Playing DX2 again. It's not so bad

RarRar on 19/6/2006 at 17:03

Installed DX2 yesterday after about a year and a half 'cause there's nothing else to play. For all the things they screwed up in this game, I'm reminded that it's still pretty fun. TDS I played once and never had the urge to play again. DX2, this will be the third or fourth time I've played through it. Fourth actually, now that I think about it. It can't hold a candle to the original which I'm certain I've played through at least 10 times, no kidding. The micro levels are bad bad bad, and the interface hugely annoying.

And we all know the unified ammo was a bad idea but I actually respect the developers for trying something new here. Their idea was to objectively identify the elements that made Deus Ex so great, and boil those down into their concentrated essence. Eliminate the distractions so the core gameplay could shine through. What a great experiment and I would hope more developers would take risks like that. And as much as this game is screwed up I think they pretty much succeeded. For what it is, it's still damn good fun. Yeah, unified ammo turned out not to be so hot but you never know for sure until you try and I thank them for trying.

There are those who would argue that this "experiment" was merely cover for dumbing down the game to appeal to a mass market console-oriented customer base. And while I won't defend them for some of the other ways they screwed us PC gamers, I tend to take them at their word when it comes to things like the unified ammo. No doubt it was vastly easier to design and balance a game where you only had to worry about one type of ammo, but again I decline to believe this was the reason for going that route.

I'm in Mako right now and am reminded that it was always one of my favorite levels. And I'm starting to look forward to some of the other levels I enjoyed. NOT looking forward to the Liberty Island finale though. I always disliked that, but then again I never cared for the Area 51 ending in the original either and often stopped at that point the numerous times I've replayed the game.

Eberon on 20/6/2006 at 03:31

I totally agree. The game wasn't that bad, and I think in hindsight now that the expectations aren't there it will be remembered as a reasonably good title.

Mako was an awesome level!

Ziemanskye on 20/6/2006 at 10:15

As a consideration, part of why I hate the Liberty Island of IW was because of how much smaller it seemed when compared to even the PS2 version of the place.
It's like they took a couple of levels out from under the statue and shrunk the entire island. Then froze it and stuff.

But yeah - The game isn't terrible. It can be quite fun. It just wasn't what a lot of us thought we wanted.

Unified ammo didn't bother me too much. Combined Multi-tools/lock-picks got to me more, since to me they could be used to represent different playing styles in the original. That and the hot-swapping biomods: I can understand why they did that, but still kind of feel that if you upgraded a mod you should have been stuck with it (apart from maybe a black-market override, which you then wouldn't be able to get rid of).

Still, I'm sure we all wont agree on the specifics we liked/disliked about the changes.

RarRar on 20/6/2006 at 17:11

See, I never even really noticed that they combined lockpicks and multitools. One of the "little" things I find I miss most was the excitement I felt when I found a sniper rifle in Deus Ex. That sniper ammo was pure gold I tell you, and finding some gave me a warm little glow. In IW there are sniper rifles to be had EVERYWHERE and even still I get just a tiny bit excited when I find one, then disappointed when I remember it doesn't matter a whit.

Really really miss the cattle prod. Man that was a bitter blow when I first realized they'd screwed it up and made it worthless. But on the plus side I'm glad they still have the mini-crossbow, aka bolt caster. Even under a different name it's just as fun as it was in the original. Still my weapon of choice.

Quote:

(apart from maybe a black-market override, which you then wouldn't be able to get rid of).

That would have been a very cool idea.

Ziemanskye on 20/6/2006 at 19:26

The cattle prod.
:D
I really think the first one had so many more fun "non-lethal" toys to play with.

I never really noticed anything collecting sniper ammo though - I always had loads (but then I tended to use the mini-crossbow/stealth pistol of doom for most sniping).

You barely noticed the combined tools, I barely noticed the unified ammo, at least in terms of irritation value.
Knew we wouldn't agree on the specifics :p

Raven on 20/6/2006 at 20:15

You are correct that Deus Ex:IW isn't all THAT bad. Playing it on a 2 Gig, 3Ghz 64bit machine with a raid hard drive and JohnP’s (and co) high-res texture packs, I mostly forgave the lack of any sophistication and settled down to playing the game. I had just finished playing Half life 2 and had tried again to play thief 3 only to curse at the ghastly control systems where you steer Garrett like a car. Playing DX:IW was fun and involving compared to that rubbish...

+3 DX:IW appreciation -2 T:DS appreciation (yeah, I have been playing morrowind and oblivion more recently)

RarRar on 20/6/2006 at 20:55

I just tried the texture packs and the only thing I noticed was that Alex was a whole lot uglier and load times were intolerable. I guess I'm just not enough of a graphics whore to get anything out of it. I uninstalled it this morning and seriously, I see no difference. Then again, I've set the lighting and shadow quality to low, maybe that's the problem. My res is 1600 x 1200.

On the plus side, whoever did the programming for it is way cool. Select which textures you want, install presets, uninstall them ... very nice work there.

I tried to replay Thief 3 a couple of months ago and never got past the first mission. It's the controls, you're right. I can't tolerate them. I have no idea now how I managed to finish the game the first time through.

PeeperStorm on 21/6/2006 at 03:20

You're right, it's not that bad. It's just mediocre. I got a bargain-bin copy of it a few months ago, and while I don't feel ripped off, I also doubt that I'll replay it anytime soon. The story didn't grab me, and neither did the side missions ("Oh boy! I've always wanted to get involved in a trade dispute between espresso shops!"). I didn't care about any of the characters at all, the lack of skill development annoyed me, the weapons all felt wimpy, and the less said about the HUD,the better. And then there was a great big, show-stopping, start-the-game-over glitch in Trier which caused any saves in The Black Gate outdoor area to become corrupted (and guess who didn't have any backup saves.) Probably an installation glitch, but still...

On the plus side it...uh...hmm...didn't use StarForce copy protection! There, I said something positive about it.

Unfortunate that Deus Ex (which I do replay frequently) couldn't have a better sequel.

Ziemanskye on 21/6/2006 at 09:46

It's possible it does.
Haven't checked out the modscene for it for, well, years, but a mod (since it's likely reusing a lot of art assets) is quite likely to be closer to source on what you might want from a sequal.

RarRar on 21/6/2006 at 17:00

What an advertising slogan.

Deus Ex: Invisible War -- It's not that bad.

or should it be

Deus Ex: Invisible War -- It's not THAT bad.

There were four Deus Ex mods that I was ever aware of. Can't remember their names but two of them were never finished, the two that weren't so good as I remember. The other two that were finished were pretty darn good and made me nostalgic for the game again. Maybe people gave up because they thought there'd be no interest with the new game coming out and its wonderful miraculous new engine.

Boy, I'd play just about any Deus Ex mod if it were halfway decent. Anybody know of something in the works?