Deus Ex 3

[Mordrak]

I’d love to see an RPG like this with rather more Assassin’s Creed in it.

Originally, I was thinking that too. However, I would say more Mirror’s Edge than Assassin’s Creed. I liked Assassin’s Creed a lot, and it really changed my expectations about how city environments should behave in games, but the camera perspective and overall control had somewhat less immersion for me. It felt more like I was moving an action figure rather than being an actor in the game world.

Mirror’s Edge movement, open world, Deus Ex dystopian sci-fi and throw in Alpha Protocal reactivity… would be pretty cool.

[Omniscia]

But in most cases, they could just be cheezed.

1. Anna - haul ass into the vents and peck her to death with whatever is handy. She can’t touch you.

2. Gunther - The instant you hear his voice, put down a couple of LAMs. Don’t bother starting the conversation, just shoot him when he’s green and run. BOOM BOOM BANG. Done.

3. Simmons - in my last playthrough, I just ran past him to avoid the conversation, into a side corridor. I made that corridor my DETH MACHINE with LAMs. Then I proceeded to headshot Simmons from that corridor without Simmons ever leaving his spot. I then deactivated my deth machine and went on my way.

So, after crawling around like a little pussy through a good deal of DX:HR, I actually found the boss fights added a little tension and shootery excitement – especially since they weren’t that hard.

I got Anna and Gunther with their killphrases (not a single shot fired). Simons was pretty damn easy, too: I used my X-ray vision to figure his location, turned on my cloak, and fired a few explosive rounds at him.

[Jasper_Phillips]

Because you haven’t invested in the right augs yet!

Which aug lets you cut through a chain link fence, or climb it? I mean, you can punch through reinforced concrete walls or jump like a kangaroo, but that only makes it more of a disconnect when your toe gets caught on something and so you can’t get over it, or you have to have superhuman strength to do something mundane like move a refrigerator.

I had a great time with Deux Ex, but as with many RPGs I am routinely balked by obstacles that wouldn’t stop my children. Its strong point isn’t getting around the environment.

[Spam]

I’m shocked this game got made in the era of douchebag comfy couch producers.

I just blew nearly 200 rounds of my heavy rifle ammo fighting one guy (not a boss) and it was crazy how hard it was to hit the guy. The thing just sprays all over the place. Granted, I haven’t invested in the better aim augment.

Just attach a laser sight.

[Jasper_Phillips]

Originally, I was thinking that too. However, I would say more Mirror’s Edge than Assassin’s Creed. I liked Assassin’s Creed a lot, and it really changed my expectations about how city environments should behave in games, but the camera perspective and overall control had somewhat less immersion for me. It felt more like I was moving an action figure rather than being an actor in the game world.

Mirror’s Edge movement, open world, Deus Ex dystopian sci-fi and throw in Alpha Protocal reactivity… would be pretty cool.

That would work too, although I never played more than the demo for Mirror’s Edge and so had forgotten about it.

Batman would also be a good game to find some game mechanic inspiration from.

[Ed_Solomon]

I got Anna and Gunther with their killphrases (not a single shot fired). Simons was pretty damn easy, too: I used my X-ray vision to figure his location, turned on my cloak, and fired a few explosive rounds at him.

I’ve played DE 3 times through and I had no idea what you were talking about until I googled it, just now.

[Omniscia]

Which aug lets you cut through a chain link fence, or climb it? I mean, you can punch through reinforced concrete walls or jump like a kangaroo, but that only makes it more of a disconnect when your toe gets caught on something and so you can’t get over it, or you have to have superhuman strength to do something mundane like move a refrigerator.

I had a great time with Deux Ex, but as with many RPGs I am routinely balked by obstacles that wouldn’t stop my children. Its strong point isn’t getting around the environment.

It was a preorder bonus exclusive to Honest Bob’s PC Emporium and Waffle House.

[Jasper_Phillips]

Damnit, yet another reason to hate preorder exclusives.

Curse you Honest Bob!

[maxle]

But in most cases, they could just be cheezed.

1. Anna - haul ass into the vents and peck her to death with whatever is handy. She can’t touch you.

2. Gunther - The instant you hear his voice, put down a couple of LAMs. Don’t bother starting the conversation, just shoot him when he’s green and run. BOOM BOOM BANG. Done.

If you used the flamethrower on them, they took minimal damage, but waved their arms and screamed instead of, y’know, shooting you. So I set them on fire, shot them a lot, set them on fire again, shot them some more, and so on until they died.

At least I think I did. I know that was how I dealt with the men in black.

[Omniscia]

I’ve played DE 3 times through and I had no idea what you were talking about until I googled it, just now.

