Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Impressions and stuff! [Official Review too!]

[CeeKay]

damn what do you eat at Chipolte, two burritos?  I can barely finish one.  Never order quac  because they rip you off.

I usually get a steak bol (with no beans. Mild salsa, cheese and hit salsa on the side so it's not overpowering) soft or crispy tacos with either barbacoa or carnitas (with the green chile salsa), and a pink grapefruit Izze.

Dammit, now I'm hungry.

[jersoc]

my GMG key let me preload just fine. too bad I wont be able to play until thursday.

[stryker]

Don't forget your Chipotle-Away!!!

[Scoop20906]

I got Deus Ex from Impulse since they throw in the other two games as a bonus. Does anyone think that Impulse allows preloading like Steam does?

[CeeKay]

Steam Achievements:

Spoiler for Hiden:

irst Takedown
Perform your first Takedown. Civilians don't count, so be nice.


 
Opportunist
Perform 50 takedowns within the same playthrough. (Civilians don't count.)


 
First Hack
Perform your first Hack successfully.


 
Hax0r1!
Successfully hack at least 50 devices within the same playthrough.


 
Transhumanist
Fully upgrade your first augmentation of choice.


 
Consciousness is Over-rated
Knock out at least 100 enemies in a single playthrough.


 
Up the Ante!
Upgrade your first weapon of choice.


 
Trooper
Complete Deus Ex: Human Revolution.


 
Legend
Complete Deus Ex: Human Revolution at its hardest setting.


 
Deus Ex Machina
Experience all the different endings that Deus Ex: Human Revolution has to offer.


 
Pacifist
Complete Deus Ex: Human Revolution without anyone dying by your hand. (Boss fights do not count.)


 
Foxiest of the Hounds
Complete Deus Ex: Human Revolution without setting off any alarms.


 
Doctorate
Read all 29 unique XP books within a single playthrough.


 
Lesser Evil
Deal with Mr. Carella's indiscretion.


 
Motherly Ties
Put a grieving mother's doubts to rest.


 
Cloak & Daggers
Deal with the man in the shadows.


 
Smash the State
Help Officer Nicholas take out the trash.


 
Acquaintances Forgotten
Follow Pritchard's lead to uncover the truth.


 
Bar Tab
Help the Hive Bartender settle a tab.


 
Rotten Business
Help a lady in the oldest of professions clean house.


 
Shanghai Justice
It may take some sleuthing, but justice must be served.


 
Corporate Warfare
Protect a client's interests by performing a less-than-hostile takeover.


 
Talion A.D.
Descend into the bowels of an urban jungle and confront a warrior-priest.


 
Gun Nut
Fully upgrade one of your weapons.

and most importantly (don't know if this was mentioned before):

[Turtle]

I must be an original fan then; I'm making my way through the original right now and enjoying it just like I did the first time I played it.  the only things I find clunky are the view when zoomed in using a scope seems too small and most of the Augmentations seem pointless as every time I do a replay I get by just fine with regeneration and the light augmentation.  One thing I have discovered by looking through a FAQ that I never realized is that:

Spoiler for Hiden:

Paul can survive the ambush at his apartment.

No spoilers needed, it's a 10 year old game now.

I somehow managed to save Paul on my first run through, which is nuts because going back I realized how much effort that really took.

[Chordian]

I also had to read about Paul before I realized he could be saved.

and most importantly (don't know if this was mentioned before):

Excellent. I don't mind auto saving actually, as long as it's frequent. I just completed Batman: Arkham Asylum and thought they did a good job keeping the auto saves frequent, preventing me from replaying too much in case I messed something up. If the auto saving is fine I don't have to worry about manually hitting quicksave all the time, or accidentally hitting quicksave in a botched up situation I can't recover from. For the same reason I've learned to be more forthcoming about auto saving (I used to hate not being able to save anywhere).

[CeeKay]

No spoilers needed, it's a 10 year old game now.

I remembered Teggy was talking about playing the game and he mentioned he never finished it, so I figured I'd be nice and not anger Tegzilla 

I thought I had actually saved him on this playthrough; after mistakenly (and luckily) tossing a gas grenade we survived the ambush and I saw him make it to the exit, but once I got caught they said he was dead.

I also have to say I have forgotten how long the game is.  Steam says I've been playing for around 15 hours and I know I still have quite a ways to go.  it sure doesn't feel like I've been playing that long, but this is the first time I've run it on Steam.  looking around ti sounds like HR is going to be similar in length, which is a good thing.

[baelthazar]

No spoilers needed, it's a 10 year old game now.

What a shame.

(Someone had to do it)

[EddieA]

It looks like Steam has moved back the unlock time.  The game's store page now says it won't unlock until 3 AM Tuesday morning.

[Sarkus]

It looks like Steam has moved back the unlock time.  The game's store page now says it won't unlock until 3 AM Tuesday morning.

I saw that today as well.  I could have sworn that people were saying the game would unlock at midnight EST, but now it is saying midnight PST.  Looking over at the official boards it does not look like people are particuarly up in arms, so I guess the earlier talk was unconfirmed. 

