Depends on the map. The "hubs" are very open, with tons of sidequests and random exploration to be done. You can literally spend hours just dinking around and not get bored.fantsu wrote: How is the level design? More free or not? Good overall feeling of all the places?
The mission-specific maps are more-than-not linear, although in true Deus Ex form there are usually multiple ways around everything. Think along the lines of Area 51 or the Submarine Base, where there are some little jaunts interspersed with a few bottleneck points. There's still exploration to be done, but not nearly as much.
As to the feel... great in the hubs, decent in the mission maps. The devs were clearly paying attention to ambiance at least some of the time.
Haven't finished yet.fantsu wrote: How long the game is compared to original?
Almost all the named NPCs have some depth to them, at least enough to where you get a feel for their pesonality. You can kill innocents, or just knock 'em out, but it doesn't really seem to affect the storyline much beyond who yells at you and in what fashion. To that end, when I'm bored in one of the hubs I wind up practicing my takedown technique on the hookers. That's always funny.fantsu wrote: Any good NPCs? Can you kill innocent people? Does that affect to the storyline?
Got some surprising depth to him. Definitely has a mind of his own, rather than just being a blank slate for the player; in particular, he's kind of a dick (not unjustifiably) about certain random things, which comes across a lot in dialogue. To put it another way, whereas JC is the new guy, Jensen is experienced, jaded, and a bit cynical, again not unjustifiably so.fantsu wrote:Hows the new JC? Just an annoying kid or a man of opinions?
Some of the new augs are interesting, like the aforementioned Punch Through Walls aug. You also have an area radar, which isn't even remotely scaled right but is still very useful. In terms of items though, there are actually LESS items than in the past; don't expect to find any random soda cans to drink, for one, though some of the old favorites are back with new uses. Beer and other forms of Alcohol heal you, even past your maximum, but at the cost of making you titty much protally fit shaced for a while. BioE cells have been replaced by "energy bars", which makes no sense in effect but at the same time makes more sense when it comes to finding the damn things everywhere.fantsu wrote:Augs, items? Any nice new things?
This time around there aren't, strictly speaking, any useless weapons. There aren't any which are just plain better than others, but it may only be because of things like inventory space requirements or upgrade potential (e.g. the 10mm pistol can be silenced and the revolver cannot). As for upgrades, GOD YES can they be upgraded. Not only do weapons take multiple upgrades (as many as 5 different types for some) they also can take multiples of the same type in some cases. The expanded clip mod is probably the most useful example of this.fantsu wrote:Hows the weapons? are they on par to eachother so you can use your favorite, or are some just strictly better than others? Are weapons upgradeable?
The skill system and aug system have basically been merged into one weird hybrid system, which actually works out okay since some of the augs basically take the place of some of the old DX skills. As you gain XP you will gain what are called Praxis Points every so often. Praxis Points can then be spent to either buy new augs or upgrade existing ones. But just to make things weird, you can also buy Praxis Points from some places, or find them. Still, it's not a bad system, and is probably the best way the two systems could have been merged... not that that was necessarily a good idea.fantsu wrote:Skills, how they differ? More skills? Do you need the skills or are they just for looks? Does the experience system work like in original?
Alternatively brilliant and brain damaged. There's a good amount of randomization of AI patrol routes, not in the route they take but in the timing, i.e. they may screw around a bit at their stop, or decide to turn around for a second partway through moving, that sort of thing. They're also fairly good at finding cover and not just lining up for you to shoot in the head... sometimes. Other times they're brain-numbingly stupid. I remember one instance where I'd snuck past a room of about 5 heavily-armed guys, and worked my way around to the other side of the obvious door I could have gone through if I'd done a frontal attack. I opened the door, which made them suspicious, so while the others took cover they sent their buddy Bob in to investigate. Bob goes through the door, I lean out from the wall and sleeper-hold him into submission, then close the door and drag his body off. Then I go back, open the door, everyone takes cover while another Bob gets sent through... eventually I just had a hallway full of unconscious Bobs.fantsu wrote:Hows the AI and the combat? Any good one-liners from the enemies? Are they "human enough" or just robotic things you have to mow down?
