DE: Mankind Divided finally playing this

...and I like it pretty well. I thought the first part (Dubai) was really weak, but it did the job as a tutorial. I agree that the pyramid scheme and the breach stuff is silly, but it isn't intrusive, so can be ignored.

I thought that David Sarif looks like a guy who aged 15 years in the last two. It seems fitting after all the crap he did to manipulate people.

Prague looks pretty nice. I'm playing on a Geforce GTX 770 and I seem to do fine as far as framerate and stuff. I just left the settings as default.

The only thing I turned way down was the music. I'm playing stealthy and having music blasting in my ears seems goofy.

Still hate the hacking mini game and it didn't really change.

Another thing that is fun, but breaks immersion, is selling weapons in the middle of a battle. At one point you'll be in a bookstore that is full of baddies. I would knock several guys out, fill up my inventory with their weapons, walk down the road 3 or 4 blocks, sell the weapons and then walk back. Since you can't carry two of the same weapon type, selling them one at a time is necessary to maximize profit. I was able to buy a praxis kit (10,000) from just that quest.

Remote hacking seems vital, but it is the only new aug that I've taken. I don't have the falling aug yet and forgot that a few times and jumped off buildings...splat! Jensen will die from a two-story fall. I've fallen from two stories myself, and I ended up with a badly sprained foot. I guess weighing half a ton can mess you up.

I'm headed off to HQ to check in with my boss. I've got several side quests to follow up on too. So far I've fired my tranq rifle about 5 times. Everything else has been Q-key knockout.

As usual, we don't share the same taste. Dubai in my case was a great introduction with a few minor design omissions:
- it's a tutorial for newcomers, yet DX:HR easter egg code is used (0451)
- it doesn't tell you to read the damned missable ebook (if you'll chase tablets achievement)
- it doesn't warn you that you should take tranq. rifle as the first one to loot past it is in Golem City while other weaponry you can get as soon as you enter Prague

Breach is a lousy phonegame with unspecified price and you have to pay for it if you want to play real DX:MD game. It's so bad and not fun a single bit, noone plays it nor cares about it. And noone buys it's microtransactions (don't mix with DX:MD core game microtransactions). Because of that, Square Enix made sure to advertise Breach phone garbage more with DLC (system rift) released a few days ago. I suggest not buying that DLC turd.

David Sarif is an imposter. He doesn't look like himself nor sounds like himself. There is already a conspiracy theory that the reason for this is Illuminati scheme after they took over Square Enix.

Not sure about GTX770, nvidia experience should take care of game settings anyway.
Performance graphics related should not be a problem if you turn off MSAA which is ment for GTX 20x and not GTX 10x cards. Contact hardening shadows is bugged and should also be disabled. Also ubisoftlike cinematic rubbish aka motion blur should be turned off. Currently it's not possible to turn off film grain but Nixxes promised this option.
Performance CPU related, at least before the last patch was dropping if you game on less than 4Ghz CPU and have cloth physics enabled. So either disable it (sometimes faces will pass through clothes, so what) or overclock your CPU. Maybe they fixed this in the meantime, but I'm not sure.

Hacking minigame is actually harder than in DX:HR. You may completely ignore it by using multitool if you hate it. While often you get bonus XP from datastores which you'll miss if using multitool, you don't need to spend 4 praxis kits to enable hacking high level numpads or PCs.

Backtracking to the store during fights was your immersion breaker choice. I completed the mission first, then went back and forth to sell what trashmobs dropped.
They could have designed it in some other way so you don't automatically dismantle a pistol if you have it already in inventory and you can't trade any moment you want, but I believe they didn't do it because of the horrible pay2win buying ingame cash for real money microtransactions.

Remote hacking is not vital and you can finish the game without ever using it.
Icarus landing on the other hand is more useful - unless you have patience for climbing down and waiting for elevators. Grab it as soon as you can.

Tranq rifle is your best earlygame friend - even if it was leathal, it's silent and you cannot afford getting against trashmobs aggro early. You won't find a silencer soon and sometimes you need to take care of a sniper first.

crpgnut said:

Another thing that is fun, but breaks immersion, is selling weapons in the middle of a battle. At one point you'll be in a bookstore that is full of baddies. I would knock several guys out, fill up my inventory with their weapons, walk down the road 3 or 4 blocks, sell the weapons and then walk back. Since you can't carry two of the same weapon type, selling them one at a time is necessary to maximize profit. I was able to buy a praxis kit (10,000) from just that quest.

Click to expand...

Don't you have a grid-based inventory like in DX:HR? Why can't you carry two of the same weapon type?

Inventory is gridbased, yes.
But if you have a certain weapon in inventory, upon looting another it gets instantly dismantled. If you carry a combat shotgun and loot another, the other one will vanish completely. If you don't already have that same weapon type/model, it won't vanish but will be added to your inventory.
So you have to remove the first one from inventory (drop, sell) before taking another. If your aim is to earn some $.

When I played it the first time, every enemy/weapon was gone on finishing the quest. I had dozens of weapons that just disappeared, along with all the bodies. Not sure what you used to make enemies stay on the screen after meeting the bookseller, but it must have been a cheat or a setting I'm not using. I replayed the quest and slowly took out each enemy, at least till I got bored, and sold the stuff. I then used 10,000 of the 13,000 credits to buy a praxis kit.

