be a brooding arsehead brought back from the dead by a boss he resented for that, and hell-bent on getting his lost love back, damn everyone who stands in his way. If I choose so, he was an excelent ex-cop inflitrating everything without a trace, or the true butcher at Mexicantown, killing every enemy and curb-stomping whores. He was who I chose him to be. And that is great.
That is not to say that I, the player, was not immersed. I was very, very immersed, as a player, as someone who enjoys “getting it done”, and as someone who seriously belives in trans and posthumanism, and as a scientisc and a scolar. I wanted augs to be commonplace, I shared Sarifs vision of mankind finally wrestling its indipendenfy form nature with the iron grip of an aug. I wanted to bitch-slap Harrow (and did) for his idiocy. I wanted to stuff the Humanity Front, in all its wrongness, up the anti-aug gyus arse.
Today, I, after playing 43 hours strait and completing the game as a stealth predator (lots of crouching and hiding, violent takedowns, and gunfire when needed), finally walked outside, the main tune ringing inside my head, and looking at the world and my body with a bit of disbelief, and a lot of optimism. I wanted the world to be like that of 2025. I wanted myself to be augmented. I was still emmersed in the game, in tis story, its setting, its everything, hours after I finished playing it.
And that is awesome.
(and the endings fit the theme of “corporate shit-sweeper” very well. You are, quite to the word, just a cog in the machine. A very important cog, surely, one who can turn the machine each way, but still, just a part of it. And to me, the fourth ending, one with Panchea (another greek mytzhology reference) sinking, was the canonical one. I, Adam Jensen, and I, the player, was not one to determine where the world went. That is up to the world)
29/08/2011 at 23:49 Herbert_West says:
Did the site just eat my looong comment?
I haz a sad.
29/08/2011 at 23:52 pelham.tovey says:
Up until about five hours in I was over the moon: “Finally, a worthy sequel!”, but after that the game starts becoming rather repetitive. The hacking is just a time sink and desperately needs to either be made more difficult or removed outright by the end; sneaking is a trivial matter of exploiting the handy gaps in the mechanical patrol routes and…well I just irrationally hate cover-based shooters, so DX3 and me were never going to see eye to augmented eye on that.
It reminded me of Assassin’s Creed in some respects, the cities are all very pretty and shiny but after a while you just get tired of staring at the glowy orange glow on everything. It started feeling padded or…sterile. The finale is on a GIANT HOLE IN THE EARTH, for Pete’s sake and what we get given is more Mass Effect style ‘corridors filled with corridors’ and a zombie shooter ending.
The best way I can sum up my disappointment is to refer to one scene in particular. When you descend into the Picus underground there is a callback to the original game wherein a Majestic 12-style grabby hand statue is on display…except instead of being 20ft tall in a giant red ruby cathedral of 80s B-movie excess it’s just more ULTRADARK ON GLOWY ORANGE aesthetic nonsense…it just struck me as supremely lacking in creativity in a game that is clearly not burdened by much in the way of editorial mithering.
The story was suitably bonkers though, and the music: super-sexy. I just felt let down by how each of the different game mechanisms felt cheap and never really came together…unlike Jensen and Pritchard in my hot fanfics.
30/08/2011 at 19:13 Wulf says:
Yeah, this is how I’m finding myself feeling about it.
I compared it before to Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, and that remains true. It’s like… at the start of the game they concentrate on giving you options, but as the game goes on it becomes increasingly more linear and repetitive, and right at the end they almost make choice completely inconsequential. I mean, people can write papers about this, but it’s still largely inconsequential. And this is coming from a person whom already has a stance on augmentation, whose best friend is a robotics engineer whose primary field is artificial prostheses.
When it comes to actual choice and feeling as though my position in the world actually mattered then… sigh, to be honest I felt that Alpha Protocol was closer to what I wanted than this was. I liked Alpha Protocol better. I’m sorry… I can’t help that. It’s the prerogative of anyone to think that I’m ‘wrong’ but I can’t be wrong with my personal tastes. I felt that I had more freedom in Alpha Protocol and that I mattered more. In Deus Ex I felt like I mattered less and less. It’s like they ran out of forward propulsion somewhere around the halfway mark.
This is why I equate it to Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. It has brilliance there. It could be amazing, but… at the end of the day it still suffers from a variety of things that other, similar games haven’t. It’s not very emergent at all in the ways that both the original Deus Ex and Alpha Protocol were, it’s got those stupid bloody boss battles (augh), and generally… it does feel rushed and just a bit dead.
People will say that I don’t like it from that, but I do, I absolutely loved the hell out of it. But you have to point out the good with the bad, someone has to, we can’t all be talking heads about how great something is. This IS a Deus Ex game, but it’s not the best Deus Ex game, and it’s not THAT far ahead of Invisible War in some respects. Once some people have come down off the hype and look at it more objectively then that will be obvious.
The best part about Human Revolution is that it has a very, very interesting story, and that’s something that no one can deny. To be honest, at the end of the day… I just felt that they actually felt constrained somehow by the choices. If that makes sense. It would make a better film than a game.
30/08/2011 at 00:24 Pinkables says:
It’s reached a point where i can no longer see two people standing together without considering the practicalities of bashing their heads together and getting away before anybody sees that it was me.
