Of course the game had to end in Area 51. You can't have a game about conspiracy theories and not include the grandaddy of them all. I couldn't tell you why I wound up in Area 51 - the main villain was the head of a corporation and a private citizen, not the US military, and while there were aliens, they were kind of perfunctory. They hung around in the basement being deadly, radioactive guardians, but didn't have much individual character. I got no sense of their culture or personality from my brief, shotgun-heavy interactions with them. In fact, I can't even really be sure they were aliens. It's just as likely that they were simply genetically engineered guard animals that happened to look like aliens. Disappointing.
Towards the end of Area 51, I was offered a choice. Depending on how I approached the final level, I could either destroy the global communications network, ushering in a new dark age of competing city states; kill Bob Page, allowing the Illuminati to take over and rule the world from the shadows; or merge with the Helios AI and become a god-like overseer, directly ruling the world with my new, superhuman intelligence. I picked the third option for two reasons - first, it seemed like the least bad choice for the world at large. The guy pushing the new dark age was a Chinese gangster, who naturally would want a world where he and his cronies didn't have to worry about the law, and the guy who wanted to put the Illuminati in charge basically just wanted to reset the world to its 20th century status quo of competing nations and unaccountable plutocrats. The AI was creepy as hell, but at least it seemed to lack the ego that would doom the other paths to disaster.
My other reason was purely pragmatic. The AI ending was the easiest to pull off. I didn't have to wander around the facility for an hour and half looking for various doo-dads and macguffins to trigger the process. I just had break into a room and then return to a different room. Did I doom humanity with my laziness? Only the sequels will tell.
Since my last post, I've made peace with Deus Ex's light levels. It took some conscious effort, but I was able to relax when I encountered darkness, and grudgingly use my flashlight instead. That had an enormous effect on my mood, and while I'll never fully adore the game's resource management elements, I wound up finishing the story with ammo, bioenergy, and health packs to spare, so maybe I was just being a huge baby about it.
So, how do I sum up my experience with Deus Ex? If I'd played it in 2000, it would have blown my mind. It might not have been as visually stunning or generally well-constructed a game as Majora's Mask (which is what I was playing when this game came out), but the openness and non-linear nature of its levels really is something remarkable. I once compared it unfavorably to Skyrim, but I realize now that was unfair. Skyrim gives you freedom in how you build your character, and that allows a different approach to the dungeons, but those dungeons were mostly fancily-decorated tubes. It took me awhile to appreciate that Deus Ex doesn't do that. There were locked doors I failed to go through, air vents I bypassed, and walls I didn't climb, but if I had, if my collection of augments, chosen skills, or available equipment had been different, I could have unlocked whole new paths through the levels. Deus Ex is one of the few games out there where going from Point A to Point C doesn't necessarily entail going through Point B, and I respect that.
That being said, I'm not eager to revisit this game. It has a rhythm to it that just doesn't jibe with the way I like to play games. Going back and exploring the various side-passages and alternate routes would involve dealing once more with limited supplies, inaccurate shooting, and sudden and unpredictable fragility (seriously, it seems like half the times I reloaded, it was after being taken down by a single rocket or well-placed shot), and that's just not my style. I'm sorry I was so hard on it earlier, due to my own stubborn refusal to engage with the game's mechanics (even if I think "limited light" is a terrible mechanic for a video game), and as I often am when I move out of my comfort zone, I'm glad I gave it a try, but I can't deny that I'm glad to be moving on.
Saturday, April 18, 2015
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition - 20/20 hours
For a significant portion of the last 20 hours, Deus Ex has made me inexplicably angry. That might not come as a surprise to anyone who's read my previous posts on the game, but believe it or not, I've been trying to restrain myself, because my feelings towards the game were not reflective of any identifiable property that it might possess. My working theory was that it was a holistic thing - Deus Ex does a good job of making you feel alone and without support, trapped in a desperate situation where you have to carefully marshal your resources and choose your battles in order to have any chance at survival, let alone advancement. I thought that maybe such deliberate gameplay was too at odds with my normal "kick in the door and only halfheartedly aim" approach to shooters. However, I recently played Velvet Assassin, and while it was not at all the sort of game I'd ordinarily choose to play, its survival elements were even more extreme than Deus Ex's, and yet I was not so consistently irritated.
It wasn't until around hour 19 that I finally realized what was bugging me. It's the damned flashlight. It's always been the damned flashlight. Even in Hong Kong, which had the additional problem of being a confusing urban maze, the light levels were a major component of my distaste. It's not that the game is dark. It's that your flashlight uses the same bioelectric energy as your combat implants, so I was subconsciously avoiding its use. All the time I was sneaking around, conserving ammo, or navigating without a map (activities that test my patience even under the best of circumstances), I was doing it while squinting.
I couldn't say why I would do such a thing. It can help me see by focusing light more narrowly, but it can't magically change a pixel from black to white. Honestly, I wasn't even aware I was doing it. Yet that constant, low-level physical discomfort managed to bleed over into my assessment of the game as a whole. It's a phenomenon I've long found fascinating - the mind can transform the meaning and context of feedback from the body when it is uncertain about the feedback's origin, but even so, it's the teensiest bit embarrassing when you notice it happening.
I now have a dilemma. Even though I'm armed with the knowledge of why the game has been making me so cranky, I'm not sure this is a problem willpower alone can solve. Thus I have the perfect excuse to stop playing at 20 hours. However, that would make this the third story-driven rpg in a row I gave up on before the end. I have a feeling that I'm pretty close to finishing the story, and would estimate it as taking no more than 25 hours. Plus I'm kind of interested in how the story will work out.
The thing I'm starting to realize about Deus Ex's story is that, despite the greyness of the environments and the inherent self-seriousness of the cyberpunk genre, it is actually gleefully absurd. Basically, it's set in a world where every half-cocked conspiracy theory is true. I'm working for the Illuminati to stop a conspiracy from within the Illuminati that is orchestrating the UN and the European Union to subvert national governments and impose control by the intellectual elite, using false flag terrorist operations and the secret cure to a deadly disease that they themselves released. Most recently, I explored a cathedral that used to be the headquarters to the secret surviving Knights Templar, where they were paid tribute by the Bilderberg group.
I can't help wondering how tongue-in-cheek this is supposed to be. Played straight, it can be disconcertingly right-wing. The NSF and Silhouette (basically the French version of the NSF) both seem like they're reactionary nationalists whose only redeeming quality is that they oppose the super-evil conspiracy. And the Templar bank is extraordinary for the fact that it uses gold, despite the practice being completely nonsensical in a cyberpunk, post-information economy.
I wouldn't say that Deus Ex has a particularly political slant, but given the nature of its subject matter, maybe it should. The baroque excess of its "all-conspiracy-theories-are-true" mythology screams out for satire, but the studied neutrality of its presentation means that notional satire has no particular target. I'd prefer it if this game were either a little less ridiculous or a whole lot sillier, but I'm still looking forward to seeing how this will all work out.
It wasn't until around hour 19 that I finally realized what was bugging me. It's the damned flashlight. It's always been the damned flashlight. Even in Hong Kong, which had the additional problem of being a confusing urban maze, the light levels were a major component of my distaste. It's not that the game is dark. It's that your flashlight uses the same bioelectric energy as your combat implants, so I was subconsciously avoiding its use. All the time I was sneaking around, conserving ammo, or navigating without a map (activities that test my patience even under the best of circumstances), I was doing it while squinting.
I couldn't say why I would do such a thing. It can help me see by focusing light more narrowly, but it can't magically change a pixel from black to white. Honestly, I wasn't even aware I was doing it. Yet that constant, low-level physical discomfort managed to bleed over into my assessment of the game as a whole. It's a phenomenon I've long found fascinating - the mind can transform the meaning and context of feedback from the body when it is uncertain about the feedback's origin, but even so, it's the teensiest bit embarrassing when you notice it happening.
I now have a dilemma. Even though I'm armed with the knowledge of why the game has been making me so cranky, I'm not sure this is a problem willpower alone can solve. Thus I have the perfect excuse to stop playing at 20 hours. However, that would make this the third story-driven rpg in a row I gave up on before the end. I have a feeling that I'm pretty close to finishing the story, and would estimate it as taking no more than 25 hours. Plus I'm kind of interested in how the story will work out.
