65 replies to this topic

[Moe]

I'm curious to know what the GDNet masses think of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which came out a day ago or so. I'm wanting to pick it up, but haven't had the chance yet (and was waiting for a DisplayPort cable for my third monitor Eyefinity setup).

So for anyone who has picked it up, how does it compare to the original Deus Ex and Deus Ex: Invisible War? So far any reviews I've seen of it have been quite positive, the only downside being that you are forced into the boss battles which breaks immersion for those that have been playing all sneaky-like and not killing people. I'm quite curious to hear some stories about the abnormal usage of objects. (One such story I've heard in a review was the player was man-handling a pop machine off the rooftop, and dropped it to try and create a distraction. It didn't end up working, but still sounded entertaining).

Oh, and if you have been playing it, you might want to use spoiler tags as necessary.

[Sirisian]

This has been linked around online about gamestop opening copies of the game to remove an Onlive coupon.

I downloaded it from steam and just finished downloading it at work. I'll be playing it tonight.

[NumberXaero]

My brother has, I watched a little of it, its about as faithful to the deus ex franchise as you can expect from modern day game. The review scores are pretty accurate.

the only downside being that you are forced into the boss battles which breaks immersion for those that have been playing all sneaky-like

You couldnt avoid killing the key figures in the original either. Although there were glitchy/rare/tricky ways around that.

I'm quite curious to hear some stories about the abnormal usage of objects.

Nothing really abnormal about the object use, the distraction stuff has been done in thief and the original deus ex.

[Zipster]

It feels a lot more like the original Deus Ex than it does Invisible War, which has me pleased. There is a ton of exploration and side quests to be had if you know where to look, as well as multiple approaches to completing any given objective in traditional Deux Ex style. Stealth is a major part of the game, and you can tell they put a lot of effort into making it work well. Moving in to, out of, and between cover is very fluid, and the enemies realistically detect you and remember your last position (none of that omniscience bullshit). However if you chose to go in guns-blazing, that's certainly a viable option as well since there are more than eough supplies strewn about. This game also has, by far, one of the best hacking minigames I've seen in a very long while. It's tons of fun, never really gets old, and involves some real strategy in order to hack the more difficult devices. With a little work, you could probably even turn it into a small, standalone, 2-player indie game. The augmentation system has been simplified so you no longer need physical canisters or robots to apply those canisters -- you simply go to an upgrade menu and apply "Praxis" points (accumulated by gaining XP or purchasing) towards adding new augs or upgrading existing ones. There is a very wide range of options and upgrades to suit any playstyle, however I would personally max out your hacking rank first because all the cool stuff is locked away!

However, I do have a few gripes. First and foremost, the load times are quite long, even on my beefy machine. "Quick" load is quite the misnomer since it feels like they're reloading the whole damn level every single time you load a save. Perhaps I'm just impatient, but I play enough games to know what a decent load time should be, and Deux Ex: HR exceeds that by a wide margin. Considering that I tend to load a lot... well, a very large portion of my play time is spent reading those canned hints that rotate on a load screen I'm also not a huge fan of how they handled bioenergy this time around. Every non-lethal takedown uses a full battery (you only start with two), and only the last battery automatically recharges, and at an incredibly slow rate without upgrades. The item that replenishes this energy is relatively rare considering how often you use energy on takedowns and augs (you get more than twice the XP for a non-lethal takedown than you do a kill), so I've found myself spending a lot of time in hiding, just waiting for my battery to recharge so I can perform another takedown or cloak away. However these are very minor issues given the overall quality of the game.

If you liked Deux Ex, then there's also plenty here for you to enjoy as well

[Antheus]

*mumble* regional restrictions *mumble* *mumble*two days *grumble*

[Gaiiden]

I've been through the original several times (I'm one of those ppl who doesn't really acknowledge Invisible War's existence) so it's great to be able to play the same way with this one as well.

So far I've managed to stealth through everything and have not fired a single shot (I will once I get silencers!). Figuring out the best enemy take down order is a nice puzzle to solve. I agree that the hacking is great - I do it just for the rush but for practical purposes it's best to hack now to get data node rewards and the XP - although you can find passwords still for all the important machines if you're not into hacking - just one of the many examples this game caters well to various play styles like the original.

I agree, loading on my relatively new i5 PC is slow as well. I loathe pressing F8 when I've screwed up a stealth move.

I talk to everyone until they repeat themselves, read all the eBooks and newspapers and computers, find all avenues of approach for a mission (instead of just taking one path - more XP!), do all side quests and kill everyone without direct firefight (silenced rounds/takedown) - I'm going to be playing for quite a while

Question though - did anyone pre-order from Best Buy? I got the wrong pre-order DLC in my Augmented Edition and was wondering if anyone else here has the same problem and has found a way to resolve it. I've posted over in a thread on Edios dedicated to this issue.

[Yann L]

*mumble* regional restrictions *mumble* *mumble*two days *grumble*

That. 22 hours to go.

NEED TO PLAY NOW... Grrrrr...

[Zipster]

[...]

