DX:HR Collective REVIEWS/OPINIONS Thread-Industry & Personal WARNING:Spoilers inside!

[Wunderbar_007]

Originally Posted by Sotsiak91

You applied a mod so you need more praxis to get augs, but you were forced to takedown and hack so you get xp to buy more augs. :| Decide if you want many augs or not.

I didn't want all the augs by the end. I wanted to be forced to make decisions and choices like in many good RPGs. I read from many that this aspect was neglected in this game. So I used the mod for that specific reason. Only during playing the game however did I realize non lethal take downs give you the most XP for some reason. This is rediculous in a game supposedly about choice. If I decided to go lethal or use passwords that I found, I would be screwing myself out of otherwise free XP. This doesn't make any sense.

[draiocht]

I'd have to agree with Wunderbar. The game designers had said they're rewarding the XP for overcoming difficulty, but may not have realized that it also defines a "correct" path of play.

Which gets weird when Adam goes to get his chip replaced. Proper investigation would reveal that to be the wrong move (made "right" by the XP reward). And Adam exploring Hengsha, barging into the stockrooms of street stores... who does that?! Adam Jensen, that's who!

[simonm]

I just finished the game and here’s my very long-winded review. I’ve had it since release day (I got the limited edition too!) but I don’t tend to spend five hours a night playing PC games (I wish!). It always amazes me when people say they’ve finished a game literally days after it’s been released...do these people have no lives? Moving on.

I am one of the major fans of the original and still think it’s the best game I’ve ever played. Of course, any sequel (or prequel in this case) is going to suffer from being compared to such an icon and in no way did I expect Deus Ex Human Revolution to outdo the original. Sadly, although the game isn’t bad, I can’t say it’s that great or even very good. Very average has been my general disposition towards Human Revolution. It’s playable but not exciting. The “Give me a challenge” difficulty level wasn’t challenging in the slightest. Having completed the game on that level and been disappointed by the story I’m not feeling very enthusiastic about a replay right now, even if the hardest setting is more challenging.

I was left deflated and completely uninspired by the ending and with many parts of the story. The narrative was quite singular and very repetitive. At no point was the central conspiracy ever in doubt. I have to admit I wasn’t expecting Eliza to be a computer but in hindsight it wasn’t that surprising or a major point in the overall plot. The game reused the same levels a bit too much. This was OK to a point, but when returning to a location the player shouldn’t be trapped in that environment for a long time. This is one of the only minor criticisms of the original also, but it felt much worse in DX:HR. I got bored with Hengsha and Detroit the second and third time around. There wasn’t much to some of the locations (such as Singapore and Montreal) so the game really had only two main sites. I was expecting more and didn’t think it was the globetrotting adventure we were promised or that existed in the original Deus Ex. I’m a very slow player and even I finished the game in about 120 hours. I reckon I could have finished it easily in half or a third of that time if I didn’t try to be so thorough. I’m quite sure gameplay in the original (which was almost too big) was 2 to 3 times that at least.

Even before I’d started playing, elements of the year and story and its place in the Deus Ex time frame didn’t make sense. Believability was a big issue that I couldn’t resolve and which significantly reduced my ability to be absorbed by the game. The year of 2027 was completely unrealistic for much of the set design and cityscapes (particularly the multi-level Hengsha and massive Hyron project). Flying cars didn’t exist in the original Deus Ex to my knowledge (being unlikely for centuries if at all) and widespread adoption of consumerist augmentation is not believable within a 15 year time frame. If making a prequel set in 2027 the story and graphical design completely missed the mark. The game could have been set in 2327 and called a sequel and it would’ve been much more believable.

The game failed to capture and draw me in, hence taking so long to finish. There were times when I was quite bored and I wasn’t exactly rushing home to play it. On a couple of occasions I felt a bit of a moment but only one or two. These were quite common in the original Deus Ex. For some positives, the graphics weren’t too bad. I’m not one to choose graphics over gameplay so they did well enough in this regard with the exception of most of the facial expressions. These were very plastic and boxy by today’s standards, as if they’d all been on far too much Botox. I also liked some of the boss fights as these were among the only challenging bits in the game. Some of the cut scenes were quite cool, though higher resolution rendering would’ve been nice since most gamers have 1080p-capable resolution displays by now and you could really tell the video quality wasn’t very good on a large screen. The landing system and typhoon animations were very good as was the X-ray vision.

