Games

If Eidos Montréal’s latest game was called “The Machine Within: Beyond Human” or perhaps “Augmented: The Human Factor” or something like that then I could summarize the game like this:

“An excellent game which, in spite of its flaws, easily stands out from the flood of angry space marine shooters. The game mechanics are approachable but also flexible enough to indulge a wide range of play styles. The gameplay, the mood, the story, the visuals and the audio aspects of the game are very well balanced which makes it a very entertaining title even if there is indeed room for improvement.”

So if it had no relation to the original Deus Ex game then this article would end here. But it has so I’ll go on and list the ways I feel DX:HR doesn’t quite measure up to it’s predecessor. Make no mistake, I really appreciate the effort of the developers and that they did succeed several ways with this great game. Counting the things they got right would take too long :) and wouldn’t help defining why I label the original Deus Ex as “My Favourite Game Ever”, so here is what I didn’t like about DX:HR.

Limited boss fights

By far the most glaring mistake, I just don’t understand how a “shoot while it moves” sort of primitive encounter ended up in this game. They already had all the gameplay elements required for DeusEx-y boss fights, ones which can be resolved in different ways. They even implemented a side mission that can be won by talking to the target. It instantly reminded me of the confrontation with Gunther Hermann in DX.

Humoring players with a stealth preference would have been even simpler: some clever level design and some time for the player to prepare the environment. In DX, Anna Navarre stepped on a mine in the private jet or in another playthrough I chipped her health off bit by bit with a stealth pistol while hiding in an air duct. Took me a while but at least I wasn’t suddenly forced to deal with my gatling gun wielding foe face to face…

So I see no excuse for this one: they had the good example and the technical means to do it properly.

Unified health

DX kept track of several damage zones on the body which was weird at first but added an interesting twist to my “player stories”.
At some point I had to escape from the top of a building. I ran out of ammo and medkits and the enemy was also closing in so I retreated to the roof, turned on my leg augmentation, targeted a street light and jumped. I broke both my legs when I hit the top of the lamp post so I couldn’t walk anymore. I managed to crawl to a dark corner of a nearby park, barely avoiding a patrolling police bot. It seemed like an eternity but at the end I did reach the safety of the sewers and fixed my legs with a few packs of soy food I threw away earlier.

This more complex system would’ve given additional depth to DX:HR’s tactical aspect and would’ve worked well with the health regeneration mechanic. (For example enemy shoots my right arm, I can’t aim properly, I keep hiding until I’m well enough to place  a proper headshot.)

While implementing this feature is relatively straightforward in first person view, it is rather difficult to properly show the consequences in third person: limping, crawling, a damaged arm shaking badly, etc would all need proper animations and some very clever animation tree to mix them.

Third person – first person disconnect

While I see the advantages of the outside view I would’ve preferred a leaning function so I can stay in first person all the time. Switching back and forth not just breaks immersion for me but also accentuates the shortcomings of the FP mode: I don’t have legs or body for example, which is silly in this post Crysis era. I’m not a ghost so I want to see my shadow on the wall.

Another thing which I found annoying is that the FP hands and gun is still rendered in separate depth group, on top of the environment. So I can brush my face against the wall while pointing a 1.5m (5 feet) long sniper rifle straight ahead at which point it starts to look like a toy gun. Again, Crysis got this right where my avatar turns the weapon to a rest position across the chest. (Also the gun casts shadows on the world.)

Implementing these features would indeed affect the gameplay somewhat (like I can’t fire my sniper rifle while too close to a wall) but they would fit well in a Deus Ex game which is not a mindless shooting gallery.

Cutscene special moves

The ultimate immersion breakers in this game for me. They were just weird at first but got annoying really quickly.

Let’s see a typical situation from the original DX: I’m sneaking on high ground, looking down on patrolling enemies, figuring out who to take out first. When I have a plan then I jump off from the balcony or container stack, I land behind the enemy and smack him unconscious before crawling back to the shadows. It all ends in 4 seconds, giving off a super phantom ninja vibe.

