Agreed, the name is strange. It most closely resembles a mini-gun, what with the gatling barrels. I’ve never actually fired one. I had that problem the first game, I’d pick up every heavy weapon I could find, and eventually I’d just end up dropping it for some different heavy weapon without actually using the first one. The second run, I’ve been sticking mostly to pistol shots. I somewhat think I shouldn’t have bothered carting the silenced sniper rifle around, though I have fired it a half dozen times.
You can pick up a rocket launcher fairly early, but I can’t imagine what you’d use it against. Maybe robots, but every robot I’ve encountered has been easily handled by a compact EMP grenade or mine.
Has anyone really gone full-Rambo in this game? Even the second time through, when I swore I wouldn’t, I end up being preoccupied with the Ghost bonus. In my recent replay of Deus Ex, I was “stealthy” in the sense that I never just ran into a firefight, but I always just popped people in the head with the pistol or (later) sniper rifle, or hosed them down with the assault rifle. For all that it’s considered a very different game, in many ways I ended up playing it like a straight shooter. HR just doesn’t seem to lend itself to that.
Otagan
3323
I’m trying to lay out my self-imposed restrictions for my second playthrough to make things interesting, and it’s basically coming down to four key points.
- No points can be put into hacking abilities at all. The one point already invested at game start obviously does not count.
- The most aggressive or confrontational conversation option must be chosen whenever presented, regardless of how undesirable the outcome may be.
- The stun gun, tranquilizer rifle, 10mm pistol, gas grenades and non-lethal takedowns may never be used. (EDIT: Also, no PEPS.)
- Every hostile in the entire game must die. Any place that can be cleaned out must be, even if there are methods by which you can get through the area without engaging enemies.
Extraordinarily minor plot-related example
Since I am obviously going to fail my conversation with the desk clerk at the police station in Detroit, the whole station is going to get cleaned out. About the only people I won’t end up taking out will be obvious civilians (like on the streets of Detroit or in the police station lobby), and anyone who can become hostile under any circumstances who is not a street cop is going to end up in a lot of pain.
Throwing those XP bonuses and all the hacking goodies out the window is going to be painful, but will also let me experience the game in a totally different manner than I already have. There will be blood.
Because anything less than automatic is for pussies? That’s going to be hard in the early going. I don’t remember seeing anything other than that and machine pistols in the first mission.
I think you should also drop the pepsi out of that list. I mean, I still haven’t shot anybody with it, but I think it’s supposed to be less-lethal.
skyride
3325
Finished it last night and I have to say that I’m a bit disappointed overall. The first few hours with the game had me thinking that it was going to be an amazing experience all the way through. But the story started boring me. Hacking got too easy and felt like a chore. Non lethal approach was feeling repetitive. I probably should have gone lethal so I could enjoy all the cool new guns because the stealth gameplay got repetitive. I was basically playing the last level in the game exactly the same way as the first level.
I also didn’t care for any of the characters. Only Pritchard is interesting but then he’s just a voice in your head.
This is going to completely hose you. There are definitely things that cannot be done without hacking 2 or 3, minimum. The Bobby Bao quest, the Diamond Chen quest, the murder mystery in Hangsha, none of it can be done with Hacking 1.
Honestly, I can’t see playing without hacking. I really like hacking. If I were to play a real murder-rampage game, I’d use turrets and bots to kill people whenever possible.
He left lethal takedowns on the list. Takedowns are always an effective attack.
Malik’s side quest makes her kind of interesting. How she handles her end of it, I mean.
Otagan
3328
That’s the idea. Make it tough. I’ll probably have to stick to lethal takedowns for much of the first level, but that’s okay.
Guess who never shot anybody with it either… An omission I will correct.
I’m looking forward to seeing just how much of the game I can do without any points in it. That’s going to be part of the fun.
malkav11
3329
The PEPS is definitely nonlethal, although it only seems to KO enemies if you catch them full on at close range. I have a very difficult time envisioning a genuine use for it as it is loud as fuck, alerts everyone, has a terrible fire rate and reload time, and very limited ammo and effectiveness. Plus both it and the ammo are semi-bulky.
I used the PEPS throughout the game. Three guys in a security office? Jump in out of a vent and PEPS 'em. That sort of thing. They go “alarmed” right before they get flung across the room into the wall. It came in handy quite a few times.
For all those times when you’ve got, like, four guys gathered in a tiny space without any walls between them and you need to knock them all out and you can’t cloak and throw a gas grenade. Right?
I’m seriously considering ditching it. I only ever use the tranq rifle and the double barreled shotgun anyway.
second boss
On a more practical level, it absolutely smacks the living shit out of Yelena. It holds her in place for about as long as an EMP explosion - maybe longer - or one of the generators. Which would be totally useful if it didn’t take half a damn hour to switch weapons to something that does actual damage.
I’ve seen at least one video where someone used it to good effect in the helicopter fight. But yeah, I’m having trouble visualizing a lot of situations that I can’t handle just as well with something smaller.
You’ve used the shotgun? I’ve never used either variant. Generally I figure if I’m close, I’m going to punch them or taze them. Both are silent and 100% effective.
Bosses. That’s how I won the second boss fight. Technically, it’s also how I won the first one, but I could have gotten around that by not missing on one of my throws. It’s easily the best lethal boss option because of its ridiculously tiny inventory footprint.
WarrenM
3334
The shotgun is actually decent at range. I’ve killed guys with it from a surprising distance away…
Warning
3335
The Typhoon really makes the game. Don’t like those bots? Typhoon. Buncha guys you need to take out? Typhoon. End game stuff (avoiding spoilers)? Typhoon.
Oh and bosses. Good for them as well.
I’d been getting erratic hangs on loading screens for a while, and now it’s getting really bad. The little spinny thing spins for a bit, then stops. And I need to pull up task manager and kill it. Anyone else have these and solve them?
Gunny
3337
I would love to see proof of 5 second loads in this game. Or 10 for that matter.
MikeJ
3338
Not proof, but when I first got the game, it seemed like 20-30s loads. After a couple of patches, the loads were pretty quick. Under 10s for sure and probably around 5s, really. Fast enough that I engaged in some incredible save-reload cheese in some places.
Edit: loading a few saves from throughout the game, I get 7.1, 7.3, 8.6 and 9.3 seconds. A bit slower than I thought.
Raife
3339
I don’t use it, I didn’t even unlock it. it’s too much of an “I win” button. I also try not to use vents if I can help it. It’s like they made this challenging game and then some testers complained that it was too hard, so they added cheesy ways to bypass most of the challenges. No thanks.
Vent Warrior is straight from the first DX.
