Deus Ex: Human Revolution

[DarthParametric]

Too late - gone.

[Sabretooth]

Deus Ex novel announced. Deus Ex: The Icarus Effect

[DarthParametric]

IGN has a preview up - http://pc.ign.com/articles/110/1105374p1.html

 

No real new info, but they certainly seem very positive about it.

[TriggerGod]

Deus Ex novel announced. Deus Ex: The Icarus Effect

 

inb4ICARUSHASFOUNDYOU

[Sabretooth]

According to a tweet by Square Enix's Sonia, the first gameplay trailer for Deus Ex: Human Revolution will be going live in about half an hour from now. Oh goodie.

[Revan 411]

http://www.gamefocus.ca/?nav=new&nid=10547

 

Gameplay look's awesome in my opinion. It provides a nice, satisfying, reminisces of the original game, while at the same time provides new, modern, and enhanced RPG features that could potentially revolutionize the whole hybrid RPG/FPS genre.

 

My only complaint are the graphics. The textures aren't exactly "2010 standards", and Adam's beard looks somewhat... abysmal compared to the rest of his face.

[jrrtoken]

Oh goodie, our Deus Ex got replaced by Mass Effect meets The Matrix.

[Miltiades]

You can't judge gameplay of a Deus Ex game by a 2-minute trailer. But to me, it gave a good impression. I like the look and feel of Human Revolution.

[jrrtoken]

You can't judge gameplay of a Deus Ex game by a 2-minute trailer. But to me, it gave a good impression. I like the look and feel of Human Revolution.

Frankly, much was reminiscent of Deus Ex; walking through the streets; climbing through ventilation shafts; crate platforming; and - hold your breath - picking up and dragging bodies. I mean, that's great if they can imbue the player with enough creative agency as Deus Ex, and from what we've seen, I think that the developers get the DX formula.

 

What really irked me was the amount of, ah, cinematic influence in every melee sequence; if it's really like that, then it's VATS all over again. Granted, I wish that they'd show more weapons that aren't exclusively weapons (riot prod, gas grenade, pepper spray, etc.) I'm also a bit disappointed that we didn't see any UI interaction, like browsing through computer directories and hacking; but I guess it's still early, really.

[Sabretooth]

I'm also a bit disappointed that we didn't see any UI interaction, like browsing through computer directories and hacking; but I guess it's still early, really.

 

While there's no word on the sort of UI there will be, the security computer interface (in its current state) was teased for a split-second in the CG trailer where Adam tries to access the security computer before it denies access. They put out a screenshot of the real thing out too.

 

There's been a couple magazine articles detailing the weapons (and how they're based off of real predictions regarding weapons technology in the future). Link 1, Link 2.

[DeadYorick]

I'm not predicting the same depth in the gameplay or the setting as Deus Ex did.

 

I'll probably get it for my collection. But i'll be extremely critical of it

[Sabretooth]

Gamescom is on, and 1UP has the most optimism-building preview so far.

 

When we last spoke with Warren Spector, director on the original Deus Ex, about what he hoped to see from Deus Ex: Human Revolution (the prequel he has nothing to do with), he said he wanted Eidos Montreal to retain the element of gameplay choice that fans loved so much about the original. After having seen a demo of Human Revolution at Gamescom today, we're eager to inform Warren that his hope has been met -- Human Revolution looks as if it may even surpass the original in terms of its depth and gameplay choices.

 

The demo we saw was actually shown to us three different times -- it's the same exact scenario, just played through with entirely different approaches. Here's the setup: about 90 minutes into the game, you're given the task of infiltrating the morgue at a police headquarters to retrieve a chip embedded in a dead terrorist's head. This terrorist is part of a group against transhumanism (people augmented with cybernetics, which is the product Sarif Industries, your in-game employer). But here's the catch: the terrorist himself has cybernetic implants. So he must be some sort of plant within the terrorist organization -- but a plant by who? The government? You're on a mission to find out, which is why it's imperative you get access to the morgue and get that chip.

