Just finished playing through Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Terrific game.

Very faithful prequel to the original Deus Ex.  Not a disappointing pile of crap like Invisible War was.

There were certainly some changes…  Some simplifications.  There were no skills to train, just augmentations.  And you didn’t have different types of ammo to choose between.  And you could, eventually, get every single augmentation in the game.  And there wasn’t really any location-based damage like in the original.

But, at the same time, they didn’t do anything horrific like making all the weapons use the same kind of ammo; or reducing the entire inventory system to a single hotbar.

Good storyline, great graphics, good gameplay…  Really solid game, all-around.

I was a little disappointed that I never really got to hack any of those big ol’ box robots.  Yes, there was one towards the end.  Might have been another couple somewhere that I missed.  But I wound up feeling like putting all those points into hacking was somewhat wasteful.  Not that it really mattered, since I was able to get other augs as well…  But I really would have liked to be able to use robots as more of a weapon, rather than the occasional parlor trick.

The amber hue to everything got a little repetitive.  I mean, I understand what they were going for…  Kind of sets the tone, gives you a unique visual style.  And it was broken up occasionally in very striking ways.  But, for the most part, everything was amber.  And that got to be a little much.

I also thought it was a little strange that the game world appeared to have more sophisticated technology than we saw in the original game – while the original was supposed to take place at a later date.  Obviously the game engine in this title is more powerful, can do cooler things…  But I’m not really talking about making things look shiny and new.  I’m talking about the technology itself.  Like Malik’s VTOL jet-thing, as opposed to Jock’s black helicopter.

And I was also disappoint that there was no “oh shit” moment, like in the first game – when you find out you’ve been working for the badguys.  Or, maybe there is, and I somehow missed it with the choices I was making…  But I was really waiting for it to happen.  Waiting for Sarif to suddenly turn out to be Illuminati, or something.  And that just didn’t happen.

But, aside from those trivial complaints, it was an amazingly solid game.  A more faithful sequel/prequel to Deus Ex than I thought I’d ever see.  I really didn’t think a game studio would produce something like that these days.  And it took me over 20 hours to finish – a nearly unheard-of amount of gameplay these days.

You do get choices in DX:HR.  You can build you character to be a straight-up walking tank…  You can go for the stealthy approach…  You can focus on hacking…  You have to pick which weapons to haul around – choosing whether to go for raw firepower, or stealth, or non-lethal alternatives…

And, to a large degree, those various options are all viable.  By emphasizing stealth, you can bypass a lot of enemies and get through a mission without firing a single shot.  By emphasizing hacking, you can gather a lot of additional information and resources, and you can turn various robots and turrets against your enemies.

But then you get to the boss battles…

There was one guy, early in the game, that I talked out of fighting.  He probably could have been a boss battle if I’d gone in that direction.  But then I ran into the guy with the gun-arm…  And the invisible lady…  And neither one of them wanted to talk.  Nor was there really a whole lot my hacking or stealth skills could do for me.  Both of those fights took place, basically, in a sealed box.

I didn’t have too much trouble with that first fight – the one featured in this strip.  I lobbed an EMP grenade at the guy and then emptied all my combat rifle ammo into him.

That second fight, with the invisible lady, was horrible.  I’d had more time to specialize in hacking and stealth, and had bypassed most of the combat in the game.  I was not built for a straight-up firefight.  And I, as a player, wasn’t sure how to deal with a straight-up firefight.  I must’ve died about 12 times in that one fight alone.

Stumbled across a teaser video for Deus Ex: Human Revolution.  Looks awesome…  But Invisible War left a really bad taste in my mouth.  I really wonder if the gaming industry is even capable of making a game worthy of the name Deus Ex anymore.

I know I was just complaining that Invisible War went a little too far in letting the player choose to do whatever they want, but I wish the original Deus Ex had taken it a little further…

I’ve been making some different choices this time around, doing things that I haven’t done before.  I thought it would be interesting, mix up the gameplay a bit.  Unfortunately, my choices really haven’t had any impact on the storyline.

Rather than let execute the guy on the 747, or stand aside while Navarra killed him, I killed her first.  There were a few different conversations…  Talk of covering up what I did…  And then the storyline rolled right along pretty much the same way it did before.  Obviously she wasn’t there to arrest me at the train station later…but I still got picked up by Herman.  I thought maybe I should have been arrested sooner, skipped ahead to the MJ12 prison early.  But it really didn’t do anything to the storyline.

I also saved Paul when his killswitch was activated.  At his apartment, when he tells  you to run for it, I hung around.  A couple Men In Black and a bunch of UNATCO soldiers broke down the door, I fought them off, and Paul escaped.  But that didn’t matter either, since he later turned up dead in the MJ12 labs anyway.  Which is really odd since he makes an appearance in Invisible War…  I’m not sure how that works.

I’m still really enjoying myself…  And some of my choices have a dramatic impact on gameplay – for example, I snuck into the MJ12 labs in Tokyo without having to kill a single person while I went in with guns blazing last time.  But I wish some of the more momentous choices like whether I kill Navarra or not would actually change the storyline.

So, obviously, Deus Ex isn’t perfect. I’ve been having a lot of fun playing it…but last night I ran up against one of my major annoyances – keys & codes. There are tons of locked doors throughout the game which can be opened once you find the right code to type in or the right key to use. The problem is that the game doesn’t really remember any of that for you.

Sure… You’ve got your keyring full of keys and all you have to do is try to use it on the door to find out if you’ve got the right one – but why couldn’t the game just assume that you do that and automatically unlock the door?

Even more annoying are the many, many numeric codes you use throughout the game. Important information is recorded in your notebook, but it isn’t automatically retrieved when it becomes relevant. So if you stumble across a locked door with a numeric keypad next to it, you have to open up your notebook and scroll through all the information in there looking for something that looks like the right code. Why couldn’t the game just assume that you do that and either automatically unlock the door, or display the proper code automatically for you?

I’m not suggesting that the doors all be unlocked… Obviously you’d still have to locate the right key or code… But why doesn’t the game make things a little easier for you? Invisible War takes that approach – automatically enters the codes for you – which is one of the very few things that it got right.

For the most part this isn’t a huge issue… But I just finished up in the VersaLife labs in Tokyo – with all their codes, locks, and computer terminals. I wound up with a whole 8.5×11″ sheet of paper full of numbers and logins after my VersaLife expedition. I really don’t think that you should need to keep a notebook on hand when playing a game – it kind of distracts from the gameplay.

So, having finished Invisible War, I was left feeling fairly unsatisfied with the experience…  I was really looking for another trip through Deus Ex, and Invisible War just did not deliver.  So I’ve installed the original Deus Ex again, and spent most of the weekend playing it.

I was immediately by how much better the original is…  Sure, the graphics are pretty dated now.  The characters are so low-poly that it looks like you could cut yourself on them.  But the gameplay is worlds better.  The setting is so much more rich and vibrant than in Invisible War…  You see random people on the street, overhear conversations, can interfere in family problems.  There are bars, and sports goods stores, and restaurants to explore.  It really feels like you’re wandered into some kind of gritty sci-fi noir setting…something like Blade Runner.

I’m also really enjoying the different skills and tactics and varied approaches you can use in completing the objectives.  I’ve been putting a lot of emphasis into a more covert approach…  Lots of points going into hacking and bypassing locks of all sorts…  Crawling through ventilation ducts, sniping people from rooftops, bypassing security…  All the stuff that I wanted to do in Invisible War, but wasn’t really given the opportunity to do.

Another thing that really stands out is the storyline.  Invisible War put a lot of emphasis on what they called “emergent gameplay”.  Basically, what that means is that they don’t steer you in any particular direction.  There are no real badguys, no real goodguys, you can side with whoever you want.  The problem is that they tried so hard to avoid creating villains that you never really had a good reason to side with anyone.  In Deus Ex there really are bad guys, and when you suddenly discover that you’ve been working for them it is a real surprise.

So, while I am thoroughly enjoying Deus Ex again, I’m starting to realize just how bad a sequel Invisible War was.  I wonder if there’s any chance for a Deus Ex 3 that’d be more true to the original…or if the sequel just nailed that coffin shut?

Well, Invisible War ended just about the way I thought it would.  Showed up back on Liberty Island and all three sides wanted me to win the war for them.

The Dentons wanted me to bring about their vision of a “perfect democracy” – every person biomodded until they all had identical capabilities, nobody stronger or smarter than anyone else.  And everyone tied into Helios so their thoughts/opinions could instantly be processed into rules/regulations/laws.  No thanks.

The Illuminati wanted me to give them the secret of the Dentons’ biomod technology, so they could empower a few chosen people to rule over the rest of the world.  No thanks.

The Templars wanted me to work with them to develop a biomod predator of some sort, to destroy all biomodification in the world and restore everything to “normal”.  Again, no thanks.

I was trying to figure out which of these undesirable choices I was going to pick when Leo contacted me with a new plan – kill them all.  Wipe out all three parties and let the world figure itself out.  So that’s exactly what I did.  I killed off the Dentons, killed off the Illuminati, killed off the Templars…and apparently kicked off a global disaster far worse than the Collapse that JC caused.  Looks like I plunged the world into one hell of a long war that ultimately resulted in the extinction of humankind as we know it – with only the Omar remaining.

It wasn’t exactly the outcome that I expected…  I didn’t realize the Omar would wind up taking over the world…  But it isn’t like there was any other outcome possible, I just hurried things along a bit.  With their group mind and extensive biomodding the Omar are just plain superior to the rest of humanity.  It was only a matter of time before they took over.

Invisible War was fun…  It was a good waste of time…  But ultimately I’m not very impressed with it.  I really wanted something more like Deus Ex, and Invisible War is just plain too watered down.  A lot of the things that made Deus Ex so good are just plain gone.  So I’ve still got a hankering for some Deus Ex…  I’m going to have to see if I can locate my discs and load it up.