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Forum URL: http://www.eyrie-productions.com/Forum/dcboard.cgi
Forum Name: eyrie.private-mail
Topic ID: 637
#0, The Deus Ex Series
Posted by Gryphon on May-04-15 at 01:04 PM
OK, so, the mention of it in the jokey meta-poll thread reminds me that I've been meaning to ask someone about this, and, well, might as well be you guys.

The original Deus Ex was a great game. The second one, Deus Ex: Invisible War, was... not. But they both shared an essential design feature, and it's made me extremely reluctant to invest a bunch of time and energy in the third one, Deus Ex: Human Revolution. And that essential feature is: All of the endings suck.

It's a bit ironic, when you consider how much press Deus Ex got back in the day for its "groundbreaking multithreaded narrative", that all of those revolutionary multiple story threads led to endings that made you feel like a chump for caring about the choices you were making in the game all along. And then Invisible War came along and did the same goddamned thing, which was even worse, since you'd been sitting there enduring the crappy environmental design, the lame weapons, and the pre-Cambrian load times thinking, Well, at least the story's engaging. When I finally realized, after playing through the major decision points four or five times and exhausting all the available endings only to find that they were all horrible, that they'd done it to me again, I nearly threw my mouse through a window.

So I've been intrigued by the art design of Human Revolution, and I must have bought it on one of those periodic insane-unannounced Steam sales or something, because it's been sitting in my library for quite a while now and I haven't ever actually been arsed to play it. I don't feel like investing all the time and energy it takes to play through a game of that kind again, only to discover that my choice of endings once again boils down to "destroy all humanity," "revert civilization to barbarism," or "destroy all humanity in a different way."

Here's the hard part. If anyone out there has played Human Revolution, will you please tell me - without spoiling any details - whether this is once more the case? Is there an ending - even one will do - that doesn't roundly mock the player for bothering to get far enough to see it? Because there wasn't in either of the first two games and I'm not doin' that again.

I realize, of course, that I'm setting myself up for a long con here if anyone cares to pull it. If there isn't, and you tell me there is, I have no way of knowing you're lying until I've wasted all the time. To quote Gordon Freeman, don't fuck me on this.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#1, RE: The Deus Ex Series
Posted by CdrMike on May-04-15 at 07:23 PM
In response to message #0
I'd have to say yeah, the endings of DE:HR basically follow the same path of being disappointing and not really amounting to more than variations in the ending narration. Eidos' decision to make it a prequel meant that there was no way to give a satisfying ending, but instead had to settle for four endings that are vague enough that it's possible for any one of them to lead to the world that Deus Ex exists in years later.

That said, I enjoyed the game and the ending aside, it is worth a play. It's sort of that ME3 dilemma: The game's great...right up until the last 10 minutes.


#2, RE: The Deus Ex Series
Posted by Verbena on May-04-15 at 08:58 PM
In response to message #1
I have to agree, the multiple endings all bite in various ways.

That said? I have played and beaten this game numerous times, the story is fantastic apart from the endings themselves, and the blend of stealth/combat/hacker/etc. options is refreshing. There's always multiple ways to accomplish an objective (even the boss battles, if you get the Director's Cut) and Jensen always feels badass without being overpowered.


--------

this world created by the
hands of the gods
everything is false
everything is a LIE
the final days have come
now
let everything be destroyed

--mu


#3, RE: The Deus Ex Series
Posted by Bakuryu_Hitsuri on May-05-15 at 00:35 AM
In response to message #0
Having beaten it a couple of times.. It's great right until the end. It literally has the same ending type as Mass Effect 3 (I think ME3 took the idea from DE:HR, unless ME3 came out first then it's the other way around.)


Ignoring the ending "choice" (which is *push button you feel is least/or more objectionable to your current mood) the game as a whole is quite good, the story is engaging and you feel like you're making a difference helping people(or hurting them, but they do remember it later).

It's worth playing, just... stop before pushing the final button and make up your own ending, it's just better that way.


#4, RE: The Deus Ex Series
Posted by Matrix Dragon on May-05-15 at 06:19 AM
In response to message #0
The ending has a somewhat disappointing last level, and then you decide from one of three buttons that makes a different cinematic. That's about it.

And apparently, the sequel they've just announced makes up a different ending for the game entirely instead, which I'm kind of mixed about. On the one hand, those three endings were all just to try and set up the original game anyway, and they were all kinda bad, a requirement to set up Deus Ex's original crapsack world. On the other, I'd still at least want to play it.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter


#5, RE: The Deus Ex Series
Posted by Bushido on May-05-15 at 11:18 AM
In response to message #0
Given that they're working on a direct sequel to Human Revolution that takes place 2 years later, you can pretty much just ignore the "and your choices eventually led to this" part of the endings.

#6, RE: The Deus Ex Series
Posted by MoonEyes on May-05-15 at 06:57 PM
In response to message #0
LAST EDITED ON May-05-15 AT 07:02 PM (EDT)
 
On the one hand, as noted, the game suffers hideously from 'Mass Effect 3 syndrome', or perhaps ME3 suffers from 'Deus Ex syndrome' as it came first.
Anyway.
It's GREAT, and I do mean GREAT...up to the last 10 minutes, and then they squander it HEARTBREAKINGLY, in my opinion. Which made me have to by a new mouse, somewhat like you, as I threw it against a wall, rather than the window. Yes, literally.
Seems as if the people that make these games have something in their genetic make-up that forces them to include multiple-choice scenes about the bleakness of being, existentialism and mans inhumanity to man, bollocks, rot and bloody nonsense...

On the other hand, Deus Ex Mankind Divided is on the way, revealed a 3-4 weeks ago, and features the same main character, the game set two years after the Human Revolution, which means that those endings, presumably, can be safely ignored. And HR IS a spectacularly fun and interesting game, up until...

Note also that HR is set much earlier in the game world, where augmentation is very much in its infancy, and so the slick nanotech of the first games haven't appeared yet, instead you'll see electro-mechanical stuff, much more 'shadowrun'.

Oh, and if you DO play it, there is a post-credits scene that is worth watching. Popular, nowadays, those.
...!
Gott's Leetle Feesh in Trousers!


#7, RE: The Deus Ex Series
Posted by Verbena on May-05-15 at 09:35 PM
In response to message #6
I do agree there was a couple silly design choices in the last level, and the final battle was a bit of a cakewalk. (And a complete mudhole stomp if you happened to bring a laser!) But even I have to admit there's some pathos in there when it sinks in what Hyron really is. It's not a tenth as bad as the last ten minutes of ME3.


--------

this world created by the
hands of the gods
everything is false
everything is a LIE
the final days have come
now
let everything be destroyed

--mu