How do you reboot Deus Ex?
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- Опубліковано 31 тра 2024
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(Nth Review #14) Nick dives into the ancient past of 2011 to play the prequel reboot of The Greatest Shooter of All Time: Deus Ex in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Beyond the sheen and the QoL upgrades, how does it hold up after a decade… and what parts never really held up to begin with?
This review is of the 2013 Director's Cut, although this also covers the entirety of the original 2011 game by proxy.
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0:00 Intro/Preamble
2:37 I. Or Better Than Kings… Gods! - History
23:46 II. Wings of Wax - Gameplay
1:26:03 III. Sunglasses, Long Coats and Jet Lag - Story + Characters
2:02:58 IV. Conclusion
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RPS, DXHR Post-mortem interview
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Eurogamer: Ion Storm’s Lost Deus Ex sequels
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Deus Ex Human Revolution VS Director's Cut - Graphic comparison
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(Reddit) I am Elias Toufexis - I played Adam Jensen in the Deus Ex games - Ask Me Anything
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I cannot find the source of my PS2 Deus Ex: The Conspiracy footage. If you created it, please send me a note and I will make sure you are properly cited.
Tony Danza has not been found. - Ігри
What do you think of Eidos-Montreal's take on rebooting the Deus Ex series? Comment with your favorite memories and how much you loved the boss battles!
The conversation system of HR should be in every RPG in my opinion
@@sevenkaylive It kinda is? Especially since the DXHR system was so inspired by RPGs.
GMTK made a video it, the problem is DXHR's system takes way more writing knowledge, effort and forethought to develop. Games like Fallout 4, Mass Effect 3, even Cyberpunk 2077 have nothing remotely close to DXHR's depth
@@sevenkaylive I actually reference that video and the subsequent flaws of DXHR's system in this video (you should watch it ;)
hehe i've only watched half of it
All of the ImmSims since Deus Ex have surpassed *almost* in every way, but all still fall short.
The key is that DX had an amazing story and plot.
In summary, they gave us better sentences, vocabulary and font, but a meh book.
The story in DX made me always want to know what was coming next, what was around the next corner. I got goosebumps when the title music would start playing. While the actual mechanics were less polished, the overall gameplay (vs just mechanics) enabled and complemented the story. The idea that there were many ways to move forward and find what was coming next in many ways was truly engaging. The following 451 games have focused mostly on the mechanics. There are many micro-improvements but they don't add up to an overall improvement.
Aye
Just wanted to add, nice 0451 reference
@@jcubed8529 I saw an 0451 code in the latest "Guardians of the Galaxy" game, I thought that was a bit of a stretch for that kind of game. More an homage than a membership in a club? Don't get me wrong. if it didn't have one major bug, I'd've loved it, I think.
I never asked for this. But this video I throughly enjoy
It is big brain Deus Ex time!
I was there at the beginning and it was a great project to work on, super exciting especially in pre-production, still I learned a lot from your video, nice work!
As someone who is still on the liberty island mission in Deus Ex 1, as I only recently have gotten an immersive sim itch, I can confidently say after watching your videos that I get Deus Ex now. Looking forward to playing HR.
Love these long reviews! Beer+snacks ready to watch this whole thing🍻
Yay! Enjoy! It's my best yet.
Great critique. Very well written and produced. I agree with most of your points, except the side quests. I disagree completely. They actually do add a lot to the story.
The one in Detroit where your ex colleague has you take down the crooked cop (which I also talked about in my own video) is meant to offer a glimpse into Detroit’s systemic corruption and institutional decline - and to offer a contrast to the idealistic, techno-futuristic marvel Sarif envisions his hometown to be.
There’s another one in Hengsha revolving around a woman who borrowed money from the Triads for a cranial implant so she could be more competitive at her job as a financial broker - a field dominated by rich people who can afford those implants, and thus hold an unfair advantage over those coming from modest backgrounds.
This doesn’t squander the quality of the video in any way, btw, I understand where you’re coming from and I respect your opinion. But I feel like the quests in this game don’t get enough credit for how they manage to subtly convey some of the sub-themes of this game.
Anyway, great video. I just realized that I missed your Outer World critique, so I’ll go watch that one
Cheers!
Removing the piss filter was the biggest flaw with HR.
Seriously, it is iconic and makes narrative sense. With yellow gold being Sarif's colour, and you having SI made augmentations.
Megan does get talked about in Mankind Divided I believe. You're right, there was barely any love between her and Adam. She pretty much used him and then moved on to do more bad science for the Illuminati/Bob Page. I get the feeling that they did like each other, but whatever love was there disappeared when Adam 'dies' in the prologue and she's recruited by the baddies. It reminds me of the empty and broken relationships in the Blade Runner movies. The game could have emphasized this more, and spent more time actually building her as a character. It's clear that a lot of content got cut at the end. But I don't think the relationship between her and Adam was ever meant to be a happily ever after sort of thing where they hug and kiss at the end.
Another thing. The director's cut doesn't just remove the 'gold' filter. They changed shaders and removed and darkened a ton of (presumably yellow) lights from the game to make it work, breaking the intended lighting for a bunch of locations. So the director's cut looks flatter, darker and more washed out. There's a mod to restore all this of course. Sincerely, pissfilterfan01.
Anyway, great review! As usual all the bits of development trivia were interesting. The conclusion is very well articulated. And I like the bit of retrospection at the end. Your Mankind Divided video is probably my least favourite as well, and you really have grown in your writing since then.
