Keeper Deven on 9/10/2011 at 17:01

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Hi. This is my first post at TTLG, though I’ve lurked here for over seven years now. I just completed Human Revolution, and thought this would be the best place for the rant that’s been welling up inside me. I haven’t read the previous posts in this thread (sorry), but I really have to let it all out, so here goes:

Gameplay
The only thing I found remarkable about Human Revolution’s gameplay is that it took 11 years to reproduce what had already been perfected in Deus Ex. Although it’s nice to finally see another game where stealth and combat are equally viable, the level design clearly shows that it’s a product of this generation of gaming. Everything is all too neatly laid out for you, from misplaced pocket secretaries to conveniently placed vents. The only area that I really enjoyed playing through was the Detroit police station, and it helped that it didn’t look like it existed for the sole purpose of allowing Jensen to break in and do his thing.

I don’t like the cover system. It works well and all, but I really don’t see what’s gained by pop-a-mole shooting over plain first-person shooting. [petty gripe] It also bothers me because Deus Ex had an explanation for everything, including the transparency of objects you’ve picked up. What’s the explanation for the magic floating camera that appears whenever Jensen hugs a wall? [/petty gripe] You could argue that cover-based stealth is necessary if light and shadow aren’t part of the gameplay, but then why couldn’t we have a default x-ray vision augmentation that would serve the same purpose?

I hate the takedowns. I hate that they’re unskippable. I hate that enemies a few feet away can’t hear the grunts, crunches and smacks. I hate that an enemy might be flailing wildly, but if you hit him from behind he looks like he’s been interrupted during a casual stroll.

The gunplay is surprisingly fun, though. But this brings me to another thing I hate about Human Revolution: the inclusion of XP. Why, oh why didn’t they limit XP rewards to completion of objectives? They did a good job of making stealth and combat equally viable, but to get the best XP rewards you have to stealthily incapacitate as many enemies as possible. I didn’t think I’d ever complain about something like that, but I found Human Revolution’s stealth just plain boring. Since the crouch button is the magic silence toggle, there’s barely any skill involved; which means that I was mostly just waiting behind cover till I could tap a passing guard on the shoulder, then punch his teeth in—all of this in complete game silence.

The conversation minigame is ace, though. The talk with Jensen’s former teammate at the police station was the first time I literally sat up and paid attention during the game.

Characterization
Jensen is an idiot. How can he not be, with all those damned cutscenes? JC would never do anything as stupid as let his guard down in front of a screeching Chinese woman with a terrible accent and even worse acting, because I wouldn’t allow it. Aside from that, there is a greater attempt at characterization, and while it's not at par with, say, Obsidian, it does a passable job.

I won’t comment on the voice acting as Deus Ex wasn’t exactly outstanding in that regard.

Plot
When it comes to the writing, Human Revolution succeeds best in tying everything together to create a backstory for Deus Ex. Everything else, however, ranges from meh to absolute derp, mostly over the course of the game. Human Revolution’s choice to tackle human augmentation was a promising departure from the themes of conspiracies, politics and power that were already a little tired in Deus Ex. But Eidos Montreal clearly belongs to the ‘tell’ rather than the ‘show’ school of narrative design, and it’s not every good at that, either.

Aside from what we’re told about how human augmentation is supposedly improving human lives, there’s very little actual evidence of any of that. In Deus Ex, augmented individuals were clearly different: MiBs could self-destruct, MJ12 commandos were superior combatants, and the augmented bosses could turn invisible and shit. In Human Revolution, except for the bosses, the augmented are for all intents and purposes the same as regular humans. So why would the average individual replace perfectly healthy limbs, and become completely dependent on expensive drugs? It is a mystery.

But the argument from the other side is stupid as well. Why is Purity First against augmentation? Because it’s tampering with the human body. Why is that bad? It’s bad because God. It’s a far from compelling argument, so it’s a good thing that Purity First is quickly shoved offstage. The replacement bad guy is a biotech firm that has a powerful PMC’s resources at its disposal, so essentially they’ve pretty much abandoned Deus Ex’s endless conspiracies for Syndicate’s futuristic corporate warfare. Whether that’s a good thing is down to personal taste, but to me it just doesn’t fit a Deus Ex world.

