Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

[Oldjim]

I already have two of them and so the Seasons Pass isn't worth it

In any case the first two - Desperate Measures and System Rift are woefully short and not worth buying (I got them as a Pre Order Bonus)

[chakkman]

There's a whole lot of negative comments for the Season Pass too, saying it isn't exactly value for money. Think i'll "Pass" on it then.

[Bikerdude]

its is if you get is cheap enough, like I did for under £10.

[lowenz]

There's a whole lot of negative comments for the Season Pass too, saying it isn't exactly value for money. Think i'll "Pass" on it then.

It's no SO bad: the problem is the ALL package (game+DLCs) seems an INTRO for the real story.....the one you wait for during the actual game

Edited October 25, 2017 by lowenz

[chakkman]

Aye. Think i'll go for it then. A tenner really doesn't seem too much for it.

Edited October 26, 2017 by chakkman

[peter_spy]

I found the complete edition for 7 EUR, so I dedided to give it a go. Just went through Dubai and walked around Prague a bit. I feel the start is rather weak. Exposition dumps, underdeveloped starting mission, UI attacking the player with various messages, prompts, and tutorials. IMO it lacks confidence and pace of DXHR opening, starting from simple to more complex. Hopelfully it gets better later on.

[chakkman]

I totally hated the beginning of Mankind Divided. I guess, like all games these days, that it gets better later. As you say, the UI is completely overwhelming, and made me wonder where to look, and with what i can actually interact.

 

I disliked the "do-gooder" Jensen in the intro as well. I mean, seriously, especially in a role play game where you can actually evolve into a badass as well, that's not very smart of the developers. But, you know, like with everything they try to force political stuff on the player as well, like they do in every Hollywood movie these days too.

Edited May 8, 2018 by chakkman

[Anderson]

But, you know, like with everything they try to force political stuff on the player as well, like they do in every Hollywood movie these days too.

More details please.

 

Deus Ex politics were mostly cheesy conspiracies. But it was fun seeing various speculations with the endings - how to balance society between instincts of human social animals and justice for society.

[peter_spy]

Yeah, there at least several weird things I noticed in the first part. First of all, surprisingly low model quality. Dubai background landscape looks like from 10 years ago. Many models just have a tiling color texture and simple normalmap. I know that with PBR, GI, and AO you can have a lot of things done for you by the engine, but quite a few architectural pieces look like really lazy work:

 

 

 

Also stuff like lipsync feels off, even in major cutscenes. It's too simplified. I'm also not sure about the tone, at least in Prague. I don't speak Czech, but I think there are similar phrases in my language too. I was quite surprised when I sold some junk stuff to a vendor, and he shouted something like "co to za chujnia / what is this fuckery". This is one of the heaviest cuss phrases you can say, at least in my language, and IMO it doesn't fit with other lines, especially those in English. Seems like they didn't do proper research here.

Edited May 8, 2018 by Judith

[Anderson]

I thought kurwa was the best word in Polish.

[peter_spy]

I'm not surprised it's one of the most popular words; that hard "k" and "r" sounds carry anger and frustration like no "fuck" never will

[MoroseTroll]

Judith: I think you'll be surprized hearing a lot of misspelled Czech, Georgian, German, Russian names and surnames in this game.

AFAIK, DX:MD was in development for just 3 years, not 5, as many think. 0.5 year was spent on DLCs for DX:HR, 1.5 years were spent on the "Project Nova" (a Final Fantasy spin-off). Maybe that's why DX:MD has so many issues - perhaps the devs had no enough time to polish it.

Edited May 9, 2018 by MoroseTroll

[lowenz]

Judith: I think you'll be surprized hearing a lot of misspelled Czech, Georgian, German, Russian names and surnames in this game.

 

to polish it.

Is this a joke? :D :D

Edited May 9, 2018 by lowenz

[peter_spy]

A good one And looks like our lovely Stephane Roy was at the helm for this one (executive producer).

[Atomica]

.

Edited August 2, 2018 by Atomica

[peter_spy]

I'm still in Prague, and I even quite like it, although I'm surprised they didn't use the famous Hradčany district and Prague Castle as a setting.

 

My problem with "aug apartheid" is that, while it looks threatening in the beggining, it doesn't go anywhere meaningful with it. Apart from minor setbacks, you're basically untouchable. Like it's a good excuse for having vendors throughout the city that won't sell you anything, because you're an aug, but that's it.

[peter_spy]

Btw. sneaking and exploring Prague apartaments made me wish we had an actual modern Thief game. Imagine you could have much more flexibility in terms of setting, architecture style, and objectives. You could use any setting you want, and steal anything you want, from old paintings and jewels to stuff like information, HDDs and pendrives. The Bow (or a small crossbow) could still be there, along with special arrows. A few more gadgets would do as well, just maybe not too far into tons of tech junk like for Sam Fisher (I'd prefer something more simple). And with engine like UE4 making maps and assets would be much more accessible. Yeah, I know, one can dream

[lowenz]

I'm still in Prague, and I even quite like it, although I'm surprised they didn't use the famous Hradčany district and Prague Castle as a setting.

Yeah, me too I was hoping for the castle (remember the Black Gate level from IW? )

[freyk]

Yeah, I know, one can dream

Mircea and i trying to make that dream possible, as you know,....

(some help would be fine)

Edited May 9, 2018 by freyk

[peter_spy]

You're trying to make a DeusEx style mod for TDM engine. I was thinking about modern-day game (with as little SF as possible) and on a better engine.

[Oktokolo]

You're trying to make a DeusEx style mod for TDM engine. I was thinking about modern-day game (with as little SF as possible) and on a better engine.

Do modern engines support the lighting and sound propagation a thief-like needs?

[peter_spy]

I didn't work with sound yet, but UE4 has two lighting engines: forward and deffered renderer. So you can have both static lights and baked lightmaps/shadows, but also fully dynamic lights where you need them.

[Obsttorte]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IDflM4GuCY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee59T_v3P6g

You obviously have to do some programming to get to the ai to behave like you want it to, same for audio propagation. Although the latter is not the most complicated thing to do.

[chakkman]

We need moar stealth games. Shame that the nowadays' games audience is so action, and "quick success" oriented.

[peter_spy]

Even if there are modern stealth games out there, IMO they rely too much on overwhelming gadgetry. Sam Fisher, Batman, Jensen, they're similar equipment-obsessed characters. Snake looks like he belongs to the same cathegory, but in fact you can beat a lot of MGS games by using almost none of the equipment. Thief has some gadgets too, but it always seem to rely on player skills too. And that's what I find most rewarding.