I vaguely recal the Mankind Divided marketing talking about this 'trilogy' thing, so I'm sure there were some plans for a third game to wrap things up. Who knows if that was more than just half a page of notes, or something more. Here's hoping we'll find out some day! The Adam Jensen games are still my favourites in the series, despite all the criticisms you mention. They're all very good games, flawed in their own unique ways.
Thank you!
Having played the game three times now, twice near release and once again this year I do really like this game but I can find you in many of the points. I'm not nearly as critical about the story though. I like the sidequests in human revolution, and despite them not really tying into other things I do like how they offer a glimpse into daily 2027 Cyberpunk life.
I do think this is an important game in gaming history, and was more impressive in 2011 amidst a backlog of VERY linear games. There is probably a lot of DNA settled here for the Far Cry franchise (among others), which unfortunately has become tired and exhaustive, in contrast to the thirst people have for more Deus Ex.
And the stealth in the game is pretty good. Not at the level of Splinter Cell or MGS but near it, and better than a lot of stealth games. I'm probably a nutter for saying its basic stealth is better than Dishonored's, which is more about blinking into the rafters rather than timing rolls behind cover. I prefer the cover rolling model. Human Revolution's stealth is sort of like the MGS1/MGS2 model but upgraded to the modern age.
My last playthrough was even 95% ghosted, where I didn't take down guards unless the plot told me or in the rare case when I just really wanted to hack a guarded pc to read emails. Not that the game *really* acknowledges it, in gameplay or story. But it's fun.
Combat is less interesting. I did a combat oriented playthrough for my second run. It was OK. It's also kind of bothersome how dumb assaulting a lot of the bases would be from a narrative perspective, whereas I felt it was more organic in Deus Ex where they really wanted you to believe you were a one-man SWAT team. Shooting yourself into a secret underground base or high-rise tower, as a security officer, with no exit plan is just bonkers for a serious game story. That aside, the AI is genuinely pretty crap for combat encounters as you've said, but decent for stealth. Also one of the few stealth games to have guards look behind them or besides them while walking! Revolutionary :p
It's actually incredible how much work you put on these videos, it boggles my mind that they don't have 1 million+ views each. Hopefully one day more people will find your channel. Seriously, I've seen underrated channels before, but yours takes the cake. It's criminal.
I love this game but I’m glad you fairly criticized the game while still acknowledging what it did right. This is a fairly unbiased review too which I really appreciate. Even though this game came out barely 10 years ago, I think people see it through rose tinted glasses as a masterpiece. It’s nice to finally see someone be realistic about it. Great video.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed.
Played DX on PS2 back in the day, currently playing it again for the 100th time. Compared to HR, the only setbacks you'll find is that it was limited by the "modern" expectations of what a game in that era had to do. And also what a DX game had to be; while also having it made by people new to the franchise.
Vs OG DX where devs had creative freedom to do things how they wanted and created without constraints since it was going to be fresh and arguably better than the rest.
Playing HR without the wall hacks, mini map, looking at the map, quest markers and all the "modern" overpowered systems we have nowadays really made this game better and it could stand on it's own 2 feet. Severely miss the peak mechanic.
Even with these limitations, HR is how a DX game would've been if it was handled by other devs and it's limitations. With all the flaws of a "modern" AAA game. One thing HR is better at is the stealth side of it's mechanics and systems which it leans heavily into this style of play and rewards more points for doing so. Where DX didn't discriminated for wanting to be rambo or a pacifist. But rewarding more things for the arguably harder style of play is also something to consider, I know I don't go rambo ever on a DX game and if I do it's just to experiment with a quick save.
Basically anything "negative" about this game can be chalked up to modern video game pitfalls.
This was a brilliant critique, I enjoyed it very much. It was also great to see you delve on how you developed your analytical skills throughout your career and how you have new methods and approaches now; I hope you utilise those tools and methods and do something for Bloodlines, a game which I believe epitomises this genre. All the best!
Thank you!
Making a Shadowrun character (4th edition) makes me appreciate that Jensen carries nothing but guns and ammo with him.
I am designing a decker/face inspired by games like Human Revolution, a cyber-noir characters that sneaks around, gets anywhere they need be and can win gunfights on her own terms.
As such she has an Autopick for mechanical locks, a Passkey for card locks and a Sequencer for numerical locks.
JC Denten likewise carried lockpicks, autotools and the like. Letting you specialize in something else than murderizing people.
Imagine how much better HR would be with a few such tools, maybe something that jams electronics temporarily, IR googles to detect invisible enemies, maybe even a box to hide underneath.
This is amazing work. I’ve subscribed and will be watching the rest of your reviews.
Thank you!
I love these long review/critique things. I listen to these while on the way to work, right before bed, while playing games and sometimes even while working out lol. Good shit
The iconic thing for me in this game is something I discovered my second time through. Read the emails about a suspected thief.
Ignore the culprit sitting in your office giving himself up, ignore him I say.
If you read the mails, break into the offices mentioned, read their emails, and follow the trail of clues, you track it down and get the code to the helipad storage (level 5 lock).
You get a weapon mod as a reward.
Then why give the plot resolution before you even get a chance to sit down at your computer? It is illogical to do what I did, the game diverts you from a cool little detective work.
Man...what a treat! *popcorn popping intensifies*
Deus Ex holds a special place in my mind. It's got everything you could want in a interactive experience. I hope Square Enix greenlights another game soon. Seems like the perfect time to captialize on CDPRs cyberdump.
Check our my musings toward the end on the "trilogy"
LOL now I keep thinking about the egg scene in district 9...
