Actually this game is not that good when compared to games like Deus Ex 1 or Vampire Bloodlines. But compared to the sorry state of today PC game market it is good enough. PC version also suffers a lot from being a console port. I would guess that people who complained that Witcher 2 felt a lot like a console game would hate it in this game even more.

Torin,

I hear you on that, but you are comparing a sequal to two games that are easily on the short list of best games of all time.... Add system shock, quake, Doom, Warcraft, starcraft, morrowind, Demigod and your MMO of choice and that could round out the list lol.

There definitely is some consolization, my main gripes, after playing more, is the save games system sucks.  I like naming my saves.  Deleting them is a PITA as well.  Im glad there are 100 now as opposed to the original 20, but it would be easier to cull a list of 20 lol.  I hit the 100 mark yesterday just because its quicker to save a new one as opposed to overwriting.  (I tend to like to keep a few of the last saves just in case i realized i screwed something up, e.g. purchased a useless aug, or blew away my nukes / stop worms or ammo on something that wasnt worth it etc.)

There are a few other consolization issues as well but they are minor.  When compared to DX2 though, the gripes are minor.

Thanks for the info Unacomn!  I finally found it and wondered why it wasnt listed in the keyboard commands lol.

I miss melee weapons, a crowbar and crates there arent any more crates in games these days.  Kids dont know what they are missing lol.I also wish there were maintenance bots, the damn bars dont add enough E.  The lack of E definitely influenced how i spent my praxis points. 

I agree with you in regards to the cinematics.  I also wish they were rendered at a higher res.  They seem kinda pixelated....

The stylization and detail in the game is amazing, perhaps the best i've seen since Tron 2.0    (There are definitely others out there that are great as well but I loved Trons style)

Note to self:  get the springy legs and parachute lol.  Hopefully im not too far into the game, just made it to montreal so hopefully not even 50%. 

I havent seen advertising yet either... maybe it was regional or people in other forums were complaining when it didnt exist...

I havent been able to figure out how to get past mines without shooting them.   Even with invisibility they go explode... Let me know if you figure it out lol !

j

To get past mines, crouch and hold the walk button at the same time. You can walk up and activate them to disable them then activate again to pick them up.  

This was a fantastic game.  Great mix of stealth, action, and a decent story.

Yeah, the hacking mini game drove me nuts at first, click..... wtf why did it use my time stom worm when I wasn't near it..... time to load on an easy ass rank 1 hack...they  needed to add hot keys if they were not going to make clicking work properly. Good game overall.

Its not so much the quality of the game per se, but the newness of the idea and the expectations.  E.g. Portal 2 could never be as good as portal 1 because no one was expecting portal 1.  The first time i loaded DX i wasnt expecting an awesome game, or even a mediocre game.  I dont know of many games (or movies for that matter) where the sequel was better than the game / movie before it.  The only 2 i can think of off the top of my head are Empire Strikes Back and possibly Oblivion or Quake 3. 

I added demigod because thats why im on these forums and i did love the gameplay, when it worked....  I still think its one of the best MOBA games created as far as the gameplay / strategy.  I hope to see a demigod 2 that fixes the connection, matchmaking and other issues. 

I hear you on the console interface, its frustrating at times.  I dont like the conversation selection either.  I keep clicking ont he text forgetting to highlight the damn button. The hacking minigame is laggy though too, im more thinking that it is built in though as opposed to a console dingleberry. I don't use the cover system at all.  I did use it in the first level just to peek around corners but have since abandoned it.  Console noobs need it though.

And speaking of console noobs.  PC gaming wouldnt be in this position (the position being that games studios have to dumb down the games to the lowest common denominator - consoles) if people didnt buy consoles and console games.... So dont just hate the console, hate your friends who play on them as well. 

(I do own a PS3 but i just watch blu rays with it and i have a wii that hasnt been turned on in over a year lol)   Thats not to say consoles dont have their place.... they are good at playing blu ray movies, and um... well... fighting games, sports games & multiplayer games where 2 (or more) people are playing on the same system.

im done ranting for the time being lol

j

Well this game is better overall than the first IMO. Better graphics and comparable freedom to choose. Better hacking and stealth. Sweet takedown animations that let you choose to kill. Boxes galore!

