Deus Ex [h+]³

remote · Joined: 11 Dec 2006

I recently played DX1 again with the New Vision mod, so that's been covered. The DXShifter mod might be nice to thrown in there next time, though.
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Dracko · a sapphist fool Joined: 06 Dec 2006

Was at HMV today, you can get a free Blu-Ray of Blade Runner when you purchase Human Revolution.
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BotageL · Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 3:14 am

Shifter is hilarious because it gives you a ranged, silent, instantly non-lethal attack: throwing your police baton with high enough Low Tech skill.
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Mr. Mechanical · Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 4:04 am

I've made it to the sub-basement of the Picus Communications building and story-wise it's starting to feel a lot like Deus Ex. Morgan Everrett and Nicolette DuClare are apparently working here as well. I can tell I'm getting close to the second boss fight and I don't really want the game to end.
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Broco · Joined: 05 Dec 2006 Location: Headquarters

I'm halfway through the news tower now (same as Mr. Mech). Random list of observations:

- The writing in this game reminds me of Half-Life 2 in that it alternates between pretty damn sharp science fiction and groan-worthy character moments. They did a fine job imagining the social consequences of augmentation tech, with telling little details like the anti-discrimination policy email in the police station, and the hobo who says he doesn't regret losing his job over refusing augmentation because he "ain't no guinea pig". And the heated public debate between corporate interests, purist radicals, and Al Gore-style moderate public intellectuals -- with regular citizens standing anxiously and ambivalently in the middle -- rings very true. On the other hand, stuff like the suddenly emotional debate in the police station lobby, or the Chinese female CEO trying to seduce you, is out of a daytime soap. Fortunately, the former outnumbers the latter by a lot.

- I love the running gag of finding emails with passwords in them with an addendum saying "delete immediately after reading!!" Even the Sarif security tech guy who lectures everybody has such an email on his machine.

- The hacking minigame is too easy. I'm getting tired of it because it wastes time for an automatic win, it might as well just give it to me as soon as I touch the panel. I don't have a single hacking upgrade aside from the capture requirements, and still I'm usually able to win reliably with all bonus items, usually also without using any special worms. I don't understand why reviewers say it's "tense", maybe it's harder with the console controls? (Though fiddling with the mouse is annoying, so I would've thought the opposite...)

- I'm prone to quicksave-itis while playing this... it's tempting to reload as soon as your cover's broken. I've realized the Ghost bonus doesn't really make a huge difference in the grand scheme of things though, you get plenty of XP just from regular objective completion. I'm trying to start playing in a more natural way.

- I feel there shouldn't be any place to hide where it's guaranteed no enemy will reach you. It makes the game too static and controllable... unfortunately, such spots are all over (all vents, and lots of areas out in the open considering the limited patrol boundaries). I would've liked to see more dynamism in the patrols as well as random spawns particularly in response to alarms.

Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Yeah, I was seriously hoping the enemies would chase you into the vents... pretty disappointed by that. It's such a common thing in these types of games that it would surprise the hell out of me if it actually happened in one of these FPSes. Though I guess that's coming from a position of having played a ton of them.
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drobe · My Brothers! Joined: 25 Jul 2008

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but I am digging how the UNATCO theme is audible in some of the songs.
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CubaLibre · the road lawyer Joined: 02 Mar 2007 Location: Balmer

Up to Hengsha and I still don't have a god damned clue how to aim the tranq rifle.

I was totally unprepared for Conversation Bosses and they are great. Sort of jarring though in the way the facial animation flies through the roof, to almost LA Noire levels when it's sub-HL2 the rest of the time. Actually, I found myself thinking that LA Noire would have been a lot better if it had used DXHR's conversation system instead.

So far all the stealth augs seem useless - I've snuck everywhere without undue difficulty without any of them. The game is pretty liberal with cover and stealth routes; any time there's a room with some problematic array of guards, there's always some kind of side-path made of built up scaffolding and barrels and crates or some shit to get around them.

