What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Durandal]

I just finished Human Revolution

It really feels like a streamlined DX. I can only describe HR's level design as a line disguised with boxes each of which contains a different layout, but the levels themselves never feel like a coherent whole. There's about two-four rather obvious entry points to each 'box' and even less points of exit. When I missed an objective, I had to backtrack all the way in the level just to get complete it. In DX, backtracking was always minimal because of the more interconnected and open level design. The scope of HR's levels is simply too small to allow for a proper choose-your-own-approach philosophy in level design. Take the military dock level in DX where you need to board the ship whose name I forgot. There were all kinds of silos and other office buildings you could explore and in/exfiltrate in many ways. However, you could also skip all of that shit if you knew what you were doing. You'll miss out on some goodies, but it's that freedom in approach which made DX so good. Not to mention how interconnected all of those sections were. With levels as linear as HR, you can't connect two 'boxes' when another box is inbetween. This approach also carries over to the hub structure in HR. Hub areas should not waste my time. I don't want to walk through three underground passages in Tristram just because I forgot to buy some potions from the potionmaster on the other side of the map. If I need to get from one end of the hub to the other, DX usually had some shortcuts in the shape of geometry, using your augs, or just hidden unlockable passages. Hidden passages and 'shortcuts' are present to some degree in HR, but with the rather tree-like structure of HR's hubs instead of the circular structure of DX's hubs, more time is wasted then there has to be in the first place. At least I could use the speed aug if I wanted to go really fast in DX, but the sprinting duration and speed in HR is painful, even with upgrades. Hopefully the increased power in technology (of consoles) should allow for bigger levels in MD, and by extent more possible approaches to obstacles.

Then there's the bizarre choice concerning perspective. Stealth(y) games like MGS and Splinter Cell have a third-person perspective for looking around, and a first-person perspective for more precise aiming. Which is what HR should have done aside from either sticking with a first-person perspective and leaning, rather than being largely first-person with a third-person perspective while in cover. A third-person perspective in stealth games always gives you an advantage in terms of vision and situational awareness by default. Why should you only be able to use this advantage when you glue yourself to a wall? Why are you not always able to switch to a TPP when you can do so any time by sticking to cover which you can do everywhere? Yet at the same time you get so many abilities which make it easier for you to track enemies to the point where one can't help but wonder why someone would largely restrict you to a FPP to begin with. The only reasoning behind this that I can think of is that DX was first-person, so to honor tradition HR also had to be first-person. The fact that you have a third-person camera, a Soliton radar which highlights enemies, a mark and track ability, and a wallhack ability, is all just incredibly overkill.

The progression system in HR is also borked. Whereas DX had you choose between one of two augs from each canister and you'd have to stick with that aug for the entire game, the question of choosing your augs in HR is more of a question of 'when' than 'what'. You will gain more than enough Praxis points to unlock all the useful augs and more by the end-game if you've also followed the sidequests. You can't unlock everything, but certainly more than enough. Even though I opted for a stealth playstyle at first, I ended up having more than enough points after spending most of them in the trees I found necessary (the entire stealth enhancement tree is a giant fucking third wheel, do not fall for it), and spent the rest in stuff I rarely used to begin with. In HR, you don't have to stick with your upgrade decisions as much because the gameplay allows you to switch between different styles more freely. You don't have to put points in weapon skills so you can properly use them as you did in DX. You could use a category of weapons you were untrained in, albeit with a severe handicap in terms of accuracy, because you shouldn't be skilled at everything to begin with. That's a common problem with open-world sandboxes like Fallout 4 and Skyrim which allow you to do everything in one playthrough, because instead of making your upgrade decisions feel unique and have them pay off in some way, you end up becoming a superhuman regardless of what you do which then ends up killing the replay value since you can't really play with a certain build and playstyle in mind. It's not FO4 where you become god after two hours in the wasteland, but your build will only feel unique for about the first half of the game. Do note, HR does allow and recognize different playstyles with levels having secret pathways which can only be traversed if you have the X aug, but the upgrades only really serve to make those playstyles easier than allow new possibilities. It is why DX is considered a first-person RPG whereas HR is more of a first-person shooter/stealth game with RPG elements. Upgrades in older RPGs would define the way how you played for the entire game. In newer RPGs, you tend to be pretty strong and able to do many things to begin with, and as such upgrades would either give you a special edge in encounters (Dark Messiah of Might and Magic), or make you even more overpowered (Dishonored). Because of the generous amount of Praxis points you receive, the game tends to veer to the latter.

