I actually haven't bought the Typhoon ability yet, or the ability to see through walls, or the steadier crosshairs, or implanted armor, or reflex boosts, or any of the combat-monkey stuff I thought I'd be getting...or even the improved senses stuff for stealth (despite sneaking around whenever I can). I keep seeing all of it, shrugging, and picking something else. I don't know why.

I maxed out Hacking (Stealth), got my Hacking up to where I can hit level 4 systems, got the CASIE system so I can handle conversations easier, bought a couple levels of the ruthenium skin thingamajiggy, added to my inventory space once, and...and...crap, that might be it.

I've been going hack-crazy (which is very uncharacteristic of me) and just been hitting pretty much every keypad I can find (even ones in the Sarif Industries building, ones I have the code for like my own) just for the practice and the goodies you can get. My wife was cracking up watching me do it, "The code is right there on your screen! Why are you hacking your own computer?!"

I guess I'm just comfortable in my own FPS/cover-shooter abilities, and have been using my augmentations to get good at other stuff.

Overall review so far: We need to take the people responsible for this and put them all in a hole......



...the coding hole, pass them joygirls(boys), food, novacoke, whatever they need and get them making an actual sequel. Another game this good and everyone will forget Invisible war completely. I took my birthday off from most responsibilities and just played this game most of the day and it was time well spent.

I'm a completionist/XP whore, so my current modus operandi has been to knock out/disable as many guys as possible (it seems to give the most points) without alerting anyone to complete objectives without raising alarms, then sweep back through and take out the pockets that were too risky and explore every nook and cranny.

I'm currently in the IYM building and i have all the augs I want unlocked pretty much, max hacking, max stealth for hacking, i'm immune to gas, electricity, and flash. I can high jump, I can lift heavy things, i can KO two guys at once, I can punch down walls. After this i'm going to start on the stealth awareness gorup or maybe cloaking although I might do the social aug just so i don't have to do as much save scumming, and I hear it unlocks some dialog options.

About the only aug i have been disappointed with is fortify, which once my stealth was maxed I really didn't need but that's a small nitpick.

My greatest actual complaint with the game so far is occasionally I just want to kill guys not knock them out, but for some inexplicable reason a lethal takedown is louder then a non lethal one. I can't personally figure out why that would be. Also it's less experience.

Final thought, safe fall system is totally worth it, and pays for itself. THe ability to use it offensively doesn't come up much but when it does saves you a ton of hassle.

So true. Especially after you leave Detroit. I might add that I've found the silenced 10mm pistol with armor-piercing mod allows for fairly quiet kills on any human target, as long as you make it a headshot.

Also, I finally figured out what the typhoon system is REALLY for. It's not for mooks, it's for killing tough melee things.

I havn't gotten typhoon, then again i havn't run into anything trying to melee me other then the first boss, i'm not that far in.

Funny. I decided to keep the silenced sniper rifle this time and haven't had any opportunity to use it yet (although I don't feel like wasting tranq rounds on DRB or Belltower mercs). That and I'm cranking up my hacking skill, despite having a healthy supply of AUDs.

And while we're at AUDs: I think I need to fork some extra cred for a hacking agent for my char in Shadowrun.

Ye Gods, but this game is horribly addictive . .
Came home around 11, went to bed around 6 in the morning . .
Played all the time in between and missed an appearantly huge thunder storm . .

Must...get...Praxis points...

OK, now I'm interested. I didn't preorder because I was afraid it was going to be another Invisible War. Might have to wait a bit before I can scrounge up the money, though.

Yesterday, I did it.

I hacked the control of a turret and made it shoot at enemies. Then I uprooted the fucking thing, and walked around and cackled madly as it shot everything in sight as I calmly strode forward.

Unfortunately, that level cost me the 100 pt Ghost achievement, cause aside from that I am getting it on every single level. Oh well. I still think it was worth it.

This game is completely eating my life. I am so sad that (I think) it is almost over. I do not want it to ever end.

Dude, it's a rape cannon. I bailed out of Hengsha using only the pistol and gas/EMP grenades. Once you slap a laser sight on the pistol, you'll be popping headshots across large rooms with ease.

I'm actually disliking the laser sight. I wish there was a way to de-combine it, as I just preferred the regular targeting reticule.

I agree that the pimped out 10mm is very nice, though, don't get me wrong. I honestly haven't used another gun (except when I accidentally pulled one up using the quick-inventory button) since the pre-aug mission.

I HIGHLY recommend the assault rifle with the mod that makes you lock-on to target and then fire curving bullets. It's sick. You can fire trick shots straight down someone's head from complete cover.

You don't get a targeting reticle on the hard setting, so laser sight is actually quite useful in that case.

And yeah, the assault rifle mod that changes bullet trajectory midflight? Too good. I actually don't use it most of the time just to give those guys SOME chance of not dying instantly. That, and I like using my pistol and melee a lot.


