Deus Ex: Human Revolution

[2SHY]

Originally Posted by power

You are making me want to do another playthrough, damn I loved this game (sans bosses).

Same. Do love this game. Lots of replay value. Didn't get my stealth achievement, but whatever.

[Fortigurn]

Ok 25 hours in, and this is really good. Loving Hengsha, so much more potential than Detroit, and the map is far more complex and satisfying. Multiple paths, lots of dead ends, and plenty of opportunities for stealth.

Edit: Almost at the end of Montreal, and 33 hours in so far. Still have four sections of the game to go, and will very likely end up getting well over 50 hours out of this game on the first playthrough.

[Fortigurn]

I just finished 'The Missing Link' DLC; 10 hours of gameplay, and I managed to complete it without killing anyone, including the boss. Pretty impressive for DLC; there are AAA titles which don't offer that length of gameplay (I'm looking at you, Crysis franchise).

[Osiris]

Originally Posted by Fortigurn

I just finished 'The Missing Link' DLC; 10 hours of gameplay, and I managed to complete it without killing anyone, including the boss. Pretty impressive for DLC; there are AAA titles which don't offer that length of gameplay (I'm looking at you, Crysis franchise).

Oh, I should really get back into this... left with about 2 hours in. Thanks for the reminder!

[Scroosh]

The story of this game is coming true.

A guy named Palmer Luckey is building the first true virtual reality headset and when you listen to him talk he looks like one of those guys who will end up ruling the world with his augmentations then suddenly turn evil and destroy everyone.

[Foliage]

Originally Posted by Fortigurn

I just finished 'The Missing Link' DLC; 10 hours of gameplay, and I managed to complete it without killing anyone, including the boss. Pretty impressive for DLC; there are AAA titles which don't offer that length of gameplay (I'm looking at you, Crysis franchise).

It is a fantastic game isn't it, the DLC and DE:HR were both well worth the purchase price, even if they made me pay $100 I would say it was worth the value. I would say it is on par with the original in terms of quality.

How did you not kill the final boss? I played it a long time ago and can't get my head around how you would do it without killing anyone in that scene. Lots of cloaking I imagine?

[Fortigurn]

Originally Posted by Foliage

It is a fantastic game isn't it, the DLC and DE:HR were both well worth the purchase price, even if they made me pay $100 I would say it was worth the value. I would say it is on par with the original in terms of quality.

I paid US$23.76 for the game and the DLC together, a pretty incredible price for Triple-A game and its DLC. I've spent 44 hours on the main game, and I've only just started the Singapore mission, so I still have that and Panchea to go. Mind you, it takes a long time to get anything done since I'm playing for at the highest difficulty level, aiming for the Pacifist achievement (not killing any human beings except for unavoidable boss kills), and aiming for as many 'Ghost' and 'Smooth Operator' bonuses as possible (which is not easy). So that's 54 game hours already on a Triple-A title for which I paid US$23.76 including DLC. Good times, great value.

How did you not kill the final boss? I played it a long time ago and can't get my head around how you would do it without killing anyone in that scene. Lots of cloaking I imagine?

By accident! This was the final boss of 'The Missing Link' of course, not DX:HR (I don't know how that's going to play out). Here's how I did it.

Spoiler below, highlight to read:
After some false starts (I kept getting caught between the robot and the snipers, and mowed down quickly), I changed strategy. Since I didn't have any EMP grenades left, as soon as the scene started I ran straight at the box-bot and unleashed the Tornado (which I had upgraded to maximum). As soon as it was over I unleashed it again. By this time the robot's guns were firing directly through me, but the Typhoon sequence preserved me. The second burst of Typhoon destroyed the robot, and I ran for cover.

I then spent a very long time disabling all of the enemies on the ground, the snipers overhead, and switched off the cameras and turret. This took a whole lot of patient sneaking and stealth take downs, since I didn't have any ammunition left for the dart gun, I was all out of gas grenades, and I only had half a dozen darts left for the stun gun. I used one concussion grenade to buy me some time so I could tackle a soldier in a particularly difficult spot.

After that I made my way up the ladder to the control room where Burke was. I stunned the guy who was waiting there, then hacked the lock to the door of the control room. All I was about to throw in a concussion grenade when a figure stepped out of the door and I hit 'Q' instinctively. One punch laid him out on the floor, and I realized I had just knocked out Burke.

After all that boasting and bragging, I had smacked him out with a single punch. Bit of an anti-climax given I was waiting to unleash the Typhoon to soften him up then gun him down with his own revolver to finish him off.

That just left the heavy on the top of the control room, and once I had Quinn on the radio congratulating me and asking if Burke was dead.

[FOXH0UND]

It's available on steam for $14.99 with all the DLC. Highly recommend!

[Fortigurn]

Finally completed the main game; 51 hours of AAA gameplay. Add the 10 hours I spent on the DLC, and that's 61 hours of solid AAA gaming for US$23.76. Outstanding value.

The word which immediately comes to mind when considering my experience with this game is 'polished'. There was a professionalism, a smoothness, a general 'finish' to the game which was immensely satisfying. Everything just worked the way it was supposed to, and the highly detailed environments were deeply immersive. If I had one suggestion for improvement it would be more ambient noise. I play games with the music turned off, and ambient noise is an important part of the experience for me (FC2 is an excellent example of ambient noise done well).

Glitches were almost completely non-existent. There was the occasional clipping, and some of the enemies suffered rag doll spasms after being knocked unconscious, but nothing game breaking. This curiosity was the most serious error I found during the entire playthrough; a headless body embedded in the floor.



It was still possible to have a conversation with this civilian, but the rest of the room was empty of the other characters who were supposed to be there (one of whom I had to speak with in order to advance the plot), so I left and returned a while later, to find the game had sorted itself out.

Combat mechanics were complex and well executed, though lacking something of the visceral feel of FC2 (which set the bar high in my view), and the gritty realism of Cryostasis (which was unrelentingly brutal). Naturally I enjoyed the option of playing through the game without having to kill anyone, though a game glitch did rob me of the Pacifist achievement (frustrating after 51 hours of careful gameplay).

The conclusion was an anti-climax, to say the least. I entered the final stage massively over-powered for the token resistance which I met, and was left with a feeling of 'Is that it?' bewilderment. First I was like then I was like and finally I was like though I would still recommend the game highly to anyone.

[kreegor]

I feel the same way. Overall the game was fantastic but I found the ending to be very anti climatic. The after game cutscenes were good it was just Spoiler below, highlight to read:
whole press a button to choose your ending
that killed it for me.

I'd still recommend it though.

[Fortigurn]

Originally Posted by kreegor

I feel the same way. Overall the game was fantastic but I found the ending to be very anti climatic. The after game cutscenes were good it was just...

Yes, after all that great gameplay, and such a complex plot, to have it all suddenly reduced to CYOE was a bit of a let down. Additionally, although there were several points during the game at which your choices had a genuine effect on the plot and on later narrative developments, there weren't many of them and only one had a deep impact (I made a disastrous plot shaping decision early on which I thought nothing of at the time, but which made one boss battle incredibly hard much later).

Like you, I would still recommend it, and will very likely play it again in six months' time.

[Foliage]

pretty much agree 100% with fortigurn

whilst the ending was a bit average it was less than 1% of the total gameplay so basically a non issue for me.

[dogthinker]

Originally Posted by Fortigurn

Combat mechanics were complex and well executed, though lacking something of the visceral feel of FC2 (which set the bar high in my view), and the gritty realism of Cryostasis (which was unrelentingly brutal). Naturally I enjoyed the option of playing through the game without having to kill anyone, though a game glitch did rob me of the Pacifist achievement (frustrating after 51 hours of careful gameplay).

The conclusion was an anti-climax, to say the least. I entered the final stage massively over-powered for the token resistance which I met, and was left with a feeling of 'Is that it?' bewilderment. First I was like then I was like and finally I was like though I would still recommend the game highly to anyone.

One of the biggest problems with this game, imo, is that you get substantially more xp for non-lethal takedowns. This means that if you play a 'violent pacifist' you get progressively more overpowered as the game goes on, as the game has to still be balanced for gunplay characters.

It sounds like nitpicking, which I suppose it is - this is a great game - but the XP system was a really bad fit for the game. The moral choice between lethal/non-lethal is somewhat masked, when you get explicitly and continually rewarded for choosing to go non-lethal. Worse, it's easier too - lethal take downs are noisy, so it's almost never a correct choice from a gameplay perspective to use them :/

Originally Posted by kreegor

I feel the same way. Overall the game was fantastic but I found the ending to be very anti climatic. The after game cutscenes were good it was just Spoiler below, highlight to read:
whole press a button to choose your ending
that killed it for me.

I'd still recommend it though.

It's a bit of a shame your past actions didn't influence the ending directly. Besides that though, I quite liked the ending. It was tough choice to make, after everything you'd experienced building up to it.

[kreegor]

Originally Posted by Fortigurn

(I made a disastrous plot shaping decision early on which I thought nothing of at the time, but which made one boss battle incredibly hard much later).

Spoiler below, highlight to read:
Was the the decision to get your chip 'upgraded'? By that time I didn't trust anyone in the game (even my boss was dubious) so I didn't get it done and thought it better the suffer to occasional spasm.


I'm glad I made that decision because I found out later on what it was going to do and just laughed in the ladies face

[Linkin]

The whole gameplay and cutscene stuttering thing killed the experience for me... i had torrent it before and enjoyed it, bought it on steam. Oh look everything stutters, no patch in months...

Great game though.