Deus Ex Franchise - Immersive Sims

[Lt. H. DuBois]

You are not wrong. I mean if there was ever a case to be made for an update/remake of a game....

I would be a nutty world if Invisible Wars got the treatment before the original

 

[Edelgard von Hresvelg]

Still slowly playing through the original game after finishing Human Revolution. Just wrapped up business at the VersaLife Labs and left Hong Kong. The Hong Kong market music kicks ass. The sawed-off shotgun is my favorite weapon so far. I find it way easier to use than the assault shotgun; smaller inventory size, better per-shot damage, faster reload, etc.

I tried playing Mankind Divided, but I'm not sure I'm a fan of Prague. I'll give it another shot once I'm finished with the first game, I guess. I think HR had the better hacking minigame, too. Easier on the eyes.

 

[Chuckwagon]

I've started replaying The Nameless Mod again recently, now that they've finished their 2.0 mega-update and don't seem to be pushing out any more patches or hotfixes. First time I've played it in almost 10 years and the overhauls & new levels are impressive, though the story/setting/in-jokes weren't altered and so remain as impenetrable as ever. The game itself is still as fun or even more-so than I remember, it 100% feels like a much bigger and more in-depth experience than DXIW with huge maps to trawl through (the creators weren't kidding about each playthrough taking a minimum of 15-20 hours to complete, and there are far fewer loading screens to put up with) and unlike the original DX, you get a choice between two highly divergent story branches early on which do feel like radically different experiences (they each have several mutually exclusive levels, and very different objectives on the maps they do share). I must say that although I was never a member of Planet Deus Ex itself before it was shut down (along with the rest of the Gamespy network - God, that was in 2013, it's been a decade but feels more like a century ago...) nor Off Topic Productions, TNM's developer group, the mod still made me feel all nostalgic. Not for either of these communities I was never a part of, but for the 2000s generally.

The in-jokes, FAQ bulletins and forum culture reminded me of forums I used to be a member of 15-20 years ago, before social media & Reddit in particular killed most of those old-school forums (KF itself seems like one of the last of that dying breed) where, yeah, we often had goofy usernames, got to know each other without ever breaching online anonymity (remember when that considered one of the most important lessons to teach your kids before they could use the Internet?), talked at length about the interests that brought us to the forum in the first place or even just shot the shit day-by-day with far less fear of censorship than we would on Reddit now, and naturally developed our own in-jokes & distinctive forum lingo/culture over the years. There's a fan fic 'shop' (more of a library really, since you don't have to pay to read there) in the Downtown map where you can read surprisingly lengthy & polished Deus Ex fanfiction that's no longer available to read elsewhere since 1) they were never posted on popular & enduring fanfiction sites such as AO3 or FF.net and 2) the sites hosting them have long since gone down. And I didn't realize how much I missed leetspeak until I got a dialogue option to boast about pwning some guys I just killed after a successful mission. So on, so forth. For a game whose tone is very much on the humorous & light-hearted side, especially compared to DX itself, my TNM playthrough is actually feeling terribly melancholic & wistful (more-so than many modern games that actively try to tug at my heartstrings, in fact).

Fittingly for this subject, Off Topic Productions - the developers of TNM I mentioned above - had a site & forum of their own. The site, and it seems OTP itself, have been dead since late 2009; it seems they tried & failed to go professional, and then fell apart after releasing TNM back in '09 as everyone went off to do their own things & live their own lives. The forum meanwhile seems to have actually managed to remain consistently slightly alive for many more years as people periodically popped in to ask questions, drop a review or just look for their old friends, and it even got a jolt of new activity around 2019-21 when work on TNM 2.0 was ongoing. But even this limited activity finally completely died off and the place was overrun by spam in more recent years - a tragically familiar sight for anyone who's seen their old forum hangouts turn into graveyards which are then further desecrated by spammers before the inevitable shutdown & erasure. Both have been completely taken down now (see what happens if you try to visit those URLs without an archive) and all that remains of the decades-long post histories, twists & turns in development, online friendships, etc. are these incomplete backed-up archives.

I was also tickled to find real PC Gamer articles made it into the game in the form of readable magazines/newspapers. Not a word whining about race, sex, or contemporary politics (identity or otherwise) in sight, these were all from an ancient era where the reviewer seems to have actually played the game they're reviewing and are laser-focused on writing about said games. Truly those were more fun and innocent times. I didn't start writing this post with the intent of sperging this much about this ancient mod for a timeless game but Christ, I really fucking miss the Internet that existed before 2007-09 now more than ever before.

 

[Darkholme's Dungeon]

remember when that considered one of the most important lessons to teach your kids before they could use the Internet?

Chris Hansen voice: "You wanna explain to me what you're posting here?"

I really wish the Malkavian mod author would come back. I don't have enough crack to snort to or LSD to shoot to try and make something funny like that.

In other Deus Ex news...

Top comment btw:

"This port, the development is progressing to the point where we may not be able to contain it"

Electronic old laptops men , are the future.

 

[WULULULULU]

>Be me
>Get new PC
>Linux Mint
>Can play games at max settings
>First game to play in it
>DX:MD
>Prague
>Sees civilians
>Can actually kill them
>Mass murder spree
>Die to police
>In full HD
Oh yeah its gamer time

 

[Postmodernist Disaster]

View attachment 6248384
>The average DX experience in a nutshell
Oh yeah its gamer time

I forgot how pretty the menus for MD and HR were, music was top notch too. The first time I saw the triangles in HR slowly make up a portrait of Jensen blew my mind years ago.

Also, hope your PC is beefy enough to handle 10+ ragdolls on an already DRM riddled and unoptimized engine from 8 years ago.