30/08/2011 at 00:40 Srethron says:
Having yet to finish it–Steam says 67 hours played and I’ve still only fought one boss. So far I love it overall, strong contender for my personal favorite game of the year vs. Portal 2. In many ways it is a return to the good of or natural improvement over Deus Ex. However, I have a huge, huge laundry list of tiny complaints and flaws found. We’re talking sperglord levels. Most of my complaints have to do with areas where it is too similar to Metal Gear Solid 3 (a game I liked, but I don’t want something that narrative heavy in my Deus Ex) or where flaws from the first game were carried over to HR without improvement or where things that were ok before have been Rueweened.
But yeah, enjoying it. I’m hoping it’s a good foundation for a future game that can finally advance past all the breakthroughs Ion Storm Austin made 11 years ago.
30/08/2011 at 00:42 Bob says:
It’s not perfect. The boss fights suck and the transitioning in Shanhai drives me batshit, but that said, I LOVE THIS GAME. Well done Square Enix and Eidos Montreal.
30/08/2011 at 00:58 Laughing says:
I think that this Deus Ex game is taking a big step towards putting the player fully inside the game. The choices that you can make and the way in which the player interacts with the world really feel closer to me than any other game I’ve played so far. This is not to excuse that it is certainly a game. Having objectives, defined NPC paths, practicing and playing out an algorithm of getting through each level are also incredibly well made and engineered aspects of this game as well.
What I think is really going on that makes this game so great is that it is such a beautiful marriage of the two points above. Realistic player interaction in the virtual world, as well as the Game itself being such a well thought out game, are merged so beautifully here that it probably brings a tear to some gamer’s eyes.
30/08/2011 at 01:01 Kablooie says:
About 17 hours into the game (at least, that’s what Steam claims) and I shelved it in favor of an old freeware game. Frankly, I was bored with it. It just seemed to drag along. I’m not unfamilar with Eido’s stealth based games, I liked the Thief series, but this game, so far, is just not that enjoyable. I never played Deus Ex so there’s no nostalgia factor.
So my initial impression for DXHR is .oO (Zzzzz).
30/08/2011 at 01:10 Phoenix says:
Probably the best game I’ve ever played.
30/08/2011 at 01:40 NOVICIUS says:
Quite simple:
I LOVE DEUS EX!!! I had chance to play for 1hour.
I am still not convinced about animations. It remind me Assassin Creed to much and remember I LOVE DEUS EX..for being outstanding game!!!
so..after 1hour I crashed again..come on guys..You can do better. I am sorry my comp is not the best in the world. YES I was crashing on Shogun naval battles, but gues what…they fix it in one week from release….
I will give it some time..some more restart of my comp and some more checking if my file are all right. Some downgrading my resolution and so on…but please
EIDOS!!!
Do not be cinical. DO not ignore HUGE community which use Invidia!!!
DO not make another news like this…How you like it?
I love it man but I can not enjoy it until you will sort out issues..mine issues and community issues with you product. AMD/ATI enjoy the game and tell US how good it is. We payed the same money.
Please give US a hope and say You see the problem at least.
30/08/2011 at 02:00 Shooop says:
Not far in it at all. Only just got access to the police station morgue.
But I love how many different ways there are to go about your business. One problem though is when trying to get to that one man who’s giving away a drug’s apartment I could only find two choices (hack the gate or jump across a fire escape) – and both required me to upgrade one of the augs.
30/08/2011 at 02:52 Zenicetus says:
I did a quick search and didn’t find a mention of “Letitia.”
It’s early in the game, and so far that’s been the most jarring, immersion-breaking thing in the game for me. A step-’n-fetch-it Black parody in the game? WTF is that all about? ‘m surprised this wasn’t mentioned earlier, but maybe it’s the UK vs. USA cultural thing. I found this part of the game really offensive:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He09JaBVZdE
30/08/2011 at 05:51 dxmt says:
How about the black security guards at Sarif? “You sho’ showed dem, bawss! Wish I coulda bin dair. Cofey, like the drink, but spelled diffrunt”
30/08/2011 at 13:01 JackShandy says:
The security guards sound fine to me, as do the rest of the black people in the game. Letitia is a hobo; it seemed fairly obvious to me that she talks that way because she is in some way disabled, not because she’s black.
30/08/2011 at 02:52 gatlink says:
First of all, and to be done with it, I hated boss fight. They felt totally out of place.
The first and obvious thing for me about this game is how it made me feels. For the first time in a game, in this famous scene when you are ambushed bby belltower, I wanted to kill my opponents. Not just because I could, or because it was easier, but because the life of a character I cared about was at stake. Even in my second playthrought, when I wanted to do all the game non-lethal, and was unable to save her, I took care to punch every belltower agent I met after that, to make them pay for her death. And for the first time in a game, I wanted to avoid killing people not just because I had the possibility to do so. I the last level, with all the augs going amok, I didn’t kill anyone, I didn’t want to, because that wasn’t their fault. I was pretty chocked when I found a heavy rifle and two pack of amunition right before a bridge full of crasy augs, and I was even more chocked when I discovered that I could activate a turret to kill them all, like a genocide, because I realy felt some kind of pity for those guys.