And then there’s the conclusion, which is so filled to the brim with silliness that I can’t even stand to think about it. The fact is that I anticipated every ‘surprise’ reveal except for the ones at the end, and that’s probably because I couldn’t possibly have thought of anything as stupid. Doomsday device at the Arctic? Pseudo Bond villainy? POWERED BY A FORSAKEN CHILD?! Really, Eidos? Honestly, I don’t think they have the intelligence to tackle a topic as interesting as transhumanism. It’s just begging for debate and argument, yet there’s nothing even close to the conversations with Morpheus and the Aussie bartender.

Conclusion
I didn’t like Human Revolution. I wouldn’t call it a bad game, but it’s certainly not the second coming of Deus. Hell, it’s not even getting a second playthrough. I’m just not feeling the DX magic. Uninstalled.

Tl;dr: What a shame.

PS: Would anyone here recommend the 2027 mod that was released a couple of weeks ago?

Keeper Deven on 9/10/2011 at 19:20

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Um ... okay. I assume I'm to return only if I have cumgushing praise for Thiaf?

D'Juhn Keep on 9/10/2011 at 20:03

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dethtoll post better or get out. Actual content would be appreciated rather than belaboured burns and talking about somebody's forum name (seriously?)

heywood on 10/10/2011 at 06:16

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The misplaced pocket secretaries and conveniently placed vents are gameplay elements taken straight from Deus Ex.

Also...



It works pretty much the same way in Deus Ex, or any stealth game. In HR you crouch or walk to stay silent, take cover, observe the patrol patterns & routes, plan your attack, make your move, execute the takedown, hide the body if necessary, and move on to the next enemy or area. In Deus Ex, you do exactly the same things using a baton or prod for a silent, non-lethal takedown or a sword for a noisy, lethal takedown. And the same also in Thief using the blackjack or backstab.



As a gameplay device I thought it was poorly executed. There was no skill involved since it was usually harder to lose than to win. And in the case of Darrow, is it even possible to lose? I tried 3 or 4 different approaches with Darrow hoping to lose and couldn't do it. Also, Jensen hardly ever says anything clever, witty, or insightful which makes some of the longer conversations tedious. DX1 used the conversations more for story & character exposition which I prefer. And JC had better lines.



I agree that the augmented enemies don't seem to use their augs much, aside from the bosses. The only difference between a Derelict Row Baller and a Belltower heavy is a bigger gun and more armor. That could have been done better. Some of the heavies even carry Typhoon ammo, but never use it.

But still, the game makes the appeal of augmentations very obvious and it's not just about limb replacements. And the Purity First members object to augmentation for multiple reasons, the least of which is God. Finally, I don't know what you mean about abandoning conspiracies for corporate warfare. In case you didn't notice, TYM is under the Illuminati's thumb and Sarif got raided after rebuffing an Illuminati buyout offer. And the whole public is being manipulated by an Illuminati controlled press monopoly.



Really, Keeper Deven? I've no idea what you're talking about.



Haven't tried it yet, but have you played The Nameless Mod?

Keeper Deven on 10/10/2011 at 06:29

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Look, if it makes you feel any better, I didn’t like Half-Life 2 either, so obviously the problem lies with me and my impossibly high standards. As I said, I don’t think it’s a bad game at all—I just didn’t care for it. It didn’t improve on the things that I would have liked, and it introduced things I found annoying.

I am surprised at the lol-ur-usrname-is-gay reaction, though. The reason this is my first post after over seven years of lurking is that I didn’t really have anything to contribute to TTLG. If I wanted to provoke this sort of contentless response, I would have confined my posts on LGS games to the Codex, where the trolls are actually good at what they do, and some interesting discussions can happen in spite of all the lulz. I think I’ll do just that.