 

You have a few different ways to reacquire the chip. The first we see is probably what many gamers will instinctively do -- blast their way inside. That's exactly what our demoer does; he basically runs in, guns blazing, and shows off some of the cool tactics at your disposal. As he makes his way through one of the police offices, he picks up a copy machine and throws it forward to use as cover. Once behind it, he's able to position himself to blindfire at cops (who are using their own desks as cover). We also see how you can use your X-ray vision augmentation, which highlights exactly where enemies are within the environment (we could see several waiting behind some cube walls).

 

After that, we get a demo of some weapon choices, like enhancing the pistol with explosive bullets (each weapon has multiple possible upgrades). Another cool example of this is the mine template -- a schematic that lets you combine a mine with any sort of grenade you have in your inventory. And if you were wondering, yes, there are also weapons that just stun your opponents instead of killing them. Anyway, our demoer makes his way through the station, unfortunately taking out plenty of cops along the way. He uses mines to disable sensors and eventually makes it to the morgue, gets the chip, and escapes out a lower exit into the sewers.

 

The level is then restarted. The next goal is to use communication skills to, essentially, charm your way inside. The neat thing about taking this route is that you talk to a lot of guards and learn a lot of the backstories between you and them. In one part, you have to convince an old cop friend to stick his neck out for you -- you have to remind him of your history together. It's still possible to "lose" this part -- if you're not convincing enough you'll have to resort to other means (see tactic 1) -- but in our case, the friend gives in and gives us the access we need. And though we don't spend time doing it, you can use your time in the station to find out all sorts of extra information (by digging through peoples' email at unmanned workstations). Anyway, it's relatively painless from then on to make it to the morgue, grab the chip, and walk out the front door. Without an army of policemen in the way, we're able to avoid the sewers altogether.

 

The third and final demo is all about stealth. Our demoer shows how you can walk to the back of the station, use a strength augmentation, then pick up a dumpster and place it next to the security fence to climb safely over. Not that you have to use a Strength Augmentation -- you can simply climb to the top of the roof and make your way in from there. But then you'd have to make your way through multiple floors before getting to the morgue, which seems a lot more difficult. Anyway, once inside, your Cloaking Augmentation makes you entirely invisible to the guards (in fact, if you're careful, you can even steal things off of their desks). However, at one point there's the need to bypass a security door to progress further, which requires you to hack into it. Normally, it would be impossible to break the code, but by using a Cranium Augmentation, your mental skills increase and you're able to break the code with a minigame of sorts (though I should stress it's more of a mind teaser than a time-button-pressing game -- it keeps you in the experience).

 

It's neat to see that, even with all of the Augmentations you have available, you can still assign augmentation points to specific skills. And each skill has its own tree, meaning there's going to be a lot of room to progress your character just the way you like. Another nifty demonstration in this stealth scenario involves a sequence in which a guard passes safely through a section with infrared lasers (because they're tuned to recognize him, turn off, and let him by unharmed ). By stunning and then carrying him, you can make it through this section without setting off any alarms as well. Also cool is the ability to disable cameras and infrared sensors using EMP grenades. With those tactics our demoer eventually makes it to the morgue, gets the chip, and then sneaks out through the sewers (to avoid backtracking all the way through the upper floors again).

 

So those are three disparate ways of obtaining the chip from the police station -- but as you can probably discern, each strategy can be deviated from at any time. Getting spotted while attempting stealth is likely to result in a firefight, as will getting into a heated face-off with one of the guards while attempting Persuasion. Just this small window into the choices and paths available in Human Revolution is enough to have me really excited about the gameplay possibilities in the full version. And that's without even discussing the incredible atmosphere and audio design that wowed us during this and the E3 preview. Few games have me excited as Deus Ex Human Revolution.

[Samnmax221]

http://www.gamefocus.ca/?nav=new&nid=10547

I'm still sitting on the fence, I don't like all this stupid melee (Push this button to kill these guys) ****.

[DarthParametric]

Sounds promising, but god why do devs persist with that mini-game crap?