The game seemed to wind up very quickly, just when I thought things might be getting interesting. There was no recap with Megan in Detroit. Considering saving her was one of the main plot lines I thought this was a pretty major oversight. We also never got to see Malik again after going to so much trouble to save her arse. As for the three endings, these consisted of a choice of three contrived and boring video sequences. There were no major plot branches in the game at all. It was just a series of main and side missions. My desire for some extra-terrestrial themes went unrequited also, despite a couple of references to Area 51.

I played the game on Normal difficulty but this was very easy. As feared in pre-release discussions, the take-downs were a big factor in this because they made it too easy to beat your opponents at close range and removed that level of fine control and finesse required in the original Deus Ex. They were also silent (at least the incapacitate take down) so you could do it right next to an enemy without alerting them if they happen to be facing the other way (or side on sometimes), even when the victim lets out an audible yell or gasp...hardly realistic. The cones of vision weren’t that realistic either. In reality people can detect movement within about a 180 degree circle of vision at close range. Add to that the ability to see around corners and plot your moves while remaining undetected or jump between cover undetected even when an enemy is facing you and all up it made the game so easy I felt like I was cheating!

I didn’t even have to spend most of my praxis points. I had about 28 available by the final battle and although I did spend them at that point just to pimp out the character I reckon I didn’t have to. I tried starting the game again on the “Give me Deus Ex” difficulty setting but it felt no more difficult. If you can avoid being seen and take down opponents silently there’s just no challenge.

Eidos could have thrown in the Missing Link bonus level and the game still would’ve been too short, but instead we have to pay another $15 for the extra content. As for the limited edition they cheapened out there too. The bonus soundtrack was only an MP3 disc with less than half the number of tracks of the full soundtrack (only 12 tracks and 29 minutes of music compared to the 25-track full version). Eidos should have been honest and called it a soundtrack sampler! I love the box and Adam figurine and the limited edition version could have been really great if they’d included the proper audio CD, but again they want us to pay more.

The above considered, I am fairly disappointed by the game and with Eidos, though I had very high expectations and some preconceptions of what I wanted the game to be (not a prequel for starters). There are positives with the game, as I’ve mentioned, and I know Eidos Montréal isn’t the biggest game studio but Deus Ex Human Revolution isn’t the blockbuster I hoped for or that it was made out to be. In the end I think the drive for profitability in an ever increasingly competitive games market stifled development and cut the story short. The need to support two very different platforms (PC and consoles) seems to have influenced the game controls and play style in a negative manner compared to the original. I feel ripped off and certainly let down, but such is the risk in preordering games. I may decide to play through again on the hardest setting at some point, though I'm in no particular rush to do so.

[Odyseeos]

Your review has me thinking. Must be something hitting me.

I liked Malik. I liked the cop posing as a prostitute. In both those encounters, I can imagine a relationship generating. Meanwhile, I'm not sure what the attraction between Jensen and Megan is. What registers is Megan's desire to be close to her experiment. A suspicion against her that one is left with at the end is weighted with the only evidence available, other than fruitless claims of "I'm sorry". For Jensen? Is it upper mobility? The first encounter (and the last) seems to be public, one done in front of strangers. Neither character displays peculiar signs of warmth, so that you can say, "Oh! I see." Jensen has a saving attribute of doing things for others. It's easy to understand why Malik or the other cop displays warmth. Megan is smart; uh, so what?

