86 replies to this topic

[dammitmattt]

I was already hyped for this game but after watching the GameTrailers.com video preview, I'm even more excited. It's reminding me A LOT of a cross between the first game and Alpha Protocol, which was a great idea and sometime great game marred by horrendous execution. I love the setting, the atmosphere, the huge variety in ways to approach a mission (I almost always prefer to sneak, hack, and talk my way through levels in these types of games), and all of the RPG elements. Plus the hacking mini-game actually looks really cool, unlike pretty much every other hacking mini-game out there. The only things that concern me from this video are the poor third person animations and relatively limp-looking shooting mechanics, but I don't play games like this for the animation or the shooting mechanics so hopefully they won't be too much of a hindrance.

What does everyone think? Mik, Knight - as fellow AP appreciators, what do you think? Do you get the same vibe that I do?

[gamer812]

You're pretty much spot on. I love it when games give the option to do what I want to complete a mission.

The only thing that irks me is the cut to black when you do a stealth kill or knock unconscious action. It's like oh no we didn't render Adam so we have to cut to black in order to render his model in half a second. It's weird since the third person view flows nicely back to first person afterwards.

[mik]

I actually haven't been following it very closely at all. So I'm prepared to be surprised--pleasantly or otherwise.

[KnightAttack]

I was already hyped for this game but after watching the GameTrailers.com video preview, I'm even more excited. It's reminding me A LOT of a cross between the first game and Alpha Protocol, which was a great idea and sometime great game marred by horrendous execution. I love the setting, the atmosphere, the huge variety in ways to approach a mission (I almost always prefer to sneak, hack, and talk my way through levels in these types of games), and all of the RPG elements. Plus the hacking mini-game actually looks really cool, unlike pretty much every other hacking mini-game out there. The only things that concern me from this video are the poor third person animations and relatively limp-looking shooting mechanics, but I don't play games like this for the animation or the shooting mechanics so hopefully they won't be too much of a hindrance.

What does everyone think? Mik, Knight - as fellow AP appreciators, what do you think? Do you get the same vibe that I do?

I actually haven't been following it very closely at all. So I'm prepared to be surprised--pleasantly or otherwise.

Although I don't think anything can make me devalue how awesome Alpha Protocol was, your comparison has made me slightly more interested in the game again. That being said, since I'm interested, I refuse to watch darn near any previews for the game, much like Mik. I'll take your word for it and we'll be looking at it closer as it comes to a release.

Edited by KnightAttack, 19 July 2011 - 10:03 PM.

[dammitmattt]

1up Deus Ex: Human Revolution Review

I posted this link mainly for the tagline: "Deus Ex: Human Revolution is The Best Stealth Action Game Since Metal Gear Solid"

Reviews are up everywhere. The game looks utterly fantastic.

[Ginormousj]

Damnit, like I need another game on the "to buy" list. Sounds like Human Revolution is pretty wonderful though. Hoping to get to it if/when I finish the original via Steam. (Any idea as to how long that might take, btw?)

[mik]

Have you started it yet?

I did so last week and, well, there's no way I'm going to finish that. It's far too painful. I'd suggest starting fresh on HR.

[Ginormousj]

I'm still in the introductory section. Painful how? Too archaic or too brutally hard or what?

[mik]

Both.

"Press [ to use the scope on your rifle."

Uhhhh, how about no?

[dammitmattt]

Embarrassing fact - I never beat the first level in the first Deus Ex, but I finished Invisible War (and enjoyed it somewhat).

[MojoBox]

Both.

"Press [ to use the scope on your rifle."

Uhhhh, how about no?

A: Do not under any circumstances use the default key bindings, they are steeped in early 90's PC keybinding setup for some reason despite Deus Ex coming out in 2000. (Key binds for look left/right/up/down, really?)

B: Use Shifter

[Maximus]

I finished the original a little while ago on the PS2, it wasn't great, but it was playable. I've been tempted to play through Invisible War before HR, but have heard it's not worth the trouble. Matt's comment's aren't exactly persuading me play it. IS there any other thoughts or opinions? I have access to an XBOX copy of it, and likely won't receive my pre-order of HR until the end of the week.

