|
It's not the end of the world, but you can see it from here
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/z4OSO.jpg)
First off, I want to say that Deus Ex is a really good game. Its one of those games where, when watch the final cutscene and watch the answers unfold infront of your eyes, you just sit back for a minute and say "Damn. that was a really good game." I hope I can help a few people who were on the edge about buying the game make a decision.
You're Adam Jensen. A former cop turned security professional for multi-billion, Detroit based bio-tech company Sarif Industries. The year is 2027 and the game offers a dystopian cyber-punk vision of the future. Robotic augmentations allow humans to modify their body to do everything they've ever wanted, jump higher, run faster, be stronger and see better. As it stands, augmentations are the future of the human race, but the world is split on whether or not it's right for humanity to be messing with the way they were created.
Overall, the story is fairly well thought out for a videogame. You wind up exploring several different cities including Detroit, Heng Sha - an urban sprawl of Shanghai, and short stints in Singapore, Montreal, and + Show Spoiler +an installation in Antarctica
Besides the main plot, there are several side quests that explore the world and the people in it further. E-books, E-mails, "Pocket Secretaries" and newspapers lie around and explain the world and it's environment further. There is seriously an immense amount of supportive text in this game, and you can tell that the developers went to massive lengths to fill in the details and make the world as believable as possible, and ultimately provides a very immersive gaming experience.
+ Show Spoiler +My only problem with the story, is that the whole Illuminati thing seemed a little forced. I know that the original games had their respective storylines heavily entrenched in the exploration of modern day conspiracy theories. Maybe its just me, but the whole thing didn't even come in until you were very deep into the storyline, and didn't really affect anything until the very end. It didn't really serve any real purpose besides giving Taggart an ulterior motive.
I don't think it was necessarily bad writing, however, I just don't think it really fit in with the scheme of this game. It felt like they put it in there because they felt they had to, more than they put it in there because it felt necessary.
The art direction is very strong, however, I feel like if the game has any weakness, the graphics must be it. They're not bad, but the game seems somewhat inconsistent in graphic quality. The color pallatte chosen (strong black-brown and orange hues) fits the environment perfectly and gives the game the perfect cyber-punk and dark theme they are going for. Most LOD is pre-rendered 2-D and often breaks immersion in several scenes. In some cases, aliasing artifacts still remain in the game even on the highest settings which also detracts from the graphics.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/zZduT.jpg)
The prerendered background really detracts from the scene, IMO
In addition, the game makes heavy use of bloom lighting, which some people find distracting and detracts from the overall feel of the game.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/yZ4qF.jpg)
That sign should really say BLOOM!
On top of that, animations can be inconsistent as well. You can tell that some animations were clearly rushed or not nearly as polished as the rest of the game. Character's eyes will sometimes roll back in their heads. In conversation, people often bounce around like they are on crack cocaine. Also, the developers seem to have a thing for making the only two elderly black women in the game as ugly and poorly rendered as possible lol.
Facial animations for several characters are mechanical and poorly done. On top of that, Jensen's trench-coat and turtleneck thing seems to be a hotspot for clipping, even in some of the most pivotal of the games cut-scenes. It's something that I would think the animators would have avoided considering he wears it in at least half of the missions and at times can be very distracting.
However, if graphics are the weak spot, gameplay is by far the best of any game to be released in several years.
The thing about Deus Ex is, there are always several different ways to beat the mission at hand, and the best way isn't always the most obvious. You can become a cold blooded killer, or you can even finish the game without killing a single person. Heres an example. Your boss, David Sariff, wants you to steal the body of a malicious hacker from the police precinct. To do this, you can crawl through the sewers and find the entrance to the precinct from there, you can crawl in an air vent in the roof, you can try and reason with the guard at the door to let you in to the station, you can sneak by and try and steal the body undetected, or you can go on a rampage and shoot everyone inside.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/adIK0.jpg)
Forgoing stealth, I decided to stick it to the man. Fuck tha poleece.
It's this kind of choice that is unprecedented in most modern video games, and something that Deus Ex does perfectly. The way you play the game is all dependent on how you design your character with your Praxis, the points used to allocate your augmentations. Taking body armor "Augs" will allow you to take more hits in combat, while stealth augs can give your character some nifty tricks while sneaking around. Every Deus Ex experience can be customized to how you want to build your character and what you want out of the game, and combined with other elements gives the game a high replay value.
The only part I feel that they strayed from this doctrine is in the boss fights. While the rest of the game heavily enforces choice and freedom in gameplay, the boss fights forgo all of this and reduce the game to a simple one dimensional shooter.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/sVRZx.jpg)
This guy...
I don't like the way they went about this, and it really detracts from the gameplay when you know an ultimately lethal boss fight is at the end of the road. Also, two of the games fights completely bugged out for me and made them ridiculously easy to finish. I know its an isolated case, but I felt just a little bit cheated at the end. Also, + Show Spoiler +The last boss is absurdly if even insultingly easy with the right augs. I was really disappointed with this fight, especially considering the immense difficulty of the previous two bosses in comparison
The A.I. also seems pretty dumb at times. Once you learn how to game the A.I. most missions become very easy.