I like the idea of your energy being separated in cells which recharge once partially depleted. It encourages you to use your augmentations in short bursts rather than all the time (though this would only really apply to cloaking, considering other augs either deplete one cell completely or so slowly that it's unlikely for you to use an aug like that for so long). One thing I absolutely do not get, is why takedowns require energy. If you don't want to chew another candy bar, you'll have to wait 20-40 seconds before you can perform a takedown again. I'm guessing the designers wanted stealth players to evade enemies completely, yet at the same time taking down enemies earns you XP which is necessary for obtaining Praxis points. You do get a Ghost XP bonus for completing objectives without being seen, but you'll still get that bonus if you take down enemies from behind. On top of that, enemies often drop money, candy bars, ammo, and plenty of pocket secretaries containing a password to some system (more on that later). Another inexplicable decision is to turn all takedowns into fancy third-person animations where Jensen kicks someone's shit in, while time is stopped. I can only assume that it was too late for the development team to redesign the stealth takedown system into something more sensible using simple melee weapons, but cinematic takedowns with retractable carbon blades make for good promo material anyways. The problem with time-stopping energy-reliant takedowns is that it not only looks retarded when you think about it, but also takes away more control from the player than necessary. Naturally most stealth players would opt for a KO-everyone-and-dump-their-bodies-in-a-corner approach when even the XP gains encourage you to do so, but now you need to spend more time hiding in shadows or either KO enemies with your stungun or tranquilizer. I can understand the energy cost considering you can takedown an enemy even when he's alarmed and you're in front of him, since you could takedown EVERYONE with no effort that way, but you shouldn't even be able to instantly takedown everyone at any time in the first place. Had you had melee weapons, none of this band-aid design wouldn't even have to be present. Thankfully there is an upgrade which lets you takedown two enemies at once at the same price, although the range for such context-sensitive actions is a bit of a pain.

In DX, you hit an enemy from behind with a melee weapon in order to knock him out or kill him, or deal with the shitty neck hitboxes so you can knock him out with your prod. While I prefer being absolutely certain in stealth games that I am within takedown range of an enemy rather than risk missing because of some shitty hitbox and get caught on the spot, I don't like losing my ability to perform melee attacks either. That's why I like the backstabbing motion of the Spy's knife in TF2 the most, where you will automatically raise your knife if you are within backstabbing range and attacking will then instantly kill someone from behind, but you are still freely able to swing your knife around if you wish to do so. Besides, with the Speed and Combat Strength aug combined with the Dragon's Tooth I could play DX as if I were Raiden from MGR, but that's unfortunately missing in HR. There is still plenty of shenanigans to be had in HR, like throwing vending machines, jumping off the Hengsha rooftops and performing an Icarus Drop on an unsuspecting crowd of people, barricading doorways with objects and exploiting the dumb AI, or accidentally involving civilians in a double takedown as they try to resist you with kung fu techniques right before you smash their shit in.

In HR there's also a new hacking mini-game. Everyone agrees that hacking in Deus Ex was a no-fun waiting exercise where you did nothing but wait, and didn't even have enough time to read all the e-mails with just a Trained hacking skill, so that could obviously be improved. Now hacking involves capturing nodes, fortifying nodes to slow down traces, use viruses you find through more hacking or exploration to make hacking easier, and so on. It's not as RNG as SS2 nor as overly extensive as SS1, but the way this new hacking minigame is implemented brings its own share of problems. One thing is that every lock is now hackable. In DX, you either had to pick locks with a lockpick or bypass shit with your multitools. The tools were dispensable, but could be made more efficient by upgrading their respective skills. This also tied into the aspect of exploration where finding break-in tools is a treat, but so is finding item caches to use them on. The dispensability of the tools would also make the player step back and seek alternative solutions to bypassing locks, so as to not waste them. Maybe you could find a key or code, or use explosives, or just find another path. There being two types of break-in skills which you couldn't be simultaneously efficient at without spending a serious amount of skill points would also influence which one you would prioritize over the other. Lockpicking is useful for doors and locked boxes, whereas Electronics is useful for keypads, electronics, and other security measures.

In HR, now you hack to open safes, doors, computers, security, and everything, meaning hacking is pretty fucking essential and you'd be stupid for not willing to take it (much like the Computer skill in the original). You can easily max the hacking tree at the start of the game and turn hacking into a cakewalk once you also upgrade hacking stealth to reduce detection chances. But since the developers have to keep in mind that someone might not want to take hacking for whatever reason, they have to scatter the passwords for the story necessary players so non-hacking oriented players can still access important terminals for lore and other information. However, this results in dozens and literally DOZENS of pocket secretaries either placed in places where they shouldn't be in the first place. All of them are some vague excuse to display the password to some terminal, and there are so fucking many of them. At some point the writers just gave up on continuously having to remind NPCs to delete the e-mail containing their passwords, and just dumped the password. Realistically this is incredibly stupid, and prompted me to never really read pocket secretaries again because they're all the same shit. Deus Ex also had datacubes containing usernames and passwords, but they were nowhere as numerous because the shit you could hack in DX wasn't nowhere as numerous either. However, at some point all those codes made me grateful, because the hacking minigame became so repetitive after I maxed out the capture and stealth trees that I didn't even have to do anything but brute-force my way through. I had plenty of nukes and stop worms to carry me through in case something went wrong anyways, I never had to use Fortify past the first levels, and never upgraded it either. But then for some reason, hacking systems is always more beneficial than just entering a code, because hacking system earns you XP, and systems have various nodes containing bonus XP, credits, and viruses which you could capture and obtain once you hacked the system. So if I want to get more XP, money, and viruses, I need to manually hack everything regardless of whether I have the code. It's the same problem with gaining bonus XP for neutralizing enemies, where not doing so will miss you some bonus XP. But I don't want to hack another goddamn thing because the minigame becomes so easy and repetitive once you level up your skills! I just used the automatic unlockers on keypads I didn't have the code for but could hack in a jiffy, because I didn't want to suffer through those fucking minigames again. The minigame itself isn't all that engaging once you got the hang of it, but it's the sheer frequency of the hacking you must do which left a completely horrid taste in my mouth. If hacking was a timed puzzle minigame like in Alpha Protocol I could have some fun with it, but the shitty-ass implementation of HR's hacking is why I prefer to wait while the hack is done in DX.

