Kanodin0 said:
You have admitted this game is walking a fine line on whether it even has anything to do with the other Deus Ex games. Even better, you have done all the work of showing how little it actually has to do with Deus Ex for me.
Instead you argue that having little to do with Deus Ex is a good idea. I don't disagree, exploring the concepts it introduced from different angles with different worlds is a good idea. At some point however you should stop calling it by a name that it isn't.
Now sure Deus Ex could have been a flexible name for a sci-fi Final Fantasy equivalent, but that opportunity passed with IW being a direct sequel instead. Such a series could still be made, but why would you insist on calling it Deus Ex when that simply associates it with an existing franchise and the world it occupies? The likeliest answer remains to cash-in on the name. I'm afraid your arguments have only served to strengthen that viewpoint of mine instead of dissuading me.
Further they are insisting this takes place in the same world as Deus Ex. Instead of actually going with your idea they are shoehorning a new conspiracy in where it doesn't fit. Besides complaints about how it doesn't make sense, they are trying to do both a new game and a sequel to the detriment of both.
I have absolutely no idea why you think my argument was on artstyles with your last paragraph.
I wasn't too sure of your angle on why it didn't feel like Deus Ex. A few people have mentioned the cities architecture as going away from its roots and breaking the canon. My last point was that, visually, the first game was limited to the hardware of the time. Now at least the games can be a heck of a lot more visually interesting. But as you said, that's not your angle so no more on that.
Deus Ex, as a title, is definitely one that can reel in the dough. But, after the controversy over the abysmally bad IW, HR has to really thread carefully to appease the audiences. Remember Project Snowblind? That was a game originally intended to be a sequel to Deus Ex, but at some point during its making the team lost confidence and opted to change the title altogether. When you actually play the game, you can see this loss of confidence along with traces of the original Deus Ex sequel idea. Also, it's a very bad game.
At least with Deus Ex: HR the team are confident enough to keep the Deus Ex title, which to me demonstrates the level of care they seem to be taking. The fact it has visual and mechanical differences to the other 2, while trying to take some of the best bits of the first, shows that the team behind it are really going all out to revitalise the franchise.
The last word in that paragraph, "franchise", is a touchy subject. Usually it is considered to be nothing more then a title which guarantees cash back on release, like anything with Star Wars or SAW on the box. But to me, a franchise has the ability to branch a good idea to multiple mediums to broaden out the universe or to even create alternatives. If say, a film was released that was called Deus Ex, would you prefer they take on one of the existing plot lines, or would you prefer to see an entirely different approach to the same themes and atmosphere? It's definitely the latter for me, although I still have little faith in movies based on or even inspired by games.
I see this as a stepping stone with ambition. They are trying to redeem deus ex as a title, before potentially taking it in new directions. The only reason it's a prelude is due to the fact that, in the canon of Deus Ex, all the events after the original and prior to IW would have mainly been humanity trying to re-establish itself. Also, none of the endings of IW would have made a satisfying basis for a sequel. Sooo, they opted for the rather vague (if not completely absent) past of the Deus Ex world in order to be giving enough freedom to evolve a game within the universe.
I agree that a title that strays too far from it's origins, should at least retitle before moving on as it would create a generational gap between the early productions and the recent. I don't think HR has reached that point yet. Going by the trailer I have seen, it still feels very much like Deus Ex in terms of atmosphere and personality.
Heck, I'm just being optimistic, there is hardly any thing substantial, bar the trailer, to properly judge Deus Ex. We can only wait and see before we can past more definitive judgement