"here heheh, for the wife... It's ah.. Souvenir from your first abortion"
@@jakedill1304 great movie. Too bad the sequel is taking a lifetime to make.
@@CyborgSodaCollects yeah, I looked into that a bit... The guy has a very long history of of projects that have fallen through, that's actually how he got the funds to do district 9 in the first place.. after another project had fallen through Peter Jackson was like okay here's some money go make go make your thing.. and he did.
I think it's one of those things where you need a budget to do what you want to do, but if your budget gets too high then you can't actually make the project, Elysium which is not a bad movie in its own right, you could just you could tell there should have been another 45 minutes to that movie...
He's up in Canada now, just kind of doing fun projects, some of them are okay LOL like it seems the people that like working with him like working with them which is a good sign, I'm just assuming he pissed somebody off in the more upper echelon or something or another I haven't heard he's a dick or anything like that like Michael Mann but that never stopped Michael Mann from getting money... Or any director from what I can gather, so I've always wondered about that, could just be that he doesn't want to give up creative control and thus he's not able to do the project he wants to do but it's all speculative at this point..
To a certain degree he reminds me of like a low budget Steven Spielberg in the way that he's just super into new tech and trying all sorts of different things, just you know the difference being that Spielberg knew how to play the game more than likely.
I played it several Times. The scene where Malik fall down with the plane in a Site Construction and Jansen tried to keep her alive is the most iconic challenge in games. If you lost, you may you'll see she dead on a litter in Harvest Hideout. Very Sad scene. This game is wonderful 👍👍👍
Was waiting for this since the Deus Ex review, thanks! Enjoying it now. The boss battles...really bit me in my first playthrough as a pacifist (non-lethal), and then suddenly the first boss couldn't be taken down that way. Had to go back through the level finding lethal weapons I hadn't bothered with so I could take the bugger down.
And who else actually enjoyed the gold filter on the original release? I liked it, the Director's Cut looked pretty flat and boring without it. Should have just made it an option to toggle so people could have it their way.
There's actually a very good Penny Arcade comic from that era about the boss battles that rang so true about speccing one way and then having to take down a bullet sponge. The gold filter was... okay? But in removing it, the fact that they didn't then color-correct or embellish on the world after the fact really hurts. Mankind Divided is a much better looking game in part because of that: they use the full spectrum of colors.
While hilarious, the AI bit... I know the original Deus ex had bad ai, but for the time... They could find weapons, hunt down ammo, give ammo to each other, find others to help them.... The stalking mechanic which wasn't used, is just really awesome when you uncomment it back in.
I think MD/HR are some of the finest games I've ever played. Just plain enjoyable experiences with great story. Adam Jensen is a great protagonist, and these games really make you feel like a beast.
great review. I adore the Deus Ex series... and you have done it justice both the good with the bad in this game...
I loved that game. Mankind divided was a let down in comparison. Good points all around, really enjoyed the video
Thank you!
Gonna save this for a slow day at work
Rock on!
Finished the game yesterday. This is the video i needed
Happy to provide!
I wouldn't mind a Night Dive Studios-like graphical update for the original Deus Ex. Update/bring the graphics in-line with Eidos-Montreal's engine, update the controls and possibly update a few other things but don't lose the main and most important elements for what made the original great. And...maybe push the timeline out a few decades from what it is now.
I think we'll see how this System Shock remake goes. It's sturdy from what jve played, but I definitely don't agree with some of their creative choices.
I love Adam Jensen's apartment, and want to live in it. It is gorgeous, and you have very few reasons to visit it.
It even has environmental storytelling with the mirror he broke after seeing his own augmented face.
The one thing I absolutely hated was the Missing Link DLC.
I had multiple playthroughs of the game and had every single aug unlocked. The first two times of having them taken away was fine but by the fifth playthrough I just absolutely hated it.
Yeah, Missing Link was not great
9:40
>Back when conspiracies were considerably more harmless
Bruh, they were so harmless, that most of them came true. The Statue of Liberty was pretty much 1:1 to... You know what.
It's just that most of the conspiracies of today are yet to really come true. Stay tuned for that, though.
….what?
@@NthReview Man, you are no fun.
@@lemonov3031 That's me, The No Fun Review
57:46 the shooting sounds like bad apple
wait wait they took a deep look at Deus Ex 1 and they came up with Human Revolution?... kinda hard to believe
? That's not what I said :D
@@NthReview In other words: I was just surprised to hear how they looked at the first game and then kinda missed the point of Deus ex (imo)
Yeah, the criticism of the visual design and music is completely unfounded.
Hah, that bit where guards stop just before you, didn't even notice that.
Not saving Malik? Come on man!
great video, I find it interesting that the HR bosses took you 45 minutes each. I played on medium and they all took me ~10 minutes each, besides Jaron which was only 2 minutes. I think I only died once on Yelena. Based off this is seems that the bosses weren't designed for higher difficulties so they just decided to make them more spongey on harder modes.
Haha, yes, playing on a high difficulty, indeed… haha…
Wow weird I never once had trouble following this story or remembering who anyone was. I found it harder keeping track of people in the original then HR, easily.
Hmm.
Still love this game the most. The first one I just beat and it was okay but not the best. I feel like this game made me feel while the first was more get to the next area.
Oof, hot take in here!
AAA+ stuff from your side as always. One day we'll get a Deus Ex that will be like Baldurs Gate 5. Future Gaming AI crossed with cyberpunk on stereoids cities and so much more. Deus Ex needs a visionaire team pushing the limits and a supportive community.
I'll probably play through it again when I get my Steam Deck.
I bet that would be a good portable game, too...
Man, the game's black and yellow color balancing is one of the major reasons I never played it. It just hurt by brain.
It definitely took a little getting used to, but it's still absolutely worth playing.
I've watched only two of your videos but i really fell in love with them, pls make a cyberpunk 2077 review sometime :))
I had intended to around its release, but everyone else got to it and I planned on waiting for all the content to come out. Some day! More Patreon supporters and I'll get closer!
amazzzzzinggg series
18:05 Ah yes, the chapter where JC Denton has to retrieve one of the Crystal Skulls, I remember it clearly
You know what's really great about this game?
A Revolver. With Explosive Ammo.
You dont. You tell a new tale and let the body of legends rest in greatness
Pretty good review... very critical and not blinded by piss tinted glasses. Maybe not critical enough, but you especially busted up the writing which it deserved so desperately. Some good imagery and concepts but... well you know. Actors... pass. For me the art design was about the only thing I liked. Maybe the take downs were fun and worked well with cover. Rather play og or gmdx any day of the week. Two things, the best environment in the game isn't that stupid white room, it's your apartment lobby. Also, you made no mention of the xp system which I think ruins the feel of a deus ex game for first time players. Previously you were rewarded by completion of objectives and exploration, now you're rewarded for taking out every person, hacking minigaming every thing, and reading all the crappy office gossip. That blasphemy carried over in such a disgusting way in MD. Defeats the purpose of having truly good level design. Even for it being overproduced with an exponentially larger budget, I don't think they did anything better than the original. I played it, enjoyed it, but I'm good with it dying off. I could write a two hour long comment, but I'm letting you know I think you did pretty good.
Ha, thanks!
Hey, good points!
I started with the first game which I still play as well as human revolution and the fall on my phone greatest game other than the legacy of Kain
What movie/tv show did you splice in with the chick with the robot arm/hand?
That was part of the marketing promo stuff they put together for the game
I never asked for this, yet I've gotten more than I could have asked for.
I started with deus ex on the O.G. Xbox, arguably the least liked of the series, but a rosey memory for me. I'd love to see another title made
After the recent release of the system shock remake i think if they are gonna do it they should remake it as close to the original as possible as nightdive did with system shock.
The moment you start "modernizing" or making it "more accessible for modern audiences" you lose what made it so special
Love the review but I also found trying to play these games as a shooter with RPG mechanics thrown in second make it difficult. Same with Cyberpunk. If I play this games as an RPG first in a shooter mechanics second it definitely plays a lot smoother for me lol. Shooting as a last resort but mostly focusing on hacking and stealth mechanics similar to Ghost in the Shell.
I can't hate this game. The leveling is subpar, the level design inadequate, the story nonsensical, and the sidequests disappear.
And yet, it tries. It tries so hard to be a great game and it shows. The stealth is superb, the combat is tense, the world is beautiful, the music is spectacular and I love the corny characters.
The guns are amazing, the newspaper stories, the world it hints at, the sidequests. I love it.
Better than Mankind Divided, but still behind the first DX.
Considering how MD was a pretty much direct upgrade in every way, but was cut short before it could get properly finished, I disagree. HR is the second worst, with only IW being behind.
Your video along with ZP and Accursed Farms reviews of HR is spot on. I'm dumbfounded when I see people raving about HR and MD calling them masterpieces and similar not seeing how these games make absolutely no sense as stand alone titles and even less in the Deus Ex canon.
I imagine the only way Deus Ex as a series could be rescued and redeemed after this would be by pulling some MGS2 style meta narrative trick of reframing the events of HR and MD and presenting them as maybe a virtual reality simulation designed by MJ12 to train and psychologically condition special agents from the Denton line. None of this stuff is true and Adam Jensen is not a real person but a codename for VR avatar in the training program hence all of this is essentially inconsequential to Deus Ex 1 and IW.
Or OK, let's say Adam Jensen does exist but he is a drug addict and virtual reality junkie, let's say the mole kid that JC meets in the events of the first game. The events of HR/MD are just a hallucination/projection of a kid who met the legend that JC is, the kid thinks up a fictional idealised version of himself as an augmented cop from the past and inserts it into the JC Denton narrative that he pieces together from the news, gossip and tales.
I know to pull off something like this Squeenix would require Philip K. Dick's imagination that none of their writers clearly possess. And silly and absurd as this approach may seem it would be tonally more in tune of the first game which does not take itself so seriously. The original Deus Ex while being ridiculous delivers plenty of valid observations about the state of the world. Squeenix titles on the other hand present themselves as profound but shower the player with buckets of eyeroll inducing drivel.
Obviously I'm not the biggest fan of the Montreal games and while I point out their tenuous connections to the original game, that's not an explicit endorsement that they should be cut out. I'm not one of those people who disavow the Star Wars PT despite the lesser degree of quality and as much as I hate Ep9, I'm not gonna sit there and demand Disney remake it because that's just silly. When we treat a franchise like this less like a holy relic and more like the confluence of art and technology and the people working on it, we can keep our blood pressures down :)
The moment Ross mentioned in his (MD, I believe) review how the game really feels like it should be it's own universe, it immediately clicked for me, and made me appreciate the games much more by treating them like that. They never rose up to *even remotely* Deus Ex level anyway, and I would always struggle (unsuccessfully) to reconcile them.
@@edba-pm2cw Honestly, I think that's kinda just how you wind up enjoying the Montreal games anyway. You can say the same about Invisible War as well: I enjoyed it as a standalone immersive sim, not necessarily as a sequel to Deus Ex.
LOL "damsel in distress"? Its obvious that she play the major role in s. company and later she on her own will start cooperation with Page. Also she doesn't care about potential harm her invention will bring so rather she's cold fish - more interested in her job/science then anything "human relationship", invention "cutting edge" no matter the cost.
Well said she’s more concerned about innovation than human life
Just go invisible and knock out guards. It chews through energy but saves Malik every time
1:57:24 Why aren't we getting a Deux Ex part 3?
Interesting review. And resonates mostly with my thoughts on this "new dilogy", putting it simple - they are both great games, but not so great Deus Ex'es. IMO even the IW, which by many people considered the worst in the series, standing closer to the original game - trying to do same things and tackle same topics but on a simpler and smaller scale. Why I call it "Deus Ex for kids" :)
I dont think there will be a sequel to Mankind Divided. The series have been on ice for too long now. If there will be a new Deus Ex game at all it will probably take place several years after Mankind Divided and have an all new protagonist. I can see Adam Jensen cameo in the next game or something and references to what happened in HR and MD, but that's about all.
It kinda feels like they were making a Ghost in the Shell game
You know I'm glad somebody else said it.. like Ross got definitely hit a lot of nails on the head about the dialogue and that's what really turned me out when I first played it.. despite yeah being better than the status quo, but that was only 6 years after I played vampire the masquerade bloodlines.. so it still hit me a little more bitter. Especially when people with wax on about how good it was, fuck even years later when I finally did give Mass effect a try and and tried to you know genuinely accept the fact that I worked right dialogue and story and characters and that a consillitis game series could maybe work as an RPG right because you don't need so many physical mechanics you know as long as it's got a semi-satisfying combat.. well shit I forgot about video games LOLit honestly feels like I'm being gasless sometimes when it comes to people talking about things but you know then I realize a lot of kids are younger than me a lot younger than me.. most of them didn't grow up with computers, that wasn't the thing after the Xbox came out it was a lot more common back when I grew up because that was the gaming machine in the United States anyways. now this happens to be a rare example of a game that works mechanically fairly successfully in a way that easily would have me coming back for another one, even if I don't think I'll replay it anytime soon.. although I try to replay the second one but my hard drive died and I lost my new game plus and that was that really just kind of took me out of it LOL I was so looking forward pistol that shot normal for the whole game LOL...
But mechanically with the one exception being the stick cover system which I get it it was basically fine, like good even.. like I'm about as tough and judges as it comes to anybody when it comes to wanting a complex control scheme, I get that every game can't be Arma.. but while I do recognize that it Irma could be more streamlined possibly to be.. look all I'm saying is that I don't need it to have an altimeter, I just wouldn't mind if it did.. which yeah I think that qualifies me? Considering I won't play a game that doesn't let me lean at all pretty much ever, I bought them, I'm waiting for mods to play them especially resident evil that game should have fucking leaning LOL especially just for the sneaking part. But, they're never going to make that kind of game in triple a.. the fact that Witcher 3 exist I'm pretty sure it's just on account of that is Polish, same thing with cyberpunk by the way although we're starting to see the The Rot coming from a different direction in that case, and some might argue Witcher 2, but that game wasn't more mechanically complex in fact it was much less more mechanically complex it was more frustrating and more difficult because it was less mechanically complex.. now it was systemically more complex, and you know what for all your tabletop fuckers out there you're entitled to that one I got nothing.. but I do have priorities, and what made me fall utterly in love with Witcher which naturally of course I'm still human I started with the second one, simple series of dialogue choices that sounded like something I would say, even if they weren't perfectly represented in the dialogue tree that's what made me fall in love with bloodlines as well, and it was consistent more or less throughout the entire thing I felt like I was in that conversation and that was allowed me to suspend my disbelief which is something I've completely lost in my modern age almost completely fucking lost.. seriously I feel nothing it sucks.
and for some reason I'm still way way way easier to accept that then a contextual first person cover system don't get me wrong I'm not sure why because it's arguably the same thing.. but I cried genuine tears of joy when there was one other person out there that felt like this was important and put into cyberpunk.. I even left my C and v keys which are my leaning keys which are the best of leaning keys.. try them once or twice you'll find it easy to move around with your thumb and use them :-). I left them blank until I was able to script bind them to the zoom key which did initiated the context lien so it felt like they were leaning, but yeah first person contacts leaning feels like you're getting sucker punched with consolitis, for some reason third person in first person games.. do not ask me why it works better but it does even though I think Vegas is a trash fucking game, and yeah.. sorry one of my very first game series I got into was rainbow six and and ghost recon so yeah all the new Clancy games can fuck themselves.. siege had promise though, another game by the way that proves you can have a complex mechanical system on a console shooter.. don't get me wrong you're never going to be able to have like a proper level design unless you design it around the mouse and keyboard which they used to do for ports back in the old days, which had mixed results cuz a lot of times you ended up with a better game, you definitely ended up with a better game if it went one direction because that's just taking away the limits LOL but things like graw had a good idea in mind, and that game would have worked very successfully, even with the cheese ball plot.. if it had AI that worked, that was the one thing it had to do was keep the scripting in the AI to in a way that worked they that was what they needed to do and they didn't.. shit I don't even think that game had co-op LOL this is how they solved that that problem nowadays they just do co-op and then you get blamed for not playing it in co-op when you have a shitty experience in a squad shooter LOL.. what the fuck ever.
