Heh, last few posts here had nothing about this game. But figured I'd make this post here rather than in the currently playing thread.
First off, I have to say I'm having a love/hate relationship with the game. For the most part I can tune out the stuff that I hate, but at other times it's almost overriding and I'm tempted to send the developers all sorts of hate mail and kill their dogs.
First off, what is great. The graphics are great, the feel and the mood is great. Haven't gotten too far into the game yet so can't comment on the story. It's rather cliche at the moment but things can change. You aren't punished (as far as I can see yet) for dawdling around, but there are at least some dialog consequences at times. I love the inventory management aspect. Stealth is done somewhat well but falls apart at times. Like taking down a guy while his partner isn't 3 feet away and going unnoticed just because he isn't looking directly at you and all the while making a ton of noise during the takedown.
But that stealth aspect takes me to the thing that I absolutely hate about this game. It's worse than environmentalists. It's worse than holier than thou religious crusaders. It's far more heavy handed than any political propaganda machine. While you are allowed to play the game how you want, you are severly punished for NOT playing it how the developers want you to play it.
And the reasons you are punished doesn't have a single thing to do with the game. You are working for a corporation. They are interested in getting the job done. WTF does it matter if I take down some guy by stealth in melee range, take them down by stealth from range, kill them, or let them live? And why in the F*** would they restrict access to implant upgrades for that?
If you're thinking they don't and they don't care, then you're right. It's purely a heavy handed developer decision. Play nice, play our way, abide by OUR philosophical idealogy and you can pretend this game is almost as open as Deus Ex. Play it your way, how you want, within the framework of the game, and we'll restrict what's available to you and what you can accomplish.
Bull F***ing Shite. It is absolutely infuriating. And that has nothing to do with the fact that in general that's the way I like to play these types of games (stealthy).
Just the fact that the developers are overly aggressive at pushing their moralistic message makes them so much worse than the worst of holier than thou Christian, Muslim, Atheist (yes, plenty of holier than thou preaching Atheists in the world), etc. that I've run across in real life.
It takes what could have been a wonderful and entirely unexpectedly good tribute to the first Deus Ex, and turns it into something between good and utterly horrible.
It's something I would have expected if PETA, or Greenpeace, or the Catholic Church, or Fundamentalist Muslims had produced the game. But wow, was I so not expected to get slammed so hard if I tried to play the game as a relatively free and open experience as the first Deus Ex was.
Shame, because without the heavy handed morality guided gameplay this could easily have been the best game of 2011.
Regards,
SB
