🚀 go-pugleaf

mike_no...@yahoo.co.uk (Mike Noren) wrote in message news:<6a0d745b.02082...@posting.google.com>...
[snip]
> If so, it sure is a long warmup. I've passed Hong Kong and am right
> now in a superfreighter in NY. That's the seventh 'scene', perhaps 20
> hours into the game, roughly half-way according to a game site I
> visited, and the story hasn't picked up pace any.

You should be well into the story now. Is Sarah Renton still in NY?
Did you meet her boyfriend? How's Paul doing? There are a lot of
things affected by your choices. You won't see all the story branches
one time through.

> Deus Ex is trailing Half Life in the story & atmosphere department by
> about a mile, jockeying for position with relative light-weights such
> as Unreal. I don't think I will complete it, I am already losing
> interest.

I loved Half-Life but Deus Ex has more story depth by an order of
magnitude or two.

> I've seen, what, three apparent choices in this game so far, e.g.
> whether I should kill Lebedev myself or let Wotshername the evil UN
> hitgirl kill him; or whether to go out the window from my bro's hotel
> room or escort the rushing idiot through the waiting *hordes* of cops
> and bots.

There are a lot more choices than you seem to be aware of. Did you
rescue Smuggler's friend? How many people in Half-Life do you get to
have a conversation with - let me think ZERO! Now how many people can
you talk to in Deus Ex? There's a whole lot of story depth revealed in
those conversations but you have to do bit of work to get it.
 
> I've tested both options whenever practical (but dropped the ball with
> brother - to keep him from rushing I went out the window and
> eliminated the troops from the outside-in, but when I got back to the
> room bro was already gone - presumably he disappeared the second I
> left through the window - and I just didn't care enough to replay the
> section again) and neither seems to have changed the story
> significantly.

The major storyline is relatively fixed. As it is in virtually all
such single player games. But there are a lot a little sub-plots that
have interesting effects throughout the game.

> Or is 'depth' just deciding on whether to specialize in sniping or
> jumping?

Here Deus Ex is two orders of magnitude better than Half-Life. There
are lots of feasible styles of play and usually several solutions to
every game problem.

[snip]
> Huh? I assume you mean that it's really Illuminati/MJ12 doing it, but
> its the UN who's doing the actual spreading of the virus. In black
> choppers. There's been no further plot twist since I switched sides.

Just what makes you think that? MJ12 has their own stealth choppers -
you should know that from Hong Kong. You've reached the freighter -
you should know that you are there to stop them from spreading the
virus in the US via helicopter. At least in New York grey death "is
something they put in the water" - you should have discovered that
very early.

[snip]
> IMO as a veteran of thousands of deathmatches, there is only one way
> of playing Deus Ex: sneaky.
> 
> There always exist a heavily guarded highway, but you *can't* go in
> guns blazing - your weapons are too weak. Quake-style playing simply
> isn't an option when every guard requires two point blank shotgun
> blasts to the head to go down ('realistic' my ass!). Sneaking is not
> only possible, but necessary and easy, even though it is not my
> natural style of play.

Sneaking is my preferred style - but it is quite possible to go in
terminator style with the right augmentations and equipment. Try
again.

> Sneaking would be a lot quicker with a decent silenced weapon with a
> lot of ammo, but only two of the 'normal' weapons, the sniper rifle
> and the pistol, produce one shot kills (on bog-standard guards), and
> the sniper rifle is perpetually low on ammo. And the enemies instantly
> know where you are even when doing silenced distance kills.

There is a problem with all enemies withing a certain distance knowing
your exact location as soon as you shoot one. But you are quite wrong
about the one-shot kills. With skill upgrades and augmentations a lot
of weapons can be used to make a one shot kill - especially if you
have surprise. Shotguns, Combat Knife, XBow Dart, Throwing Knife,
Sword, Dragon Tooth. As to ammo - there is mucho plenty around if you
look.

