Deus Ex: Human Revolution (part 2)
To start off with, most of what I said before holds true. The major tech problems (slow loading and wonky mouse control) were resolved by a patch and/or disabling V-sync, and haven't plagued me since. I was directed to mention that the Caps Locks key toggles run/walk speed (strange that I didn't see that in the manual), which explains some of the issues I had in at least one spot.
Spoiler free summary: A great game overall and a good follow-up/prequel to one of my favorite computer games ever, if not quite perfect at that. It blows away Invisible War. Sneaking, hacking, and talking are all fun. Combat is perfectly fine, but doesn't jump out to me as outstanding. I wish something different had been figured out for the boss fights because they're all a little jarring - though none are as bad as the first one (whether due to tuning or just the complete lack of preparation for it). The storyline is good, but falls a little short of great to me, and the endings are mildly disappointing.
I don't want to go over things I've discussed before again too much, but as mentioned about the bosses, the learning curve does seem to eventually level off. After about the first boss fight, the player has been exposed to most of the techniques and situations, so there's less dying due to being unprepared.
Weapons
The lack of melee weapons actually didn't bother me, and didn't even occur to me until I was thinking about it writing this, but... yeah. No melee weapons other than Jensen's fists and integral armblades. The takedown animations can get repetitive - it didn't bother me so much, but I didn't use them exclusively.
Most of the weapons are upgradable, that's good. The humble 10mm pistol (once silenced) is a sound choice almost anywhere - as long as you don't mind killing. The non-lethal weapons are all disappointing in that they only load a single shot. The tranq rifle was just about useless to me unless I was using the sights. The stun gun is a one-hit takedown (but not kill) against just about any person, and even useful in some boss fights. The combat rifle seemed generally solid, but I felt the pistol was almost as useful. I sold off most of the shotguns and machine pistols without using them. The sniper rifle looks awesome, but takes up a lot of inventory space, so I opted to stick with the tranq rifle when the option came up. I wanted to like the rocket launcher, but it took up sooo much space, and was overkill against almost anything buy a large robot (which one EMP grenade would usually do it), so I didn't carry it for long. The laser rifle, on the other hand, was really neat a couple times because it could fire through walls (which gives the most useful application of the x-ray vision augmentation). The grenade launcher (a pre-order specific item) was good, and not too large, but I found myself not really needing the heavy ordinance by the time I got it. Gas grenades were surprisingly good.
Augmentations
In the original Deus Ex, you faced some really hard choices. You generally only had two or maybe three chances in the game to get a specific aug - some where obvious, but if you managed to miss all those run speed canisters, too bad. Also, almost every augmentation slot had two options, and you could only have one of the two at a time. You could have a speed boost or you could move silently, you could lift larger objects or do more damage with melee attacks - tough choices, and some opened up different paths (like swimming underwater or moving something big blocking a vent).
DXHR makes them all available using standardized points you get through experience, finding praxis kits, and buying. Honestly, I'm not sure which way I like better. The hard choices of the first game are gone, but the resulting freedom is sort of liberating.
There are, however, a few augmentations that are decidedly more or less useful. Hacking rank and stealth can get you into a lot of places more easily, offering up extra ammo or a new route. The ability to hack turrets and robots isn't necessary, but can help clear areas easily. Hacking analysis and fortify are pretty much totally unnecessary. Flare compensation might be useful a couple times, maybe. The speech/persuasion augmentation is really neat, but only useful in the handful of conversational "combats" and isn't strictly needed for them. Lifting large objects and punching through walls offers a lot of extra ways to get around, and I think pay for themselves by what you find. Cloaking is cool, but I didn't need it on my first play-through. Damage resistance is probably most useful in boss fights, as if you're getting shot otherwise, you'll either duck behind cover and survive or get shredded and die. The Icarus system isn't really necessary, but it's pretty cool to be able to jump off high buildings and land safely. Radar enhancements seemed totally unnecessary to me...
At the beginning, I definitely wanted more praxis points. Once I was up there on the major hacking abilities and the couple that opened up regular access routes, everything else was gravy. I almost want to try a run without using any augmentations, but since increased inventory space is an aug, that would be really annoying.
Story
The storyline and individual missions of DXHR felt a lot more personal in scope than the original game's.
In Deus Ex, you're rapidly in the middle of a conflict among organizations: NSF versus UNATCO, then the Triads, Illuminati and Majestic 12 enter the picture. At the smallest, you're dealing with a terrorist faction, and things scale up from there to a worldwide conspiracy.
In DXHR, you're... rescuing Sarif company employees and projects and tracking down who's responsible for corporation espionage/attacks. While it becomes apparent that larger players are involved, everything feels more nose-to-the-ground. The grand scope is somehow missing, even when events with global impact are happening at the end.
In some ways, that may be good. I think I feel more for Adam Jensen and his position than I did for JC Denton. Certain events, like helping his ex-(girlfriend? I don't think they were married, but I don't recall specification either)'s mother find some closure had impact (even while raising further questions). But I found myself missing the bigger-picture sense I got from the original game.
I do, at least, like how background elements of Adam Jensen are revealed through tidbits along the way. It's similar to how JC discovers his own background to be false, though a little more in depth. Through interaction with a cop, you get details of the event that led to his leaving SWAT, which was a pretty major event.
The game never quite answered for me where Adam came from, though, and why he was so special. I could have missed something in one of the couple side missions I seem to have missed... I'll have to go out of my way to check on a second play-through.
Endings
As with the story in general, I felt a little dissatisfied with how things played out at the end. Similar to the original story, the endgame reaches a point where you're petitioned by multiple people (though two of three are absolutely missable if you just follow the map markers to the next goal) to end the game in different ways.
In Deus Ex, your choices include:
- crashing the internet/telecomm system entirely, reducing the world to a new, quasi-feudal era without technological oversight...
- supporting the Illuminati in quieting down the unrest that came up, keeping them in control...
- fusing with a super-powerful AI, giving a human element, with intent to rule/guide humanity...
Deus Ex Invisible War took the unusual approach of assuming all three "sort of happened." JC's fusion with Helios happened, but was incomplete, the Illuminati weren't defeated or exposed, but there was a major (but not crippling) tech crash. That's one of the few things I respected about that game - they managed to make a sequel without invalidating any of the big endings of the original. And most of the ending choices of that game follow up on or solidify the options in the first one.
DXHR gives you four choices. And, honestly, I wasn't happy with any of them. The guy I liked the least wanted me to expose the whole truth in an effort to scare mankind out of human augmentation. I sort of wanted to put the information out there simply because it was "right," I didn't like the repercussions written in. Or you can put out editted versions to either support augmentation or seek legal limitations on it. The latter seemed like the most reasonable goal to me, but I didn't like the idea of covering things up.
The fourth option is to says "no one here has a right to try to influence the world on this topic, even me" and destroy the place with everyone in it. ... Really? Holy crap. Considering I just stunned/gassed my way through hordes of crazed civilians, why would I want to murder everyone, including myself?
Whatever you do, there's sort of a denouement by Jensen that lays out his thoughts on the choice before the credits roll. After the credits, there's a little scene vaguely tying in to a scene at the very beginning of the game and the underlying thread behind the events in Deus Ex. For me, though, that lacked closure. There was nothing about what happens to Jensen himself - something that was disappointing because of the more personal feel to the missions. This almost makes me feel like the canon ending is the last one, which doesn't sit well with me.
Note: Linking an article for my own benefit.
Spoiler free summary: A great game overall and a good follow-up/prequel to one of my favorite computer games ever, if not quite perfect at that. It blows away Invisible War. Sneaking, hacking, and talking are all fun. Combat is perfectly fine, but doesn't jump out to me as outstanding. I wish something different had been figured out for the boss fights because they're all a little jarring - though none are as bad as the first one (whether due to tuning or just the complete lack of preparation for it). The storyline is good, but falls a little short of great to me, and the endings are mildly disappointing.
I don't want to go over things I've discussed before again too much, but as mentioned about the bosses, the learning curve does seem to eventually level off. After about the first boss fight, the player has been exposed to most of the techniques and situations, so there's less dying due to being unprepared.
Weapons
The lack of melee weapons actually didn't bother me, and didn't even occur to me until I was thinking about it writing this, but... yeah. No melee weapons other than Jensen's fists and integral armblades. The takedown animations can get repetitive - it didn't bother me so much, but I didn't use them exclusively.
Most of the weapons are upgradable, that's good. The humble 10mm pistol (once silenced) is a sound choice almost anywhere - as long as you don't mind killing. The non-lethal weapons are all disappointing in that they only load a single shot. The tranq rifle was just about useless to me unless I was using the sights. The stun gun is a one-hit takedown (but not kill) against just about any person, and even useful in some boss fights. The combat rifle seemed generally solid, but I felt the pistol was almost as useful. I sold off most of the shotguns and machine pistols without using them. The sniper rifle looks awesome, but takes up a lot of inventory space, so I opted to stick with the tranq rifle when the option came up. I wanted to like the rocket launcher, but it took up sooo much space, and was overkill against almost anything buy a large robot (which one EMP grenade would usually do it), so I didn't carry it for long. The laser rifle, on the other hand, was really neat a couple times because it could fire through walls (which gives the most useful application of the x-ray vision augmentation). The grenade launcher (a pre-order specific item) was good, and not too large, but I found myself not really needing the heavy ordinance by the time I got it. Gas grenades were surprisingly good.
Augmentations
In the original Deus Ex, you faced some really hard choices. You generally only had two or maybe three chances in the game to get a specific aug - some where obvious, but if you managed to miss all those run speed canisters, too bad. Also, almost every augmentation slot had two options, and you could only have one of the two at a time. You could have a speed boost or you could move silently, you could lift larger objects or do more damage with melee attacks - tough choices, and some opened up different paths (like swimming underwater or moving something big blocking a vent).
