Zero Punctuation: Deus Ex

Canadamus Prime

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Jun 17, 2009
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Yahtzee said:
Why hasn't any other video game character ever thought of that?
Presumably because for most other video game characters all the doors lock whenever a boss shows up.
 

Evil the White

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Apr 16, 2009
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I do like the reference at the end of the credits to the 'A BOMB' catchphrase, and I'm glad he didn't use the classic lines in the review, as they would have just been easy material, as well as contradictory of his hatred of referencing pop culture.
 

ResonanceGames

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I loved Human Revolution, but the sim/emergent situation elements that defined Deus Ex were muted a bit from the original. Part of the reason is that Jensen is a lot easier to kill and the AI sees him a lot more easily, so it's harder to set wacky traps and come up with ridiculous ways to solve a situation without being instantly killed. But it's also partly because the level design was tailored a bit more toward stealth path/action path/hacking path instead of just presenting the player with a gigantic, well-thought out level and saying "Go. Use your smarts and abilities."

I can see this pissing off someone like Yahtzee, and it's definitely bothered a lot of old-school Looking Glass/Deus Ex fans.

Still, I shrug it off because what the game DOES do well is just fantastic.
 

Buccura

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I'm almost certain that Yahtzee won't be that positive with Human Revolution. Then again maybe I'm being a bit presumptuous.

On an side note, I'm glad I'm not the only one who found that Crossbow totally useless.
 

DanHibiki

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As i recall most fights in baldur's gate can be avoided by just walking out the door you walked in from while the villain does his "You shall never escape my demon! BWA HA ... huh? where'd they go?"

And if I'm not mistaken most of Fallout 1 and Planescape Torment can be won without killing anyone. In fact in Fallout you can convince the last boss that life is just not worth living and he kills himself.
 

Signa

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Jul 16, 2008
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Pscyon said:
I didn't get past the first hour either. Not when the game was new due to an old crappy monitor which made everything simply too dark (damn you stealth tutorial!) and not now since the game is simply too hard to get into without nostalgia mode which I lack for this particular game.
The first level is BRUTAL. People were telling me all the way back in 2000 how great it was, but I never got into it. I finally played it with a friend in 2010 and fucking loved it. You really have to die a lot if you aren't used to the game and what it is asking of you. Once you get past that point, it becomes pretty clear why everyone says the game is as good as it is.
 

cerebus23

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The thing that made games like deus ex shine was the choice, the level designs were brilliant, the story was great, and heck as bad as the game looks today, it looked great back when it came it, not as great as it could have but still back in the day some of the visuals were still impressive.

Dunno how anyone says the game does not grab you out of the gate, with the dificulty curve and the first rescue mission i would think most players would either be frustrated by the difficulty and the lack of handholding, or involved in the game.

Deus Ex really get most of its props for being the first game to blend rpg and fps and do it well. And really if you think about its stealth gameplay was one of the early games where that style of gameplay was viable and probably vital to play the game well.

Yea the AI was lacking but if you did get spotted by the AI you were going to be dead in many spots. I remember when i replayed deus ex about a year ago just how much i died, and it was not because of the AI lacking, but because the AI were armed to the teeth and often came in numbers, add to the fact your health was limited and boss encouters needed the majority of that health that managing any health picks up or stations during the game was vital.

Deus Ex Hr seems good glad hes taking another week to review since my windows drive exploded and took everything with it including my DEHR chapter 3 or 4 saves, just when the story was getting interesting. So i am having to start all over.

I think it is somewhat fitting that DEHR and DE will be slammed for gfx above all. I was put off by the character models and animations big time in HR, voice acting is solid enough for me, but everytime i see these characters having a convo i feel like i am watching an episode of thunderbirds with the twitching and the way the mouths and expressions are animated.

But despite that the world and the game play are great to me sofar. I like the hacking not because it does or does not give me XP or cash, but because you find those email convos in wierd places that related directly to what is happening in the story around you.

The guns feel good, yea the heavy gun and some others are just utter fail since they take so long to reload or fire and etc, might be worth cheating in a bunch of reloads and fire rate mods for the heavy just to see at what point its usefulness might kick in vs say my tracking assault rifle that can fire immediately, and my 10m pistol that will one shot just about anything, toss in sniper for backup or a shotgun. All guns feel useful, hell all guns would feel better because depending on what chapter you are on ammo can be hard to come by or one weapon or another, taking assault rifle early on seems rather pointelss since there is not much ammo to be had most of the level, and 2nd or 3rd stage i weas using whatever i could scavenge for whatever gun i could find it would work in at one point because there was no ammo to be bought that i could find.

