Muzman on 19/3/2014 at 18:31
(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEpfTfgzWp0) TB doesn't think much of it
As has probably been said, I don't really get why they made this the way they did. They had to scale it back, obviously, to get it on mobile. Seems like they scaled it back in the wrong areas and tried to keep the stuff that was guaranteed to suck.
froghawk on 11/4/2014 at 19:04
It sounds like the PC version is a mess, but I've been playing this on my android phone (was recently on sale for 99 cents) and I've got to say, I quite enjoy it! The story and voice acting aren't so great, but after the severely bungled ending of Human Revolution, I wasn't expecting much on that front. The impressive part is that they really succeed at putting the atmosphere and gameplay of Human Revolution on a phone - it feels like Deus Ex, and it even runs smoothly! It's been completely stable and hasn't crashed once. The combat is indeed a tad awkward, but it's not gamebreaking. The worst part is that it gets stupidly easy as it goes on, since the AI is absurdly dumb and you can buy a ton of praxis kits.
I'm probably only enjoying this because I expected it to suck, but I'm enjoying it better than NuThief so far. The intro sequence is even worse than NuThief, but once you get into the Panama hub, it's pretty enjoyable - and I didn't even like Human Revolution enough to play it twice (and I even played Invisible War twice).
As far as the TotalBiscuit review goes, did he honestly expect it to be a full port for only $10?
EvaUnit02 on 26/4/2014 at 22:04
All of the "home console-like" games that I'll played on mobile have had utterly garbage touchscreen controls, so I'd be totally inclined to try the PC version (once it's on sale of course). I don't have unrealistic expectations of these sort of things like TotalBiscuit. Eg he finds lacking graphical options menus and low res textures inexcusable. When the games are often console ports that are technically fine and will run on a ~7 year old gamer PC like a bat out of hell, I have no complaints. A good example is the recent PC port of Exiled: Journey West.
Jason Moyer on 27/4/2014 at 00:36
Low-res textures and a lack of graphical options are the least of this game's problems.
froghawk on 27/4/2014 at 02:33
There is absolutely no reason to play this on PC… its entire appeal rests on how well they got Human Revolution to work on a phone. The movement is actually pretty fluid unless you want to fight with guns, in which case it sucks. It's also unbearably dead easy, even on New Game +. Nonetheless, it's impressive and enjoyable on a phone, but if you're playing it on a computer after playing Human Revolution, then yeah, it's not going to be good. The PC version was a completely pointless cash grab which defeats the point of the game.
EvaUnit02 on 27/4/2014 at 03:12
Quote Posted by froghawk
There is absolutely no reason to play this on PC
* Mouse look + WASD >>>>>>>> touchscreen controls
* Not owning a tablet nor a smartphone with a big enough screen
* Wanting to experience more Deus Ex in motion
How do you like dem apples?
"But it's now on PC and we expect more", whatever. TB's review of the recent PC port of Arkham Origins Blackgate similarly themed and again I'd say that he has unrealistic expectations.
$10 is nothing in the grand of things and it'll probably be even less in the upcoming Steam summer sale. My primary bugbear for what looks to be an otherwise serviceable port is a lack rebindable keys, which will probably really mess with my muscle memory (eg I normally bind ADS to RMB in most shooters. I believe here it's bound to MMB).
(I've seen other videos and that trombone zoom effect when firing guns in the TotalBiscuit video aren't present.)
You wanna vote with your dollar and boycott? Great for you. You spend your money however you like and I'll do the same.
Jason Moyer on 27/4/2014 at 11:44
All of those positives add nothing of value to the game, but I'll let you play it and discover that for yourself. It would be a fun distraction on a handheld device but as a proper "game" it's pretty terrible.
froghawk on 27/4/2014 at 15:19
I played it on a phone with a tiny screen, and it was still better than it would have been on a PC. What you fail to realize is that the reason it's pointless on PC has nothing to do with controls, graphics settings or key bindings - it's the basic design of the game itself. You could call it the most extreme example of consolization.
