Zero Punctuation: Deus Ex

[Ninjat_126]

I'm glad Yahztee took the time to review the game and mention flaws rather than just blindly defend it.

I bought it, and the first problems I found were the awful graphics and the bad voice acting. It probably gets better later, but still it's hard to push through a bad first impression.

 

[Teoes]

That's it. I will finish it, goddamnit! Hong Kong, here I come!

YMMV but Hong Kong was always one of my favourite areas! It's massive with loads of areas to go poking about in; the accents are hilarious; it's where you really start to hit your stride as a character as you can get fully augmented (if not fully upgraded) there; and the bots have that cool green tint.

I'm surprised no-one seems to have picked up on the zooming-into-the-back-of-a-character's-head trick that HR pulls to say 'You're taking control of this person now". Yahtzee ragged on it in his Turok review and I'm expecting it to get dredged up next week.

Don't know about anyone else, but while I generally rail against regenerating health systems and miss the good old health bar it would feel rather hypocritical to complain about it being used in HR: in both the original and IW, a fully-upgraded Regeneration aug is always one of my highest priorities.

Oh and while I can only speak for myself, Deus Ex doesn't get uninstalled but it does get replayed every few months.. or at least a couple of times per year. That's not nostalgia goggles. That's one of my favourite games ever ever ever.

 

[Lovesfool]

Actually, I own a copy of the game (a freebe from some magazine or other), but I haven't gone around to actually installing and playing it, because the screen shots on the back of the package look a bit... outdated, if I want to be polite (well, they actually look like crap that will probably make my eyes bleed in the effort to try and make out what everything is...)

Maybe I will give it a try, at least. Not planning to buy the new one before the price goes down, so why not?

 

[42]

Since i'm not an actual Deus Ex fanboy, and i only tried Deus Ex Human Evolution out of pure interest, i would like to see a remake of the original, not a texture HD remake fuck no if anything that has taught us those remakes suck shit, i actually would like to see Deus ex with not only the HD redo, but some of the mechanics fixed and saving system etc (again this is based of any criticism i may have seen about it) basically I'm agreeing with Yahtzee's point about a remake for it, but he is right. and i wouldn't mind seeing what the fuss is about the original.

 

[CrawlingPastaHellion]

Excuse me, but what is the point of making an HD remake? Give it another three years and the graphics will look like crap compared to what will be to be available at the time.

I never understood a purpose of a remake. Not a movie, nor a game remake, nor a musical remix for that matter. Better devote your time and resources to creating something fresh and original instead.

The only reason why it would be even viable to consider is to present such a remake to a generation unfamiliar with the original. Then again: will you be making remakes of great titles every time a hardware or a generation gap occurs? Just go play the original with an open heart and try to see past the outdated graphics.

 

[Babitz]

Complaining about outdated graphics makes you less of a gamer in my eyes because games aren't about graphics. Deus Ex had shitty graphics even in 2000., yet it was highly praised. They devoted their limited time and funds to more important parts of the game and that's what gaming should be about.

 

[I forgot]

I've never played Deus Ex but I always get the feeling that I'll be saying it's an overrated piece of shit when I do. Being able to run past enemies and slam the door behind them doesn't exactly sound too good either. All I hear about this game is how you can do anything and not necessarily what the complexity of the design or challenge is behind it which is why I fear I won't like this game.

 

[CrawlingPastaHellion]

I've never played Deus Ex but I always get the feeling that I'll be saying it's an overrated piece of shit when I do. Being able to run past enemies and slam the door behind them doesn't exactly sound too good either. All I hear about this game is how you can do anything and not necessarily what the complexity of the design or challenge is behind it which is why I fear I won't like this game.

Aye, mate, should give it a try first and then judge it to be "an overrated piece of shit". Overrated, perhaps. Piece of shit, far from it. "Deus Ex" in a nutshell is a canvas for a creative player to play how he or she likes. There are numerous approaches to a problem, every one being equal and the player is the jury and executioner in every single case.

If you hate the games that force you to accomplish all the tasks in one and only way you will like "Deus Ex", because there aren't many games like it.

That however is not its only strength. A fantastic atmosphere, interesting dialogues, kick-ass soundtrack, very flexible RPG system. Dude, what more can you ask for from a game?

 

[Loki J]

Ignoring the fact that the game keeps crashing on both my current PC and older PC I just can not get into Deus Ex at all. I'm sorry. The graphics suck, which is to be expected, but their is this weird green covering on all things. During the cut screens it looks like JC has greenish skin and that is something I see on both PC's. It wasn't their when I first played it when I was 13 on my first PC, back in 2000. Even then I couldn't get into the game or see why everyone said it was the best game ever. Maybe it is because I prefer RTS to most other genres.

