Deus Ex H.R.'s Ending (spoilers *Shock!*)

[Blondegoth]

This goes out to anyone who has finished Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
Does it seem to you that the ending seemed rushed? I dont know I guess I was expecting more from such a story driven game. I know Yhatzee mentioned it in his show, but the whole thing to me seemed like the company ran out of time and had to make cuts.

Is this a symptom of DLC? is this what we can expaect from now on? That is to say rather than give us a complete gaming experience, they will cut it short and give us some DLC to buy later?

Don't get me wrong, I loved the game (Boss fights and ending asside) but it left me with this hollow sensation, like there was something missing, no closure. What happened between Jenson and Reed? WHat was the outcome of Pritchards realtionship with Adam? After all the flirting did anything happen with Adam and Malik (sorry I just prefered that relationship by the end of the game ). More importantly what did my choice at the end of the game do to affect the world and the characters I met?

All these threads dangling like so many fish hooks, all so engaging while playing and left to float free in the breeze.

Maybe the quality of the rest of the game makes these little flaws seem all the more obvious, I don't know? Still what do you think?

 

[ChupathingyX]

Yes the endings were one of the worst aspects of the game.

The game gave barely any closure on the characters, especially Jensen.

However, I think the main reason for it was the fact that the game was a prequel. They couldn't do anything drastic so that it changes the original Deus Ex and I think they were scared this would happen. However, usually games like this have "canon" endings that are decided by the developer so I don't think this should've been a problem.

As for what happens to Reed...watch all of the credits.

Fallout 3 was similar in that it gave barely any closure on any of the characters or the Lone Wanderer, they then tried to fix this with Broken Steel but the damage was still there and the choices at the end of vanilla F3 barely made a difference anyway.

Compare that to New Vegas where nearly every major character and companion you meet, every major location you visit and factions you encounter have a section in the ending to explain what happened to them. It also explains some of the long term effects of the Courier's actions and just how much the Mojave had changed, which is the main, no. 1 reason there wa sno post-Hoover Dam play.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Yes. After the amazing game, I expected an amazing theatrical epic ending. The ending didn't have to be about future events that tie into the original Deus Ex. It could have been just about Adam. Something epic should have happened. Something like Mass Effect 2 ending.

 

[VladG]

The game starts off great, but the ending was terrible. Game clearly ran out of budget or time and had to rush things horribly. So much stuff is being build up at the start of the game, but the ending barely manages some resolution of the story, and is disappointing as fuck.

 

[Blondegoth]

I understand what you are saying abouT it being a prequel, hell the reason I wanted this game to be good was because I loved the original so much. But it didn't "feel" like thats why it was so empty, well not to me at least.

I have been an animator and it seemed like projects of mine where the deadline was looming and we just had to cut things.

A lot of games seem to suffer this these days, like the ending is not an essential part of the narrative.
I agree about Fallout 3 and New Vegas, the difference was marked and welcome, however they both had a lack of cinimatic punch. As for Mass Effect (another series of games I love) the endings were brilliant, punchy and affecting.

 

[TheAmazingHobo]

We can spoil here, right ? I mean it´s in the title of the thread.
So here we go.


There are two parts about the ending that I really did not like (the rest where just "meh" in my opinion):

1. The Illuminati: you know, this powerfull, almost mythical organization, utilizing technology decades ahead of the rest of the world, controlling the very flow of information, using the CEO of the biggest corp in the world as a mere pawn.
Oh yeah, turns out they are that dude who is really against augs and a couple of his friends.
Who outright state that the whole "Illuminati" thing is just marketing.

2. Project Hyron: What is this i don´t even.....
Seriously, when I got to this part, I had to pause the game and stared at the screen in confusion for a couple of minutes.
What is this ? How did it get there ? Why am I fighting it ? Why THE FUCK does the rich dude own a comobined BDSM-Studio/Women-Torture-Chamber/Mainframe?
WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT THING HAVE TO DO WITH FUCKING ANYTHING ?

Don't get me wrong, I loved the game (Boss fights and ending asside) but it left me with this hollow sensation, like there was something missing, no closure. What happened between Jenson and Reed? WHat was the outcome of Pritchards realtionship with Adam? After all the flirting did anything happen with Adam and Malik (sorry I just prefered that relationship by the end of the game ).

By the end of the game, I prefered PRITCHARDS relationship with Adam to that with Reed.
I have seldom encountered a love-interest I cared so little about.
And yeah, I agree with you, I want my flygirl.
Defending her after the crash was one of the few scenes, where I was actually emotionally invested in the game. I had actually planed and executed a pacifist run up to this point, but that scene just made me go: "F*** this, somebody get me a rocket-launcher."