Now in DX:HR the same scenario takes 3x as long, involves flashy lighting effects and booming bass from the Icarus landing system and the umpteenth repetition of canned animations. No vibe, I just feel cheating and cheated.

Don’t take away my control. Never. Ever. Especially not during common actions like a melee hit or just falling. Incidentally that’s why I can’t stand mid-game cutscenes. One at the beginning of the game setting the mood and one at the end is fine, but don’t touch my avatar while I’m supposed to be playing. Recommended watching the related Extra Credits episode. But I digress.

These relatively long, uninterruptable motions break the game one way or another: once I performed the hand to hand takedown on one of two guard having a conversation. While I was beating up the guy, his friend was just standing there, apparently mesmerized by my smooth moves and cool haircut. Only when I finished he started yelling and shooting. This solution obviously makes the AI look dumb and the alternative is even worse: if he started shooting and hurting me while I was doing my kung-fu that would’ve been really frustrating. So while cutscene special moves make for good marketing material it’s a lose-lose situation gameplay wise.

Too many and too strong augmentations

In DX installing a new augmentation involved making an often difficult decision: do I pick invisibility over radar transparency? Protection from bullets or shielding from EMPs? I had to choose wisely because once the aug slot was filled with one of the options, there was no way back.

There is no such limitation in DX:HR which, combined with the effectiveness of the available augmentations makes the game too easy, at least if I play stealthy. After a point I just stopped buying augs because it felt like cheating. (I played on the highest difficulty except during boss fights.)

No weapon skills

I’m not a total fan of DX’s weapon skill system, I feel it’s too punishing especially when it comes to heavy weaponry. So much so that it discourages improvisation when I’m in a situation when I’d like to (have to) use weapons I usually don’t deal with. God, I set myself on fire so many times with a GEP gun…

Having said that, a similar but more relaxed skill system would’ve been welcome in DX:HR, just to add another layer, another twist to emergent gameplay.

Branching story and endgame

DX had so many branches in the story that I felt overwhelmed by it especially when reading FAQs after the first playthrough. But then I took on the challenge and tried to see all the possible ways the events could unfold. (I beat the game 3 times but I still wasn’t able to save Paul… :\ Maybe next time…)

DX:HR simplified this aspect as well but for some reason I’m fine with it. The only thing which really bothers me is the end game: it’s basically a DVD menu where you pick the ending you want to be played. The developers should’ve at least dressed up this simple mechanic to resemble something which fits the game’s world. For example killing one particular person selects one ending while destroying a certain equipment triggers another.

So these are the issues I had. It often felt like I’m playing “Fisher-Price My First Deus Ex Game”, but then I encountered a homage to the original DX and that put me in a more forgiving mood. All in all I’m slightly disappointed that I don’t have a new favorite game but I’m really glad that I got to play a great one.

The original Deus Ex is my favorite FPS game so when I heard that they are making a prequel I was intrigued. I figured that if a company picks up such a lesser known franchise then they must have a pretty solid idea what to do with it. (And probably know how big of a meh DX:Invisible War was and will try to avoid the same mistakes.) Of course “solid idea” might not necessary mean “great idea” (*cough* X-Com *cough*) but hell, it’s time for a proper first person think/explore/decide sort of game, I hoped that Eidos Montreal gets it right.

I saw an early render trailer and read an interview with one of the developers and that was convincing enough to make me avoid any further news regarding the game: No screenshots, no trailers, no dev diaries, no reviews mean no spoilers. (I did check the metacritic score.)
I bought the game on Steam, waited for the first two patches and then started playing.

All I can say is that this is how you make a game in this day and age.

I’d like to have more games where the most glaring problems are the choppy menu UI and that the mouse doesn’t work in gamepad mode. (Clever people already fixed the unskippable intro videos.)