I haven't played 'Deus Ex' or 'Skyrim' in awhile. I'm more drawn to return to 'Skyrim' than I am to 'Deus Ex'. The major reason is that I haven't finished 'Skyrim'; and 'Skyrim' has longterm goals that can be suspenseful. Simply leveling up gets a little mechanistic after awhile, but it's still there. More importantly to me, having played 'Oblivion', is finding the Octopus. The needle in the haystack. Now, the ending of the added Mission in 'Deus Ex' has left me with suspense that does draw me strongly, but there's nothing I can do about it. Ne'e'theless, the plot do'th thicken. Meanwhile, I'm not terribly drawn to most of the characters in 'Skyrim'. I like to visit the absent-minded professor at the mage's college. I like the hard-working smith in Whiterun; I never get tired of her repeated remarks, her nightwalk, and I loved brawling with her; but she's married. I also really like the clerk at Odds'n'Ends; there's something kind about her. She's married too. I recommend your review. It's thoughtful.

[Charles_Phipps]

http://unitedfederationofcharles.blo...on-review.html

Here's my review of the game.

[Charles_Phipps]

Originally Posted by Odyseeos

Your review has me thinking. Must be something hitting me.

I liked Malik. I liked the cop posing as a prostitute. In both those encounters, I can imagine a relationship generating. Meanwhile, I'm not sure what the attraction between Jensen and Megan is. What registers is Megan's desire to be close to her experiment. A suspicion against her that one is left with at the end is weighted with the only evidence available, other than fruitless claims of "I'm sorry". For Jensen? Is it upper mobility? The first encounter (and the last) seems to be public, one done in front of strangers. Neither character displays peculiar signs of warmth, so that you can say, "Oh! I see." Jensen has a saving attribute of doing things for others. It's easy to understand why Malik or the other cop displays warmth. Megan is smart; uh, so what?

I bought the Megan and Jensen interactions because the two of them are, as you say, people not prone to showing overt signs of warmth. It's probably why their relationship fell apart,

aside from Megan's guilt over harvesting his Super-DNA

, since neither of them can spit out their feelings in the elevator. I think both of them are very "Still Waters Run Deep" types.

The interesting thing is to speculate how they eventually got around to falling in love. He's a SWAT officer and she's a scientist. How did they meet? College? Still, they obviously lived together and have huge history between them. I'd love to read a book about it.

[Charles_Phipps]

Originally Posted by glyph07

Yeah, yeah, I might have been carried away...still, u must admit that there are plenty of scientists committed to their job that, guess what, have a family and most of all are loyal to friends! So, quite frankly, when ur passion for ur work makes u use people, u must have other agendas actually even if not openly expressed. Adam himself when he met her he pointed out that she could actually have ASKED for his help. Do u think that AJ would have refused 1 his hair for Dna sample? Come on! When goals justify means, people are quite shrewd.

The desperation that Megan displays about the whole testing business shows that simultaneously:

1. Megan obviously wasn't in the relationship just for the DNA since she obviously feels guilty about it.
2. Megan obviously felt it was something that would open up a serious can of worms with Adam.

Here's my suggestion:

Megan and Adam start dating. Adam gets fired because he refuses to shoot the 15 year old augmented kid in Mexicotown. Megan decides to ask her boss to take Adam on as the chief of security.David Sarif runs an expansive background check and finds out Adam was created by the Illuminati in a laboratory.

Megan realizes there's something special about his DNA and tests it. She realizes she can use it to complete her work and does so, feeling guilty about it the entire time. She can't bring it up with him because it would open the can of worms of David investigating him and what she's doing - she can't risk him saying no with MILLIONS of lives likely to be improved by it.

So their relationship falls apart. Adam doesn't know WHY!

Which leads us to the present.

Originally Posted by Pinky Powers

The most Megan ever did was steal some samples of Adam's DNA. Not a very good girlfriend, but not especially bad. A fairly benign amoral action, honestly.

Megan needed to be kidnapped before she engaged in anything of any real darkness. And even then the truth was hidden from her and she thought she was doing good for the world.

Yeah, there's millions of lives at stake who can have their drug addiction cured.

Originally Posted by Nerifes

I wanted Adam to save Megan and them to head back to Detroit and it'd be a happy ending. Instead, turns out Megan was friends (maybe more) with Namir and I had 4 possible yet unreasonable decisions to determine the fate of humanity.

I don't think a sexual relationship is implied, especially since Namir's dying words are about his wife. I think it's more likely Stockholm Syndrome has settled in to a certain extent. She's trying to act like everything is alright and cooperate, which Adam reacts negatively too as SHE assumes he's talking about his DNA.

I wish Adam had said, "I know you used my DNA, this is something different."

Originally Posted by the_guy

I wanted to be able to kill Megan, she was a traitor, but she ran off and

became friends with Bob Page

I really hope Adam and Megan can find some form of happiness next game. I liked the pair.

[Odyseeos]

Originally Posted by Charles_Phipps

The desperation... pair.

I enjoyed your insights, both in your review and here.

My sense, at the beginning, going up in the elevator, when Megan says, "We need to talk", is that Jensen was about to get the proverbial 'shaft'. I had no information beyond their interaction. I was aware of sounds of voices. At the end, that internal formation still held for me: Megan's denials are not entirely believable (to me).

My riveted memory of 1984 (which I read in the 6th grade because a friend of mine told me it was a dirty book) is of crumbling chocolate. Whatever commentary's possible for one to put on that, it was the fact that each time Hersey came on my horizon, chocolate tasted differently than it would have otherwiser. Feelings are not disputable, only deniable. I've heard that disputed, but I can't refute the refutation.

[Charles_Phipps]

Originally Posted by Odyseeos

I enjoyed your insights, both in your review and here.

My sense, at the beginning, going up in the elevator, when Megan says, "We need to talk", is that Jensen was about to get the proverbial 'shaft'. I had no information beyond their interaction. I was aware of sounds of voices. At the end, that internal formation still held for me: Megan's denials are not entirely believable (to me).

My thoughts...

It was a nice bit of foreshadowing for me. The first conversation is great to watch after you've played the whole game and you realize Megan is nervous as hell around Adam, practically jumping out of her lab coat whenever he is anywhere near the Patient X business and not-so-subtly trying to bring up, "All my research required the betrayal of someone important to me" business. Initially, I thought it was David but, of course it's you.

The big irony, of course, is that for most gamers I suspect they would have had their Adam not really CARE about the fact Megan was using his DNA to treat millions of people for crippling rejection syndrome. It's by that point they're worried she's gone over to the Illuminati.

The ending also made me mad because I wanted our Adam to sit down and talk with her since it's quite likely she only does so because she thinks Adam thinks she's a Nazi because of her work with Darrow. Something he probably DOESN'T but is justifiably upset over.

Jeez, it's like watching a car wreck crossed with a Greek Tragedy.

BTW, you raise a good point a lot of people develop a close affection for other characters than Megan. We really don't get any real hints of their past relationship aside from the 'coma-sex' dreams that are occurring while Jensen is being turned into Robocop.

That was a little weird.

[lastpawn]

Here's my 2 credits. Some spoilers.

First, some (gaming) profiling. Favorite games: Deus Ex, Planescape: Torment, Fallout 1&2. If you're thinking I enjoy western RPGs, you got it, kinda. I've also enjoyed some JRPGs, Half Life series, Starcraft 1&2, and so on. And I somehow always dislike Bethesda games--I like their worlds for about a dozen hours... and then they bore me.

That said, if you asked me how much I liked Deus Ex: Human Revolution, I'd say it entertained me perfectly so I'd give it a 10/10. Of course, I don't mean to say it was perfect. If you forced me to review games for a living (and I wasn't bought), I'd have to settle on a score between 8.75 and 9.25.

I'll offer a list of "I enjoyed" and a list of "This took away from my enjoyment." Nothing against paragraphs, but I like the aesthetics of lists better and it's my review. I'll finish with some more general comments.

I enjoyed (in no particular order):

• The music. So good it hurts.
  I have a note somewhere, "buy soundtrack," and I will.

• And... Visuals and the Feel. So good, again.
  I'm including here the entire style/environments/sounds/feel of the world. From dirty gutters with meowling cats in Detroit to pristine labs in the "city above."

• Conversations.
  Well done. Very well done. A great balance between ME where sometimes I have no clue what the protagonist will say and having to read the entire line and THEN hear it verbatim. Social battles were great--you actually made me have that "hell yeah!" feeling usually reserved for epic boss fights. Importantly, they felt fair and made sense.