To be fair though, that level of AI Derp is a fine DX tradition.
Not always, but sometimes. So far I've only run into it in the side missions.fantsu wrote:Any chance to change your missions or the side youre on?
Without having finished the game I can't say for certain, but there are some things you would really, really have to try hard to see the first time you visit a location.fantsu wrote:Replay value, can you see EVERYTHING when playing the game first time through, or is there small details, just like in the original, that might take years to notice?
Referencing DX1 without being lame about it. There's a really obvious bit at the beginning concerning an elevator passcode, and some subtle-but-inevitably-noticed reuses of DX1 music, but beyond that there are all these random little things that you'll catch if you're a die-hard DX player.fantsu wrote:Any other things that this game is VERY GOOD at?
The Hacking minigame is great, though some of it comes down to random chance versus skill. It's a lot more satisfying than the old "use X items to unlock this door" option.
The inventory system. It's the old DX1 grid system with some improvement (e.g. you can rotate items to fit, or even let the game manage your spacing for you) but the implementation is crap. Some items are drastically oversized from what you'd expect, weapons in particular, and others have impossibly small stack limits, i.e how many units of each you can store in the same one inventory square before new ones are placed in another square. The latter really comes into play with ammunition, which is now stored in the normal inventory grid (a good change) but in weird limits. Combat Rifle ammo is hit very hard by this, since you can only store up to 50 rounds (one fully expanded clip) in a 2x1 are. Since the Combat Rifle takes up a 4x2 area, you tend to carry maybe, maybe one other weapon with you if you don't plan on picking anything up during missions. There's also other stacking issues, like how grenades don't stack at all, but I could go on and on and on when I really ought to talk about...fantsu wrote:Any other things that this game REALLY SUCKS at?
Ammunition availability, and how little of it there is. For some weapons this makes sense, like Tranquilizer Darts being a little less common owing to a) not a lot of enemies using the weapon, and b) having the ever-present hand-to-hand takedown as an option for non-lethal incapacitation. For the others though it's just atrocious. Again, the Combat Rifle is hit particularly hard by this (you just killed 5 guys with combat rifles and netted yourself 7 bullets), but plenty of other weapons meant to be used by the Full On Frontal Assault players are negatively affected. Because of the aforementioned inventory size problems, you can't even carry 3 separate weapons to compensate, since you'll be almost completely out of inventory space at that point even with one or two inventory space expansions. There are vendors who sell ammo, but even their supplies are limited (and expensive), putting you not much better off even after buying up all the stock you can.
The last thing I'll point out as being particularly bad are the so-called "Boss Fights", i.e. overpowerful enemies you have to take down. First off, you have to take them down, as in with a gun, by yourself. There's no clever sidestep option like DX had for dealing with Navarre and Gunther, nor can you run away and avoid them. You are expected to come in with whatever weapons you have and shoot them until they are dead, which was a hell of a surprise for the non-lethal stealth Jensen I'd been playing as up to that point. Their solution to that problem is particularly bad: "look, we left a bunch of weapons scattered around!" Great, first off, way to make that seem logical and not at all immersion-breaking. Second, it doesn't matter that I have new weapons if you only give me a handful of ammo for the damn things. To be fair, there were other solutions to the problem, but the one I wound up using still involved directly assaulting the boss. Not cool.
Now all that being said, it's not a bad game. It's a lot better than Invisible War, and it's very, very fun. I do kind of hate the "press button to glue yourself to a wall" gameplay, but tragically these are the times we live in. Even within that, it's not nearly as obnoxious as some other cover-based shooters; you don't have to go from chest-high wall to chest-high wall in order to win the game.
All in all, I'd call it a worthy successor to DX1. Not nearly as groundbreaking, and definitely could use some improvement in certain areas, but I do feel like I got my money's worth and then some out of the deal. The only real thing left to check is whether or not its as infinitely replayable as DX1, or at least anywhere close.
