Zero Punctuation: Deus Ex

Inconspicuous Trenchcoat

Shinku Hadouken!
Nov 12, 2009
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For anyone who wants to now reinstall Deus Ex, here's a great guide to make it look less fugly: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?s=0854a290a60f2a59dea9f056e769faa3&t=1235278

TIP: If you install all this, remember to hit shift-F12 at some point every time you launch the game to turn on the nicer lighting (which also improves the textures imo).


The author's initial THIS to THAT example pics aren't a great representation, but the mods do greatly improve the visuals, especially the lighting and some choice environment textures. It made getting back into Deus Ex much easier for me. In fact, I beat the game (started cheating about halfway through to reach the deadline) before Human Revolution came out ^^
 

Inconspicuous Trenchcoat

Shinku Hadouken!
Nov 12, 2009
408
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As for HR, I don't think it's as ambitious or mechanically deep as the original, but it's still excellent. I think they improved over the original in the areas of stealth mechanics, hacking (the mini-game part), story-telling, AI and aesthetic unity/harmony. Well, by story-telling, I just mean HR has TONS of people to talk to, which story you like more is just preference. I found myself missing multi-tools, especially since the game basically mandates you spill tons of points into hacking.

The social side of HR's gameplay is superior, but I think the original still comes out on top in terms of the core gameplay (the sneaking missions).

DX:HR is a game that's so good, the many many little shortcomings stand out all the more. There's so many moments where you'll think, "that was good, but if they had just taken it a little further or tweaked this, it'd jump up to prodigious."

A, relatively, big negative is that HR lacks the sheer variety (most of which were interesting too) of paths Deus Ex had. Sure, HR does have multiple ways of doing things, but it still feels like it suffers a bit from on-the-rails-itis compared to the original (that was bad wording, it's definitely NOT on-the-rails, but you know what I meant? Right?).

Bottom line, well worth $50. Coming from someone who has never been the biggest stealth game fan. Although, I did love Hitman: Blood Money. Oh yeah, and the boss fights are rage-inducing, especially on hard, until you figure out a not-readily apparent tactic. For example, if I leave the cover of this wall, I'll die instantly (and have 20 times already). WTF DO I DO!?! Moments like that though, do make your victory all the more sweet, but I'm not sure the pure frustration that are the boss fights are worth it overall (on hard).

Also: food is freaking rare on hard!! I wantz to use mai powaz moar :)
 

zelda2fanboy

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Oct 6, 2009
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Am I the only person in the world who really really really liked Deus Ex Invisible War? I've never played Deus Ex 1, but I bought the third partially on the merits of the second game. And it's pretty good, too.
 

Kennian

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Apr 20, 2009
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i dont have time to read all of this, sorry if it's been said, but there are mods for Deus Ex that fix a lot of the graphical problems... google it!
 

CardinalPiggles

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Jun 24, 2010
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It's probably not worth it. Like Yahtzee said, it hasn't aged very well.

I think I played through about half an hour before getting completely bored, modern standards for action are too high.
 

Firia

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Sep 17, 2007
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zelda2fanboy said:
Am I the only person in the world who really really really liked Deus Ex Invisible War? I've never played Deus Ex 1, but I bought the third partially on the merits of the second game. And it's pretty good, too.
Someone once said, "Invisible War has the unfortunate disadvantage of being the sequel to Deus Ex. It's not that it's bad, it's that it's no where near as good as the first." Which really sums it up. If you played the first, there's an expectation that the brand name generates, which basically dooms it right away.
 

Jozxyqk

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Jul 21, 2011
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Once again Yahtzee continues his trend of retrospectively reviewing games that have been name-dropped in several past reviews. And I had my money on Beyond Good & Evil for the 3rd time in a row.
 

oktalist

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Feb 16, 2009
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Very good call on covering the original game before the new'un. I just got through playing it again for about the 20th time, before starting DX:HR. It's odd, everyone hates on the dated graphics, but I've never found it to be a problem. At all. I just don't notice it. I bought G. K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday because of that game, it's brilliant.

"First of all, what is it really all about? What is it you object to? You want to abolish Government?"

"To abolish God!" said Gregory, opening the eyes of a fanatic. "We do not only want to upset a few despotisms and police regulations; that sort of anarchism does exist, but it is a mere branch of the Nonconformists. We dig deeper and we blow you higher. We wish to deny all those arbitrary distinctions of vice and virtue, honour and treachery, upon which mere rebels base themselves. The silly sentimentalists of the French Revolution talked of the Rights of Man! We hate Rights as we hate Wrongs. We have abolished Right and Wrong."

"And Right and Left," said Syme with a simple eagerness, "I hope you will abolish them too. They are much more troublesome to me."
 

BookBeast

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Jan 2, 2010
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Thank you, Yahtzee! I've been hoping to see a Zero Punctuation retrospective review of Deus Ex ever since you mentioned it was one of your favorites.

I too hope that someone will re-release it with better graphics - and if that ever happens, I hope it won't be exclusive to the PC (I'm a Mac and Xbox person nowadays).
 

Something Amyss

Aswyng and Amyss
Dec 3, 2008
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-Dragmire- said:
Zachary Amaranth said:
-Dragmire- said:
Heh, a Zero Punctuation that ends with the promise of a sequel!
It'll be a letdown, like all sequels. >.>
That'll be the be the aftermath. First, we need to create a tonne of hype and say it's streamlined with less swearing to appeal to a larger audience.
Zero Punctuation: Now rated G.
 

Breaker deGodot

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Apr 14, 2009
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uguito-93 said:
Huh, guess this can be seen as a 2 parter which is a first for Yahtzee.

And I get the feeling he really doesnt like John Romero, but that could just be me.
Really who DOES like John Romero?
 

FallenMessiah88

So fucking thrilled to be here!
Jan 8, 2010
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I had a feeling it was gonna be something Deus Ex related this week. Glad to hear what Yahtzee had to say about the Deus Ex games, well mostly the first one. Really looking forward to next week.
 

bombadilillo

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Jan 25, 2011
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Firia said:
zelda2fanboy said:
Am I the only person in the world who really really really liked Deus Ex Invisible War? I've never played Deus Ex 1, but I bought the third partially on the merits of the second game. And it's pretty good, too.
Someone once said, "Invisible War has the unfortunate disadvantage of being the sequel to Deus Ex. It's not that it's bad, it's that it's no where near as good as the first." Which really sums it up. If you played the first, there's an expectation that the brand name generates, which basically dooms it right away.
never mind misread
 

antipunt

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Jan 3, 2009
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It's too bad the game aged badly. I'll probably resort to wikipedia-ing the plot of the first game, then jumping straight into #2
 

Skizzo321

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Jan 18, 2010
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Funny how he gave people grief for saying deus as "deuce," yet goes on to mispronounce "macramé."
 

ewhac

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Sep 2, 2009
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theriddlen said:
Also, few days ago I just like Yahtz have installed Deux Ex, and it's very playable (after you download 2 gigabytes of community fixes and mods).
Which fixes and mods would these be? I have an original installation that still works perfectly well, but it would be nice to make it even better.