Deus Ex: Human Revolution, it happens this week! Options

[Seriously Mike]

No Spoilers!

Don't watch the launch trailer then, you'll see the "big twist" (big because it's obvious in the game) pretty much confirmed, also other spoilers (cutscenes from fights with all three Tyrants).

[Rastus]

...

Added bonus? None of the trailers mentioned/showed just how far you can fling a body. I already knew you could drag 'em to hide 'em, sure...but you can really wing those mamajamas, too, same as all the other stuff you can carry around. It's pretty fun to one-shot a baddy stealthily, then just go "fuck it" and announce your presence to the next handful of 'em by launching his comatose form at them.

Just bodies? Childs play! With the strength aug you get access to three of the greatest weapons in the game: Dumpsters, Vending Machines, and the almighty Refridgerator. Those three will see you through damn near any problem.

Out of ammo? These things never are. Too many enemies shooting? They are all indestructible bulletproof barriers that remain so while held in front of you. Wooden door in the way? Just chuck a fridge at it about 10 times and you've successly commited breaking and entering. They are also suprisingly subtle weapons, as pretty much nobody reacts to you holding them and they don't make the kind of noises(aka gunshot reports) that attract guards and spook civvies, though I'm pretty sure in more secure areas guards will react to them like any other falling object.

[CanRay]

"What the, who the hell is carrying that fridge?" "Oh, it must be Joe from Maintenance. They're moving the break room." "Oh, thank goodness, having it right next to that lab with the harsh chemicals was making all my meals taste like toxic waste!" "That lab also was using the fridge against company policy." "... Please tell me I didn't eat toxic waste." "With your wife's cooking, sorry, I wish I could."

[Critias]

Just bodies? Childs play! With the strength aug you get access to three of the greatest weapons in the game: Dumpsters, Vending Machines, and the almighty Refridgerator. Those three will see you through damn near any problem.

No, see, my (pleasant) surprise just came from the fact that I knew, or at least expected, to be able to throw that sort of stuff. I'm winging dumpsters and fridges around willy-nilly, and sometimes even just breaking all of someone's moving boxes because I think they're a douchebag.

It was just that I didn't expect to be able to fling a corpse (or near-corpse) at high velocities over far distances. I knew I could drag 'em into the shadows and blah blah blah sneaky-sneaky, but using them as weapons brought a smile to my face.

[Stahlseele]

*shrugs* i'd throw them up a roof to be sneaky and not leave any traces i guess . .

[crash2029]

Call me stupid but I havent figured out how to throw a body. Dumpsters, fridges, vending machines yes, bodies no.

[Critias]

Call me stupid but I havent figured out how to throw a body. Dumpsters, fridges, vending machines yes, bodies no.

When you've got them grabbed (to drag them around), just hit the shoot/attack/throw button like normal. Fling, off they go! The tutorial, etc, never mentioned it was possible, so the first time I did it it happened totally by (awesome) accident.

[Rastus]

No, see, my (pleasant) surprise just came from the fact that I knew, or at least expected, to be able to throw that sort of stuff. I'm winging dumpsters and fridges around willy-nilly, and sometimes even just breaking all of someone's moving boxes because I think they're a douchebag.

It was just that I didn't expect to be able to fling a corpse (or near-corpse) at high velocities over far distances. I knew I could drag 'em into the shadows and blah blah blah sneaky-sneaky, but using them as weapons brought a smile to my face.

Okay, fair enough. It's not something you'd naturally try the first time you get a body to drag away.

But did you know that those bodies could be used for a simple game of basketball?

[CanRay]

Nothing but net. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Seriously Mike]

Three to four hours and I get my preorder at last.

[Wounded Ronin]

I played Human Revolution for a couple of hours last night.

On the whole I was very pleased. It really does keep the look, feel, and gameplay of the original Deus Ex. It's not exactly the same but I feel that they did for the most part respect the original. In a vast improvement from Deus Ex 2, they let you get drunk again! Hooray! And the whiskey gets you a lot more drunk than the beer, which was a flaw in the original Deus Ex, where a bottle of whiskey was equivalent to one ice cold foty. Back in grad school, I used to drink ice cold foties while playing Deus Ex...


The biggest difference that I can see so far is the regenerating health system, and also how close combat takedowns somehow eat up your biolelectric energy, which is hilarious, because I imagine you must be giving your opponents mechanically enhanced less lethal beatdowns with your cyberlimbs going through copious amounts of battery power in order to do so. It would be like using a jackhammer as a less than lethal weapon.