The Typhoon is hilarious, especially since the ammo is so cheap.

I'm playing this game the same way I played DX1, i.e. jamming my nose into every nook and cranny and picking up every piece of trash I can find. I prioritized path-unlocking augs (and inventory space) above most else, and it hasn't done me wrong yet.
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Mikey · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Location: endless backlog

Mr. Mechanical · Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 4:54 pm

Dracko · a sapphist fool Joined: 06 Dec 2006

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Mikey · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Location: endless backlog

So have any of you guys tried to break this game in half yet? My copy is making the rounds through a couple of friends but after that I think I want to play through again and be a homicidal monster.

The King · Joined: 14 Dec 2010 Location: Japan

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remote · Joined: 11 Dec 2006

lol
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Mr. Mechanical · Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 11:28 pm

TXTSWORD · Joined: 25 Aug 2010

Toups · tyranically banal Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Location: Ebon Keep

but I find it more satisfying to play it stealthily. I definitely have been loading my game a lot, though... just like in the original deus ex!

the original made it a lot harder to not kill anyone though.
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Tulpa · Joined: 31 Jul 2008

That's in part because one cannot reasonably go into hiding and cancel any alarms if they get seen.
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DJ · Shaman Analyst Joined: 05 Dec 2006

8128 · Joined: 06 Jun 2008 Location: a very very very fine house

I am playing as a special version of jensen that destroys all cardboard

it is a very difficult life
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drobe · My Brothers! Joined: 25 Jul 2008

Broco · Joined: 05 Dec 2006 Location: Headquarters

Does anyone know what exactly causes the street police to hate you? I'm surprised you were able to do that. It's not sufficient to leave by a side exit, I've had them hate me after doing that. Is it being seen by a camera, being seen by a man who turns hostile, or what? I had to throw out all my police station progress and redo it with maximum stealth when that happened.

drobe · My Brothers! Joined: 25 Jul 2008

They've gotten angry at me for other reasons, too. Partially for good reason, but partially for a bad reason.

So, in order to get into the backyard of the police station, I flipped a dumpster on its side. I used this to jump over the fence.
Well, one of the street cops decided to walk into the dumpster. In reaction, the dumpster jumped up off the ground and hit the cop in the chin. He proceeded to wobble backwards and his friends all started shooting at me.

It's a living.
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CubaLibre · the road lawyer Joined: 02 Mar 2007 Location: Balmer

Felix · Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 2:43 pm

Yeah, I took the tranq rifle at the beginning too, and I was disappointed for it for the exact same reason -- had no idea where I was supposed to be aiming the goddamned thing. PROTIP: it has a scope (this took me until FEMA to figure out). Like I said earlier, though, scope aiming in this game is pretty far inferior to laser sight aiming (at least in the case of the sniper rifle), and the tranq rifle is SOL there.

BotageL · Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 2:56 pm

I eventually got the feel for the scope on the tranq rifle pretty well, but as the game went on and I became more capable of simply bypassing combat, I relied on it less and less. The leading mod TRIES to help you with headshots, but it freaks out sometimes when enemies lean over to examine boxes or otherwise shift their body shape. If you fire where the mod tells you then, you'll actually MISS because their head is way over there, etc.
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drobe · My Brothers! Joined: 25 Jul 2008

I would like to say that the social augmentation would not have been very useful for me this game. I seem to have successfully talked down every individual that I've met to date without it. Its all a matter of picking the least boneheaded response, usually. Now, I am only one boss battle in, so I suspect that I'm only one third of the way in. That can certainly change in the next two-thirds.
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sarsamis · Joined: 17 Feb 2007

I think the leading mod centers around the head if you hold the aiming reticule there for a bit.

I don't think I would have done the last conversation in the game correctly without the social aug. I could, of course, have just reloaded, and not spent every convo in the last half of the game waiting for little flickers in that personality box.