Doesn't impact me much, but I was looking forward to starting earlier Monday night my time.

[CeeKay]

well that sucks.  perhaps I will have time to play through Invisible War after all.....

[Sarkus]

The earlier release time came from a UK company called GreenGamer that was selling DEHR cheaply last week and thus got a lot of attention.  Even now their webpage says the North American release date is midnight EST, even though Steam says otherwise.  There is additional confusion because the official DEHR website also has a countdown running down to 2PM EST/5PM PST tomorrow.

[CeeKay]

finished my playthrough of the original very early this morning, and I have to say I'm looking forward to having a hacking minigame this time around.  I can't remember if Inivisble War had anything like that; I guess I'll find out tonight as I try and complete it before 3am.

[Razgon]

Reviews are incredible good for the game. Rps loved it, and said this:

It’s an extraordinary relief. Like that moment when your shoulders finally slide down into the hot bathwater, you physically and mentally relax in the knowledge that you’re back to that place. Remember when first-person games were complex, multifarious, and had a quicksave? Remember Thief, Deus Ex, Bloodlines? It’s that place, that brain-massaging, hair-stroking safe place of excellence that it was getting hard to remember ever really happened.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/08/22/70336/

This means, that Thief 4 actually may be just as good, which is kinda crazy

[CeeKay]

just over 15 hours!

[Razgon]

Bastards! I wonder why its not released until friday here?

Oh well, with a new  job this week, its probably good that I don't have to call in sick on third day of work due to too much stealthing :-D

[Covenant]

Has there been any word on which version is best?

[Razgon]

PC of course :-)

Well, depends on whether you want better graphics that is.

[TiLT]

Has there been any word on which version is best?

At this point of this console generation, the PC versions are almost always the best unless there's shoddy porting involved. We know that's not the case with Deus Ex, so... PC is the best platform.

[Vidiot]

Following my new rule of waiting for reviews on anything questionable (after getting  burned one too many times) I ordered it today.  See, and here I thought I was going to get another couple of weeks to work on my backlog.

[CeeKay]

unlocking!

[Razgon]

Shouldn't you be in bed, unlocking you fiancee instead?!!

[CeeKay]

Shouldn't you be in bed, unlocking you fiancee instead?!!

heh, she's got to be up at 6:30am.  besides, we haven't moved in yet; that won't be happening until December so I have plenty of time for the fall gaming rush.


fired up the game.  some random thoughts:

loading times seem a bit long, and combat during the opening seems to be fairly deadly so you may experience that fairly quickly.  also, it appears there are no choices during the opening bit (plus a couple of sections where you just sit back and look around as you automatically walk), so if you keep a save game from right after it ends it might save you some time in any replays.

AI seems a bit off though, the enemy doesn't try to move up on you after they flashbang you.

there is a very familiar voice at the beginning.

graphically it looks nice.  got everything cranked up with DX11.

there are tutorial videos for stuff.

you can save anywhere, but I don't see a quicksave/quickload key mapping.

[Gryndyl]

The environmental detail is pretty astonishing. The music and the graphic design give me a strong Bladerunner vibe. Played through the prologue and am quite liking it.

[Tokek]

Won't be unlocking in my part of the woods for another 2 days and 15 hours

[Soulchilde]

My copy arrives from Amazon this afternoon and I'll be work at 3 and gaming by 4.  Need to pick up pizza and modelo on the way home

[Asharak]

Because I'm a complete fool who managed to forget that I don't have to work this afternoon, I got up at 4AM this morning to check out the game before coming in to work. On the upside, now I have lots of time to play this afternoon. On the downside, why the fuck did I get up at 4AM? A few really quick impressions from that brief period of play (a fair chunk of which was spent doing riveting things like disabling subtitles, changing key mappings and turning off the yellow highlighting):

- The dialogue-heavy intro was very well acted and well done. Excellent production values there, although the reviews that point out the console-limited graphics tech (even on the PC) were accurate. Some of the character models, especially below the face, seem pretty bland. Environmental art is superb, though.

- What little combat I've had seemed OK. Situational tactics seem key: the bad guys have pretty good aim, so using explosives, timing your shots for when the enemy is reloading, etc., make life a lot easier. Definitely a cover-based shooter and I felt pretty comfortable almost immediately, coming from Mass Effect (side note: the music is very reminiscent of Mass Effect). I do like the fact that cover in the environment seems very organic and believable, unlike ME's clearly-designed-around-the-encounter environments.

- I managed to significantly fuck up the first mission before I'd even started it. This was a) AWESOME and b) a little annoying, but so far I'm just rolling with it. I might restart to avoid it, not sure yet... I can't really talk about it without spoiling how it can happen, so only read this if you've started the first post-augmentation mission or don't mind knowing what you can do wrong:

Spoiler for Hiden:

If you don't hurry to the Helipad like Sarif tells you to - and then frequently reminds you - and instead choose to explore the office area, etc., the Purists will kill all the hostages you were supposed to save, except for one, before you even arrive. And you will then be berated by both Sarif and the SWAT commander on site for letting all those innocent people die while you were dawdling.