The thing I'm starting to realize about Deus Ex's story is that, despite the greyness of the environments and the inherent self-seriousness of the cyberpunk genre, it is actually gleefully absurd. Basically, it's set in a world where every half-cocked conspiracy theory is true. I'm working for the Illuminati to stop a conspiracy from within the Illuminati that is orchestrating the UN and the European Union to subvert national governments and impose control by the intellectual elite, using false flag terrorist operations and the secret cure to a deadly disease that they themselves released. Most recently, I explored a cathedral that used to be the headquarters to the secret surviving Knights Templar, where they were paid tribute by the Bilderberg group.
I can't help wondering how tongue-in-cheek this is supposed to be. Played straight, it can be disconcertingly right-wing. The NSF and Silhouette (basically the French version of the NSF) both seem like they're reactionary nationalists whose only redeeming quality is that they oppose the super-evil conspiracy. And the Templar bank is extraordinary for the fact that it uses gold, despite the practice being completely nonsensical in a cyberpunk, post-information economy.
I wouldn't say that Deus Ex has a particularly political slant, but given the nature of its subject matter, maybe it should. The baroque excess of its "all-conspiracy-theories-are-true" mythology screams out for satire, but the studied neutrality of its presentation means that notional satire has no particular target. I'd prefer it if this game were either a little less ridiculous or a whole lot sillier, but I'm still looking forward to seeing how this will all work out.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition - 15/20 hours
I am ready to be done with this game. Hong Kong was a nightmare. It's a funny thing about science fiction - it's easy to extrapolate from existing trends, but almost impossible to predict something genuinely new. Thus JC Denton can have all sorts of borderline-magical nanotech augmentations, and yet I would gladly trade half of them for a modern smartphone. It seems obvious in retrospect - carry around a little portable computer around with you that communicates with gps satellites and pinpoints your current location on a map. The reason you'd need such a thing is that if you were dropped in an unfamiliar urban environment, and you didn't have a guide, you'd quickly become hopelessly lost. It's possible that Deus Ex deliberately left out map functionality in order to create a particular gameplay challenge, but it's still disappointing when video games are less convenient than real life.
It made me a little cranky, and as a result I'm inclined to judge the game more harshly than it deserves. It's sort of the opposite of Fallout 2. That was a game that had some serious flaws, but because I played it at a critical juncture in my gaming life, and because, at the time, I'd never experienced anything more advanced, I was able to play it with one eye in the past without holding it to a standard it could never possibly meet. By contrast, Deus Ex is a game with many great qualities, but I'm having a hard getting by it because I've played it long after its historical moment.
It's a problem with video games as an artistic medium. They aren't just art, they are also technology. Over time they become increasingly sophisticated. New games learn techniques from older ones and build upon what came before. As a result, appreciating an older game requires appreciating its historical context. However, that appreciation can feel abstract and removed. You may enjoy a Model-T for its craftsmanship and the ingenuity of its construction, but you wouldn't necessarily want to drive it down the road.
Or maybe I wouldn't have enjoyed Deus Ex even when it was new. I've never had a great deal of patience for stealth, and you spend a lot of time wandering around, and the shooting and resource management are unforgiving. It's definitely a "hardcore" game, and thus speaks to a certain sensibility that not everyone possesses. It's really impossible to say.
Plotwise, things have gone sideways fast. There is a difference between working with a rebel group to take down an evil conspiracy and assisting criminal gangs by stealing high-tech weapons for them, and then brokering a deal by which the largest gangs can consolidate into a super-gang. When I returned to New York City, UNATCO may have demonized me by framing me for the very terrorism I once thwarted, but when they said I had links to the Hong Kong Triads, they severely understated the case.
Now I'm working with the Illuminati (who are, apparently . . . good) to destroy a boatload of the virus (I'm assuming this is not as reckless a plan as it appears for handwavy sci-fi reasons), and I've basically just given up all pretense of being a law-and-order sort. The boat is guarded by a bunch of Chinese and American soldiers that don't have any obvious connection to Majestic-12, so now I'm just shooting people for doing their jobs. On the other hand, it is easier doing it that way . . .
It made me a little cranky, and as a result I'm inclined to judge the game more harshly than it deserves. It's sort of the opposite of Fallout 2. That was a game that had some serious flaws, but because I played it at a critical juncture in my gaming life, and because, at the time, I'd never experienced anything more advanced, I was able to play it with one eye in the past without holding it to a standard it could never possibly meet. By contrast, Deus Ex is a game with many great qualities, but I'm having a hard getting by it because I've played it long after its historical moment.
