SubJeff on 27/8/2011 at 21:54

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Hmmm. An SDK you say? This has potential. Hack in lean for starts.

I've the same message on my menu and I just noticed something DLing on DX in Steam...

Painman on 27/8/2011 at 22:42

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How 'bout Takedowns? I've been abusing that mechanic terribly - haven't fired a single shot yet (I even ghosted my way past the commando guys in the intro).

Right now I'm just exploring all the nooks and crannies of the Detroit hub - haven't pursued any of the quests there yet but I've picked up a couple more, and found some nice little caches of stuff.

Going ridiculously slow, but being thorough and having a blast.

Avalon on 28/8/2011 at 07:02

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After playing a while longer I'm pretty confident that the combat is a total joke, no matter what difficulty you're set at. It's still fun and (sometimes) a little hair-raising, but that's usually when they throw combat on you directly after a cutscene and you have to dodge behind something before your face gets blown off.

As the number of enemies I'd been facing had increased, I decided I needed a faster way to take them out. Also, punching them in the head is so yesterday.

Step one: Find vent, get inside just around the corner so you're out of sight but still very much in earshot. Step two: Pull out a loud weapon and fire it several times. Step three: Chuck frag grenade out of the vent, or, for your own safety if you've picked up the rebreather augmentation, a gas grenade, because you're probably going to get a fair amount of splashback. You probably killed or knocked out most, if not all, of the large crowd of enemies who were gathered stupidly around your vent.

Pretty much any combat situation can be cheesed in any number of ways if a vent is handy. And you are rarely more than 10 feet away from a vent at any given time unless it's a boss fight.

deathshadow on 28/8/2011 at 11:39

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My thoughts:

Overall 3 hours in, *YAWN* -- I was sticking with it waiting for the story to start, for there to be anything compelling to make me want to give a damn... and nothing. Much like the original Deus Ex it REALLY wants to be System Shock, but none of the characters have enough personality for me to care. The voice acting is sterile, the environments are "generic future city #2" that many of the models (parked vehicles and civvies in particular) look like a throwback to the days when Voodoo 2 was king even with everything cranked up to DX11 max... clashing horribly with the fairly detailed buildings and streets.

Switches in and out of first/third person annoyingly too. Do I REALLY need the switch in perspective just because I'm on a ladder?... and while the cut to third person for takedowns is 'cute', it really feels shoe-horned in last second like they saw Bats:AA and said "We should add that"... making it truly feel like a cheap copy.

The "ragdoll" physics are jokingly bad because they appear to enter the same values for every 'drop dead' -- so despite having an engine in place where the bodies can fall different, they always end up on the ground in the same shape. First time I saw that (two stuns back to back) I went "what is this, 1998?" -- I've not seen anything this silly since the over-the-top TDS ragdolls where knockouts ended up in a backwards-bent C.

Naturally, shader hell means everything looks like it's covered in slime; even military vehicles -- because of course camo comes in gloss. Even your dead girlfriends mom looks like she just finished scarfing down a glazed donut... or starring in a japanese porn.

Gameplay-wise it's uninspired -- almost like they took the old Kate Archer gameplay and said "It has a crossbow, let's just slap an attempt at a modern engine on top of it". There's nothing new here -- which in and of itself isn't necessarily bad, but it feels... tired. Worn out... About the only thing I CAN say about it is that it was obviously built for people who use game controllers, as keyboard/mouse is an inconsistent mess that feels like an afterthought -- especially the whole "press or hold" bull that NEVER gives you the one you want... We've got 101 keys, let me map actions to more than 12 of them! (or at least let me map the mousewheel to something USEFUL instead of just "change weapon").

Of course, I've NEVER been able to play games with those stupid things in the first place... that's why I don't OWN a console.

But the game really dirties it's linens once you hit the first Boss. (harkwhateverthedevilhisnameis) Ok, to be fair I HATE bosses in games, usually because they can't kill me, and I just get bored with dancing around each-other for five minutes with them not really being a threat and my emptying every weapon I have into them. That is NOT enjoyable gameplay and I never understood why many game developers feel the need for this.

In this case though, it's at least merciful in that it kills you -- instantly. You sit there waiting for it to give you control after the cinematic... give me control ... give me control, ok I can move and in 10 milliseconds *BLAM* dead. You BARELY have time to make it to the jersey barrier in front of you -- there's no way in hell you can survive long enough to reach any of the side-rooms (which is what the handful of online walkthroughs say to do). He hits you with every shot, has NO pauses to reload -- you stick your head out, you're dead and there's JACK you can do about it.

I dropped the difficulty setting to easy -- no go. UNPLAYABLE as you CANNOT get past him! ANNOYING since I had been playing with the difficulty cranked all the way up to that point. I swear, feels like Reverend Jim from Taxi playing Pac-Man.

So... my advice, don't bother with this one until it hits the bargain bin, and even then I can't say I recommend it.

This is the first time in a DECADE I've considered hunting for a godmode cheat... though I'll probably not bother as it's just so BORING and lackluster a game story and character-wise. I've not seen characters I could give a flying **** about this badly since the new Galactica.

Silencium18 on 28/8/2011 at 12:50

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So I played through DE:HR and I guess (or hope) that eveyone agrees that it's what Deus Ex: Invisible Shitfest should've been in the first place: Another good and fun DX game. BUT of course there are some things I didn't like:

- One thing that bugged me all the time while I was playing DX:HR was this omni-present orange/yellow colour thing they had going on. I know I know, that's part of the art style, but these "warm and calming" colours made places in the game look less intimidating (and the absence of total black shadows). For example one of the characters told me that we're flying to the lower city section of this big town in china, my first thought was: "Oh, this is going to be great", because one of my favourite levels in DX was the china level with the canals and the dark streets and whatnot. But, like i mentioned earlier, all this orange and yellow tone made it feel less mysterious and creepy. The city hub itself on the other hand was really well designed: Everything was dirty and cramped.
It's just the overall warm tone that I dislike.

- I found some of the main characters' design to be wierd, for example this rich asian business woman looked like Queen Elizabeth the first and the television news reporter lady looked like something you would come across in an underground nightclub in Tokyo. :weird:

- Someone here mentioned that due to the cover based stealth and the placement of the cover itself it's often plain obvious where to sneak to move around certain enemies. I kinda agree on that one.

- The absence of total black shadows and flashlight. :nono:

- Kinda find it sad that we can't interact with many of the objects or items in the world but a few boxes or barrels. It would be very useful to pick and throw at least something (no matter what) to distract enemies (and the levels are full of garbage and other small things)

But overall I enjoyed it :thumb: