Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

[Chardok]

It's not without it's fun, certainly. You can do much worse than Deus Ex, but don't go into it expecting blockbuster material. (Maybe Blockbuster VIDEO material, lol?) The art design, as Stark mentioned, is cool, and the envronments/cityscapes are neat to look at. Even my completely non-video game playing SO admitted the view of detroit from Sarif's elevator was pretty amazing. So, go in with your brain turned off, and knowing that crawling through vents = you win the game and there's a good time to be had.


I'd heard someone toss about a 40-hour completion time for this game which seems....wrong, somehow. And by seems I mean it should only take 40 hours if you're A) retarded, B) missing all fingers on one hand, AND/OR C) like me, and you play for 10 minutes, watch an hour long show (like, oh, I dunno, Top Gear America - DAMN YOU HISTORY CHANNEL) and leave the game/machine running while doing so, then play 10 more minutes and then watch How It's Made (DAMN YOU CANADA!), repeat ad nauseum.



EDIT_________________

Uhh, I found, like Tranquilizer darts - loads of them. Anyone tried these out? I think I read that, while their effect is delayed, the duedz can't be revived by their bros (unlike the stun gun).

[Vanas]

I've been using the tranq gun and it's... yeah, it's delayed but I'm pretty sure that the KOed guy can get revived. On the other hand, a headshot appears to be fatal, giving both the merciful soul and markman bonuses, so I'm not entirely sure WTF there. I did manage to take out about 9 of the gangers with it in a gunfight though, which was bizzarely horrible as they all gently collapsed into comas over a period of 30 seconds.

[Bluewolf]

@Chardok

Oh trust me I wasn't. In a way the biggest disappointment are what seem to be lapses in the story, the AI and the ending (For all of DX1's ones flaws, I kinda liked how it wasn't some sort of pure good vs pure evil affair. You had to actually use some of your brain for once). But yeah, I don't play FPS's often anyway and as I mentioned to Stark a while back, I may not pick up what he and others find so horrifying. We'll see. At least, in my mind and what I've heard, it didn't turn out to be a horrible failure, which is what it could so easily.

[Bluewolf]

Uhh, I found, like Tranquilizer darts - loads of them. Anyone tried these out? I think I read that, while their effect is delayed, the duedz can't be revived by their bros (unlike the stun gun).

I Know this is just Beta knoweldge but in that, if a guard got to the man who was tranqed, he could be revived.

[Stark]

Headshots with tranks aren't fatal; they put the guy down instantly. The big guys on hard can have a very long wait time, but since they don't react to being shot with a dart it isn't a problem. It actually helps, because you can hit 3 guys before the first falls and alerts the others.

If you're not using the stungun and tranker, you're doing it wrong. Bypass hitpoints + worse AI than thief = game easy. A pacifist playthrough isn't any harder than otherwise.

[Stark]

PS when they say 'bossfights don't count' for pacifist, what they mean is the Ghost in the Shell bossfights don't count. You can't kill Zhao, only the full-body replacement guys. Easy to fix if you screw up, though.

[Dendrobius]

Actually, if you're very un(?)lucky, a headshot with the tranq rifle can kill. It's rare but it does happen, I had at least 3~4 guys die on me like that on my playthrough. Not sure if difficulty has anything to do with it though. This is on Deus Ex difficulty. Maybe it's to dissuade people from regularly going for headshots when they want the Pacifist achievement?

Yes, they were dead. Icon was not Zzz, but the skull. No, they didn't fall off a balcony or a cliff or get hit by crossfire, they just collapsed like normal. *shrug*

[Stark]

Icon? There are icons? Are you SURE you're playing on hard? I've shot scores of guys in the head and not one died. Maybe you should stop picking on civilians.

[Losonti Tokash]

Okay, so I finished the level with the PF dudes in the factory. All the hostages died because I didn't find them I guess? I sort of assumed the game would have them as an objective but oh well. The manager's animation and voice acting were soooo bad though. Holy shit. Also, the number of racial stereotypes I've run across in the first two missions are goddamned amazing. Haven't even made it to China yet.

[Losonti Tokash]

Missed the edit window, so here's another observation: why are there still payphones everywhere?

[Chirios]

Bought this game last week. I'm now at the second Hengsha level, and wondering what IGN was talking about when it was going on about how buggy the release copy was. It's a good game, but when you get to the second Hengsha level you can see where they had to rush because of a short development time. The first Detroit level has loads of sidequests and people you can talk to, the second Detroit level took me about 2 hours, max.

[Stark]

Why do you think that's because the game was rushed? Since when was it rushed?

The early game arguably needs lots of sidequests because the player needs a lot of praxis to be competitive, but you only need maybe nine total to have everything good. If they stretched the last third of the game you finish with 20 unspent praxis instead of 12.

And holy shit, why is so much of the skill tree useless? The entire stealth enhancer, whole bodypart with one useful perk, etc. If only they hadn't given everyone by default a map that sees through walls and shows facing.

[Chardok]

So tranking makes a successful mission successful so long as you employe the "I will go check on that guy what just fell over for no apparent reason" tactic. Confirmed.


Also - please do not attempt to hack stuff inside the police station. It will go badly for you.

[Stark]

No it won't, you just suck. Ransacking the entire police station, however, isn't really worth it - most of the computers/rooms have nothing particularly interesting. Just go upstairs and search a few rooms via vent/stolen code for everything good.

The ninety-second time a cop says 'I'm not sure you should be there' after you've assaulted a dozen cops and disarmed the entire force is pretty stupid. Only the guy in the armoury seems intent on actually stopping you.

[Chardok]

I don't suck. I gots level 5 cap and level 2 fort, so whatever. I'm just unlucky is all.

Oh, I tranked the armory guy, I think. Did I do it wrong?

[Stark]

You bought fortify?

I guess someone had to. The only hacking shit you should need is stealth, and you only need capture 4 much later in the game.

[Chardok]

You bought fortify?

I guess someone had to. The only hacking shit you should need is stealth, and you only need capture 4 much later in the game.

Son of a bitch.

[Stark]

It's worth noting each level of stealth reduces your chance of starting a trace per action by 15% flat, so with max even the hardest nodes are only around 50% and most are around 15%. This means the defensive game they wanted you to play with fortify is useless because you can finish most hacks in 5 moves, often with no trace even starting. This further means going for nuke/worm stores is irrelevant because you don't need them.

Early game hacking is trace city, but once you have stealth up it's piss-easy. The hacking game is fundamentally broken and goes from 'frustrating' to 'trivial waste of time'.

[Chardok]

Shit, though, I didn't even consider stealth much, instead thinking that if I could slow down the trace, I'd be good. Of course, at the time, I didn't realize that when a trace starts, even among "friendly" AI's, it will immediately trigger them to KOS.


Bloddy hellshits.

[Stark]

Most later systems have so many paths back to you the fortifying them wastes enough moves to have finished the hack anyway. Don't worry, I wasted 2 praxis on fortify the first time too, and I still had half a dozen left at the end of the game.

[Losonti Tokash]

So, I beat it. This game was terrible.

[Chirios]

So, I beat it. This game was terrible.

What makes you say that?

[Zac Naloen]

It seems to me the story whilst being intriguing for 90% of it is about to take a nose dive into conspiracy theory bull in the last 10% of the game which might ruin my experience.

Also, I'm playing on the PC which seems to be the superior version of the game with regards to AI & bugs etc but it doesn't seem well optimised though, the game doesn't look all that (certainly no crysis/crysis 2 in terms of visuals) and framerates aren't great.

[Stark]

Also, I'm playing on the PC which seems to be the superior version of the game with regards to AI & bugs etc

I'd love to hear you substantiate this.

[The Grim Squeaker]

I'm trying it now, and , well. I feel that my 50$ were greatly wasted on this. (Wish i'd just preordered rage or Skyrim instead )