Besides the main points, the audio is very well done. While there aren't really any memorable tracks, it contributes to the gameplay and complements the story and mood perfectly. The game is very highly polished and detail can be found everywhere. The hacking minigame is quite enjoyable and I'm glad they made it rewarding instead of a hinderance as is the case in most games.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/gieBh.jpg)
L337 H4X0R
Overall, Deus Ex is easily the best game released in 2011 so far and one of the best single player FPS games released in years. I would recommend it to almost anyone-however, I will say that if you are looking for a game in which you can just run in and blast people, you may be disappointed. Jensen really cant take many hits even when fully augmented and guards will tear you apart if you go about things like a jarhead from other games, especially on harder difficulties.
Other than that, I would recommend the game to pretty much anyone. Considering everything I say the game deserves a 9.0/10 as a score. It is easily one of the most engrossing gameplay experiences released in years, but there are a few small issues that hold it back from getting the perfect score.
 
|
Thanks dood! Been a Deus Ex fan since the first. Like the review, just waiting for the money to get it now :3
|
You had a lot of bad things to say... 9/10 was surprising at the end there.
|
Nice review, apparently everyone gives very good grades to this game.
I am still on the fence tho, not because i doubt the gameplay but because of my computer. According to specs, i should be able to run it in low settings. Do you think low grafics in this game affect it?
For the record, i have no problem enjoying games with bad grafics or grafics set on low. But there are some games that are almost unplayable in low specs. example: fear3 in low detail everything is so blurry you really have a hard time distinguishing things at mid-hight distance, and that's a big hassle in a fps
|
On August 27 2011 10:00 mucker wrote:
You had a lot of bad things to say... 9/10 was surprising at the end there.
with Human Revoloution, since so much of the game is amazing it's easy to nitpick the few bad things
spot on with the best game of 2011 statement. I enjoyed the shit out of this game, a very worthy successor to Deus Ex
|
This is an accurate review. The problems with animations and less then great graphics tuning didnt bother me too much though, but thats just about preference. The boss fights broke immersion more then anything else imo.
The problems with the game are minor in comparison to how solid the rest of the gameplay is.
|
On August 27 2011 10:07 SagaZ wrote:
Nice review, apparently everyone gives very good grades to this game.
I am still on the fence tho, not because i doubt the gameplay but because of my computer. According to specs, i should be able to run it in low settings. Do you think low grafics in this game affect it?
For the record, i have no problem enjoying games with bad grafics or grafics set on low. But there are some games that are almost unplayable in low specs. example: fear3 in low detail everything is so blurry you really have a hard time distinguishing things at mid-hight distance, and that's a big hassle in a fps
I just tried loading the game on lowest settings, and it still looks pretty good. I would say that graphics are clearly not the focus of this game, and the gameplay is phenomenal no matter what settings you're at.
I will say though that the game makes lots of use of DirectX 11 and tesselation, so if you don't have a DX11 card your results might be different.
|
United States22883 Posts
Did you play through it as a stealth or a shooter? The FoV/no shadows stealth system kind of bothers me. Especially in 2011, it seems like they could've done an ultra-amazing stealth game with real time shadows. And how did you find the customization/rpg aspects? Are they actually meaningful and interesting? Or can you just forgo them and headshot everything.
|
Soundtrack and gameplay rocks, bossfights are terrible, would be my first 6 hour review
EDIT: I played it as a stealth game, which it worked well with. Not sure how the guns plazing pew pew pew would work out
|
On August 27 2011 10:19 Jibba wrote:
Did you play through it as a stealth or a shooter? The FoV/no shadows stealth system kind of bothers me. Especially in 2011, it seems like they could've done an ultra-amazing stealth game with real time shadows. And how did you find the customization/rpg aspects? Are they actually meaningful and interesting? Or can you just forgo them and headshot everything.
the customization actually matters a lot. upgrading your hacker skills is tempting as hell because you'll be able to access everything easier, but you know that when the next boss battle comes you'll regret the fuck out of it when you die 20x before progressing T______T
you can only maybe get half of the upgrades available to you by the end of the game and each and every one is worthwhile (some more than others depending on your playstyle)
I don't mind the third-person cover system that much, but they probably could (should) have put a shadow system in place like you said
I played through as a stealth/hacker type on my first go, now I'm doing another as a straight up badass killer :D
|
Those flaws have been said so many times, and to me it makes no difference at all. The game is incredible. And no i don't think the boss fights are terrible.
|
On August 27 2011 10:19 Jibba wrote:
Did you play through it as a stealth or a shooter? The FoV/no shadows stealth system kind of bothers me. Especially in 2011, it seems like they could've done an ultra-amazing stealth game with real time shadows. And how did you find the customization/rpg aspects? Are they actually meaningful and interesting? Or can you just forgo them and headshot everything.
I feel like I played it as a hybrid really. I would try my best to take out enemies stealthily, but if the numbers weren't too stacked I wasn't afraid to get into a gunfight. I actually (stupidly) wasted alot of my points on stupid worthless stuff lol.
