The Human revolution thread, now with 233213% more spoilers

[kdawg88]

Regarding the in-game ads, I'd like to compare this to Blade Runner. The ads in that film have actually become (if they weren't already at release) a note on commercialism and materialism that fits in brilliantly with the rest of the film. This will only grow as the advertising in the film becomes more and more outdated. DX3 is not as good as Blade Runner, I'll say that now, but maybe the same thing will happen with DX3.

[Jonas]

It feels as if they replaced the hardcore political revolutionaries with a bunch of greenpeace activists.

Uh, well they do kind of attack a factory, take a bunch of hostages, and plant a bomb there. Sure they don't have the European coolness of Silhouette, but even Silhouette was pretty damn toothless in the original game as you may recall. Chad Dumier was a lot more bark than bite.

And where are my GK Chesterton quotes? Or my political and philosophical debates. Everything in the game amounts to you pressing one of 4 buttons.

Yeah the implementation of the endings was pretty weak, and I will admit I was slightly disappointed when the bartender in The Hive just gave me a side mission instead of indulging in a long-winded sociopolitical debate with me.

And Panchea? On fucking Antarctica? Sounds like a cliche.

...as opposed to Area 51? By the way, Panchaea is described as an "Arctic" station, which would indicate that it's in... well, in the Arctic, not the Antarctic (difference being that the Arctic is on the opposite side of the world). This may just be an oversight though. Do we know if DXHR takes place when it's summer or when it's winter in Detroit? If it's summer, it must be the Arctic, if it's winter it must be Antarctica.

The bossfights were simple enought, with the third involving me sitting behind cover the game conveniently places you next to after ANOTHER CUTSCENE. Just a few Stun gun, explosive revolver shots and a couple of combate rifle clips and it's done.

Yeah, but that's because the combat rifle and the explosive revolver shots are the most effective weapons in the game.

Jaedar already spoke about walking back and forth in heng Sha, add to that there are only a few proper interactable items, vents, crates, bins and freezers/fridges and vending machines being the only ones I can think of.

Also photocopiers, dumpsters, desk drawers, safes, toilets, water taps, shower faucets, at least one basket ball, and of course computers, e-books, personal secretaries, and newspapers. There was a lot of environmental stuff in DXHR that wasn't interactive, but bear in mind there was generally just a shitload more objects in DXHR than in DX1. Also the physics in DXHR are significantly better than in DX1, so imagine if every object in the game was fully physics enabled and I'd guarantee you 1) it would be a total clusterfuck to interact with anything without sending 10 other objects flying, rolling, or bouncing around the room, and 2) your processor would not be happy.

[Jaedar]

Also photocopiers, dumpsters, desk drawers, safes, toilets, water taps, shower faucets, at least one basket ball, and of course computers, e-books, personal secretaries, and newspapers. There was a lot of environmental stuff in DXHR that wasn't interactive, but bear in mind there was generally just a shitload more objects in DXHR than in DX1. Also the physics in DXHR are significantly better than in DX1, so imagine if every object in the game was fully physics enabled and I'd guarantee you 1) it would be a total clusterfuck to interact with anything without sending 10 other objects flying, rolling, or bouncing around the room, and 2) your processor would not be happy.

I find the environment to be too cluttered actually. Had to turn on object highlighting because I couldn't see the pickups for all the clutter, also to see the destructible walls.

Oh and would someone please explain that Hyron thing to me? It seemed to come out of nowhere with a full shipload of derp.

[Jonas]

Never fully got what Hyron was about, but... Panchaea needed an extremely advanced computer system to control the various pressure relief systems of the station as it descended... I guess, to the bottom of the ocean, or something. Something about the ocean constantly shifting around the station requiring a myriad little tweaks and adjustments all of the time to prevent the station from buckling and collapsing. I guess AI technology wasn't super well developed yet, so for some reason they needed people to merge with the computer using an unpleasantly literal human-computer interface. Why did it have to be women? Because SEXISM, that's why. Or tradition. Fucked if I know.

Anyway Hugh Darrow had this complicated semi-AI control system at his disposal, and he needed some way to transmit the insanity-inducing signal to all the augmented people in the world, so I guess he just decided Hyron would do the job. Enter the Dragon Lady of TYM. She already had a shitload of power, but I guess you can never have enough power, so she decided hey - Darrow has rendered this Hyron system capable of controlling everybody in the world with augs, and it just so happens to have an HCI tailored for women (yay sexism!) so why don't I just fucking merge with it and gain control of all mechanically augmented people in the world MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHetc.

That's the best I can do for an interpretation, but I admit I was busier figuring out what the fuck I had to do to win the fight than listening to her monologueing, so I missed most of what she was saying. Also I'm pretty sure I hacked every PC on Panchaea, but I never really found a useful explanation for why it had to run on women, not sure if such information wasn't actually given or if I just missed it somehow. Maybe somebody more observant than I will help fill in the blanks.

[Jaedar]

That's the best I can do for an interpretation, but I admit I was busier figuring out what the fuck I had to do to win the fight than listening to her monologueing, so I missed most of what she was saying.

I was p tired when I got to the fight, so I kinda just went on autopilot with my snazzy plasma rifle.

[Xesum]

Women can multitask, it's like having multi-core processors.

[nerdenstein]

Women can multitask, it's like having multi-core processors.

yay sexism!

[Jonas]

I was p tired when I got to the fight, so I kinda just went on autopilot with my snazzy plasma rifle.

