Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

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Re: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

Post by Stark »

Writing all that useless fluff had to entertain someone. :lol:

The larger the game's scope becomes, the more the underlying cliches of PC games look stupid. You're the security chief for a multinational military contractor, and not only are you not paid and have no access to supplies, you have to buy ammunition from the black fucking market. You have no backup, no influence, and (it seems) basically no relationships. The gameworld is a deeply stupid place if you try to treat it like an actual place, and not as a reskinned Fallout level, even excusing gameish shit like a giant ganger fortress 125m from the front door of the police station, or all the amazingly unsafe industrial practices going on throughout.

That the map doesn't save the sewers (and their access points) is really annoying. But then, you can't zoom the map out either.
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Re: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

Post by weemadando »

That ganger fortress thing reminds me of the exact moment I stopped play Boiling Point and acknowledged it's stupidity.

You get a mission from the military who have a base in the port area to try and find a rebel base in the area.

The rebel base is DIRECTLY NEXT DOOR. In the next freightyard/warehouse.
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Re: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

Post by Chardok »

SylasGaunt wrote:I'm early on, but you gotta love the weird ass tech floating around. The armor piercing mod for the 10mm pistol? Quantum tunneling.

This is a pet peeve of mine. Attaching the word "quantum" to a thing means "ZOMGAWESOMESAUCE". everything in the universe is "quantum" a rock fired from a sling is technically a "quantum projectile" I have a quantum wiffleball bat at home. I drink out of quantum beercans.


As to the tetris inventory, it's something I can get behind (although the ammo thing you mentioned seem like a really weird choice) if only to prevent "Fallout" syndrome where you walk around with a boatload of every weapon you find, ever. plus, the auto-arrangement does a good enough job, so it doesn't bother me so much. The "Crouch while waiting for recharge" thing I actually did last night, and I was simply amazed that...well, okay, I'll just say it. I'm standing behind a dude (and PS - I just took down his buddy about 6 feet away from him) for LITERALLY 30 seconds while I watch the battery slowly creep up, and.....well, I took him down. He did fuck-all. Period. didn't...turn around, never shifted his cone of vision, nothing. I did this multiple times, actually (if not quite to the extreme I've just described). It just really breaks the immersion, I feel like.
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Re: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

Post by Stark »

The AI is so bad you can kill everyone in the ganger fortress at once by shooting into the air, and then taking cover in a doorframe. They'll mill around uselessly, and maybe one or two will approach the door, but they'll die in no time. Luckily they all have 2 or 3 bullets for their 10mm!

Or, you could spend half an hour sneaking past? Yay.
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Re: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

Post by Stark »

Chards, tetris inventory doesn't mean restrictive. If Fallout had a smaller inventory limit, it'd be just as restrictive, and the game has no armour and doesn't allow duplicate guns, so Fallout packFAT shit couldn't happen anyway. It just means - in combination with the gimmick guns and disparate ammo and non-stacking grenades and shit - that you're punished for being prepared. If they limited you to two main and a pistol, they could have forgotten about the inventory because guns are literally the only shit that will ever fill it up (especially the ludicrious shit like rocket or rifle, which are each more than a third of your starting inventory).

Basically, you wouldn't have to hoard ammo and carry 5 guns if they didn't try the SCARE BULLETS IN 2025 bullshit. Yeah, I bet Blackwater has this problem all the time, right? :roll: I use 3 guns, but I'm encouraged to carry others because a single robot will kill me, a single large gun battle will cost all my ammo and I'll need to get it back 2 bullets per kill, etc. A level-5 locked, supervault of gun-running stuff might give you the princely sum of TWELVE BULLETS, for fuck's sake!
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Re: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

Post by JonB »

Transcribed with permission: Spoiler
[23:21] <Benedict_> i REALLY dont think i am playing deus ex as the designers intended
[23:21] <Benedict_> as i am on the hardest difficulty and have all the things. all of them
[23:22] <Benedict_> like there was this whole like high tension build up to the first boss fight, who is this super heavily augmented cyber super soldier, dude who quite literally rips through like entire squads of security personel. I walk in the room and hes like "ima give my short pre battle mono-" and then i fired three rockets into his face
[23:24] <Benedict_> then i spent the next ten minutes picking up all the goodies littering the arena you are supposed to fight him in
[23:54] <JonB> Surely you didn't spend 10 minutes? I mean, was the boss-fight supposed to take that long?
[23:55] <Benedict_> well i like looped through the room probably more times than i should have
[23:55] <Benedict_> i was def overthinking parts of it
[23:55] <Benedict_> but there was a ton of shit in that room
[23:55] <Benedict_> my point was more that there was this long build up to an epic boss fight that i finished in about 10 seconds total
[23:56] <Benedict_> on the hardest difficulty
[23:58] <JonB> But you actually shot him, and didn't use some sort of self-destruct code on him, like "Liliputan Woman"?
[23:59] <Benedict_> yeah
[23:59] <Benedict_> i pulled out a rocket launcher
[23:59] <Benedict_> and was like "kerpow"
[23:59] <Benedict_> and he was all "grr that hurt"
[23:59] <Benedict_> and i was like "kapow"
[23:59] <Benedict_> and he was like "aug ble splrtttt"
[00:00] <JonB> Soooooo..... not buying this game when it came out was a good idea?
[00:00] <Benedict_> naw its a fantastic game
[00:00] <Benedict_> i just dont think im playing it as intended is all
[00:00] <Benedict_> i sort of have a tendency to break games tbh
[00:01] <Benedict_> its the dev in me
[00:01] <JonB> I know how you feel. I've done playtesting.
[00:01] <JonB> When I don't find anything wrong, I feel like I'm the one doing something wrong.
[00:03] <Benedict_> ok so like, here right?
[00:03] <Benedict_> first mission of the game, like the first real mission
[00:04] <Benedict_> is that some anti augmentation terrorists have taken over a plant of your bosses, and taken hostages
[00:04] <Benedict_> you are supposed to go in, neutralize them, and get the hostages out, IF POSSIBLE
[00:04] <Benedict_> you dont even have to get them out, its a bonus objective
[00:04] <JonB> Makes sense.
[00:04] <Benedict_> so i get in there right, work through the level, find the hostages
[00:04] <Benedict_> now throughout the game, you have this takedown system
[00:05] <JonB> I saw the beta of it. It would target civvies too.
[00:05] <Benedict_> you have like energy icons, you start with two and can upgrade to more, only the first one ever refills on its own
[00:05] <Benedict_> every takedown takes an energy icon
[00:05] <Benedict_> you can like snarfle power bars to fill them back up though
[00:05] <Benedict_> and your takedowns, you have two options. tap the button for a quick, nearly silent, non lethal takedown
[00:06] <Benedict_> or hold for a not so silent lethal takedown
[00:06] <Benedict_> so i go into the hostage room and theres this big bomb. i walk up, defuse it, as i am mr. hacker mc hackerson
[00:07] <JonB> So far it sounds like DX.
[00:07] <Benedict_> i immediately hop on the radio "frank, i found the hostages" "hope you have good news" -slides his foot long razor chisels through a hostages rib cage- "yeah they are just fine" -dumps her body on the couch and slices the throat of another- "im going after the leader, let sarif know the hostages are safe" -jams chisel into the calf of a running hostage and takes his head off- "im moving on to the leader now"
[00:08] <Benedict_> because i had saved them, they became non entities
[00:08] <Benedict_> no penalties for killing them
[00:08] <Benedict_> and most of them had 100+ credits on them
[00:08] <Benedict_> so i wander on through the level, killing and maiming things
[00:08] <JonB> ...
[00:08] <JonB> They lost their 'Civilian' tag?
[00:08] <JonB> Seriously?
[00:09] <Benedict_> and if you do a non lethal takedown you get like massive bonus xp
[00:09] <Benedict_> there are no real civilains in dxhr
[00:09] <Benedict_> there are like people that are not hostile to you until you attack them
[00:09] <Benedict_> but pretty much anyone is fair game
[00:09] <Benedict_> so anyways, im going through the level non lethal take downing everyone
[00:10] <Benedict_> and when an area is clear i wander back through and put a single round in each of their heads. bam tons of xp, tons of ammo from their weapons, zero damage to me, just needed some stealth / finesse
[00:10] <JonB> ...
[00:11] <Benedict_> then i get to the end guy right, and its the terrorist leader and hes holding a hostage. i have three options. fight him, where he immediately blows the hostages brains out, try and talk him down, which is this long conversation tree, or threaten him which is shorter but you dont get a followup with him
[00:11] <Benedict_> so im like "fight time" and immediately headshot him, so the hostage survives
[00:11] <Benedict_> she thanks me, gives me a bunch of shit and some free xp and is like "im going to see my husband" -chisel time-
[00:12] <Benedict_> now as shes leaving, since the leader is now dead the swat team breaches the building, so they are just coming in as i chisel her, but they didnt see me actively do it
[00:12] <Benedict_> so they all go running over to her corpse and i walk up behind one of them
[00:12] <Benedict_> and im like "pardon me, have you seen the end of my chisel?"
[00:12] <Benedict_> then headshot the other one
[00:12] <JonB> ...
[00:13] <JonB> You're killing everyone and everyone thinks you're a saint?
[00:13] <Benedict_> then i notice something. there are like seriously 30 green dots on my radar. so i start going backwards through the level, and sure enough swat is all over the building
[00:13] <Benedict_> so i can usually find one alone, knock him out, leave him in the path of one of the others. they see him and come running over, knock them out
[00:13] <Benedict_> ad nauseam till they are all knocked out, headshots all around
[00:14] <Benedict_> so the mission, which im guessing should be about 90 minutes or so? 180 minutes easy since i ran it backwards again
[00:14] <Benedict_> but i come out of it with like 3 levels, a couple hundred rounds of assault rifle ammo, and more weapons than i can carry
[00:14] <Benedict_> so i have my chopper pilot fly me back to the city, and immediately run to the nearest merchant and sell EVERYTHING i mean everything
[00:14] <Benedict_> and have enough credits to buy 2 additional levels using these expensive instalevel packs at the clinic
[00:15] <Benedict_> so now i am at like hacker level 5, have some chisel buffs, and am super stealthy
[00:15] <Benedict_> so i go roaming the city before reporting in to the boss, and find all sorts of areas i am sure will be important later on. i chisel every single non named person, steal all their shit, hack everything
[00:16] <Benedict_> everything i hack gives me xp, and passwords or codes, but i always hack to always get the xp
[00:16] <Benedict_> then i go back home having decimated the city
[00:16] <Benedict_> and my boss is like "go roam around a bit, find some sidequests"
[00:16] <Benedict_> so i go out and find like 4-5 sidequests
01[00:16] <JonB> It sounds to me like you left more than 1/10 dead.
[00:16] <Benedict_> most of which requires me to go a.) kill a named dude after battling through his thugs b.) break or hack into somewhere and get something c.) clear an area
[00:17] <Benedict_> so every side quest is basically alread done
[00:17] <Benedict_> bam tons more xp, free ammo, free weapons, free augs
[00:17] <Benedict_> then im like "ok, mission two"
[00:17] <Benedict_> oh hey look its a courtyard with dozens of soldiers that i can either gunblaze or stealth k....CHISEL
[00:18] <Benedict_> then i got a sniper rifle from one and a rocket launcher from another
<Redacted due to other stuff>
[00:19] <Benedict_> but yeah like future detroit? it no longer has a gang problem
[00:19] <Benedict_> or a police department
[00:19] <Benedict_> or hobos
[00:19] <Benedict_> or hookers
<Redacted due to other stuff>
[00:19] <Benedict_> like i said, the game is amazing
[00:20] <Benedict_> i just seem to be playing it in a way the devs did not intend
[00:20] <Benedict_> i am on the third main story mission, only the second city in the game, and i have completely maxed my hacking
[00:23] <JonB> Hey Bene, you mind if I c/p this into a thread that's talking about this game?
[00:23] <JonB> See if anyone else has the same comments / issues?
[00:24] <Benedict_> edit out the bit about the <Redacted> and sur
Can anyone replicate Bene's "accomplishment" here, or was I being deceived?
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Re: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

Post by Stark »

Dude, you'll have more shit than you can carry after the first mission ANYWAY, and the SWAT guys will kill you if you throw a cardboard box at them.
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Re: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

Post by Chardok »

I never even found the stupid hostages.
Which upsets me because I play Boyscout. I totes avoided the boss fight by talking dude down and now people are all "Oh, good job, you let the hostages get dead and you let the leader go. You're completely AWESOME! Good thing you have augments, I guess, right? Idiot."


Still, my security dudes what call me boss are all "Dude, I heard you sent like 50 people to the hospital but EVERY ONE of those dudes survived (I did all nonlethals)! THAT'S AWESOME! GOOD JOB, BOSS!"


So now, I am going to have to reload a save and figure out where I missed the hostages because that is unacceptable.


Oh, and I totally did the thing where I incapped a dude, then his buddy was all "Hmm, I wonder why that guy fell over just now - weird, I'd better go check it out...Oh man! You're totally unconcious, here let me help you u-UGH"

Guy #2: Wow, those two dudes just fell over, I'd better go check it out. Oh man! You guys are totally unconcious, let me help you guys u- UGH!

Guy #3: Wow, those three dudes just fell over, I'd better go check it out. Oh man! You guys are totally unconcious, let me help you guys u- UGH!

Guy #4: Wow, those four dudes just fell over, I'd better go check it out. Oh man! You guys are totally unconcious, let me help you guys u- UGH!


*music slows to combat-not-imminent ambient Mass Effect Ready Room ripoff music*


Me thinking: Welp, guess I can explore THIS room with complete impunity *hack terminalhackterminalhackterminalhackterminal reademailreademailreademailreademail
done

Okay, pile of unconcious dudes, guess I'll catch you on the flipside. Good luck!

*go to next room to make new pile of unconcious dudes*
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Re: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

Post by White Haven »

I don't know about your playthrough, Chardok, but the hostages were dead before I even left HQ. It was a neat little touch, actually; if you spend too much time dicking around and breaking into offices, you get a pissy transmission from Sarif because you took too long and all the hostages are already dead except boss-lady.

P.S. I always wanted to know what it would feel like to work for a font. Now I know!
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Re: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

Post by Chardok »

I don't recall hearing ANYTHING about hostages except at the beginning, then when I found the dude at the front door of the building yelling about how they had hostages, I assumed they were still alive, and that I'd eventually run across them, but I never did. I never got a pissy message, I just made it to the end, saved the boss lady and I guess I psychically knew that her husband was teh dead. so I told her pretty callously that her idiot husband got himself killed. Then I lol'd.
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Re: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

Post by White Haven »

Oh, then you just don't explode enough. I found eight hostages and a gas bomb in big office. You just suck, that's all.

The downside is that mine were all dead. I had the code to the bomb, too. :(
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Re: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

Post by Chardok »

Yeah, I'm pretty bad at games.


Srsly, though - before or after the warehouse? cause I stealthed the hellshit out of the first floor of the warehouse. Felt like a boss.
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Re: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

Post by Vendetta »

After the warehouse, upstairs in the first lab type area IIRC.