For anyone interested in a graphics upgrade to the original Deus Ex;
HD Graphics patch - http://www.moddb.com/mods/deus-ex-new-vision
Hi-Res Fonts and bug fix - http://www.moddb.com/mods/deus-ex-enhanced/


Z

 

[Jorias]

Currently playing DX:HR, and i hate to sound like a broken record but Yahtzee is right, the depth and complexity (well ok to be fair i have extremely high standards for video games, sorry) of the game seemed a little lacking, but that isn't even a minor concern to me since the story, and the fact that content is scattered throughout the game (yes i like to read the content which is in the form of little data-pad thingies, sue me). DX the original took me forever to play because i read everything in that game, i got as far as half way through China?, sneaking into this research facility or something, after that i never played it again, and i regret it.

Bottom line, find an old ATI radeon 3500 an old Asus AI, and an old Pentium 3 yes 3! computer, with DX9 or something earlier, in order to play the original DX, although i havent played it in a while, i doubt i'm able to play it on my computer since it's so old....i might try to lolz

 

[Alien Mole]

May have been mentioned already (searched but did not find) but have any of the PubClub members noticed that the 'high quality flash' setting on this video is, in fact, not high quality? It's blurry and less smooth than normal for ZP in High Quality.

Comparing it with the HTML version the latter is significantly more detailed (and slower to load as it's just bigger)

It could be a problem on my end, but I don't think it is. Could anyone explain the discrepancy? Does 'high quality' just link to the wrong version?

Also: good stuff on the episode itself.

 

[Kingjackl]

Hre's a thought; will Yahtzee be playing Human Revolution on PC or console? Cos' I'll invetiably have to play it on the Xbox and I wonder how it's gonna compare to the PC, apart from running more smoothly.

 

[Babitz]

Hre's a thought; will Yahtzee be playing Human Revolution on PC or console? Cos' I'll invetiably have to play it on the Xbox and I wonder how it's gonna compare to the PC, apart from running more smoothly.

The PC version has better graphics and better controls, especially for hacking. And a UI that fits the PC better.

Yahtzee will be probably playing the xbox 360 version since he isn't a PC gamer anymore to the point where he doesn't even invest in a PC, having a shitty laptop instead.

 

[Babitz]

Hre's a thought; will Yahtzee be playing Human Revolution on PC or console? Cos' I'll invetiably have to play it on the Xbox and I wonder how it's gonna compare to the PC, apart from running more smoothly.

The PC version has better graphics and better controls, especially for hacking. And a UI that fits the PC better.

Yahtzee will be probably playing the xbox 360 version since he isn't a PC gamer anymore to the point where he doesn't even invest in a PC, having a shitty laptop instead.

 

[ImSkeletor]

I bought this game recently,and I have loved it, but im in Paris now and im starting to feel the story drag. And I am having a hard time continuing because I have become quite disinterested.

 

[CrawlingPastaHellion]

The PC version has better graphics and better controls, especially for hacking. And a UI that fits the PC better.

I might add that the PC version is also very close in the UI department to what the original used to be. Everybody that played "Deus Ex" will feel right at home with HR.

I think the differences between the PC and console versions are similar to those of the original "Mass Effect". At least that's the idea I got from watching the online videos.

 

[MartialArc]

I'm one third into HR and I must admit: it might actually be better than the original (I can almost hear "blasphemy" flying to me from all directions right now).

Seriously: dialogues are more engaging, characters are more interesting, combat is more fun. It could benefit from the former's skill system, surely, but hacking in HR more than makes up for it: it's just so much fun I can't help it but hack everything I can get my wet-ware on. I was actually disappointed that I couldn't hack every last one of the computers at the police station, because of all the cop tossers watching me from every angle. I might go back and kick their sorry asses, so that I finally can, I am really tempted to do that.

The only thing that might be better is the voice acting, but it really is on par with the original, which had its rough edges in that department as well (Adam sounds really cool though, the best voice actor there, period. Dirty Harry reference, wink, wink). Musically, however, the original is still the king, but I mind you that "Deus Ex" had an exceptional soundtrack, HR has a very moody ambient one, but it's not all that memorable. It does help shape the atmosphere though and for any other game that would be more than enough. It is enough for this one as well, it's just such a pity that they couldn't at least be a little closer to that of the original in terms of memorability.

If HR proves to be this good until the very end, I shall call "better" on it.

I feel the same way, most of the things cut from the original were annoyances to me anyway. I didn't particularly care for having to skill for weapons, and even with a modest skill in pistols aiming took forever. Boss sequences didn't really bother me, even as a stealth character. Kind of a pain but not unbearable.

The things I thought made the original great were the multiple ways to deal with obstacles, and the extra bits of story strewn about. HR kept both of those things, and might well have added more story. I much, much prefer how the augs were handled in HR over the original as well. I could've dealt with still needing a clinic or something for installs, but having to find an aug can for each specific slot and having to choose A or B wasn't so great. Just using the point system gave you a bit more customization.

