Part of this was the fact that I am a quicksave "cheater" and will retry enemy encounters and hacking multiple times to get the outcome I want - the only thing I let be were the outcomes of my conversations with various NPCs.

The irony here is that the NPC dialogs (the ones you can succeed/fail) are the one thing that actually change every time you do them On my second playthrough I thought I had "figured out" all the conversations, but quickly learned that each NPC had multiple conversation trees and the same sequences of responses I used a previous time, even between quickloads, would fail horribly. You really do have to pay attention to the conversation to choose the correct response, which I thought was fantastic.

I was also reading every single email and pocket secretary - the email is key though if you are a Deus Ex 1 fan. They have embedded a SHITLOAD of Dues Ex 1 references in the emails that are really cool to uncover.[/quote]
Did you get the achievement for finding every eBook? I thought I had, but apparently not. When I checked a few days ago, Steam reported that 0% of players had it, but I'm not sure if it was just rounded down from a very small number (pretty sure it was, there are tons of people with a lot more free time than me!).

I was almost fully augmented as well by the end, doing all the same things you did with regard to hacking and maximizing XP. Eventually I didn't even care about the XP anymore. However I'm playing again to get my pacifist achievement, because I did everything right the first time but something must have glitched :/

Well, it's like Deus Ex. Considering how so much IP gets destroyed, that counts for something...

But having slept over it, I find the story to be a total letdown and worst of series. SPOILERS incoming.


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So apparently it's about Megan, we need to revenge hear death. But wait, boss wants us to run errands, so get over yourself and protect corporate interests. You might want to be non-lethal, just because.

Suddenly, FEMA. Oh noes. I'm not really sure what I'm doing there or why, when some big guy drops on me. I don't know who he is, why he's there, but apparently I must hate him enough to finish him off because I'm was told in the intro video he's one of those who killed Megan. Well, I kill him, then go to Starbucks for a mocha simply because I just don't care about it enough to even fight him let alone kill him. I felt more animosity at guard_light_07 who traveled across patrol_wpt_54a that took 3 minutes to take down. But the boss? Never met him, don't care.

Then there's China. Stuff happened, don't really remember what. Oh look, Megan might apparently be alive. What a twist. What's next, Eliza is a hologram? Oh, wait...

Another boss fight. I don't care about this one either, but again, fight to the death, just because.

Let's visit the port, because original had it. It wasn't until writing this that something ocured to me. There was this kid, who apparently had something to do with Tong and he leaves on a ship called The Tracer. But, I finished the game long ago and wasn't given a chance to care.

Suddenly, plot twist. Forget everything you know, Darrow is the big villain now.

Then we get to meet Megan. Turns out, all she wants is a sugar daddy. First she went with Sarif and kept Jensen as her pet, then went with Darrow and she'll end up with Page. And she doesn't even have any ambition, all she wants is the fanciest lab. I can't even hate her, she's just shallow. Paris Hilton of sorts, just hangs around and fanciest party and goes to next one on a whim.

Suddenly, zombies. Seriously?

Panchea. There is a hole in the ocean. A freekin hole in the ocean reaching to the bottom of the floor. But no, you can't see it or walk on its edge, but here you can get a glimpse of low resolution skybox. If this is supposed to be a throwback at original NY city landscape which was notoriously bad, it was done in bad taste.

Oh, final boss? The rest doesn't matter. We decided to do another plot twist, you are now a minority report and we had some dragon lady models lying around we'll throw in. I don't want to kill her, I don't care about her, she's not even threatening me.

Now press one of four buttons... So I do, still not really caring about anything.

There is no character development through entire story, except perhaps for that old police buddy who's working the station entrance before flipping out. I felt more compassion to the guy outside the pods who couldn't pay the rent than to any of the main characters. There is namedropping of Illuminati, probably because it's a fancy word.

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Invisible War had premise, character development, actual plot twists, ideas and people I could care about. And IW is considered bad.

At the end, human revolution and augmentation and advancement of society gets mentioned again. Which is interesting, because since watching the trailer I had completely forgotten about that.


Or put differently. It was decent gameplay, but nothing at all beyond. I just wasn't given a chance to care about anything. At least I'll have no expectations of sequel or prequel or whether they happen at all. It was just a bunch of LOS blockers with patroling guards.

I've decided that this game (which I rate as an A+, did I mention?) could be vastly improved by the elimination of the XP system altogether.

Not the Praxis system, that works great. But stop collecting XP and just award more Praxis points at the end of objectives, and hide some more Praxis kits around. First time I played through I didn't notice the issues, but second time? Even when I have the passcode to a door, I hack for the XP. Once I've accomplished my objective I go and find all the alternate routes I could have used...just for the XP. Which isn't the way this phenomenal game is supposed to be played. You're supposed to improvise and experiment. Difficult hack ahead? Well, why bother, you have grenades! Just blow the door of its hinges! You can do that kind of thing in the game, but why would you? There's no XP in that.

So yeah, that would be my number 1 change

But no, you can't see it or walk on its edge, but here you can get a glimpse of low resolution skybox. If this is supposed to be a throwback at original NY city landscape which was notoriously bad, it was done in bad taste.

Really? I enjoyed that so much. Seeing the plane take off then fly into the horizon into a low resolution back drop really brought me back to the original. It has a certain art feeling to it.

Also Deus Ex by it's very nature has complicated plots which make little sense. I mean the original had a rambling plot that took your everywhere. I like just going along with it since you don't know where the game will take you next.

Also Deus Ex by it's very nature has complicated plots which make little sense. I mean the original had a rambling plot that took your everywhere. I like just going along with it since you don't know where the game will take you next.

The locations are identical to original. Big city, Asian city (bar, versalife...), Big City (you even land on roof of your apartment), Port (no ship this time), secret base (M12 thing) and final base (A51). There was supposed to be another city (Montreal, cut during production) which would double as Paris.

But my beef is that individual parts of story are all disjoint and don't develop on each other.

Take trailer: "I'll never stop looking for her".

When you play the game, from intro to Barret fight, there is not a single mention of that. Nothing establishes any kind of motive for the fight. It's even worse, Barret complains about morgue. He could at least say: "If it isn't the adoring boyfriend, will you scream like your girl did?" Or something. After all, Megan's death/revenge/rescue is the leitmotif of entire story. The fight is completely pointless. And if he complains about the morgue, which I painstakingly sneaked through without being seen, it would only make sense to allow me to just run away. I spent a lot of time avoiding confrontation there, the last thing I want now is to fight the guy I annoyed.

Same for other two bosses, nothing in any way establishes any kind of motive. Not in some strict literary sense, but they are simply thrown at you. At least the mobs in Wolfenstein yelled "Halt!".

Meanwhile, there is a bunch of emails involving bestiality and Office Space, making sure I understand the culture and spirit of some cubicle dwellers.

The dragon lady and her "help me help me". Apparently, she's manipulated, puppet, etc... In the end, she acts on her own, conveniently ignoring everything. Is she Illuminati? Someone else? What about Darrow? Did she know what he'll do and did she orchestrate it or was it the other way around? Neither one makes sense, neither could have been behind each other, making all just a chance event. A wide departure from all the conspiracy premise. Also, there are 3 women as part of computer. "Looking for a different ending? Why not Zoidberg?"

And Malik. Suddenly, out of nowhere, they are flirting. And that's it. No prelude, no conclusion, time to fly.

I'm not big on deep story, but this one was a let down, mostly its absence. I'd consider System Shock 2 with its Many ending better, since everything before was mostly cohesive.

I enjoyed that so much. Seeing the plane take off then fly into the horizon into a low resolution back drop really brought me back to the original. It has a certain art feeling to it.[/quote]

It's just utterly wasted opportunity.

Hole in the ocean is unique. Hollywood would call it trailer moment or money maker. And I cannot walk on the edge, to gaze into the abyss and see it gaze back at me? An incredibly immersive moment in ME2 was fighting on the skyscraper bridge, where wind gusts and you hear the whooshing sound and it throws you off balance. It makes you feel the height. Instead, here's a bunch of zombies, fight them in same rectangular rooms as through entire game.

There's mails about some draft in some section, but I never found anything. Just same rooms as before. Not even the slightest attempt to milk one of most innovative and impressive locations ever in recent gaming history.

That was pretty damn badass. Nice one ;)