DXHR makes them all available using standardized points you get through experience, finding praxis kits, and buying. Honestly, I'm not sure which way I like better. The hard choices of the first game are gone, but the resulting freedom is sort of liberating.
There are, however, a few augmentations that are decidedly more or less useful. Hacking rank and stealth can get you into a lot of places more easily, offering up extra ammo or a new route. The ability to hack turrets and robots isn't necessary, but can help clear areas easily. Hacking analysis and fortify are pretty much totally unnecessary. Flare compensation might be useful a couple times, maybe. The speech/persuasion augmentation is really neat, but only useful in the handful of conversational "combats" and isn't strictly needed for them. Lifting large objects and punching through walls offers a lot of extra ways to get around, and I think pay for themselves by what you find. Cloaking is cool, but I didn't need it on my first play-through. Damage resistance is probably most useful in boss fights, as if you're getting shot otherwise, you'll either duck behind cover and survive or get shredded and die. The Icarus system isn't really necessary, but it's pretty cool to be able to jump off high buildings and land safely. Radar enhancements seemed totally unnecessary to me...
At the beginning, I definitely wanted more praxis points. Once I was up there on the major hacking abilities and the couple that opened up regular access routes, everything else was gravy. I almost want to try a run without using any augmentations, but since increased inventory space is an aug, that would be really annoying.
Story
The storyline and individual missions of DXHR felt a lot more personal in scope than the original game's.
In Deus Ex, you're rapidly in the middle of a conflict among organizations: NSF versus UNATCO, then the Triads, Illuminati and Majestic 12 enter the picture. At the smallest, you're dealing with a terrorist faction, and things scale up from there to a worldwide conspiracy.
In DXHR, you're... rescuing Sarif company employees and projects and tracking down who's responsible for corporation espionage/attacks. While it becomes apparent that larger players are involved, everything feels more nose-to-the-ground. The grand scope is somehow missing, even when events with global impact are happening at the end.
In some ways, that may be good. I think I feel more for Adam Jensen and his position than I did for JC Denton. Certain events, like helping his ex-(girlfriend? I don't think they were married, but I don't recall specification either)'s mother find some closure had impact (even while raising further questions). But I found myself missing the bigger-picture sense I got from the original game.
I do, at least, like how background elements of Adam Jensen are revealed through tidbits along the way. It's similar to how JC discovers his own background to be false, though a little more in depth. Through interaction with a cop, you get details of the event that led to his leaving SWAT, which was a pretty major event.
The game never quite answered for me where Adam came from, though, and why he was so special. I could have missed something in one of the couple side missions I seem to have missed... I'll have to go out of my way to check on a second play-through.
Endings
As with the story in general, I felt a little dissatisfied with how things played out at the end. Similar to the original story, the endgame reaches a point where you're petitioned by multiple people (though two of three are absolutely missable if you just follow the map markers to the next goal) to end the game in different ways.
In Deus Ex, your choices include:
- crashing the internet/telecomm system entirely, reducing the world to a new, quasi-feudal era without technological oversight...
- supporting the Illuminati in quieting down the unrest that came up, keeping them in control...
- fusing with a super-powerful AI, giving a human element, with intent to rule/guide humanity...
Deus Ex Invisible War took the unusual approach of assuming all three "sort of happened." JC's fusion with Helios happened, but was incomplete, the Illuminati weren't defeated or exposed, but there was a major (but not crippling) tech crash. That's one of the few things I respected about that game - they managed to make a sequel without invalidating any of the big endings of the original. And most of the ending choices of that game follow up on or solidify the options in the first one.
DXHR gives you four choices. And, honestly, I wasn't happy with any of them. The guy I liked the least wanted me to expose the whole truth in an effort to scare mankind out of human augmentation. I sort of wanted to put the information out there simply because it was "right," I didn't like the repercussions written in. Or you can put out editted versions to either support augmentation or seek legal limitations on it. The latter seemed like the most reasonable goal to me, but I didn't like the idea of covering things up.
The fourth option is to says "no one here has a right to try to influence the world on this topic, even me" and destroy the place with everyone in it. ... Really? Holy crap. Considering I just stunned/gassed my way through hordes of crazed civilians, why would I want to murder everyone, including myself?
Whatever you do, there's sort of a denouement by Jensen that lays out his thoughts on the choice before the credits roll. After the credits, there's a little scene vaguely tying in to a scene at the very beginning of the game and the underlying thread behind the events in Deus Ex. For me, though, that lacked closure. There was nothing about what happens to Jensen himself - something that was disappointing because of the more personal feel to the missions. This almost makes me feel like the canon ending is the last one, which doesn't sit well with me.
Note: Linking an article for my own benefit.
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