I'm actually surprisingly annoyed with that plasma rifle. I can live with the laser rifle because it fills a role unserved by any other weapon in the game (that of a constant-beam weapon) and it seems modestly applicable at best, I could see how it might be an experimental thing that would be rejected and disappear into obscurity by the time of Deus Ex. But the plasma rifle not only seemed about as useless as the plasma rifle in Deus Ex, it also seemed sort of common! Of all the little continuity issues between DXHR and DX1, that was the only one that really bothered me. The plasma rifle in DX1 is specifically introduced as an experimental weapon found in a display case in a secret lab, how the fuck can that be if it not only existed but was in wide-spread use 25 years earlier?

[Jaedar]

I was p tired when I got to the fight, so I kinda just went on autopilot with my snazzy plasma rifle.

I'm actually surprisingly annoyed with that plasma rifle. I can live with the laser rifle because it fills a role unserved by any other weapon in the game (that of a constant-beam weapon) and it seems modestly applicable at best, I could see how it might be an experimental thing that would be rejected and disappear into obscurity by the time of Deus Ex. But the plasma rifle not only seemed about as useless as the plasma rifle in Deus Ex, it also seemed sort of common! Of all the little continuity issues between DXHR and DX1, that was the only one that really bothered me. The plasma rifle in DX1 is specifically introduced as an experimental weapon found in a display case in a secret lab, how the fuck can that be if it not only existed but was in wide-spread use 25 years earlier?

Think its different kind of plasma if you read the weapon descriptions, like one is HR plasma in the sense that it fires some heated projectile and the DX is proper plasma being fired.

[Jonas]

Hmm! ...well that might excuse it then. I shall have to take that up for consideration

[shadowblade34]

Haha, I've been getting lots of messages on Steam asking me why I don't like DXHR.

I like it, for a game made recently, but it doesn't have a similar atmosphere like the first did, and I would have rather liked political conspiracies, inbolving world governments and philosophy, conversation with people aboutfree markets, the Illuminati,, control over people, politics. But that's just me.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but the NPC's don't comment on your actions like taking stuff from tables or throwing them around the room, or just being stupid. For example, after I met Tong in the basement (I knew exactly who he was even before the conversation with him in the bar). After the I spoke to him, the first thing I did was quicksave, and unload 3 pistol clips into his head, just to see what would happen. Nothing, no comments, he just sat there.

Jonas has informed me that there are a lot of items to interact with, but it doesn't feel like it, the Detroit Hub felt great, but the Heng Sha hub was cluttered with not many items to actually use, and having to walk back and forth through districts all the time.

The endings somehow felt as though everything you did just didn't matter anymore, and it didn't feel as 'epic' as the first, with different people urging you to do all these different things each one requiring deep thought.

Also, one thing that pissed me off, I don't think any of you have touched on this, Morpheus in DX1, is a prototype of a much larger system, and Eliza Cassan (who I guessed was AI when you see her hologram), seems much more advanced than Morpheus.

Finally Jonas, you like that the lasers turn off when dragging guards bodies through them, or guards walking through? Splinter Cell Chaos Theory did that, as did Double Agent and Splinter Cell Conviction.

All in all, when compared to the first, I would give it a 7.5/10, but as a standalone game, if DX1 had never been released, 9/10.

[mqduck]

As usual, I'm joining the thread late.

There's a few games where I'll be very selective and strategic with choices like augs. Not far in, I have everything I want, and I end up installing the spy-bot aug equivalent.

Seriously, even on esoteric Deus Ex forums, people think the spy bot is useless. Even in guides, they claim the spy bot is useless! It's a lie. The spy bot is perhaps the best aug there is. Fully upgraded, it can disable *any* robot in one hit. Just hide behind a wall, send your spy bot out halfway across the map to the big scary robot, EMP its ass, you're done!

I'm actually surprisingly annoyed with that plasma rifle. I can live with the laser rifle because it fills a role unserved by any other weapon in the game (that of a constant-beam weapon) and it seems modestly applicable at best, I could see how it might be an experimental thing that would be rejected and disappear into obscurity by the time of Deus Ex. But the plasma rifle not only seemed about as useless as the plasma rifle in Deus Ex

I found the plasma rifle very effective at destroying the turrets in the last boss battle.

All in all, I agree with the various criticisms people have. The worst, most un-Deus Exy part of Human Revolution is the boss battles. In the Deus Ex, there were only three in a much longer game and, like everything else, they could be done multiple ways, including ways that involve no fighting at all. They were also short and pretty easy if you wanted to engage in them head-on. In contrast, Human Revolution has these big, brutal, *tedious* boss battles that belong to the kind of ancient FPSs that Deus Ex helped make extinct.

[Dragon]

No need for weapons for the turrets. If I'm not mistaken you just have to use the button on one of the pods and the turrets go offline. At last this happened to me. The security bots are something else but you have PCs to hack them to hell. This is sort of quite a huge reference to Shodan somehow. The second boss battle I could not shake off the feeling as them having copied the SS2 end-boss battle area (just without the security panels to hack).

[Xesum]

Or just the security console on the wall facing Zhao and enter the code 2012

[shadowblade34]

No need for weapons for the turrets. If I'm not mistaken you just have to use the button on one of the pods and the turrets go offline. At last this happened to me. The security bots are something else but you have PCs to hack them to hell. This is sort of quite a huge reference to Shodan somehow. The second boss battle I could not shake off the feeling as them having copied the SS2 end-boss battle area (just without the security panels to hack).

All the way through that last boss battle it felt like SS2 and fighting Shodan.