So far I've managed to stealth through everything and have not fired a single shot (I will once I get silencers!). Figuring out the best enemy take down order is a nice puzzle to solve. I agree that the hacking is great - I do it just for the rush but for practical purposes it's best to hack now to get data node rewards and the XP - although you can find passwords still for all the important machines if you're not into hacking - just one of the many examples this game caters well to various play styles like the original.

[...]

I talk to everyone until they repeat themselves, read all the eBooks and newspapers and computers, find all avenues of approach for a mission (instead of just taking one path - more XP!), do all side quests and kill everyone without direct firefight (silenced rounds/takedown) - I'm going to be playing for quite a while

[...]

Yep, I've also been hacking every device regardless of whether or not I have the password just to get the XP and rewards, and exploring every path to get the XP (lesson learned from the original). I try not to use my pistol even though it's silenced now because you don't net nearly as much XP as a non-lethal takedown, but sometimes it's unavoidable or simply much faster. However being detected or setting off an alarm is a definite no-no given the generous amount of bonus XP you'd lose otherwise.

[Tachikoma]

I have a slow machine. I'm poor. I'm sad.

[Gaiiden]

Yep, I've also been hacking every device regardless of whether or not I have the password just to get the XP and rewards, and exploring every path to get the XP (lesson learned from the original). I try not to use my pistol even though it's silenced now because you don't net nearly as much XP as a non-lethal takedown, but sometimes it's unavoidable or simply much faster. However being detected or setting off an alarm is a definite no-no given the generous amount of bonus XP you'd lose otherwise.

Yup, once I'm on to silenced weaponry I'll be using it only to knock off any annoyingly roving bad guys that'll make my stealth takedowns harder. All my non-lethal takedowns get a "make sure" shot - I don't need anyone waking up on me!

I'm using a lot of techniques I learned from the first one and this pleases me, although I'm sure some people would have wanted a bit more freshness.

[Sirisian]

muhaha trying to do my first run through without killing anyone. It's going well. Also play the hardest difficulty. I imagine anything else is child's play.

[venatiodecorus]

I'm curious how the difficulty works? Are there different settings? Is it adaptive? Anyone know?

[way2lazy2care]

I have 2 minor complaints. First the load times. Like above, the load times are a bit on the high side, especially reloading the last save point. in a mission. I could understand the loads taking longer for loading in entirely new data, but I'm often reloading save points that are just at the start of the room I died in.

Second, I wish things you could use were highlighted a different color than things you could pick up and throw. I can't help but think that I am missing tons of ammo or hackable terminals because everything is highlighted with the same yellow. I took the combat rifle on the first mission, used up all my ammo before even getting inside, and didn't find more until the end of the mission.

Does anyone know if boss fights ruin the xp bonuses for not killing anybody?

I'm curious how the difficulty works? Are there different settings? Is it adaptive? Anyone know?

You select your difficulty when you start. Not sure if it adapts afterward or not.

[Gaiiden]

OMG Ton's dead! (runs over) *chuff* OMG Ray's dead! (runs over) *chuff* OMG Lee's dead! (runs over) *chuff*.... etc, etc



I didn't drag anyone, this is where they all fell. BOOM HEADSHOT

[way2lazy2care]

OMG Ton's dead! (runs over) *chuff* OMG Ray's dead! (runs over) *chuff* OMG Lee's dead! (runs over) *chuff*.... etc, etc



I didn't drag anyone, this is where they all fell. BOOM HEADSHOT

The image is broken for me

[Zipster]

I'm curious how the difficulty works? Are there different settings? Is it adaptive? Anyone know?

You select your difficulty when you start. Not sure if it adapts afterward or not.

I don't believe it's adaptive, but you can change it at any time. I was very tempted to turn it down from the highest setting after a few attempts at the first boss (the difficult curve suddenly hit a wall), but eventually I found a tactic that worked... although I agree it doesn't seem right that you have to fight someone to proceed, especially since the series has always been about accommodating all different play styles, especially the non-confrontational. IIRC, in the original game, the only boss you had to fight was Simons (it might even have been possible to just run past, although I've never tried it myself), and that battle was foreshadowed for most the game. The rest could be avoided if you knew the right information or made certain decisions during the course of the game.

[Antheus]

IIRC, in the original game, the only boss you had to fight was Simons

Nope.

Granted, most of these non-confrontations were a bit lame, but still, they were an option that didn't exactly bug anything out or come through as some obscure exploit.

[Zipster]

IIRC, in the original game, the only boss you had to fight was Simons

Nope.

Granted, most of these non-confrontations were a bit lame, but still, they were an option that didn't exactly bug anything out or come through as some obscure exploit.

Well, like I said, he was possibly avoidable, I just never tried it myself Plus I always encountered him in the underwater lab so there must have been something I did differently.

[ChurchSkiz]

Am I the only one that likes to kill everyone?

[Zipster]

Regarding loading speeds, a patch was released today!

Patch notes: "The speed increase depends on machine spec and settings, but loading time improvements of over 50% have been measured on some machines."

!!!!!!!!