Yeah if you find the technobabble and philosophy boring you can skip the series and get the summary movies (Laughing Man, Individual Elven and er, Solid State Society though I think SSS is stand alone), which condense the plot of the series but feature a lot more shit getting shot
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Caulk Bite 6One of the multitude of Dans infesting this placeRegistered Userregular
(In case some of the comparisons make you cringe: NEO Plus is a console magazine. So all their comparisons are from a console point of view)
DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION
Renaissance, a key word, without which it would be impossible to write about the third Deus Ex game. Human Revolution is an attempt to revive the once famous series, today forgotten by the mass consumer. The developers can be described as representatives of a renaissance of ambitious games, ones you reach for like books, and play them to escape the dull reality. Deus Ex is another game for those who love BioShock, Fallout, Mass Effect and Heavy Rain.
Consoles have long been associated with simple, light entertainment. Some called this "pure fun", and fun was indeed all it was about. The lead of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Jean-Francis Dugas, nicknamed JF, believes that the growing popularity of consoles in the beginning of the XXI century in some sense blinded publishers, and partly also developers, and that's why for the last few years we've seen a dominance of FPS, Gears of War clones, simple shooters and slashers - games where a good story hardly mattered. Few tried to make "games for the mature gamer", which were successful in the 80's and 90's, and which older gamers speak about when they say games were better back then.
It's normal that the market is getting filled up, and publishers, seeking new consumers, turn to all kinds of niches. That was the story with BioShock, Mass Effect, lately Heavy Rain, or Half-Life 2 earlier. This is the sort of title DX:HR is supposed to be, but when the developers were starting work on it, they couldn't know that a the break of 2010 and 2011 gamers will embrace their product with open arms. At first we didn't think about that, we just wrote down our ideas and said "holy crap!" - says producer David Anfossi - it won't be easy marketing a game like that, this could seem too complicated. And then suddenly came BioShock and Mass Effect. The strength of both these games is the story, just like with our game. We've got a huge conspiracy, intriguing design and interesting characters, we can draw in players with those, rather than saying how robust and complex the game is. We want to make it sexy and compelling. But it's not really the story that makes the world of Deus Ex compelling, because we don't know much about it, and it's hard to judge before the launch. What's most intriguing is the world the game takes place in.
BEFORE THE APOCALYPSE
The year 2027. twenty-five years before the events of Deus Ex and only 17 years from now. It's a time of great innovation, humanity has tackled many of the issues haunting it since years. We can cure disease, we have "green" energy sources, we're handling global warming. Sounds idyllic, but there's a reason why the tagline is "It's not the end of the world, but you can see it from here" In a short time, technology has advanced so quickly that the dreams of transhumanists are becoming a reality - people are playing God. They augment their bodies with technology, and it's not just about enhancing strength by replacing their limbs with mechanical ones, but also by augmenting their brains, enhancing intelligence, reflexes, quick problem solving capabilities.All this is readily available, you just need the money. This means the rich become almost superhuman, while the poor are shoved further and further aside. There's no shortage of protesters against messing with the human nature and godplay. Tension is rising between the two groups. Will we witness riots in the game? Story author Mary De Marle leaves this question unanswered, giving us a Gioconda smile.In these circumstances, we meet Adam Jensen, the game's protagonist, working for almost a year now as security personel at Sarif Industries. The owner is David Sarif, who believes augmentations are the best gift to humanity, and that it's our destiny to control our own evolution. Jensen is tasked with escorting scientists, who, at the day of the first serious debate between proponents and opponents of turning people into machines, are to unveil another breakthrough technology to the world. It comes as no surprise that this is the day an armed group of cyborg commandos enters the corporation's building, killing most of the scientists. Adam has no chance against them - he's still fully human.
CONVERSATION IS EVERYTHING
Jensen nearly died in the attack. He survived only because someone found him, and performed an operation of mechanically augmenting him. The choice was not his own, he can't cope with it, and that's why he starts tracking the people responsible for the attack, and find out why they did it. - explains De Marle.
He quickly discovers an international conspiracy, and the deeper he digs, the better he understands the motives of the people behind it, and notices his own deep involvement. Uncovering secrets, Adam, and with him the player, will notice that the characters staying in the shadows and pulling the strings will change their attitude, adapt to new situations and react logically. The ending will directly depend on choices we make during the game. Deus Ex might be an action game, but it's RPG first and foremost. The finale will be influenced by our decisions on who to trust, who to kill, who to save.
We believe there's no black and white, purely good or purely evil - stresses De Marle. Is Adam good? We know only that he transferred to Sarif after 12 years of work at another place, and this is very important. Surely he has some sins of his own - I asked the writer if she could hint why we see Adam alone in his apartment, sipping whisky and smoking a cigarette. What about his family and friends? You will meet some people close to him, you'll meet lots of people who know him, talking to them you might understand why he's in a bad mood. One condition: you have to be willing to talk, to immerse yourself in Deus Ex' incredible world. You can talk to anyone, as is the custom of rpgs. Maybe you'll find out something interesting? It's not mandatory, players can finish the whole game completely ignoring the story. But why would they want to?
A VISIT TO SHANGHAI
Six hours after the game begins, a flying vehicle resembling the mechanical bird from Ghost in the Shell: Innocence approaches Shanghai. On board are Adam and one Faridah Malik. Our protagonist well be keeping in touch with the girl throughout the 25 minute demonstration. We don't know who Malik works for, and why Adam decided to join them. That's not important right now. In shanghai, Adam is looking for a hacker who weakened Sarif's corporate systems on that fateful day. The hacker's being tracked by several organisations, so he will not be easy to find. Adam goes to a clube called Hive, to gather information from a certain Tom, who apparently knows stuff.
At the door, Jensen is stopped by a black bouncer. He won't let anyone in without a pass. Which he can naturally procure for a small fee. So far, the gameplay was shown in first person, but for the conversation it shifts , showing both characters. The player has to decide whether to pay, fight or look around the building for a back door or ventilation shaft. The player doing the presentation agrees to pay. All in all, a wise decision, as fighting might cause trouble. If you want to, you can kill everyone here - remarks JF provocatively - But know that if you shoot civilians, you'll get the police on your head, and those guys are very hard to take down, though naturally it's doable. Law enforcement won't attempt arrest. "They're not nice", JF says, they'll shoot on sight. Makes sense in a world where anyone can become a cybernetically enhanced killing machine. A moment of doubt can cost dearly. In the club, Jensen converses with a VIP zone bartender. Bastard's tough, he won't be scared or manipulated, the conversation doesn't go well for Adam and he gets told off. He needs to find a way to reach Tom. We have several options - talking to a few people we can find someone who agrees to speak a word to Tom for us for doing a small job for him. On the other hand, you can overhear one of the guards mention he lost his pass card to you-know-who's office, so it might be worth searching the club, and just maybe you can find it. Or you can just hack the security, provided you invested in that ability.
EDIT: translation part 2
CYBER POWER
The mechanical augmentations are divided into four classes: combat, stealth, socia and hacking. Developers leave it up to players to choose the way they develop the character, but it won't be possible to max out all classes simultaneously. The limited amount of money Adam can get during his adventure forces you to decide how you want to play. Invest in hacking and easily open locked doors, shut down cameras and hack combat bots, forcing them to fire upon their former master? Or maybe master stealth, gaining optic camouflage? Maybe a bit of everything?
There is supposed to be over 40 different augmentations, of which only a few were presented. Seeing through walls looks almost like in Batman: Arkham Asylum, especially if you add a scanner showing info about your opponents and weak walls. Punching through a thin wall and grabbing the guard behind it is nice, but not half as cool as grabbing two guards, smashing their heads together and skewering them with blades coming from Jensen's forearms a'la Wolverine. Bloody, but not overdone.
For the purposes of the presentation, the bar limiting the energy used for augs was turned off, and his stats were boosted, so the game looked very easy, but it won't be like that really. We're now in the docks, Adam climbs onto the glass roof , shoots it and falls down between 4 enemies, stunning them upon impact. This is the Icarus Landing System in combat mode - a safe landing winished with a slam inducing a small blast wave. The other version is ideal for stealthy players - he landing is silent, so we can jump from great heights without causing suspicion.