It's a problem with video games as an artistic medium. They aren't just art, they are also technology. Over time they become increasingly sophisticated. New games learn techniques from older ones and build upon what came before. As a result, appreciating an older game requires appreciating its historical context. However, that appreciation can feel abstract and removed. You may enjoy a Model-T for its craftsmanship and the ingenuity of its construction, but you wouldn't necessarily want to drive it down the road.
Or maybe I wouldn't have enjoyed Deus Ex even when it was new. I've never had a great deal of patience for stealth, and you spend a lot of time wandering around, and the shooting and resource management are unforgiving. It's definitely a "hardcore" game, and thus speaks to a certain sensibility that not everyone possesses. It's really impossible to say.
Plotwise, things have gone sideways fast. There is a difference between working with a rebel group to take down an evil conspiracy and assisting criminal gangs by stealing high-tech weapons for them, and then brokering a deal by which the largest gangs can consolidate into a super-gang. When I returned to New York City, UNATCO may have demonized me by framing me for the very terrorism I once thwarted, but when they said I had links to the Hong Kong Triads, they severely understated the case.
Now I'm working with the Illuminati (who are, apparently . . . good) to destroy a boatload of the virus (I'm assuming this is not as reckless a plan as it appears for handwavy sci-fi reasons), and I've basically just given up all pretense of being a law-and-order sort. The boat is guarded by a bunch of Chinese and American soldiers that don't have any obvious connection to Majestic-12, so now I'm just shooting people for doing their jobs. On the other hand, it is easier doing it that way . . .
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition - 10/20 hours
I was probably a little too harsh on Deus Ex's graphics before. Now that I've gotten used to them, they're fine. Not great, but I can imagine how in the year 2000, they would have seemed incredible. Two nitpicks - I don't like the dark areas. Sure, the game gives you a flashlight, so by extension dark must exist, but it's a frustrating mechanic because I always walk into darkness from a place with light and the transition is jarring. My other complaint is that, now that I'm in Hong Kong, the world doesn't seem vertical enough. Cyberpunk, to me, is about a world of gleaming towers that cast long shadows, and the sort of desperate parasitical life that goes on in the cracks of the system. Deus Ex sort of hits that note, but there's not enough worldbuilding. The various civilians you come across don't have enough lines, and you're too caught up in the whole conspiracies-within-conspiracies plot to explore much of how the world works on a day-to-day basis.
Speaking of which, things look like they are finally coming to a head. Paul, my brother, turned out to be working with the terrorists. It's a bit of a bummer, because I thought he was urging me to use nonlethal methods out of some great compassion and sense of responsibility, but it turns out he just wanted me to spare his friends (it's possible that it's both - the game tried to present him as a softy - but in my book, when you willingly work with a group that bombs subway stations and takes hostages, you lose the ability to present yourself as a gentle peacemaker).
It's a betrayal that is a major turning point in the game, because it marks when UNATCO goes from "ominously authoritarian" to "evil to the point of incompetence." First, they tell me to kill an unarmed prisoner, despite that being against UNATCO's official policy, and totally irrespective of the fact that they have underground prison cells that could disappear a person more or less indefinitely. Then, they hit the kill switch on my brother, which, okay, maybe that's something you'd want to have, even considering the risk of an enemy hacker getting in and triggering it on your loyal agents, but then they make a big deal about telling me about it, presumably "so I won't get any ideas." If they'd just quietly killed Paul without bothering to say what they did, I would have almost certainly assumed that he escaped into the underworld and was laying low, and thus I'd have never sought him out in Hell's Kitchen, and never been persuaded to broadcast a message to the NSF (plus, it turns out that many of the terrorist organizations out there are on UNATCO's payroll, so I'm not sure where Paul thought he was running to).
Finally, I learned (though, to be fair, they more or less came out and said it in the opening cinematic) that my employers are responsible for the plague that is the driving force behind the NSF's dissent in the first place. Releasing a biological agent into the wild and then trading the cure for political favors has got to be the dumbest evil plan ever conceived. Do these people not realize that once it's out of their control, it's going to evolve, and that it's only a matter of time before it out-evolves the cure? Once that happens, it's game over for humanity, shadowy conspirators and all. I think the Grey Death is supposed to be nanomachines rather than a virus, but that just makes it worse. It will have all of the weaknesses of a biological weapon, and can also be traced to one of a small number of groups with the knowledge and resources to build such a thing. What's the damned point of having a mysterious conspiracy when you're just going to print your calling card on your weapons?