[Sabretooth]

The brand new Japanese trailer revealed at TGS 2010:

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Looks pretty alright, stuff we've seen before, Japanese VO, blah blah- WHAT THE ****?!

[DarthParametric]

Hrrmm...what's the entrance to the second Death Star doing in the middle of the ocean?

[Sabretooth]

According to research on the official forums, it's called a caisson.

[igyman]

I can't believe how awesome Deus Ex sounds in Japanese. Seriously!

[Sabretooth]

English version of the trailer:

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Notice that the voice at the end has a very synthetic feel to it - that's most likely ELIZA, the digital newscaster AI thing.

 

A slew of new (rather good) screenshots and concept art.

[Sabretooth]

The game was demoed at Eurogamer's Expo yesterday. Here's the gameplay clips:

 

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Not the best quality in the world, but it's better than ScrewAttack's rip.

[DarthParametric]

Interesting. I'm glad that they would appear to have sidestepped one of the major gripes a lot of people have with visually similar conversation systems in ME/AP/DA2/TW2 by previewing the full dialogue for each choice on mouse-over. Hard to be sure from such poor quality footage, but visually it looks to be pretty. The controls looked to be a bit clunky, but that could be a legacy of the fact that he was obviously using a gamepad.

[DarthParametric]

IGN has an interview with Art Director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête - http://au.pc.ign.com/articles/112/1125874p1.html

 

It's no secret I've had my doubts about DE3, but I have to say they've scored a point with me by this guy essentially calling Bioware out on the dumbing down of ME2 and DA2 (even if it was a bit of a leading question). It bodes well for DE3 if it lives up to some of things discussed.

[Sabretooth]

A bit of an update of goings-ons from the HR forums...

 

Difficulty Levels

Somebody got an interview from someone from EM, who said that the game won't have difficulty levels, in favour of self-adjusting difficulty. This was refuted by another member of EM who gave a much clearer (and much better-sounding) answer:

"We are indeed working on 3 difficulty levels: casual, normal and Deus Ex. We are conscious that not everybody wants the same things out of their games. Some play for the challenge, others for the narrative. We wanted players to be able to enjoy the game, regardless of their proficiency level. As for why a Deus Ex level, I believe it comes from reading the forums.

Some people were worried that we’d dumb down the game and make it too easy; that combat would prevail and overshadow the stealth aspect because players wouldn’t die with just a few bullets, especially with the introduction of health regen.Well this level has been tweaked for them. Enjoy."

 

3 difficulty levels: Casual, Normal and 'Deus Ex'

 

No word on what the Deus Ex level has, i.e. whether it has classic-style health and the full monty.

 

Fedorova

A new image of Fedorova, a front-up shot of the super-poly model used for the CG trailers.

 

New Footage

Clickity

Clickity 2, The Revenge of Clickity

A more Deus-Ex-y preview than the last, and this one even shows what they've done with the HUD so far, which I like a lot - doesn't get in the way at all. Note that Adam can still drag bodies while using a pistol with both hands... don't ask.

[DarthParametric]

Note that Adam can still drag bodies while using a pistol with both hands... don't ask.

Maybe he has a groinal socket, just like Kryten, where he can attach various accessories like a third arm.

[Sabretooth]

A couple of new previews with some interesting details.

 

1. The weapon-switching system has changed since the D-Pad style E3 version. Now it seems to be a numbered dial. Return of the toolbelt? Neither version is final yet.

2. The "opening video" of the game takes place a few hours into the game. Curiously, it was said before that the game will feature no FMV sequences and will only have in-engine cutscenes. Either the guy who wrote that is confused or EM is doubling back again. Also apparently, Megan - the scientist who's captured was Adam's ex-girlfriend.

3. You get experience points for winning verbal fights and scoring headshots. These points build up to a level up Praxis point, which lets you upgrade augmentations.

4. The ever-elusive hacking minigame is described this time as a territory-control game of tug-and-war.

 

And now, some new footage with the HUD! Remember that it's far from final right now, so some of the elements might even be just placeholders.

 

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