The hostages are dead if you farted around too long before starting the mission.
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Re: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

Post by Chardok »

Oh, I never got to a lab type area with dead people in it.
so...maybe I will go back and re-do it. I want my 750 XPs
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Re: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

Post by Stark »

White Haven wrote:I don't know about your playthrough, Chardok, but the hostages were dead before I even left HQ. It was a neat little touch, actually; if you spend too much time dicking around and breaking into offices, you get a pissy transmission from Sarif because you took too long and all the hostages are already dead except boss-lady.
It's actually a really BAD touch, because nothing like it ever happens again. It simply punishes those who dick around in the HQ, and tries to trick people into thinking events will be on a timer. There's plenty of scope for the same shit later, and you can dick around as much as you want.

And man the tetris inventory is triple-lol useless because by the halfway point you're swimming in ammo if you're playing the AI. Just gotta fill it with giant, useless guns you might need one day in a boss fight? :lol:
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Re: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

Post by Chardok »

So later on is there no option to jibberjabber your way out of bossfights? I was able to talk down that mexican commando gulf war veteran pretty easily.
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Re: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

Post by Xon »

Stark wrote:And man the tetris inventory is triple-lol useless because by the halfway point you're swimming in ammo if you're playing the AI. Just gotta fill it with giant, useless guns you might need one day in a boss fight? :lol:
There is actually one other timed mission event I've run into. I actually found a use for the sniper rifle when going back to China.
Spoiler
Nice touch that they bother letting you save the Malik in her "helicopter" (it's a jet VTOL idiots!). I would hate to be trying todo that on pacifist run.
Chardok wrote:So later on is there no option to jibberjabber your way out of bossfights? I was able to talk down that mexican commando gulf war veteran pretty easily.
All the boss fights are pure throwdown slugfests. I recommend EMP genades, stun guns! (mini emp effect), EMP mines or rockets.
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Re: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

Post by CaptHawkeye »

Yeah all of the advertising conspicuously covers the opening sections of the game. I'm getting the impression they just sort of went "pfft, this game development stuff is really hard, lets just add some shooty sections and go gold" near the middle of the game.
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Re: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

Post by Gaidin »

CaptHawkeye wrote:Yeah all of the advertising conspicuously covers the opening sections of the game. I'm getting the impression they just sort of went "pfft, this game development stuff is really hard, lets just add some shooty sections and go gold" near the middle of the game.
The majority of their demoing for the past six months is in Shanghai, specifically sneaking into Chinese augmentation corporation, so the latter half at least of that section...not what I'd call the opening sections of the game.
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Re: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

Post by Stark »

Has any game ever handled multiple ending in such a baldfaced, bargain-basement way? I was blown away by how workmanlike and trivial it was - made even worse by the amazingly overblown horseshit that frames them.

'If you do this, humanity will turn it's back on technology FOREVER BWAHAHAHAHA'

Ps, don't be fucking stupid you French morons.
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Re: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

Post by Joviwan »

This game was terrible.

In a game that says it's about achieving you objectives in any way you want, it has decided that there is really only one way to do anything in the game, and that's "crawl through vents," "hack everything even if you have the code," "Punch people unconscious," and "Stealth stealth stealth," because all of these things award 2-4 times as much experience points as any other method available.

I was in china, and there are street vendors all over the place.

Walk in to their pantry: 100 xp

¡GAME DESIGN!

Why does punching people take energy, but falling 10 stories and landing safely while shooting bright yellow fucking beams of electricity everywhere not?

¡GAME DESIGN!

Why are the boss fights broken cheating steaming piles of shit that have nothing to do with the rest of the game?

¡GAME DESIGN!

The only thing even remotely interesting mechanically was the conversation "boss fights," but as all of the boss fights were inconsistent and poorly written trash where literally anyone will divulge all of their secrets the moment you confront them, the effect was wasted.

I don't think I've seen another game that telegraphed every single plot point in as big, bright, shiny letters as this one did.

