im not complaining about the immersion, or attempting to bring up a graphics/vs atmosphere debate... i mean id be on the atmosphere side saying graphics dont matter THAT MUCH... i was just wondering if people agreed that visually more was expected from such a title than we ended up getting. im finding it super hard to take pretty screenshots for steam is all.
(No trickeries used, not even Reshade, just the HUD turned off and the combo Temporal AA+in-game sharpening, which works surprisingly well).
For me the game was for the most part quite the feast for the eyes, I genuinely appreciated the great attention to details and unique futuristic-yet-classic architectural design. Nothing mind-blowing of course, but I still consider it a remarkable effort despite the technical constraints.
The sad trombone in my case came from the facial animations that as per tradition couldn't quite convey the proper emotions (the so-so writing didn't help, either ), but thankfully the gameplay and sense of exploration/immersion made up for all the shortcomings.
im not complaining about the immersion, or attempting to bring up a graphics/vs atmosphere debate... i mean id be on the atmosphere side saying graphics dont matter THAT MUCH... i was just wondering if people agreed that visually more was expected from such a title than we ended up getting. im finding it super hard to take pretty screenshots for steam is all.
(No trickeries used, not even Reshade, just the HUD turned off and the combo Temporal AA+in-game sharpening, which works surprisingly well).
For me the game was for the most part quite the feast for the eyes, I genuinely appreciated the great attention to details and unique futuristic-yet-classic architectural design. Nothing mind-blowing of course, but I still consider it a remarkable effort despite the technical constraints.
The sad trombone in my case came from the facial animations that as per tradition couldn't quite convey the proper emotions (the so-so writing didn't help, either ), but thankfully the gameplay and sense of exploration/immersion made up for all the shortcomings.
Deus Ex is "sponsored" or what to call it by AMD, Ansel games are generally involved only with Nvidia as it's part of their set of libraries.
Or rather Square Enix is the one with close ties to AMD though it can vary from game to game, FarCry 3 was AMD backed for example whereas FarCry 4 and most other Ubisoft games are Nvidia backed.
(Watch_Dogs 2 was initially planned as something of a DX12 showcase for AMD as well but ended up with Nvidia.)
Started playing this game again, I'm starting to like it again, but now I'm not focusing on searching every square meter for stuff or finishing every side quest.
Got to Golem City it's cool, wish it was more of a hub.
i think ive almost finished it. I liken this to watching 24. Yeah, sure, the intrigue keeps building up, but theres nothing surprising - theres no WOW!, it all feels kinda.. ehhh to me. I cant connect with any of the characters, cant get hooked on the story, and honestly.. even the world feels lifeless to me.
really then, its only the gameplay i guess im enjoying. It kinda sucks that the high point of the game for me thus far is one side mision... id like to think you all know which one i mean..
i think ive almost finished it. I liken this to watching 24. Yeah, sure, the intrigue keeps building up, but theres nothing surprising - theres no WOW!, it all feels kinda.. ehhh to me. I cant connect with any of the characters, cant get hooked on the story, and honestly.. even the world feels lifeless to me.
really then, its only the gameplay i guess im enjoying. It kinda sucks that the high point of the game for me thus far is one side mision... id like to think you all know which one i mean..
Yeah I agree, Mankind Divided is one of those cases where the side missions are actually more interesting than the main story (or "story" ), which is something pleasant but at the same time disappointing, the what could have been factor.
I enjoyed them all, but The Harvester+The Last Harvest was especially great in my opinion, some sort of Prague Noire, starring clumsy investigator Jensen xD
the pity is that with all the 'optional' parts of the quest covered, its easy to get the perfect ending. If there was some room for real investigation where you - depending on your own perceptive abilities and desire to find the truth - could fuck things up or manage to find hidden clues, then that quest would have been phenomenal.
Spoiler:
i think you CAN falsely accuse one of the other suspects, but that'd only really happen if you dont bother with fully completing the quest, or want to maliciously target one of the men,
so thats kinda unsatisfying
finished it. jesus christ, what a dud of an ending.
did they really just shoehorn (a short selection of) my choices/actions into a news bulletin at the end? thats as lazy as the previous games 'press a button to get your ending', no wonder the franchise is now canned.
well i cant complain i didnt get my moneys worth, i guess... i racked up many hours doing sidequests and finding places to sneak through, but my comments above still hold true. uninteresting core story, dull world, meh characters, with the most interesting stuff being the side missions and the core gameplay being enjoyable.
