Eshaktaar on 17/10/2011 at 21:27
I just finished the game today, and I enjoyed it tremendously for the most part. There were moments where the game really nailed that Deus Ex feeling and got the mix of breaking & entering, reading emails and sneaking past people just right.
I experienced a few glitches (like the one Dia showed where Sarif's penthouse office suddenly lacked any walls). The most annoying one happened in the TYM tower with Van Bruggen's recording. When I left the elevator, the cutscene did not trigger, and thus I accidentally skipped the revelation about Megan being still alive (which wasn't hard to guess anyway - most of the game's plot twists hardly surprise anyone except Jensen). I only noticed something was amiss when I met Zhao in the penthouse and Jensen suddenly talked about stuff he was not supposed to know yet.
Anyway, the game's most glaring flaw for me are the boss battles. Yeah, I know, a lot of people have complained about them already, but it just befuddles me how these battles could make it into the game at all. Did somebody from marketing order the dev team to include old-school boss fights to satisfy some demographic? The majority of the game consists of really nicely designed levels with lots of alternative routes to choose from, and then suddenly we make a leap back two decades to original Doom level design with closed off arenas filled with ammo and weapons. What's worse, prior to each boss fight a cutscene takes control from you and then just dumps you into the boss arena, right in front of the big baddie - Doom was actually better in that regard, as it let me approach the enemy the way I chose. Now, compare that to the boss encounters in DX: They take place in (more or less) normal, way less contrived environments and you can actually make preparations (if you choose to do so) before the adversary arrives (mostly leading to very sudden and very violent deaths). Why not implement them that way?
There is more I could moan about, but these complaints are minor compared to the overall experience I had with the game which was very positive. I loved the stylized visuals, the moody music, and the voice acting was so much better (for the most part) that to me it strangely felt like a departure from the sometimes hilarious accents found in DX. I don't know if anyone else felt that way - don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want the voice acting to be on DX's level of ham. Jensen's voice actor kept very close to JC's almost emotionless line deliveries, though.
Anyway, I'm rambling now. In short: I think this is as close to the original Deus Ex as we could have realistically hoped for.
As much as I dislike the boss arenas, I must say I loved the creepy "living statues" idea in the penultimate boss encounter.
Jason Moyer on 18/10/2011 at 02:16
Quote Posted by DDL
I considered buying the smash through walls aug for shiggles, but then discovered that 11 pistol shots did the same thing (though again I bought it at the end)
Does your HUD still highlight smashable walls without it? That seems like it was the best feature of that particular aug.
june gloom on 18/10/2011 at 05:26
No, but smashable walls have cracks. It's subtle- you usually ignore it for just another wall texture, because you're trained to look for cracks in the architecture yourself.
Koki on 18/10/2011 at 06:24
Quote Posted by DDL
Also, I'm still loving how loads of people simultaneously slate it for 'forcing' you to hack locks (EXP OMG OMG) and do silent, non-lethal takedowns (EXP OMG OMG) and yet also slate it for giving you so much exp you upgraded all your augs by the end and had points left over. Ditto for cash.
Combat XP adds for (
http://deusex.wikia.com/wiki/Experience_by_area_%28DX3%29) relatively miniscule amount of XP. I dunno about hacking, but it's probably same(locks give more XP, but there's less of them than enemies).
EXP OMG OMG yes I'm an XP/loot whore, but if a game gives the player a choice of getting either 10/20 or 50 XP for taking out an enemy and the 50 XP option isn't really much harder(perhaps it just requires more patience if anything) AND it's the stealthy one AND it's the one morally right... who in their right mind who isn't a CoD MP junkie would pick the lethal option?
It would be interesting if the bonuses were reversed and you got LESS XP for knocking out enemies and more XP for killing them. Conundrumtastic!
june gloom on 18/10/2011 at 08:44
Have to say I kindasorta agree. I mean, you actually get less XP for a lethal takedown than you do for a non-lethal one! The fact that you successfully managed to get close enough to someone to hit Q or E in the first place should be its own reward; besides, lethal takedowns summon nearby guards.
DDL on 18/10/2011 at 09:13
I've heard it reasoned that you get more exp for non-lethals because they can potentially get back up again...
(including following tranqing, leading to hilarious situations where you tranq a guy, his buddy comes to wake him up, you tranq him, but he manages to wake the other before falling, who then immediately begins waking him up -so you tranq him again- and so on...apparently you can have like 6 tranq darts-worth of drugs in you and all you need is a friendly pat on the shoulder to come back to consciousness).
But really I would've preferred simply "no experience per enemy", since it's really not about murdering your way through a building, or even sleepytiming your way through, it's about "getting to point X", or "accessing file Y", or "talking to dude Z": how you do it should be irrelevant.
The current method manages the bizarre disparity of favouring non-lethal approaches, but actively discouraging non-combat 'ghost' approaches.
(again, all if you exp whore..which pretty much everyone does, it seems)
Koki on 18/10/2011 at 10:46
Quote Posted by DDL
But really I would've preferred simply "no experience per enemy", since it's really not about murdering your way through a building, or even sleepytiming your way through, it's about "getting to point X", or "accessing file Y", or "talking to dude Z": how you do it should be irrelevant.
Yeah, a mod that removes kill and hack XP would be great. And pretty simple to do I reckon.
Pyrian on 18/10/2011 at 19:50
Quote Posted by Eshaktaar
...most of the game's plot twists hardly surprise anyone except Jensen...
Him and Dia. :thumb: Deus Ex 1 was much the same way, though. It's especially egregious if you like to hack everything. "Manderley is corrupt!" "...Uh, yeah, I knew that since the first time I walked into UNATCO and read his e-mail."
Dia on 19/10/2011 at 03:19
Quote Posted by DDL
I've heard it reasoned that you get more exp for non-lethals because they can potentially get back up again...
(including following tranqing, leading to hilarious situations where you tranq a guy, his buddy comes to wake him up, you tranq him, but he manages to wake the other before falling, who then immediately begins waking
him up -so you tranq him again- and so on...apparently you can have like 6 tranq darts-worth of drugs in you and all you need is a friendly pat on the shoulder to come back to consciousness).
That got really frustrating a few times (and comical, I'll admit). I was very glad I stocked up on tranqs because the s.o.b.s reviving each other got damn near ridiculous. I couldn't shoot them fast enough. It did add to the challenge though, imho.
@Pyrian: :p
heywood on 19/10/2011 at 06:19
Eliminating XP for taking out enemies and hacking would be fine with me, but if you still play as an obsessive-compulsive XP/loot whore you won't have a satisfying game.
This isn't SS2 where making the most out of limited resources is part of the challenge. In fact, the HR design seems intended to make sure you'll have enough resources to get through the game and get all the good augs regardless of your play style. So the only rewards you get for being an XP/loot whore are higher tallies for credit & XP. I guess you can think of these like high scores, but that's not a satisfying way to play IMO.
Unfortunately, this didn't sink in with me until 2/3 of the way through my first game. After that, I stopped hoarding and started to approach the levels in whatever way seemed the most interesting or fun. For my second playthrough, I ignored XP bonuses entirely and enjoyed the game a lot more.