When the fighting starts, we can't see whether health regenerates, and if so, if it's thanks to an augmentation, meaning not everyone's Adam may enjoy it. The hero fights through the docks, enemies try to hide behind boxes, the hero also hugs one, and the camera once again switches into TPP mode and stays that way even while aiming. We can also see how Adam jumps from one cover to another, sliding in like Marcus Fenix.
It only gets hot when a helicopter arrives, dropping a box into the warehouse. Instead of putting combat bots into crates for transport, clever engineers have devised a sort of transformer - suddenly the box sprouts legs, a minigun and a rocket launching cannon. We can think of only one scene now: Motoko Kusanagi's robot fight near the end of Ghost in the Shell. Cyberpunk maniacs will cry tears of joy.
THE FUTURE IS NOW
Deus Ex looks like a Blade Runner fan's wet dream, but it's even better than that It's set in 2027 - art director Jacques-Belletete reminds us - it's not science-fiction, it's just waiting for the changes the future will bring. Think what it was like 17 years ago - we didn't use cell phones or the internet, LED 3D tv sets, we flew planes that were technologically not much better than cars produced today. We don't want a world totally detached from reality, in twenty years we'll still be driving four-wheeled cars with one steering wheel. This philosophy will be visible in Detroit, one of the many cities appearing in the game, today almost abandoned, but one of the hearts of America in the golden days of the american motor industry. Born in Detroit, David Sarif decided to bring the city back to its former glory by opening his corporation's factories there. He brought a renaissance to Detroit. - Belletete continues.
Sarif bought old, abandoned factories that once produced cars, and started building his cyber-empire there. Walking through the city, the player will notice old brick tenements right beside modern scyscrapers illuminated by strong lights which give them a sterile, cybernetic look. You can already see that in Scandinavia or Japan. We bought thousands of dollars worth of architecture books, and the skyscraper projects we found there... Maaan, they're planning to build stuff so weird within the next 5-10 years that if you saw them in our game, you'd say "you went a bit too far with the sci-fi". And that's the thing, we didn't, do some research, and you'll see the sort of crazy projects starting right now.
Still, the developers allowed themselves some creative madness ("after all, it's just a game") in designing the double-layered city on an island, Shanghai. It's a sort of Silicon Valley of biocybernetics, within a short time dozens of companies have moved there and they ran out of space, and the chinese government did'n allow them to expand to neighbouring islands, fearing monopoly. The solution? Construction of a "second floor" was started, creating a double-decker city. Jensen strolled around the lower part, where sunlight is blocked out. Crowds of chinese-speaking people, narrow, neon-lit alleys, restaurants without walls or windows, outdoors yet indoors, chinese logos - Blade Runner inspirations are felt at every step. The only thing missing is rain.
CYBER-RENAISSANCE
Belletete confesses the game just had to feature locales straight out of Blade Runner. We wouldn't dare doing a cyberpunk game without them. There is one more reason. The initial idea of styling the whole world in renaissance style didn't work out.
If you look at Gears, Killzone, Turok, Huxley, UT3, GRAW, Dark Sector etc, it's like you're looking at one game. They're all great and wonderful, but they're too similar to each other, and we wanted to stick out from the crowd. The solution was cyberpunk mixed with renaissance. I put Leonardo da Vinci's sketches next to Ghost in the Shell or Appleseed and I was struck by their similarity. As if renaissance was the first step towards building a transhuman worls. We started experimenting.
It turned out that combining renaissance or baroque with cyberpunk only partly works, and this led to the idea that only the key characters, their apartments and select locales should be designed in this unique way, to keep balance. The effect is stunning. A cathedral schematic on the floor of a lab is bewildering, and the combination of antique furniture and stained glass-like windows with a huge flatscreen and halogen lights causes an involuntary jaw drop. Some character's clothing seems to be inspired by geometric figures, alluding to the mathematical discoveries of the renaissance.
It was hard finding inspiration, because no one's really done anything like that before in games. So we looked at real-world fashion and found projects we could expand on. You'll see a lot of normally dressed people, wearing T-shirts. Not everything has the renaissance flavour. - convinces Belletete. I a reminded of the first meeting between Morpheus and Neo, and the leather chair contrasting with the surroundighs. Images like this will be standard for Deus Ex.
THE JAPANESE ARE WATCHING
Square Enix recently acquired Eidos, and immediately turned attention to the Montreal studio, opened merely 3 years ago, the new Deus Ex game being the first of their three planned projects (the second one is Thief 4, the third one is a secret). Deus Ex is not a widely known franchise today, so it's almost like creating a new IP, so logically the studio would be first for a possible shutdown. We were first visited by Yoichi Wada, the boss of Square Enix, he wanted to assess our work culture. - reveals producer Anfossi. That was a stressful experience. Later, we were visited weekly by Square Enix people, even Kitase-san, the Final Fantasy producer, we met the entire FF team. We're great fans, and they liked our game, especially the futuristic technology projects.
Being complimented by Kitase only further convinced Anfossi that everything's heading in a good direction. Making an big-budget game costs 30 million dollars, and that's not counting the marketing budget, so you have to try to reach new audiences. So that's probably why games are getting easier, but I'm not one who believes in hand-holding. Just immerse yourself in our world and learn everything on your own. Anyway, I've got a very experienced crew, on average each of them's been making games for 10 years now. We know what we want to achieve, we stay true to the series and we innovate. And I hope it works. And if it does, we can count on another sequel. Fingers crossed.[]
Infoboxes:
HACKERS
During the presentation, the player took control of the cameras, but no one explained how the BioShock-style minigame worked. I tried asking JF about it. Without going into details, you're trying to take over access nodes through which you can send your signal, and at the same time the system defends itself by doing the same in your direction, but taking a different path. It tries to locate where the signal is coming from, block you and sound the alarm. Sounds reasonable, but it looked complicated and it was hard to tell what was going on. Important: Adam is susceptible to attacks while hacking
LOWER YOUR WEAPON, LET'S TALK
When I write about a game being directed at a mature audience, not necessarily of gamers, and it's an FPS, I always wonder if it doesn't come off as babble. The casual might swallow Heavy Rain, where he doesn't have to master the controls, but a shooter won't convince him even with the best story. But, Human Revolution is not really a shooter. It can be, if you want to, but it doesn't have to. Investing in the "social" class allows you to bypass many obstacles in a peaceful way, through dialogue. You don't have to shoot. Actually - nod to the previous games here - you can finish the whole game without killing anyone except a few bosses. And those fights don't have to be difficult for two reasons. First is the adjustable dificulty level, which lets even sunday players finish the game without breaking a sweat. Second, one of the augmentations presented was a target lock-on - Equipped with a bazooka, Jensen locked onto the target, faced the other way and shot, and the rocket found its way itself. Let's just hope this doesn't spoil the fun for the hardcore. There has to be some challenge.
CYBER MUSIC
Moody, slow rhythm, a few bass notes, various strings, but mostly asian. The music will be very atmospheric, unless it's there to stress violent fighting. The composer is Michael McCann, known for his Splinter Cell: Double Agent soundtrack and various TV series scores. Why him? Simple, he's not just a great musician, he also lives in Montreal, so he's available to the three person (in a development team team of 130!) sound team almost 24 hours a day. Apparently, he got so involved that it's hard for him to stop working.
I had the chance of listening to a sample of McCann's work and I'm impressed. Aside from the aforementioned, moody piece with the violin, I was enchanted by the pulsating music in club Hive, where Adam was looking for Tom. I imagined it in a scene like this: people dancing, the hero walks past them through the smoke, the camera alternating between his face and his legs, add shots of the dancers, and all that in slow-mo. It doesn't look as good in-game, barely anyone's dancing, the few clubgoers rather talk than dance. But the music rules, and I haven't even mentioned the best: some chinese girl wailing on the vocals.
BIG GUN MADE BY...
Similarily to Ghost Recon, the weapons designs are based on real ones. The designers tried to imagine how weapons will look 20 years from now. The effect, as you can see, is breathtaking.
For the purposes of the game, a hundred fictious companies were created, with their own logos and typography, and this includes weapons manufacturers. Looking at a rifle, the player will see who made it, and may later find containers with the same logo and think "hey, I had a piece made by them". This pertains to everything: cars, phones, TV sets, clothes. Creating all this was required titanic amounts of work, so was it worth it? A different company probably wouldn't allow something like this. - says Belletete - But we wanted to create a believable world. Many players won't even notice this, but subconsciously, your brain will catch that, because logotypes are all around us, they're a natural element of reality. Besides, thanks to them you won't complain about the world's sterility, just like the renaissance elements add awe to the settings.
DIFFICULT QUESTIONS
Writer Mary De Marle knows that think for the players is not the way to go. You should give them the chance to answer questions arising from the story by themselves. It's not our job to tell you, if modifying the human body through technology is bad - claims De Merle strongly and explains: Our themes reference the Icarus myth. Can man become something more than he could ever be and what are the consequences?
The author also tries to explore why people do certain things, to understand their behaviour. Her theory is that it's all because of the need to control something: the market, precious technology, human evolution, even truth and lies. In time, the player will learn to recognize the motivations of all characters, because they will fall into one category or another.
Human Revolution seems like a good book indeed, good thing that the author does not want to stroke her grey beard and moralize.
DIFFERENT, THUS INTRIGUING
Deus Ex is being made on the last Tomb Raider's engine and looks great. Maye it's not the most powerful engine around, but where the tech doesn't manage, unique world design helps. Cyber-renaissance is something new, something you haven't seen anywhere else, and that's what makes it compelling and to people, picques their curiosity. - explains Belletete. It was the same with BioShock, I was shocked to see that guy in an early XX century diving suit and a sick looking girl with a giant syringe, and I wanted to know more about that straight away. BioShock's success only strenghtened the Montreal team's conviction that they made the right choice with cyber-renaissance. And where did the insane attention to detail come from? Even if players don't notice the detail, they subconsciously register it, which makes the world seem more believable. Even the smallest details were taken into account, the look of bus stops or washing machines, or even the way parts of different appliances are connected.
I noteced another thing, while Jensen was strolling through the streets of Shanghai, and that's the ubiquitous fog (or was it smog). It's one of the cyberpunk archetypes, we had to have awesome fog, that you can even cast shadows on. Remember Blade Runner, the smokey interiors. And one more thing, the hero will have two sets of work clothes. Commando Adam looks like a futuristic Sam Fisher or Solid Snake, and Urban Adam, dressed in an elegant, navy blue coat, reminds of James Bond. You can walk into a superexpensive hotel in that coat, book a room, and you'll fit right in. boasts Belletete. The playability is in the details?
ALMOST BALE
Jensen's is voiced by Elias Toufexis. I checked him out on youtube, he sounds completely different in the game. He's got such raspy, mumbling voice I mistook him for Christian Bale. He was supposed to be that sort of tough guy, Bale or Eastwood style. - explains Steve Sczepkowski (his father is a Pole, but Steve doesn't speak polish), responsible for music and sound. The idea was that every character should speak in interesting ways, maybe with accents. I watched X-Files, and by the end of the last season I didn't know who was who, all in black, all work for the government. How do I distinguish between them? I didn't want to make that mistake in Deus Ex, so even if you don't remember the name of a girl you met, when you see her six hours later, you'll say "it's the one with the russian accent". I like this argumentation.
I kind of hope they are not main characters at all. I would be neat to catch a glimpse of them, or hear about UNATCO agents or something, but I prefer something new.
OnTheLastCastlelet's keep it haimish for the peripateticRegistered Userregular
edited June 2010
I heard Invisible War was just different and not as good. Not a horrible awful pile. I got it for $2.50 awhile ago when Steam convinced me to buy both.
edit: But I haven't played it yet so... just sayin' what I read.