I know that feeling.

it seems this game does not really play well with my style of gaming . .
which consists of:"talk to people. shit, they hate me now. ok, sneak in. shit, i have been seen. kill the witness. shit, now the whole police station/ware-house is after me . . ok, kill every last single copper/ganger in here . . walk out calmly whistling . . ah shit, the whole outside police/gang is shooting for me . . and the civillians don't want anything to do with me . ."
i'm afraid i actually may have to completely fucking start over from scratch because of this <.< . . this time spec for sneaking and silent take-down and hacking, opposed to staying alive and killing everybody who wants to hurt me . .
pity that ._.

Less Mirrorshades, more Pink Mohawk, Stahl.

Who'd you talk to that hates you? Or, rather, who'd you talk to that hates you but not because you got what you wanted, and he got nothing? It seems like that's where it all started to go downhill for you -- the douche working the reception desk, right?

Talking the guy at the front desk of the police station seems to save TONS and TONS of hassle. It took me a few retries to get him to let me in. Even then I sitll knocked out much of the police station so i could get some takedown exp and also read through and hack terminals.

I had to restrain myself from killing everyone in the hive as the whole concept of the harvesters rubbed me wrong.

...huh. I talked my way past him both times, without really trying (reception desk guy).

And yeah, I'm actually a little disappointed I never ended up getting into a massive firefight with all the Harvesters and stuff. I fought like three of 'em on one side job, and that was it. It suits my playstyle (this run-through) to be non-confrontational, I guess, but I was looking forward to being able to headshot a whole lot of those psychos before fleeing the country.

Going the stealthy route tends to work best if talking fails. You come in from the sewers (harder) or the roof (easier, if you can find it).

Also, augmented legs and the Icarus landing mod are awesome in China. I'm honestly not sure how necessary they would've been earlier in the game, but I can't imagine navigating this city without 'em. Pure gold.

yep, that one . . did not even let me try to talk to him again, and i did not save before talking to him <.<

Yup, they break from the gameplay big time. All the time the game leaves you alone to do things your way, and all of a sudden you run into barret the man with a minigfun for an arm, and you need exactly one weapon to kill him because otherwise he's nigh invincible. It's kind of like the Psycho Mantis fight, only with nobody telling you to switch sockets. Not so cool.

Other than that, the game levels are small-ish - it's not even Morrowind, let alone Oblvion - but the game lets you do things your way, levels are designed to accomodate multile approaches, sidequests are nice and visual design just blows you away. I could spend an hour just looking at Adam the protagonist and his longcoat, but usually the game dsitracts. I'd have liked larger levels, but with the density of *stuff* in each level, from the leaflets of a demonstration broken up blowing in the wind to loads of very well done in-game adverts, that might just be too much to ask. The Score also is awesome, and since I preordered it came with the game (yay!).

Personally, I go hacker/ninja in this game and prefer nonlethal methods to killing. But it's terribly satisfying to let the big combat robot loose on a bunch of concentration camp guard buffoons who activated it so they don't have to carry it, hehe. That, or sniping.


Easy as pie with tailored pheromones.


Probably thought it's ambient noise?

But yeah, it is addictive. What brought me away from it yesterday was the bloody bossfight. And now I have to go all over the bloody concentration camp again to find this stinner pistol and will have to dump some loot. grrr.

Now granted i'm not going to say i didn't retry the first boss fight like 5 times, but the sixth time i found the perfect strategery, manuever him over by anything explosive, preferably one of the gas canisters throw a grenade at his feet, it will not only hurt him it will cause him to stand there and pull his own grenades. Unload on him as he does this, preferably right in his stupid head. When he breaks the stun he will throw a grenade, likely more then one if he's low on health, if he's positioned right at least one of these grenades will land at his feet.

Don't use the "Crush" option - I went through "Absolve", finally saying that if something happens, I can help him out.

for further ridicule:
i have not found out how i throw the damn grenades x.x

G key, at least on PC.

My personal complaint with grenades so far is there's no good aiming system for me. Alpha Protocol at least kind of spoiled me on that.

Plus, they do very little damage, which is why I disposed of them for the rocket launcher. Now I have to scurry them back up. *Sigh*. That and the stupid taser gun.

That boss fight wasn't so bad...only needed several tries. Just threw emps, exploding barrels (it's quakilicious), and did pistol headshots.

It is suitably old school, like the original Soldier of Fortune.

My only problem with that first boss fight was that I wasn't sure if what I was doing was working, until suddenly the guy was dead. I couldn't tell if my shots were actually doing any damage or if I was just wasting my time like a chump, so I ended up scrambling around like a spaz, trying crazy things, etc, etc, when I could've just stuck with my initial plan and been fine.