there's mechanical and hardware reasons you can blame a console for problems in game design and I think they're significant.. but it's not really the console that's the default that's a machine it's the console players, PC players too nowadays, I mean have you seen the 60% keyboard it's a it's 2/3 of keyboard for twice the price.. trust me it'll play your CS:GO you've been playing for 20 years real good because there's five buttons in that game okay in all fairness there's more than ...
wait
okay so let's let's count movement as one button technically so crouch fire jump alt... And let's not count many you keys in this case so it has it has at least more than four buttons and that can play CS go!
you know it sounds like it's a problem with everything made for the Mass appeal children of this world,. Date the standards are different they're not worse necessarily but are you speaking they are worse, now the money being spent is a lot more which means that they're going to want more of a return on investment as it turns out.. and as it turns out the financing industry is entirely speculative go figure.. not going to get into that, even if it does seem appropriate in a deus ex game it just doesn't seem appropriate in a Montreal Deus ex game... and right here is where I removed a section that just went right into cussing out JJ Abrams.. for very good reasons and I really like what I said so I saved it for something else but it made no sense why I just started doing it LOL upon further recollection.. but I thought it should let everybody else know fuck you j jAbrams.,..I feel like I should explain that now which is how I probably ended up in that whole thing but I'm just going to leave it at that cuz this is already going on too long.
Too long.
23:16
Nope, that was definitely nostalgia talking
Is this the only reboot that I would like to help with?
Needs more views
Agreed!
@@NthReview slowly watching all your vids and its good stuff!
You might have been asked this already bit what did you think about Hbomberguy's video on DX:HR?
@@plussum3255 I loved it! I think it was interesting that we mined a lot of the same material and came to slightly different conclusions. For me, though, knowing his video was coming when I was making mine, it was a bummer to not get a lift when his video released. He wound up with millions and I wound up with thousands despite the months-head start. That's not his fault though, it's an incredible video.
.. And still I preffer Human Revolution and Mankind Divided way more than the original Deus Ex. For me Jensen and his crusade were top notch. Less in MD, but I still wanted to know, what's next.
You can find out what's next. By actually playing the first fucking game.
I kinda felt like the game didn't *really* give the player a choice on play style. The gun play sucked. Non-lethal takedowns ended encounters immediately, and provided the most XP. Most secret praxis kits were only available through various accessibility augs. Flayed dude's boss battle was a breeze for bored ADD-stricken players. My one gripe is the gf's cutscene didn't start with the player lugging the turret through the doorway. XD Then there's the laser gun which only really has *one* use.
I think they should make the third part and make it the best game they can make, give us a conclusion at least, it might suck but it would be a conclusion none the less, and if the game makes enough money maybe we'll get another game.
Or, they could just not do a sequel and let the potential disappointment live in our head rather than in reality. They’re gonna do another game, but maybe not an extension of this one.
@@NthReview Maybe they should just call Warren Spector and get his idea on the whole thing.
@@Kaden10 I think that would be a better choice, yeah.
42:12 Serif didn't give you everything is because you need to adapt to your new abilities/body, which work lore-wise in the first playthrough.
I hate the boat section, I wish I can avoid it, or keep my augments. The praxis point system is flawed because it should symbolise your training (XP leveling like any game) and medical treatment (when you buy them), having them locked is like you being ill, once the illness gone, you are better, stronger, faster than while ill.
Gameplay wise I prefer HR, also because MD bugged with steam for a long time, I have to retry it. And story wise, I've play the first one, I've tried recently, but the gameplay is too dated :/ HR have some short coming of sort and I agree on the side questing being ignored by some relevant NPC.
Now the rest of the video.
55:40 you can pass pangaia stealthly, it's just long and kind of annoying.
Which is true of pretty much all stealth.
2:00:00 Why does hugh darrow invit everyone on panchea? He don't want to end himself, but he want to die anyway but not alone, so he force the situation. Like the airplane pilots. It's a weird psychology thing.
This is the game that got me into prey/ss2/dishonored but everytime i play the original i like all those games including this one less.
CGPGrey video reference located :D
:D Glad someone spotted it!
Fuck yeah let's go
Imagine an immersive sim game like the Deus ex series... In VR.
I love this game and the original. Great world crafting. But the original is the better of the two.
The third person cover is why I don't think I ever got all that far in this game.
It is uncanny how many times you seem to use blind shooting from cover (it looks useless!)! Perhaps it tells something about how you play in general? I've never done that in my many playthroughs of this game!
Worked fine. Played fine. *shrug*
I do not agree about love and affection because it was well presented via JC and Paul interactions
But they're not in this game.
@@NthReview yea, but as I understand the part about love was also about the series as whole. So the original game also managed to show live on persanal level better then hr and md:)
@@unR36L The observation was more about this game because it emphasizes it as a theme with the abduction/pursuit of Megan. It wasn't a reflection on the series because no other game has that ambition.
@@NthReview I think that idea of relationships with Megan is heavily inspired by Pauls and JCs as the main point in both cases is to show "side Twist". But in case of Paul player is also feels very involved not only because of some dialogues but also because of comments Paul gives after some players actions(lib island, nyc). It looks like Paul talking to player himself not just JC, so player also feels affection to the character. Furthermore Pauls twist encourages player to overthink that happens around, as also non-obvious decision or sort of climax comes when player is asked to kill Lebedev. But in HR we do not have freedom to think for ourselves. We see Megan changing side because of "later" and it also has no further influence on the game. Megan could be removed from the game, the game won't suffer at all.