 

[ChupathingyX]

I agree about Fallout 3 and New Vegas, the difference was marked and welcome, however they both had a lack of cinimatic punch. As for Mass Effect (another series of games I love) the endings were brilliant, punchy and affecting.

Well I thought the ending of New Vegas was quite nice, but that's not the topic.

The ending of HR weren't that good, but if I were to say something good about it, the credits and the music were fantastic, as was the little surprise at the end.

 

[Hoplon]

Yeah, the end was pretty fucking random all round.

Also the secret ending was a bit what the hell as well.

 

[GiantRaven]

I have seldom encountered a love-interest I cared so little about.

Dr. Reed isn't a love interest. Sure she may have been part of Jensen's motivation to uncover the truth, but she treats him with such flippant disregard once you find her that I don't think she can be considered a 'love interest'.

 

[TheAmazingHobo]

I have seldom encountered a love-interest I cared so little about.

Dr. Reed isn't a love interest. Sure she may have been part of Jensen's motivation to uncover the truth, but she treats him with such flippant disregard once you find her that I don't think she can be considered a 'love interest'.

I guess it´s more about how people (including Adam) talked about her up to this point. Which is obviously meant to signify that they were together. But yeah, after they meet, it is obvious that she is just a..... not altogether nice and relatable person.

What I meant was, that I didn´t give a **** about her at any point in the game.
Which implies narrative fail, as I´m pretty sure it is normally advisable to have the player share the protagonists motivation to some degree.

 

[Blondegoth]

I have seldom encountered a love-interest I cared so little about.

Dr. Reed isn't a love interest. Sure she may have been part of Jensen's motivation to uncover the truth, but she treats him with such flippant disregard once you find her that I don't think she can be considered a 'love interest'.

I guess it´s more about how people (including Adam) talked about her up to this point. Which is obviously meant to signify that they were together. But yeah, after they meet, it is obvious that she is just a..... not altogether nice and relatable person.

What I meant was, that I didn´t give a **** about her at any point in the game.
Which implies narrative fail, as I´m pretty sure it is normally advisable to have the player share the protagonists motivation to some degree.

Indeeed, I felt a pang of guilt when I started flirting with Malik. And I agree 100% with you that the defending Malik section was really good. Its one of the few mass battles in the game and I was NOT letting her die.

As for the human Bondage computer, that did kind of jump out of nowhere. I know it was a forshadow for the original but i agree it could have done with some lead-up.

Also in hindsight, the argument that it is a prequal and therfore they cant affect the world too much falls a little flat when you consider the multiple choice option. I mean if they didnt want to show an outcome that didn't set up Deus Ex, then why even bother with a mutiple choice ending? That whole thing was baddly implemented, at the very least they should have limited the choices to ones appropriate to the way you had played the game.

 

[Arina Love]

Yeh.i was disappointed in ending. i wanted stuff that i'm done in game and all decisions to matter at the end but all i got was choose video at the end. no after story no nothing. Well at least i saved the pilot girl.

 

[jeremysaint]

umm what the hell are you guys talking about with defending malik? i tried, but it quickly seemed obvious that the situation was scripted/pre-destined. are you telling me it is actually possible to save her?!!!?

and, just like many of you i had been playing no killing for the most part up til then too, but after that... and when i saw her again later, well without giving anything away i walked out of that room and went back through the level executing everyone i had knocked out.

-------------------------------

HOLY SHIT: i just watched a youtube video of saving her!!!! i tried hard to save her, and frankly i played a heck of a lot better than whoever was doing the youtube video. hell, i used about 8 rockets and just one shot every enemy as they came. and for that matter i killed at least 2 tanks. i had NO IDEA it was possible to save her.

seriously, i was so pissed off about her murder i went through the next area killing every belltower employee i found in revenge.

 

[TheAmazingHobo]

umm what the hell are you guys talking about with defending malik? i tried, but it quickly seemed obvious that the situation was scripted/pre-destined. are you telling me it is actually possible to save her?!!!?

and, just like many of you i had been playing no killing for the most part up til then too, but after that... and when i saw her again later, well without giving anything away i walked out of that room and went back through the level executing everyone i had knocked out.

-------------------------------

HOLY SHIT: i just watched a youtube video of saving her!!!! i tried hard to save her, and frankly i played a heck of a lot better than whoever was doing the youtube video. hell, i used about 8 rockets and just one shot every enemy as they came. and for that matter i killed at least 2 tanks. i had NO IDEA it was possible to save her.

seriously, i was so pissed off about her murder i went through the next area killing every belltower employee i found in revenge.