Deus Ex rewarded you points for exploration and completing objectives, HR rewards you for EVERYTHING. Found a secret vent? Good boy, here is some XP and illogically placed credit chits. Looking behind the backdoor of any store in Hengsha? A guaranteed XP bonus and item for you! Here's a guaranteed bonus for each obvious soft wall you break! Let's litter sewers with breakable walls and inexplicably placed items behind them! Non-lethally takedown someone? Here's an XP bonus for taking him out, for taking him out with a takedown, and taking him out non-lethally, and for taking out two guards out at once. There's even different tiers of XP bonuses depending on what kind of area you discover, with unimportant areas netting you the Traveller bonus which earn you 100 XP, and the Pathfinder and Trailblazer bonuses only appearing when you access secret areas with the use of augs. Regardless of what you do, you get rewarded, and this Skinner box approach to handing out resources is what kills it. You didn't get skill points all the fucking time in Deus Ex, you gained the majority through making progress and completing objectives, with exploration bonuses being nowhere as frequent or as major. The largest bonuses in HR do come in the form of completing objectives, but the constant stream of XP bonuses make the occasion feel less special.

There is also another reason why the exploration in HR is inferior to the original: items. In HR, you'll mostly find ammo, credits, access codes, maybe some candy bars and health items, and very rarely some weapon mods or Praxis kits. But for the most part you get credits. In Deus Ex, the items you could obtain were much more varied in terms of usage, but they were also less frequent and hidden behind locks or keypads. There were more utility items like hazmat suits, rebreathers, NVG, camos and ballistic armor which could act as a temporary substitute for augs you did not have installed. The lower frequency of obtained items also meant that the value of said items could be higher, and also made it feel more rewarding. Exploration was also the most guaranteed way you'd get aug upgrade containers. Despite all the Praxis points you get in HR, I can only recall finding four-five of them through exploration. The more constant and less satisfying rewards you get for exploration is what ends up hurting it.

And the economy in DX wasn't as bad despite the shittier living circumstances. Money is barely an issue in HR at all, you'll have more than enough if you don't buy everything. All you really need is 10000 creds for the obligatory 2 praxis kits whenever the LIMB clinics restock, and maybe some cheap weapon mods from the local salesmen. If you loot every body and have basic eyesight to perceive credit chits on the floor, you'll never run out. There's simply not enough stuff to spend it on. In Deus Ex, the prices for items were high enough that you had to carefully consider what you should buy first, because your budget is already limited as is. That, and you couldn't sell stuff in DX for maximum bonus money. Not like you really need the extra money in HR to begin with, but that's beside the point.

Another thing is the AI. The AI in DX was dumb, but not infuriatingly dumb. The AI in HR on GMDX difficulty is more than capable enough to kill you, but is a right bitch to deal with in stealth. When someone sees you and turns hostile for just a split-second before you perform a takedown on him, all nearby enemies are magically alerted to your presence and know your immediate position. No radio call for back-ups or running towards alarms, one guy sees you, everyone becomes hostile. Stealth games operate on a very thin margin of error. In other stealth games, if you get caught, you can either resort to more violent or noisier means to prevent the alerted guard from raising an alarm, or you can make a clean getaway by hiding under a table until the guards magically forget about you. In HR, it takes a rather long time for the guards to drop their alarmed/hostile state (on GMDX) to the point where it isn't really worth all the trouble just because a guard turned hostile for a second before you took him out. This becomes even more troubling when you are trying to get in range for a double takedown instead of a single one (one instance where contextual actions are a bad idea). The guards in HR also have this weird habit of checking out any sight or sound, no matter how slight. Usually in stealth games guards have multiple states inbetween being unalerted and checking something out, and plays into the margin of error I was talking about before. In other stealth games you can intentionally lure guards by knocking on a wall or whistling, but they don't check out every fucking sound you make. You can exploit this behavior in HR, but more than often you might unintentionally fuck up which will come bite you in the ass. Aside from that, there isn't anything really special about the AI of the guards in HR. They take cover, turn on alarms, and so on. One notable thing about the AI in HR is that guards react to doors mysteriously opening and closing on their own, but that's about all I can think of.