The second point that comes to my mind is the dialogues. They felt real. And those where you convince the person who’s talking with you, they are just awesome! I felt the character of the npc throught their lines, their movements, their faces. What a great moment it was when I saw sandoval’s hand holding the
gun begin to lower while jensen was trying to convince him not to do anything stupid, and his eyes, wide open in the realisation of what he was going to do… Just the fact that by choosing the right line, even if you don’t have the social aug allows you to resolve those dialogues is incredible. In any other games including dialogues, you always have a skill that give you the right line, not here.
Third point: the cyberpunk atmosphere. It is great. As a ‘table’ RPG player, I played Cyberpunk or Shadowrun, and the thing was here. The megacorporation plot, the double-cross, the ‘the end is near’ feeling, and the desperation (who else think none of the ends is a happy end?) were all here. And Jensen fit perfectly into this.
Talking about the end, my feelings are mixed. A button. You end the game by pushing a button. But in the other hand, the background justifies it, it’s not so
weird. Eliza did what she do best, manipulate the news, and offers you to choose what you want to say to the world. Ok, it’s technologic, a simple button is enough to send it all. I find the video + Jensen monologue quite good actualy. It’s meaningful, and it made me think. Plus, it’s nice trick to avoid interferences with the first game not to show the outcome of all of this.
About the different ways to solve a situation, yes, most of the time it’s just ‘shoot them all’, ‘hack that thing’ or ‘find the vent’. But each time it’s a pleasure to find that vent behind a crate, or to solve this hacking minigame (which didn’t bore me at all), and then find out that you may had taken this other path, by breaking a wall or jumping over some furniture.
Combats are good in the way that you have to think (in the higher difficulty at least). Many times NPCs flanked and surrounded me. A good use of grenades, lethal or not, are necessary to handle a small group of enemies. Stealth is great, and even greater given the multiples sideways for each locations.
30/08/2011 at 03:30 JackShandy says:
I knew the ending would catch a lot of flack, but I really liked it. So much so, I wrote a blog post about it. Read it while it’s hot, folks!
http://themachination.net/blog/human-revolution-taught-me-something/
I won’t actually force you to go there to find my opinion. The ending doesn’t give a definitive “THIS WAS THE CONSEQUENCE OF YOUR ACTION” cut-scene, and it doesn’t unfold dynamically as you defeat a boss. That’s fine – that’s not what Eidos were trying to do. What it does is lock you in a small room and force you to make a decision on the debate that it’s been trying to make you think about for the entire game. The final choice isn’t about the game, it’s about you.
It’s kind of Brechtian. Mary de Marle and co obviously decided that, with this game, they wanted to educate players on Human Augmentation. That’s an awesome goal, and I think that – for a player that’s open and interested – Human Revolution totally achieve that. It doesn’t just educate you – seeing as it constantly asks your opinion, it forces you to take a stance on an issue you probably didn’t care about before.
That’s a really cool thing for a game to do.
30/08/2011 at 03:51 edit says:
It’s Deus Ex! It really is. More than it should be, in some ways. It still employs some old-school approaches to things that should probably have been evolved or moved beyond.. I hope they get a bit more daring with future titles in the series (which I’m sure there will be, now). Still, it’s pretty damn slick and I’m having a great time with it.
30/08/2011 at 04:58 empty_other says:
SPOILER
Just finished it (six in the morning, 3 hours until i’ve got work).
Loved the game, but disliked the ending.
The same 3 choices from Deus Ex 1 (Destroy technology, accelerate technology, or let illuminati control technology) and one choice more. Except all the choices are placed in the same room… Why?
So far, DX2 had the best end-choices, but that was the only thing DX2 did well.
My first choice have been the same in all 3 games; Pro-Technology. I’m looking forward to the singularity ;)
30/08/2011 at 05:10 horsemedic says:
For me, the worst and best aspects were contained in one three-minute scene, on my second trip to Detroit.
I’m in a street full of bums and cops and I see a dead-end alley I didn’t notice before. The end of the alley is blocked off by a high chain-link fence, so naturally I start hauling dumpsters to the fence to build a staircase.
Problem: there’s a lady hobo in front of the fence, impeding my construction. After glaring at her mutely, I just lob my first dumpster over he head.
Sadly, it clips her and she dies. I mourn briefly, then go down the street to get my second dumpster. As I’m trudging back to the alley, a civilian runs past me in the opposite direction, heading toward some police down the street. Then I notice the dead hobo’s legs sticking out of the alley. Oops. So I drop my dumpster and pull her to a less conspicuous spot.
Too late. As I go to pick my dumpster back up, I see two cops running up the street. They ignore me at first, run past me into the alley, where they see the dead hobo and immediately open fire on me.
Realizing that an NPC has just informed on me for killing another NPC, resulting in a mini police investigation and my summary execution, I reload to shortly after I kill the hobo. This time I knock out the civilian/witness before he can reach the police, hide the hobo, and get away with the crime. The cops let me build my staircase in peace.
This is amazing, I’m thinking as I make the final adjustments to my dumpsters. The attention to detail. The consequences of every little action. The realism.
Then I get to the stop of my staircase and try to jump over the fence. But I can’t, of course, because I hit what has to be the 20th invisible wall I’ve so far encountered in the game.
