The load times were fixed in the latest pc patch.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vide...man-Revolution

He said nothing about the game that I haven't already said.

... and you are both right. Yahtzee actually does a good job most of the time pointing out a game's flaws, and even if he doesn't directly say it, you can tell whether he liked the game or not. I personally find Intrepid Homoludens' rant rather childish and uncalled for.

I, too, finished the game a few days ago, and while I didn't dislike it, I wouldn't say it was the best thing I ever played. It had its strong points, but the sneaking around bores me since the third Splinter Cell, and most of the "alternative" routes become quite foreseeable after a few missions. It's a great game, but neither the setting nor the characters did much for me, even though I enjoy reading the excellent RPS articles about the game.

One of the most overrated rpg's.Design inconsistency
making game gullible.

I concur (along with Bethesda's RPGs)!

Unfortunately I was really disappointed with Human Revolution, original Deus Ex is a much better game (in my opinion, and I played first Deus Ex last year)

What are the reasons for your disappointment?

I'm more than pleased with it, so far -- nearly finished too, I think (unfortunately). My only criticisms are the boss fights (they really do jar), the fact that it's not quite as open as the first (I miss the feeling that the hubs were absolutely huge, though that may just be retrospect), and the fact that the graphical style is generally very "samey" throughout.

That said, it's definitely almost on par with the first -- the ability to actually make moral choices that aren't completely obvious is very welcome, and the takedowns - that I thought would be needless - are implemented nicely.

I love the references to the first too, and I'm definitely gonna make an effort to replay that fairly soon.

^agreed, i cant be disappointed here, the game gets the core concepts right and is an infinitely better sequel than invisible war. The first game did not have a perfect story, it was not a million hours long. Id say HR is on par, which is more than i couldv hoped for.
The game has a variety of balance issues, many of which revolve around the spotty energy system. But the deus ex experience is there... and in 6-12 months after all the patches and DLC comes out, itl be a masterpiece.

The thing that disappointed me the most was level design. It was just bland, contrived and with unnaturaly clear division of paths for different characters. On the other hand level design of first Deus Ex feels like levels were made like building a real location and then given to the player for exploration and play. Human Revolution's levels don't promote replayability while original Deus Ex's does. Another thing was the storytelling - I never experienced the feel of being hooked on a story. Something like the talk with Paul in Hangar (in first Deus Ex) that would get me really interested and involving with the story. The theme of conspiracy was there but nothing substantial that I would care about. Furthermore pacing was also strange. First Deus Ex was flawed in that regard also but in this one is noticably irksome.

Those 2 things in my opinion really hurt the single player experience. Same thing happened when I played Alpha Protocol. Level design in that game is so bad I barely finished it, but Alpha Protocol excells in choices and consequences.

Well this looks like a short review now (although with only negatives pointed out) so I'll give it a verdict:
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is among the best games currently in the market

And now I understand why I'm playing first Deus Ex, Silent Hill 2 and old adventure games in this day and age ...

Well, there can be no doubt, the best part of the game is the city hubs, and the "dungeons" get really tedious. Supposedly the developers planned to have 3 more hubs (upper hengshua, montreal, and shanghai) and instead theyr probably going to milk them with DLC. But if it had even just 1 more well done city hub the game would be at least 9/10 for me.

I concur with the level design. This is to be expected considering such a large focus on consoles. The console design process also hindered Invisible War. Though the extent of detriment was far less obvious this time around. Good game, but feels incomplete in size and length (thats what she said)

I've enjoyed DEHR about the same as i did with Alpha Protocol. It has it's problems here and there, and they could had done things to make it better. Still not as good as the Original, but overall it is a good game.

Just finished it! Overall, I've really enjoyed it -- though there are a few flaws that could have been ironed out. Definitely one of the games I've enjoyed most in recent years.

Might be more detailed when I'm less lazy. ;)

http://www.adventuregamers.com/forum...postcount=1566

Overall I loved the game. There are a couple of flaws in the world that break the immersion and the final level does an Uncharted on me

Spoiler:

Why turn them into Bloody Zombies?

which I didn't like.

The AI could be really stupid at times when you just hide under a desk and they can't find you, but in the main it was pretty decent.

One of the best games of the year.

Just jumping in here. I haven't finished.