And possibly the best part of the game is the ending!
Spoiler
Press any key to see the ending credits.
No, really. Nothing else you did meant anything to the narrative.
By the way, did you know this was a prequel?
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Re: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

Post by Stark »

Dont be too unfair; the art design is kind of neat.

It's pretty short as these kind of games go, and I don't think I missed any content in one play. There's nothing more sophisticated than 'winning' conversations so there's no alternate approach to take.

Non lethal is a joke becausethe stungun is the most powerful gun in the game.
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Re: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

Post by Joviwan »

I do like the art design. It's nice they didn't go the "Lolbladerunner" approach too badly and kept the fancy screens and futurestuff in seemingly natural places, in the background, where you could easily miss them because it's just a part of the world, not trying to shove it in your face with "THIS IS THE FUUUUUTUUUUURE."

There were other nice little touches I liked, too:
Spoiler
The "World Health Organization replace biochip is glitching" stuff was telegraphed with jetplanes and skywriting, but I liked how that when you wake up in singapore and start skulking around, you aren't told you're in a WHO facility--but it's posted on the walls and lobby in a bunch of places for you to notice and connect the dots. You know, if you hadn't already, I guess, but it was still a nice touch.
It's pretty easy to tell if you've seen all the game content: every possible sidequest has an achievement tied to it.

EDIT: It's kind of funny comparing this game to Alpha Protocol, which basically accomplishes everything DEHR tried in terms of gameplay much more competently.
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Drooling Iguana: No, John. You are the liberals.
Phantasee: So extortion is cooler and it promotes job creation!
Ford Prefect: Maybe there can be a twist ending where Vlad shows up for the one on one duel, only to discover that Sun Tzu ignored it and burnt all his crops.
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Stark
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Joined: 2002-07-03 09:56pm
Location: Brisbane, Australia

Re: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

Post by Stark »

I think the story very strongly suffered from the desire to lead into Deus Ex, becuase Deus Ex's 'story' was a comical mishmash of every conspiracy theory from the mid-90s. Thus, absolutely everyone's motives are childishly retarded, and no matter how many times they say 'iron seeding' nobody gives a fuck.

It's a giant laugh how aside from stuff that was required to lead into DE and stuff cribbed from 90s anime, the main story is basically 'science is evil and then ZOMBIES RAR'. There is very little attempt to really explore transhumanism, beyond stupid shit like 'doctors give people in accidents augmentations even though they can't afford the amazingyl expensive drug people with augs need to NOT DIE' and 'people with augs are discriminated against'. They don't address maintenance, they don't talk about power dependence, and the only effective social commentary is employees being pressured into augmenting themselves to increase profit for others. Darrow's amazingly stupid bullshit about replacing arm = cannot make moral choices anymore isn't just childish and stupid, but it's actually an offensively poor exploration of an interesting issue.

The end choice is fucking horrid, and not just because it's a literal room with buttons, but that you choose... and then you get told a load of overblown stupidity about what your choice will mean... and then you're asked to confirm it. It couldn't have been more artifical if it tried, and the only result is which bombastic and retarded final monologue you get.

You might think I use words like 'childish' and 'retarded' a lot, but it's certainly justified.

EDIT - lets talk about everything a stungun can do. It takes people down instantly and without using a battery, so it's better than takedowns. It can stun bosses EMP-style briefly, and the ammo stacks, so it's better than EMP grenades. It can defeat even the most powerful non-boss enemies (which can survive 3 hits with a sniper rifle to the face) in one shot, and it's a far more efficient use of inventory space than weaposn like the shotgun or combat rifle.
Bluewolf
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Location: UK

Re: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Impressions (spoilarz)

Post by Bluewolf »

I'm going to get this , sometime next week. Despite it being a horrifying idea to some, the game has potential to it. Not going to bother with the Augmented edition however, that'd be a horrible waste of money. Also hope they release some modding tools eventually so they some of the more mechanic based stuff can be adjusted.
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