Author Topic: Deus Ex Mankind Divided -- Welcome to City 17  (Read 4491 times)

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Offline The E

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Deus Ex Mankind Divided -- Welcome to City 17
(For reference)

It's out! It's great (based on the 90 minutes I've played it)! More comments to follow.
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I really need lifе to touch me
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Offline 0rph3u5

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Re: Deus Ex Mankind Divided -- Welcome to City 17
From what I heard it is quite top-heavy with exposition, can you confirm that?
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

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Offline StarSlayer

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Re: Deus Ex Mankind Divided -- Welcome to City 17

I never asked for this
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Offline The E

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Re: Deus Ex Mankind Divided -- Welcome to City 17
From what I heard it is quite top-heavy with exposition, can you confirm that?

It kinda is, yes. There's some really bad clunkiness in some of the introductions to characters Jensen knows that we do not; this is however not out of the ordinary for videogames (which is no excuse, of course, but I feel like it is at least forgiveable). As I said though, I am just about 90 minutes in, and the plot has just started to get going; I'll have to see how the writing progresses as the game does.
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns

 

Offline StarSlayer

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Re: Deus Ex Mankind Divided -- Welcome to City 17
Does the DE:MD check your Human Revolution game to tailor its story? With the caveat that you probably didn't simply nuke Panchaea at the end.
“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world”

 

Offline The E

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Re: Deus Ex Mankind Divided -- Welcome to City 17
Nope. There is no savegame importing of any kind.
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns

 

Offline StarSlayer

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Re: Deus Ex Mankind Divided -- Welcome to City 17
 :(

But I spent a lot of effort making sure Malik made it out.
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Offline The E

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Re: Deus Ex Mankind Divided -- Welcome to City 17
Her absence is a major negative point for DXMD, it has to be said.
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns

 

Offline CP5670

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Re: Deus Ex Mankind Divided -- Welcome to City 17
This game is definitely on my playlist, but I never buy games on release and wait 3-6 months for all the bugs to be fixed (and a price drop). DX12 support is apparently not in the game until a patch in a few weeks.

Is the gameplay similar to HR? Does it have more interactivity such as picking up objects like the first two games did?

 

Offline The E

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Re: Deus Ex Mankind Divided -- Welcome to City 17
Gameplay is mostly identical to DXHR. There are a few tweaks, of course, due to a couple of new augments Adam never asked for, but as I haven't unlocked them yet, I shall not talk about their efficacy yet.
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns

 

Offline Dragon

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Re: Deus Ex Mankind Divided -- Welcome to City 17
I checked out Steam reviews and one thing's for certain - I'm not paying the full price for this. It seems, for example, that not only do they have a microtransactions store in-game, the DLCs (including exclusive preorder stuff!) are save-locked. I'm not usually the one to base my buying decisions on DLC policy (I simply skip the DLCs if they don't add any real content), but I feel they have gone too far this time. I might get it on a sale someday, or if it ever ends up in a bundle.

 

Offline General Battuta

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Re: Deus Ex Mankind Divided -- Welcome to City 17
How does the energy system work this time around? I was really frustrated with DXHR's "only the last pip recharges" because it felt like I couldn't really have fun with all my augs.

 

Offline The E

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Re: Deus Ex Mankind Divided -- Welcome to City 17
How does the energy system work this time around? I was really frustrated with DXHR's "only the last pip recharges" because it felt like I couldn't really have fun with all my augs.

It's a bit stupid.

You have a permanent energy reserve that will always recharge. There are also consumables, called BioCells, which will grant an extension to your overall energy capacity and will fill the energy meter up to that capacity. During gameplay, your energy will always recharge to the max, but the extra capacity granted by biocells will decay with each activation of an augment.
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns

 
Re: Deus Ex Mankind Divided -- Welcome to City 17
That sounds like exactly the old system.
The good Christian should beware of mathematicians, and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of Hell.

 

Offline The E

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Re: Deus Ex Mankind Divided -- Welcome to City 17
Not quite. The capacity decay rate is much lower, and your overall capacity seems higher.
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns

 

Offline General Battuta

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Re: Deus Ex Mankind Divided -- Welcome to City 17
Are nonlethal takedowns still quieter than lethal takedowns (which makes no damn sense)

 

Offline CP5670

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Re: Deus Ex Mankind Divided -- Welcome to City 17
I checked out Steam reviews and one thing's for certain - I'm not paying the full price for this. It seems, for example, that not only do they have a microtransactions store in-game, the DLCs (including exclusive preorder stuff!) are save-locked. I'm not usually the one to base my buying decisions on DLC policy (I simply skip the DLCs if they don't add any real content), but I feel they have gone too far this time. I might get it on a sale someday, or if it ever ends up in a bundle.

HR had quite a bit of bull**** with this too, with various preorder-only weapons and one part of the main quest entirely removed and turned into a preorder/day-0 DLC (added back in later on with the Director's Cut release). In most games, the DLC weapons are either useless or break the game balance, as the game was never designed with them in mind.

 

Offline MP-Ryan

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Re: Deus Ex Mankind Divided -- Welcome to City 17
I'll pick this up in 6-12 months when it goes on sale (massive backlog, yay).  In the meantime, do they still have Pacifist achievements, and are they still as broken as DXHR?  Nothing was as infuriating as the suddenly-dead knockout out dudes in DXHR screwing up Pacifist.

And yeah, amen to Batts' complaint about energy recharge; playing a stealth run, there were only a few very times I got a chance to really take the augs out for a spin and it was severely hampered by my desire to hoard as much energy as possible.
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Re: Deus Ex Mankind Divided -- Welcome to City 17
The ridiculous thing was that you felt compelled not to waste energy by firing augs with more than one charge, but you also had your inventory packed full of enough mars bars to armchisel your way through three levels straight by the end.
The good Christian should beware of mathematicians, and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of Hell.

 

Offline The E

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Re: Deus Ex Mankind Divided -- Welcome to City 17
Finished the game. It's still good, but there are caveats, which I will hide behind a spoiler tag.

Spoiler:
Whoever at Squenix was responsible for releasing the game as it is deserves to get punched.

No, this isn't a comment on technical quality. It isn't a comment about the writing or gameplay, both of which are at least on par with Human Revolution. It is purely a comment on the ending, which doesn't exist. The game doesn't end so much as it stops; there's no real epilogue or denouement to be had here. Once the final mission is done, all we get is a short dialogue scene, a video of Eliza Cassan spin-doctoring whatever you did. There are indications that what DXMD delivers is merely the first third of the original outline before Squenix ordered Eidos to squeeze more game out of this.

With that out of the way, I should probably also comment on the story. A big deal was made in runup to this release about the augmented as a metaphor for minorities (specifically, black minorities in the US), and that whole thing just. does. not. work.
The idea of a "mechanical apartheid" kinda works. The opening scene in Prague, where you're subject to intense law enforcement scrutiny just because you're an aug, works. The general concept of a massive distrust towards the augmented works too (the incident at the end of DXHR being responsible for a lot of very visible deaths, after all), but I am not sure just how exactly a bunch of scaffolding is supposed to stop a rampaging hanzer in a subway station.

Oh, and about the Microtransactions in singleplayer: There's no reason to ever use them. The game feeds you credits and XP at such a rate that there's really no need to ever buy yourself praxis.
« Last Edit: August 29, 2016, 03:21:00 am by The E »
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns