Aerothorn on 13/5/2011 at 21:37

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Seems like pretty poor timing to release a fan-made Deus Ex prequel. Still, it's worth keeping an eye on.

heywood on 14/5/2011 at 00:27

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I'm looking forward to it whenever it comes out.

But yeah, the timing isn't so good. Right now would be a great time to release a new mod since HR has attracted a lot of people back to the DX franchise. I'm in the middle of going through TNM again.

DDL on 14/5/2011 at 22:38

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I would've thought it's perfect timing, since whether it's fantastic or terrible, DX:HR is going to evoke some pretty powerful nostalgia.

I mean hell: it's clearly doing so already...

heywood on 15/5/2011 at 14:58

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Well, first of all, play it twice, PDX first and then WorldCorp. The two main story lines are sufficiently different that you really need to do both. And since it's a DX game, take your time and explore. I just finished my 3rd play through. I played it twice back when it came out, first as a kind hearted, sneaky PDX guy and then as a WorldCorp killing machine. I missed a lot of stuff in those first two games, so this time I played the PDX story again but took my time and did all the side quests and a lot of exploring. I think I finished with 25-30 hours in game time.

The second bit of advice is to customise the difficulty. The default "Challenging" is imbalanced: the enemy difficulty is OK, about the same as DX on Hard, but the item counts are way too generous on all but the first level. If you are a thorough explorer, you can max out ALL of your augs while 3/4 of the way through the game and you'll have more lockpicks, multitools, and ammo than you know what to do with. I strongly suggest increasing the item difficulty.

Third, make sure you find at least 3 of the 5 "narcissus events" to unlock the extra ending. But don't worry about finding all the Easter Eggs on your first play. Your egg count is persistent and not part of the saved game data, so if you really want to play the radish adventure game they unlock, you can reload saved games and find them later.

Fourth, I wouldn't recommend killing the "major" NPCs. You can kill everyone but the two moderators, but it's not a good idea to do so. The one exception is Scara B. King. Definitely try to kill Scara the first time you meet him, just make sure you save first. And if you're playing PDX, I suggest letting ZeroPresence live.

Fifth, carry a fire extinguisher with you all the time and set it to one of your shortcut keys. Particularly in the latter half of the game, where you'll find a lot of enemies carrying flamethrowers.

Last, join the Goats. It may seem natural for a PDX player to join the Llamas, but trust me, the Goats are better. I tried on subsequent play throughs to get myself to join the Llamas, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I'd rather join WorldCorp than the stupid Llamas. :ebil:

Some notes on weapons:

Melee - The DTS is still the best melee weapon and better than the other special swords. The baton is very useful now for a non-lethal player. With low tech skill you can knock guys out with one hit. Don't bother with fists. There's really only one point in the game where they come in handy.

Pistols - There are two special weapons that make it worth investing in Advanced or better pistol skill, Trestkon's pistols and the EMP pistol. On trained, you won't be able to hit the broad side of a barn while moving and you won't shoot so well stationary either. But upgrading to advanced turns you into a marksman. With advanced skill and some upgrades, Trestkon's pistols and the EMP pistol are about all you really need.

Rifles - Pretty much the same as DX here, except for the PHAT rifle and blow pipe. The PHAT rifle kinda sucks and I ditched it as soon as the novelty wore off. Ammo is plentiful though. I tried the blow pipe once and it sucked too - an upgraded crossbow is better. Overall, I wouldn't recommend investing in rifle skill above trained.

Heavy - The addition of the quad rocket launcher really makes heavy weapons worth investing in because it doesn't take up as much inventory space as a GEP gun. You can easily carry the quad rocket launcher along with a flamethrower or plasma rifle, which will take care of all your destructive needs except for very close range combat. The flamethrower is a bit overpowered though, as you'll find out when going against enemies carrying them. It seems like the range and accuracy has been increased in TNM vs DX.

Demolition - They've added a couple of mines, the vortex grenade, and Molotov cocktails. The mines are pretty useless. The vortex grenade is fun to throw into a crowd, but it's a bit of a novelty item because there aren't many in the game and they don't require any skill to use. I didn't mess with Molotov cocktails much - seemed like too many chemicals to gather to be worth the effort. Also, because of some of the new EMP weapons, you won't be relying on EMP grenades and scrambler grenades as much. So I would just ignore demolition skill.

Alushe on 16/5/2011 at 01:27

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Thanks Heywood,

I just rescued Silver Dragon for PDX. So far enjoying this alot!