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.

The plot is finally starting to come together in Invisible War…  I stumbled across the Illuminati, and met JC Denton.  Wound up facing off with one of the other Tarsus students in a battle to save JC Denton’s life…

I guess that was supposed to be fairly climactic – facing off with one of your old school chums with the fate of the world in the balance.  But really, I had an easier time killing her than all the other guards I’ve been mowing down.  Not to say that the fight was easy – she had a lot of backup along with her – but I had fewer qualms about killing her.  I’ve been using the tranq gun on everyone I can…but I didn’t bother with her.

She gives a big speech about how you’ve never had to fight a friend before…  But the last time I spoke to her was back in Cairo.  She hasn’t really been developed into a terribly interesting character.  I really didn’t feel any kind of bond to her at all…

So JC wants to create some kind of “perfect democracy”…  I guess we’re supposed to sympathize with his goals since he was the hero of Deus Ex, but I’m not sure that I like his plan.  Sure, it sounds nice on paper…  But what if you don’t want to be part of this perfect democracy?  What if you don’t want Helios listening in on your every thought?  What if you don’t want to be completely equal to everyone else – not outstanding in any way, shape, or form?  He doesn’t seem to have any allowances for individuality…

I can guess how this is going to end…  When I get to Liberty Island all three factions are going to want me to advance their agenda.  JC will want me to somehow trigger his Perfect Democracy, the Templars will want me to kill JC and destroy all nanotechnology, and the Illuminati will want me to give them JC’s secret nanotechnology so they can use it to take over the world.  Frankly, none of those choices sound all that appealing…

I’ve been playing Deus Ex: Invisible War over the last few days…  My PC is still having issues.  I can’t run both Ventrilo and WoW at the same time.  None of the Orange Box games will run for more than about 10 minutes.  So I dusted off my old copy of Invisible War and decided to give it another try.

Back when it first came out I really didn’t play for long.  The demo didn’t like my computer at all at the time – very sluggish, glitchy, crashed a lot.  The storyline didn’t really catch my attention, the game mechanics were a little too console-y, and I had other things to play.  I didn’t make it much beyond the opening levels at the Tarsus Academy.  Well, my computer has been upgraded since then, so it runs much better – and I don’t really have much else to play right now…

I have to say that the storyline is considerably better than I expected it to be.  I never really experienced much of the story before, just a bit at the very beginning.  They certainly don’t start you off too well…  As soon as you get out of the Academy you’ve got a half-dozen people all asking you to do various things, and no real reason to listen to any of them.  Nobody presents a very good argument at all.  I wound up simply picking missions at random – basically doing whatever was closest to my current location.  Eventually though, the plot starts to unfold.  You start hearing more about the Dentons, learning more about the WTO and the Order.  I still haven’t played very far, but there’s some fairly juicy hints at conspiracy.

I’m pretty annoyed at how vague and direction less everything seems though, even now that I’ve gotten out of Seattle.   Nobody is really presenting a good reason why I should do what they want me to.  Everything seems mutually exclusive…one side wants me to kill someone, the other wants me to keep them alive…  But they’re all very forgiving – betray The Order in Seattle?  No Problem, they’ll let you make it up to them in Cairo.  It’s also frequently unclear who you’re working for or what the repercussions will be.  I got an Omar trader killed because I talked to a holographic pop singer.

The interface is still too simple and console-y for my tastes, especially after playing some of the stuff in the Orange Box so recently.  All the weapons take the same ammunition, and reload instantaneously.  The inventory is way too small…  I can’t carry half of what I want to.  And I don’t seem to have the same variety of customization options for the weapons.  I’d really like to put a scope on my mag rail, but that doesn’t seem to be possible.  Nor does it seem to be possible to silence my sniper rifle.  And it seems that the entire interface was designed with a console gamepad in mind…  You really can’t use the mouse for anything beyond aiming and shooting.

I’m also slightly annoyed with how narrow the scope of the gameplay seems to be…  In the original Deus Ex you really could play in virtually any way you wanted to.  It was genuinely possible to choose the right combination of mods and skills to facilitate whatever play style you wanted.  You could sneak around and stealthily assassinate people, you could hack computer systems, you could mow everyone down…  Whatever you liked.  Invisible War seems to have eliminated a lot of the possibilities.  The selection of mods is fairly unimpressive – there just isn’t that much variety to them.  I’ve got two mod slots completely empty simply because there isn’t anything interesting to put in them.  Stealth still works…mostly…but hacking seems borderline useless.  There’s precious little you can do from a hacked terminal, and you aren’t allowed to hack personal computers, and most of the terminals are placed such that it’s virtually impossible to get to them undetected.

I think the most annoying thing about Invisible War is the constant loading screens.  The world is broken up into dozens of small areas, each one requiring a loading screen prefaced by an “are you sure?” prompt.  I understand the need to swap level information in and out of memory…  Especially considering how detailed some of the environments are…  But it’s really very disruptive.  It seems like every door I click on results in “do you want to leave the area?” and a loading screen.

Still, it’s fun to be back in the world of Deus Ex, or at least something similar to it…  I’ve always enjoyed gritty cyberpunk noir settings, and there’s precious few of them in video games.