What, really? You must not be an obsessive-compulsive explorer in games like this, then.

If you used the flamethrower on them, they took minimal damage, but waved their arms and screamed instead of, y’know, shooting you. So I set them on fire, shot them a lot, set them on fire again, shot them some more, and so on until they died.

At least I think I did. I know that was how I dealt with the men in black.

The MIB are also quite vulnerable to tranquilizer darts, but you’ve got to get out of sight until they take effect.

[Sarkus]

Finally got to what I assume is the second boss fight. Wasn’t hard at all.

second boss fight

I’m talking about the enhanced girl at the bottom of the Picus levels. I died the first time, but the stun gun worked pretty well at stopping her in her tracks while I unloaded on her. Then she’d run away. Reload stun gun, wait for her to come back, repeat. Almost too easy.

[Ed_Solomon]

What, really? You must not be an obsessive-compulsive explorer in games like this, then.

See, that’s what is so surprising to me, I always thought I was.

[Lh_owon]

I died quite a lot in the boss fights, but mainly because I just didn’t care about them at all. They felt so at odds with what was otherwise really smart gameplay and narrative, I just wanted them to go away.

[Phydeaux]

Do we have any idea how this is selling, yet?

[Sarkus]

Do we have any idea how this is selling, yet?

It’s doing well on Steam, but I get the impression its not doing all that well on the consoles. I could be wrong, though.

[nordhus]

Seems to be selling well in the UK.

It fell just 26,000 units short of beating the lifetime sales of Deus Ex: Invisible War in just two days on the market. By now it has surely overtaken it.

[Hunty]

Once you have an armour-piercing, silenced 10 mm pistol, it’s hard to go back.

I have one, but my fully non-lethal ways have meant I only use it during pre-reload freakouts and to look cool when I am pressed against walls. I also used it to silently destroy large cardboard boxes until I unlocked the ability to lift them up. Glamour.

It’s probably been 60% takedown, 30% stun gun, 10% tranq rifle for me. I’m also toting round a shotgun, which saved my bacon in a particular fight. But I kind of prefer the idea of using the revolver, because revolvers are cool. Decisions, decisions.

Further musing, with a slight weapon upgrades spoiler

I am loathe to lose the Shotgun now because I have the double-fire attachment and an ammo upgrade bolted to it. But the revolver is cooler and my stealthy Jensen is way more likely to have one of those concealed under his trenchcoat than a big bulky shotgun…

P.S. This game is glorious and is recapturing the wonderful experience of the first Deus Ex beautifully so far, about ten hours in. I’m being completionist and exploring everywhere. Wonderfully rich.

[Jafisob]

It’s doing well on Steam, but I get the impression its not doing all that well on the consoles. I could be wrong, though.

I hope you are wrong on this one. This game deserves lots of DLC and a sequel or three.

I finished the game a couple days ago. Despite some imperfections, the game is absolutely amazing. With 20 years of PC gaming, this is definitely in my top ten.

[Chris_Nahr]

It’s doing well on Steam, but I get the impression its not doing all that well on the consoles. I could be wrong, though.

Quite the opposite in the UK, according to the MCV report linked above:

Xbox 360 emerged as the format of choice with 57 per cent of the sales. PS3 claimed 31 per cent and PC 13 per cent, though this of course does not take into account the significant number of digital sales.

[Miramon]

Finally finished. I made the choice that apparently makes SMAC the sequel… What can I say? Whoever it was who played Sarif sounds exactly like a guy at work, so I had to trust him.

Anyhow, I enjoyed the game quite a bit, despite some flaws and annoyances. Better, IMO, than Fallout 3 and New Vegas, and infinitely better than FF XIII, to name a few recent RPGs. Beats Mass Effect 2 too, due to the dumb story structure and inane ending of that game.

I used the plasma rifle for final fight, didn’t bother to think much about what I was doing, just ran randomly around shooting and blowing things up until I got a cut-scene…

I’m a little sorry the story made less and less sense over the course of the game. The ending in particular was silly, though still not as bad as the atrocious ending of Fallout 3 and the moronic boss fight in Mass Effect 2. I realize they tried to telegraph the ending over the course of the game – I was sure of the final level destination after the first few minutes of play – but that doesn’t make it any more reasonable. Oh well; it was OK up until the final location, anyway.

I’m thinking a version of the hacking minigame could be a good casual “lite” MMO; everyone gets to build out their own home network, and spends their daily action points on random intrusions into other people’s networks, with the usual casual-game positive sum so you increase your stuff over time regardless of how randomly other people happen to successfully hack you in a given day.