In the original Deus Ex, you needed to stockpile items, or memorize the location of med bots, in order to maintain your health, or make sure you didn't get crippled limbs. With enough finesse, less lethal takedowns with, say, the baton, did not use any resources, i.e. BE. Finally, while your BE was limited, you could stockpile bioelectric cookies, I mean cells, to recharge it whenever you needed to.

So, the biggest difference is that in the original Deus Ex you could basically stockpile resources for tough spots, and you could get by the easier spots without using resources and instead using a lot of finesse, i.e. by creeping around with the baton.

I feel like in Human Revolution they've basically gotten rid of that particlar way of playing the game, by introducing the regenerating health, and making the less lethal takedowns eat up bio energy. You can't take down everyone using hand to hand combat like you used to be able to, so in a sense I feel more compelled to sneak through an area instead of securing an area and then searching it thoroughly. In other words, as far as a less than lethal approach goes, in some way the game has a little bit more of a gameplay resemblance to Metal Gear 2...you don't really want to try and secure an area in most cases, but rather you want to creep by while minimizing contact, since you don't really have the resources to secure an area in the way you might have wanted to do in the original Deus Ex. Unlike in older games you don't have the ability to stockpile huge amounts of resources for when you want to go nuts and take everyone down in a particular area.

But, I can't say that's necessarily a bad thing...it's just a different game design choice. So I have to say that on the whole I really like Human Revolution.

The hacking is a lot better, too. Real SR2 like, with nodes and such. What fun!


I'm also looking forward to possible philosophical discussions about transhumanism in the game. I recently looked transhumanism up on the internet in order to get ready for playing this game and I am curious to see the ways in which it would be discussed in-game. In my personal opinion, as someone who works in a medical field, I think that a lot of the discussion about trans humanism as a philosophical negative is very abstract. On the other hand there are many cases of people losing a lot of quality of life and enduing a great deal of emotional and economic hardship when they lose or have problems with various organs. If it were at all possible to supply these people with a halfway decent mechanical replacement part, it would be such a concrete social good that I feel a lot of the abstracted counter arguments would be superflous. It's fine to talk about mortality and human falibility as philosophical upshots, until you have to deal with these things on a day by day basis, either in yourself, or in someone you care for. But, I'm looking forward to seeing how these thoughts and issues might be presented in the game.

[ZeroPoint]

Preordered the Augmented edition from Gamestop. Picked it up and was up til 5:30 the next morning playing it x_x

good think i didn't have to go in until 1 that day. still felt like crap though.

got the PC version.

I like the cover mechanics and general look/feel of the game. was slightly disappointed with energy system...but not terribly.

[Critias]

Honestly, energy is probably my biggest complaint so far. As complaints go, it's a pretty small one. It's not ruining the game for me or anything like that, but if I had to pick something to be unhappy with, it would be energy.

[Seriously Mike]

Oh yeah, not having enough energy is a monstrous pain in the ass, especially in situations where you have to quickly deal with multiple enemies. Also, boss fights. I played the beta for a while and there are no words safe for publishing that describe them.

[Critias]

It's mostly just an extra headache, to me. Not a major challenge/difficulty thing, I just dislike even having to worry about it. It's an extra little bit of bookkeeping I wish I didn't have to even consider.

[ZeroPoint]

yeah, my biggest problem with the energy system is that the takedowns cost energy...which means that due to the way i chose to play i almost always only have 1...and thats all i need cuz it recharges. so as long as i'm only doing takedowns i have unlimited energy...but if i want to do something that costs more I eat an energy bar and first do it, and don't bother replinishing it because I'm just gonna lose it doing the next takedown...

so yeah, not very well thought out in my opinion. A minor complaint really, and as you said critias, probably the only one i have.

[Wounded Ronin]

yeah, my biggest problem with the energy system is that the takedowns cost energy...which means that due to the way i chose to play i almost always only have 1...and thats all i need cuz it recharges. so as long as i'm only doing takedowns i have unlimited energy...but if i want to do something that costs more I eat an energy bar and first do it, and don't bother replinishing it because I'm just gonna lose it doing the next takedown...

so yeah, not very well thought out in my opinion. A minor complaint really, and as you said critias, probably the only one i have.

I tend to agree, and play the same way re energy.

I guess they wanted to make it hard to actually nonviolently secure an area.

I remember though how in the original Deus Ex the BE meter ran out so fast I rarely bothered using augs.