One common mistake made by developers when making something with multiple approaches is that they often assume your average (casual) player will play the game like Cowadoody regardless of all the forced tutorials and hints shoved in their face, and thus make it considerably harder for someone to play guns blazing regardless of whether you have the right upgrades. In HR (on GMDX difficulty), you die really fast with or without Dermal Armor compared to the original, and it feels like you have a lot less HP than in DX. Because of your small health pool and how fast it can deplete, I'm okay with the regenerating health and the lack of limb damage, because you can die in two seconds anyways, and wasting healing items on your leg which will all be for naught after the next shot the enemy fires at you feels kind of pointless. The regeneration speed isn't too fast to allow for CoD shenanigans either, and I appreciate healing items acting as health bonuses rather than standard medkits. Aside from that, the ammo you receive is very limited in HR, and ammo now takes up inventory space, meaning you can't carry more ammo then you would ever use like in Deus Ex. If you were to go guns blazing and not take super accurate shots all the time, you'll probably run out of ammo in no time. Heavier enemies can tank some shots alright, and blind firing is almost discouraged because of how much inaccurate it is and how much ammo it tends to waste. Even if you're playing lethal, the game still wants you to play stealthy (which in most cases means upgrading the pistol to OP levels and headshotting enemies out of cover left and right. It's actually easier to just cloak and fire at will, because most enemies won't even return fire when you're cloaked. That, and the third-person cover system makes first-person shooting feel more clunky in comparison, because you are going to take guaranteed damage if something with a gun looks at you when you're not hiding in cover. If you were able to lean past walls, this might have not been as much of an issue. While I appreciate that going guns blazing doesn't involve standing in one place and killing everything with your Heavy Rifle, the system in place makes combat playstyles harder than it really should be.

What I do not get is why you would outsource essential parts of your game to another company which doesn't seem to share the same design philosophy at all. HR touts that you can play the game in any way you want, but the bosses shit on that idea hard. I'm aware that the Director's Cut apparently fixed this by adding alternative solutions, but I didn't play the DC because it somehow had more bugs than the original version, which involved choppier transitions to ironsights, computers, and cover. It was something I couldn't fix, so I stuck with the original instead. It's the same problem with bosses in id Software games where the entire game revolves around fighting hordes of enemies at a time, and then you introduce this one big guy with a fuckton of health who isn't any fun to fight, because all the levels and weapons are designed around fighting multiple enemies at once. Same goes for HR, where the bosses tell non-lethal stealth players to go fuck themselves. Luckily I happened to carry an upgraded 10mm pistol just in case because I'd heard the game would pull this kind of bullshit. The boss fight arenas do contain illogically placed weapon caches for stealth players to get armed, though that feels like a band-aid more than anything. In DX the bosses might have been a joke which would die in a single GEP or killphrases, but they weren't a pain in the ass. Well, the bosses in HR aren't a pain in the ass if you know what you are doing. The first boss can be solved through liberal application of concussion/EMP grenades and an armor-piercing pistol. The second can also be solved through liberal application of concussion/EMP grenades and an armor-piercing pistol. The aforementioned tactics won't work on the third, but for the third I just activated my cloak in front of the boss and stunlocked him to death with my heavy rifle I spent lugging around the whole game just in case. The fourth boss was somewhat more interesting in that regard, but still easy if you knew what you were doing. That said, the bosses themselves aren't even that interesting. The first one will chase you with a minigun as you hide behind cover, the second one performs hit and run attacks while running away cloaked, the third boss has a slightly more interesting arena layout, but the attacks are too simple. The final boss is essentially a bunch of rotating turrets while enemies spawn in, and probably easier than the rest. The set-up for the third and last were pretty cool though. The Tyrants themselves didn't get much in the way of characterization aside from the intro level and some e-mails (read the novels if you want your backstories, nerd), which is kind of a shame. I heard the Missing Link has a boss fight done right, but I'll check on the Missing Link later.

I do love the new cyber-renaissance artstyle of HR. One gripe with DX I felt is that most of the world looked like it would belonged in today's time rather than the future. I guess that's a more realistic approach, but stuff like architecture, fashion, and culture do certainly change with the times. However, it seems the art in HR took a precedence over visual clarity. I'm talking about the piss filter here, and I'm fairly sure it's a filter, because the CGI cutscenes look more colorful than the game. I don't mind the main color of the game being yellow, but the problem with modern games is that there is a lot of visual clutter which makes it hard to discern objects from backgrounds. This is hardly the case in games like Deus Ex and Thief where you can discern an object from miles away. At times I wasn't sure what objects were interactable with in HR and which weren't, so I ended up turning on the object highlight to be sure. The lack of interactable objects is also kind of a shame. The object highlight in HR isn't too intrusive, but made hidden objects pop out more than they should've, although I wouldn't be entirely sure that I could spot those secrets without the highlight because of how much objects tend to blend with the environment. Another thing which the object highlight completely makes obvious is the breakable walls. Breakable walls are denoted by a crack (and a contextual action pop-up if you happen to walk past one without realizing it), but the object highlight smears a giant yellow outline around it. I'm not sure if breakable walls were supposed to be secret in the first place, but with your first cell always automatically recharging I had an uncontrollable urge to break down every last wall I saw. Remember how I said your lockpicks and multitools were limited? Artstyle is great on paper, but could do with more colors and less yellow.