The touchscreen controls work fine, btw, and the game is stupidly easy even with that handicap - it would be incredibly boring with better controls.
gkkiller on 27/4/2014 at 16:42
I'm still concerned about when the continuation will be out. It's odd that more people aren't badgering Squeenix to put out the rest of the game.
heywood on 24/9/2014 at 22:07
I know I'm rather late to the party, but I finally got around to playing this one on a business trip and decided to post a review for anyone who might still be thinking about it. Here's my take:
The Story
The story is a strong point, it fits the mold of a Deus Ex game pretty well. You play as Ben Saxon, a ex-spec ops soldier who worked for Belltower as an elite squad leader until losing his whole squad in an operation gone bad. Like any DX game, there's the obligatory cutscene at the beginning hinting at elements of an Illuminati conspiracy. Like DX1, you're recruited by and start out working for the bad guys (but your character doesn't know it right away) and you go rogue once you figure out you've been set up. Also like DX1, you have to seek medical treatment from an underground doctor in Panama because your augs are killing you, and while questing around Panama you start to discover the conspiracy.
And then just when it gets interesting and there is a plot twist and you start to get sucked in... it ends with To Be Continued. Thankfully it's not a cliffhanger ending, but it does leave you wanting. Imagine if DX1 ended as you jumped into Jock's helicopter right after breaking out of the secret MJ12 base in UNATCO HQ. It's a little bit like that. Obviously they clearly intended this to be the first episode of a larger story. My guess is that this episode is maybe 1/3 of it. The game introduces some plot elements and even one major character that are superfluous but presumably have an important role in a larger story. It's a shame that Eidos Montreal didn't follow this up with the next installment, because without their commmitment to finishing the story, it's hard to recommend playing The Fall unless you are a die-hard fan who wants to play every DX game out there.
Controls
I first purchased the Android version and tried to play it on an Asus Transformer Prime. I gave up half way through because it was too tedious to control. I was putting all of my concentration into the interface and none into the actual gameplay and wasn't feeling any sense of immersion. Part of this may be my unfamiliarity with tablet FPS controls, since this was literally my first tablet game. Not wanting to leave unfinished business, I dropped coin again for the PC version. As everyone now knows, the PC version is a fairly straightforward port, so it was basically the same as playing the tablet version except on a bigger screen with different controls. Knowing this from the outset, I was spared the disappointment expressed by many reviewers on the Steam forums who expected the PC version to play like a DX:HR mission pack.
Tablet - The basic movement and look controls were actually OK, but anything else was a chore. Like Renzatic said earlier in the thread, basic things that you shouldn't have to think about like using cover were tedious. I had lots of trouble hitting the right button at the right time. Part of that may be due to a lack of muscle memory associated with my being a newb at tablet FPS gaming, but I also felt held back by touch sensitivity issues, which seemed to cause frequent missed and inadvertent button presses. So I had an OK time exploring, but when faced with rooms full of enemies I was all thumbs :)
PC - As you can imagine, the game is much easier to control on a PC, but there are a number of minor annoyances compared to Human Revolution. Like non-customizable key bindings. ONE saved game. And some unregistered mouse clicks, which fortunately only happen in the UI and don't affect combat. Transitioning from one cover object to another while staying in cover mode can also be a bit wonky. And you have to get used to the fact that the use key (E) acts on the closest item or NPC, which is not always the one in the center of your FOV. There are obvious clues that the UI was originally designed for touch input, but in that sense it's no worse than playing a PC game originally designed for gamepad input. Overall, it's about what you'd expect for a low budget PC title or indie game.
Gameplay
It's basically the same as Human Revolution but with a few major elements streamlined. Like no jumping or mantling, resulting in limited vertical exploration and no goodies lurking in hard to reach areas. I was fine with that on the tablet but it was weird at first on a PC. It would be unacceptable in a normal DX game, but considering it's a cheap tablet port I got over it quickly. Another major area of streamlining is the inventory, which is combined with the in-game store. There are no limits on the ammo, weapons, and items you can carry. And you don't need to seek out arms merchants. If you've got the cash, you can buy any weapon, upgrade, or item you want in the inventory. In a way, this isn't as bad as it sounds, because the game is relatively short and there's a shitload of weapons. If it were done the DX:HR way you wouldn't be able to try out much of anything in a single play. A bigger disappointment is the over-abundance of resources. In DX, part of the gameplay was managing scarce resources. But not so much in DX:HR, and not at all in The Fall. Another major streamlining is that dead or unconscious bodies evaporate away in glittering triangles after about 5 seconds, so enemies can only detect a fallen comrade for a short time and you don't have to hide bodies. On the tablet, that was a absolute Godsend. But on the PC, it made playing stealthy easier than it should be. Combat was similar to DX:HR, except easier because it seemed like the AI was less aggressive in pursuing you when hostile (presumably tuned that way). Otherwise, the gameplay was pretty similar to DX:HR. Same hacking, same cover-based stealth, similar augs, similar conversation battles.
Once you have completed the game once, you can play again in "New Game+" mode, whereby you start over equipped with all the augs and credits you ended the ended the game with but with the difficulty level increased. I didn't go very far into a second playthrough, but the difference in difficulty didn't seem like much outside of combat, and unfortunately you have to go through the annoying tutorial all over again. I think the main appeal of this mode is that you should have lots of weapons at the start (and/or lots of credits available to buy weapons) so you can have more fun with the combat straight away. If you're thinking about playing twice, I'd go pure stealth the first time and pure combat the second. I do with they had made the difficulty level an option in the beginning though.
Level Design
There is a prologue followed by a large city hub. The prologue also serves as the tutorial. As far as in game tutorials go, this one is annoying and overbearing on the PC, but it worked well on the tablet. The city hub with all of its connected levels feels almost as big as Detroit or Lower Hengsha. It offers a satisfying number of places to explore for loot and a reasonable number of side quests. There are multiple paths and options for ghosting and for combat. It's non-linear, but some items which are tied to a quest only appear once you've gotten the quest, so you may find yourself backtracking to areas you've previously explored. Vertical exploration is limited due to absence of jumping and mantling, but otherwise I was pleasantly surprised. I guess I expected the level design to be more streamlined and linear. But the limitations of the tablet do affect the level design in one major way: lots of level transition/loading zones. It's like Invisible War in this regard. Fortunately, the load times were extremely short on my PC.
Graphics and Sound
The levels look pretty much like Human Revolution, which is not surprising since they re-used the textures and elements from HR. The amount of "decoration" (e.g. random stuff cluttering people's offices) was less than in HR, but no big deal. Animated cut scenes were just like HR, but the in game NPC animations were simplified. The lip synching was especially crude. Also, the number of NPC character models were somewhat limited, but you only really notice that in the gang levels where room after room of gangsters wore the same jeans, white shirt, and blue bandana mask. Also, when a pre-rendered animation (e.g. takedown) would play out next to a wall, it would occasionally result in a rendering/clipping bug. I'm kind of nitpicking though, overall the graphics were fine.
The sound was mostly fine as well, except that the NPC background chit chat you overhear seemed to emanate from fixed locations on the map and not from a specific NPC, which can be immersion-breaking. And some of the triggers for these were buggy, so you might hear the same line play again as you walk through an area that you cleared of enemies. Some users on the Steam forums complained about the music sometimes overriding conversations, but I didn't have or didn't notice that problem.
Quality
As mentioned above, there were some occasional rendering/clipping bugs and bugs with sound triggers, but not a large number. I don't recall any significant gameplay bugs or crashes. The gameplay and level design wasn't as polished as DX:HR, but it met or exceeded my expectations. The controls could have benefitted from more development & polish for sure.
Conclusion
For those few who can effectively control a FPS on a tablet semi-intuitively without putting 100% of their concentration fighting the controls (not me), DX: The Fall is quite an achievement in that it brings a pretty authentic DX:HR experience to the tablet. As a tablet game, it is far less watered down then I expected, and is only dumbed down in aspects that really have to be to make a reasonable tablet game. If you're one of those people who can comfortably handle tablet FPS controls, I definitely recommend trying it, although it would be a much stronger recommendation if they continued the story.
For a PC gamer, you may as well skip The Fall. If EM had continued the series, I would buy the sequel just to see where the story goes. But as the pilot episode of a series that got dropped, it's not really worth it. I'm still glad they released it on the PC though; it's better to have the option than not.