And there it is. The worst thing about this game is the rough edges. Everywhere. The invisible walls blocking off routes that should be traversable (raise your hand if you wasted an hour trying to climb those spiky ledges that cover every building in Heng Sha); the PA system in the police station that placidly calls Det. Ballard to the lobby after I’ve killed Det. Ballard, the lobby and everyone else in the building; the gangsters who spawn in an apartment full of fellow gangsters I’ve previously murdered, sit down and watch TV until I sneak up and murder them too; the totally arbitrary flagging of dynamic objects (I can pick up a dumpster, I can pick up a cardboard box, but I can’t pick up cardboard box with a broom on top of it?), the cars that never move and whose models look like they were pasted directly out of Deus Ex 1.
Am I picking nits? Yes. But in a game with basically only two fairly compact levels, there’s a lot of nits. They pop up constantly and constantly destroy the immersion the game otherwise pulls off so well.
This is still a great game. The mechanics, the plot, the combat are all superior. But it’s rough in so many ways it doesn’t need to be. It’s a Cadillac that somehow ended up at the dealership with just a coat of primer.
30/08/2011 at 05:12 Vinraith says:
@Burky
It’s not a matter of “taste”. If 99.9% of all works of literature marketed as “novels” were actually technically and structurally verse, and only one or two of them could genuinely be considered prose, you would have no choice but to vote those novels the greatest of all time.
That’s where I’d draw that conclusion from.
30/08/2011 at 05:23 Janus says:
You’re still talking about a relatively small pool and you know it. And from that pool, I would echo Burky’s sentiments in maintaining that Deus Ex is the exemplar of those criteria. It’s the logical conclusion of the years of innovation that took place at Origin and then Looking Glass, indisputably two of the greatest videogames developers of all time.
But hey, humour me: what’s your #1?
30/08/2011 at 05:27 Azradesh says:
The best game I’ve played in a VERY long time.
30/08/2011 at 06:28 Janus says:
Stipulating that systemic emergence, rules, and player agency within those rules defines games is “delusional”.
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. I’m dealing a master of rhetoric, here.
30/08/2011 at 08:39 Spindrift says:
I haven’t read any of the other comments because I’m not done with the game yet and don’t want spoilers.
I will say this, though: Man, the character animations in conversations seem primitive. Malik’s dead-eyed gaze and aimless head-bobbing while she talks makes her seem like some kind of creepy marionette. Everybody seems to wiggle and wave their hands more than necessary, in fact. That initial walk-through in the intro, where all the scientists are bugging Megan? I’m not sure if the hunched posture and plaintive gesturing makes them look more like they’re groveling, or like subhuman primates loping along in foolish pantomime of human behavior.
But some animation is just great. When you’re in an extended convince-o-matic conversation with someone, they move in a smooth, fluid, and realistic fashion. I found that conversation with William Haas at the police front desk rather moving, and half of it was because of his body language.
So what gives? Why are some of the animations great and others so half-assed? I guess there’s only so much budget for these things.
Good game, though. I’m enjoying it greatly. Even the boss fights.
30/08/2011 at 09:25 Robin says:
I think the game is overhyped. In time it will be valuated more objectively (like Bioshock before him.. but Bioshock was worse).
Even without comparing it to the original (but the comparison is inevitable), flaws and bad design decisions are evident.. well, they are to me at least.
The cover-shooting is not good, utterly static, constantly having to deal with a nonsensical low amount of ammunition (pick up a pistol: 1 ammo gained), and how can I aim perfectly while remaining crouched behind a conveniently-placed-waist-high barrier? (In the end if is worse than the original’s)
Health regen is just bad as always.
Third person switch is as bad as it ever appeared to be when they first showed it.
“Push button to win/something awesome happens (cit. Bioware)” takedowns are awful, immersion breaking, and governed by and absurd energy-dependant mechanic; normal melee is just 100 times better. Period.
The mandatory shitty minigame, that all the AAA titles nowadays have to implement, is.. shitty as expected.
LOS based stealth, as it was implemented, is more rigid and not more realistic that Shadow based stealth; and also it need a more specifically tailored level (saturated with conveniently places hiding spots).
Finally: where is my pepper, laser-blocking, spray?
This is what I think.
My English is poor so I apologize if I have been somewhat offensive.
30/08/2011 at 09:26 Robin says:
I think the game is overhyped. In time it will be valuated more objectively (like Bioshock before him.. but Bioshock was worse).
Even without comparing it to the original (but the comparison is inevitable), flaws and bad design decisions are evident.. well, they are to me at least.
The cover-shooting is not good, utterly static, constantly having to deal with a nonsensical low amount of ammunition (pick up a pistol: 1 ammo gained), and how can I aim perfectly while remaining crouched behind a conveniently-placed-waist-high barrier? (In the end if is worse than the original’s)
Health regen is just bad as always.
Third person switch is as bad as it ever appeared to be when they first showed it.
“Push button to win/something awesome happens (cit. Bioware)” takedowns are awful, immersion breaking, and governed by and absurd energy-dependant mechanic; normal melee is just 100 times better. Period.
The mandatory shitty minigame, that all the AAA titles nowadays have to implement, is.. shitty as expected.
