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

[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?

I work for Sparhawk?

grrr Ron's avatar is similar looking to Sparhawks.  I'm always having to do a doubletake.

[EddieA]

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.

You can't complete that quest until after you do the first mission.

[shon]

Been able to spend most of the day playing and I'm really enjoying it so far.  It's really hard to choose which augs I want though since each one lets you tackle situations differently. 

I'm playing with a controller, keyboard, and mouse and it all works seamless.  I use the mouse for hacking,  the keyboard for text entry and the controller for everything else and the game quickly picks up on what control scheme I'm using, I wish more games did this. On most games it's either the controller or mouse/keyb.  The game let's me play how I want.

I debated on which difficulty to start on but I decided the first playthru on normal then the next on hard.  Normal hasn't been too bad until this one part and it's like the difficulty ramped up 10 fold.  The guards AI has
improved and are making my life more difficult. The load times are long and a little distracting hopefully this can be patched like the Witcher 1 was but I think the game has quite a bit of polish so I wonder if it's something we'll have to live with. 

[ibdoomed]

I'm heading to bed for the day while Adam is heading to

Spoiler for Hiden:

China tomorrow.

[naednek]

I'm not that far in, at the first area, and so far it's fun.  I'm not liking the cover mechanics that well, the controls are wonky.  No easy way to use cover while sniping.

[Cortilian]

Sniping from cover works fine for me.  Can't hit anything with that damn tranq gun though.  Using the keyboard and mouse.  Hole RMB uncover like normal, click middle mouse button.

[Turtle]

The tranquilizer gun and crossbow both have shots that arc through the air and have slower projectiles. So you have to aim higher depending on distance to target, and lead your targets.

There is a mod for those two guns that gives your scoped in view a range and target leading reticule. It's a bit difficult to use at first, but once you understand how it works you'll be able routinely hit enemies in the face with darts from far away.

I haven't found a way to get rid of the aim wobble on the tranquilizer though.

Really love how tranquilized guards will stand there stupidly and slowly fall over.

[MonkeyFinger]

I'm not that far in, at the first area, and so far it's fun.  I'm not liking the cover mechanics that well, the controls are wonky.  No easy way to use cover while sniping.

Unless you mean something else, you still have a manageable targeting cursor while in cover. You can line it up and then push 'up' to pop up and then you can fire at that spot. I'm in the early areas and with the SMG I have to park it below what I want to kill and then it will walk up the target. You can also fire without coming out of cover and he'll poke his weapon over and spray in that general direction. 

[ibdoomed]

The tranquilizer gun and crossbow both have shots that arc through the air and have slower projectiles. So you have to aim higher depending on distance to target, and lead your targets.

There is a mod for those two guns that gives your scoped in view a range and target leading reticule. It's a bit difficult to use at first, but once you understand how it works you'll be able routinely hit enemies in the face with darts from far away.

I haven't found a way to get rid of the aim wobble on the tranquilizer though.

Really love how tranquilized guards will stand there stupidly and slowly fall over.

Do guards wake each other up after being tranqed if they aren't actively chasing you?

For example:  (I'm going to be overcautious with spoilers but I'm just mentioning a place and no plot in this one).

Spoiler for Hiden:

In the second area with the big warehouse there are rooms of guards and I tranqed one (made sure I hit him and I got xp) and then hid until the alarm went away, ~30 seconds, and I go look and he's standing back up with his buddy yakking again. 

[Razgon]

His friends will wake him up - The somewhat cheating way to do it, is to tranq one, wait till someone finds him, tranq that guy as well, and keep doing this till you have a mountain of sleeping guards lying on top of each other.

Otherwise, they don't wake (At least that I've noticed)

[Asharak]

Definitely still enjoying it after yesterday afternoon's / evening's play session, although I only have about half the play time that ibdoomed does ( ) so far. I've finished the prologue, that intro mission from the preview videos, a couple of side quests in the first hub, and a couple more objectives along the main plot that took place in the first hub. Second impressions:

- Very much a fan of the tone-based dialogue system. I love Alpha Protocol even more for pioneering this and I'm glad DA2 and now DEHR have picked up on it. I've got the social "conversation hacking" augment as well, now, and it's a very neat addition. The only thing I don't like about it is that I'm no longer fully paying attention to what some NPCs are saying because I'm focusing on the biofeedback and personality overlays so that I can properly manipulate them later in the conversation. Still, I suspect I'll get better at this multitasking as the game goes on, which should make conversations both informative and engaging.