Oh man, that´s sour.
And I can totally understand your reasoning. The situation can really easily be read as a "supposed to lose"-fight. Thing is, I didn´t care at the time.
She was the one character I actually liked, so I went "Maybe I will die doing this, but before I die, I will go so loco on those guys that in years to come, when archeologists unearth this site, they will come to the conclusion that this is where jell-o was first invented."
And then I rescued her, while thinking the entire time that maybe it really WAS a pointless fight and I was just wasting my time and her sacrifice.

Sorry, I´m gushing, it´s just that this was probably my favorite moment in the entire game.
Pity that whoever designed it was probably not overly involved in the conception of the end-section.

 

[castlewise]

HOLY SHIT: i just watched a youtube video of saving her!!!! i tried hard to save her, and frankly i played a heck of a lot better than whoever was doing the youtube video. hell, i used about 8 rockets and just one shot every enemy as they came. and for that matter i killed at least 2 tanks. i had NO IDEA it was possible to save her.
.

WTF!!!! Oh man. This *almost* makes me want to replay the game. Gaaaah!


OT: I don't think the ending was rushed. It ties together too many threads and is too heavily foreshadowed to be anything other than carefully planned. That being said I don't think the ending is particularly good. It doesn't give any real closure.

 

[Blondegoth]

I know I said this before but it seems like the ending to a lot of games is not considered that important. But it should be the capstone to the game. It is literally the last thing you remember of a game (that you complete ).

And yes it was very hard but I did save Malik, we both died a few times in my attempt. But pleanty of emp and gas grenades and excesive use of PEPS did it for me (oh and a ton of energy into my stealth suit helped too).

[edit] I am somewhat surprised and pleased at how many people liked Malik, they really should have made more of that.

 

[KrossBillNye]

I have seldom encountered a love-interest I cared so little about.

Dr. Reed isn't a love interest. Sure she may have been part of Jensen's motivation to uncover the truth, but she treats him with such flippant disregard once you find her that I don't think she can be considered a 'love interest'.

I guess it´s more about how people (including Adam) talked about her up to this point. Which is obviously meant to signify that they were together. But yeah, after they meet, it is obvious that she is just a..... not altogether nice and relatable person.

What I meant was, that I didn´t give a **** about her at any point in the game.
Which implies narrative fail, as I´m pretty sure it is normally advisable to have the player share the protagonists motivation to some degree.

Indeeed, I felt a pang of guilt when I started flirting with Malik. And I agree 100% with you that the defending Malik section was really good. Its one of the few mass battles in the game and I was NOT letting her die.

As for the human Bondage computer, that did kind of jump out of nowhere. I know it was a forshadow for the original but i agree it could have done with some lead-up.

Also in hindsight, the argument that it is a prequal and therfore they cant affect the world too much falls a little flat when you consider the multiple choice option. I mean if they didnt want to show an outcome that didn't set up Deus Ex, then why even bother with a mutiple choice ending? That whole thing was baddly implemented, at the very least they should have limited the choices to ones appropriate to the way you had played the game.

It took me a while to realize that I could save malik in that scene. I was working on getting the Pacifism achievement which I wanted to get because I was working to make Jensen someone who would never kill. (Except boss fights >.> Wtf was with that?)

But ya I loved the emotional drive to save her. You have a time limit before it was too late so you pushed to save her and I found it a great moment in the game.

The Hydron Project confused me. I was at that point asking myself, why would I want to kill these women in the pod? Why am I being forced to kill these women?

For the most part.

Why is an achievement that is called Pacifism forcing you to kill bosses?

Sure they messed up your life in the game but I thought and correct me if I am wrong, killing people is one of the things Pacifist do not do... Unless I looked it up in the wrong dictionary?

 

[Seishisha]

I realy got the feeling that the ending was firstly totaly anticlimactic and completely predictable, well mostly i wasnt realy expecting the merging with a giant computer but hey im not a clairvoyant, the very end after zhao just seems so stiff and forced all the choices in the game upto that point flow naturaly (i dont mean the augmentation choices, they were either mandatory or usless in my opinion) i mean things like hiding on a corner or using the ventalation system to sneak around etc, this is the kind of immergant gameplay i realy enjoyed, but the ending four buttons and some shitty cinematics, its hardly on par with the rest of the game, i dont know if it was just rushed out or if the budget for the game realy dried up at that point but it was still disapointing.

So dissapointing to me that i have no plans to buy the dlc, i had more fun sneaking around the police station stuffing bodies in vent shafts or blazing in the front door with my shotgun and raping the place then i did from the story.