LOS based stealth, as it was implemented, is more rigid and not more realistic that Shadow based stealth; and also it need a more specifically tailored level (saturated with conveniently places hiding spots).
Finally: where is my pepper, laser-blocking, spray?
This is what I think.
My English is poor so I apologize if I have been somewhat offensive.
Why my replies doesn’t show??
30/08/2011 at 09:27 Robin says:
Test
30/08/2011 at 09:34 Zogtee says:
I’m not very far into the game yet, but I’m really enjoying it and it feels like a proper DE game, which is more than I dared hope for.
Bad things? Well, the city (I’ve only seen one so far) feels small, claustrophobic, and artificially restricted. It’s not a bad looking game, but it’s certainly nothing to show off either. Considering how unremarkable it looks, I think it runs rather poorly.
30/08/2011 at 10:33 soylentrobot says:
i took an incredibly violent route through the game. i felt i had to make up for all the pacifist runs.
30/08/2011 at 10:34 Ultra Superior says:
I love this game. EM did excellent job and I love the level design. I only dislike few minor things:
1) Can punch through walls but not through…wooden doors?
2) Gameplay mechanics of sound… placing a mine is THAT loud? Killing with a blade is heard in kilometer radius?
3) Typing of difficult to find passwords yields no XP or bonuses, while hacking everything gives you tons of XP
4) XP bonuses ‘force’ you to play in non lethal ‘expedient’ way. Playing any other way feels like you’re playing the game wrong. Shame on you unbalanced XP bonuses!
5) Economy – it is way too easy to make zillions of muny by simply dragging few shotguns to merchant. Its way too gamish and it unnecessarily supports grinding.
30/08/2011 at 10:40 Ultra Superior says:
Comments don’t show or wooot?
I love this game. EM did excellent job and I love the level design. I only dislike few minor things:
1) Can punch through walls but not through…wooden doors?
2) Gameplay mechanics of sound… placing a mine is THAT loud? Killing with a blade is heard in kilometer radius?
3) Typing of difficult to find passwords yields no XP or bonuses, while hacking everything gives you tons of XP
4) XP bonuses ‘force’ you to play in non lethal ‘expedient’ way. Playing any other way feels like you’re playing the game wrong. Shame on you unbalanced XP bonuses!
5) Economy – it is way too easy to make zillions of muny by simply dragging few shotguns to merchant. Its way too gamish and it unnecessarily supports grinding.
30/08/2011 at 11:17 HelderPinto says:
So basically… everyone loves this game! Man, I’m a happy panda right now.
30/08/2011 at 11:24 Laurentius says:
Thing is I would love this game to have different construction of story and missions and quest. It would be so cool if Jensen at the beginning was working on his own in semi-open world , like these characters from Gibson’s books, doing all sorts of these odd works : breaking into people’s apartments to steal their computer data or infiltrate corporations for bigger prize, etc and during these we would got caught with something big. This would be more coherent, logical and immersive. Similar problem is also in Witcher2 and ME, the games start with BANG! and we are middle of storm and still if someone ask us to help them get their cat of the tree we gladly accept.
30/08/2011 at 11:42 Apples says:
I’m only a little way into it (first boss fight, having done a bunch of side-quests), but if I’m honest I’m not enjoying it at all. I didn’t like the original Deus Ex very much either – I know, heresy – but all the comparisons this was drawing to Mass Effect and Bloodlines got me interested. Those two games grabbed me right from the start, so I expected something great.
Problem is, it doesn’t feel like either of them yet. Like the original, it feels far more about gameplay than anything else. I understand that a lot of people love that, but there’s only so many times I can sneak behind someone and move a crate before I’m excruciatingly bored of it, no matter how nice the controls feel. After entering new areas I would look at the map and groan as I realised I had to navigate across another immense building. I can’t fathom all the articles joyously relating the time the author managed to stack some dumpsters so they could avoid some enemies or when they stole some credits in an office – is this really the pinnacle of player choice in games and the best use of the medium?!
The game is also getting away with some things that would have got any other new release blasted. Non-interactive pre-rendered cutscenes, outdated puzzles like “use box to avoid electric floor”, tons of vent-crawling, characters completely ignoring you as you steal all their stuff, etc…
ME and Bloodlines, to me, were narrative talky games with rubbish combat that you had to get through to get to the next good bit, and they made me think about things. Deus Ex is a good stealth game with some dire talky bits where everyone loops one dead-eyed 3-second animation, the voice acting has all the subtlety of a Spiderman cartoon, and the choices are meaningless. It hasn’t explored the central issue of augmentations at all yet beyond a few predictable aug-ist voice clips and Jensen being a bit upset, which comes across like a Twilight character moaning about his vampirism – Jensen gets to be an awesome cyborg and doesn’t even get the no-poz downside. He also looks like a total prat, and I wish the devs had taken a leaf out of Deadly Premonition’s book and allowed me to shave him.
Guess it’s just not the game for me.
30/08/2011 at 11:49 JackDandy says:
I really enjoyed the game itself. It was lengthy, challenging, and had some good mechanics. AI was pretty stupid at times, though.
One thing I can safely complain about is the ending and the entire level before it. Just felt… stupid. Inconclusive.
30/08/2011 at 12:06 pipman3000 says:
Due Sex: Hymen Revolution
Deus Sex: Old women are the future.
30/08/2011 at 12:35 JackShandy says:
This game immersed me so much I almost emergent ludonarratived all over the screen.
30/08/2011 at 13:04 Boffy says:
It was a good game, Although I was very disappointed at the graphics, Vocals and quite a few other things…..
Although the main thing that pissed me off, Was when I got into the machine room that Sarif was in, Went to talk to him, And then got told to put my gun away :| (I actually killed him and used the truthful ending)
I’d buy it again, But it did smell of console quality to me, Seeing as the Dx11 option didn’t actually do anything, And when I set FOV to 90 I would raise my gun and it’d just jump to position instead of moving
30/08/2011 at 14:46 Snichy says:
Unlike just about everyone else on the planet, I didn’t like the game for the same reason I didnt finish ME2. I was a bit disappointed with the amount of dialogue and lack of action. I realise that is what you get with RPGs and I think this was more to do with my personal taste than anything else as I can see how these games are high quality RPGs but I was hoping for more action, less talk – most of my time was spent watching and listening to it rather than playing it. For this genre, I can tell it was a good quality game with great visuals and plot so if you like RPGs I would recommend it but I prefer something that I play rather than watch.
30/08/2011 at 14:48 j1yeon says:
My feedback is all based on Give Me Deus Mode, of course.
I adore the game. Finished it on Saturday as my murderous self. Restarted a game last night where I’m trying to play like a supercop. Quick and stealthy, non-lethal takedowns and some stun prod, but when I get discovered and the shooting starts, I’m not afraid to pull out my Magnum and dole out some STREET JUSTICE. I’m also going to try to avoid all ridiculous augs this time around. Typhoon made the bosses too easy, for example.
But I’d just like to say that the augmentation system needs a COMPLETE REDO. Just look at the amount of points focused on hacking.. essentially a stupid little mini-game. And I ran into three separate sidequests that all required hacking… at least to my knowledge the codes for the panels weren’t available anywhere. Way too much hacking focus without proper alternatives.
The way the system is designed, also doesn’t really allow for proper customization. Near the end of the game, you’re just a super soldier.. there are so many Praxis points available that I was dumping points into cloak and silent running and all sorts of other stuff I never use. It’d be nice to have specialization paths with certain bonuses, to give your character more identity at the end of the game. Also, there needs to be a way to create explosives, damnit.
Lastly, fuck exclusive DLC. I love explosives, and played my first game with a rocket launcher on me the entire time. But wait, apparently I had to have preordered from Gamestop to get a GRENADE LAUNCHER OR REMOTE EXPLOSIVES. For a game that doesn’t have THAT many weapons to begin wtih, packaging a few of them off for exclusive DLC seems almost criminal.
30/08/2011 at 15:30 brulleks says:
In Picus’ news broadcast studio, I discovered that my newly upgraded super-humanly strong arms allowed me to pick up a friendly turret and move it. Unfortunately, everyone in the room was already dead by then, so I decided to take it with me, hauling it as far as I could before my one bar of energy ran out, then taking a little break until the bar was refilled.
After that, life was sweet. I would position the sentry facing to face every closed door, open it and stand to one side, listening to the symphony of whirring gears, gunshots, cries and clattering assault rifles.
Then came the defense of the funicular room and, to my joy, a little friend for my turret. After we (well, it) had dealt with the soldiers, I sneaked through under the floorboards to the security console and hacked into the second turret. After flinging a mine in front of all the entrances, I positioned my sentry along one wall, with the new one facing away from the funicular entrance, and pressed the button, before disappearing down a nearby vent to watch the chaos ensue. After a rousing chorus of boom-whir-bang-clatters, I found the room full of corpses and strode through the funicular’s doorway.
“But wait” I thought. “I don’t want to leave my new pals behind.”
So I hauled both turrets into the funicular and they accompanied me on the journey down the side of the skyscraper. I decided to name them Ferdie and Purdie. They came with me throughout the rest of the level, (I can honestly say I didn’t have to kill a single person or blow up a single robot myself), apart from in the poorly placed boss fight, during which I’m sure I could hear them whimpering at the door because of cutscene-Jensen’s refusal to admit them.
When Malik came to pick me up I was quite cut up at having to leave them both behind – they simply wouldn’t fit on the VTOL. So I placed them side by side on the floor of the hangar and waved goodbye, trusting Eliza to take good care of them for me.
Yes, I loved DEHR, thank you for asking.
30/08/2011 at 18:10 Zogtee says:
Oh joy, I just ran into my first boss fight!
It’s a fairly long way to get to Barret and I was taking my time being stealthy, not killing anyone, avoiding cameras, etc. I felt pretty good about myself and then it was cutscene time. I watched in horror as Jensen strolled casually through the doors, out in the light, in plain sight of the bad guys and whispered to myself “WTF are you doing?!”.
And then it was time to fight Barett and I got raped in seconds. I have the combat rifle, upgraded handgun, I used grenades, I shot the red barrel, I even triggered the Typhoon, and still I’m dead in seconds. All the fun I’ve been having so far, suddenly ground to a very abrupt halt. Thank you so fucking much, devs.