When everyone heard Icarus in the original HR reveal trailer, most people thought it sounded pretty good, including myself. The soundtrack in HR... is a bit too ambient for my tastes. This is more subjective than anything, but I think the soundtrack in HR is more ambient than it should be. Aside from Icarus, the UNATCO theme rearrangement, and maybe some tunes during the Hyron Project fight, nothing ever stood out to me. The problem with hiring these kind of high-profile composers is that they are often just used to composing background noise as cinematic bullcrap demands it. I don't think it has anything to do with the skill of the composers, but rather the direction of the soundtrack. It's why IMO the soundtrack of HR can't even come close to DX's soundtrack. DX's OST was memorable. It had recognizable melodies, wasn't afraid to get serious, and was varied. When you hear one track of Deus Ex's soundtrack, you are immediately transported to that one level. One problem with HR's soundtrack is that all of it sounds too samey. Everything sounds like it was composed in the same style. The Hengsha hub might've had more oriental-sounding instruments, but aside from that I can't really describe what sets one track from the other. You can't put the UNATCO theme, Opponent Within, DuClare Chateau, Hong Kong Streets, and the MJ12 Lab theme in the same album and possibly call it samey. All the different locations you visit should have vastly different themes to accompany them and make one level/track stand out more from the other. I don't deny that HR has some pretty good ambient tracks or that ambient soundtracks can be good (see: Thief), but in terms of a soundtrack for a game like Deus Ex: Human Revolution, a soundtrack in the style of the original Deus Ex would have suited the globetrotting you do a whole lot more. Maybe some people prefer atmospheric cyberpunk ambience when walking down a metropolis, that's fine by me, but the lack of variation and memorability is what brings HR's OST down for me.

The story is okay-ish, though even Jensen acknowledges that following random leads and making big leaps is what he's been doing the entire time. There are a lot of similar story beats to the original (everyone is reliant on expensive drugs as a means for the Illuminati to control the population, you are a special case who does not require such drugs, you can rescue your pilot from a life or death situation, there is a hotel ambush after you meet up with someone important, underwater ocean labs, visiting China to meet a Tong, the final boss is hooked to a giant supercomputer, etc.) if you pay attention. The game also asks the important question about the ethical constraints of augmentation, though the argument surrounding the dependency on Neuropozyne kind of falls flat if you consider that Sarif Industries was about to unveil augmentations which didn't require Neuropozyne. The game does a good job of staying neutral while showing how divided everyone in the world is through NPC conversations, riots, faction leaders, and other events. There is no definite answer to be found to the question, just opportunists and the misinformed masses (unlike DX where everything is the work of Majestic 12). There are plenty of e-books scattered around the world explaining the lore, although most of it was technobabble on the workings of augmentations or propaganda, and are quite frankly not interesting to read. It does earn you a Scholar XP bonus, so there's that. The voice acting is certainly a step up from the original's amateur VAs and terrible foreign accents, people in Hengsha actually speak Mandarin and the average person on the street sounds more convincing. Jensen is more of an actual character than an one-liner dispensing robot than JC was, and opinions on that may vary. Some prefer an emotionless cypher to play as, some like to play with someone who had a past and shows some emotion. I don't think the dialogue was as thought-provoking as the original, though. Most high-ranking people you talk to are so far up their ass with nothing really interesting to say. The themes of conspiracies and 'trust nobody' were executed much better in the original when you were taken to the MJ12 base beneath the UNATCO bunker as you made your escape while meeting all of your former workers. In HR it was rather obvious everyone was hiding something. Since HR is a prequel, you thankfully don't get to fight the Illuminati immediately. A common pitfall with prequels is to interweave too many things then what was originally intended. HR is thankfully not that guilty of that crime (there are some shout-outs to Deus Ex characters you never meet, although the bonus mission where you save Tong Jr. was a bit too much) and leaves many things intentionally open for the inevitable sequels. We'll see in August how that pays off. The way the endings are presented to you do suck though. You literally have to press one of four buttons to decide the course of humanity. Two of them are locked until you talk to the required person in the last level (something which does not get a quest marker!). If I can just reload my save to see what would happen if I'd press the other button, the idea of having to choose something with no real gameplay consequences later on is kind of pointless. At least Deus Ex had you perform different tasks in the last level to get your desired ending, and made it feel that you were working towards something to make it happen.
And I wish they'd stop reusing Lambert's VA for everything. I don't want my CO to voice a bunch of nobody guards, damnit.