- Best. Sidequests. Ever. Seriously, if this game learned from Alpha Protocol's dialogue system, every subsequent RPG needs to learn from DEHR's side quests. If the game didn't actually call them side quests, you wouldn't even recognize them as such: they have multiple objectives and stages, they're relevant to the main plot and they inform you about the characters and the world. To almost any other game, these are primary quests. There's no "hey, let's make our junior level design intern churn out fifteen Fed-Ex quests to bump up the game's playtime by ten hours" crap here.

- The first hub location is beautifully done, large and nearly seamless. No, it's not open world on the Oblivion scale and, yes, there are loading screens to interior areas and some major mission districts, but the areas are about 1000% larger than Deus Ex: Invisible War. The atmosphere and environmental art are superb. The only thing that has struck me as sloppy (given the overall high quality of the city) is the subway station you can pass through that doesn't have any tracks, platforms, or trains. Though it does have a couple of street punks doing what I imagine is the 2027 version of break-dancing, so maybe it's a wash.

- Speaking of loading areas, the lengthy load times did annoy me last night. I don't mind them when entering a new area but I really wish the quickload-after-death was much faster. I managed to find an obscure, jumping-puzzle-esque route into an area that I screwed up multiple times (note: it would have been REALLY easy if I'd bothered to buy the Icarus parachute augment but I decided not to burn the Praxis point and did it the hard way) and had to sit through the loading screen each time.

I'm sad and annoyed that I'm not going to have nearly as much time to play tonight, which probably says as much as everything else I just wrote combined.

- Ash

[Glycerine]

I've spent about 7 hours so far and absolutely love it.  Everything about this game oozes Deus Ex, it's obvious the designers are fans.  From hacking into people's computers and reading completely irrelevant e-mails, to uncovering hidden areas far off the beaten path, it's Deus Ex for 2011.  I ran across a cool little secret relating to a particular side quest:

Spoiler for Hiden:

Anyone find the little drug stash in the airducts at Sarif Industries?  There's a vent you can go through that takes you into an air shaft with a ladder, at the bottom of which is their stash and some other stuff.

Likewise, while attempting to complete it:

Spoiler for Hiden:

I didn't really look to see exactly which apartment building, so I broke into the first one I found by climbing up the fire escape.  I break into the first apartment I come across, hoping to find the evidence on his computer.  I hack into it fairly quickly, only to find an e-mail from some guy's brother asking how he likes his new place?  Uh whoops, looks like I got the wrong apartment.

So far no crashes or problems, just a tiny bit of slowdown when the loading icon pops up.  I'm running at 1920x1080 with all details maxed out.  I've got to echo the fact that the loadings times are pretty ridiculous though.  Hopefully that will be addressed with the first patch.  I've played through the first level twice now, once to get a feel for the game and then the second time to try a discreet approach.  I managed to make it through the entire first level without ever being spotted or killing anyone, but it's not something I plan on continuing.

Spoiler for Hiden:

I talked Zeke out of killing his hostage, but also let him go in the process.  Was anyone able to fight him and not get her killed?  I didn't even try it, probably will on the next run though.

For those on the fence, if you liked the first game then you absolutely must own this one.

[Asharak]

The tranquilizer gun and crossbow both have shots that arc through the air and have slower projectiles.

Wait, there's a crossbow?! Where do I get this weapon of uber coolness?

---

OK, getting into the inevitable conspiracy aspects of the game, I want to speculate on a few things / theories that I've noticed so far that may be significant. I'll put this in spoiler tags for those who haven't played yet, but it's all guesswork based on events in the first hub so far:

Spoiler for Hiden:

- Per typical dramatic convention, I assume we're all agreed that there's no chance Megan is actually dead? I also thought I heard her voice during the credits/augmenting-Adam sequence. It seemed mighty convenient to me that everyone in the lab was supposedly burned to a crisp by a high-tech accelerant but Megan's "body" was still identifiable for the autopsy.

- Pritchard appears to be an ass early on. I am assuming this means he will probably be one of your staunchest and most loyal allies throughout the game.