30/08/2011 at 21:13 piercehead says:
Loved it, bar the boss fights. Stable too – no crashes midgame after 3x hrs played, only had a runtime error when quitting the game after completing it.
I didn’t mind the lack of literary works similar to the first game lying around, and they clearly decided to include material that more directly related to the various groups in the game and biotechnical ebooks etc. as well as emails/news foreshadowing the rise of UNATCO and Page etc.
To the couple of people bitching about the level design being just front door/side door/vents/speech and how it was so much better in Deus Ex I strongly recommend you go back and play it sometime as it was practically the same.
I see many more playthroughs ahead for me – started stealthy, so this time is murder spree time ;-)
31/08/2011 at 23:05 tamper says:
Am I seriously the only one who thought the game sucked? It was basically a worse version of deus ex invisible war. The graphics were the only thing that was better but they weren’t even that good with todays standard. There were way to few sidequests, the ai sucked, the stealth system sucked, the upgrade system sucked, the store/buying/equipment/upgrading system sucked (what was with the box inventory, srsly, anyone ever actually thought that was a clever idea?) combat was just more dull cover based shooting (though I enjoyed that you didn’t have too much life and not the enemy either), the story was crap, the characters were plain, there weren’t allot of interesting choices to make and the ones you did make didn’t affect anything much. The ending sucked compared to invisible war. Honestly, after playing through this game I was just terribly dissapoint and would rather replay invisible war.
02/09/2011 at 17:57 Kirrus says:
This is a test :)
I quite enjoyed the Eliza reveal. I did wonder about the whole ‘nutrient’ thing, there were pizza boxes and fridges all over the place, but you couldn’t raid them for food. I wonder if they decided to not let food be that plentiful?
03/09/2011 at 20:16 Rich Tea says:
I thought this game was exhausting.
At multiple points throughout I thought that I had finally reached the end of a long road, only to be shipped off to another industrial complex.
When playing a game like this one tends to agree to a kind of role-playing contract. However, my interest in this game began to leak after I’d wrapped up the first episode in China. From then on it seemed to get more and more ludicrous; I felt as if more and more conspiracy theories were shovelled on in an attempt to inject juice into a hollow experience.
It just felt too much. I fully agree with earlier comments about the frustration with constant lack of energy. It went beyond making you think about what to spend those points on, and instead simply stymied what fun remained.
I liked the boss battles as they broke up the hours of drab fun-treacle that I’d sloshed through to get there, and gave me hope that the game might end after the latest ”REVELATION!!1!”.
Very limited trade mechanics. Finding money in Hengsha served no purpose whatsoever!
So… very confused by the near blanket adoration. Really liked the hacking element; it genuinely felt risky pushing for those extra goodies like nukes and additional XP.
Final quick gripe before I dash off. I played through as a pacifist but never got the achievement for doing so. I guess I must have nailed someone earlier in the game but I have no idea how. Would it have been so hard to include a stats screen of some kind (doors hacked, headshots)?
I feel tired even thinking about playing this game. It should never feel like a chore to sink time into a game. Borderlands DLC, here I come.
03/09/2011 at 20:22 TillEulenspiegel says:
Uhhh? Are you making a horrible joke, or just entirely unaware of black [American] stereotypes?
04/09/2011 at 18:21 Post-Internet Syndrome says:
Played and enjoyed. It is truly the sequel to Deus Ex, and it does a great job with it. However, there where several things that annoyed me.
The graphics. Generally the game looked sweet but many secondary characters had very low polycount and low-res textures. Animations were wonky in general, and in conversations in particular. Lip sync was not up to scratch. I guess the standard thing to do is blame the consoles, but the reason is unimportant really. I felt underwhelmed by this game, released in 2011. I’ve been playing some Metro 2033 recently and the difference is striking. Of course, my computer almost chokes on metro, but I can scale it down. DXHR I played on max settings with plenty of computing power to spare.
Speaking of conversations, the voice acting was atrocious. Not a great problem since conversations are not the bigger part of the game, but still pretty jarring. Found it especially silly that many characters practically screamed in situations where this was highly unadvisable. Like when a bent cop has his misdeeds exposed in the lobby of the police station, with a random woman standing right in front of him.
As someone mentioned earlier, the different paths to objectives were very standardized. They were also all extremely easy to find. Some vents where hidden behind vending machines and such, which was a nice touch, but other than that most where very obvious.
The third person takedowns and cover had some problems, though they generally worked very well. The fixed camera angles and time freeze of the takedowns annoyed me. I would much rather have had them be in first person, and not stop surrounding enemies from interfering. Immersion-breaking if anything ever was. The cover on the other hand worked very well with third person, but I felt that in combat it was sometimes just too good. Outside of cover you are so squishy it quickly becomes a standard approach to just stay behind the same cover for the duration of the battle. Enemies in 2011 still fall for the tried and true “run in a line through a door and die”. I invested in the typhoon but had few opportunities to use it. (This is of course partly my own fault for not exploring alternatives properly.)