Though i will say, i didnt actually use ANY of the games new augmentations. I think its just a combination of none of them being all that useful, and crippling them for the majority (jesus, why!!!) of the game with a stupid mechanic i just had no interest in messing with.
NOT a horrible game, just... very meh.. the good stuff is counterbalanced by the laziness and the dumb stuff
Spoiler:
would have been nice if the game at least gave me a debrief with miller... cant just let me save the guy and then write him out of the story, wtf.
also the midcredits reveal... i wish i could say it surprised me... but while i couldnt say i saw this specific thing coming, i certainly felt her character was likely involved somehow so it clearly didnt have the weight the developers THOUGHT their 'clever' twist was going to have... im positive im not alone in this.
Wasn't it supposed to be episodic? So the current ending is not final or is the game complete now?
Pretty much, the game was supposed to be the part 2 of 3, with a sequel planned and apparently already in development, until the Squeenimen had the brilliant idea to can the poor Jensen and channel all the resources into a future Marvel game instead
All kinds of stuff wrong with this game, thank god the franchise got canned, it is going downhill.
The story is a tragicomedy of inconsistencies and lack of realism. But I have a question. I wanna hack every single console I find but it is difficult without save scumming. I put Hacking Stealth on maximum and still face problems. I don't want to use those shitty hacking software consumables, is there another solution?
Most of the time after hacking a node with a 30% detection rate, I get detected. Checkmate, statisticians!
Can someone explain to me, how Dishonored 2 is praised as an excellent game among critics and gamers, while Deus Ex MD is bad/failure as a game?
How so?
Dishonored 2
- Less explorable world/smaller scale levels
- Mediocre story/writing, choices impact = almost zero
- Really bad PC port, dont know about consoles
- Smaller game, can be finished at 20 hours doing all side quests
Deus Ex MD
- Big world/map, much more explorable, more side quests
- Good story with a shitty end, choices do make an impact
- Good PC port
- Big game, i put in about 40 hours
Mankind Divided caught a lot of flak from executive meddling from Square changing things around late in development and some business practices involving how DLC were managed and the expected sales.
Engine wise the game runs pretty well as long as you don't run out of memory but several effects were buggy or even broken until patched and DX12 support in particular is still pretty poor though you don't really need it for much as even on AMD cards the performance gain isn't that much outside of some specific scenes.
Prague is a well build hub world with a ton of exploration possibilities though there's not too much to do, think there are ~12 side quests in total spread through each of the three main visits, evidence of a lot of cut content though and half implemented ones too ranging from NPC's to data logs and such that ultimately leads nowhere.
Ends midway through too with Jensen not really getting much of his questions answered though it does begin to tie into the "fall" of the golden age (As shown in Human Revolution.) and if you dig around you can see the beginning of the events that Deus Ex 1 then features though I guess we'll never know how or if the two were planned to be bridged together now.
(The "Eliza" news summary of events is pretty rushed too only covering a few things.)
Prague also highlights some engine issues with streaming and how densely populated this area is even if it's basically split into two separately loaded zones whereas the mission areas and such run a lot better and with far less stuttering.
DLC's don't really offer that much either and they are also entirely stand alone with default Jensen getting some praxis kits to start you out though fan favorite Pritchard gets some coverage and the prison one adds some additional story to a early mission with Jensen and Interpol / TaskForce.
(And the one they cut as a blatant pre-order DLC should have been part of the default game fleshing out a certain event a bit better.)
AI is pretty dumb but then again Dishonored 2 isn't much better nor is any modern game for that matter most of the time.
(Dishonored 2 and this also suffer from how powereful the player becomes with some of the powers offered, plenty of batteries and other supplies too but it's also to let the player to things however they want even if overall difficulty or challenge is diminished.)
There's some choices and consequences too and quests leading to other quests even if the outcome doesn't differ much, even some sequence breaking is possible and has consequences of it's own too.
And going back to the engine well for Dishonored 2 Void as a spin-off from idTech5 was pretty rough initially too, patches helped and the Death of the Outsider stand-alone title/expansion polished things a bit further. (But also cut down on a few things with smaller areas.)
No idea how things will go for Arkane now with good criticism but poor sales for both Prey (2) and Dishonored 2 but they are probably better off than Eidos though IO managed to get away from Square and got the Hitman franchise out too.
Eidos does have a few other titles though such as Tomb Raider and some other older licenses that could end up being revived so it'll be interesting to see, unsure if part 3 of this particular re-spin of Deus Ex will ever materialize though or if it will be rebooted in some years again, we'll see I guess.