• Many solutions.
  Vents, hacking, conversations, blowing stuff up, sneaking--it all "works." It would have been even better if a limited number of praxis points limited us to some of those, though.

• Many appropriate and interesting NPC reactions.
  If I was sneaky, some guy told me I was a "real ghost." If I saved civilians, a Purity First member thanked me because he didn't want blood on his hands while a member of my corporation regretted a lack of "martyrs." Nice!

• Related to above, detail.
  So much detail. Broken mirror with note "ask for replacement, again" => "No, Mr. Jensen, I don't have your mirror so stop asking" => check email, "Last warning to pick up mirror" => tap on shoulder, punch in face. And that's just one little example. It's obvious a lot of love went into crafting this world.

• Malik. & others, I guess.
  Freaking love Malik.
  Sarif was great. Pritchard was good, the Picus email was great, though I wanted more from him. Thought you did a great job with Adam, too. And special praise to the person(s) who created Adam's apartment. Walking into it for the first time, battle rifles everywhere, Adam's hobby, pictures of Megan and Kubrick, broken mirror, music--hell, what an experience! Unfortunately, some of the other characters, especially "bosses" were seriously sidelined to such an extent I can only guess: deadline and/or budget issues.

• Finally: you treated me, the player, with respect.
  The comedian Dave Chappelle once commented on how his bosses pressured him to treat his audience like exploitable dumb masses. When I look at many modern-era games, I can't help but get a sense that developers are told this same thing. So, thanks.

• Trailers.
  Not directly related to the game, but the trailers, live action, director's cut, and a few others, and nothing short of brilliant. I mean that: brilliant.

This took away from my enjoyment (in order starting with the worst offender):

• Experience distribution. Bear with me--to me it was huge.
  Consider the first mission: getting inside the plant. I go in shooting, I get 250+40=290 points. I non-lethally takedown everyone, and enter through the roof, I get 250+200+100+500=1050 points. And these points are prominently displayed on screen... with no way to turn off experience notifications at that (minor gripe).
  Yes, overall these bonuses are relatively small, and eventually you get too many praxis points (another gripe). But in the beginning, when I REALLY wanted to grab the next praxis point, I sometimes felt like "Well, I guess I better non-lethally takedown everyone, crawl through all the vents, and hack everything, sigh." Bad.
  
  Continuing with experience gripes, why am I strongly incentivized to hack even when I have the code? C'mon! It's anathema to "open" play.

• Animations during conversations.
  Oh boy. During most verbal exchanges, the characters inexplicably become stereotypical crack addicts. That's an exaggeration, but I think no more needs be said about bouncy shoulders and jerky body-movements. Immersion-breaking.

• Lethal versus non-lethal takedowns.
  A non-lethal takedown is silent even if you take out someone's friend one meter away by smacking him around and then THROWING him on the ground. In contrast, a lethal takedown is heard apparently 3 rooms over when the actual animation looks far less noisy then some non-lethal takedowns. Here's the thing: I am willing to suspend my disbelief but only if the world you create is consistent. So either ALL takedowns are relatively noisy (they sure as hell look like they are), or they're ALL relatively quiet.
  
  You could have made it possible to get an augmentation that muffles nearby sound, therefore making takedowns plausibly silent--and frankly this was a wasted opportunity to add more useful/interesting augmentations.
  
  And finally on the note of lethal vs non-lethal, why no stun gun in the opening? I couldn't headcannon Adam the head of security to just sneak around those spec ops and all I had was a rifle... so I just killed them. Would have appreciated a stun gun.
  

• Augmentations were a mixed bag.
  Hacking felt necessary. Icarus was hella fun. Invisibility was fun but borderline OP and made the already-easy non-combat stealth playstyle even easier. As a stealth player, I found virtually no use for any of the so-called stealth augments like enemy cones. Social enhancer I ended up hating: it was distracting, felt cheap during social battles so I didn't use it, and more than once resulted in me getting LESS experience--come on! Finally, like I said earlier, there should have at least been a "make all takedowns silent" augment.
  