> Now, with the dragon tooth one can rush the enemy, but many of them
> explode upon death, so killing with a melee weapon is often not a good
> idea.

Only the MIBs/WIBs, Anna, and Gunther explode. Even with them there is
enough of a delay between the death blow and the explosion for a
_skilled_ player to escape the blast. Aside from that, I love using
the sword and throwing knives, more style points in my book.

[snip]
> >What do you find irritating? Personally, I think Deus Ex has the best
> >inventory system around. Do you realize that _any_ item can be
> >assigned to the 9 quick access slots?
> 
> Obviously, as the game does that automatically (yes, I know you can
> reassign them). What I mean is things such as that I couldn't pick up the 
> LAW even though I had nine empty slots in the inventory, and the LAW 
> requires only four. Because the LAW requires four _consecutive horizontal_ 
> slots, and there's no way of knowing just by looking at it.

Point taken. Guess I just got used to it.

> The augmentations haven't really mattered at all so far, not for the
> central storyline action. The speed/jump augmentation has allowed me
> to reach some 'hidden' extra goodies, the strenght aug has abled me to
> lug explosive barrels around to blow up doors and bots, and the remote
> probe is like a target seeking EMP grenade - but none of this has been
> necessary for the story.

Of course not - why would you expect it to? What they do open
different paths to the same intermediate objectives - enhance one
style of play relative to another.
 
> The biggest issue with this game is weapons balancing - many are
> either ridiculously underpowered, e.g. the completely useless stealth
> pistol,

Hardly useless. It's damage per second is on a par with the assault
rifle. Virtually no recoil so a rapid second shot is as accurate as
the first. Very high rate of fire. It's a far better weapon than the
standard pistol. Just understand it takes two shots rather than one.

> ... ridiculously overpowered, e.g. the dragon tooth and riot prod,

Don't think so. In what way is the Dragon Tooth overpowered? Above you
said using it isn't such a good idea?

> The playtesters deserve to be spanked.

Perhaps. But, perhaps you might learn the game a bit better. First
time through I thought the shotguns were terrible - and they are until
you invest in improving the rifle skill to at least advanced level.
Now, I know that the Assault Shotgun is superb in the hands of an
expert.

> Furthermore the sound effects, especially the weapons sound effects,
> are deeply unsatisfying. The shotgun sounds like closing a book. And
> all weapons except the pistol, the shotgun, and the (weak)
> submachinegun suffer from shortage of ammo.

There is plenty of ammo for all the weapons. Methinks you are wasting
a bit or not diligent enough searching the nooks and crannies.
  
> The nicest thing about this game, and the chief reason I keep playing,
> remains the graphics. At 1280x1024x32 with FSAA it remains clean,
> fast, and detailed. Some settings are also nice, frequently both
> original and interesting - for instance I definitely get the
> impression the designers knew Hong Kong well. And the voice acting
> isn't too bad.
> 
> But, as I said, I doubt I'll ever finish it: right now it's only
> bloody mindedness that keeps me going, 'cause the superfreighter is
> BORING to clear out. 

But I loved the navy yard and freighter. There are so many, many ways
to play it. Try it without killing any innocents - those soldiers,
sailors, and chinese police believe they are protecting a load of
vaccine from terrorists. Is it ethical to murder them? Don't recall
any ethical choices in Half-Life.

> ... The story doesn't grip me, and the action doesn't give me my daily 
> fix of adrenaline. I'll take Half Life or Medal of Honor: Allied Assault 
> over Deus Ex any day.

No problem. Different sort of game for different people, different
moods. I set aside Deus Ex halfway through first time to run through
Half-Life again. The darkness and gloom got to me. But I came back,
finished it and played it again ... and again ... and every time I
discovered something new. I'd call that depth. No it isn't the daily
adrenline fix, don't think it was intended to be, don't think it
should. But I find it far more intellectually stimulating.