I once thought that Deus Ex would turn out to be a conflict of grey vs grey, where all sides have a compelling point that belied their brutal methods, and that I would have to carefully navigate between the factions to reach a satisfying conclusion while keeping my honor intact. Now I realize the conflict is grey vs dark black, where I'm forced to side with contemptible losers in order to preserve the human race before some idiots accidentally reduce it to unidentifiable organic sludge.
Speaking of which, things look like they are finally coming to a head. Paul, my brother, turned out to be working with the terrorists. It's a bit of a bummer, because I thought he was urging me to use nonlethal methods out of some great compassion and sense of responsibility, but it turns out he just wanted me to spare his friends (it's possible that it's both - the game tried to present him as a softy - but in my book, when you willingly work with a group that bombs subway stations and takes hostages, you lose the ability to present yourself as a gentle peacemaker).
It's a betrayal that is a major turning point in the game, because it marks when UNATCO goes from "ominously authoritarian" to "evil to the point of incompetence." First, they tell me to kill an unarmed prisoner, despite that being against UNATCO's official policy, and totally irrespective of the fact that they have underground prison cells that could disappear a person more or less indefinitely. Then, they hit the kill switch on my brother, which, okay, maybe that's something you'd want to have, even considering the risk of an enemy hacker getting in and triggering it on your loyal agents, but then they make a big deal about telling me about it, presumably "so I won't get any ideas." If they'd just quietly killed Paul without bothering to say what they did, I would have almost certainly assumed that he escaped into the underworld and was laying low, and thus I'd have never sought him out in Hell's Kitchen, and never been persuaded to broadcast a message to the NSF (plus, it turns out that many of the terrorist organizations out there are on UNATCO's payroll, so I'm not sure where Paul thought he was running to).
Finally, I learned (though, to be fair, they more or less came out and said it in the opening cinematic) that my employers are responsible for the plague that is the driving force behind the NSF's dissent in the first place. Releasing a biological agent into the wild and then trading the cure for political favors has got to be the dumbest evil plan ever conceived. Do these people not realize that once it's out of their control, it's going to evolve, and that it's only a matter of time before it out-evolves the cure? Once that happens, it's game over for humanity, shadowy conspirators and all. I think the Grey Death is supposed to be nanomachines rather than a virus, but that just makes it worse. It will have all of the weaknesses of a biological weapon, and can also be traced to one of a small number of groups with the knowledge and resources to build such a thing. What's the damned point of having a mysterious conspiracy when you're just going to print your calling card on your weapons?
I once thought that Deus Ex would turn out to be a conflict of grey vs grey, where all sides have a compelling point that belied their brutal methods, and that I would have to carefully navigate between the factions to reach a satisfying conclusion while keeping my honor intact. Now I realize the conflict is grey vs dark black, where I'm forced to side with contemptible losers in order to preserve the human race before some idiots accidentally reduce it to unidentifiable organic sludge.
Saturday, April 11, 2015
Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition - 5/20 hours
I'm a bit intimidated in blogging about this game. It is an undisputed classic, and I worry that if I don't appreciate it enough, I'll be revealed as a philistine. Lucky for me, then, that I can see how it earned its reputation.
Deus Ex is a good game. You're given control of an elite cyborg operative, and sent into various wide-open levels to thwart terrorist plots. You're given a set of skills and implants, and different ways of upgrading your character lend themselves to different approaches for navigating the levels. It's a great formula, but . . .
Well, Skyrim exists. If I want to play a game that offers me incredible freedom and the ability to customize my game experience through the way I advance my character, I have options. I could be playing a game with lush and gorgeous environments, smoother and more responsive controls, and dozens more character options.
Which isn't really fair to Deus Ex, of course. If I could mentally transport myself back to the year 2000, I'd easily see what a marvel it was. I just recently got done playing some rpgs that were released at around the same time (Baldur's Gate 2 came out in the very same year) and there is no comparison. It even looks and plays well compared to Morrowind, which wouldn't come out for another two years. But it really is a victim of the curse that afflicts all early 3-d games - they're not simple enough to be timeless, and they're not detailed enough to be good. The only people who could possibly love how this game looks are those who have never been exposed to anything better.