@@unR36L I get the familial relationship between Paul and JC, but the romantic one between Megan and Adam feels incomplete and unfulfilled and that was my master complaint.
Great review, only thing I have to criticize is your, in my opinion, reductive take on the conversation-system.
I've played a shit ton of RPGs by now, and I haven't played a single game except VTBM maybe, that had a conversation system as good as Human Revolution.
The conversation system was super intuitive even without the Pheromone-Implant. Your criticism that HRs NPCs dialogue is arbitrary imo is a projection because it appeared arbitrary to you, I found it very intuitive and enticing.
And when it comes to the Pheromone Implant, it's one of the best aspects of the game. Deus Ex MAIN THEME is transhumanism, selling the fantasy of asymmetrical human interactions because of augmentation. If something suddenly feels "too easy" because of an Implant, the theme was successfully communicated. I find that both HR and MD are at their peak when you experience this asymmetry. The Pheromone Implant is broken and cheesy, and that would be a problem if it was just a charisma skill in a realism/fantasy-themed game, but the point is to make you feel that way, it's supposed to be broken, that's why there is moral dilemma in augmentation. Concerning Conversation Systems in games in general, I think its very easy to get trapped in the notion that any games conversation system us reductive... which is true, but gaming couldnt possibly simulate realistically challenging social interactions, looking at it pragmatically, no game will be able to realistically emulate a human to human interaction, maybe with AI in the future, but not in 2009. Taking that into regard, I think the system we get in Human Revolution is almost the best it could get. There is better written dialogue, that feels more immersive and impactful, but, in your words, it ends up being just smoke and mirrors. One of the best "Augment Moments" in MD for example happens in the tutorial, when the sandstorm hits and you turn on your Augmented Vision, being able to see your enemies while they can't. This krass Feeling of Power Imbalance, unfairness, is true to the theme of transhumanism.
"is a projection because it appeared arbitrary to you"
That's not what projection is.
Adam and Megan were separated/broken up at some point prior to the game's start while still being co-workers. Or at least, that was my assumption.
I wish they said more, revealed more...
@@NthReview It was stated rather plainly in emails you can read and dialogue interactions with various characters. I just started a new playthrough today and Megan's mother says, "You were together long enough" when asking Adam to use her first name.
I agree their relationship as it stood was underdeveloped, but that specific part of it was pretty clearly communicated by the game. They seemed awfully close for a broken up couple and I always wanted to know why they ended the relationship yet still behaved fairly intimately with each other.
@@clydemarshall8095 That's certainly possible, but reading an e-mail like that seems like it refers to the fact that Megan had been long considered dead, not that their relationship was dead. Either way. *shrug*
So is jc adams clone? Is adam in cryofreeze somewhere?
These are all fantastic questions.
@NthReview we need a new game dang it!
You should do Mankind Divided. It is a much better game than Human Revolution.
I did do Mankind Divided
@@NthReview oh, I see it now. It seems you did the sequel before this one. I’ll go watch that now. Thanks.
I just wish I could have some fun I stead of watching "Cutscene Jensen" have all the fun. I bought the game all excited and left underwhelmed and quickly got bored.
A bit surprised that you would call the original a "shooter" that is really an insult to the game, call of duty, medal of honour, battlefield, doom, quake. Those are all shooters and some great ones at that but Deus ex is much much more than a shooter it is an immersive sim
No insult to the game, it's the greatest shooter BECAUSE it's an immersive sim, too!
39:45
I think a great example of how HR falls flat with its interactions with background characters is when its compared to private lloyd from DX1. The dude has like 3 lines of dialogue through the entire game yet I couldnt bring myself to kill him during the unatco escape.
Reading the comments on this and all I can say is I don't think you can make Immersive Sim fans happy in this age anymore. Especially with all the ones who even deny these games happened. In the end, since it's a prequel there is really isn't much you can do without breaking the canon. Game is going to be doomed from the start.
1:43:40
Both games are good, the original and human revolution. Mankind divided is good but too short. It feels incomplete and does not have an ending. i think square enix approach damage the game series.
12:44 hmmm... lemme look closer... ups! too close... hmmm noice...
Hahaha!
I am sorry to say, I love the video, but you have missed so much of this game by choosing not to do a pure exploration / no kill run. I had a lot of fun. Also I never had to google any boss solutions... just take your time to explore the environment and the solution will come to you, even more so during boss battles.
Yeah, no-kill runs are definitely not for me, especially when their effectiveness hinges on the game not breaking its own rules or having simple stealth mechanics. Granted, the stealth of these games was more sophisticated than its predecessors…
Everybody lies... except me :D
Yeah they really actually nailed the color black with the first unreal engine, and Deus ex is a grand example of that.. it's just saturated and inky and wonderful, modern games have completely fucking lost this.. it's getting a little bit better now that they've stopped tinting them to high fucking heaven, now we just have to deal with the 'can it have more shit the screen than crysis' trend, which isn't terribly concerning.. given that there's the reverse trend as well starting to become a thing of having no HUD which is the future damn it*** join us!
but I think I'm at a point where I've given the color black a c'est la vie, hopefully it comes back with the propagation of modern OLED technology.. I think that may have had something to do with it, I also just think the casualizing of of games, like remember how hardcore people bitched about the flashlight in Doom 3, despite the fact that you could still kind of see everything more or less on account of all the weapon flashes and the design was designed around it and it really like yeah okay it was a logic leap.. but I will take that any day over the inverse of having everything be a fucking blown out gray like it's a mid mid-2000s crime drama.. which was largely on account of the switch to digital cameras over 35 mm film cuz it doesn't have the dynamic range.. unfortunately it became something people wanted things to look like LOL.
