Game News Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Released

[Invictus]

Yes, it streamlines. Yes, it adds popamole elements, but it's nowhere near extreme as in the case of HR. Infinitron himself said FO3 was rather old school principled for a 2008 game, and it was.

The new game is fine and I'm a faggot brown nigger peasant with no standards

See this is what I mean. Extreme double standards. How the fuck is unfaithful streamlined popamole "fine".

Yeah well the fact I like the newer Deus Ex game AND the original with your modifications either says I am completly tastless nitwit or you and your mod are not as highbrow as you think... Given that you were ranting about only getting 7,000 downlods when you released your mod over peasants who didnt apprecite your magnificence and forever withholding it's brilliance I guess it is pretty clear what is what

 

[skacky]

the Thief reboot

The what?

 

[almondblight]

The reason people on this site dislike Fallout 3 is because its content is juvenile and stupid

A lot of those people endlessly defend the juvenile and stupid content in Fallout 2, so it's hard to take them seriously.

 

[Mozg]

The first mission of the global antiterrorist organization should have been paratrooping into a cambodian game cafe and machinegunning everyone for copyright infringement.

 

[Pirata Alma Negra]

FO3 is shit by its own merits, nothing to do with turning the mechanics upside-down.

Besides, a faithful scan of the originals will never be seen again anyway.

 

[Bubbles]

Fallout 1.5 came close enough to be very fun.

 

[vivec]

Just to weigh on the earlier discussion about DXHR:

DXHR is a Deus Ex game only in the name and the general idea of level design. In *all* other criteria, the feel, the non-linearity, the characters and the lore it is not equal to DX. Is it a good game? That word has started to mean a lot less since the IE games series. So in the modern diminutive world, yeah, why not, sure, it's a good game.

For those played Deus Ex and enjoyed games like Thief, the modern versions of these games are an abomination, that should have just existed as something else and not under these brand names.

 

[Ash]

Yeah well the fact I like the newer Deus Ex game AND the original with your modifications either says I am completly tastless nitwit or you and your mod are not as highbrow as you think... Given that you were ranting about only getting 7,000 downlods when you released your mod over peasants who didnt apprecite your magnificence and forever withholding it's brilliance I guess it is pretty clear what is what

Where does the mod come into this? This is about DX1 (vanilla) vs Human Revolution. I also "like" HR on some level, but accepting it as "fine" and not taking issue with the butchery is decline-enabling, plain and simple.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Just to way on the earlier discussion about DXHR:

DXHR is a Deus Ex game only in the name and the general idea of level design. In *all* other criteria, the feel, the non-linearity, the characters and the lore it is not equal to DX. Is it a good game? That word has started to mean a lot less since the IE games series. So in the modern diminutive world, yeah, why not, sure, it's a good game.

For those played Deus Ex and enjoyed games like Thief, the modern versions of these games are an abomination, that should have just existed as something else and not under these brand names.

Deus ex gone trough a better transition than thief at least. Some people here hate HR with such passion, but c'mon, the popamoling isnt even that bad.

 

[Ash]

Yeah well the fact I like the newer Deus Ex game AND the original with your modifications either says I am completly tastless nitwit or you and your mod are not as highbrow as you think... Given that you were ranting about only getting 7,000 downlods when you released your mod over peasants who didnt apprecite your magnificence and forever withholding it's brilliance I guess it is pretty clear what is what

And for the record, GMDX's download count is absolutely not indicative of its quality or incline levels. How dumb are you? If popularity ever was indicative of quality then FO3 or Candy Crush could be argued to better than Fallout/DeusEx/insert classic RPG based on sales alone.

 

[Tito Anic]

For those played Deus Ex and enjoyed games like Thief, the modern versions of these games are an abomination, that should have just existed as something else and not under these brand names.

Deus ex gone trough a better transition than thief at least. Some people here hate HR with such passion, but c'mon, the popamoling isnt even that bad.

Half raped?

 

[Ash]

Half raped?

Reasonably accurate. DX:HR could have always been worse, and some things were faithful.

 

[Invictus]

Yeah well the fact I like the newer Deus Ex game AND the original with your modifications either says I am completly tastless nitwit or you and your mod are not as highbrow as you think... Given that you were ranting about only getting 7,000 downlods when you released your mod over peasants who didnt apprecite your magnificence and forever withholding it's brilliance I guess it is pretty clear what is what

And for the record, GMDX's download count is absolutely not indicative of its quality or incline levels. How dumb are you? If popularity ever was indicative of quality then FO3 or Candy Crush could be argued to better than Fallout/DeusEx/insert classic RPG based on sales alone.