Plus they at least made an effort to get appropriate voice actors, instead of having what sounded like Australians trying to force a Chinese accent.

 

[I forgot]

I've never played Deus Ex but I always get the feeling that I'll be saying it's an overrated piece of shit when I do. Being able to run past enemies and slam the door behind them doesn't exactly sound too good either. All I hear about this game is how you can do anything and not necessarily what the complexity of the design or challenge is behind it which is why I fear I won't like this game.

Aye, mate, should give it a try first and then judge it to be "an overrated piece of shit". Overrated, perhaps. Piece of shit, far from it. "Deus Ex" in a nutshell is a canvas for a creative player to play how he or she likes. There are numerous approaches to a problem, every one being equal and the player is the jury and executioner in every single case.

If you hate the games that force you to accomplish all the tasks in one and only way you will like "Deus Ex", because there aren't many games like it.

That however is not its only strength. A fantastic atmosphere, interesting dialogues, kick-ass soundtrack, very flexible RPG system. Dude, what more can you ask for from a game?

I haven't judged it yet but I'm afraid that that's what I will say because all the praise for this game is in fantastic atmosphere (I don't play games for atmosphere), dailogue (don't care), soundtrack (I like music but there's more to games than that), RPG system (um,so?) and numerous approaches to solving a problem (are any of them fun?). So yeah, there is more I can ask from a game.

 

[tikalal]

I really really liked Human Revolution until the last level where the story just fell apart. It's like they ran out of time or something.

 

[CrawlingPastaHellion]

I've never played Deus Ex but I always get the feeling that I'll be saying it's an overrated piece of shit when I do. Being able to run past enemies and slam the door behind them doesn't exactly sound too good either. All I hear about this game is how you can do anything and not necessarily what the complexity of the design or challenge is behind it which is why I fear I won't like this game.

Aye, mate, should give it a try first and then judge it to be "an overrated piece of shit". Overrated, perhaps. Piece of shit, far from it. "Deus Ex" in a nutshell is a canvas for a creative player to play how he or she likes. There are numerous approaches to a problem, every one being equal and the player is the jury and executioner in every single case.

If you hate the games that force you to accomplish all the tasks in one and only way you will like "Deus Ex", because there aren't many games like it.

That however is not its only strength. A fantastic atmosphere, interesting dialogues, kick-ass soundtrack, very flexible RPG system. Dude, what more can you ask for from a game?

I haven't judged it yet but I'm afraid that that's what I will say because all the praise for this game is in fantastic atmosphere (I don't play games for atmosphere), dailogue (don't care), soundtrack (I like music but there's more to games than that), RPG system (um,so?) and numerous approaches to solving a problem (are any of them fun?). So yeah, there is more I can ask from a game.

I was telling you about the objective qualities of a game. Something being fun or otherwise is entirely subjective. A game could be brilliant objectively, yet you can still be a dick by resorting to "it's just not fun" argument. I guess with your degree of prejudice even a "Häagen-Dazs" ice-cream wouldn't be good, simply because it's considered to be delicious by the majority.

"Universally praised" doesn't automatically mean "overrated" and "overrated" doesn't automatically mean "bad". It this reply of yours you haven't told me anything new, really.

All I have to say is this: play the game first. Right now you're making assumptions out of a thin air. You're not alone, however, since humanity is famous for doing this.

I'm one third into HR and I must admit: it might actually be better than the original (I can almost hear "blasphemy" flying to me from all directions right now).

Seriously: dialogues are more engaging, characters are more interesting, combat is more fun. It could benefit from the former's skill system, surely, but hacking in HR more than makes up for it: it's just so much fun I can't help it but hack everything I can get my wet-ware on. I was actually disappointed that I couldn't hack every last one of the computers at the police station, because of all the cop tossers watching me from every angle. I might go back and kick their sorry asses, so that I finally can, I am really tempted to do that.

The only thing that might be better is the voice acting, but it really is on par with the original, which had its rough edges in that department as well (Adam sounds really cool though, the best voice actor there, period. Dirty Harry reference, wink, wink). Musically, however, the original is still the king, but I mind you that "Deus Ex" had an exceptional soundtrack, HR has a very moody ambient one, but it's not all that memorable. It does help shape the atmosphere though and for any other game that would be more than enough. It is enough for this one as well, it's just such a pity that they couldn't at least be a little closer to that of the original in terms of memorability.

If HR proves to be this good until the very end, I shall call "better" on it.

I'm going to parrot this, although I'm rating it slightly lower - the game lacked a bit of crucial atmosphere and was a little too content to railroad the player.

Also, the ending was shit.

I haven't gone through all of it yet, so I can't say for sure. I'll see if the ending is as bad as you say it is. The original's ending (Helios ending, the only true ending, dammit) was brilliant, one of a few things that made the story less of a cheese.