But I have verified again some objective truths:

"Boss fights" may be somewhat of a tradition, but they are obnoxious. The one I came across in the game so far was enough to ruin a game of such excellence up to that point. I got through it but only because I was left with no choice.

3rd-person perspective, and in particluar 3rd-person perspective with jumpy-camera (Tomb-raideresque), is a blight. It is not preferable to 1st-person ever; in any situation (unless you want to cheat, and at that point why don't you just type "godmode" into the console {and print-out the walkthrough while you are at it}). It is a miserable fucking blight; and it has once again degraded what is almost otherwise a great game.

Thems facts.

I raged so hard at how they chose to do the ending, it just felt rushed and half-arsed. :frown:

Other than that it was a pretty enjoyable game, it reminded me of Mass Effect in some respects. I'd be quite happy to buy another game in the series were they to make one, but hopefully with larger environments and more side quests next time.

The boss fights annoyed me possibly even more than the Metal Gear Solid ones, but thankfully there were only three.

I found it a little weird that they tied augmentation so tightly to experience points. You're encouraged to maximise EXP gain to get the toys, faster.

And exp isn't exactly awarded fairly, you're encouraged to a particular playstyle (explore/hack/stealth)... that can potentially ruin the story and a lot of the fun.

You can get quite a lot of augmentations if you just run around Detroit early on hacking everything you find, ruining future plot hooks by stumbling onto clues and evidence for quests that haven't triggered yet.

I haven't worked out why I have to stand up and shout "hey everyone I'm hacking this computer/door/switch now". The game forces you to deal with guards BEFORE hacking, and guards typically have the fucking password for the thing you intend to hack on their person... BUH!?

But hey, if you want mad exp gain to get them praxis points (and they say nu-poz is addictive) you hack, even with that fat 4 digit code screaming at you above the hack button.

I enjoyed the game a lot more when I removed augmentation gain from the equation (by cheating) and just followed the story, playing Jensen how I wanted but letting the story lead me by the hand.

You just complained about what made the Deus Ex series great. Though I say the experience points were even in the first two games.

Disappointing game. This was really the only big-budget mainstream game I was looking forward to this year, after increasingly getting frustrated with the big developers' streamlined and predictable approach to making games. Think I'll stick with the indie and small developers from now on, as they've proven themselves far more capable and original with their game development than the big guys.

Yes, by the way what with the night club decorated offices and triangle obsession everywhere,horrible art direction never want to see this game again in my life.

I liked the game. The original is one of my favorite games of all time so it didn't quite live up to that but it's better than the second. I liked the atmosphere and style a lot and was happy to see a real inventory returning to the series.

I miss the skill tree from the original that let you spec in different weapons, faster swimming, etc. and how it made you choose between different augmentations (either run silent OR run faster as opposed to Deus Ex 3 which lets you have everything combined.)

Also the level design of the original was a little better.

That said, while it doesn't live up quite to the original, Deus Ex 3 is still vastly better than most other shooters or RPGs that have come out in the past years.

One thing to add: I discovered that DX:HR is playable - sort of - even on single-core Athlon XP systems with AGP graphics. :) I played through the opening gunfights to the beginning of the first sneak-in mission and didn't encounter crashes or agonizing level load times, even with the unpatched game (some minor problems with sound, though). The benefits of development starting in 2007. :D

I can't say I liked the way the game force-fed me the basic storyline. You naively click on the lady by the door and get dragged along on a minute-long, involuntary sight-seeing tour where all your controls - except for looking around - don't work. Not especially thrilling. The original Deus Ex thrust you right into a situation, with skippable conversations from the get-go if you didn't particularly care for the specifics. :7 Are some games inherently more fun than others? - definitely yes.

These first impressions of HR were gathered a month or so ago. I'll go on playing as time permits & interest resurges.

Its deus ex. Of course there will be cutscenes that take away your controls.

:crazy: ? :pan:

Yeah I see where you're coming from Hoipolloi. None of the other Deus Ex's did it to this extent and games like Half Life do a really good job of telling a story without taking away any control.

That said, It's only like 2 minutes at the beginning of the game so I didn't really have a problem with it. The game is still really good, if not quite as good as the original.

Wait, you guys realize there are cutscenes in deus ex 1 and 2 right? How is what Deus Ex HR worse, if not better? I'm missing the point here.

Well there is a difference between cutscenes and the game taking control away from the player in the middle of the game and forcing him to follow a person around for 2 minutes when there is no reason they couldn't have let you do this manually. It would be like a person walks into your room, takes the controller away from you, and starts playing himself. I think this is what he was referring to.

I can't remember any parts like that in the other Deus Ex's. But like I already mentioned, it's only like 2 minutes of the game and shouldn't even be worth mentioning.

Your right, it shouldn't even be worth mention, but did it even phase you that maybe there was a reason why you really couldn't control the movement, let alone ignore the fact that you still have control over looking around.

Its a development choice. Its not Half-Life where everything needs to be in the first person.

Thats why I say its "Deus Ex". The goal isn't to accomplish what Half-Life did. It was to create a cinematic first person rpg experience.

Well guys, after holding out for a year I've just succumbed to the lure of this game. :D It is seriously addictive. I played through to the Barrett boss battle in one long night.

I've already died 10 times in this, but I'm dying all the time (on Hard, somewhat less insulting). How many bullets to the head can this tank take? Herman the German must be chuckling in his cradle. And I do wish the game's cover system was somewhat more suited to throwing grenades. Technically it should be easy to lob things out in a general direction without blowing yourself sky-high or getting riddled with bullets first. (Funny things happen during firefights near doors - one guy stood literally next to me in the door frame, but "covered" as I was, we could target but not shoot the other.)

Regarding the heads-up display, talk about information overload (with the yellow item highlighting turned off). Pretty hard to pick out the useful information and look beyond all those fragile boxes (and immovable trash bags). Pretty hard to look at one of those glossy news mags for more than 3 secs, too, without getting a headache. I'm woefully lacking political background info at this point, but no doubt will catch up on further play-throughs - after my brain has hacked the appropiate neural pathways.

It's strange how the characters and dialogue sound corny in video reviews, but elevate the experience in gameplay. The semi-starved punkish exterior and voice of Adam Jensen will surely become (almost) as memorable and iconic as the original JC Denton. Easier to make fun of, because it's all so serious.

I just got it too - it was 20€ in sale, so I thought "what the heck" and bought it. I really like it! I love playing stealthy :P

And I know about that boss fight, I died a lot in it too...

I'm interested in the sort of philosphical/ethical "studies" in the game (or related to the game). I'd love to read the thoughts of someone like Zizek about all of this. There was some weird magazine I once saw that was like philosophical and ethical and whatnot essays about the world of Deus Ex or something, but I didn't think to get it then (hadn't played the game). Now I'm thinking, maybe I should've!

I wish there was a storage compartment to store the equipment you want to save but not carry around. I have/had a bunch of stuff stashed in the appartment, but I have no idea if it'll stay there (or even get back there)...

Anyway, overall I'm really enjoying this one.

Check out this hilarious little video, and maybe the mod as well, on moddb:

http://s16.postimage.org/aspemxylv/DXUR.jpg

Deus Ex Unreal Revolution
is a mod for the original Deus Ex that acts as a parody of Deus Ex: Human Revolution while providing commentary on the video game industry and modern gameplay mechanics. Assume the role of a wrist blade equipped JC Denton and perform cinematic takedowns on your mission to rescue Tracer Tong.
As to the philosophical/cultural references in Deus Ex, I don't know about any specific book. A good place to start is a Google search of Wikipedia.
Here's an interesting article about the influences on Bioshock.
P.S. Probably this? The Humanity+ magazine, Roots of Deus Ex: Human Revolution (a PDF is part of the Collector's Edition)

Yeah DLC is lame but you can't really blame the developers or publishers for it. Blame the idiots who buy it. The same people who keep paying $60 for Call of Duty every year.

I don't like the direction mainstream gaming is going and find myself just playing GoG games more and more.

You can't blame the idiots who buy it if not all DLC was created the same. There are the typical microtransaction 'Buy cool new weapon' or 'horse armor' DLC. Then there are completely new games or missions that expand on the original game. No different than buying an expansion pack which people don't complain about. I remember when people bitched about iphone apps costing more than $5. Same thing applies to DLC. People just haven't calmed down and think before they speak.

I know there's been a lot written about the wider implications of cyberpunk. Not Deus Ex specifically, but there are a lot of common themes and ideas.