Deus Ex: Human Revolution - DLC Item Packs

Two Deus Ex: HR item DLC packs have been released (not to be confused with the upcoming story/mission DLC). Here's a snip from the coverage at Rock, Paper, Shotgun:

First up, for £1.99, is the EXPLOSIVE mission pack, which contains more explosions and the Tong’s Rescue mission. Does that involve explosions too? I dread to think. To blow things up, Jensen can stick a grenade launcher and remote detonated explosives in his cavernous coat, or whichever cyber-cavity the kids are stashing their weaponry in these days.
Explosions are not for men such as myself though. I’m more a tactics man. They’ve got me covered with the £1.19 Tactical Enhancement pack, which provides a silenced sniper rifle. Yes, tactics. And there are close up tactics too in the form of a double barrelled shotgun. Remember when the Doom series made the tactical leap with the inclusion of one of those bad boys? Worryingly, this pack also gives Jensen an extra 10,000 credits, which sounds like it would break the game a little bit to me. Maybe he can tactically leave it on a park bench.

Both available from Stea, if you are interested.
More information.

Note that if you buy both DLCs as a package you'll save a dollar.

There will probably be a similar package available once The Missing Link DLC is released in October, so for maximum savings you might want to wait until then to see if you can make an even greater saving.

…or you could save more by not buying them. Don't mind DLC as such but I'm not a fan of item packs.

Both are pretty bad for game balance, if you ask me.

Typical bullshit DLC.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Both are pretty bad for game balance, if you ask me.

Typical bullshit DLC.

totally agree. In my eyes it contributes to a bad reputation for the devs.
The game it self is great.

Originally Posted by ikbenrichard
totally agree. In my eyes it contributes to a bad reputation for the devs.
The game it self is great.

I think the developers are bound by an obligation to the suits in these cases. DLC is probably "standard practice" to squeeze one more buck out of the consumer.

It obviously works, and so it's a hard thing for a developer to defend the integrity of the game on that point.

Most people don't think it's a big deal - and the result for game balance is "trivial" in the eyes of most. If you're into a balanced and challenging game, you will have a different opinion - but it takes some experience to recognise when something is breaking the intended design, and I'd say most mainstream gamers couldn't care less about the diminished challenge resulting from shiny loot.

Sad….

It's just the pre-order bonuses from the Augmented Edition pack turned into paid-for DLC… i guess it evens things out a little for those who didnt splash out initially.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
I think the developers are bound by an obligation to the suits in these cases. DLC is probably "standard practice" to squeeze one more buck out of the consumer.

I remember reading something from CD Projekt prior to the release of TW2 how they really didn't want to do the whole store specific pre-order DLC bonus thing but the retailers were demanding it. The stores expect it now. They apparently want some reason to stand out for people to buy it from them vs store X etc.

Is it so hard to construct DLC which isn't a "cheat mode" though? I remember the Dead Space 2 silliness with a load of balance-breaking suits in the first store costing zero credits (assuming you installed the patch).

I know the retort is "If it bothers you so much don't pick it up"…no, when I play a game I want to absolutely maximise my character within the confines of that game - there is no way my character would leave valuable stuff behind, so I end up feeling the game is less immersive because my character is behaving illogically.

Originally Posted by coaster
Is it so hard to construct DLC which isn't a "cheat mode" though? I remember the Dead Space 2 silliness with a load of balance-breaking suits in the first store costing zero credits (assuming you installed the patch).

I loved Dead Space 2, but whoever thought that DLC was a good idea was completely braindead. I reinstalled the game just to get rid of it, and then played it unpatched.

DS 2 was short and boring. Whoever buys dlc is a shitbox moron , end of story.

Originally Posted by coaster
I know the retort is "If it bothers you so much don't pick it up"…no, when I play a game I want to absolutely maximise my character within the confines of that game - there is no way my character would leave valuable stuff behind, so I end up feeling the game is less immersive because my character is behaving illogically.

What? That's like the king of Quake 3 bunny jumper complaining about the bunny jumping exploit.

You have to activate the additional content for it to be available in the game … so if it bothers you that much, don't activate it and you'll never be left with the excruciating choice of whether or not to use an "overpowered" item.

I am not ashamed to say I bought these. Mostly for the Tracer Tong mission, but I paid the extra $1 for the other pack too.

First off they're not really cheat items as much as different styles. It is kind of cheating to get them right at the start of the game, but you can drop everything right there and still find/buy them later. I found the silenced sniper rifle early in Detroit in a storage locker for example. The remote detonators and hacking devices are really neat and you have to buy them. Basically it just adds some new stuff to the world, which is find by me.

Like anything DLC can be good or bad and item DLC can be good or bad specifically as well. Mass Effect 2 had some neat DLC weapons that actually played much differently from the main game stuff, while Dragon Age 2 just got shitty uber-loot that ruined the game. It all depends.