Author Topic: Deus Ex Mankind Divided -- Welcome to City 17  (Read 4471 times)

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Offline Dragon

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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.
I read somewhere (possibly on TVTropes) that this was only a display bug, it wouldn't actually screw up your pacifist run. It could certainly make you think that it did, though.

 

Offline StarSlayer

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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.

Interesting I wonder if we will get another Director's Cut where Eidos gets a chance to fix everything I'm certainly happy to wait for one like I did with HR if it comes done the pipe.
“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
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.

Man, I totally forgot to write about why things mentioned in the spoiler don't work.

Spoiler:
My main objection to the whole "Augmented as metaphors for victims of racism" thing is that most augmented people chose to be augmented (unless the DXHR universe is a place where industrial accidents are a common occurrence). Yes, there has been a horrific incident which explains the distrust for augs. Yes, it is understandable that the general public and the police treat augs with suspicion. In that vein, it is even understandable that the cops are asking for your papers every chance they get.
What is not understandable is benches in public places labelled "Naturals only!". Or subway stations being (very flimsily) segregated between areas for augs and areas for naturals. Those are things that take this from a decent-ish comment about distrust against people springing up in response to terrorism (like distrust against muslims in today's world) to a comment about segregation between races in 1950s America. It's storytelling with a sledgehammer instead of a scalpel, and DX is the kind of game where we expect scalpels.
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 Luis Dias

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Re: Deus Ex Mankind Divided -- Welcome to City 17
I never expect scalpels from videogames.

Sorry, we're just not there yet.

  

Offline 0rph3u5

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Re: Deus Ex Mankind Divided -- Welcome to City 17
Just finished myself... (and it is one more of the "I dosed, tasered and beat people but killed no one"-category - I managed the "Pacifist"-achievement on "Give me Deus Ex"-difficulty)

I can only second what The E has said; Mankind Divided is clearly set-up as a 2nd of 3

Spoiler:
the mid-credits scene basically ellaborates on the "full stop" the game does and sets-up a sequel; basically doing a "Next Time on Deus Ex: Adam Jensen Stories"...



Man, I totally forgot to write about why things mentioned in the spoiler don't work.

Spoiler:
My main objection to the whole "Augmented as metaphors for victims of racism" thing is that most augmented people chose to be augmented (unless the DXHR universe is a place where industrial accidents are a common occurrence). Yes, there has been a horrific incident which explains the distrust for augs

Spoiler:
To be fair, since Human Revolution they have been hammering -metaphorically- the point that people in their world got augmented because of job market pressures and if you go around in the side stories there are a lot of these quietly mixed in the world (remember the side stroy of DX:HR in Hengsha where you had to extort a Social Enhancer for the Tongs? The woman who had it justified getting the aug and loan which got her in with organized crime because she could otherwise not compete in her field as a glorified sales clerk)

... but yeah the leap is too big for the universe they have set-up



On another note, I noticed that I was quietly following the Aug-lines and Aug-train rules about three-four houres in -basically 2nd time you return to the Prague Hub- because I didn't want to get stopped again and again... Anyone else doing that? - Wonder if that just me being efficent in a game (esspecially since said game has severe frame rate drops and loading times on my rather-old hardware) or hinting a deeper weakness of my character...
« Last Edit: September 10, 2016, 07:22:30 pm by 0rph3u5 »
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