[Tanegar]

I tend to agree, and play the same way re energy.

I guess they wanted to make it hard to actually nonviolently secure an area.

I remember though how in the original Deus Ex the BE meter ran out so fast I rarely bothered using augs.

There's an aug in DX that lets you conserve power. "Power Recirculator" IIRC. It consumes a modest amount of energy itself, so it only really becomes worth it if you're running multiple augs simultaneously. I had good experiences with Combat Strength, Silent Running, and the Dragon's Tooth sword. MJ12 commandos went down in one hit as long as they didn't see me coming.

[Wounded Ronin]

I remember that aug. I used it sometimes, although the auto heal aug was also mighty convienient.


I have been thinking why takedowns requiring energy is annoying.

We are used to hand to hand combat in games being a last resort or economy measure. This is of course a bit fallacious from a realism standpoint...if you cold cocked 50 guys on a military operation you'd probably end up breaking your hand and then you'd really be in trouble. But in HR when beatdowns effectively have an ammo count that is far less than the ammo count for guns, it messes with us.

[X-Kalibur]

The energy for melee takedowns is entirely a balancing mechanism and an important one. It's an instant takedown and you're invincible during the animation. Without that limitation you could just run around KO'ing (or stabbing) everyone in a room with no real care for ammo.

You've got 4 options for non-lethal takedowns that all really good though.
Melee - cost - battery - silent
Taser - cost - ammo - short range - silent - can also short out cameras and laser beams (and bosses...!)
PEPS gun - cost - ammo - decent range, area affect, - silent(HOW???) - low total ammo count
Tranq Rifle - Cost - ammo - long range - silent - sometimes takes two darts to incap. Ammo is expensive and not always readily available.

[Backgammon]

Did you guys know that, when hacking, you can claim the red stack? And if you do, you claim everything in the system? It was awesome when I figured that out. I have nukes and stops coming out of my ass.

[Seriously Mike]

...say what now? That one hasn't crossed my mind, it's like hacking the guy who's attacking you in Cybercombat!

[Critias]

My "oh wow" moment for hacking was when I realized I could click on and manipulate more than one thing at a time. While you're taking over one node, you can be busily clicking away on another and getting it started.

I love just adding goodies to my 10mm. I know other guns are probably better, but I can't help but want a solid, sturdy, semi-auto. I only even pick up other guns in order to sell 'em, lately. Every mod I get goes onto my pistol, and -- especially now that I've got the silencer on there -- it's never let me down yet. I AM kind of rolling in credits at this point (I'm hoping the second LIMB store will have a couple more Praxis I can buy) and don't really seem to be needing them for much, lately...

And my primary irritation with the melee/energy thing is that it takes energy to be invisible, and then you can't melee one-shot someone after you sneak up on them. It's an irritating non-stacking of abilities that just frustrates me a little. It's not the end of the world, or a wreck of a game, or anything...but again, because I've got to find SOMEthing to gripe about, it's what I've got. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Adarael]

My "oh wow" moment for hacking was when I realized I could click on and manipulate more than one thing at a time. While you're taking over one node, you can be busily clicking away on another and getting it started.

Same here. The "OH HOLY SHIT I CAN HACK TWO THINGS WHILE FORTIFYING?" was heard throughout my apartment.

I love just adding goodies to my 10mm. I know other guns are probably better, but I can't help but want a solid, sturdy, semi-auto.

That, sir, is because you are a shadowrunner. And as we all know, Shadowrunners use all kinds of guns... but the Heavy Pistol is always the go-to tool for any job that involves shooting.

[Faraday]

Loving deus ex so far. I've had a few days open and have been going on a gaming binge ever since Tuesday.

The pistol was a little underpowered for a little bit, I hadn't added many enhancements and I couldn't one-shot guys with helmets on. Then I got the armor-piercing mod for it. Oh my, oh my my. One-shot kills all around now.

So far, a pistol, taser, and combat rifle have been my weapons of choice. Shotguns, sniper rifles, and revolvers are too loud, machine pistols are too weak, rocket launchers are crazy encumbering, and crossbows have so far proved underwhelming. I haven't seen the heavy rifle mentioned so far, but the need to spin it up can be annoying, pretty strong otherwise. Grenades of all stripes are awesome.

I've found that the Typhoon system is kind of over rated, you'd have to get up close to a bunch of guys to do much. About half-way to getting there, I'm dead. This could be because I started playing in the hardest difficulty, though.