Wow, Deus Ex: HR's story is...

[Silellak]

I'd say the game's endings were good for what they were. They obviously ran out of budget and had to improvise.

I wasn't sure if it was a budget thing, or if they were avoiding being too specific about the outcomes because it's a prequel, so they couldn't have you do anything so extreme that it would prevent Deus Ex from even happening.

 

[Mister Arkham]

I'd say the game's endings were good for what they were. They obviously ran out of budget and had to improvise.

I wasn't sure if it was a budget thing, or if they were avoiding being too specific about the outcomes because it's a prequel, so they couldn't have you do anything so extreme that it would prevent Deus Ex from even happening.

Yeah, I'm not sure that it was budgetary, either. I really think that it was about making the ending as clean and tidy as possible, though. Which is a shame, because neither outcome really contradicts or alters the way that the original game plays out. We know incredibly little about the state of mechanical augmentation in Deus Ex, other than that it is becoming obsolete. We know a little bit about the ways in which Gunther Hermann and Anna Navarre have been augmented, but nothing much at all about how widespread the technology still is because we spend so much time dealing specifically with the conspirators and military/government personnel. We don't get nearly as much of an idea about the state of the general population as we do in Human Revolution--which is logical in the first game--but there's nothing in the Deus Ex that gives any indication of whether or not augmentation has been regulated by the UN. The writers really could have pushed the endings...given us something more specific...and then gone ahead and picked a favorite/done an amalgamation should they decide to do a sequel. Kind of a shame, really.

 

[waywardOne]

Way ahead of the curve here as my computer already had DX:HR pre-uninstalled.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

So I got around to playing this now. I'm at the second story mission inside the FEMA camp and I'm already thinking about uninstalling. The story isn't very engaging, Adam Jensen's "JC-voice" is a complete failure, the world is kinda Star Wars-prequel-y, the sidequests are banal and stupid and, I'm not gonna lie, it's getting pretty damn boring to sneak around from cover to cover, ambushing enemies and dragging their bodies behind cover every goddamn time just to get the max experience points.

Seriously, is this worth my time? I know about the shit ending but I wasn't surprised to hear about it anyway. Does the story get better? Are there any cool levels? Does Adam get fucking killed down there at the FEMA base so I can play through the rest of the game as David Sarif or that Alex Jacobsen guy? Anything? Because so far I'm pretty sure I had a better time with Invisible War, I'm not even fucking joking.

edit: Judging from the thread, seems like the answer is no?

 

[curry]

edit: Judging from the thread, seems like the answer is no?

Just uninstall the turd already. You won't miss anything.

 

[Renegen]

Seriously, is this worth my time??

You paid for it, so the answer is yes. Seriously? Back when people actually bought games, they had a stronger connection to the experience. You'd play it until the end, several times and then finally you'd form an experience on the whole product. It's a little bit like having sex with a prostitute and having sex with someone you thought about for a long time or really anticipated.

You also don't stop one third into the game or 15 mins in to rage on forums just to get attention. The game grows on you too. The next area, Heng Sha is actually amazing to look at, probably the best cyberpunk design ever. I blame today's ADD gaming crowd.

 

[Jack]

The next area, Heng Sha is actually amazing to look at, probably the best cyberpunk design ever.

@Horsie
No, it doesn't improve. On the contrary, both the story and level design gets weaker as you progress.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Seriously, is this worth my time??

You paid for it, so the answer is yes. Seriously? Back when people actually bought games, they had a stronger connection to the experience. You'd play it until the end, several times and then finally you'd form an experience on the whole product. It's a little bit like having sex with a prostitute and having sex with someone you thought about for a long time or really anticipated.

You also don't stop one third into the game or 15 mins in to rage on forums just to get attention. The game grows on you too. The next area, Heng Sha is actually amazing to look at, probably the best cyberpunk design ever. I blame today's ADD gaming crowd.

I don't really give a shit about visuals.

I have a lot of experience suffering through bad games that I bought as long as there's a carrot (hurr durr) for me. Sadly, Human Revolution isn't Final Fantasy 7. It's not so bad that I want to keep playing just to see if it gets worse. Grimdark and pretentious is not the Deus Ex I played and loved, and the whole conflict rooted in God's will and shit is absurd and shallow as fuck. The only highlight so far is that the game takes place in future Detroit so you can meet a guy named Alex Murphy. I'm actually a little ashamed that I liked that. It sounds like something I would've pulled in my FF7 LP. Oh hey, Detroit and cyborgs, time for a Robocop reference.

Not saying I'm not gonna finish it some day (as you pointed out, I DID buy this whore) but right now I got better things to do. Plus, I hear there are a lot of DLC missions coming out. Maybe that'll make the game more interesting? A horse can be delusional.

Everyone, thank you for your time.

 

[SoupNazi]

Deus Ex was pretty much the epitome of grimdark and pretentious, dude.

 

[Wyrmlord]

Deus Ex was a very lighthearted and comical game, mostly a parody of 1990s conspiracy theories of the Clinton and Bush Sr. era. It didn't take itself seriously and it was not too grim or dark, save for a few starving children....for whom JC had shockingly minimum sympathy, so it's still comical.

Everything is there. This is totally not a serious game, not with lines such as "What a shame".

- Black helicopters
- Illuminati and Knights Templar
- Underground tunnels inhabited secretly by certain people
- Aliens/Grays
- Area 51 and Vandenberg Base
- Men in Black
- "Agent JC Denton...in the fresh. I knoo you brotha...intahmahtely."
- FEMA camps
- Trillionaire businessman owning smaller governments, such as those of France

Like Paul Verhoeven's Robocop, it was NOT a social commentary. No people, even Robocop was not some parable about corporate power or whatever; in fact, it was poking fun at such themes too. Both Robocop and Deus Ex are more of just silliness in a futuristic world with a superhuman as a hero.

 

[Grunker]

The next area, Heng Sha is actually amazing to look at, probably the best cyberpunk design ever.

WHAT THE FUCK

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Deus Ex was pretty much the epitome of grimdark and pretentious, dude.

Deus Ex is a game that takes almost every single major conspiracy theory and bakes a cake with them. See Wyrmlord's post. Also I spilled my drink for real just now. Talk about coincidence. Nothing on the keyboard, thank god.

 

[commie]

The big problem about all the endings in DX, DXIW and DXHR are that the big choice is just made in the traditional Bioware way: 5 seconds before the end of the game! Ok, DX style games have an incentive for replaying in various ways for gameplay alone but it would be nice to have to be locked into a particular ending much earlier with an accompanying change in what missions you undertake later and against whom with maybe a minor twist right at the end for the 'either/or' fans that alters the ending somewhat without totally dumping it on it's head.

So for instance at the start of a game you can work for corporation 'A' or corporation 'B', but eventually you have to pick one or the other. Then at the end of the game if you picked corp 'B' somewhere halfway through the game, you cannot suddenly choose to let corp 'A' win, but you can perhaps choose to blow off corp 'B'.

 

[Grunker]

I just figured out what Wyrmlord's main problem is. Tunnel vision. He'll get so fucking focused on whatever revelation he just came to that he forgets the existence of every other fact in existence.

Deus Ex does take itself seriously (when it talks philosophy), and it does have its gritty moments, but it also has a shit-ton of light-heartedness as Wyrmlord points out.

So calling it "the epitome of grimdark" is certainly wrong, but so is calling it the opposite.

 

[commie]

Deus Ex was a very lighthearted and comical game, mostly a parody of 1990s conspiracy theories of the Clinton and Bush Sr. era. It didn't take itself seriously and it was not too grim or dark, save for a few starving children....for whom JC had shockingly minimum sympathy, so it's still comical.