And I'm not normally what you'd call a graphics snob. This period in graphics history is simply that awkward.
This is exacerbated by the fact that I don't really care for stealth gameplay, so I'm not quite engaged enough to completely overlook the blandness and blockiness of the environments. That being said, I don't mind the shooting and exploration portions so much, I just wish the resources management wasn't so strict. Your superiors at the UN literally punish you for taking the direct approach. After shooting my way through the first mission, the quartermaster refused to give me more ammo due to my body count. I guess I could be using nonlethal methods, but dart gun and stun baton ammo are even scarcer than that for lethal weapons.
I suppose how you approach the missions does affect the tenor of the story. It you're a sneaky, nonlethal type, then Deus Ex is the story of a conscientious peace officer. If you use lethal force, it's the story of a brutal authoritarian enforcer. It's not really fair, though, because the NSF terrorists are a deadly threat who wouldn't hesitate to kill me, so restraint is kind of supererogatory. Maybe the very fact that I'm present, enforcing the dictates of the UN, is a morally unjustifiable act of aggression, but the NSF is the sort of organization that takes over subway stations, lines them with explosives, and takes people hostage, so that doesn't seem very credible. I suspect it's one of those things where they steal vaccines to aid the poor, oppose the oppressive corporate oligarchy that has subverted world governments and the UN, and are also just nastily ruthless.
I certainly don't trust the shadowy government officials who are pulling my strings, or the bloodthirsty fools who take my willingness to defend myself as an endorsement of their genocidal agenda. I'm hoping there will be a branching path later on that lets me forge my own path that balances social equality with public order. Of course, I should be so lucky. I'm sure I'll be forced to make moral compromises to get to the end.
Deus Ex is a good game. You're given control of an elite cyborg operative, and sent into various wide-open levels to thwart terrorist plots. You're given a set of skills and implants, and different ways of upgrading your character lend themselves to different approaches for navigating the levels. It's a great formula, but . . .
Well, Skyrim exists. If I want to play a game that offers me incredible freedom and the ability to customize my game experience through the way I advance my character, I have options. I could be playing a game with lush and gorgeous environments, smoother and more responsive controls, and dozens more character options.
Which isn't really fair to Deus Ex, of course. If I could mentally transport myself back to the year 2000, I'd easily see what a marvel it was. I just recently got done playing some rpgs that were released at around the same time (Baldur's Gate 2 came out in the very same year) and there is no comparison. It even looks and plays well compared to Morrowind, which wouldn't come out for another two years. But it really is a victim of the curse that afflicts all early 3-d games - they're not simple enough to be timeless, and they're not detailed enough to be good. The only people who could possibly love how this game looks are those who have never been exposed to anything better.
And I'm not normally what you'd call a graphics snob. This period in graphics history is simply that awkward.
This is exacerbated by the fact that I don't really care for stealth gameplay, so I'm not quite engaged enough to completely overlook the blandness and blockiness of the environments. That being said, I don't mind the shooting and exploration portions so much, I just wish the resources management wasn't so strict. Your superiors at the UN literally punish you for taking the direct approach. After shooting my way through the first mission, the quartermaster refused to give me more ammo due to my body count. I guess I could be using nonlethal methods, but dart gun and stun baton ammo are even scarcer than that for lethal weapons.
I suppose how you approach the missions does affect the tenor of the story. It you're a sneaky, nonlethal type, then Deus Ex is the story of a conscientious peace officer. If you use lethal force, it's the story of a brutal authoritarian enforcer. It's not really fair, though, because the NSF terrorists are a deadly threat who wouldn't hesitate to kill me, so restraint is kind of supererogatory. Maybe the very fact that I'm present, enforcing the dictates of the UN, is a morally unjustifiable act of aggression, but the NSF is the sort of organization that takes over subway stations, lines them with explosives, and takes people hostage, so that doesn't seem very credible. I suspect it's one of those things where they steal vaccines to aid the poor, oppose the oppressive corporate oligarchy that has subverted world governments and the UN, and are also just nastily ruthless.
I certainly don't trust the shadowy government officials who are pulling my strings, or the bloodthirsty fools who take my willingness to defend myself as an endorsement of their genocidal agenda. I'm hoping there will be a branching path later on that lets me forge my own path that balances social equality with public order. Of course, I should be so lucky. I'm sure I'll be forced to make moral compromises to get to the end.
Thursday, April 9, 2015
Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition - 2/20 hours
This game and I are not getting off to a great start. I had to use a guide to get through the tutorial. It didn't explain how to move bodies or reload guns or exit the water after swimming. I didn't learn that guns were useless against robots until I expended my only clip. Luckily, I couldn't actually die, so I was able to muddle through.
The same can not be said of the campaign mode. I wound up losing my whole first hour of progress because I forgot to save. Deus Ex does not do autosaves. That's going to take some getting used to. There are a lot of similar little quality-of life-features that I wish were included. There's no minimap, and I really wish for context sensitive action buttons (I wound up shooting at least two friendly npcs that I wanted to talk to). There's also no objective markers, which is kind of a huge deal for me. I need to know where to go next. Wandering around aimlessly while I search for the particular location, item, or npc that will trigger the continuation of the game is one of my least favorite activities in gaming (off the top of my head, only escort mission rank lower). It's not a guaranteed disaster, of course. Level design and strong direction can make up for a lot.
I suppose it all comes with the territory. Deus Ex is an old-school game. It does not have the advantage of the last fifteen years of game design innovation and refinement. Yet I shouldn't view its age purely as a liability. While it may lack the polish of a modern game, it is likely also unburdened by the homogenous conservatism that can take hold of a solidifying genre. It will almost certainly attempt things that later games wouldn't dare, because "it doesn't know better." I'm sure that if I stick with it, I'll learn why this game has such a strong reputation.
The story thus far is minimal. Due to playing it twice, I have just now finished the opening mission. Terrorists have taken over the crumbling ruins of the Statue of Liberty (could this be a metaphor . . . nah), and the main character JC Denton, is an advanced cyborg who is used by the UN to enforce public order. Whether that's the right thing to do or not is up in the air, seeing as how the terrorists were stealing an important vaccine to distribute to the poor and disadvantaged (and according to the opening cinematic, the world of Deus Ex is inhabited by shadowy cabals who are not above exploiting, or engineering, a deadly plague and subsequent vaccine shortage to consolidate their hold on political power). I expect this means that JC is going to be thrust into a world of conflicting loyalties where the promise of technology is contrasted against its peril, and the tyranny of power is opposed only by the danger of anarchy.
Which sounds interesting enough, if I can actually survive the shooting and the stealth mechanics with my sanity intact.
The same can not be said of the campaign mode. I wound up losing my whole first hour of progress because I forgot to save. Deus Ex does not do autosaves. That's going to take some getting used to. There are a lot of similar little quality-of life-features that I wish were included. There's no minimap, and I really wish for context sensitive action buttons (I wound up shooting at least two friendly npcs that I wanted to talk to). There's also no objective markers, which is kind of a huge deal for me. I need to know where to go next. Wandering around aimlessly while I search for the particular location, item, or npc that will trigger the continuation of the game is one of my least favorite activities in gaming (off the top of my head, only escort mission rank lower). It's not a guaranteed disaster, of course. Level design and strong direction can make up for a lot.
I suppose it all comes with the territory. Deus Ex is an old-school game. It does not have the advantage of the last fifteen years of game design innovation and refinement. Yet I shouldn't view its age purely as a liability. While it may lack the polish of a modern game, it is likely also unburdened by the homogenous conservatism that can take hold of a solidifying genre. It will almost certainly attempt things that later games wouldn't dare, because "it doesn't know better." I'm sure that if I stick with it, I'll learn why this game has such a strong reputation.
The story thus far is minimal. Due to playing it twice, I have just now finished the opening mission. Terrorists have taken over the crumbling ruins of the Statue of Liberty (could this be a metaphor . . . nah), and the main character JC Denton, is an advanced cyborg who is used by the UN to enforce public order. Whether that's the right thing to do or not is up in the air, seeing as how the terrorists were stealing an important vaccine to distribute to the poor and disadvantaged (and according to the opening cinematic, the world of Deus Ex is inhabited by shadowy cabals who are not above exploiting, or engineering, a deadly plague and subsequent vaccine shortage to consolidate their hold on political power). I expect this means that JC is going to be thrust into a world of conflicting loyalties where the promise of technology is contrasted against its peril, and the tyranny of power is opposed only by the danger of anarchy.