Also something new is the social augmentation. There are now new kinds of 'dialogue battles' where you are trying to convince the other into giving something you want. Unlike the actual boss battles, these ones do not hinder progress, and are actually quite nice. The dialogue is a mix of old and modern, where you see keywords highlighting the core of the dialogue options, but you do also see what exactly (sometimes relatively) what you're about to say. During these 'battles' you can usually choose between three approaches and it's up to you to decide which one will be the most effective. If you have the social aug installed (I think) you also get to see the personality of the person you are dealing with. Depending on what your opponent says, you get to see which personality (alpha, beta, omega) their lines resonate with the most. At some point you can activate your social aug, release some pheromones, and choose one of three approaches (which one is the most effective depends on the personality type of your opponent, and requires you to pay attention to the dialogue instead of just skipping it), although your pheromone attack kind of feels like an instant cop-out if you paid some attention to the blinking lights. But the game does recognize this as you trying to brute-force your way through to victory regardless of anything you just said, and sometimes using your pheromone attack might not produce the most desirable results even if you do win. The real dialogue battles also come with a psychological profile of your opponent which can provide you with some hints with what to say. It is kind of weird how using your pheromone attacks can magically convince anyone to see the light, though. I thought you were ex-SWAT, not Jesus.

While I can laugh at something as absurd as the windmill Gundam in G Gundam, the whole Windmill character had me cringing to no end. Consider me triggered, but when you first discover that the password to the Dutchman hacker's PC is WINDMILL, and then it turns out that's his actual alias. When you actually meet him, I can't tell whether he is doing a terrible impression of a Dutch or a Jamaican accent because DUDE WEED LMAO. Even one of the fucking TYM guards jokes that a password to one of his systems could be windmilla dfahuisdhiujkdaskjdfuckigrgnfrogjks

tl;dr While nobody expected HR to fill in the huge shoes of the original, it surprised everyone by not being as bad as Invisible War. The UI is still functional for PCs, you can still see that the spirit of DX is there to some extent, it manages to do some original things for better or worse, and it certainly could have gone much worse if you look at most reboots and modern sequels. The game is held back by many odd design choices and a lack of scope, and may be worth one or two playthroughs. However, it is still a farcry from the original. If you want to satisfy your Deus Ex urges, replay Deus Ex again with a mod like GMDX or something. If you want an action packed trip to Detroit, then Human Revolution might do the trick.

[mamboFoxtrot]

Playing LoZ: Twilight Princess* HD on Hero mode and thinking the same thing I thought last time I played this: Why the hell did they never put Pegasus Boots in a 3D Zelda game? I mean, really, these games need 'em a lot more than the 2D ones ever did (while I'm at it, when's Roc's Cape in a 3D Zelda?)... I'm also remembering the weird thing this game did where they give you the single clawshot, but then 90% of all the secrets require the double ones.
Last time I played this was on the Wii, so Hero Mode being flipped basically just makes this the non-waggle version for me. It's nice that I don't start swinging my sword whenever I twitch, and it's also nice that I can actually do the shield bash attack, but I miss being able to do spin attacks with a separate input. I mean, this version allows for the 360 command, but it doesn't come out as reliably for me as it did in Wind Waker.
Hero Mode's damage bump + no heart drops ultimately doesn't mean much, as enemies are still extremely non-aggressive, and bosses are all static, exploitable patterns. If memory serves, though, Darknuts and Icicle Knights were at least a threat, so maybe things'll get a little more interesting when I get to them?
*Alternate subtitles: Toilet Princess; Titty Princess


@Durandal holy god pls put that in a hide tag jeezuss

[Immryr]

That post

[soprano1]

Gave up on Bioshock. Story and design were great, but it didn't felt "good" to me, dragged too much imo.
Time to go back to Sonic Advance 2, and then 3.
Too bad Dragon Quest VII 3DS is only released in September.

[broken harbour]

Bioshock is a game that I loved at the time, but now that it's nearly a decade old... it shows....

Still an awesome setting and environment though.

[professor ganson]

Got to the final stage/final boss in Disgaea 4 (Vita) with no grinding whatsoever, but I couldn't quite complete that final stage. I'm guessing it would be possible to complete the entire game without grinding by somehow milking more experience out of the story levels, e.g. by doing more team attacks. I'm not sure.

Now I'm playing Sorcery Saga (Vita), the best curry-related game I've ever played. Super cute and so far I like the gameplay.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Bioshock is a game that I loved at the time, but now that it's nearly a decade old... it shows....

Still an awesome setting and environment though.

What do you think is wrong with it these days? I played it for the first time about 2 years ago and the only gripes I had were the time it took to switch between guns and plasmids, and the damned escort mission near the end. I think it would be damn near perfect if you could use plasmids while holding the pistol, given how combat is often so environment focused.

[Jonathan Ingram]

I replayed both Bioshock 1 and 2 last summer. Still as good as ever. Now Bioshock Infinite... That was a stinker even upon release. Dull shooting mechanics, linear level design and a schizophrenic story about parallel universes, time loops, songbirds and crazed black Jacobins. Every plot twist is explained with "everything is possible when quantum mechanics are involved".

[Squire Grooktook]

That post

Yeah.

Durandal, some constructive criticism: You might consider posting stuff like that on a blog or something. It's not good forum reading material. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm here to discuss and exchange ideas in a lively fashion, not read a research paper for 10 minutes while drinking coffee. Several paragraphs is acceptable (as I'm doing now), but when your post dwarfs a college essay, its perhaps better served elsewhere.

