This is precisely the approach I took with my second playthrough. Everything that could be hacked, I hacked. Though I didn’t go completely Batman, I was willing to pop people in the head with a silenced 10mm when the issue of hiding the body before someone came and woke him up was too big. I’m thinking specifically of the Penthouse fight.
I was really impressed with its effectiveness the one time the game forces you into a big firefight. It may not always get one-shot kills, but it knocks people down. A knockdown is often just as valuable, it gives you time to deal with the others.
Unfortunately, the knockdown effect doesn’t work on bosses. Believe me, I tried.
I did the same thing. The second replay was really far too similar to the first. I’m burned out now, no way I’m doing a third replay, but if I did my rules would be “no takedowns” and “screw the Ghost bonus.” That still ends up with you sneaking a bunch, but honestly, that’s the strength of the game. At least the “no takedowns” rule forces you into shooting people a lot. Probably have to ban the tazer and tranquilizer rifles too, because you can end up playing with those exactly like a takedown game.
Juste
3362
Just finished. It falls apart a bit at the end, but overall a really good game. I played about 75% stealth, but got a bit impatient in the last couple of levels and went Rambo for a while. Seems to be just as viable an option, and a couple of the upgrades make weapons into pure death machines. The revolver with exploding ammo is just superlethal, i did one of the hardest fights in the game on the first try with it, what it can’t kill it knocks down and it has a good rate of fire as well.
Now when can we expect DE4? They more or less said it was coming in the game and I for one am looking forward to it.
Er… where did they say DE4 was coming, and what would it be about anyway? The immediate sequel to Human Revolution already exists, it’s the original Deus Ex. :)
They said it when they made DE3 and advertised it as hard as I’ve seen it thus far. If it doesn’t tank (and my impression is that it’s doing okay, though that’s based entirely on things I want to believe in my imagination), it’s getting a sequel. SquareEnix wouldn’t have done the first one if they didn’t think there was a franchise here they could exploit. I haven’t finished it yet, but the impression that I get from people that have is that there’s enough of a time gap left between the end of this game and the start of the original Deus Ex that if they wanted to squeeze another game in there, they could make it work. For that matter, I would pay sixty dollars to have the original Deux Ex upgraded to the mechanical systems they used in this game, and I’m sure that no small number of the people who bought the game from the commercials on SyFy or Adult Swim or the back of every other comic book I just got in the mail might not even be aware of the first game.
Giaddon
3365
OK, so I have just started a murder replay, and it’s good so far. It also reinforces how great the first two hours or so of the game are – like, way better than the rest of the game.
The game as a whole is certainly terrific (although zombie island sucks, they seriously effed that one up), but the first few hours are incredible. The walk and talk introduction to the labs is such a great way of placing you in the world and introducing the characters. I wish they did something like this at intervals throughout the game, the reinforce the story and give the characters more face time. (That said, it’s not perfect: some brief introductory text (Blade Runner-style) to set the scene would have helped a lot, especially bringing up Hugh Darrow earlier and explain the world situation (After Jensen comes back from the first mission, I wish Serif said something like: "the world’s changed in the last six months, here are files on important ppl/events/competitors, and you could get files on Darrow, Tai Young Medical, Humanity First, etc.))
But the first mission is what really stands out. The level layout is not complex, but the hostage situation and confrontation with Zeke are very cool and totally unique in the game, as is the way people react to your actions after the mission is over. No one comments on your performance from future missions, and those missions are much more binary you win the mission/you die setups. But the differences of saving the hostages/not, killing/stunning/letting zeke go, saving zeke’s hostage/not is a lot more interesting and and the different responses after the fact is great. I’d love to see more of this.
The shooting gameplay is good, surprisingly good, a million times better than DE. Can’t wait to use the shotgun.
See, I’m glad that didn’t happen. I liked piecing everything together myself.
Giaddon
3367
I can understand that, but – and this is (one of) my major problems with Human Revolution’s story – when I was reading newspapers, emails, ebooks, etc., I didn’t feel like I was piecing together some secret (which would have been great), I felt like I was piecing together stuff that Jensen, and any random guy on the street, would already know. It was like being in our world and combing through all these documents and being like “aha! So YouTube is owned by Google. Now I get it! Intrigue!”
If Human Revolution had been more up-front with it’s basic world building, it could have put more effort into the secret conspiracy behind it all.
shurgs Just my opinion.
Juste
3368
Watch the credits all through the end. There’s even an achievment for it.
malkav11
3369
That’s a nod to the original Deus Ex.
Yes, exactly. I didn’t interpret that as a hint to a sequel at all.
Juste
3371
Hah, you are right. Well, there goes my gamer credibility out the window :) that’s what i get for not replaying DE after finishing it all those years ago. It even sits on my harddrive mocking me.
I just fired up Arkham Asylum, since Deus Ex was giving me the “I’m Batman” vibe. What’s weird is that Jensen feels far, far stealthier than Batman. Mostly I’m running around in the open, punching guys, and having a harder time taking them down hand-to-hand than Jensen. Sneaking hardly enters into it. I know that changes somewhat later, but that’s the initial feel, it’s been a long time since I played.
WarrenM
3373
Sure, because Batman doesn’t sneak. He jumps into the middle of a room and beats the snot out of 15 guys at once. He only sneaks when required to by the story line.
jeffd
3375
I just finished the first boss on my second playthrough. I’m going full lethal this time, on the “Deus Ex” difficulty level. He was fairly trivial. Honestly the whole game has been fairly trivial. Removing the self-imposed “don’t get caught” restriction makes this game much, much easier.
It’s not entirely self-imposed, since you get +750 XP if you aren’t caught. Most of the time being seen also means they set off an alarm, so you lose both bonuses. Also, where you get caught matters. If you don’t have plenty of cover, or the hostiles have a route to flank you when you’re caught, you’re probably dead.
When I re-played Deus Ex, I wasn’t too concerned about getting caught. Getting shot once or twice wasn’t a big deal, and I could take down most enemies pretty quickly. When I started my HR replay, I carried that attitude over, and got killed right away. They spotted me, I got behind cover, some guy ran around to the side and shot and killed me. I think I lasted 2 seconds once he had a clear line of fire. That experience pushed me right back into the “don’t get caught” mindset, and the replay ended up much like my first game.
So I booted this up today, and now I’m seeing an ad for the Star Wars Blu-Ray on the loading screen. It is pretty subtile, but it’s there - kinda like a banner ad.
What is this massive update pulling down now from steam?
EDIT - Nevermind, looks like it was trying to re-download the game after I had moved it to my external drive. Odd.
Yeah. Looks like the new update is just ads. That’s lame.
Pogo
3380
That’s basically how I just started the game.
I plan on playing this on Medium and going gun nut all the way, probably with enhanced jumping/landing and armor.
Stealth is for the second playthrough when I’ll probably explore a lot more and check out things I probably missed as I ran around with a combat rifle firing at everyone.