I spent the points to level hacking to 3. If I can't hack, then I'll use a multi-tool. I'd rather make trips to the store than play the hacking game. I agree about the landing, but not about the remote hacking. I love that. I loved hacking all the police vehicles with grenade launchers, tranq guns, grenades, etc. I have a 2nd tranq gun and I haven't left the first area of Prague yet. I'm selling every weapon that kills, so I get quite a bit of cash from that.

P.S. I'm not positive that my 2nd tranq came from a cop car. It might have come from the lockbox near the toy place....

Wow…that's incredibly dumb. A very odd design decision on the part of the developers.

@JDR: I'm pretty sure it was like this in the first game too.

Hey Joxer, let me tell you a great place to use remote hacking. This isn't the only way in the room, but it is the easiest.

You mean the original DX or DX:HR? It definitely wasn't like that in the original. I don't remember how it worked in HR, but I don't recall guns magically disappearing if you already had the same one in your inventory. I could be wrong though.

crpgnut said:

@JDR: I'm pretty sure it was like this in the first game too.

Hey Joxer, let me tell you a great place to use remote hacking.

Spoiler: Spoiler duh!

Tars' back room. The blinds can be remote hacked so that you can climb in the window. There are 3 combat rifles back there and a laser kit.

This isn't the only way in the room, but it is the easiest.

Click to expand...

No need for RH, you just use multitool on those locked rooms, they never notice nor complain when you enter afterwards.

One place crossed my mind as great for remote hacking - the bank. When you're on a mission to rob the place. You can cover glass windows in offices before breaking in so noone will see you in a room. Sure there is a button to press, but it's easier to draw "curtains" before entering.

Btw… I don't cheat. In any game not just here. This and some other oddities are bugs, but when exploring the game you try everything and then you notice.
I don't know where you found the second tranq rifle. Wasn't in my game although I replayed it twice. However I thought everything is handplaced, but it's possible some loot is random.

One more thing. Feel free to KO cops. And then sell their guns.
They get replaced when you return back to Prague.

Lol, I'll be knocking out every cop from now on.

I cheat if I feel like it. I normally don't, but if I feel something should be in the game, say fast travel, then I'll use a console to move instantly rather than walking for 10 minutes. If I can make millions by doing something over and over, I'll just give myself the millions and skip the tedium, etc.

Finally, the tranq in Prague is…

One thing that I did with my tranq gun was take out the preacher lady outside the Zelen apartments. She's been unconscious since the first time I left my room

JDR13 said:

You mean the original DX or DX:HR? It definitely wasn't like that in the original. I don't remember how it worked in HR, but I don't recall guns magically disappearing if you already had the same one in your inventory. I could be wrong though.

Click to expand...

HR, I really don't remember anything from the original game. I haven't played it since I owned an XP box.

Yeah, HR had the same gun looting mechanics. I know memory isn't very good when you've played so many other games.

So, if there are 3 combat rifles on the ground, you to have loot each of them individually and hike to the merchant to sell them one at a time, otherwise all you get is the ammo. Tedious shit.

I also have been knocking out the cops for their guns and looting their guarded areas. My Jensen is a pathological thief.

And yes, I haven't left the first area of Prague yet and have managed to afford both of the praxis kits this way. Over $20k so far.

I'm so hardcore.

I don't even remember being able to sell guns in DX:HR tbh. I'm gonna have to reinstall it. I planned on replaying it before I play DX:MD anyways.

I don't remember who I sold them to, if anyone, now that you mention it. But I do remember the same pickup mechanics.

The same pickup mechanic was also in the first DX game, except that you couldn't sell anything. I'm pretty sure that's how most shooter worked in the 90s and early 2000s too. If you don't have to the gun it gets added to your inventory, if you do you get ammo.

In DX:HR, you could sell your stuff to the blackmarket dude in the gas station in Detroit or the seller in the brothel in Hengsha.

Right. Now I remember.

azarhal said:

The same pickup mechanic was also in the first DX game, except that you couldn't sell anything. I'm pretty sure that's how most shooter worked in the 90s and early 2000s too. If you don't have to the gun it gets added to your inventory, if you do you get ammo.

In DX:HR, you could sell your stuff to the blackmarket dude in the gas station in Detroit or the seller in the brothel in Hengsha.

Click to expand...

Yes, but guns didn't vanish into thin air. Maybe I misunderstood, but it sounded like he was saying guns just disappear if you already have that type in your inventory.

Yes, they just supply ammo, and the guns disappear when you pick them up.

Okay, Macready and Miller don't want me touching Dubai, even though I'm a military grade Aug, just like the enemy. That seems pretty fishy. I wonder if either of them are part of that organization. Macready seems like a creep, so he's probably clean. Miller seems like a nice guy, so he's probably a rat. Just my random thoughts while playing.

I'll keep things fairly vague for anyone who hasn't played. I've done the papers cop quest and that was fun, though I didn't help both augs yet. I've used the item that the lady in the train station gives you and I love the evidence board inside the place that it takes you to. It gets updated as things happen, which is pretty cool. While the quests are pretty nice, I mostly enjoy using my augs to infiltrate and explore.

Still hate the hacking game, so I craft (or buy if I ever find any) a bunch of multi-tools.