Game News Deus Ex: Human Revolution info

[DarkUnderlord]

Tags: Deus Ex: Human Revolution; Eidos Montreal

<p><a href="http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=281976">Computer and Video Games have a short piece</a> on what we might expect from the upcoming Deus Ex:</p>
<p> </p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">The mind-blowing Deus Ex: Human Revolution reveal trailer took a development sideteam an entire year to craft, costing untold millions.<br /><br />Before work on the game began, the 120-strong main crew spent twelve months simply playing previous titles in the series (yep, even Project: Snowblind, bless 'em) to immerse themselves in the mythology of Warren Spector's sci-fi opus.<br />[...]<br />It looks beautiful, but every potential shootout is qualified with the opportunity to sneak in via a back entrance, or sweet talk/strong-arm your way past a guardian. Eidos are taking this ethos so seriously that - boss encounters apart - you'll apparently be able to finish the whole game without taking a single life.<br />[...]<br />Conversation has been beefed up, the visuals now on a level where you can judge the authenticity of a suspect by his body language alone.<br />[...]<br />But the time for eulogising about this masterly creation is almost over. With a release date of early April on the cards, Eidos have been noticeably languid in letting us get hands-on with their baby, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">preferring to illustrate its complexities via controlled demos</span>.</p>
<p><br />There it is: The game is doomed to fail. There are far too many cooks in that kitchen and they've spent all their time baking cakes that look pretty but can't be eaten.</p>

 

[Andhaira]

They spent 12 MONTHS playing the previous titles? Seriously? Why so long? A month-two months ought to have been enough.

 

[baronjohn]

That's easy for the PC gaming master race to say, but can you imagine how hard it is to adapt to Deus Ex for the average popamole consolefag?

 

[Pablosdog]

I'm cautiously optimistic. With so few games to play, I'm barely a gamer anymore...

 

[Azrael the cat]

That's easy for the PC gaming master race to say, but can you imagine how hard it is to adapt to Deus Ex for the average popamole consolefag?

That's where I disagree. Whilst I'll refuse to believe that the D-Ex reboot will be any good until I see it, there is no reason why console FO3/ME fans couldn't play Deus Ex, unless they're put off by the graphics or the fact it isn't a straight shooter. Complexity, per se, is a non-issue.

Deus Ex is a masterpiece of doing a lot with very little complexity. The skill and exp systems are no more complex than any Bethesda game - if they can play FO3 they can easily play Deus Ex. Deus Ex was able to be picked up by kiddies who had played nothing but Doom - unlike System Shock 2, you can pick up any weapon in the game without skill point investment, and many of them can be used effectively with minimal investment (darts, rocket launcher, shotguns). Stealth requires no investment and is done with line of sight and proximity to 'cover' (any wall or object will do), and rudimentary AI...combined with trulygreat map design. The overall game is totally linear, but with individual maps that are often non-linear and always have 2 or 3 routes to each objective. Consequences are always cosmetic - you can't lose the game, or even close off any of the endings, by making poor choices, at most you have a different character giving the same dialogue...yet the cosmetic choices are so frequent and done so well that it gives the 'feel' of reactivity.

I'm not expecting the reboot to live up to the original. But that isn't because Deus Ex was more 'complex' than modern FPS-crpgs: it does more with less.

 

[Licaon_Kter]

"preferring to illustrate its complexities via controlled demos"
this reminder really got to me now

don't tell me: they still polish the game 3 months before release ( when they should be in Q&A for some gold master or somethin' )
it will be polished until only the bones show up, pretty clean bones but bones none the less, good for putting in the closed and not showing them to your friends

my declining take: it will be another so called 'flawed gem' in the realms of Alpha Protocol ( which at the moment i fairly enjoy for those 7.50eur that i got it from Steam ) with weak sales, one patch to remove DRM after 6 months and no future "Deu4 Ex" planned

 

[Morgoth]

 

[SimpleComplexity]

the visuals now on a level where you can judge the authenticity of a suspect by his body language alone

Bioware's next game will feature hard nipples and stiff cocks.

 

[denizsi]

Next game? So old gen!

Learn it from FNV

 

[Elhoim]

The mind-blowing Deus Ex: Human Revolution reveal trailer took a development sideteam an entire year to craft, costing untold millions.

And I was worried that taking a whole day to do a gameplay video was a lot of wasted timed.

 

[SimpleComplexity]

Next game? So old gen!

Learn it from FNV

This must be the reason why so many people here enjoy that game.

 

[deuxhero]

It looks beautiful, but every potential shootout is qualified with the opportunity to sneak in via a back entrance, or sweet talk/strong-arm your way past a guardian. Eidos are taking this ethos so seriously that - boss encounters apart - you'll apparently be able to finish the whole game without taking a single life.

Even Invisible War got this right FFS

 

[Jaesun]

Boss Encounters? Yeah, that is totally the entire DX experience.

This game will be shit.

 

[MetalCraze]

A year ago the lead designer of this pile of crap said that Deus Ex 1 was a boring, slow piece of shit.

And now hype tells me that dev studio actually bothered to play it?
Guess that's why Desu Ex is a retarded shooter with cover system and health insta-regen?

 

[Azrael the cat]

the visuals now on a level where you can judge the authenticity of a suspect by his body language alone

Bioware's next game will feature hard nipples and stiff cocks.