TXTSWORD · Joined: 25 Aug 2010

Dracko · a sapphist fool Joined: 06 Dec 2006

remote · Joined: 11 Dec 2006

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SuperWes · Joined: 04 Dec 2006 Location: St. Louis, Missouri

Did anyone get into the police station by solving a sequence breakish puzzle?
What I did was bring two metal crates to the electrified area to the left of the police station and move along on top of them by moving one crate and then the other to make my way to the power switch.

I was kind of disappointed that this ended up beingthe only puzzle like this in the game.

-Wes
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Broco · Joined: 05 Dec 2006 Location: Headquarters

Dracko · a sapphist fool Joined: 06 Dec 2006

That's not the normal way: That's one solution of many.
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drobe · My Brothers! Joined: 25 Jul 2008

Question: Immediately after the Barrett fight, was anyone else really let down that the big elevator led to that door you couldn't open when you arrived at the facility? I mean, come on.
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Broco · Joined: 05 Dec 2006 Location: Headquarters

Tulpa · Joined: 31 Jul 2008

SuperWes · Joined: 04 Dec 2006 Location: St. Louis, Missouri

drobe · My Brothers! Joined: 25 Jul 2008

I'm finding that the mouse movement is really, really laggy. Now, normally, I would complain. But, I seem to have fallen for it. It really reminds me of the first game.

See, DX was too smooth when aiming. It was far too easy to pass over an enemy, which was especially true because your body movement is also really smooth. No acceleration. The way the reticle explodes when you move also made that just the bit worse. So, the only way to really address combat was from surprise attacks where you would hide behind something, lean out, shoot one guy (or adjust your aim), and then slip back behind cover. Repeat until all enemies were dead. Due to the scarcity of ammo and the frequent focus on one gun, this quickly became an imperative behavior.

DX3 works a lot like that. I do not get into long combats with open exchange of shots. I just sit behind something and adjust my aim. I then shoot the guy and move on. Normally, I'd be upset with cover systems, but this one streamlines the lean-adjust-lean-shoot process. It also helps that the enemies sort of run around like headless chickens, just like in DX. It feels like home.

I totally freak out when enemies go around my cover. It's impossible to shoot moving targets. I have gotten lucky, though.

Also: does anyone else notice that the 10mm pistol is bar-none, the best weapon in the game? I mean, the revolver is a nice gun too, but it can't headshot helmeted enemies. All the pistol needs is that armor-piercing mod, which is free, and then you're off to the races.
The assault rifle is sort of a poor choice. It makes for an interesting behind-cover gun, though. Its special mod allows you to blind-fire with precision, which is even easier to do when you have the see-through-walls augmentation. It helps with ogres. It might make the last two boss battles easier, since they're so run and gun. I feel that it overlaps with the revolver, actually.

Also, does anybody regret putting laser sights on their guns? Because I do, and it messes with my ability to determine friends from foes and to pick up stuff.
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Mr. Mechanical · Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2011 10:32 pm

I love this game the more I play it. I just finished the Hengsha construction site ambush part. I managed to save Malik while not killing anyone but I had to reload my save six or seven times to do it. My strategy boiled down to cloaking then running around zapping everyone at ground level with the stun gun, pulling a couple of the bad guys back a bit because the robot self-destructs after getting hit with an emp grenade which will kill any unconscious person within range of the explosion (this is what was necessitating my starting over so much, saving Malik was actually pretty easy), eating a few energy bars to restore the few batteries I'd used up to that point then zapping the few guys on the second floor area to the right, then de-cloaking and zapping the sniper to the left and finally using my tranq rifle for the final sniper to the right. Needless to say it was pretty tense and fun! As far as I'm aware I still haven't killed anyone on this playthrough (except the bosses) so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping I didn't screw up somewhere or that I don't encounter any glitches like where someone dies getting tranqed.

I'm also really liking how long this is. I've been playing it pretty much every day since it came out and I'm still not finished with it. Though I do imagine a lot of the time spent playing is me exploring/hacking/dicking around. Subsequent playthroughs are going to be much shorter since I'll know my way around everything and where everything is (much like they were in the original DX).
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