Deus Ex 3: Human Revolution | Are We New At This?
Something about games that tout choice as a major selling point, like Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Akrane’s Dishonored bothers me. This is not to say they are bad games. If anything they are both phenomenal titles, crafted with meticulous attention to detail, amazing art, stellar voice-acting and set in a poignant, believable world. Yet there is something very wrong with them. And it was not until last night, while playing Dishonored, that I realized what it was.
These games tell you of the variety of ways that you can go about accomplishing an objective. For example, in Dishonored, you can use your abilities, for stealthy stalking or engage in gratuitous violence. It claims that you can choose either path at will, but the fact of the matter is that there is always a dearth of currency (runes in the case of Dishonored), that forces you to take only one path. Once you invest some points into stealth, you will invest almost every subsequent point into stealth in an attempt to continue bolstering your abilities in that play-style. Eventually, the only way you can experience another type of build is by replaying the entire game. This is part of the reason games like Fallout 3, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Dishonored have so many replays. Once you start going down an ability path, there is very little wiggle room.
Again, this may not be a bad thing for people who think it gives the game “replay value”. I personally think it gives it an inflated replay value, but true replay value remains the domain of dynamic multiplayer games like StarCraft 2 and League of Legends.
Now that I have said it out loud: let the flames rise!
Inspired by Klepsacovic, I just realized something.
Q: What do Adam Jensen of Deus Ex: Human Revolutions and Rogues from World of Warcraft have in common?
A: They are both sneaky.
They use hit and run tactics.
They put out an incredible amount of damage in short bursts.
And they both get stuck with boss fights where the only way to fight is out in the open, and none of their penchant for sneaky antics gets leveraged in any way!
Are you having trouble with augmentations?
Investing in that useless cone of vision keeping you up at night?
Do you wish someone had an awesome guide which could have warned you of what to invest in and what to skip?
Well then you’re in luck, because Professor Bronte now presents his detailed guide to hacking, now featured on Hooked Gamers!
Anyone having trouble with the hacking minigame in Deus Ex: Human Revolution?
Check out my extensive hacking guide on Hooked Gamers!
Tobold had a post up recently about whether the choice in Deus Ex to take the violent or the pacifist route in Deus Ex: Human Revolution really exists if one choice nets you considerably more reward (XP). While I can see where he is coming from (based on a video review), I don’t necessarily agree with it.
If you have discovered the code to the secret cache of weapons, you can simply enter the code and get your grubby paws on the epic loot, and it takes next to no time to enter said code. However, if you instead take the time to play the hacking mini-game, disconnect when you think you won’t win, and persistently keep at it until you hack and thus unlock it, you get an experience bonus. Your choice to invest time in arriving at the solution netted you the extra XP.
Within the hacking mini-game, if you invest the additional time to capture data nodes, you can earn credits, bonus XP or the very useful Nuke or Worm viruses. Alternatively, if you choose NOT to invest the time, you can just capture the end node and be done a lot quicker.
If you have to get to the penthouse apartment, you can go in guns blazing, killing everything in your path, and it shouldn’t take you all that long to get there. However, if you decided to explore for an alternate means to get in, you will discover hidden walls, vents, and ladders that will lead to hidden areas which will sneak you into the building, but this process of finding the route will take time and effort. However, the more routes you discover, the more bonus XP you net. Once again, your time investment is rewarded.
If you choose to kill a bunch of guards, you will get some XP for taking them out. But if you choose to invest time again, observe their patrol paths, determine the weaknesses in their perimeter and determine fields of vision for a well-timed takedown, the game will award you more XP.
The only XP bonus that does not fall into this category is the “Expedient” bonus that nets you 20 XP every time you use a non-lethal takedown. The extra bonus, as a reader on Tobold’s site pointed out, will net you an extra Praxis (upgrade) point after 176 successful non-lethal takedowns, so the 20 XP bonus isn’t that massive to begin with, but it has no counterpart in the lethal variety, which makes the non-lethal takedown the logical, if less fun, choice.
My point is that choice doesn’t work independently in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Time invested plays an equally important role, and the rewards, for the most part, are justified.
I may have a new EU WoW account. arewenewatthis@gmail.com. Add me if you are on the EU servers.