Rolander on 12/6/2004 at 08:40
I finally got DXIW and ran it on my 1.7 Celeron/512 mB/9600XT running Win98 Original (bought XP just in case it won't, but tried it out first on Win98 and hippyhippybouncebouce; gonna try my luck again when I go for Thief 3). The version I bought was straight off 1.2.
And it was fun, but being a fan of the original, I do feel that it did get dumbed down compared to the first. The loss of skill points were a bit off-putting; the all-in-one multitool was a step back. The inventory issue was a serious disappointment. Apart from the Magrail, I find myself fancying the simple baton, boltcaser and pistol and was a bit miffed that all weapons took up one slot no matter how 'powerful' they are. I once played the first DX on an all Heavy Weapon theme and it was problematic juggling the 6 remaining inventory slots after slotting in the GEP, Flamer and Plasma, but it was realistic and more believable than IW's manner.
The thing is, I started off straight to Realistic difficulty, and pretty soon, find myself batoning my way through most conflicts. I had Strength and Electrostatic augs; max Strength let me KO unaugmented humans with a single punch even when they were aware of me; Billy was punched out with 3 jabs in the blink of an eye. The baton hit rate was just too fast; I hardly used the Energy Sword/Dragon's Tooth. It was even worse with bots, convert them with a single slap and take cover as they caused havoc ...
The ease with bots were acceptable, but the baton-my-way-through-half-the-game was real wierd. The only ranged weapons I used more than occasionally were the Pistol (especially the Assassin Pistol for snipering Commandos), the Mag-Rail and EMP Grenades (both vs #$%^ Armoured Templers).
Even the Dragon's Tooth in the 1st Deus Ex wasn't that overpowering (though smashing through locked doors was real cool).
On a side note, it's cool to be able to toss Explosive Crates at enemies now, but cooler to toss bodies all over with Strength (though won't excessive tossing around kill unconscious humans?).
Should I have played on 'Hard' difficulty instead?
BlackCapedManX on 14/6/2004 at 05:56
I felt the same way about the baton, that it was pretty much a far to damaging weapon (why pick up the Energy Blade or the Dragon's Tooth sword even, when the baton does comparable damage while attacking faster than god?) I thought that it should have been toned down in either damage or speed (or both), especially when you have weapons like the Energy Blade and the DTS seeming so unremarkable in comparisson (though not overpowered in terms of game mechanics and story, the DTS in DX1 was definately a good deal more damaging than any of the other melee weapons, though it was to my chagrin that it was also more damaging than the sniper rifle). I haven't yet played with the electrostatic aug, so I don't know how useful it would be against bots, but I get the idea that it woudl be a bit over the top. And my first play through was on Realistic also, so I think it was a bit, not realistic.
Rolander on 15/6/2004 at 08:50
I read through a FAQ that in Realistic, damage done to both sides is doubled.
I think this is actually an advantage to players, especially seasoned FPSers who are conversant with getting the drop on enemies. A player who catches enemies by surprise will take them down very fast on Realistic difficulty, effectively negating the damage bonus against the player and the lower ammo count gained with picking up ammo clips.
I remember in DX1 Realistic, JC will die very easily to a single point-blank pistol shot! Dunno about the rest of you, but that effectively means that in DX1 Realistic, extended gun battles are a bad thing for JC and sorta forces people to go at least the medium stealth/ambush style at least in the beginning, since without defensive augs they will die very fast in head-to-head.
I just started a new game on Hard, and after playing Realistic, it really was hard. Takes a lot of ammo with the SMG just to stop the 3 punks by the Inclinator.
I took the Toxin Blade on a spin for the 1st time in this game and it was actually better on Hard difficulty, since you can't incapacitate people fast with the Baton. I didn't know the Toxin Blades momentary diables the target so he can't attack bacj for a second or so. I tried it against the bouncer patroling the office beyond the VIP suite, and just kept stabbing him till he dies, with no chance to counterattack. He sure made a lot of noice though, enough to draw attention from the Omar and VIP Bouncer. Maybe when I start upgrading strenght it would be better.
Rolander on 15/6/2004 at 16:38
I played the game through to Cairo so far and here are my observations between Hard and Realistic
1) Electrostatic is weakened in most conditions. Lacking the damage bonus in realistic, it takes longer to wack a bot down using the melee EMP attack, with corresponding increasing risk to the player. Also, with Electrostatic Lvl 3 on realistic, a single wack on a unalerted camera will take it out of commission without triggering the alarm, but this doesn't work in Hard difficulty; the camera gets scrambled/converted, but remains active and the alarm is triggered.
Apart from the camera effect, Electrostatic on Lvl 3, Hard Diff is better than lower levels of Electrostatic on Hard Diff or Electrostatic Lvl 3, Realistic Diff for the following reasons:
a) Electrostatic lvl 3 instantly scramble/converts bots on the first hit, meaning that it only takes one hit to neutralise the bot. Even without enemies for the converted bot to be thrown against, the bot is no longer hostile and can be safely subdued with subsequent hits, while lower lvl means you need to keep hitting the bot multiple times til it goes down while it remains hostile and turning to attack you. This is more important in Hard difficulty since the damage is less, means you take more time to melee emp the bot. With lvl 1,2 the bot becomes aware of you and will attack in the time taken to subdue it totally.
b) Since player attack damage is less in Hard compared to Realistic, a Electrostatic converted bot in Hard will take less damage from the converting hit and obvious be in a better shape to turn around and toast enemies. Converting Spiderbots on Realistic Difficulty is impossible as Electrostatic Lvl 3 EMP damage will take out a Spiderbot instantly in one hit.
2) Most weapons are correspondingly weaker in Hard compared to Realistic, with exception of the Sniper Rifle. The Sniper Rifle will take out normal humans on one scoped-in headshot in both difficulties, and is therefore more ammo efficent in Hard Difficulty.
3) I find that the Energy Blade is really worthless compared to the Baton. In trial tests, I have yet to find that the Energy Blade offers a significant damage bonus over the Baton, while the Baton's attack speed is obviously much better that the Blade's. On the whole, Baton wins in both damage and stealth, since the enemies are knocked out rather than killed screaming in agony.
I haven't faced Armoured Templars, much less Elite Commandos, so I can't offer comments with regards to either.
Further updates upon finishing the game
Reaching Antartica and having faced Armoured Templars, I find them real problematic since it now takes 4-5 shots with an Increased Damage Mag-Rail to take them down. Billie took me down to 1/3 health with her SMG before I concussed her with the Baton. Although I left JC's Sanctuary with near max ammo, fighting the Armoured Templars waiting outside drained me down to less than 3 clips; I spent my first 2 Ammo Scavanger mods on an SMG and Sniper Rifle; had to wait til the 2nd Cairo excursion to pick up the last mod. I fought them shotgun-style: popping out of cover to take a shot then duck til the Mag-Rail recycles. I could have EMP-shot them through cover, but that would have drained even more ammo and I was burning ammo up as it was.
1st time I used Spiderbombs offensively; never realised that they were great against Greasels, being immune to their spit. On Hard Difficulty, I can still take out Greasels in 1-2 baton wacks with max Strength aug.
Back in Cairo, I realised that the normal damage Sniper Rifle wasn't enought to take out Illuminati Commandos in 1 scoped-in headshot; maybe I should have swapped out the Silenced/Ammo-Scavanger Sniper Rifle for a fresh one and mod it with Silenced/Increased Damage or Increased Damage/Fragmentary Round, if either could have taken out Commandos in one hit.
At Hanger 24, after telling off the Scientist, I immediately ran for the Military bot, dodging through the immovable crates for cover, and slapped it to electrostatic-convert it. I then took cover behind an indestructable computer terminal at the back of Hanger 24 while the bot wreaked havoc with the Templars, after which I popped out to mop up and revive Paul.
Liberty Island was real hard on Hard Difficulty after getting used to the quick elimination of enemies on Realistic Difficulty. Fortunately, I had anticipated this and stocked up on EMP grenades to use liberally against Armoured Templars; it was easier too since no line-of-sight is required hence I could keep chucking grenades from behind cover or bounce them off a wall. Commandos were a lot easier; although my Sniper Rifle couldn't take them out in 1 shot, they will be weakened enough to that if they attempt to close, I could mop them up easily with my SMG. Plus, they also dropped many EMP grenades.
I thought I left Billie unconscious, but she didn't turn up on Liberty Island; maybe she awoke and tried to fight JC?
On another sidenote, I tried using an SMG with Increased Damage/Fragmentary Round on my Realistic game and found out that against soldiers who carried grenades (SSC/WTO/Paladins/Commandos), I would almost always detonate their dropped grenades just as they die; apparently the exploding bullets from Fragmentary Round have a very good chance of triggering it. My guess is that the auto-fire SMG will tend to spit out a coupla extra shots after killing the target; so the soldier dies, his grenade popped out just before the last coupla rounds impact on the dead body, explode and trigger off the grenade before it falls to the ground It was quite disconcerting especially at short range since the grenade will catch me in the blast radius. Though it was also somewhat funny once when I fought a tight group of Paladins, killing one with that modded SMG who dropped an explosive grenade ... which detonated and hurt the other Paladins standing too close
Third Addition
Yup, an Increased Damage/Silenced Sniper Rifle can take out unwary Illuminati Commandos in one shot on 'Hard'. I also find that Electrostatic has very limited applications on Liberty island, especially if you started allied with ApostleCorp as most bots will be friendly except the Hunter-Seekers near Ava's drop point, guarding the entrance to UNATCO Ruins or Illuminati Encampment. Unless of course, you plan to melee Armoured Templars :nono: Aggressive Defensive is a very good aug to switch to, since most of the @#$% Armoured Templars plus Saman are carrying Rocket Launchers. The Commandos all use MagRails. Hmm, wonder why.
