Deus Ex 3 (PC)

[Richard]

Nice fixes, especially curious about the SSAO improvement. I can't recommend this game enough and also can't wait for the sequel/remake.

 

[green.pixel]

These are the two best pieces of criticism I've seen written about DE3.

Human Revolution's Failure to be Revolutionary

... Human Revolution, a remake of a classic that has the rough edges shaved off for mass, not cult, consumption...

From an Insomnia's forum member and contributor Worm:

I really liked this game. Aside from the menus, there's cool stuff to look at everywhere. The engine isn't anything impressive, but design-wise there's a lot of great work. Almost everything has a believably futuristic aesthetic, from the stylish weapons to the realistic building layouts. It has some decent-sized, non-linear areas and gives you many of the same options from the first Deus Ex. You can use stealth, you can hack, you can stack objects and climb, you can be non-lethal, you can be a mass murderer, etc.

But, while playing, I kept thinking of Matt Warner's review for the first Deus Ex. I won't spoil anything about Human Revolution, but I'm going to refer to a couple minor spoilers for the original.

Nothing's ever come quite as close to a genuine interactive sci-fi novel that's written as you go. Other games have tried, but the guide rails have always been way too visible. In Deus Ex they blend in perfectly, while still being there to eventually steer you in the proper direction, so the game never loses focus. It's almost magic.

Human Revolution is a step back in plot elasticity. There are no "killing Anna" moments in Human Revolution. What you do get is a handful of "killing Maggie Chow" moments, where minor characters can briefly appear (or not) based on your previous actions. There are also occasional dialogue changes in response to your choices, but again, not as much as in the original.

It feels more guided in other ways, too. And I'm not talking about stuff like conspicuously placed air ducts (though there are plenty of those). I mean things like NPCs outright telling you, "You could complete the sidequest this way... or you could try this other, less violent way," and the game constantly popping up XP bonuses and messages telling you that yes, you are taking the sneaky path, or choosing to not be a killer.

I also got the impression that Human Revolution was designed with the mindset that content creation is expensive, and there's no sense making areas that a sizable percentage of players won't see. Many of the sidequests (and side areas) are optional, but to miss them you have to willfully ignore the markers and bread crumbs the game hands you. There are still plenty of chances to poke around and explore, but I never found anything truly surprising or a place that gave me that "Am I supposed to be here?" feeling.

I'm afraid we are not going to get a game that equals or surpasses the original any time soon. No disrespect to anyone, but indies and the people at SE don't have the talent at the level of the Origin/LGS school of game design. Even if they did, publishers don't want to fund a project which would at the same time retain all the complexity of the original and perhaps further expand upon it and need to have huge production values comparable to any other big budget first person shooter/action game in order to be competitive in the market. Same goes for System Shock.

Sucks!

 

[swaaye]

I really don't fit in with the crowd that worships DX1 or SS1. I think those were interesting experimental games but they had loads of flaws. DXHR has problems but I enjoyed it quite a bit. I hope the same team gets another chance.

The great DX1 team talent were big parts of DXIW and Daikatana so don't overrate them.

 

[green.pixel]

What if I told you I found System Shock 1 rather annoying and Deus Ex 1 quite corny?

Corny in what way? Writing? I agree.

Those were cool experimental games but fans occasionally put them on a high pedestal and seemingly like to be disappointed in any attempts at replication.

Maybe the high pedestal is justified. Experimental games that nearly nobody tried to do a proper follow up to. And the fans of any series have every right to be dissapointed if the sequel/prequels provide them less enjoyment. People should care about the pleasure derived from the games, not the companies' profits, and not support catering of the designs to the mass market.

DXHR is no piece of art but it was enjoyable.

Sure, doesn't mean we can't critize it. And that necessarily means comparison to other games, including better one(s) in the same series.


edit: I see you've edited your post.

The great DX1 team talent were big parts of DXIW and Daikatana so don't overrate them.

Yes, there is good video on YT where Spector and Harvey talk about what went wrong:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGIdYl2oN74

"We had some good friends who told us Deus Ex was a giant disaster and here's what they would change."

"We are not meeting the standards of our very intelligent designer friends."

"And we weren't listening to the players of the original game who liked what we had done."


Those designer friends aren't exactly smart, are they.

 

[swaaye]

Yeah the writing of DX1 is scifi channel special bad. But there are other things I find lacking. Some of the level design is really bad too. It often feels amateurish to me. You really have to dig the cheese and the atmosphere to love that game. It also helps to ponder the company that made it - Romero's dot com insanity doing whatever the hell they wanted.

DXHR's been criticized to death already. Where you been? I never want to hack a computer again. And we have another game with a shit ending (shocker huh?).

 

[green.pixel]

Yes, I'd take the first game's button-presses over crappy mini-games any day of the week. The skill system is unbalanced in favor of hacking. The multitool, lockpocking and hacking skills of the original game are streamlined into one. Also the stealth playstyle is much more rewarded than any other one.

The game also features the unfortunate modern instant gratification design trend of rewarding the player for every little thing he does by giving you 1000 XP for persuading an NPC.

 

[swaaye]

I too wish that achievements would go away. I don't entirely understand why they have spread to every genre. I think part of the blame definitely falls to marketing/advertising strategies. For example, Steam describes a game's achievements on the store page as if it's a really important selling point.

Maybe if we could just turn them off? The power of choice is also underestimated with many game studios. The DXHR devs put in some nice gameplay config options though.

 

[green.pixel]

For those who are interested, here are the two informative sites about the DE universe:
http://nuwen.net/dx.html
http://www.nanoaugur.net/dx/bible/

 

[Davros]

And for those of you thinking of replaying Deus-Ex
dont forget that the Gaming Gods wish to remind you of the following :

dx10 renderer
http://kentie.net/article/d3d10drv/

High Definition Texture Package
http://www.offtopicproductions.com/hdtp/

New Vision
http://www.moddb.com/mods/deus-ex-new-vision

Ultra High Quality Mod (scroll Down)
http://www.helderpinto.com/blog/

 

[green.pixel]

I'll add this:
http://kentie.net/article/dxguide/page1.htm
http://www.moddb.com/mods/deus-ex-enhanced/
http://www.moddb.com/mods/shifter1


Btw, I don't like the look HDTP gives to the game.

 

[green.pixel]

Don't forget to try Deus Ex Unreal Revolution mod.