The interactivity and the item highlight. I started playing the game with highlight off (as I hade vowed to do ever since seeing the first trailers). However, a short bit into the game I felt forced to turn it on. When a single drawer in a whole cabinet (indistinguishable from all the others) is the only one that can be opened, playing without highlight becomes a chore. Identical boxes were sometimes interactive, sometimes not. I suppose it would have been more work to have every item be affected by the physics and the player, but the differentiation is arbitrary and makes the highlight a necessity.
I had a similar but milder experience with the objective marker. Instead of giving the player the information they need to find the objective, we arbitrarily just know where stuff are and a big part of the screen is obfuscated by it. Especially silly when the objective was a person and they would be almost completely hidden behind a great blue box. At the very least the markers could have been smaller.
The bossfights, needless to say. Completely unnecessary and unforgivable. They have asolutely no place in a game like this. DX had bossfights too, but apart from two they where all skippable. (And one of those was quite reasonable storywise, and the other you could at least get away with tranquilizing the dude.) A great side effect of that was also that bosses you skipped would sometimes come back later for a second round.
In addition to this, the final “bossfight” was just lame. It provided no real challenge once you figured out what you actually needed to do, and it felt silly to be pumping lead by the bucket into three defenseless women in a trance. (I assume that they could be hacked too, but since I played violent on my first playthrough I had to go for the bullet sponges instead.) Two turrets and a few zombies was all the danger in the room.
Contiuing, the ending. The ending options in themselves where pretty good, but gameplay-wise they just put you in a room with three buttons and said “choose your ending”. Even Jedi Academy had gameplay ramificiations of the end choice. DX had you perform a different task in the vast complex that was the last level, making it quite a different experience depening on your choice. DXHR:s last level was literally just a long corridor that ended in a room with three buttons. Cheap.
Again, I must stress that I had a great time with this game, with several more playthroughs planned. That doesn’t make its faults invisible though. It is perhaps telling that I enjoyed the game so much even though I was constantly noticing all these things that in my mind is just wrong. A great piece of work, but far from perfect. I’m nitpicking, I know, but the game has a lot to live up to and generally does, which makes the silly mistakes all the more silly.
04/09/2011 at 19:00 Post-Internet Syndrome says:
Played and enjoyed. It is truly the sequel to Deus Ex, and it does a great job with it. However, there where several things that annoyed me.
The graphics. Generally the game looked sweet but many secondary characters had very low polycount and low-res textures. Animations were wonky in general, and in conversations in particular. Lip sync was not up to scratch. I guess the standard thing to do is blame the consoles, but the reason is unimportant really. I felt underwhelmed by this game, released in 2011. I’ve been playing some Metro 2033 recently and the difference is striking. Of course, my computer almost chokes on metro, but I can scale it down. DXHR I played on max settings with plenty of computing power to spare.
Speaking of conversations, the voice acting was atrocious. Not a great problem since conversations are not the bigger part of the game, but still pretty jarring. Found it especially silly that many characters practically screamed in situations where this was highly unadvisable. Like when a bent cop has his misdeeds exposed in the lobby of the police station, with a random woman standing right in front of him.
As someone mentioned earlier, the different paths to objectives were very standardized. They were also all extremely easy to find. Some vents where hidden behind vending machines and such, which was a nice touch, but other than that most where very obvious.
The third person takedowns and cover had some problems, though they generally worked very well. The fixed camera angles and time freeze of the takedowns annoyed me. I would much rather have had them be in first person, and not stop surrounding enemies from interfering. Immersion-breaking if anything ever was. The cover on the other hand worked very well with third person, but I felt that in combat it was sometimes just too good. Outside of cover you are so squishy it quickly becomes a standard approach to just stay behind the same cover for the duration of the battle. Enemies in 2011 still fall for the tried and true “run in a line through a door and die”. I invested in the typhoon but had few opportunities to use it. (This is of course partly my own fault for not exploring alternatives properly.)
The interactivity and the item highlight. I started playing the game with highlight off (as I hade vowed to do ever since seeing the first trailers). However, a short bit into the game I felt forced to turn it on. When a single drawer in a whole cabinet (indistinguishable from all the others) is the only one that can be opened, playing without highlight becomes a chore. Identical boxes were sometimes interactive, sometimes not. I suppose it would have been more work to have every item be affected by the physics and the player, but the differentiation is arbitrary and makes the highlight a necessity.
[continued]
08/09/2011 at 20:18 warp23 says:
This is the best game I played in a long time. Played DE1 and 2.
Oh, this was soooooo good. I almost thought nobody makes games like this anymore.
Salut EIDOS, one of the best game development team in the world
22/12/2011 at 23:05 danVINER says:
440 hours of play – i started out armed letha to get a feel of where the stuff was, and found that choosing augmentations in a particular order very important. I didn’t set hacking to 3 until around tong, gave up on stealth – burns my batteries to fast, barrett first boss: grenade/or red barrel and shotgun (was immune to gas in my run) the russian boss- gas grenade pinned her in one place and finished with heavy machine gun, namir – didn’t get the implant so zhao couldn’t shut me off and also the anti-electricity aug and drilled him with the heavy machine gun. Why the number of hours? The bystanders had some excelent dialouge, reading the computer information when I could, added a lot to the story line, and a little trick I didn’t notice- if you read the computer, you still have to switch to your pocket secretary and click or read through them or you won’t get the code you just read off the computer screen. Was very pleased with the game.