...Oh and I almost forgot, if you do take the constructor skill for Mankind Divided which came as a pre-order it does totally break the game, it is entirely possible to upgrade that and then break everything down into components (Weapon by weapon, don't pick up two or they'll merge and you just get ammo.) and you have enough supplies for near infinite hack tools and ammo for special abilities and batteries to recharge, it's kinda fun but it completely destroys what little challenge the game offers.
Also both Dishonored 2 and Deus Ex Mankind Divided features a ton of ambient NPC conversations some of which change depending on the players actions and they BOTH fucking suck at subtitling most of this so it's easy to miss all sorts of both random trivia, useful hints and also things that might come (Or would have.) in future games as a result.
(Both also group some NPC's close so if you trigger both groups you get a blabber that makes little sense as voices echo all over, Task Force 21's HQ is really notable for this.)
And of course there's social tropes and modern day issues in both games though they don't throw it immediately in your face either.
(Both do have weird fantasy science and such too from whale oil electricity to the augmentations and tech but Dues Ex going augmented people as some separate race is hard to accept, it's just not handled well.)
EDIT: Both needed a few patches but I did enjoy the games though it would have been nice to see what could have been for Mankind Divided with less pressure from the publisher.
Though who knows what Beth / Zenimax put on Arkane or say Tango for their recent games.
(Straight up taking Human Head's Prey 2 and cancelling it wasn't very nice either but it's not quite up to EA's levels just yet.)
And while the missions are more open it should also be applauded that both games didn't go full sandbox experience either but alternated between hub areas and more focused mission areas though in both games these are still fairly open ended.
(But that can work to if design and gameplay supports it without having the player wander off for some hours picking through trash for minor items or looking for collectibles.)
75% off.. time to buy i guess. what's that DLC that everyone complains about that is a 1-time use? is it essential somehow, if not then i don't get all the thumbs down for the game..
It was a one-time only for the weapons and praxis, I think it was changed so it's once per game now for the DLC though store-bought praxis is still a one-time only thing though you don't need them at all.
That said leveling is slower and the praxis kits are double the cost and credits are less common and found in smaller amounts and traders will rip you off.
Kinda justified with the situation the world in general finds itself now but still.
Wasn't there a free to play period for the game too? I remember Steam popping up a news for something like that in addition to a 80% discount news.
Deus Ex MD
- Big world/map, much more explorable, more side quests
- Good story with a shitty end, choices do make an impact
I would have to disagree on both of those points. Personally, I thought having only one location was lame, but then choosing low-built Prague as a location for a Deus Ex game was much worse yet (the accented English didn't help the atmosphere either).
The story started somewhat OK with the vague terrorist threat (another parallel with the current situation which doesn't really fit the Deus Ex IMHO), but then had overtly cheap analogies to the Holocaust and soon enough I really couldn't care less about what was happening in the game (nothing much apparently).
The only part of the game I really liked was the last level in the hotel which finally gave me the Deus Ex vibe, but since the game was abruptly cut there, it didn't help much.
I liked Human Revolution and bought it in the end as it merits replays, but I wouldn't add MD to my Steam account even if it was free as I can't imagine playing through that again. I'm not surprised it didn't sell well.
Last edited by ijozic on Thu, 26th Oct 2017 10:43; edited 1 time in total
It was a one-time only for the weapons and praxis, I think it was changed so it's once per game now for the DLC though store-bought praxis is still a one-time only thing though you don't need them at all.
That said leveling is slower and the praxis kits are double the cost and credits are less common and found in smaller amounts and traders will rip you off.
Kinda justified with the situation the world in general finds itself now but still.
Wasn't there a free to play period for the game too? I remember Steam popping up a news for something like that in addition to a 80% discount news.
Ok thanks, yeah there was a free to play too yesterday.
Mankind Divided caught a lot of flak from executive meddling from Square changing things around late in development and some business practices involving how DLC were managed and the expected sales. (...)
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and full analysis.
Square enix is the one to be blamed
I really hope theres a third game coming out, eidos montreal is talented team and Jensen needs a conclusion to is story.
P.S
Check win10 thread, need your advice.
ijozic wrote:
streetunder wrote:
Deus Ex MD
- Big world/map, much more explorable, more side quests
- Good story with a shitty end, choices do make an impact
I would have to disagree on both of those points. Personally, I thought having only one location was lame, but then choosing low-built Prague as a location for a Deus Ex game was much worse yet (the accented English didn't help the atmosphere either).
The story started somewhat OK with the vague terrorist threat (another parallel with the current situation which doesn't really fit the Deus Ex IMHO), but then had overtly cheap analogies to the Holocaust and soon enough I really couldn't care less about what was happening in the game (nothing much apparently).
The only part of the game I really liked was the last level in the hotel which finally gave me the Deus Ex vibe, but since the game was abruptly cut there, it didn't help much.
I liked Human Revolution and bought it in the end as it merits replays, but I wouldn't add MD to my Steam account even if it was free as I can't imagine playing through that again. I'm not surprised it didn't sell well.
choosing low-built Prague as a location for a Deus Ex game was much worse yet (the accented English didn't help the atmosphere either).
still pissed how they russified us (i guess cz accent wasnt alien enough for them muricans)
also why they didnt pick some cyberpunked existing locations instead of fantasy city with light vibe of prague
The prague hub really wasn't all that great, liked golem city much better. And I liked the HR even more, this one needed more maps, IMO that approach suits the series better. Even if the maps will never be as huge as the one from the original deus ex
boundle (thoughts on cracking AITD) wrote:
i guess thouth if without a legit key the installation was rolling back we are all fucking then
The Deus Ex franchise has not been put on ice, it’s a very important franchise for Square Enix
Quote:
Square Enix’s CEO Yosuke Matsuda talked a bit about the Deus Ex franchise. As Matsuda claimed, the franchise has not been put on ice, despite all the rumours flying around.
‘We have never said anything about discontinuing that title‘ said Matsuda and continued.
“What I can say is Eidos Montreal has always developed Deus Ex, and the issue is we do not have limitless resources. We have several big titles that we work with and that’s partly a factor in what our line-up looks like. Of course, it would be ideal if we could work on all of them all of the time, but the fact of the matter is some titles have to wait their turn. The reason there isn’t a Deus Ex right now is just a product of our development line-up because there are other titles we are working on.”
Matsuda concluded that Deus Ex is a very important franchise for Square Enix. So, perhaps we’ll see a new game once Eidos Montreal finishes working on its Marvel game? One can hope.
Square Enix is already internally discussing and exploring what it wants to do with the next instalment of Deus Ex. Therefore, it will be interesting to see whether the next game will pick up where Mankind Divided ended.
It will also be interesting to see whether Square Enix will try, once again, to butcher the entire game. Mankind Divided suffered from some ridiculous choices/decisions. The game had some of the worst pre-order offerings, and – according to reports – its story was cut in half. While its gameplay was better, the overall product felt less appealing and satisfying than Human Revolution. And that says a lot!
they probably SHOULD put it on ice. i dont think they have any idea how to do anything good with it. i thought HR was 'OK", but mankind divided was kinda shit... i mean you know somethings gone wrong somewhere when the best mission was actually an easily missable sidequest... yeah.. you know the one i mean...
and even though that sidequest was interesting, it COULD have been something way deeper and more intriguing, with some actual meaining in the context of the story depending on how you resolve it, and making the investigation stuff more meaningful and involved.. but hey.. we'll take what we were given..
Probably the one where hou solve the brutal murder of an augmented woman iirc. Had a cyberpunk vibe to it. Stark contrast to the rest of the game where it hammers home the same point over and over about racism. I don't find the basic premise of the game convincing, the hatred against "augs" seemed unrealistic and so did the terror attacks and overbearing police. They tried to draw parallels to current day but it's so thinly veiled that it's laughable and worst of all, it is not persuasive. It is an arbitrary dystopia just for the sake of the writers.
In my opinion, when I play a game I want to get an experience that will get me to different "place" and be a nice fantasy trip. Last thing I want is to play a futuristic cyberpunk RPG where I am a murdermachine only to be dropped immediately in a congested tiny hub and worry about terrorism, racism, populism, refugees, police state etc.
Basically I don't want to be subjected to a hipster's thinly veiled political commentary using a respected franchise as a vessel. I want to play a cyberpunk action RPG in a futuristic setting, upgrade myself into a Terminator and kill innocents and get XP from it. The story can be something actually interesting.
Yeah, it was pretty poorly written throughout, apart from some moments out of the Prague location where it actually did feel like a Deus Ex game.
If they do make a sequel, I hope they managed to drew some lessons between HR and MD, like what worked and what didn't (like e.g. Prague location and cheaply done parallels with the Holocaust, terrorism and what not).
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), but thankfully the gameplay and sense of exploration/immersion made up for all the shortcomings.
use ANSEL from Nvidia?
The story can be something actually interesting.