Everything is there. This is totally not a serious game, not with lines such as "What a shame".

- Black helicopters
- Illuminati and Knights Templar
- Underground tunnels inhabited secretly by certain people
- Aliens/Grays
- Area 51 and Vandenberg Base
- Men in Black
- "Agent JC Denton...in the fresh. I knoo you brotha...intahmahtely."
- FEMA camps
- Trillionaire businessman owning smaller governments, such as those of France

Like Paul Verhoeven's Robocop, it was NOT a social commentary. No people, even Robocop was not some parable about corporate power or whatever; in fact, it was poking fun at such themes too. Both Robocop and Deus Ex are more of just silliness in a futuristic world with a superhuman as a hero.

Well of Robocop Verhoeven said :

" The point of Robocop, of course, it is a Christ story. It is about a guy who gets crucified in the first 50 minutes, and then is resurrected in the next 50 minutes, and then is like the supercop of the world, but is also a Jesus figure as he walks over water at the end. Walking over water was in the steel factory in Pittsburgh, and there was water there, and I put something just underneath the water so he could walk over the water and say that wonderful line, “I am not arresting you anymore.” Meaning, I’m going to shoot you. And that is of course the American Jesus."

So Robocop IS a parable, a parable on the need of Americans for manufactured messiahs to save them with extreme violence.

Deus Ex though is however consciously made with the intent to stick every conspiracy theory known to man in a game and just running with it and it doesn't always work, what with the mix of 'serious' plot (which actually has a lot of cynical commentary about the state of the real world), and ever more absurd 'conspiracy within a conspiracy' bits. Not to mention the chicken lizards...

 

[Captain Shrek]

Deus Ex was a very lighthearted and comical game, mostly a parody of 1990s conspiracy theories of the Clinton and Bush Sr. era. It didn't take itself seriously and it was not too grim or dark, save for a few starving children....for whom JC had shockingly minimum sympathy, so it's still comical.

Everything is there. This is totally not a serious game, not with lines such as "What a shame".

- Black helicopters
- Illuminati and Knights Templar
- Underground tunnels inhabited secretly by certain people
- Aliens/Grays
- Area 51 and Vandenberg Base
- Men in Black
- "Agent JC Denton...in the fresh. I knoo you brotha...intahmahtely."
- FEMA camps
- Trillionaire businessman owning smaller governments, such as those of France

Like Paul Verhoeven's Robocop, it was NOT a social commentary. No people, even Robocop was not some parable about corporate power or whatever; in fact, it was poking fun at such themes too. Both Robocop and Deus Ex are more of just silliness in a futuristic world with a superhuman as a hero.

I took DX quite seriously (not for the sake of conspiracies of course). There were quite smart dialogue and references there like towards the benevolent dictators and nature of government and The man who was Thursday.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Deus Ex is serious as in the sense that it's a love letter to conspiracies and philosophy, just like Anachronox was a love letter to science fiction, Final Fantasy and gumshoe stories.

 

[SoupNazi]

When someone says "grimdark" I look at Deus Ex exclusively being set in the night, with dirty streets unoccupied by anyone but bums, prostitutes and pimps, people living in god damn catacombs because it's too dangerous and dystopian on the street level, night clubs... maybe I just understand the Codexian meme wrong, but I always thought it has to do with atmosphere.

I thought it was fairly pretentious because in a lot of those topics, like the illuminati and the templars, it's perfectly serious about the actual existence of those organizations. The game doesn't poke fun at conspiracy theorists, it actually depicts a what-if world - where all those theories are actually right. The philosophy involved, the super AI computers named the way they are... all of that is super serious and not poking fun in any way, hell, the ending when you talk to Helios is super pretentious. I agree that it's not a social commentary in that it's just a what-if world and not "conspiracies are real!1!1!one" world, but other than that, it's definitely pretentious.

I always thought that lines like "What a shame." or "A BOMB!" were just shitty VA that turned hilarious, really. Sort of like that negro chick in Human Revolution. The only thing I ever considered a comedic relief in Deus Ex was, in fact, the way Greys were depicted.

 

[Gord]

Deus Ex is serious as in the sense that it's a love letter to conspiracies and philosophy, just like Anachronox was a love letter to science fiction, Final Fantasy and gumshoe stories.

Reminds me, did anyone read Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco?
If you like Eco's writing and conspiracies you will love this book.

 

[Excommunicator]

This

One person says epitome of grimdark, other says very light hearted and comical, why the fuck do you people have to exaggerate everything to the extreme just to make your point?

Deus ex was neither strongly grimdark nor intentionally comical, it simply drew from a wide range of conspiracy subjects to establish a recognisable and referential setting to carry the story. Not everything has to be XXXTREME

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Deus Ex is serious as in the sense that it's a love letter to conspiracies and philosophy, just like Anachronox was a love letter to science fiction, Final Fantasy and gumshoe stories.

Reminds me, did anyone read Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco?
If you like Eco's writing and conspiracies you will love this book.

I read it a few years back and loved it. It's absolutely brilliant.

 

[Wyrmlord]

I do remember though that the most serious and chilling line in the game is "Denton. If you attempt to interfere in any way, I will kill her" at Vandenberg Base.

For a game with mostly lifeless VA, Bob Page suddenly came to life and with a strong punch. You realize that this trillionaire Page is actually a deeply evil person, willing to hold a scientist's child hostage to get his demands from him. Just as strongly, he said, "I WANT the components, doctor".

Simons and Page were ruthless characters, and their willingess to see schools and hospitals infected with viruses to be able to better blackmail people. You don't normally see videogame villains talk bluntly about infecting children with a wasting disease. So conceding a little, the game was a little dark as far as those two characters were concerned.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I'm not gonna lie, it's getting pretty damn boring to sneak around from cover to cover, ambushing enemies and dragging their bodies behind cover every goddamn time just to get the max experience points.

...then don't? I doubt you'll need those max XP points, anyway.

I didn't know horses could be anal retentive. I thought they just shat wherever the fuck they wanted because fuck you imma horse.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

I'm not gonna lie, it's getting pretty damn boring to sneak around from cover to cover, ambushing enemies and dragging their bodies behind cover every goddamn time just to get the max experience points.

...then don't? I doubt you'll need those max XP points, anyway.

BUT WHAT ABOUT MY POWER-GAMING?!!

Even if you don't need the xp this is what you have to do when you play stealth and it's tedious as shit. But while on the subject, it really seemed to me like there's extremely few useful augmentations so you might be onto something there. I will take it into consideration when I re-install.

When it comes to leveling up, I preferred the original. You earned skill points to put into swimming and stuff and then you picked up canisters to put into yourself to get new powers. What's this shit about Adam Jensen coming fully upgraded he just needs a little help to unlock his full supermegaawesome potential? Bullshit.

I didn't know horses could be anal retentive. I thought they just shat wherever the fuck they wanted because fuck you imma horse.

Curses! I can't think of anything witty to say in response!

Toilets are racist!

There.

 

[SoupNazi]

When it comes to leveling up, I preferred the original. You earned skill points to put into swimming and stuff and then you picked up canisters to put into yourself to get new powers. What's this shit about Adam Jensen coming fully upgraded he just needs a little help to unlock his full supermegaawesome potential? Bullshit.

I'd say it makes a fuckload more sense than a government superagent being an ordinary dude barely able to shoot a pistol straight in front of himself and the only advantage of his nanoaugmentation being light in his eyes. And his need to buy upgrades to this government-provided nanotechnology from smugglers or steal it from secret bases, all the while still working for the government. While people around him who're supposed to be bureaucrats have top of the line combat nanotech despite actually receiving nanoaugmentations later than said superagent.