The Secondary-Fire for Rocket Launcher reeks. Literally. I feel sick trying it out just once. Can't they do something less cheap and more tactical? Even the White Phosperous Round from DX1 GEP will be fun. Umm, frankly I was thinking of a Laser-Guidance style ala Hellfire Anti-Tank Missile, where Secondary-Fire will activate a scope through which you 'paint' the desired target with a laser spotter and the Rocket will home in on that. Or at least make the Guided Rocket more ammo-intensive (after all, you DO have to put in extra electronics into the missle to guide it like that), say 50% more than the normal rocket.
It's a pity DX2 is so short. By comparison, DX1 feels like a EPIC adventure. Of all the DX2 Maps, I like Antartica (Oh, reminds me of the transgenic-overruned Ocean Lab) the best followed by 1st visit to Cairo. The Trier city was the worst.
BlackCapedManX on 16/6/2004 at 09:05
Damn that was thorough. In DX1 all that the difficulties do is change the amount of damage JC takes (taking the most in realistic, which was too my dismay because I was hoping everyon would die easier in realistic, I was kinda proud of IS for changing that in DXIW.) Wouldn't it be awesome if you could snipe the grenades off the belts of people wearing them, thus detonating the 'nades (I'm thinking ver MGS2 here, with the area specific sniping, which I was saddened that it wasn't implimented in DXIW). I'll have to try electrostatic on my next run through the game, because I'm just now getting in to it again (I hated Cairo so much that it made me stop playing for months, and I just recently managed to pull myself together to go and beat it.... damn IS for making you play that level twice).
Right now I'm doing a "kill no sentient organisms" run through the game. Basically I do not attack humans at all, or interact with hostiles when I can avoind it (I'm almost going Thiefish, getting the urge to quickload whenever I'm seen, even if I escape their attention). I'm allowing KOing of non-sentient organisms (greasels and karkians) and either disabling or total distruction of mechanicals (turrets, cameras, bots). And if people die but not by my hand... then oh well.
What I have learned is that even though I'm going non-hostile, the magrail in mad useful (this run is on normal difficulty, I may try it again on hard after my next on), for disabling cameras and turrets. Example: Trier, in the evidence room. Use my glass destabilizer on the window, jump in and empshoot the camera with the magrail. Since there is little fighting going on elsewise I don't waste much ammo so this is never a big problem for me. Cloak and Thermal Masking are (obviously) my most used augs. Cloak moreso because I find myself killing off mechanicals so that I don't have to worry about them, using both augs gets to be a major drain on your bioenergy. Through strength upgrade is very useful since it allows me more inventory which means I can carry twice as many biocells (too bad it was the last aug I maxed out). Interesting time: Right outside JCs Sanctuary, with all the Armoured Templars, there is one missile turret. To make life interesting for myself I decided to get rid of it, without being seen by the templars. The turret down a hill with one temp patroling around at the top. Cloak was on so that the templar couldn't see me, but the turret could. So I ran over to where the turret was and it fired at me. Then I tried to empshoot it but I missed. The Temp was drawn over by the commotion (throughout the whole time I'd shoot, then imediately re-activate cloak) to see the turret shooting at nothing. He walked a little bit down the slope (where I was when I fired) as I backed up to the top. The turret had little regard for the Temp and kept firing at me and hitting the ground, damaging him. So what would happen is the turret would fire at me, hit the Temp and cause him to look at the turret, then I would fire and empshot at the turret and turn my cloak back on. The Temp would turn around to see what had made that noise and the turret would fire again and hit him again. He would turn around and when he was looking away from me I would shoot again and then recloak. This went on for a little while as I'm running on 1024x768 and getting slightly lower framerates than I would like, causing me to miss a good deal while I madely strafed the turrets rockets. The whole time I can't even imagine how confused the Temp must have been. "Why's the turret shooting at me? And what is that noise I keep hearing behind me? And the turret's shooting at me again!" Finally I killed the turret and went back to the repair bot to refill my bioenergy and run past the rest of the templars. Basically cloak is a godsend and makes for some great times.
My next game I intend to play on easy (my first run was on realistic) because it's going to be my "kill everything that moves" game (and if it doesn't move, throw it into the air and shoot it as it falls). My thoughts right now for augs/weapons:
Augs
Arm - Strength, I want to be carrying a lot of weapons so that I've got something in times of need, extra medkits will be key as well.
Cranial - Probably Neural Interface, mostly because it will let me get a lot of stuff that I normally wouldn't have access too (killing everyone who would be selling me things put me on bad terms with them).
Eye - Vision Enhancement, I definately should go with Regen, but there's a reason why I'm playing on easy, and I really want to take this one for a spin.
Leg - Speed or Leech. Leech would make up for all of the regen I haven't been getting, plus it would make sense given that I will have a lot of available corpses, but going fast is just so much fun. (most likely leech)
Skeletal - Electrostatic, from what I've been hearing this could be a lot of fun, especially at max level. (damn will I have enough black market mods to do all of these? especially with all the dead omar... they might not take to well to that... maybe I'll go with biotox to augment my leechdrone, because leech gets twice the life from an unconscious victim)
Weapons
[no time now, I'll edit later]