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Olivawgood name, isn't it?the foot of mt fujiRegistered Userregular
I heard Invisible War was just different and not as good. Not a horrible awful pile. I got it for $2.50 awhile ago when Steam convinced me to buy both.
edit: But I haven't played it yet so... just sayin' what I read.
It removes a lot of the depth and choice from the original game. Levels are a lot smaller, some of the plot choices and characters feel more one-dimensional, and the game itself ran particularly poorly and had a number of bugs when it was released.
All in all it wasn't the best game on its own, but when compared to its predecessor it was a pretty big disappointment.
I heard Invisible War was just different and not as good. Not a horrible awful pile. I got it for $2.50 awhile ago when Steam convinced me to buy both.
edit: But I haven't played it yet so... just sayin' what I read.
It removes a lot of the depth and choice from the original game. Levels are a lot smaller, some of the plot choices and characters feel more one-dimensional, and the game itself ran particularly poorly and had a number of bugs when it was released.
All in all it wasn't the best game on its own, but when compared to its predecessor it was a pretty big disappointment.
In that case, I'm just going to play the original again. It's been so long and I didn't finish it.
I stopped at:
the fight with the big German agent?
Is there much more to the game after that?
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BroloBroseidonLord of the BroceanRegistered Userregular
I heard Invisible War was just different and not as good. Not a horrible awful pile. I got it for $2.50 awhile ago when Steam convinced me to buy both.
edit: But I haven't played it yet so... just sayin' what I read.
It removes a lot of the depth and choice from the original game. Levels are a lot smaller, some of the plot choices and characters feel more one-dimensional, and the game itself ran particularly poorly and had a number of bugs when it was released.
All in all it wasn't the best game on its own, but when compared to its predecessor it was a pretty big disappointment.
In that case, I'm just going to play the original again. It's been so long and I didn't finish it.
I stopped at:
the fight with the big German agent?
Is there much more to the game after that?
Gunther puts you about 2/3rds of the way into the game.
Posts
Oh God, the music.
I'm not sure if he was saying like it was a bad thing.
I mean, the show is pretty dang great, if you don't mind the occasional episode full of technobabble.
I loled
Ah. Sorry I misinterpreted.
(i did fucking love GITS though)
still enjoyable though
ahahahahaha oh wow
and then there was the episode where the major seduced a child.
greatest day of his whole life is more like it.
And he didn't hit it! He's gonna regret that later.
They are pretty tiny pictures, for whatever reason.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/deus-ex-fan-service-article
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/deus-ex-human-revolution-preview
Still unsure about the prequel's future aesthetic but that preview sounds promising to me
I don't know, the aesthetic is extremely appealing to me, the reasoning given in that fanservice interview thingy seems logical enough too.
Especially if they're being as attentive to detail as described in that preview.
I really hope we'll get to see Simon, Gunther&Anna again (those two would actually be a must, the state of augmentation being what it is in DX3)!
http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=1014
Okay I'm a little excited now, rather than just cautiously optimistic
That said, it's definitely now in my top five most anticipated games.
I quite like the way this was written, Tom Francis seems to be a good games journalist.
I played that on the xbox
it wasn't terrible
edit: But I haven't played it yet so... just sayin' what I read.
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
It removes a lot of the depth and choice from the original game. Levels are a lot smaller, some of the plot choices and characters feel more one-dimensional, and the game itself ran particularly poorly and had a number of bugs when it was released.
All in all it wasn't the best game on its own, but when compared to its predecessor it was a pretty big disappointment.
In that case, I'm just going to play the original again. It's been so long and I didn't finish it.
I stopped at:
Is there much more to the game after that?
Gunther puts you about 2/3rds of the way into the game.
A little wary of the square enix involvement. Deus Ex is a pretty western pedigree, but the GITS influences seem well integrated.
The concept is good, hopefully the script and va aren't total crap.
The gameplay sounds solid.
thats cool. I get a very Japanese vibe from it.
What engine is this?
The game engine is the Crystal Dynamics' Tomb Raider engine, aka "Crystal Engine".
Yeah, that is totally to be expected.
Squeenix doing cutscenes explains what I was trying to describe.