On the hardest difficulty I feel the game almost forces you to play stealth-like, as guards easily take twice as many hits as you (and heavies feel like taking down a tank), but takedowns are instant kills and the game encourages you to use them for bonus experience as well.
I was overall happy with the way the stealth mechanics worked, however, the stupid AI problems I talked about as well were mostly due to these mechanics as well. For example, you can kill someone right in their face and run away, but if they lose sight of you they instantly stop their chase and you can do the same thing to take out an entire room of bad guys. If the stealth system took advantage of shadows and stuff I feel the developers could have made the AI smarter without making the game too difficult.
The customizations matter alot really. However, there are alot of things that look like they would be good but actually turn out to be pretty crappy in practicality. I wasted a ton of points on things like the typhoon (an 360-degree aoe bomb) and cloak and energy upgrades, but you are rarely in a situation where the typhoon is practical, cloak lasts so short that you rarely have the energy to use it, and the energy upgrades are pretty much useless because to regen any energy past the first cell requires you to find energy food to eat which isn't exactly all that common. On easier settings they might have been helpful but on the hardest settings they just weren't practical.
On the other hand, there are several upgrades that also severely change the way you play the game, and overall the augment system is one of the stronger points of the game and I enjoyed it.
|
Edit- (misread somewhat) Some augments are just weird and useless like the trackers in the stealth enhancement tree, not worth points at all. overall the augment system is probably the strongest draw of the game, it really lets you develop your character dynamically and build yourself to a playstyle your comfortable with.
Edit 2- lol i didnt realize i quoted you almost exactly :p
|
On August 27 2011 10:41 Hakker wrote:
The customizations matter alot really. However, there are alot of things that look like they would be good but actually turn out to be pretty crappy in practicality. I wasted a ton of points on things like the typhoon (an 360-degree aoe bomb) and cloak and energy upgrades, but you are rarely in a situation where the typhoon is practical, cloak lasts so short that you rarely have the energy to use it, and the energy upgrades are pretty much useless because to regen any energy past the first cell requires you to find energy food to eat which isn't exactly all that common. On easier settings they might have been helpful but on the hardest settings they just weren't practical.
Really? I thought cloak was really useful, you gotta use it to make short travels between hiding places. The Regen upgrade helps with that too since if you're quick you can make it without using up a full energy cell. Can't speak for the Typhoon because I didn't get that one on my first runthrough, though
|
On August 27 2011 10:56 MonsieurGrimm wrote:Show nested quote +On August 27 2011 10:41 Hakker wrote:
The customizations matter alot really. However, there are alot of things that look like they would be good but actually turn out to be pretty crappy in practicality. I wasted a ton of points on things like the typhoon (an 360-degree aoe bomb) and cloak and energy upgrades, but you are rarely in a situation where the typhoon is practical, cloak lasts so short that you rarely have the energy to use it, and the energy upgrades are pretty much useless because to regen any energy past the first cell requires you to find energy food to eat which isn't exactly all that common. On easier settings they might have been helpful but on the hardest settings they just weren't practical. Really? I thought cloak was really useful, you gotta use it to make short travels between hiding places. The Regen upgrade helps with that too since if you're quick you can make it without using up a full energy cell. Can't speak for the Typhoon because I didn't get that one on my first runthrough, though
I really didn't like the cloak, after a while I started setting up my attacks so that I would always have a place to bail out if shit hits the fan, and because of the way the AI works it just didn't feel necessary most of the time, because I could reset the guards by just running around a corner.
I feel like I wouldn't feel so cheated if the energy upgrades let you regen to full, especially later in the game where you really have no inventory room to keep bars on you at all times.
Actually, I didn't necessarily dislike the energy regen, I think it was a pretty good investment, but the bonus energy cells felt pretty useless most of the time.
|
How long is the game if one goes from mission to mission without exploration? it looks good. but if the sotry is like 7-10 hours it seems a little steep.
|
On August 27 2011 11:18 masterbreti wrote:
How long is the game if one goes from mission to mission without exploration? it looks good. but if the sotry is like 7-10 hours it seems a little steep.
It probably depends on the difficulty, but I would say the main story is atleast 20 hours of gameplay.
I'd also say that the sidequests and exploring are big draws of the game and a good part of what makes it great.
|
played it through first time, it definitely retained a lot of the old dx feel (maybe too much?) what I missed was a melee weapon to use instead of pressing the q button.
|
On August 27 2011 11:28 kaisr wrote:
played it through first time, it definitely retained a lot of the old dx feel (maybe too much?) what I missed was a melee weapon to use instead of pressing the q button.
should have kept the stun gun  silent close range nonlethal takedowns!
|
On August 27 2011 11:34 MonsieurGrimm wrote:Show nested quote +On August 27 2011 11:28 kaisr wrote:
played it through first time, it definitely retained a lot of the old dx feel (maybe too much?) what I missed was a melee weapon to use instead of pressing the q button. should have kept the stun gun silent close range nonlethal takedowns!
hehe the stun gun was pretty cool, but I mean missed like I missed the dragon tooth sword in deus ex 1 where i just ran around like an idiot with speed aug and smashed people's faces in with 1 hit.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