There's nothing wrong with the principle of 'show the intent through the body language / facial expression', but it gets implemented so awfully. The folks making the animations seems to have no sense of emotional subtlety, so what you get is the facial animations akin to the most godawful community theatre actors on the planet. You know - if the guy is angry, he does 'angry face', if the guy is sad, he does 'sad face'.

The idea is fine, but they need to get their head around the idea that if they're focussing on graphics to convey emotion, rather than writing or voice (both of which are done by folks who - if they're competent - already have a grasp on conveying emotional subtlety), they're going to need to get people who have an understanding of film/drama as well as graphics/animation.

One more case of extra graphics/tech increasing the costs and staff required for good development.

 

[MetalCraze]

Extra graphics isn't something possible on 5 years old consoles. See - XBawks 360 can barely render this game in anything other than black and yellow

 

[Crooked Bee]

It's only natural that Enix-Square wouldn't even think of publishing a game without boss encounters.

 

[SoupNazi]

First Deus Ex had boss encounters. Dumbfucks.

 

[Azrael the cat]

A year ago the lead designer of this pile of crap said that Deus Ex 1 was a boring, slow piece of shit.

And now hype tells me that dev studio actually bothered to play it?
Guess that's why Desu Ex is a retarded shooter with cover system and health insta-regen?

Why lie? He said it was brilliant but it was a little slow at times. There's plenty of potential stuff to criticise without making shit up.

 

[MetalCraze]

In an interview with Edge magazine, published tomorrow, Dugas says the original Deus Ex was “kind of slow”. He added, “There weren’t enough exciting, memorable moments. It was aimed more towards a simulation rather than a game experience.”

I guess this constitutes "it was brilliant" in your pinky world?

Also lawl? Simulation? Of what? Invisibility cloaks?

 

[Pablosdog]

In an interview with Edge magazine, published tomorrow, Dugas says the original Deus Ex was “kind of slow”. He added, “There weren’t enough exciting, memorable moments. It was aimed more towards a simulation rather than a game experience.”

I guess this constitutes "it was brilliant" in your pinky world?

Also lawl? Simulation? Of what? Invisibility cloaks?

We all know it was a simulation about how to gain health from vending machine products

 

[deuxhero]

First Deus Ex had boss encounters. Dumbfucks.

Only Anna (who would be bugged past or skipped via killphrase) and Howard Strong (who would glady blow himself up with a LAM for you and wasn't any stronger than any other character) were forced fights. The other "bosses" could be avoided.

 

[commie]

First Deus Ex had boss encounters. Dumbfucks.

Only Anna (who would be bugged past or skipped via killphrase) and Howard Strong (who would glady blow himself up with a LAM for you and wasn't any stronger than any other character) were forced fights. The other "bosses" could be avoided.

Doesn't change the fact that they were forced fights, something the 'hurr durr' brigade that needs to bitch about everything new, conveniently forget.

There's enough shit with DXHR to whine about without using selective memory to rage about one thing in one game and not in another.

What would be good at least, even with unskippable fights, is an option to let the bad dude live. That way you COULD finish the game as a peacenik if you wanted to.

 

[Twinkle]

First Deus Ex had boss encounters

Except that they even weren't "bosses" in traditional sense.

 

[Azrael the cat]

First Deus Ex had boss encounters. Dumbfucks.

Only Anna (who would be bugged past or skipped via killphrase) and Howard Strong (who would glady blow himself up with a LAM for you and wasn't any stronger than any other character) were forced fights. The other "bosses" could be avoided.

There's Hermann as well - again, avoidable via killphrase. The Anna one doesn't really work like a boss-fight if you kill her in the plane as well - you can just empty a clip into her before she can react.

The Water Simons fight can be delayed, but not completely avoided (it's the only guy you absolutely have to kill to progress the game). However, delaying the Simons fight, avoiding killing Hermann and avoiding the fight with the Hong Kong actress (forgotten name for now) all feel VERY artificial. They consist of you just turning tail and running.

With Walter Simons it is arguably intended as a deliberate option: you get a warning that he is coming, and of course you meet him again if you don't see him there. I'm not so sure that fleeing from Hermann was quite so intended (especially given that they provide you with another way of avoiding the fight via killphrase).

Regardless, it was made possible by a good design mentality - i.e. linking the map progression triggers to things other than killing (i.e. map advances because you picked up the mcguffin, or entered the password, or rescued the Mr McGuffin, etc), allowing you to continue if you did something that the developers didn't expect - Spector had said on quite a few interviews that the open design method was what gives the player the variety of options, not that the team delberately put every option in there (he's often said that one of his favourite things about the game is the way that players find ways to progress that the team themselves didn't know about.

Personally, whilst I think that 'boss fights' are a clear break from anything we had in Deus Ex, their inclusion really doesn't bother me. It's a reboot, not a remake, and I'd be more than happy to allow a few compromises like a 'bells-and-whistles' fight per map if that's what it takes to get the console sales up, so long as the open map design and multiple progression tactics were there as well.

Again, I'm skeptical that they'll do a good job of a new Deus Ex - the Deus Ex map design just screams 'Warren Spector game', and it's pretty much Spector's 'thing', I honestly can't think of any non-Spector games that have that same feel to the maps. But things like whether there are boss fights, whether the abilities match the original game, the colour scheme - I'm not too bothered by that.