Kostas
Dormant Watcher
Deus Ex
This is my 3rd attempt at posting some thoughts on it so I'lltry to briefly sum up my thoughts write like a 5 year old.
+Extremely (by FPS standards) open map design
+Plenty of fairly deep ways one can approach the missions
+Moderately complex gameplay, more importantly the game presents you with the tools and gives you considerable freedom in pursuing the goal. The engine plays a big part in this. Unconstrained first person sneaking (with leaning!) felt almost liberating in comparison to DE:HR's cover system which reduced maps to a few (usually 3) linear paths.
+Length, thought I was approaching the end by 1/3rd of the game
+Not simplistic story, number of main characters could rival most RPGs.
+Some C&C. About as much as DE:HR had which is alright but not as many as in your average decent RPG
+Limited free-roaming. A bit less than in DE:HR but makes for a nice break between missions.
-Easy. The game presents you with (at times) a genuinely impressive number of routes and while they may not be as painfully obvious as in DE:HR the optimal route (let's be honest 4/5 times there is one) is quite easy to spot. As in DEHR I had to think of challenges for myself (ie not knocking anyone down+never being seen by anyone) to make it a bit more interesting.
-Dated AI and visuals. I'm certainly not going to hold either against it but they were significant enough to the experience to deserve a mention. The AI was at times immersion breaking (hacking in front of people, poping in and out of shadows in front of guards) while the graphics looked almost hard to stomach despite me using 2gfx mods (as a sidenote this made me highly doubtful of my being able to properly enjoy System Shock)
-Boss fights. Bit of a reactionary point due to the hate HR has gotten but I found the boss fights in the original as unavoidable and blunt as in the prequel.
From here on it's going to be highly subjective:
-Story. It's as far from a non-attempt as they could have realistically have gone but the very focus on conspiracy theories ruined it for me. I found myself cringing more often than when watching bad action movies. The low level interaction was solid but it's hard looking past the main theme.
-Lack of Atmosphere/Immersion. Maybe it's the amount of breaks I had to take, maybe it's the (to use DA's favourite word when it comes to Obsidian) bleak visual style or maybe it's me being a gfx whore but it was one of the least immersive titles I've played.
-Entertainment. Even reading this I can see that it's probably a ridiculous point to make but I honestly never had much fun playing Deus Ex. On the contrary I found myself taking half-hour breaks every 45 minutes, easily my most physically exhausting playthrough. I felt there was a lack of high points in DE. The strategic decision making is alright but there need to be some sort of reward either through the story or through the gameplay and with the rest of it not presenting much of a challenge I felt it was an overly flat experience despite the commendable gameplay design.
Overall I felt the same feeling of disapointement I had after finishing Half-Life although to nowhere near the same degree. The scope of the gameplay is impressive enough to warrant it an 8 but not much higher. DE:HR which was rather overrated in my eyes is probably as good but with the much more well-rounded experience making up for the significant step back in gameplay.
Edit: So much for being brief
This is my 3rd attempt at posting some thoughts on it so I'll
+Extremely (by FPS standards) open map design
+Plenty of fairly deep ways one can approach the missions
+Moderately complex gameplay, more importantly the game presents you with the tools and gives you considerable freedom in pursuing the goal. The engine plays a big part in this. Unconstrained first person sneaking (with leaning!) felt almost liberating in comparison to DE:HR's cover system which reduced maps to a few (usually 3) linear paths.
+Length, thought I was approaching the end by 1/3rd of the game
+Not simplistic story, number of main characters could rival most RPGs.
+Some C&C. About as much as DE:HR had which is alright but not as many as in your average decent RPG
+Limited free-roaming. A bit less than in DE:HR but makes for a nice break between missions.
-Easy. The game presents you with (at times) a genuinely impressive number of routes and while they may not be as painfully obvious as in DE:HR the optimal route (let's be honest 4/5 times there is one) is quite easy to spot. As in DEHR I had to think of challenges for myself (ie not knocking anyone down+never being seen by anyone) to make it a bit more interesting.
-Dated AI and visuals. I'm certainly not going to hold either against it but they were significant enough to the experience to deserve a mention. The AI was at times immersion breaking (hacking in front of people, poping in and out of shadows in front of guards) while the graphics looked almost hard to stomach despite me using 2gfx mods (as a sidenote this made me highly doubtful of my being able to properly enjoy System Shock)
-Boss fights. Bit of a reactionary point due to the hate HR has gotten but I found the boss fights in the original as unavoidable and blunt as in the prequel.
From here on it's going to be highly subjective:
-Story. It's as far from a non-attempt as they could have realistically have gone but the very focus on conspiracy theories ruined it for me. I found myself cringing more often than when watching bad action movies. The low level interaction was solid but it's hard looking past the main theme.
-Lack of Atmosphere/Immersion. Maybe it's the amount of breaks I had to take, maybe it's the (to use DA's favourite word when it comes to Obsidian) bleak visual style or maybe it's me being a gfx whore but it was one of the least immersive titles I've played.
-Entertainment. Even reading this I can see that it's probably a ridiculous point to make but I honestly never had much fun playing Deus Ex. On the contrary I found myself taking half-hour breaks every 45 minutes, easily my most physically exhausting playthrough. I felt there was a lack of high points in DE. The strategic decision making is alright but there need to be some sort of reward either through the story or through the gameplay and with the rest of it not presenting much of a challenge I felt it was an overly flat experience despite the commendable gameplay design.
Overall I felt the same feeling of disapointement I had after finishing Half-Life although to nowhere near the same degree. The scope of the gameplay is impressive enough to warrant it an 8 but not much higher. DE:HR which was rather overrated in my eyes is probably as good but with the much more well-rounded experience making up for the significant step back in gameplay.
Edit: So much for being brief
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