Having played Deus Ex 2, what didn't seem to work? [possible spoilers]

[FictiousWill]

In terms of game design, I mean. Deus Ex 2 was a great game to be sure, but what did you miss from the 1st, just find annoying, or want to change?

1.) JC's sunglasses. I mean - he's JC for crying out loud.

2.) Deus Ex music. I thought the music was a bit of a letdown overall. The music made the first game great, and I was expecting great remixes. oh well.

3.) More storyline solidification. Choices are great, but only when they bind you. When you're given the option to assassinate a group's leader, you shouldn't be able to get back on their good side three seconds later- Deus Ex shouldn't be just about choices, but also the consequences of those choices.

4.) General rah rah about meeting old characters and locations. The return to the Pillar of Autumn in Halo made me shiver, what with the desert flyby.

5.) Level loading. A simple helicopter/jet cutscene would have been fine. They did it in DX 1. I would have liked the elevator-style loads to have been done more cleverly too - like you get in the elevator, it whirrs... (the level is actually loading now) and the elevator appears to stop and open when the next level is loaded. The time spent in elevators may seem long, but I would rather wait in an elevator than watch a bar for 15 seconds.

6.) I had to press about 7 keys to load/save my game. I also had to return to the main menu before I could reload a game after I died.

7.) The laser sword gone ninja was cool, but its animations were less than stellar, and it didn't seem half as powerful as it was before.

8.) Bullets affected things far too powerfully (yes I know you already know), I didn't shoot that many people, so it didn't bother me.

I'm sure I'll think of more things that didn't sit right with me. This being said, there are about 900 things that I really liked about the game, I'll post what I thought really stood out later or if this starts some design/discussion etc.

 

[Dedalus]

i got my copy of DX2 yesterday. first impressions? still a load of shit. it's better than the demo yeah, but shit how could they do that?!

i managed to complete it all in one sitting, took me about 9:43:32. which is pathetic. ok let's round it up to 10 hours. 10 freaking hours for a Deus Ex game!!! how criminal is that?!

having said that i did like the story very much. the way it was implemented could've used some work, but overall a decent story. gameplay i'd give 2/10, graphics 4/10, sound (which was apparently their big 'thing') 2/10, immersion 3/10, story 8/10, AI 3/10. that gives you an overall score of 3.6/10. that's my official score for DX2 having played it to death, seen all 4 endings and generally seen everything there is to see in DX2.

having said that there is a new patch out for it http://www.fileplanet.com/files/130000/134301.shtml

this patch includes: Changes contained within the v1.1 patch

- Defaulted Bloom to off when starting a new game.
- Adjusted mouse movement to eliminate feeling of "lagginess".
- Adjusted the HUD so that it is pushed toward the edges of the screen.
- Added option for turning all shadows off. This can massively improve performance, especially at higher resolutions.
- Shrunk all text sizes.
- Reworked mouse-based UI control within the inventory and biomod screens:
. Right-clicking will now swap items in the inventory and toolbelt screen.
. Added buttons for installing weapon mods and biomods.
. The biomod/inventory/datavault hotkeys are now toggles (the same buttons will now both open and close these subscreens).
- Added quicksave/quickload keys. (F10/F12)
- Non-hostile AI's will now go hostile much sooner if shot.
- Eliminated monitor resyncing during level transition and savegame loads.
- Increased the headshot damage multiplier for the pistol.
- Increased the damage of the stun prod

so it should improve my score of DX2 by...ohhhhh....0.4 so i'd give it 4/10 after the patch. but then i'd have to deduct some marks because that stuff wasn't included in the original release, so then my final score would be a grand total of 2/10.

Complete. Waste. Of. My. Time. And. Money.

 

[GhostValkyrie]

The ragdoll physics were rediculous! Upon shooting a body, the entire thing would jump and flop in the air...even when shooting only an appendage.

 

[Kadayi]

The demo was enough for me, it turned my stomach how badly ISA had messed the game up. Yes I agree the Physics was lousy, I also think using the quake 3 engine was a big mistake.

 

[Dedalus]

i'm downloading the patch now, although i doubt it will make the game significantly better.

 

[Dedalus]

ok, DX2 is officially a piece of shit. i take back my mark of 2/10. i install the patch, and now it refuses to run. great work Ion Storm, you're all pieces of shit and i'm going to hunt each and every one of you down and show you what an xbox looks like while it's being shoved down your throat.

 

[S1ddharthA]

i dont know wat u guys are on de2 is prolly
the best game out there, eve better than hl
and maybe hl2. the music....shadows...graphics.
...lighting...sound affects...everything is awesome.
you need to give it a fair chance. the story is great
to. the physics are awesome way better than hl.

great game.

 

[S1ddharthA]

and kadayi de2 doesnt use q3 engine it uses
thief3 engine.