Hell, most reviews shouldn't be that long. Look at BIL's quick but informative posts which get to the heart of the games he talks about concisely and eloquently for reference. You don't need to analyze the layout of every single stage, but give a general overview of the level design style, standout good/bad parts which particularly affect the experience, and the general flow, for instance. Brevity is the soul of wit.

3 page long essays like that are probably more suited to"extended blog thoughts for hardcore fans of the game/work in question".

Not to downplay the actual quality of your writing. I enjoyed you Star Wars TFA critque. But there's a time and a place for that sort of writing.

[Durandal]

That post

Yeah.

Durandal, some constructive criticism: You might consider posting stuff like that on a blog or something. It's not good forum reading material. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm here to discuss and exchange ideas in a lively fashion, not read a research paper for 10 minutes while drinking coffee. Several paragraphs is acceptable (as I'm doing now), but when your post dwarfs a college essay, its perhaps better served elsewhere.

Hell, most reviews shouldn't be that long. Look at BIL's quick but informative posts which get to the heart of the games he talks about concisely and eloquently for reference. You don't need to analyze the layout of every single stage, but give a general overview of the level design style, standout good/bad parts which particularly affect the experience, and the general flow, for instance. Brevity is the soul of wit.

3 page long essays like that are probably more suited to"extended blog thoughts for hardcore fans of the game/work in question".

Not to downplay the actual quality of your writing. I enjoyed you Star Wars TFA critque. But there's a time and a place for that sort of writing.

Eh, it ended up spiraling out of control once I wanted to write something down before I left the confines of my PC in order to visit my family in Croatia since the sense of urgency left me unable to seriously play any games anymore.

I think I did give a brief overview of most things, it's just that since I spend one paragraph for each element in HR, and HR is a big game, there ends up being a lot to talk about. I'll try to keep it more concise in the future.

[Squire Grooktook]

It's okay. I certainly understand the feeling. Trimming and editing can be just as difficult a skill to master as the writing itself. It can be quite painful to force yourself to remove things that you consider important to your thoughts and overall expression.

[Mischief Maker]

I have no problem with long-form reviews on this site. I wish there were more! I trust the opinions of people on this site when it comes to action games a zillion times more than the gaming press.

Either put the whole thing in a spoiler tag or make a dedicated non-shmup review thread, but please don't stop with the reviews!

[Leandro]

Finished Tomb Raider Underworld... TR trilogy Anniversary, Legend and Underworld finally finished... Legend and Underworld were too easy but I liked them. Anniversary was the best.

Now to Blazblue CP extend... Just played a bit of Story mode and the gay incest is strong in this one... "Brrooother"

[Ed Oscuro]

Virgin Interactive Entertainment presents...
The Westwood Studios production of...
Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos.

All narrated by Patrick Stewart. This may be basically just a gussied-up Dungeon Hack, but damn, why don't they make games like this anymore? Baccata's voice actor cracks me up. (I was actually just interested in the series because there's a HL mod which attempts to recreate some of the game, and then I noticed parts 2 and 3 are semi-3D. But this game is sticking with me more than that.)

[Immryr]

i think long forum posts are fine. it's easy enough to just scroll past them if you don't want to read them.

[BIL]

Relaxing with Return of Double Dragon (SFC, not SNES). My Technos of choice for the simple pleasure of beating an outmatched enemy until he can't even bust. ¦3





Those armlocked flurries to the body and face never get old mang. ¦3 *BAP* *BAP* *BAPBAPBAP*

SFC Combatribes, DD2FC and DDAdvance are sharper, faster and harder games, but RODD's mechanics give it a unique choreography that offsets the lower game speed. Once you know how the slightly altered Technos Backstabber™ AI works (they'll stubbornly turtle while retreating to optimal striking range, so let 'em back up - your cue to counterstrike or lock an incoming limb) it's a cinch engineering seamless 1/2v4 beatings that'd do vintage Norris or JCVD proud. Great animations, sound effects and, as always with Technos, pain expressions. It's all about pain. (｀ω´メ)

[Shelcoof]

Super Double Dragon is my favorite Double Dragon of all time!
Great choice

When I think of why I loved the SNES so much that game always pops up.

[rapoon]

devil daggers. best $5 spent. trying to break 200 seconds.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Sky Odyssey yesterday. With games this immaculate, by devs basically never heard of before and since, one has to wonder "what if..."

[Leandro]

Playing Blazblue CPEX with a chinese player... Lots of fun, he's new to the game like me, hilarious matches

[Mischief Maker]

Just picked up Grim Dawn.

This is very good, and I didn't even like Diablo 2!

[atheistgod1999]

I know I should be playing more shmups, but I couldn't resist playing Demon's Souls. Just finished the tutorial and am now in the Nexus. Sucks how they made no-death-runs literally impossible

Also: I read the manual as I've done with every game I've played since NES Punch-Out!! because I usually learn a couple things (besides the characters and plot) I wouldn't have on my own. I already know how to parry thanks to that

[Blinge]

I know I should be playing more shmups

The first rule of system11 is that no one here plays shmups.

Also you can beat vanguard/tutorial boss. You just get killed in a cutscene by something else afterwards.

[atheistgod1999]

I'm making a new game because I didn't feel like I was off to a very good start. This time, I'm going deeper into the character creation. How do I change the eye and eyebrow colors? I'd search for it but I'd probably be bombarded with spoilers.

UPDATE: I made it anyway despite not 100% liking the eye and eyebrow colors. New issue: FUCK ONLINE!

I thought the bloodstains were put there by the devs, causing me to kill myself by walking off the highest point in the Nexus because I thought that's what I was supposed to do to progress. Looking at the online play part of the manual that I originally skipped due to thinking that online play would be optional like any other game I've played (even NSMBU allowed me to disable Miiverse) and now I wanted to disable it, I found out that they are left by players before they died. FUCK ME!

There's also no way to tell which messages are left by devs and which aren't, leaving me vulnerable to spoilers and retarded immature shit like "Sticky White Stuff" (then again, I'm probably getting a taste of my own medicine with the latter).

HOW THE FUCK DO I DISABLE IT!?

[tomwhite2004]

Sign out of psn before starting / loading your game and you get a prompt to play offline. And relax will ya!

[Chaos Phoenixma]

If you're offline, you'll only see the dev messages.

Sticky White Stuff is an item that gives your weapon magic damage for a bit. So that tip is meant for use this because something is vulerable to magic damage. Of course, you know the Internet will be the Internet. Keep in mind that the messages are limited to certain strings and words, you don't get to just type in anything.


I like the online messages just to see how people cleverly use them or not so cleverly. And some people will put false ones hoping people fall for it and die. Some of the spots where you see messages about True Love in Demon's, or the Fantastic Chest ahead(when not being used about treasure) in Dark Souls. Or the comments about Fatty before O&S in Dark Souls.


Once you've been through the tutorial, you're allowed to skip it on other characters. You'll still start in Soul Form and the game mentioning you dying, but that makes a no death run possible unlike the next Souls game.


There is a reason people intentionally suicide in the Nexus. I won't mention or spoil it since it may affect how you play, and you're meant to do multiple runs to get everything anyway.

[Ruldra]

Recently found out about Town of Salem, been playing a bit. Pretty fun.

Town of Salem is a browser-based game that challenges players on their ability to convincingly lie as well as detect when other players are lying. The game ranges from 7 to 15 players. These players are randomly divided into alignments – Town, Mafia, Serial Killers, Arsonists and Neutrals. If you are a Town member (the good guys) you must track down the Mafia and other villains before they kill you. The catch? You don’t know who is a Town member and who is a villain. If you are an evil role, such as a Serial Killer, you secretly murder town members in the veil of night and try to avoid getting caught.

https://www.blankmediagames.com/

It's free, just create an account and off you go.

[atheistgod1999]

Holy shit.

Spoiler

I knew Demon's Souls was good, but not face-meltingly-awesome good.

Just wondering: Do I still get trophies if I'm playing in offline mode? I signed back into PSN as soon as I reloaded the game.

[null1024]

Sonic Advance 1 [GBA].
It's a more competent game than I remembered it. Shit, it's fucking great.

It's Sonic 2, but better. All around better. Stage themes follow a similar trend and it's the game the stage design is more reminiscent of, but with more speed boosters.

If the music and visuals were a tad better [they're good, just not great], it'd likely be more fondly remembered. Last few levels have a few poor object placements here and there, Egg Rocket does a poor job of conveying where you're supposed to go [mostly because the platform you need to reach is tends to be floating just off screen, without a ring trail or something leading toward it -- with a higher display resolution, this wouldn't be an issue at all], and the Casino Paradise boss is kind of not fun. Nothing worse than the last stretch of Sonic 2.

Ice Mountain's boss was a lot more enjoyable than I remembered it, surprisingly enough.

The only particularly dumb thing was the final boss. Wait for RNG, pray for him moving across [or the hand], try not to get hit by whatever, repeat. I appreciate that the hand is dangerous as fuck and makes it so you can't reliably reach your rings when you lose them, I don't appreciate waiting ages for an opening, getting bored and then getting hit by surprise and then grabbed by the hand and then killed by a the laser.

he's not hard -- easiest way to kill him turns out to just wait in the far corner, don't get up close to him unless he's moving or the hand is retracting

Also, is there a better GBA emulator than VisualBoy Advance or no$gba these days?
Both don't seem to run that well for me on Win 7 -- I can run games at like several thousand percent speed unbounded, but screen updates are kind of jerky and visibly not proper 60fps with anything but DirectDraw in VBA [which seems to force bilinear interpolation].
Shit's not nice. Frameskip is turned off completely, it's like whole frames aren't being drawn at all.

[WelshMegalodon]

mGBA is the no$gba killer these days, although higan's GBA core is reportedly catching up. Even VBA-M is a better alternative.