Deus Ex: Human Revolution Initial Impressions

Yes, except that the instructions for getting Steam DLC didn't appear with DE:HR DLC. That's poor instructions.

And their servers practically stopped yesterday. They were over subscribed. So it does happen.
 
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Yes, except that the instructions for getting Steam DLC didn't appear with DE:HR DLC. That's poor instructions.

And their servers practically stopped yesterday. They were over subscribed. So it does happen.

I've used Steam enough that I pretty much know any time I get a code just add it to Steam but yeah they really shouldn't assume that every customer will know that and should have put more information in there for sure.

The whole buying Steamworks games from other stores thing is weird. I know the other stores don't love it. They tried boycotting those games for a while but more and more major releases are going Steamworks so they had to cave and start selling those.
 
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I've installed and been playing the game for a little while now. I like it so far despite the uneven voice acting (wouldn't be Deus Ex without that though.)

My roommate gave me her DLC code and it did seem almost instantaneous. It shows up as installed but I haven't played long enough to be able to confirm its presence in game.

Official response from Gamestop posted on their official Facebook page (confirming that removal of the OnLive coupon was a corporate directive and not some regional thing):

Regarding the Deus Ex OnLive Codes: GameStop’s policy is that we do not promote competitive services without a formal partnership.
Square Enix packed a competitor’s coupon within the PC version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution without our prior knowledge and we did pull these coupons.
While the new products may be opened, we fully guarantee the condition of the discs to be new. If you find this to not be the case, please contact the store where the game was purchased and they will further assist.

So if your local Gamestop is not complying with this directive and does sell you a sealed copy with the OnLive coupon still in it - buy them a beer. If they're one of the stores that removed it without informing customers (or lied about it like mine did when asked) then buy yourself a beer and get it elsewhere.
 
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I'm sorry but opening the boxes rifling through them and taking something, anything out is just BS unless they are going to give a significant 'open box' discount and sell it as is.

If they have an issue with Eidos then take it up with Eidos. As for their whole 'we don't sell things that support competitors', really? What is selling a Steamworks game then? When people load up Steam to play their game they aren't seeing Impulse games for sale.

At a time when brick and mortar stores selling PC games are struggling to remain relevant I can't believe they would pull this sort of asshattery. The bad press they get from this will be more damaging than any potential sales that might go to OnLive.
 
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I like steam but one problem is if you don't want certain patches then I don't think its possible to download a new game without the patches already installed. I know you can refuse to have future patches on the game when its already installed, but I don't think its possible to download an unpatched game. If anyone knows differently let me know.
 
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So I've played the first mission, and I have to say i took my time to try out different approaches. It's nice that the dialog choices at the end of the mission make a difference. Does anyone know if the dialog choices with the followup debrief with Sarif make a difference? I just chose a line suitable to the role I imagined, rather than trying to game it.

One thing I like is that you can spacebar skip cutscenes and dialogs; facilitates experimentation. That sort of makes up for no named saves or in game deletions.
 
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Well not everything is skipable with the spacebar only some cutscenes and dialogs but usually where I've seen it not work was mostly short anyway. I also picked decisions that I thought the character I want him be would pick.

I talked the terrorist down and let him go and there were a number of criticisms from some employees (presumably the republicans) about my competence.
 
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Lol!
And some of the policemen, saying I was incompetent to let him get away, nevermind all the hostages were saved.
Nice flavor there, mixed in with hero comments, and other angles from the various employees. Well done eidos!
 
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Had a new nuisance from the Steam updater. I removed Deus Ex from Cloud Sync and told it to not automatically update in its settings on Tuesday.

I tried to play just now and could not it saying that the game was not available at this time. I checked the game folder and dxhr.exe was missing. When I told it to update again it downloaded the exe again without requiring me to verify the integrity meaning that I think the exe was auto deleted by steam at some point. Normally dont dislike steam but its things like this that make me question it.
 
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Got to play through the first mission yesterday and despite some minor complaints, I'm liking it quite a lot. Was pleasantly surprised that many things, like the inventory or hacking (lo and behold, a minigame that requires no twitch skills), have a semi old school feel to them. The dialogue options have been pretty good so far and thankfully the dialogue wheel (of sorts) shows you accurately what you're going to say and there haven't been any "WTF?!" moments with it giving a wildly different response (like e.g. DA2's dialogue wheel did many times). Still so early in the game, that I can't go into more in depth analysis, but I can't wait to get off work today to continue playing and that's always a good sign.

However, there are some rough spots. Like (in no particular order):
- NPC faces and their facial animations are of surprisingly poor graphics quality when speaking to them. This is surprising because rest of the world looks gorgeous. (This on a PC with DirectX11 and nearly everything turned to the max.)
- Enemy AI is quite poor, but that's nothing new. Not expecting miracles here, but when an enemy guard does not respond to his near-by (in the same room!) buddies disappearing one by one, it feels really stupid. Granted, it's been the same in nearly every other game, but it shouldn't be this way.
- Scope aiming from behind cover seems borked. It figures the bullet path strangely. Several times when I was leaning over a cover with the tranq rifle (barrel clearly over the cover too) and aiming at a baddie, him clear in the scope view, the actual shot hit the cover I was leaning over, like I had fired the shot from my navel or something.
- Crashed on me once when a cutscene failed to start. But other than that, it's stable and behaving nicely.
 
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DX has pretty much ran flawlessly for me so far, at least since I disabled tessellation in the graphics options. It did freeze on me one time, during of of those tutorial videos when I hit Esc to skip it.

I'm still annoyed at not having the Tracer Tong mission though. It pisses me off that I'm missing a piece of the game just because I didn't pre-order from a certain place. If anyone finds a way to obtain that bonus mission from somewhere on the web, please let me know.


@Lurking Grue - Yeah, the NPC facial graphics are terrible compared to Jensen's. It's very noticeable.

I disagree about the AI being poor though. Guards react quickly to seeing one of their mates unconscious, and work quickly to revive them. Their range of hearing also seems quite far compared to most games. Overall the AI isn't anything special, but I wouldn't say it's bad.
 
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I disagree about the AI being poor though. Guards react quickly to seeing one of their mates unconscious, and work quickly to revive them. Their range of hearing also seems quite far compared to most games. Overall the AI isn't anything special, but I wouldn't say it's bad.

You're right about them reacting to bodies in plain sight. Also the reviving of uncoscious buddies is good. However, I was expecting a bit more from the AI (this being 2011 and all). Something like recognizing the disappearance of a buddy who was standing in the same room, few meters away, but now is not there anymore, but was just a few seconds ago. I know this forgetful AI dumbness is how it works in nearly all stealth-shooters, but I'm so tired of it. If the NPCs would have at least a bit sharper AI, it would make the game much more challenging and rewarding.
 
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A bit off-topic, but does anyone know where the save games are stored? I can't seem to find them anywhere. (Windows 7)
 
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Good points LG all around. I too thought the AI was a bit silly regarding comrades mysteriously disappearing, but it's still very fun.

I found Jensen's facial animations weird too. He barely moves his lips/face in a staccato fashion when he talks and it isn't in very good sync with the audio.

Buts its easy to be critical to what so far has been a fantastic game overall.

BTW, you can hack multiple nodes at the same time, so it actually does require some twitch skills to pull off a hack if you need to beat detection AND gain rewards by pursuing multiple paths at the same time.
 
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I've seen some stealth games where enemies react to a missing comrade and some where they do not. Whether they do or do not creates an extremely diffirent dynamic in the game. If they do notice it, then taking people out one by one without raising an alarm is generally impossible. It really just depends on what type of gameplay they are trying to encourage.

If nothing else the enemy AI in DEHR is far better then the original (a game that was not exactly known for remotely clever or realistic AI).

You're right about them reacting to bodies in plain sight. Also the reviving of uncoscious buddies is good. However, I was expecting a bit more from the AI (this being 2011 and all). Something like recognizing the disappearance of a buddy who was standing in the same room, few meters away, but now is not there anymore, but was just a few seconds ago. I know this forgetful AI dumbness is how it works in nearly all stealth-shooters, but I'm so tired of it. If the NPCs would have at least a bit sharper AI, it would make the game much more challenging and rewarding.
 
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If nothing else the enemy AI in DEHR is far better then the original (a game that was not exactly known for remotely clever or realistic AI).

It's not really fair to compare a game from 2011 to something from 2000. With 11 years between them, I would expect the AI to be significantly better.
 
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Well I loved the game but i thought the ending video cut scenes where pretty weak. I was looking for interaction between the various characters but the endings just felt bland. Like most great games and movies the endings suck.:(
 
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It's not really fair to compare a game from 2011 to something from 2000. With 11 years between them, I would expect the AI to be significantly better.

It actually really fair to compare them, because it is game developers who choose to make their AI as their are for gameplay reasons.

Here's a dev comment on then subject, the whole blog entry was about the Trinity, but there is a section for other type of game here:
Here’s a secret - it would be trivial for designers to code monster AI that did the smart thing every time. Kill the healers, then kill the DPS, from highest DPS or squishiest to tankiest. If someone casts crowd control, don’t let them cast it twice. Ignore damage output, and target troublesome classes. And above all, don’t divide your damage - have the whole group of enemies burn down one target. Yes, this strategy is effectively what PvP groups do in the arena.

The problem is: so you think its hard to find healers now? It becomes 10 times harder when the healer experience is looking at your corpse on screen for 90% of the fight (this is, incidentally, the experience of most newbie healers in the arena). Take healers out of the equation, and you move the problem to whichever DPS is squishiest. Which is to say, the problem with realistic AI is that it’s NOT FUN. And fun is still, you know, kinda the point.

Note: many other games in many other genres have AI that would be considered borderline retarded if a player played that way. This includes shooters, strategy games, RPGs, GTA, etc, etc, etc. Stealth games are the worst offenders - the guards stop looking for me if they don’t find me after 20 seconds? The role of AI is not to be realistic and not to crush the player, but instead to challenge the player and be ultimately a solvable puzzle. (I’ve written about this before: You don’t want realistic AI) The point is not that the trinity is the only way to solve this problem, but rather that giving ’smart’ AI to the mob that bypasses the meat shield is going to result more in frustration than in interest. Take out the trinity, and another ‘puzzle’ needs to take its place.
 
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I don't know if we're talking about the same thing. In any case, the AI is decent enough in both games, and I don't agree that it's far better in HR than in the original DX if you judge them using the standards of their respective years.
 
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