 

[MultiVaC]

You're both wrong, it uses the Unreal Warfare engine. And of course the physics are better than HL, it's five freaking years later. Try comparing IW to some recent games like Max Payne 2, and you'll see where it (technologically) falls short.

 

[S1ddharthA]

no i dont think thief3 uses a warfare engine. but what
you said about physics could be true but de2 physics
could even be better than max payne 2 and hl2 we
will have to wait and see. but it does look that way.

 

[Letters]

I dunno I really liked the demo... I think maybe I had a little bit TOO MUCH fun with it... the physics may be a little funkay, but being able to carry stuff around adds a lot as opposed to just running into things like in Max Payne 2.

See this? I built my own staircase to jump over the fence!

I plan to get the full game later this month, especially now that there's a patch out.

 

[MultiVaC]

Max Payne 2 is already out, and the physics are quite a bit better than IW. MP2's graphics also come pretty close to IW's and it runs much more smoothly. Try the demo of MP2 for yourself, you can find it at any major download site. And I've got the IW demo, all of the Unreal engine files are there.

 

[FictiousWill]

the DX2 shadows were great - too bad they weren't on everything. Some of those rooms with lots of pipes had me putting stuff under swinging lights just to watch the shadow play. I think part of why it ran so slowly was because pretty everything was normal mapped. Unfortunately, the maps were so subtle they could only be noticed by extremely close scrutiny with a flashlight from many angles. I really liked how some models looked smooth, like the grays and scientists (except atmajor joints). I think if they had exaggerated the normal maps about 2 to 4 times the contrast they had, it would make up for the slow engine, but make it look more plasticy, like doom 3.

Also - where was the theme tune??! Da da da da-dum, da da, da da da dum, daa da da da-dum, da da, da da dee dum!

rrg.

 

[FictiousWill]

Am I allowed to post the DX1 main theme here? (in .wma format)

 

[snark^]

I've not tried the full verison of dx2 yet (waiting for it to hit bargain bin prices) but the I thought the demo was generally awful, beside the huge technical deficiencies (res, bloom, framerate, the rest) -- it might be vaguely passable as a game in it's own right, but as a sequel to, and to be compared to, the almightly DX it truely lacks in the playability stakes.

• Levels are too small -- everything's so close together and claustrophobic it seriously affects the immersion. "The Heron Loft is on the other side of town"...
• The AI is baaadddd. it makes DX1's AI look SHODAN-like in comparison.
• The unified ammo concept doesn't really hold up (esp. for a game that's leaning more towards hard sci-fi than space opera). If you have all the multiple ammo types coming from one source and being assembled in the guns why bother having different types of weapons at all: go with that joke post about 'DX3: Unification Wars' and just have a 'single unified nano-item'... something that can assemble/fire all the types of ammo and replace the equipment: multitools, binoculars, etc., at the same time. It also begs the question how they managed to shrink a universal constructor down from a building size device to gun size in a mere 20 years when the world is supposed to be in a technological dark age. It really needs to get back to (limited) individual ammo, with a reload key, because it's just a stand and deliver hosedown fest otherwise.
• Just how does the weapons lock at the Greasel pit affect the knife and baton? Who the hell would walk around with weapons that can be switched off by other parties anyway? I can see a huge black market in old-style mechanical weapons.
• Almost complete lack of stealth elements. Could be put down to the small levels I suppose: with even the slightest noises being discernable from all that way across the tiny maps.
• If you want to see decent ragdoll effects check out Hidden and Dangerous 2: the bodies there just flop over the landscape and objects quite naturally. didn't look like surfboards when on your shoulder either.
• The physics felt munted; everything from barrels to bodies flew through the air like basketballs.
• Dark Angel syndrome in which everyone who matters has to be a teenager: our dark and brooding mature hero of the first game is replaced by some young MTV presenter type who's so fake he holds his gun at the now traditionally lame gangster-boyyeee angle.

I hear DX2 was rushed out for this Christmas sales period. Which makes it two games Eidos have now wrecked this year alone in their neverending desperate dash for cash; Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness was supposed to be out this holiday season and DX2 next year; both releases were pushed forward by months though and the games have suffered for it; TRAOD was horrendously unfinished, and DX2 looks unpolished and too short (wonder how much got cut out?).

 

[Dedalus]

snark^ i'd have to agree with you 100%.

aidartha, i gave DX2 every chance. i mean, i even spent my hard earned cash to get it delivered here from the states. i played it not once, not twice, but three times, just trying desperately to wring some enjoyment from this turd.

 

[Kadayi]

no i dont think thief3 uses a warfare engine. but what
you said about physics could be true but de2 physics
could even be better than max payne 2 and hl2 we
will have to wait and see. but it does look that way.

Trust me, both max paynes 2 and DX2's physics aren't in the same league as HL2's.

 

[Letters]

Trust me, both max paynes 2 and DX2's physics aren't in the same league as HL2's.

Now THAT I'm looking forward to! :cheers: