DX:MD - Jensen's Happy Hacking Illuminati Hunt

[SONNICK]

@Father.Torque

Your “AAA open world games are a hilarious pile mismanaged assets” posts are my favorite.

You’re welcome!
I guess it is one of the things which makes me look forward to these games nowadays, at least until I somehow get hooked again and manage to finish them (while still having lots of fun w/ 'em).

@Iacus

I had the same experience. The tutorial is so unengaging I couldn’t muster the enthusiasms to play.
The fact that it runs like crap in my computer also contributed I guess.

Good thing it immediately opens up when the game proper starts, and it turns interesting realy quick.

Anyway I’ll have to park this one until I upgrade my aging video card.

Yeah, I was looking forward to the game, bought it 1st day, …… and then continued playing watchdogz, after playing the first 10ish minutes. I thought it was just me at first, but after trying to start playing it a second time, and again stopping playing it right after the third tutorial thing, I somehow lost interest … and if my brother wasn’t there when I started playing this the 3rd time, who pushed me onwards to see what that weapon deal thing was all about, I might have ended it there (again). I am still not sure what it is, but something’s pretty amiss in the opening sequence, and I cannot put my finger on what it is.

Also, damn but 2029 dystopic Prague has better cereal variety than modern-day Sweden lol

there has to be something to look forward to, doesn’t it?
Maybe I’ll post some of the weirdo cereal things we have over here later itt!

[SONNICK]

no cereals update today, though a few new impressions from 2029 prague:
since I’ve been to Prague in March, I’ve been looking forward to explore 2029 prague. When discovering that there are Metro-stations in DX:MD, of course I had to check them out:

Compared to the real deal,

the game holds up pretty well:

even when these stations still have to be built until 2029, since none of these are featured on the official™©® metro-map atm: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Prague_metro_plan_2015.svg
Still, I like that Eidos integrated all of these fictional stations into the metro system, even featuring the wall-tiles that are typical for the prague metro stations. The signpost of the Palisády station also seems to hint at this station being one of the stops of the soon-to-be-created (blue) line D that shall connect Namesti Miru to the south/Line C (and, later on, to Line B), so if that’s been a deliberate choice, kudos to the metro-system nerd that would have planned this.

Unfortunately, no metros seem to be arriving/leaving the stations if you aren't choosing a destination/station where you want to go to. I've been looking forward to hearing the automated, famous warning-message of the prague metro when closing doors (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Metro#Announcements for a sample). Also, when travelling by metro, you quickly find out that you have a mother and her kid stalking you, because _they're taking always the same tram as Jensen does_, sth that seems a bit amusing the third time you're _coincidentally_ sharing the same compartment with angsty-mum&kid that are obviously wary of hypergenki-tech-Jensen. _Rich metro side quest plot development incoming?_ who knows, I'll let you know when something noteworthy happens.

So, what is Jensen up to if he’s not obsessing over Metro stations?
Sightseeing, of course:

the game’s pretty cute when it comes to shoving in your face how dystopian unfair future mankind is towards augmented people, so obviously Jerky Jensen would always take the Naturals-entries and platforms in tram stations, only to be shouted at by police officers that aren’t happy with Jensens’ shenanigans. Little does he care tho~~~

Future cars are pretty cool, too, albeit feel like a throwback to edgy 1980ies at times:

- the boxiness at least helps with parking, I guess

some more random notes from the future™:

Dyson seems to have won the hand dryer competition in the future

bikes are in high demand here~~~
… contrary to Knuckles& Knuckles & Knuckles …

… as well as limb clinics.

decided to check out future banksters’ place then,

… and, surprisingly, it looks pretty cool tbh, that floating ceiling-thing is a cool and soothing thingy to watch.

No money => nothing more to do here tho, so Jensen's headin' out to town again, inspecting ads …

(nice way placing that ad, devs. Irony's not lost ~~~)

… and some cool places

(also a cool thing: you can take a few pictures that could seemlessly fit into a collection of pictures taken earlier that year, e.g.

)

tl;dr:
All in all, Jensen’s pretty happy with his tourist day trip. Next stop for his Jenseness’ will be the red-light district, but before that, he decides to go down to the sewers or prague in search of a keycard to a rave party.

to be continued

[GRIMglamfire]

Could we have named this thread Do Sex: Mankind Derided

I don’t think there’s even anyone in this game I can fucK! 2016 has let me down, so far.
I just got this a few days ago.

[SONNICK]

and how are you liking it so far?

it got pushed to the “tbd after watchdogz2, Last Guardian, but before FFXV oh wait Nier’s out next month shiii-”-pile, but it’s kinda cool, browsing through this thread and remembering what I’ve done so far makes me continue my Jensen’s quest for glory soon.

[GRIMglamfire]

I think that the new do-sex has interesting plot threads because it paints the idea of transhumanism as something governments and power brokers are inherently opposed to. not because the flow of technology is something to be controlled, but when you pur the power to bend steel in the hands of people, they will want to bend the bars of their cage. it doesn’t really deliver on that idea meaningfully, rip!

really, there’s a lot of “things” that aren’t delivered on meaningfully in this game! I am excited to see prague turn into Hell. I can only imagine that the reason all of these houses have suspicious high levels and there’s so much street clutter is You’re Boy Jensen needs things to hide behind when prague inevitably turns hostile

[GRIMglamfire]

I miss bob page being kind of fat in the original Deus Ex. I don’t know what to think of Slim Bob

[Iacus]

#?

That ain’t fat.

Also, spoilers, plz?

[Sykel]

I started playing this finally and uuuggghhh this racism allegory, uggghhhh

For one thing, it’s about as subtle as a brick and very shallow, and also it doesn’t work since race and, you know, getting machines stuck on yourself ain’t quite the same thing. I mean, they could have done interesting stuff with the aftermath of THE INCIDENT but this is just bad. Ugggghhhh.

Still, I’m having a good time running around Prague breaking into apartments. More of the same so far but I’m okay with that, and I like how you don’t start completely under-powered.

[Sykel]

I’ve been playing this a lot more and I’m enjoying it, but it fails to progress the series and in fact feels like a step backwards.

The environment design is a big problem, with vents everywhere, including ones in the basements of coffee shops that lead to high security facilities? It all feels so random and silly, in combination with so many doors and windows you can’t enter.

The opening was way too… open and lacked focus.

The AI is shit stupid. I can just hide around a corner and take everyone out as the run around it one by one.

It feels so silly breaking into everyone’s apartment. “Don’t do it and roleplay then!” you say, but then I miss out on heaps of exp and little bits of story. Would work better if the character wasn’t Interpol.

The racism stuff has gotten a lot better, though it feels like Bigotry is Bad 101. Which is more than I can hope for in a modern AAA game, I suppose. I do like some of the conspiracy stuff, though it would be more fun if it wasn’t so true to life right now, like the media using certain language to turn people against minorities. Jensen also gets special treatment so you don’t really get to experience the bigotry for yourself apart from an occasional police stop.

Some of the characters are well-written but I feel we don’t get to spend enough time with them. This is more lonely than previous games.

And so on. Most of these were problems in the previous games, but it feels so much worse here. Everything feels so silly.

The main plot is also not too interesting and very predictable, especially since we already know what happens due to it being a prequel. So far there hasn’t been any interesting twists or turns, it’s just a series of events in succession. Some of the side-missions have been much more interesting, but they all end before they get juicy.

Also there are stupid binary choices where you have to pick one mission over another. This isn’t Deus Ex, darn it.

“Dungeon” design still feels like running through a series of connected boxes for the most part.

This game is also buggy as heck! In fact, a lot of this game makes it feel rushed. Plus there is the whole bullshit DLC thing. It feels like the cut out stuff to add in as DLC later. Blah.

At least there aren’t any dumbass boss fights this time around

It’s not a bad game, but yeah, it’s just not that great. I’m still having a good time, but it feels so hollow compared to the last one (and especially the first one). Feels sloppy and messy. Still better than IW, though.

[BustedAstromech]

yup

The most obvious production cuts I’ve seen in a game this expensive and a comprehensive failure to improve over their impressive-given-the-circumstances first go made it drastically underwhelming.

Handsome but completely lacking in self-reflection from the prior project

[parker]

it felt they realized they could only do 1/3rd of the game they had planned and decided to pad that part out with bullshit errands and subway rides to make it a full game

[Sykel]

ugh yeah, f those quests that just have you going back and forth between subway stations

[Sykel]

I finished the game and pretty much all my opinions stand except I can also add “half-arsed ending.” At least it wrapped up the main story of this particular game, too bad it wasn’t a very interesting one and felt rushed. I quite liked the last mission, and working with all my crew, I just wish I got to know them more so I cared what happened to certain people.

Since I knew it was the last mission, I used all my best stuff and fucked up the terrorists good and proper, that was fun. I didn’t end up using any of the new augs though, they were mostly offensive (or to be used in offensive tactics), and just using guns seemed like less bother. Plus it’s easier to find ammo (though I had a billion biocells by the end).

So yeah. Eh, it’s okay. More disappointing than outright bad.

[Sykel]

OH I FORGOT SOMETHING THAT REALLY BUGGED ME

so it’s obvious rucker was killed by the wine
and then in the mountain base you find a bunch of dead people killed by wine
and in the last mission they are all where is the orchid??
and im like dude it is obviously the wine
and then later miller is all IT’S THE WINE
and i’m like no shit
that really bugged me that i couldnt do anything about it with my knowledge

[BLUE_BLACK_PURPLE]

I saw an interview with Elon Musk where he talked about Overwatch (recommended it, don’t know if he actually plays it), the original Deus Ex, saying it was great and this one. He seemed to know only that the story was shit in this one

[Felix]

I just willed myself past the tutorial of this because it’s a free Plus game (also took me three evenings even though it’s probably 45 minutes long at most) and am vaguely giving it the same shot everyone else did even though it’s manifestly not great. Starting you off with the papers please sidequest was pretty ridiculous, my wife even started humming the Arstotzkan anthem.

[Felix]

honestly the best part of this is “Jensen takes himself too seriously around eastern European NPCs,” I hope that part holds up

this really was comically mis-budgeted though

[SUPERSONNICK]

make sure to ride the Metro!
it adds to the experience… a lot.

[Felix]

good Lord these sidequest dialogue trees are endless

[Felix]

love to be told I have good praxis for tranquilizing the same Georgian guy copy pasted three times into his very own back alley crime syndicate as part of some neverending side quest to get a woman rehearsing lines in the basement of an art gallery for four perfectly modelled teddy bears in bar stools some passports or something all while two hours late and counting to go to my office and actually talk to a plot character for the first time

It’s amazing how quickly this advanced to “glorious trainwreck” status for me, I’m way more morbidly fascinated than I was led to expect