***No fucking HUD ever! Freedom! Have everything be in game! it's totally doable we live in the modern age, we can do it now! we have the technology! We don't need to have 15 grenade fucking indicators covering up the fucking screen... you spend so much time running all those pollies and you cover them up with a fucking console sized glowy high contrast fucking saturated.. indicator, outline, orbox, (looking at you CD projekt red.. let me turn that shit off without having to mod the game, and you fucking know better.. at least I hope you do... Oddly enough Dead space had a feature Rich HUD... And managed to do it without outlines or grenade indicators.. go figure, it can be done! And then maybe we could see all that beautiful animation work instead of you know having 14 different cues lined up including HUD cues to let them know that they're alerted, or their possibly alerted or you have this long till they're alerted.. that's not when you're when you're not using wall hacks or excuse me a magic vision magic eyes, that's not wall hacks at all...lol.
Dude. Go start writing a novel. Seriously.
Too many 10 dollar words. The Ross's dismantling of this game is far more accessible and far less pretentious.
Which words were difficult for you and we can have a study sesh bro.
l m a o
Is anyone here prepared to be activated as an agent once the world gets to this and take on corporations, governments and secret societies?
Uh.
Thank you for these long, extrended and deep looking reviews. When the prequels came out I played them for about 20 minutes, discovered you had to eat a candy bar for each punch you wanted to throw, and I uninstalled them. I still feel like that's the shittiest game mechanic ever thought of.
I think Eidos might be one of the worst AAA game studios. It feels like the people making games there are basically all architects and interior designers. They can create absolutely stunning worlds and levels, but they forget to put in a well made game as well.
You cherry picked flaws of this game or even criticized thins that are not flaws and made a two hour episode about them.
Boss battles. Well I did't have much troble with them. I did the first boss without anything added in DC. Took me some time and attempts to figure this out. I noticed that he is vulnerable to EMP granades, and build on that. Boss battles should be like that, they should be hard on hardest difficulty settings. When I discovered all things added in DC on my second playthrough it was a 5 min easy encounter. What is more, if game gives you weapon upgrades, and you decide NOT to upgrade your weapons, while playing on hardest difficulty, well it is not game that is a problem here. When you show scenes from battles, it just shows a very bad gameplay. L2P or change difficulty, you can do it anytime.
7 min and first try, that is a bad boss battle design.
There is a video of guy defeting bosses by throwing boxes at them. If he can do it that way, maybe it is not so hard to do it with weapons.
If you want I can give you ways how to defet the bosses easly.
Stupid AI. While it is true that it could be better. Enemies still hide from your shots, shoot at your position, while others walk to get side fire and finish you. I didn't encounter anything like enemy shoting wall or robots getting stuck. But it happends in every game.
You didn't manage to save Malik even with using your weapoons? Well I managed to save her both by using weapons, and by knocking everyone out on my pacifist playthrough. L2P man.
Using mouse to pick up loot, was laborious to you? Well to see items you have to press E key and to take them all you have to press E key again. In general it is worth to check key bindings when you play a game. Again L2P issue.
I never ever had to blind fire from cover. It took too much time, and wasted ammo. L2P again.
My favourite part is "Why would anyone carry alcohol". Well did you right click on alcohol, and clicked examine button? If you did, then you would know why. And if you didn't well you should not be doing a game review.
Story was fine, enough to be interesting, but not too much to disturb you from gameplay. You know you buy games, to play games. If you want interesting story get a book.
Level design. Well you usually have like six or seven ways to solve a problem. Find secret paths, usually there are couple of them, sneak through patrolling enemies, knock out enemies and hide their bodies, fight a battle using cover system granades and so, battle enemies using secret passages to be able to shot their backs, silently eliminate them one by one using silenced weapons and hack turrets and robots to kill enemies for you. Only last one is situational. Game gives you all of those options. If that is not enough for you I don't know what is.
One battery recharge. Well you have to choose what you carry. You either carry amunition and weapons and have a lethal gameplay, or carry things that recharge your batteries instantly and you can focus on knocking out and stealth. You just can not have it all.
You could't pass a bridge in last location stealthy? Well you noticed that there is additional passage on a side of bridge, that you can sneak to? It seems you didn't. It you don't like fighting directly there is a turret above bridge and gas tanks in a room before the bridge. I wonder if you can use them somehow? But that is not stealhy way anymore.
Most of your criticism is not bad game design, but your bad gameplay. Really if you had to blind fire from cover, it's bad. That is why game has different difficulty levels, don't play on harderst if you can't.
To each their own!
Just remake the original just like the new system shock remake.
I hate to say it’s not quite that simple.
I just love declarative statements like "the greatest shooter of all time". I'm not knocking the game by any stretch, but come on.
Better than any other shooter I've ever played, but then I did a whole other review on that.
@@NthReview
It’s “better” because it’s definitely not a shooter. It’s in a different category.
How do you reboot Deus Ex?
Not with a company that makes anime uwu games.
Not ex-Cop. Ex-SWAT.
He graduated from a police academy, SWAT is a cop, he was a cop.
@@NthReview Just channeling some of that dry humour. I haven't played in a while but I recall Jensen answering something like that to Pritchard at one point?
rebooting?? desecrating corpse for cash...
They cancelled it guys, Deus ex is dead, Buried
BOO.
@@NthReview I meant Embracer groups cancelled a game that was being developed for 2 years