 

[Absolutego]

I forgot how pretty the menus for MD and HR were, music was top notch too. The first time I saw the triangles in HR slowly make up a portrait of Jensen blew my mind years ago.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=GCiAS8joYhA
Also, hope your PC is beefy enough to handle 10+ ragdolls on an already DRM riddled and unoptimized engine from 8 years ago.

The Eidos Deus Ex games might actually be the easiest engine to break via forcing it to try and think about physics that isn't owned by Bethesda.

 

[Eagle Bro]

View attachment 6248384
>Be me
>Get new PC
>Linux Mint
>Can play games at max settings
>First game to play in it
>DX:MD
>Prague
>Sees civilians
>Can actually kill them
>Mass murder spree
>Die to police
>In full HD
Oh yeah its gamer time

You can actually play past the train station cutscene? It just crashes the game for me every time even on different computers.
That bug still isn't patched btw.

 

[DeadwastePrime]

You can actually play past the train station cutscene? It just crashes the game for me every time even on different computers.
That bug still isn't patched btw.

krill issue

 

[WULULULULU]

You can actually play past the train station cutscene? It just crashes the game for me every time even on different computers.
That bug still isn't patched btw.

Also, hope your PC is beefy enough to handle 10+ ragdolls on an already DRM riddled and unoptimized engine from 8 years ago.

Fitgirl repack. Not willing to purchase it due to Denuvo. Also, my PC is beefy but for the love of God, turn off MSAA. Your frames will stabilize and crunch your computer to a slow crawl.

 

[Spectre Saren]

The other day I began another run. Bro, I've been playing this game at least once a year for like ten years and never knew there was a cache underwater, by the Iron and Copper guy. You always find something on a new playthrough.

 

[Eagle Bro]

Fitgirl repack. Not willing to purchase it due to Denuvo. Also, my PC is beefy but for the love of God, turn off MSAA. Your frames will stabilize and crunch your computer to a slow crawl.

I got it for free on epic.

Have no idea what Eidos was smoking with mankind divided being a shorter and watered down retreading of DX:HR, but with even worse first person shooting mechanics and spending way too much time setting up an ambitious trilogy sequel that would have to intersect with the original Deus Ex at some point. Which never happened. Apparently it was the microtransactions that killed this game when it was clearly just because it was rushed out in under 2 years while HR had a little longer.

Would have loved to see JC and Paul Denton with "new" Deus Ex redesigns but with more obvious advanced augmentations. Since they keep alluding to them and Adam's ability to not reject Augmentations being the key to their creation.

 

[WULULULULU]

Have no idea what Eidos was smoking with mankind divided being a shorter and watered down retreading of DX:HR, but with even worse first person shooting mechanics and spending way too much time setting up an ambitious trilogy sequel that would have to intersect with the original Deus Ex at some point. Which never happened. Apparently it was the microtransactions that killed this game when it was clearly just because it was rushed out in under 2 years while HR had a little longer.

Sqaure's fault. They demanded that DX:MD was to be cut in half and that the other would be released as part 2 should the first sell well on their expectations (super retarded expectations), on top of forcing Eidos to add the Breach mode, in-game microtransactions, a forced mobile app AND the Augment Your Preorder shit.

 

[Eagle Bro]

Sqaure's fault. They demanded that DX:MD was to be cut in half and that the other would be released as part 2 should the first sell well on their expectations (super retarded expectations), on top of forcing Eidos to add the Breach mode, in-game microtransactions, a forced mobile app AND the Augment Your Preorder shit.

That's what they get for giving the IP to anime land bullshit like square enix. If its not a forgettable shitty anime game like scarlett nexus, forget these slant eyed jews having any patience for it.

Thanks for the suggestion to turn off MSAA. I finally got past the train station scene.

 

[Brain Power]

Not willing to purchase it due to Denuvo

It's on GOG though

 

[LightDragonman1]

There was a kind of domino effect when in came to Mankind Divided's reception. The bullcrap that SE put into it caused many famous reviewers and streamers like Sterling to heavily bash the game and not recommend it, leading to that (alongside its mediocre optimization) causing less positive reviews on places like Steam, leading to less sales, leading to the team being reassigned, and then leading to the sequel being dropped.

Man, I'm no SE hater, but their handling of that game was criminal huh? No wonder they are sticking to only in-house stuff nowadays (even if said stuff gets screwed over sales wise by exclusivity deals).

 

[DeadwastePrime]

Have no idea what Eidos was smoking with mankind divided being a shorter and watered down retreading of DX:HR, but with even worse first person shooting mechanics and spending way too much time setting up an ambitious trilogy sequel that would have to intersect with the original Deus Ex at some point. Which never happened. Apparently it was the microtransactions that killed this game when it was clearly just because it was rushed out in under 2 years while HR had a little longer.

all this because they really wanted them to make their avengers game asap. who cares about some stupid cyberpunk game when we have live service superhero game that will make billions (it didnt make billions)

 

[WULULULULU]

The failure of FF16 and the FF7 Remake is proof God is punishing them for what they did to Deus Ex.

 

[Absolutego]

That's what they get for giving the IP to anime land bullshit like square enix. If its not a forgettable shitty anime game like scarlett nexus, forget these slant eyed jews having any patience for it.

Thanks for the suggestion to turn off MSAA. I finally got past the train station scene.

Let's be real Ion Storm wasn't doing anything worthwhile with it.
It is Deus Ex's fate to forever be a horribly mismanaged IP despite every studio touching it either knocking it out of the park or doing something pretty good with their first try.

 

[Chitty Chitty Bang Bang]

The other day I began another run. Bro, I've been playing this game at least once a year for like ten years and never knew there was a cache underwater, by the Iron and Copper guy. You always find something on a new playthrough.

For me, that's the real magic of Deus Ex. No matter how you many times you've played it, no matter your playstyle - you can always discover something new on your next playthrough.