Which sounds interesting enough, if I can actually survive the shooting and the stealth mechanics with my sanity intact.
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition - Initial Thoughts
About the Game (From the Steam Store Page)
The year is 2052 and the world is a dangerous and chaotic place. Terrorists operate openly - killing thousands; drugs, disease and pollution kill even more. The world's economies are close to collapse and the gap between the insanely wealthy and the desperately poor grows ever wider. Worst of all, an ages old conspiracy bent on world domination has decided that the time is right to emerge from the shadows and take control.
Key Features:
Real role-playing from an immersive 3D, first-person perspective. The game includes action, character interaction and problem solving.
Realistic, recognizable locations. Many of the locations are built from actual blueprints of real places set in a near future scenario.
A game filled with people rather than monsters. This creates empathy with the game characters and enhances the realism of the game world.
Rich character development systems: Skills, augmentations, weapon and item selections and multiple solutions to problems ensure that no two players will end the game with similar characters.
Multiple solutions to problems and character development choices ensure a varied game experience. Talk, fight or use skills to get past obstacles as the game adapts itself to your style of play.
Strong storyline: Built on "real" conspiracy theories, current events and expected advancements in technology. If it's in the game, someone, somewhere believes.
Previous Playtime
0 hours
What Was I Thinking When I Bought This
A long time ago, I want to say about ten years, I played a demo of this game. I liked it, but didn't particularly feel the urge to track down the full game. Since then, I've heard the title Deus Ex bandied about as a serious contender for the best rpg of all time. My curiosity was piqued, so when I saw I could buy it for less than five bucks, I figured it was worth a try.
Expectations and Prior Experience
I've played the aforementioned demo, but that was ten years ago and I don't remember much of it. More recently, I played Deus Ex: Human Revolution on the console, but I didn't finish it because stealth games frustrate the hell out of me. I worry that an old-school stealth game will be even worse, but that fear isn't based on anything concrete. By all accounts the original Deus Ex is more open-ended than any of the sequels, so presumably I should be able to find a character build that plays to my strengths.
My real concern is that, with this game, I'll have played three story-driven rpgs in a row, and if I don't finish the entire main story, I'll seem overly feckless. I'm probably being too sensitive, though.
The year is 2052 and the world is a dangerous and chaotic place. Terrorists operate openly - killing thousands; drugs, disease and pollution kill even more. The world's economies are close to collapse and the gap between the insanely wealthy and the desperately poor grows ever wider. Worst of all, an ages old conspiracy bent on world domination has decided that the time is right to emerge from the shadows and take control.
Key Features:
Real role-playing from an immersive 3D, first-person perspective. The game includes action, character interaction and problem solving.
Realistic, recognizable locations. Many of the locations are built from actual blueprints of real places set in a near future scenario.
A game filled with people rather than monsters. This creates empathy with the game characters and enhances the realism of the game world.
Rich character development systems: Skills, augmentations, weapon and item selections and multiple solutions to problems ensure that no two players will end the game with similar characters.
Multiple solutions to problems and character development choices ensure a varied game experience. Talk, fight or use skills to get past obstacles as the game adapts itself to your style of play.
Strong storyline: Built on "real" conspiracy theories, current events and expected advancements in technology. If it's in the game, someone, somewhere believes.
Previous Playtime
0 hours
What Was I Thinking When I Bought This
A long time ago, I want to say about ten years, I played a demo of this game. I liked it, but didn't particularly feel the urge to track down the full game. Since then, I've heard the title Deus Ex bandied about as a serious contender for the best rpg of all time. My curiosity was piqued, so when I saw I could buy it for less than five bucks, I figured it was worth a try.
Expectations and Prior Experience
I've played the aforementioned demo, but that was ten years ago and I don't remember much of it. More recently, I played Deus Ex: Human Revolution on the console, but I didn't finish it because stealth games frustrate the hell out of me. I worry that an old-school stealth game will be even worse, but that fear isn't based on anything concrete. By all accounts the original Deus Ex is more open-ended than any of the sequels, so presumably I should be able to find a character build that plays to my strengths.
My real concern is that, with this game, I'll have played three story-driven rpgs in a row, and if I don't finish the entire main story, I'll seem overly feckless. I'm probably being too sensitive, though.
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