[MojoBox]

DX:IW is really really hard to play now, worse than the original actually. It's clunky, it's way scaled back in scope from the original game (there are no skills to upgrade, your inventory is tiny, and the world itself is pathetically small, like really really tiny), and it ultimately just doesn't feel anything like the original. Oh and did I mention it has those really terrible first generation rag doll physics? You know, where you shoot someone and they're suddenly rag dolling body just goes tumbling across the world?

On another note, did 1up even do a cursory copy edit of that DX:HR review? Holy crap it needs cleaned up something fierce.

Edited by MojoBox, 22 August 2011 - 03:15 PM.

[SickBoy]

The buzz on this game puts it on my to-buy list. Much of my gaming time and budget through the end of the year is spoken for, so this will join a list populated by games like Mortal Kombat and other games that I'll be getting into when they're a little cheaper... although this will probably top that list. Have some big games I need to get through (Alpha Protocol, Fallout: NV) before starting on this one.

[DistantStorm]

Soon as I'm off duty tomorrow, I'm all over this; been looking forward to this one all year. Here's hoping that works out better than it did for L.A. Noire.

The summer drought effectively is over after tomorrow though; from here through year's end; things are gonna get very busy.

[KnightAttack]

Embarrassing fact - I never beat the first level in the first Deus Ex, but I finished Invisible War (and enjoyed it somewhat).

More embarrassing fact - I've never played the Deus Ex series.....period.

It's not that I can't, I just have nothing wanting me to play the series now. I know that sounds kinda weird, but it's true. I don't mind going back and playing some old games, but I've never really got to the point where I want to go and play Deus Ex....I guess the hype probably would just kill it for me now.

That being said, The reviews for this game look amazing, so I'll wait for a price drop now. It's now stacked with Portal 2, LA Noire, and Duke Forever (which are all now actually $40 in most places around here) for me. I don't really intend to pick up a game (although I may finally grab Catherine this week), but NHL or Resistance 3.

[Architecture]

So I played this for 3 or 4 hours last night, and I'm smitten. Barring any major dips in quality, I foresee this being my favorite game of the year.

The music is so...goddamned...amazing.

[gamer812]

The music is so...goddamned...amazing.

It's a shame the soundtrack from the Augmented Edition is only 12 tracks. It doesn't even have the one track playing inside Sarif Industries. I want my 2-4 disc soundtrack .

[Architecture]

So I think I played this for another 3 or 4 hours without killing anyone at all last night (excepting my bitch of a landlord, who's lying to me about the mirror replacement for my bathroom). Yes, it's imperfect, but the feel of the game just floors me. It's definitely one of the better-written games in recent memory. The only other games from this year I'd put next to it in terms of writing would be Portal 2 and Dead Space 2.

[dammitmattt]

I'm loving the game so far. I'm currently going for a no kills / no alarms playthrough and it might eventually drive me crazy, but it's been doable so far. I love the atmosphere, music (reminds me of the first Mass Effect), interesting story tidbits that are in the world, etc. Inventory management is a bit of a pain and the loading times are pretty horrendous, but otherwise, I'm smitten.

[MojoBox]

God damn I really want this game, but I'm strapped for cash for the next couple weeks. Maybe time to give in to the evil Gamestop and trade in some junk I don't play anymore.

[gamer812]

I just took down a cop outside of the police station armory cage and stashed him in the vents. This game is sweet.

[JohngPR]

I recently played Deus Ex 1 in preperation of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and I really dug it. In fact if you are really bored and want to read what I thought about it, here is my review. The game didn't age as well as I would have liked from a gameplay perspective, but it was still a great overall experience that I'm glad I had going into Human Revolution.

I hate to hype it too much, but DXHR is so good. The stealth is very MGS-like, only better because you have a lot more choices (multiple stealth paths) and the shooting is better as well. The switch to 3rd person when you use the cover system works great too. You can tell that Metal Gear Solid was a heavy influence on the game...to the point that the name of the achievement for beating the game without ever being spotted is "The Foxiest of Hounds" [/nerdgasm]

The graphics are good but not super impressive by themselves. I run the game with max settings at 40fps with my HD 5770. Also, the game uses DX11, which is a nice touch.

Textures and graphics overall aren't crazy detailed or anything but the art direction is phenomenal so that goes a long way. I really love the cyberpunk-crime noir setting a lot....more games should tap into that style, I really like it. I also feel I should point out that the music is excellent.

So far, I'm really enjoying my time with the game.

[mik]

A friend bought this on the PC and gave me his OnLive code, so I'm playing it that way, which is interesting. From what I've heard, the combat isn't incredibly strong--and I have to say the OnLive experience clearly exacerbates that. On the plus side, that's encouraging me to be sneaky and non-lethal, which I'm finding to be more fun anyway.

And I'm now getting some of the Alpha Protocol vibe, matt. That's a good thing (for me). Although, I think AP's quasi-real-world setting will prove to resonate with me much more than the futuristic setting of DE.

[dammitmattt]

It's kinda like Alpha Protocol with less dialogue/story choices but vastly superior mechanics and more gameplay choices at any given time. I'm really, really loving it so far, even though I'm crawling along at a glacial pace because I refuse to kill anyone or set off any alarms.

[JohngPR]

Finished "Shanghai Justice" a bit ago. The side quests are as good as the main quests...awesome!


It does the thing that Fallout 3 does where the side quests have little nuggets of story that are good enough to keep you interested in completing them. I'm 25 hours in right now and I think I still have a bit to go with Heng Shua.

Edited by JohngPR, 27 August 2011 - 05:04 PM.

[Architecture]

Used my spring legs to vault over a locked gate and it was fuckin' awesome.

[DistantStorm]

Do the invading mercs at the very beginning of the game count against the no kill achievement? I'm still pretty early on, and I'd like to know before I go further if I'm wasting my time.

Only about five hours in, but so good.

[dammitmattt]

Do the invading mercs at the very beginning of the game count against the no kill achievement? I'm still pretty early on, and I'd like to know before I go further if I'm wasting my time.

Only about five hours in, but so good.

Yes. You can just sneak by them. You're only 1/6 or so through the game so if you really want it, just restart.

--------

I just finished it up this afternoon with no kills/no alarms. I wish that I had run through it on hard because difficulty doesn't really matter if you're avoiding everyone or sneaking up on them. It would only impact the four lame boss fights, but you can cheese through those with power weapons or explosives. Anyway, I needed to run through it again anyway to get the rest of the skill books and clean up a few achievements that I missed. It's so good that all I want to do now is restart it and run through it again. It's been a long time since I've felt this compelled to plow through a game in very long sessions like I did with Deus Ex. I just couldn't put it down. I was up until 4 am the last two nights and then just had to finish it up this afternoon. I normally don't get this much play time on a weekend but my poor fiancee was sick all weekend so I had a ton of time to play. I think in total I put about 30 hours into the game this week, but my game time was extended because I restarted saves A LOT to keep my no alarms/kills as easy as possible and to get a few of the achievements. The long loading times were getting to me in the first half but once I had more points to put into invisibility and energy, it got MUCH easier to sneak through areas. I can imagine that this is a lot less of an issue on the PC.

I've got a lot of thoughts about the game that I want to share, but I'll have to get to them later. However, to sum it up, this is easily my Game of the Year so far (if only because Skyrim isn't out yet) and it's one of my favorite games of this generation. They don't make enough games like this anymore and I hope it's a financial success for Eidos so they can continue the series on.

If you're on the fence and want a reason to jump in, get it if you liked any of these games/series, because they are all influences - Deus Ex, Metal Gear Solid, Splinter Cell, Chronicles of Riddick, The Darkness, and Alpha Protocol.

[gamer812]

Just finished the game. It's definitely in my top 3 for this year. The only problems I had with the game were the boss fights and the horribly compressed "in-game" cutscenes.

[mik]

Deus Ex
Metal Gear Solid
Splinter Cell
Chronicles of Riddick
The Darkness
Alpha Protocol

hate
love
meh
hate
love
love

So far, Human Revolution is kind of a meh. I'm struggling with it, for sure.

[dammitmattt]

hate
love
meh
hate
love
love

So far, Human Revolution is kind of a meh. I'm struggling with it, for sure.

I'm surprised that you hated Riddick and loved The Darkness since they are so similar in so many ways. Was it just the themes/environments/combat for you?

Also, what are you not liking about HR? What specifically are you struggling with? Like Alpha Protocol before it, I feel like your enjoyment can vary greatly depending upon how you approach the game and spec your character out. It's still enjoyable enough if you play it as a straight-up shooter, but it fucking SHINES as stealth/hacking game, above and beyond Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell for me.

[mik]

I think I generally don't like stealth games. Ducking behind a box for two minutes to memorize the patterns of the patrolling guards is the antithesis of fun for me. And the whole concept of needing energy (and expending energy) to perform stealth takedowns seems like a needless concession to make the game artificially more difficult.

The thing I'm liking the least, though, seems to be the thing that people like most: I find the world to be both uninteresting and completely unconvincing. Nothing in it feels--to borrow a crummy buzzword--immersive to me at all.

I'm also finding the main character to be one of the most unappealing protagonists I've controlled in a long time. The aspects of his character that don't outright suck are just pale imitations of other, better game characters.


My love of The Darkness is largely due to the story and characters, though I also loved the act of controlling the Darkness powers. Riddick just bored me.

Edited by mik, 29 August 2011 - 09:56 AM.

[I AM JOHN!]

I basically spent most of the hurricane watching my friend play this on his laptop while I played TF2 on mine. Ridiculous crash issues aside (of which the PC version seems to have its share), I very much want to play this now. All of the characters in those first couple hours seemed largely unlikable, though.

Also: I, too, loved the Darkness and could not get into Riddick at all.

Edited by I AM JOHN!, 29 August 2011 - 02:24 PM.

[dammitmattt]

I'm enjoying my second playthrough even more than my first one so far! Even though I explored the world fairly extensively the first time through, I'm finding all kinds of small things and alternate paths that I never saw before. Knowing what's possible, what's ahead for me, and what I need to save and what I can discard is making the experience all the more enjoyable (and makes the inventory management less stressful). It's also nice knowing that I'll have chances to return to a lot of the locked doors that I can't hack at the beginning so I don't stress out too much about them or waste my auto-unlocking devices. And, since I'm killing guys this time around, it's nice to mess around with the various weapons, but nothing beats the takedowns/stun gun/tranq combo, especially since you get more experience for going this route.

I can't recommend this game highly enough.

And mik, I don't really like stealth games that much either, but I find that this is much more of an active stealth game than most, especially when you can stay cloaked for longer periods of time, so you're not forced into sitting there for more than a few seconds to memorize patterns. It's so much more about finding alternate routes or using cloak to move from point-to-point. Again, JUST like how I played Alpha Protocol.

I love the world for its density (although I wish it felt bigger and more open) and I don't have any issue with Jensen. He's nothing special, but I don't see what exactly there is to dislike about him because he's a bit of an empty shell.

Still easily my GOTY so far and definitely in my top ten or so for this generation.

[gamer812]

especially when you can stay cloaked for longer periods of time, so you're not forced into sitting there for more than a few seconds to memorize patterns. It's so much more about finding alternate routes or using cloak to move from point-to-point.

That's true. There is always a vent somewhere in the area, ha.

I wish I could stay cloaked longer. 7 seconds per cell isn't enough. As a tip, I say only upgrade up to three cells (or hell just a second one) and that is it. Since the game only recharges one cell, you only need one cell to go cloak and another to do a takedown for most instances. Recharge and repeat.

Forgot to mention that I did get the Pacifist achievement. I thought I had accidentally killed someone with a tranq since he had the death symbol by his name. But it seems like it was only a glitch.

[MojoBox]

Picked this up yesterday, fucking LOVE it! This is everything DX:IW hoped to be. So in love with it right now. Got to Heng Shua today, I am kinda sad to think I don't have another amazing hub waiting for me, but this one is huuuuge.

[dammitmattt]

This is a long, dense game but it's not really a BIG game. I definitely could have used another hub or two. Hopefully they get to make a sequel.

[MojoBox]

By the way, I think the music for this game is fucking amazing. It's like if Hans Zimmer were commissioned to remake the original Deus Ex soundtrack. I need this OST.

[famousmortimer]

I do not like this game. I don't hate it... but i definitely don't like it.