This fight just isn't fun to play. Maybe it's because I am not used to have a knot in my fingers from keyboard controls (I usually play action games on consoles and expected this to be more of an open world/explore game), but all the small-ish maladies of DX3's combat system really take to the fore here.

- It is impossible to shoot around corners. Even if you aim 10 cm besides a wall, you will hit the wall.
- Sometimes, arbitrarily, you shots do not hit.
- Load animations are perilously long, and the boss does have way too much health. I am running out of ammo on him, and I pretty much conserved all ammo I got because I'm into silent takedowns. I shot exactly five times with my pistol.
- grenades seem to fly off randomly. Kinda like Shadowrun's scatter rules.

Maybe this is the engine they based the scatter rules off of?

Seems like.

But the boss cann throw grenades randomly and all fly off in my direction, even if the animation shows him throwing them to the front, and I am standing behind him.

Seriously, this boss fight is wholly unnecessary.

Like in most games, boss fights kind of suck.

The boss fights in Shadow of the Colossus are awesome.

Then again, all the fights in Shadow of the Colossus are boss fights.

I just used emp grenades, cover, and 3 rockets on barrett. A couple sprays to the head with my combat rifle finished him off.

As for the Mantis chick, I found that the Heavy Typhoon followed up with several dozen rounds from the gatling gun worked ok.

What's wrong with the taser? It's a one-shot kill with lots of ammo lying around.

Also not sure what the issue with grenades are. I've found them quite effective despite not ever having a targeting reticle.

You had a rocket launcher in the first fight? Due tell, i didn't get a chance to pick one of those up until hong kong.

Heh, they're even more awesome when you return to China. Doing an Icarus bomb onto a group of Harvesters or suits followed by offing the stragglers is VERY mohawky.
Also, I ran out of pistol ammo and the only gunrunner in Hengsha doesn't have any in stock. That pisses me off. Do I have to dump SMG and pistol and get a pimped-out assault rifle instead?

This game is amazing.

I finished it.

I immediately started again, rolling another character.

yeah, i restarted once or twice too . .
see how different ways of augmentations and weapons and the such work out . .

It's in the room where the boxbot patrols, in the detention cell that's getting a makeover, on one of the piles of pipes, and comes with 2 additional missiles. I guess it's intended for fighty players to be able to take out Boxbot, but hacking boxbot to kill all the soldiers is more fun IMO.


Not enough range and the second longest reload animation besides the rocket launcher. I usually sell the ammo to my friendly neighbourhood weapons dealer.

On a side note, the woman at LIMB told me I could buy cyber-upgrade points. But where? not at LIMB, they only want to sell me cyber energy bars.

No, you can buy the cyber upgrade points at the limb clinic too, i got two there . .
it takes a while for them to refresh though,i think . .

Do what? Praxis points at LIMB clinics refresh exactly once: after you return to the hub, which gives us 2 at the first take on Detroit, 2 at the first take on Hengsha, 2 at the second take on Detroit and 2 at the second take on Hengsha.
Also, that bit with implants going haywire for everyone - when a large corporation in hostile territory offers you a free replacement after you shot up their labs, every Shadowrun player worth his mirrorshades will see the consequences from a mile away.

ah, i had my first trip to other places and when i came back there were new points.

Yeah seriously. When the receptionist asked me about getting the replacement chip, I just went "bitch, please!" and bought my 2 praxis points. Also got a jug of cyberfood for the road.

Also, after picking up improved reflexes... Why did I wait so long to get it? Not only does it rock, but you get bonus XP for double melee kills.

Also, I couldn't resist and took a screenshot of the Harvesters' black clinic. Should serve as a nice illustration for my campaign, especially considering the fact that it's built in a ruined multistory car park.

I haven't even found a gunrunner besides Grayson and the guy Thorpe introduces you to (both back in Detroit), so right now I'm waddling around with a full inventory, and have been for quite a while. Every once in a while I eat a power bar and wash it down with a bottle of wine (like a real pro), to open up room in my inventory for ammo or something.

Screenshotting doesn't seem to work for me, sadly. I could spend a lot of time taking screenies ofeverything. While small, the detail in the areas is amazing.

Also, I killed Barret. With my taser. HUNH. Seriously, I just loaded up my last remaining pistol ammo and tasered him, hoping to kill him with even more headshots, and he just ... dropped. I guess I did misjudge the taser gun.


There's also this Russian guy in the apartment block with the crooked people (crooked cop, crooked lab assistant). But I maxed out my inventory first thing, sicne I carried the bloody crossbow with me for ages while waiting to return it to the undercover cop.


Where do you get the wine from? But I pop painkillers like a real junkie. That, and chocolate bars.

Also, David Sarif totally is my image for Johnny Spinrad now.

Russian guy? Where is he exactly? Also, is there a second merchant in Hengsha, in addition to the guy in Hunghua Hotel?