  In general, augmentations felt somewhat off. In the beginning I was desperate for more praxis points... then towards the end I had a dozen unspent = bad. Additionally, while I haven't done this, I'm more than confident that I could play on "Give me Deus Ex" without spending a single praxis point, and it still wouldn't be particularly difficult.

• Adam dies falling from a distance I'd probably survive... what the...

• Cutscenes.
  Not all cutscenes. Just the nonsensical cutscenes. Like Lawrence "I walk slowly, loudly, and my nickname is THE BULL" Barrett sneaks up on Adam "The Ghost with cutting-edge stealth augments" Jensen. Riiight.
  
  Also... the opening where you walk around with Megan was good, why not more of that? And why oh why didn't you use the trailer scenes? Adam having the Icarus dream, waking up, and grabbing a drink. Such a powerful scene, not in the game...??? You obviously had the scene, I mean I saw it in the trailer. I bought the game thinking I'd see it, you know, in the game... /extremely puzzled at the blatantly wasted opportunity

Well, that's it. Some brief comments are in order. The dislike list is longer than the like list, but that doesn't matter. A game is more than the sum of its parts, and the whole here is far superior to any issues I have with the parts. You'll note that I didn't mention boss fights. They were meh--didn't hate them, didn't like them. Overall the game is tops in the last half a decade or so, with ME1 being up there as well.

Brief requests for DX4.
Most important: please do not use experience to incentivize particular playstyles--namely stealthy non-lethal hacker who crawls through every vent. The activity ITSELF should be the incentive. I should crawl through a vent because it affords me a superior vantage point for sniping, or allows me to bypass enemies. I should break down a wall because I suspect there might be goodies behind it, not because I want more EXP to hit the next praxis point ASAP. I should sometimes play like a Ghost because being undetected is fun and if I'm undetected the next level will have less enemies. And sometimes I should pull out the shotty and deal lead justice to the bastards who deserve it because that's fun too and maybe I'll find some interesting information and weapons on their dead bodies. No need to give me any further ADDITIONAL incentives in form of experience--that just cheapens it. I definitely shouldn't ever think, "I better hack this computer even though I have the passcode because I really need an additional 575 EXP at this point in the game."

Second: make the experience gap between lethal and non-lethal smaller, make it possible for both to be silent. Emphasize consequences. For example, if you choose to spare some boss, s/he reveals interesting and useful information (like you did with Zeke). If you spare someone else, maybe s/he commits a terrorist attack later in the game, killing dozens of civilians. So maybe sometimes you really should kill, and I'd be totally on board with that, as long as it makes sense. (Being locked in a room till you kill a boss usually doesn't.)

To sum: great game, some frustrations, still a great game. I look forward to whatever your company offers next--I'll be preordering. You have a fan.

[m G h m u o s]

Enjoyed your review, lastpawn

A non-lethal takedown is silent even if you take out someone's friend one meter away by smacking him around and then THROWING him on the ground. In contrast, a lethal takedown is heard apparently 3 rooms over when the actual animation looks far less noisy then some non-lethal takedowns. Here's the thing: I am willing to suspend my disbelief but only if the world you create is consistent. So either ALL takedowns are relatively noisy (they sure as hell look like they are), or they're ALL relatively quiet.

You could have made it possible to get an augmentation that muffles nearby sound, therefore making takedowns plausibly silent--and frankly this was a wasted opportunity to add more useful/interesting augmentations.

Thats a really good idea. There were a few missed augmentation opportunities. All the radar upgrades seemed a little redundant and I think they could have gotten away with just activating the radar whatsoever a part of the aug (so lets say you'd have to buy it, instead of those pointless vision cone things). I think they could have made third person camera into a aug too lol (if it wasn't such an independant game mechanic) like that nano camera thing that flies out your brain in Deus Ex.

Sometimes I kinda wish the infolink is like the radio in MGS and you can freely contact people.

[lastpawn]

Originally Posted by m G h m u o s

Enjoyed your review, lastpawn

Thats a really good idea. There were a few missed augmentation opportunities. All the radar upgrades seemed a little redundant and I think they could have gotten away with just activating the radar whatsoever a part of the aug (so lets say you'd have to buy it, instead of those pointless vision cone things). I think they could have made third person camera into a aug too lol (if it wasn't such an independant game mechanic) like that nano camera thing that flies out your brain in Deus Ex.

Sometimes I kinda wish the infolink is like the radio in MGS and you can freely contact people.

Looks like we're on the same page. I think we both agree that the "factory default" gave you essentially too much. And beyond that, there were some augments I really didn't care for in the least (even MORE tracking reticules?) and augments I really wanted but just weren't there (silent lethal takedowns). Then the hacking capture was so useful it was basically a non-brainer to drop 4 points on it, which also made stealth and fortify less useful thanks to the abundance of hacking software.

[Odyseeos]

Originally Posted by Pinky_Powers

You don't have to like her, but you're currently misrepresenting her character and motivations entirely. Megan may not be a good girlfriend, but she's as far from a "bad guy" as you can get. She's a die-hard scientist and just really wants to make a difference.

Wha't is the question? I remember the room I was in reading Crime and Punishment. I felt my body burn. I didn't know whether to throw it out the window, just in front of me an easy hit, or explore an undiscovered country. Was that fun? I dunno.

[beruthne]

I'm late to the game here, just finished "Missing Link". Can't add much to what's already been said, except:

PLEASE BRING BACK QUINN!!!! He's by FAR the most interesting character in DXHR!! In fact, you can toss out Adam, make the next game with Quinn as the protagonist, and I'd be a happy, happy camper.

[Always717]

Well, seeing as how the life cycle of DX:HR is ending and it appears there will be no new content till the next game, I thought I'd register to voice my opinion on how this chapter of the Deus Ex universe was wrapped up.

I'm pretty much a huge fanboy of the game and can't say enough about how much of an achievement it is, even though there are clearly a few flaws in the core mechanics and the "open-world" gameplay is not as immersive as what other modern games have been able to achieve. In my opinion this game will be remembered for its incredible art direction and the ability to capture the spirit of the original Deus Ex.

That being said, the way this great game wraps up for hardcore fans leaves a lot to be desired. The Missing Link DLC feels rushed, frustratingly shallow and just leaves you feeling like it was a big mistake.

It's not even about the fact that the Missing Link was too short and way overpriced. Sure, it isn't worth $15 and should cost half that, but it's the fact the Missing Link isn't actually a good gaming experience on it's own - it's simply relying on fans heavily invested in the original story to overlook the shallowness of it.

Besides adding no new augmentations, weapons, or gameplay mechanics, the Missing Link just doesn't add anything of value to Jensen's character or the overall story arc of DX:HR as a whole. It's so short you don't actually develop any connection to the characters, all of whom are completely isolated from the original DX:HR universe. Quinn is the only interesting character I felt had any depth, especially when compared to the laughable charicature that is Burke, a prototypical bad guy who falls on neither side of the social and philosophical debates that separate most everyone else in the Deus Ex universe. Burke is simply a soldier dude standing in Jensen's way and might as well have been just another nameless baddie Jensen punches in the face while on the way to the important parts of the game.

Delving a bit deeper into the Hyron project was cool, but in the end you don't learn anything significant that changes your view on the events of the original game. The gameplay is exactly the same and it simply feels like a hastily added, unfinished chapter in the middle of the game. It's a lot similar to Picus, Omega Ranch and Panchea, where the freedom is taken away from you as the narrative drives the story and you don;t really make any choices that matter, you're just along for the ride.

I dunno, it just sucks for this game to go out that way and I wished they would have waited on the DLC and developed something more substantial. At least something that gives you a better connection to the outstanding story of the original game. Can you imagine how cool it would have been to play a short episode as Namir or Zelazny, with different augmentations and a different agenda in the overarching conflict of the DX:HR universe? Namir in particular was such a great character that was criminally under-developed and made shallow by Eidos refusing to do anything interesting with him.

So that's my rant. It's really not the fact that the Missing Link is extremely overpriced. I pre-ordered the PC version before release and later bought the 360 version to experience a console play through- and I bought the DLC on both platforms. I just feel the Missing Link is a throwaway experience with little to no replay value and no significance to the overall DX:HR universe.

That being said, DX:HR is a great launching pad and I can't wait to see what Eidos do next. The art direction and storytelling are game-of-the-year material and with a bigger budget I can only imagine what a masterpiece this game might have become. Bad DLC aside, this is the best Deus Ex ever and a story that's just begging for a bigger a bigger things down the line. I can't wait

[Zerim]

I agree with your post pretty much entirely, and would like to point out that just releasing a good SDK would really put this game on the map where it deserved for a long, long while.

Especially with games like Deus Ex that have cult followings, modding tools are incredibly helpful for increasing the product's longevity tenfold. Because you have a super-passionate community that just wants to do good by their favorite series, and they will be releasing new mods even ten years later. Just think, we could've even gotten the scrapped city hubs reconstructed by the fans. So many opportunities, wasted.

I'm especially with you on the appreciation for the art direction. The original Deus Ex to me has always been more about geeking out on the game mechanics rather than the parts that make them up. It's a great game for studying game design on. While the original felt like opening the case of some expensive electronic device and peeking into it's wiring, this Human Revolution to me felt like opening the case of some shiny media player and peeking into the wiring while it keeps playing some fancy, beautiful sci-fi flick on the screen still attached.

The original is still probably the best game ever made, but few can say it's a beautiful game. It's not. It's ugly. Even back in the day it was ugly. The music is still amazing, but walking through the empty, grey upon grey streets of NYC still bore me to death, even today with the nostalgia value attached. I am happy that Eidos Montreal didn't end up sticking to that kind of design. Because you know, they really could have. This fan community knows better than anyone that we were on their asses all the way through development, and we -perhaps the word is "scared"-, them less about not doing wrong by this game. I'm happy that that was done though. One of the things that I liked about Human Revolution's development process was the incredibly healthy relationship between the devs and the fans. They understood us, and listened to us, and we provided some very constructive criticism. Without that kind of feedback I think we wouldn't get the optional object highlighting, for instance. That would've totally ruined the game for me if I couldn't turn it off.

But in the few areas where EM didn't take the original too seriously, I'm glad that they didn't. Other than maybe the cover system. Overall I liked the job they did, EM appears to be an unusually passionate studio, something that's very hard to come by in the industry nowadays. Maybe this is because they're a new studio and maybe over time they'll end up just milking the heck out of Deus Ex forever and ever until the end of time, like Hideo Kojima did with MGS. Who knows.

In short, yeah I agree with you. HR was a great game that could've been so much more, and I think the lessons from this whole thing have been:

1) Keep that healthy relationship with the fanbase, it's important;
2) Increase the value of your product and make the fans happy by making sure to release an SDK next time
3) Flesh out the game more, don't let good ideas go to waste. We're willing to wait for longer development times if that will mean getting a more comprehensive game in the end.
4) Keep up the quality and the passion

[kaizer123]

I just want to vent myself a little bit. I *** love Eidos Montreal and Deus Ex HR. Man I have played this game twice and I'm going on my third, same for the dlc. I am a huge fan of EM's game and I am really looking forward to their next project Thief 4.
Every day at work, I play the soundtrack on spotify and think about the choices I am going to make in the game when I get home. I pre-ordered the collectors edition and the nordic edition on ps3, and adam is my gf's favorite figurine. I also recently bought it of steam during the weekend sale and started playing it on my brand new pc. I wanted to see it run in 60fsp and on better graphics. And it looks sweet, not the prettiest game, but it does not matter, its stunning.
I believe in EM as a studio of bright artists. What I would like to see them do in the future is more side stories, explore more personalities and conspiracies. Whatever art style they choose I'm behind it. They created a beautifully dark world in DEHR that you care for and want to know more about, I am positive they will exceed in scope on their upcoming projects. I am seriously excited about Thief 4.
Good luck to the team going forward!

[JCpie]

Hear, hear!