The story probably feels so limited because they couldn't do much.  The plot of DX1 and JC Denton's impact on the world had to be preserved, so Jensen simply couldn't burrow that deeply into the rabbit hole otherwise it would sort of ruin what JC did in DX1.

I didn't remember it being possible to screw with the plot that much in the original DE, other then the whole Anna Navare thing (which didn't really change the plot that much other then letting you skip a mission). I could be wrong but it seemed like the overall story unfolded in a pretty similar way no matter what. But then I guess I never tried just randomly murdering everyone.

In DEHR I also completely ignored the hostages in the factory (granted it wasn't on purpose) and there are also a lot of fairly plot important missions at the city hubs that you can choose to completely ignore.

I understand what you mean, I remember trying to kill Gunther for hours on end after the airport scene, but was never able to, since he was immortal. But the game still let you be there, it didn't isolate the encounter in a cinematic, and you could still do certain things out of order, even if it was just for the sake of keeping up the illusion of freedom. It even gave you the option to deal with certain fixed issues, like bossfights, the way you wanted. 

The third bossfight in HR was especially hard, since all my gizmos were offline, and I was using a character designed for stealth infiltration. Thankfully, Adam has a good understanding of weapons handling from the get go, and I managed to beat the guy with a crossbow. Which reminds me, I never killed anyone during the game, except for the guys at the beginning when Adam was still human, and yet, everywhere I go he's treated like some murder machine, with no option to remind people I haven't killed anyone. The game barely acknowledge my achievement, so on playthrough number 2, I'm ditching the tranquilizer in favor of a sniper rifle with a silencer.

For me, the game is a mild disappointment. The only interesting area is the story and the gameworld lore - both are superb. Even the characters are interesting.

However, from purely gameplay perspective, the game is mediocre. It suffers heavy consolitis in all the worst aspect we know it. The cover system among them, the game tries to guess what you want to do, often ducking the wrong direction. There is no melee combat system whatsoever - you just press the button and animation plays. Not even a good one - no proffesional operative performs a silent takedown by tapping the opponents shoulder, then punching him in the face. Because the melee takedown is so trivial, the devs had to limit its use, so they came up with ridiculous limit - it depletes energy, and to replenish it, you must eat. So you brutally massacre one guy, and then cannot do scratch, because you are suddenly  "out of energy" But enter the fray with a box of candy bars in the pocket (you consume them instantenously), and you massacre everyone. Stupid.

Most problems can be solved by finding a vent behind a box.

Graphically, the game screams "low texture and polygon budget" everywhere you go - bland textures on walls, cubic, rectangular design everywhere. The NPCs are just signpost with a few sentences, doing nothing but standing somewhere. The closest thing to an activity was those chinese chefs frying meat. Compare this to Gothic 2 with night and day cycle, where characters actually slept, cooked, patrolled, and fought among each other. Nothing independent of the player ever happens in the game - no gang war, nothing. The world is dead and flat. The AI is also very weak, with opponents shooting walls, standing in the open, and not noticing things. I was infiltrating a police station, and climbed out of a vent in the interogation room where cops were questioning a suspect. Nobody even raised a brow. Shoddy.

The hacking minigame is annoying as hell, and there is no way around it.

Actually both snipers and crossbow suck unless you hit them in the head. I used an upgraded revolver to kill anyone.

Fantastic game with good, varied gameplay options, good level design, and an enjoyable story absolutely ruined by a completely contrived ending that invalidated everything you had done up until that point. 

I'm not talking about the possible endings and the story consequences, though I thought those were a bit weak, I'm talking about the way the game ends. 

Hours and hours of gameplay leads to... pick one of four buttons?  Seriously?  No matter what you've done, who you've killed, you get the same four fucking buttons.  The end of the game up until that point is fantastic.  Just the right amount of tension and "what comes next" anticipation.  The story provides just enough suspense that you're always waiting for another surprise. 

And then you're hit in the face with the game mechanic equivalent of a giant Louisville Slugger full of railroad spikes. It was like they looked up one night and had an "Oh shit, we're out of time!  Throw in something that will let us run our four endgame cutscenes!  Quick!" moment. 

At that moment I honestly felt like someone who had a nearly perfect weekend end by getting robbed and then kicked in the nuts. 

Abysmal.