But your 5 year old rant 2 weeks afer release is indicative that you are the model moder; ranting, raving, attention craving on how people could not recognize they were facing genius work there ffs! HR is not perfect but it is much better than the dumbed down sequels you mentioned and even bringing F3 shows how clueless you are about what is keeping the spirit of a game series (like Deus Ex) and raping everything it stood for in the name of profit (Beth Fallouts)
So fuck you and keep working on your mod I like it enough to suffer your nerdy angst so go back to work slave so the rest of us profit from your neurosis

 

[Ash]

If by "typical modder" and "ranting" you mean emotionally invested in one's non-profit passion-driven work years in development fighting the decline, and disappointed in the fanbase for being sheepish enablers flocking to everything that is decline in the Deus Ex world while ignoring the incline, sure. If I weren't bitter about that I wouldn't be human.

 

[cvv]

Deus ex gone trough a better transition than thief at least. Some people here hate HR with such passion, but c'mon, the popamoling isnt even that bad.

In 2011 DXHR was one of the few AAA games that were not an utter trash. And that's something, considering the times.

 

[Hegel]

good game, it's dx1 paris on steroids

 

[Jasede]

So when you're done arguing dumb shit (obviously HR is nowhere near as bad as FO3, oversimplification with flaws of the original or not,) how is this game? I've watched a bit of it and it seems... well, really good, for what it is. The writing seems nice, the dialogue I have seen is reasonably well done, the world looks neat, at first glance- whatcha think?

Usually bad mainstream reviews are a good sign...

 

[Razor]

So when you're done arguing dumb shit (obviously HR is nowhere near as bad as FO3, oversimplification with flaws of the original or not,) how is this game? I've watched a bit of it and it seems... well, really good, for what it is. The writing seems nice, the dialogue I have seen is reasonably well done, the world looks neat, at first glance- whatcha think?

Usually bad mainstream reviews are a good sign...

Finished it today. Overall gameplay wise it takes all that HR had and improves on it. From level design to augs, to weapon design etc. In essence, what a good sequel should be: keep whats working, fix whats dodgy and improve on the good shit. Hell, they even got rid of the dumb boss fights and the one time (end boss) that they had you could approach the situation several ways.

Story wise I really liked that there were a few junctions in the main storyline: it seems that overall they effected what kind of mission you undertook in the different junctions which in turn gave you additional lore/background info. Doubt it dramatically effects the ending that much. As for overall quality it was alright: the main story is bridging the gap between HR and the original DX. More specifically, how is it that augs where such a rare sight in the original but in HR they were a massive new tech revolution. The side missions where also quite nice and usually had a few twists and turns in it, which sometime were predictable (if you explored as much background/lore info you could find) and sometimes caught me by suprise.

I played more of a assassin type (aka kill/disable when absolutely necessary but otherwise ghost myself through the missions) so I cant comment on the heavy duty combat but from the weapon and aug selection it seems to have some nice variety to it. Things like different ammo types, different wep specs, mods, combat-orientated super augs etc should allow room for creativity.

In conclusion, if ya liked HR then you will like MD. Its more of the same with some rough edges polished off.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Finished it today.

How long did it take you?

 

[Razor]

Finished it today.

How long did it take you?

About 40 hours. Thats with slow and methodical stealth gameplay, most of the side content completed and most of the maps thoroughly explored.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Interesting. A lot of steam users are claiming only 20 or so. Maybe it depends on playstyle.

 

[Infinitron]

Playtime estimates for this sort of game are always wonky. It's not like you're a little bit slower so it'll take five hours more than the other guy. A different playstyle can easily mean that you play the game half or a quarter as fast as somebody else, from beginning to end. 20 hours becomes 40 hours becomes 80 hours.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Yeah, I played the original Deus Ex for what seemed like forever. Saving, reloading, exploring different areas, talking to every NPC, reading every book and email, ghosting the level while still killing everyone and everything in it. Plus I must have replayed it a dozen times. It probably took at least 60-80 hours for me to play through the first time. Maybe 400-500 with my replays over the years.

But then most people probably played it through at around 30 hours and never picked it up again.

http://www.gamelengths.com/games/playtimes/Deus+Ex/

 

[Morality Games]

the Thief reboot

The what?

Same babblers who claim a film called Jurassic Park 3 was released. It is random noise, I wouldn't pay much heed.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Well, I was going to wait on this because of the micro-transaction nonsense, but I went ahead and bought it.

I think I am almost through it - probably about 30 hours in, but I'm not sure because I think a bug trimmed some of my time stats off on steam when I fixed it (see below).



tl;dr: I agree with Hegel. The game feels good. One big, long Paris from DX1.


Micro-transactions aren't pushed on you and the game feels fine without them - no cell phone nonsense of making it impossible to win without purchasing them.

Stealth mechanics are about as good as DX1 - which is to say mediocre. Same with the AI. Don't expect Thief or Hitman level stealth or intelligence from the enemy. Guard patrol routes exist, but they could use some variation - eg, I would expect someone to notice if I walk out of a bank vault without first coming in through the door.

The game is linear, but the side quests in the hub are nonlinear. On the whole, it's more nonlinear than DX1. That's a good thing.

Storytelling is tolerable. The original Deus Ex was pretty novel, so a lot of the conspiracy elements feel rehashed (we get it, Bob Page is a bad guy, Versalife are bad guys), however, the game does do a good job of making you suspicious of those immediately around you. Eg, you know the people at the top are bad, but do you know the people you work with are bad? If so, which ones?

The setting is an interesting choice. On the one hand, being set in some ex-soviet country like Czech it makes the totalitarian police state seem more credible. On the other hand, the business person in me wonders if it wasn't a brilliant way to save on dialog voicing costs.

The storyline of the augs being oppressed can feel heavy-handed at times, but when you consider that everyone in the world has probably either been attacked or knows someone who has been attacked by an aug, it gets a little more believable. Also, the public doesn't know why they went nuts. Still, the obvious comparison to BLM and other groups gets annoying at times. One news story even has an aug segregation proponent using the term "social justice warriors" derisively. I didn't ask for this.


There isn't as much real Illuminati lore mixed in the way the original DX had. That's always disappointing to me in these sequels/prequels. It spends a lot of time setting up villains from DX1 instead. I really enjoyed unraveling the mysteries in DX1, hearing people talk about Illuminati stuff and not even knowing if they knew what they were talking about or if they were just conspiracy nuts, but you pretty much know who the bad guys are from the start of this game and only reveal the details of their plans as the game progresses. It's not without its mystery and satisfaction, but the original felt far more satisfying to me (nostalgia could be playing a part here though).

As is usual with modern games though, there are times the writing feels dumb. The entire concept of one giant bank where companies keep embarrassing secrets seems really dumb to me.

Spoiler

The fact that it feels easy-ish to break into makes it even dumber. There are guards and security measures, but they don't feel like nearly enough. AND WHY DO ALL THE CORPORATE VAULTS HAVE A KEYPAD WITH THE PASSWORD FOR THE COMPUTER??? Why would anyone make a password for something and leave the keypad right there next to the PC??? What was the point of the password then?

There are some side quests. TBH, thinking back to DX1, these are a major improvement. They are nearly Bloodlines quality at times.

In fact, often times, the game really does remind me of Bloodlines more than DX1. Both games revolve around exploring small hubs in a city. Both games feature dialog heavy side quests. Both games have sewers you can crawl through. Both games are about multiple paths and feature nonviolent solutions.

Difficulty is ok at the "give me deus ex" setting (the max for starting a new game). Personally, I think the AI needs improvement, but it is comparable to most modern games and is at least on par with DX1 - not that that is saying much.



When I think back to the original Deus Ex, I have to say that many of the new features feel like improvements. The writing of the game can feel shallow by comparison, but on the whole, it is a decent game and a decent prequel. Again, haven't finished it yet, so we'll see how the ending leaves me feeling.


I have experienced some bugs:
1. Random glitching. One of the first cutscenes in the game has be walking through people and even had me standing inside a woman's head for a good 30 seconds. Not too much of this after that though.

2. SAVE GAME BUG. So apparently, the game ALWAYS uses steamcloud no matter what your settings say. Some people think this is so the developer can make sure you aren't cheating the micro transaction system. Once you run out of steamcloud storage, the game won't save anymore. It wil look like it is saving, but it isn't. I lost a good hour of gameplay because I didn't realize the game was no longer saving - no warning was given that I was out of storage. I fixed it by deleting a bunch of saves from my steam directory and modifying a file, but I think this trimmed some time of my time stats for the game somehow because I was playing offline.

3. The takedowns often end up either not taking down multiple foes when I need them to or else taking down a friendly when I only want to take down an enemy. There are no melee weapons apart from this, so it really gets annoying.