On the one hand, I thought this was amazing. So many other games throw supposedly urgent plot points at you but then completely fail to acknowledge when you ignore them for stupidly long periods of time. On the other hand, I thought this was a bit cheap, because you get similar reminders - without consequences - if you momentarily ignore the very first instruction you're given in the game. I poked around Megan's office in the prologue and read her e-mail and stuff while she was nagging me not to keep Sarif waiting, and nothing came of that. So I felt a little cheated when the hostages in the later mission got killed because I stopped to chat to all my co-workers.

- I had one CTD in those two hours, and I also agree the load times seemed surprisingly long. The latter doesn't really bother me - if I want to play a game without loading screens, I'll go outside - but since it seems to be a talking point in the early reviews, I thought it was worth mentioning.

That's about all I've got so far. I'm only about two rooms past the section of the warehouse level that they showed in one of the earliest gameplay trailers (the one they used to show off the "multiple paths" gameplay), so I haven't really seen much yet. I'll post more later tonight when I've played some more.

- Ash

[CeeKay]

- I managed to significantly fuck up the first mission before I'd even started it. This was a) AWESOME and b) a little annoying, but so far I'm just rolling with it. I might restart to avoid it, not sure yet... I can't really talk about it without spoiling how it can happen, so only read this if you've started the first post-augmentation mission or don't mind knowing what you can do wrong:

Spoiler for Hiden:

If you don't hurry to the Helipad like Sarif tells you to - and then frequently reminds you - and instead choose to explore the office area, etc., the Purists will kill all the hostages you were supposed to save, except for one, before you even arrive. And you will then be berated by both Sarif and the SWAT commander on site for letting all those innocent people die while you were dawdling.

I did the same thing because I got sidetracked by something else.

Spoiler for Hiden:

I couldn't figure out the whole 'who is stealing the drugs' mystery, not sure if all the pieces were in place for that yet or not.  I investigated all the offices involved but there was no one to talk to.

since I just came off of playing the first game I remapped the keys to be as close as possible to the originals.  it was easy enough since they cut out the leaning key mappings, which left me with an easy key to map cover to.  I'm kinda annoyed the scroll wheel doesn't seem to be recognized for stuff in the hotbar, unless the key mapping screen just doesn't show it (I only have one weapon so far).  I also turned off the object glow and whatever 'inventory help' is.  I imagine that since they went back to the original style of inventory management it automatically moves items around to help stuff to fit better.

[Asharak]

it was easy enough since they cut out leaning

Just to avoid confusing people who don't have the game yet, this statement is a little misleading. You lean from cover constantly in this game - it's the primary way you shoot and it can be used for looking around corners, as well - but instead of having a dedicated "lean" key, you just use WASD while in cover: W is "poke your head above cover", A is "lean out of cover to the left", etc.

- Ash

[CeeKay]

I clarified it a bit.  I forgot not everyone has played DX1 again recently 

[Destructor]

Won't be unlocking in my part of the woods for another 2 days and 15 hours

For all you poor UKers who have slow intertubes or something (why doesn't it unlock until Friday again?), go try this:
http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/jrhcn/how_to_play_deus_ex_in_europe/
or http://www.reddit.com/user/yhorian

Word on the street is that it works. Enjoy DE3 'early'!

EDIT: Realized that the link might change over time and this one should be a bit more stable. Maybe. Go do it anyway!

[CeeKay]

looks like quicksave is F5, and quickload may be F8.  I'm at work so I can't verify that yet.

[baelthazar]

The game, or the hour or so I've played, is great so far. However, I have come to report that Tesselation creates artifacting on certain nVidia cards, particularly the G560, G400 series. They are looking into it, just a general FYI for you all.

[Knightshade Dragon]

Hit the front page.  It's a Deus Ex Blowout!  My 3200 word review is up too. 

[Sparhawk]

looks like quicksave is F5, and quickload may be F8.  I'm at work so I can't verify that yet.

That's standard for every PC game that has featured a quick save you silly goose; and shame on you for not knowing that.   

[Soulchilde]

My Deus Ex from Amazon hasn't arrived yet....   Might be delayed till tomorrow

[CeeKay]

looks like quicksave is F5, and quickload may be F8.  I'm at work so I can't verify that yet.

That's standard for every PC game that has featured a quick save you silly goose; and shame on you for not knowing that.   

It wasn't with DX1 since the function keys were all used for augs and other things, so ppppbbbbbtttttttt!! N

[naednek]

looks like quicksave is F5, and quickload may be F8.  I'm at work so I can't verify that yet.

That's standard for every PC game that has featured a quick save you silly goose; and shame on you for not knowing that.   

And you hired him?

[CeeKay]

looks like quicksave is F5, and quickload may be F8.  I'm at work so I can't verify that yet.

That's standard for every PC game that has featured a quick save you silly goose; and shame on you for not knowing that.   

And you hired him?

I work for Sparhawk?