Extra Punctuation: What Human Revolution Got Wrong

[lowkey_jotunn]

I'm trying to enjoy this game. I really am. I heard so many good things, and it seems right up my alley.

... But Yahtzee NAILED how I'm playing. I was convinced I was going to be stealthy and non-lethal if possible... yet I couldn't aim the tranquiler gun well at all, got spotted, and found killing was just so much easier and less time consuming (and, let's face it, the load times when you die are painfully long...)

It just feels very dispirited. Not a lot of humor. The combat is awkward to me. The graphics are just decent (why does every character move around like they have ants in their underwear?).

I don't know; I was just led to expect more.

So far, I've enjoyed Alice: Madness Returns and Shadows of the Damned FAR more than HR.

Quick pointers, the Traq rifle shoots in an arc. Aim above your target (you'll notice little notches in the scope below the center cross hairs to help gauge distance)


Oh, and that reminds of my final final final gripe. For all their railroading into the pacifist method for XP reasons, they've made pacifist weapons stupidly awkward. The stun gun has a range shorter than Adam's ... takedown reach. And the tranq rifle is a ***** to aim. Plus ammo for either one is hard to come by and expensive. Meanwhile I'm practically swimming in bullets.

I started a new game and said "fuck it, kill em all" with an Armor piercing 10mm sporting a laser sight. The difficulty level is beyond easy. I cranked it up to hard mode and it's still 10x easier than my original pacifist run through on normal difficulty.

 

[Akukaishi]

I totally agree with Reason 5. Man.

 

[Sexy Devil]

*deleted*

 

[wurrble182]

1. regarding the bosses - i honestly thought that yahtzee wouldn't be bothered by the bosses in HR - i mean you ***** about games these days being too easy and holding our hands throughout the entire experience - trying to take down those bastard bosses with a stealth based character on hard mode sure as hell kicks some difficulty back into the game.

2. while the omission of melee weapons is definitely a little odd and jarring at first, they definitely wouldn't fit in with the games health model - you regenerate health but your health bar is shorter than a mosquitoes eyelash, running at someone wielding a table leg is gonna make you dead in 2 seconds flat and im fine with that. also, i quickly learned that boxes and crates contain absolutely jack, so bashing them with melee weapons isn't necassery nor is wasting the ammo.

3. the lack of specialization is definitely something of an issue, but at least for the first 2/3s of the game you can be pretty specialised if you want to, only becoming a demi-god towards the end, like most rpg/action titles these days. i think the games lore generally tries to cover up for this - explaining how all of jensens augments are already inside of him they just haven't switched on yet - so it kind of makes sense that they all come on eventually

4. dragging my heels a bit with this game, about 80 hours+ gameplay and im only now on a playthrough where im determined to actually reach the end ...

5. one word. dogmentation.

 

[SemiHumanTarget]

Wait a second, wait a second. FPSs phasing out melee weapons? I'd say it's the other way around. Remember the brass knuckles in Doom? You have to stand around whacking at a guy for five whole minutes before he goes down. The chainsaw was better but still not an instant kill.

Every Call of Duty game, every Battlefield game, every Halo game, every Resistance game, etc.? Everyone around you can take 10 or 15 bullets and shrug it off, but a single knife and/or riflebutt to the toe? Instant kill.

 

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

"Watch me blow your mind as I accurately describe the character most of you played in Human Revolution: a bloke who started out with the intention of doing a stealthy run but had to start carrying proper guns after a few hairy moments, who by the end of the game was also an expert hacker with very good arm strength and the ability to jump over buses."

Yahtzee, your psychic skills are incredible!

 

[rohansoldier]

Gears of war 3 will have the retro lancer with a bayonet when it is released next week. Problem solved!!

 

[8-Bit Grin]

It's idiotic that the same energy that makes the bloke invisible gets depleted whenever he punches somebody in the face.
By the same logic, he would need to consume roughly four 12-piece KFC buckets whenever he runs up some stairs.

I know that this is purely hypothetical, and that Deus Ex (regardless of how great I percieve it) is only a game, but-

I personally believe that when Jenson strikes someone, he powers up his arm beforehand to add some 'oomph' to his blow.

Sort of like when he punches through weakened walls, but... with about 1/5 the strength.