- Right before the attack in the prologue, Athene calls Pritchard to her office to show her how to track their agents (or something like that). I deduce from this that she knew the attack was coming and probably that they were going to take Megan. Whether she knew this because she was complicit or because she was trying to stop them, I don't have an opinion yet.

- What's Sarif's angle? I can't believe he's going to turn out as simply as just embodying all that is good about augmentation but he doesn't seem to be a member of the conspirators from the opening cinematic, either, since they talk about him in the third person (and presumably wouldn't reference Megan as "beyond their reach" if her boss was one of their number). He's definitely up to something, since a broken Adam is "no good to [him] like this" and, really, a mere ex-SWAT chief of security wouldn't warrant that much attention of investment.

That's everything that's caught my attention so far. Anyone notice anything else or have a different take on something? (Please, though, tag any responses with a note as to how far into the game you are, so we don't end up spoiling each other's progress).

- Ash

[skystride]

I only played the intro level and so far it's great.  I tried both controls and I'm leaning towards 360 controller.  The gun feels great with force feedback.  It's funny though how the cut-scenes look worse than the in-game engine which I'm running maxed.

[CeeKay]

The tranquilizer gun and crossbow both have shots that arc through the air and have slower projectiles.

Wait, there's a crossbow?! Where do I get this weapon of uber coolness?

I'm guessing it's given if you choose the non-lethal approach.

I got my first Praxis point last night (got bogged down in another little beta that was evil enough to open up to me yesterday) and I have to say THEY'RE GIVING ME TOO MANY CHOICES!   makes me miss the easy choices of DX1's 2 augs 1 cannister. 

[Asharak]

I'm guessing it's given if you choose the non-lethal approach.

Nope -- I did that and got offered a tranquilizer gun or a stun gun. At least, assuming you mean that choice en route to the first "real" mission. If that conversation repeats prior to subsequent missions with different weapon choices, then I simply haven't got there yet...

- Ash

[Covenant]

Well, I'm playing this on the 360 (when all platforms are equal, I like to sit on my couch), but it seems this is the place with all the impressions, so I'll post my stream of conscience thoughts here:

1) Others have said it, but I need to repeat... this game OOZES atmosphere and style. From the opening scene you just get drawn into the world.  Art style, sound, music; all perfect. I kept thinking it was a nice blend of Blade Runner and Tron (the new one).
2) Definitely feels like a modern Deus Ex 1 title. The choices are all there, the story feels right.
3) Controls are spot on (for the 360 at least).  I don't feel like I'm fighting to get things done.  If something screws up, it's because I wasn't paying attention rather than unresponsiveness.
4) For me the game started out pretty tough, almost to the point of frustration. I was constantly reloading because I got spotted.  By the time I got to the end of the first post-augmentation mission, I was into the groove though and I was moving along nicely (you really need to pay attention to patrol routes and be careful where you sit). I'm going to go back and start over though as a result of this. I don't really have to, but I don't like that I botched the side mission and I want to explore more now that I'm comfortable.
5) Speaking of side missions... wow! I'm not gonna get into details, but I enjoy the fact that internal time constraints are used. Gives you a sense of real life urgency rather than that video game "eh, I'll get to it when I feel like it" type of attitude.
6) Load times suck ass.  Nuff said.

This game is gonna suck up a ton of my time.  Totally love it.

[CeeKay]

I'm guessing it's given if you choose the non-lethal approach.

Nope -- I did that and got offered a tranquilizer gun or a stun gun. At least, assuming you mean that choice en route to the first "real" mission. If that conversation repeats prior to subsequent missions with different weapon choices, then I simply haven't got there yet...

- Ash

hmmm, I figured that would be the weapon given for non-lethal with longer range since I've read the X-bow is supoosed to have multiple bolts (DX1 had the crossbow with the tranqs bolts plus a couple of other types).

one thing I've noticed is that they're stingy with ammo in the game.  I'll grab guns off the floor and only get 1 or 2 bullets out of them even if I blindside the enemy and they don't get a shot off.  speaking of ammo, one thing I haven't seen that I saw in the original game is enemies running out of ammo and switching to a melee weapon.

[ibdoomed]

hmmm, I figured that would be the weapon given for non-lethal with longer range since I've read the X-bow is supoosed to have multiple bolts (DX1 had the crossbow with the tranqs bolts plus a couple of other types).

one thing I've noticed is that they're stingy with ammo in the game.  I'll grab guns off the floor and only get 1 or 2 bullets out of them even if I blindside the enemy and they don't get a shot off.  speaking of ammo, one thing I haven't seen that I saw in the original game is enemies running out of ammo and switching to a melee weapon.

I think I've seen that but I can't be certain.

OK, getting into the inevitable conspiracy aspects of the game, I want to speculate on a few things / theories that I've noticed so far that may be significant. I'll put this in spoiler tags for those who haven't played yet, but it's all guesswork based on events in the first hub so far:

Spoiler for Hiden:

- Per typical dramatic convention, I assume we're all agreed that there's no chance Megan is actually dead? I also thought I heard her voice during the credits/augmenting-Adam sequence. It seemed mighty convenient to me that everyone in the lab was supposedly burned to a crisp by a high-tech accelerant but Megan's "body" was still identifiable for the autopsy.

- Pritchard appears to be an ass early on. I am assuming this means he will probably be one of your staunchest and most loyal allies throughout the game.

- Right before the attack in the prologue, Athene calls Pritchard to her office to show her how to track their agents (or something like that). I deduce from this that she knew the attack was coming and probably that they were going to take Megan. Whether she knew this because she was complicit or because she was trying to stop them, I don't have an opinion yet.

- What's Sarif's angle? I can't believe he's going to turn out as simply as just embodying all that is good about augmentation but he doesn't seem to be a member of the conspirators from the opening cinematic, either, since they talk about him in the third person (and presumably wouldn't reference Megan as "beyond their reach" if her boss was one of their number). He's definitely up to something, since a broken Adam is "no good to [him] like this" and, really, a mere ex-SWAT chief of security wouldn't warrant that much attention of investment.

That's everything that's caught my attention so far. Anyone notice anything else or have a different take on something? (Please, though, tag any responses with a note as to how far into the game you are, so we don't end up spoiling each other's progress).

- Ash

This spoiler is after returning from the second big area post-aug.

Spoiler for Hiden:

We find out that Sarif had a special backdoor in the firewall that he was streaming a lot of data through so he's definitely up to something.

[Asharak]

I got my first Praxis point last night (got bogged down in another little beta that was evil enough to open up to me yesterday) and I have to say THEY'RE GIVING ME TOO MANY CHOICES!

Oh, thank you for reminding me that I meant to comment on this earlier.

I'm actually not entirely in love with the augmentation system. This is a weird complaint and I reserve the right to change my mind later but it feels a little too...practical. Or maybe "dry" is a good word. Upgrades like increasing the size of your energy bar, doubling your radar range, etc., are unquestionably useful but they don't have much visceral appeal. I think partly my playstyle is giving me an unfair perspective, because the flashier stuff (punching through walls, the Typhoon system) is less for the stealthy, hacker-types and more for the run-and-gunners, so I'm bypassing those for the more mundane "ability to hack level X security systems".

Put another way, my mind keeps contrasting Adam in this game with Batman in Arkham Asylum. As someone here (I think, or possibly on OO) put it about the core brilliance of AA: playing the game, you feel, very quickly, like the goddamned Batman. So far, though, my version of Adam Jensen doesn't feel like an unstoppable transhuman superagent.

Or maybe I just need to get around to buying the Icarus aug and the Cloak so that I can jump off tall buildings and walk right past oblivious guards (well, assuming I also want to spend the three points to max my battery count, another two or three for the move silent ability and two more on upgrading the cloak to not suck power like crazy). Yeah, that might help.

- Ash

[CeeKay]

Put another way, my mind keeps contrasting Adam in this game with Batman in Arkham Asylum. As someone here (I think, or possibly on OO) put it about the core brilliance of AA: playing the game, you feel, very quickly, like the goddamned Batman. So far, though, my version of Adam Jensen doesn't feel like an unstoppable transhuman superagent.

Or maybe I just need to get around to buying the Icarus aug and the Cloak so that I can jump off tall buildings and walk right past oblivious guards (well, assuming I also want to spend the three points to max my battery count, another two or three for the move silent ability and two more on upgrading the cloak to not suck power like crazy). Yeah, that might help.

- Ash

don't forget Adam is just getting used to this stuff.  if you talk to random people in the beginning a lot of them are surprised he's even on his feet after only 6 months.

[ibdoomed]

So I just saw this:  http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/24/gamestop-intentionally-removing-deus-ex-onlive-coupons-from-reta/

Wow, they are just committing suicide at this point.

[frost]

So I just saw this:  http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/24/gamestop-intentionally-removing-deus-ex-onlive-coupons-from-reta/

Wow, they are just committing suicide at this point.

yeah, i understand why gamestop would be upset, but if they think i'd pay for an opened box with new price tag, they are crazy.

[Asharak]

don't forget Adam is just getting used to this stuff.  if you talk to random people in the beginning a lot of them are surprised he's even on his feet after only 6 months.

Yeah, but since the game doesn't acknowledge this in any functional way - Adam doesn't limp, there are no disabled augments, no gameplay penalties - I don't think that is really part of my issue. The game isn't actively making Adam weak and/or boring to me.

The more intriguing meta-justification that I'm rolling around in my brain (and it's a credit to the intelligence of the game that this is a possibility) is whether or not I'm supposed to feel a little disappointed in Adam's augments as part of the game's philosophical debate about the benefits of augmentation. Is there a very subtle point being made to me here that David Sarif is overstating things when he talks about the amazing things that augments can do?

Realistically, I know I'm overthinking this. The game isn't making that point. If it was, then the conversations with NPCs that ask how Adam feels about being involuntarily augmented (and there have been two, so far, with many more to come, I expect) would include a response option for, "these things are overrated" rather than just the "I didn't ask for this" and "damn, they're cool!" responses Adam's been able to make. Still, it's nice to be playing a game with enough depth behind it inspires the thought. You know, like the original Deus Ex.

- Ash

[rittchard]

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.

I don't have an nVidia but I have some weird effect where everything looks like there are giant shadows all over the place so it's all kind of messed up.  Don't know if that's what you mean by artifacting.  Didn't have time to experiment but I might try running without DX11.

[Turtle]

There are disabled augments. All those augments that you see in the list are already installed in him, however, they aren't active because the doctors didn't think his mind and body could handle going from 0 augmentation to fully decked out.

About the augmentation debate. Look where David talks to you from, look at the kind of person he is and how much money he has. Now go down on the street, especially in later hubs. See how augmentation can be used in a gritty reality of it. Gang bangers using augs in power struggles, people going crazy from augmentation related mental disorders, and plenty of people unwillingly dependent on neuropozyne and augmentation.

Everything David says about augs is true, but it's also all a lie, or simply spoken from privilege and ignorance.

This games strikes home a little bit for me as I've recently gotten tendinitis. My right thumb no longer has full freedom of movement without pain, and I'm not sure I'll get full use out of it ever again, but at least I can still use it. If normal treatments don't work, and I was in the Deus Ex world, would I choose a life dependent on neuropozyne and a metal hand?

[Asharak]

There are disabled augments. All those augments that you see in the list are already installed in him, however, they aren't active because the doctors didn't think his mind and body could handle going from 0 augmentation to fully decked out.

Yes, I've been to the first LIMB clinic. That still doesn't counter my point, although perhaps I should have been clearer. Let's try this: in considering whether the game designers are deliberately trying to make augmentation seem less fun/visceral/fulfilling, I am pointing out that there are no augmentations that the designers have prevented me from taking in order to create that feeling. The game hasn't said, "oh, sorry, no you can't buy the cloak/typhoon/social/other-cool-sounding-aug yet", which tells me that Eidos is not, in fact, trying to give me a negative impression of the aug system by "disabling" certain choices (and that, therefore, I am doing that to myself through my own suboptimal {from an amusement standpoint} selection of upgrades).

I realize that the science fiction of Adam Jensen is that he has every augmentation installed in his body in a "disabled" state and he simply needs Praxis Points to enable them. That wasn't what I was talking about, however.

- Ash

[Gratch]

So I just saw this:  http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/24/gamestop-intentionally-removing-deus-ex-onlive-coupons-from-reta/

Wow, they are just committing suicide at this point.

The GS stores around here must not have gotten that memo.  I just opened my copy and the coupon was still in there...and the district manager was the one who sold it to me.

[El-Producto]

People still buy PC games at stores?  Weird.

[Gratch]

I typically buy everything through Steam, but had a $25 credit at Gamestop.  Since it automatically activates on Steam anyways, figured I'd save a little $$ in the process.

[El-Producto]

I typically buy everything through Steam, but had a $25 credit at Gamestop.  Since it automatically activates on Steam anyways, figured I'd save a little $$ in the process.

Just messing with you.

[Caine]

So I just saw this:  http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/24/gamestop-intentionally-removing-deus-ex-onlive-coupons-from-reta/

Wow, they are just committing suicide at this point.

wow, way to stay classy there gamestop.  makes you wonder if they had bought impulse long before Portal 2 released, would they have snagged the steam copy?  granted, that was on the box, but what if it wasn't?  just because it isn't openly advertised on the packaging doesn't make it less shady. 

gamestop is now sending all non-preorder copies back to SE

[ibdoomed]

gamestop is now sending all non-preorder copies back to SE

That makes sense. Since they just shot themselves in the foot on this one, they'd only collect dust.

[Razgon]

So I just saw this:  http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/24/gamestop-intentionally-removing-deus-ex-onlive-coupons-from-reta/

Wow, they are just committing suicide at this point.

wow, way to stay classy there gamestop.  makes you wonder if they had bought impulse long before Portal 2 released, would they have snagged the steam copy?  granted, that was on the box, but what if it wasn't?  just because it isn't openly advertised on the packaging doesn't make it less shady.  

gamestop is now sending all non-preorder copies back to SE

well, Square Enix just apologized to Gamestop for not informing them about it - They are in the wrong here, not Gamestop, however much people dislike them.

"As part of Deus Ex: Human Revolution’s boxed offering on PC, Square Enix included a third party coupon," said the company in a statement. "GameStop was not made aware of this inclusion and Square Enix respects the right of GameStop to have final say over the contents of products it sells and to adjust them where they see fit in accordance with their policies."

"Square Enix invites gamers who want to purchase the PC version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution without additional coupons to buy the game at any one of over 4000 GameStop stores in North America," continued the statement, "or purchase a digital download copy online from www.gamestop.com."

[Asharak]

Impressions from last night. I've pretty much finished Detroit (all but off to China, except for stopping by a merchant to sell some junk tonight and, I think, one final follow up to an earlier conversation with David Sarif):

- I wish the intro credit video was skippable. At least it's not long as these things go, but I still wish I could skip it already and that's only after 3-4 times loading the game.

- The first boss fight is SERIOUSLY. FUCKING. MORONIC. Talk about a buzzkill. No choice to avoid it, no opportunity to even approach it in a less-than-head-on way and stupid, stupid, STUPID immersion-breaking mechanics. They'd nicely established an almost Rainbow 6-esque combat system, with single-shot-kills for many enemies and even 2-3-shot-kills on enemies in body armour. So then they go a throw a boss at you with an MMO-size health bar who can withstand an entire Combat Rifle clip (30 rounds) of headshots. WHAT. THE. FUCK. Spoiler on how I beat him, for anyone who hasn't gotten there yet but gets frustrated by it:

Spoiler for Hiden:

Frag grenades. Duck into cover before he starts shooting the first time and wait out the barrage. He won't start moving until he finishes shooting. I tossed three consecutive frag grenades (all I had) at his feet while he was advancing on me and then opened up with the assault rifle. It only took 5-6 bullets at that point, before he'd even finished staggering from the grenades, and he was down.

- Following up on my complaint yesterday about some of the augs being rather bland, last night I felt compelled to spend a Praxis point on increasing the size of my inventory. <Snore>. On the other hand, how often am I really going to NEED that Sniper rifle? Also, I really wish grenades stacked, at least a little, in your inventory.

- Those annoyances notwithstanding, this is still a really fun game. I stayed up playing almost two hours later than I should have last night and probably would have kept going if not for a serious thunderstorm that made me think turning these off would be...prudent. Oh, and after having that one CTD in my very first playsession, it's been rock solid for me since.

---

A couple more spoilery-thoughts related to the conspiracy plot (again, from the point of view of the end of the Detroit hub):

Spoiler for Hiden:

- The conversation with Bill Taggart at Sarif Industries was, shall we say, rather lacking in subtlety. Either they're completing faking me out, or his allegiance in this whole thing is really freakin' obvious. Really, writers? You actually had Adam say, "thanks for the illuminating conversation"? I've seen chair shots in WWE with more finesse than that.

- Based on what you can learn from Sarif about the breach in the company firewall, I'm wondering if Adam is, in fact, the Patient X that kicked this whole thing off.

- Ash

[CeeKay]

well, Square Enix just apologized to Gamestop for not informing them about it - They are in the wrong here, not Gamestop, however much people dislike them.

I'm not 100% sure Gamestop hasn't done anything wrong.  opening peoples copies, especially ones that aren't on the shelf so they don't have to worry about shoplifting so saying 'well they have their 'gutting' policy' doesn't really stand up, seems pretty bad.  if they had an issue with the contents they should have just refunded any orders and sent them all back instead of tampering with them.

[Blackjack]

fwiw, my local Gamestops had already started opening most new/recent PC game boxes years ago so they could keep the CDs behind the cashier counter shelves, due to shoplifting issues. That's one of many reasons I stopped shopping there. At least in this area, opening the Deus Ex stuff is no worse (in terms of selling us opened PC titles as "new") then what they were already doing with many newer PC titles.

There was one Gamestop, a former Software Etc., that used those bulky Plexiglass anti-shoplifting boxes so they could keep the PC game boxes intact inside them. Most of the smaller Gamestops don't seem to want to bother with that.

I realize in some areas Gamestops seem like the only choice. I would consider Wal-Mart (which is where I bought Medal of Honor last year) and Target (most locations have surprisingly nice and up-to-date on new releases, PC game sections) for situations where you want a retail box. It's kind of a shame because EB and the like were my "home away from home" in the 1990s. Now I tend to avoid them.

[ibdoomed]

- The first boss fight is SERIOUSLY. FUCKING. MORONIC. Talk about a buzzkill. No choice to avoid it, no opportunity to even approach it in a less-than-head-on way and stupid, stupid, STUPID immersion-breaking mechanics. They'd nicely established an almost Rainbow 6-esque combat system, with single-shot-kills for many enemies and even 2-3-shot-kills on enemies in body armour. So then they go a throw a boss at you with an MMO-size health bar who can withstand an entire Combat Rifle clip (30 rounds) of headshots. WHAT. THE. FUCK. Spoiler on how I beat him, for anyone who hasn't gotten there yet but gets frustrated by it:

I totally agree that the fight was stupid and the guy just stood there in the middle of the room so when he reloaded, I shot him in the head with my pistol a few times and he died. It was like playing a completely different game. Duckhunt homage?

[Asharak]

I totally agree that the fight was stupid and the guy just stood there in the middle of the room so when he reloaded, I shot him in the head with my pistol a few times and he died. It was like playing a completely different game. Duckhunt homage?

Do you mean the pistol actually killed him in just few hits? Or do you mean he stood there through multiple ammo-reloadings and you were able to get lots of shots in on him that way? Because in my game, he only stood there for the first barrage. After that, he started ceaselessly stalking me around the room, making it almost impossible to get a shot in because I had to keep changing cover (and the reloading window of time was so small).

If the pistol really did kill him in just a few hits, I may owe them a little bit of an apology -- I know my pistol had an armor-piercing upgrade on it but I didn't think to use it, assuming big guy = use biggest gun was the better approach. If he only seemed to have nearly infinite health because I was using the wrong weapon, that's a little better...

- Ash

[ibdoomed]

I totally agree that the fight was stupid and the guy just stood there in the middle of the room so when he reloaded, I shot him in the head with my pistol a few times and he died. It was like playing a completely different game. Duckhunt homage?

Do you mean the pistol actually killed him in just few hits? Or do you mean he stood there through multiple ammo-reloadings and you were able to get lots of shots in on him that way? Because in my game, he only stood there for the first barrage. After that, he started ceaselessly stalking me around the room, making it almost impossible to get a shot in because I had to keep changing cover (and the reloading window of time was so small).

If the pistol really did kill him in just a few hits, I may owe them a little bit of an apology -- I know my pistol had an armor-piercing upgrade on it but I didn't think to use it, assuming big guy = use biggest gun was the better approach. If he only seemed to have nearly infinite health because I was using the wrong weapon, that's a little better...

- Ash

I did reload the pistols 10 round clip once and who knows what kind of accuracy I had. Everyone else has been a one headshot kill with the pistol so far. He never moved through 3 or 4 reloads from that one spot in the middle of the room. Had he stalked me like he did you, then I wouldn't have considered the battle pathetically simple but all I had to do was cover behind the concrete thing you spawn behind and do the up aiming between reloads.