I think HR will get slammed for all the things people have brought up and so it should, i think it does well for itself in some areas the map design is good, finding alternate paths takes a lot of looking and some even take thinking to get to some places.

The convo system is good the lore is good so we shall see.
 

katsabas

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Fuck, fuck, FUCK, that's why I hate modern games sometimes.

They have spoiled me and I couldn't get through Deus Ex only until after the concpiracy is revealed because of the way the game looks and the slowdowns on the PS2. If HR is better in these 2 areas, no problem.


I suck, I know. But I am also glad I wasn't the only one with Traq Gun problem. They can afford augs that make you lift tons of weight but not a good anestezic agent?
 

juffeee

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Sep 4, 2010
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There is actually a Mod for Deus Ex that remakes the textures. here---> http://www.moddb.com/mods/deus-ex-new-vision
 

Halbert

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Tinybear said:
It has one of the best and most immersive storylines, and it even has AN ENTIRE CHAPTER that can be skipped if you play your cards right throughout the game. Basically, you get enough intel to give a proper warning in time, and you don't have to go to France.
Okay, I've been playing this game to death since its release, to the point that I could tell you the location of every item or even every secret item, and I've never heard this. How do you skip the Parisian section of the game?
 

ResonanceGames

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Feb 25, 2011
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Halbert said:
Tinybear said:
It has one of the best and most immersive storylines, and it even has AN ENTIRE CHAPTER that can be skipped if you play your cards right throughout the game. Basically, you get enough intel to give a proper warning in time, and you don't have to go to France.
Okay, I've been playing this game to death since its release, to the point that I could tell you the location of every item or even every secret item, and I've never heard this. How do you skip the Parisian section of the game?
There was a series of Rock, Paper, Shotgun articles where the writer claimed you skip Paris, but I seem to recall a bunch of people in the comments saying you actually can't. I'd love to know for sure as well, because I've played the game a million times and always went to Paris.
 

Halbert

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Just a few thoughts on the tranquilizer darts.

-Realistically, any tranq dart that knocked a person out cold immediately after impact would have to have so much juice in it that it would kill a man, which sort of defeats the "non-lethal" idea. This is part of why anesthesiologists/nurse anesthetists are so well paid; it's pretty important to balance the drugs somewhere between "Makes you feel slightly drowsy" and "Makes your heart explode."

-From a gameplay perspective, people would declare the tranq darts to be massively OP if they could immediately KO someone. While it would be the smaller, shorter range cousin of the sniper rifle, it would still seriously impact the gameplay. Plus, it would mean never, ever letting the NPCs carry them. Even the NPCs with sniper rifles can be survived.
 

ResonanceGames

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Halbert said:
Just a few thoughts on the tranquilizer darts.

-Realistically, any tranq dart that knocked a person out cold immediately after impact would have to have so much juice in it that it would kill a man, which sort of defeats the "non-lethal" idea. This is part of why anesthesiologists/nurse anesthetists are so well paid; it's pretty important to balance the drugs somewhere between "Makes you feel slightly drowsy" and "Makes your heart explode."

-From a gameplay perspective, people would declare the tranq darts to be massively OP if they could immediately KO someone. While it would be the smaller, shorter range cousin of the sniper rifle, it would still seriously impact the gameplay. Plus, it would mean never, ever letting the NPCs carry them. Even the NPCs with sniper rifles can be survived.
It doesn't have to be an instant takedown, but it should have been better than what it was, which was basically a "come shoot me everyone!" alarm. Having the guy run around hiccuping and alerting everyone was just frustrating.

Human Revolution actually got it right. It takes about 10 seconds, and then the NPC slowly slumps to the ground.
 

maetros

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Jul 14, 2009
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Tinybear said:
It has one of the best and most immersive storylines, and it even has AN ENTIRE CHAPTER that can be skipped if you play your cards right throughout the game. Basically, you get enough intel to give a proper warning in time, and you don't have to go to France.
You could skip that entire section?! And I thought I was clever for spotting a spy mechanic messing with my helicopter.

Anyway, it seems like a rare case where Yahtzee actually liked the game.
 

Mike Laserbeam

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Dec 10, 2010
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Wow. I've never agreed with a ZP episode more...
And that bit about the first hour being super familiar? So damn true... :p