It's supposed to be a stun attack, so liquifying the enemy wouldn't do any good.

I just thought I'd give my two cents, because it bothered me in the beginning and it helped to justify the lame need for energy.

 

[thethingthatlurks]

It's idiotic that the same energy that makes the bloke invisible gets depleted whenever he punches somebody in the face.
By the same logic, he would need to consume roughly four 12-piece KFC buckets whenever he runs up some stairs.

I know that this is purely hypothetical, and that Deus Ex (regardless of how great I percieve it) is only a game, but-

I personally believe that when Jenson strikes someone, he powers up his arm beforehand to add some 'oomph' to his blow.

Sort of like when he punches through weakened walls, but... with about 1/5 the strength.

It's supposed to be a stun attack, so liquifying the enemy wouldn't do any good.

I just thought I'd give my two cents, because it bothered me in the beginning and it helped to justify the lame need for energy.

Point taken, although this might make more sense if it were a "real" stun attack involving electric shock or something along those lines.

 

[Babitz]

However, there are more references:

Spoiler

it's implied that Adam's DNA will be used to engineer Paul and JC Denton

Spoiler

No it isn't. Paul was born in 2018. and JC is his clone. They literally don't share any lineage with Adam, unless they plan to fuck up the cannon. Adam's DNA would be used to make No-Poz unnecessary for other mechs.

Also, IIRC, there's an e-mail from Nicolette DuClare in Picus which doesn't make sense since she was 17 in the original.

 

[[zonking great]]

This just proves what I've thought for ages. Yahtzee qualifies his dislike by first pointing out that "THIS WAS WRONG AND THIS WAS WRONG ABOUT THE ORIGINAL GAME" in his review then plops out a variety of reasons why the new game sucks. Yahtzee, you lost me man. You completely lost me. None of your wit has remained. Also, drop the product placement.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

*On the subject of Specialisation...

Contemporary gamer: Why u not let me do everything from the start?

Old School gamer: Why u let me do everything at the end?

*On the subject of Boss fights...

Deus Ex fan on HR (A): What is this? Why can't I ignore bosses and seemingly break continuity?

Deus Ex HR fan on DE (B): What is this? Why are "boss" fights so god damn lame?

*On the subject of Melee weapons...

A: Where's mah baton!?

B: Da fuck is with this Baton!?

*On the subject of Endings...

Everyone on HR: ... Da fuck is with this ending?

I should point out that the Mercs (The Tyrants) in HR are developed in the book Deus Ex: Icarus Effect, along with cameos from everybodies favourite German mech. But who reads these days *snort*

In my opinion? Melee Weapons are overrated in non fantasy games bar 40k, Though it would be nice to break crates open without looking like I'm on some form of roid rage. The context melee takedowns work in that it allows you to effectively take opponents down stylishly, rather then belting them in the back of the head with a black rod. It's also easier to balance in terms of stealth.

The boss fights were weak, and the characters could have had some exposition on their motives (maybe journals or through a hacked computer). But I think it was intended to get people to look out for the book. Not forgiveable mind you, the bosses were still weakass.
That said, I had no difficulty beating them without lethal weapons.

Specialisation is all well and good in full blown RPGs... but accounts to more then just stats and abilities. Loadouts and conservative decisions really add to HRs role playing elements, not just Aug upgrades. There are things I missed on my first run due to certain actions taken, including what Augs I used... while on my 2nd run through I changed my approach and made the former half of the game more traversable, but the latter half became a little more turbulent due to lack of stealth and combat upgrades (I invested in hacking and exploration upgrades). Of course by the end, regardless, I was a master thief/hacker/tank with too much space in my inventory that I couldn't even fill.

I plan a playthrough with no extra augs... should be fun

 

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

I think yahtzee is quite right on action rpgs--specifically giving too much and characters becoming really quite similar by the end. I don't want to be, as if I am every class, every type or archetype. Better to the best at one thing, or good at two things, not have everything, that just seems damn boring.

 

[oktalist]

Spoiler

it's implied that Adam's DNA will be used to engineer Paul and JC Denton

No it isn't. Paul was born in 2018. and JC is his clone. They literally don't share any lineage with Adam, unless they plan to fuck up the cannon. Adam's DNA would be used to make No-Poz unnecessary for other mechs.

Also, IIRC, there's an e-mail from Nicolette DuClare in Picus which doesn't make sense since she was 17 in the original.

Spoiler

Well I felt like some kind of link was implied. Maybe it was just the similarity of the way in which they were engineered and their family history. Adam was born in 1993 so there's no reason why his DNA couldn't have been put into Paul.

And is Nicolette's age actually established in-game? Wikia says her age is 17 "according to the Deus Ex Bible" which was based on the developers' production notes, so its canon status is questionable.

 

[Vect]

About the bosses, there was a prequel book published that talked about the Tyrants and fleshed them out more. Evidently Gunther was in the group before the events of the game.

For Melee, I guess the designers just thought that Adam punching out guys/stabbing guys in the head with armblades would be cooler than simply thwacking away at them until they fell down.

For upgrades... I'm admittedly a munchkin by nature so I don't really have a problem with resources up the wazoo. Not to say that I don't like making a character that specifically specializes in stuff. In fantasy based games, I usually prefer specializing in magic if it gives me the choice.

Endings... You've got a point there.

Now I'm just reminded of Kenan and Kel...



Who loves orange soda?

Gunther lufs orange soda!

Is it true?

Oh ja oh ja it's true! Ooh!

 

[vivster]

so you are telling me it doesn't even have melee weapons?
it's nice that my predictions turned out right for a change
i expected nothing of DX3 and it turned out to be nothing

i'm kinda sick of these shooters that try to be RPGs

 

[Marik Bentusi]

I can see points here and there, but number three is so fricking invalid I can't even wrap my head around how Yahtzee came to that conclusion.

In the original Deus Ex I was a ninja with a GEP gun for backup and neither was there a problem of putting points in Explosive tech and hacking stuff, nor was there, due to the large splash damage, any reason to put any points into explosives. In fact there wasn't even much of a reason to put points into Lockpicking or Electronics either because the gadgets you find were abundant on any difficulty level.
Heck, even the goddang Sniper Rifle could be used on long range without any points put into the skill tree, even more so if you gave it some upgrades. At least in DXHR the upgrades mean something and are necessary to take on different playstyles.
What further supports my point are the crying souls that have problems with boss battles because they picked a sneaky run. That should show how much specialization works in DXHR.

About the other points I have mixed opinions, but number three... wow, Yahtzee, too much of that lemon-lime?

Edit
Y'know what, I feel like picking up the challenge. I'll make a defense for DXHR for every point that doesn't include DLC and the story/narrative, because that was seriously weak. I won't be a mindless fanboy, but I think people gave the game too much credit after the leak and too little credit after the release.

 

[Babitz]

Spoiler

it's implied that Adam's DNA will be used to engineer Paul and JC Denton

No it isn't. Paul was born in 2018. and JC is his clone. They literally don't share any lineage with Adam, unless they plan to fuck up the cannon. Adam's DNA would be used to make No-Poz unnecessary for other mechs.

Also, IIRC, there's an e-mail from Nicolette DuClare in Picus which doesn't make sense since she was 17 in the original.

Spoiler

Well I felt like some kind of link was implied. Maybe it was just the similarity of the way in which they were engineered and their family history. Adam was born in 1993 so there's no reason why his DNA couldn't have been put into Paul.

And is Nicolette's age actually established in-game? Wikia says her age is 17 "according to the Deus Ex Bible" which was based on the developers' production notes, so its canon status is questionable.

Spoiler

Well not really. Read the Deus Ex bible and you'll see how Paul was a normal baby. Besides, Adam's special DNA was found out in 2027. Maybe a year earlier tops, but definitely not in 2018 when Paul was born.

 

[Davichu]

Also, the boss fights were totally (and I mean totally) fucking pointless. A character geared for stealth will be ripped a new one by even the weakest boss, but a character built for combat will destroy each boss in literally seconds (max level Typhoon, two volleys per boss). Seriously, try it. The balance (or lack thereof) is appalling.

And Reason 5 eliminates the need for Reasons 1-4.

SO TRUE!
Even with my stealth playthrough i managed to beat the last guy (who-ever-he-is) in 2 seconds flat by just throwing 3 gas mines around him and laughing at him while he looked like a chain smoker.

 

[DirgeNovak]

Reason 5 is the most important one.
But Human Revolution is still the better game for me.