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PA Comic: Monday, February 27th - Further Deviations
Sterica
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
Gabriel has told me that Little Deviants is very, very bad. He hasn’t told me why, and only shivers at the mention of it, so I’m not saying you should invest this assessment with great import or something. He did, however, discover a novel input methodology. I have coined the term “Rear Stylus,” and I am offering it for use royalty-free.
I was gone when it would have been relevant, but I’ve played through Syndicate. How is it (pretend that you don’t know)? An earlier iteration of myself might have called the single player campaign “retarded.”
In 2012, an era of diplomacy and grace, I might call it concussed. This is more robust, anyway: it describes a state of such profound head trauma that confusion and even unconsciousness are the result. In a time where Deus Ex: Human Revolution did not occupy some portion of our media consciousness, or that the original Syndicate had never existed, this new one would just be dumb. In a time where DE’s sharp script and transhuman themes are still present and actively pulsing, it’s almost unconscionable. Unlockable journal entries and the introduction itself reveal that clever writers were in the vicinity. What happened?
Until a game is released, it is many, many games. I’ve seen this happen with my own erect, greasy eyestalks. This is part of the reason Day One DLC isn’t something I get up about; what we call “the game” was probably done a long time ago. I wonder at what point this Syndicate became “Syndicate,” brand scion; the solo portion is pure fondant, it’s all structure with a vague, nominal sweetness.
The campaign has a few visionary moments, times where its spartan environments seem elevated to the ideal of Homogenous Corporate Sterility as opposed to simply plain. There are overwhelming fights where your suite of “App” powers flow into one another, and you get a sense of the good game they might have made instead.
The multiplayer invests that loose jumble with a clean matrix of startling, platinum wire. Every weapon, every ability, and your character itself become research trees. Missions generate currencies. The weapons themselves are thoughtful and (generally) pragmatic in their construction, and communicate their weight and power. You’ll be eaten alive if you don’t play together. I loved it in the demo, and it only gets better.
Which of these games came first? They have no business being on the same physical platter; If I were to leave it out on the counter overnight, I expect that in the morning I would see two half-sized discs. Was the single player campaign created as the “ballast” for a Triple A retail release, or was this multiplayer the result of some strange alchemy performed on the existing assets?
(CW)TB out.
this is for right now
Sterica on
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Then I started wondering why all toilets don't have armrests.
I'm dumb.
Be relived that it couldn't have occurred to you quicker.
The really remarkable shit is that I don't know what game that is, but I have learned something about its gameplay from this comic.
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
My work here is done.
This was my first reaction as well. Then, I was like
wait a minute.
that's no toilet.
Well I guess I have to get a vita now.
Perhaps the effect Gabe's little deviant is having on the game via the back touchscreen.
Then I remembered the touchscreen in the back.
Then I remembered this game and saw the bulge
Upon further inspection, I believe that is a swivel chair.
Your point still stands, though.
it was in the swanky lounge of an airport that I technically wasn't supposed to be in
I was all "so this is how rich people live"
and then it dawned on me
and now I wish I could take it back
... My, what a boring Signature.
Belch!
... AHHHHHHH
Its a fully opperational death star!
Oh no, now I'm seeing the Ken doll action on the screen in the context of everything else!
This is really a comic that gets more unsettling with more scrutiny.
Ladies and gentlemen, let us gaze upon the End of Days.
that's no moon!
"You can be yodeling bear without spending a dime if you get lucky." -> reVerse
"In the grim darkness of the future, we will all be nurses catering to the whims of terrible old people." -> Hacksaw
"In fact, our whole society will be oriented around caring for one very decrepit, very old man on total life support." -> SKFM
I mean, the first time I met a non-white person was when this Vietnamese kid tried to break my legs but that was entirely fair because he was a centreback, not because he was a subhuman beast in some zoo ->yotes
Still, I looked up the game to double check, and well, I'll just leave this here:
Several seconds earlier is even better:
That is just
fantastic.
I thought the story was OK. I loved the backdrop that the action was taking place in. The endings were war-crimes and the bosses were an elaborate insult, a purposeful troll on the player built from the ground up.
My favorite thing about Deus Ex was, of course, the 'exploration and stealth.' Really more the stealth aspect, because I almost invariably found the 'best' way to get something done. There may be alternate route alpha, beta, or zeta to get you inside a building, but once in those office mazes (and where I spent the majority of the game), there seemed to be just enough breadcrumbs to lead you through the 'best' route to the end. I felt kinda cheated, the illusion of choice when there is an actual best option available.
At any rate, with the exception of the boss fights (which you could teach a class on bad boss design with) I felt that Deus Ex: HR got the game elements down really well, including the immersion into the world via the environment (having the backgdrop of the rich corporations right next to the slums of china, leaving you corporate base in Detroit to hit the streets. Hell, the streets vs the sterile clinic you go for your upgrades).
But HR really, really fumbled with its story. I would hardly call it a 'sharp script' since it has extremely predictable twists and turns. The story can't make up its mind whether it wants to be about Adam or the conspiracy he inevitably finds. The game straddles the micro and the macro of what is going on in the world, doing its best when it focuses on the individual and how they are affected by your choices. But the game purposefully ignores them as it hits its crescendo and does everything it can to not play to the strengths of the story as it reaches its conclusion.
Deus Ex: HR was constantly fighting against itself. The bosses fought against the design of the game, the global story fights against the story of the individuals. Maybe if Tycho played a build of HR that was half-finished with the bosses excluded, maybe then I'd feel his putting the game on a pedestal like that would be deserved. I haven't had a chance to play Syndicate (I really, really want to. I just do not have any money and as such cannot afford it) so I can't speak as to that game's capabilities, but for what praise I've heard of Syndicate so far, it does not seem to deserve playing the Goofus while Deus Ex, and all its flaws, shines as Gallant.
At any rate, Big T hardly puts Deus Ex on a pedestal. He puts Syndicate on a nega-pedestal or something.
I like trying to guess plot points
As for the endings, they wouldn't have been as bad if they weren't