Zero Punctuation: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

[Tontomanzz]

The Legend of Zelda does the "Boss fight is where you utilise everything you learnt" well. At the end of Every Dungeon, the boss must be defeated using the special item you unlocked in that dungeon. I didn't realise how important that was intill now. I thought it was just patronising. I guess it is possible to have even more idiotic boss fights.

It's not just items, or even that, as otherwise it's "utilise everything you've picked up" and not learnt.

Ever replay a game? The bosses are the start are so easy with all the skill and practice you've gotten from finishing the game. Unless a boss has been designed to only be defeated by a weapon or special trick, it can also just come down to aquired skill. Pushing a player into using a skill other than mashing the fire button (as a rule players are lazy, if button mashing works...). A boss that takes 1 min of button mashing instead of 30 seconds isn't really harder. One that requires you to do well timed dodges, or maybe platforms jumping, multiple enemies etc, might be.

On the flip side, you get a boss fight as he described. No difference from boss to boss other than the health meter, and that doesn't make for interesting boss fights. Does make it way quicker to code and develop though (welcome to cost cutting).

 

[ResonanceSD]

Good review. Even the guy who does the Adam Jensen (fake) twitter feed liked it =D (http://www.twitter.com/AdamJensenSI)

I'm not sure how nuanced endings of a prequel can be. I mean, we already KNOW how the damn thing ends.

 

[Osaka117]

You know, that wasn't very nice making fun of Mister Jensen's voice like that. He didn't ask for this.

 

[jmarquiso]

So, between the last two reviews, the supposed 'best pc game ever' really doesn't sound very appealing to me.'

That said, Red Dead Redemption and Mass Effect 1 and 2 didn't really get sparkling reviews from Yahtzee either, so maybe I'm jumping to conclusions.

The point of Zero Punctuation is to create outlandishly negative reviews, but still seat some "what's done right" and "what could be done better" to be constructive about it. So never base your opinion on ONLY Yahtzee.

I usually watch Zero Punctuation to find out if I could live with the flaws he points out.

 

[zehydra]

Hm, so the game was shorter because it had to fit onto one disk?

...

I dunno about you, but this kind of thing doesn't really help the whole PC gaming vs Console gaming argument

 

[PatrickXD]

Boss fights were all stupidly easy. Just throw mines at their feet repeatedly. they will hardly move 3 steps before they die.

 

[0over0]

It's amazing that so many gamers share the opinion on this:
A very good game, could've been better (true about everything)--has some rather obvious issues we all scratch our heads about, but in the end is worth the money and was good fun.

I also share that opinion, but is this because the industry has gotten so good at catering to our tastes safely--that is, just good enough to be good, but without them taking the risk that it might be great or fail? Or is it because we've gotten so used to games not being great that it no longer bothers us when it's more of the same but just a little different to justify buying it?

I think it's a bit of both of those. We all want our eye candy and our "deep" story and our great game concepts, but those things tend to also have luxury pricetags, which means no one's going to make that game and also have the game be any riskier than they have to. After all, they're not artists, they're in it for the money.
In all of history, people have never settled for less than they thought they could get. So I don't expect gamers to suddenly start lowering their expectations for games. Is our only hope then that the games industry (and it's doubly hard to imagine this when the word "industry" is used) begins to take more risks? I won't hold my breath, though--it's an industry, after all. It's only purpose is to make money.
I think and hope as technology advances that we pass out of the labor-intensive era into one in which a small group or even an individual can make a "good enough" game, and still focus on some aspect(s) that they can make challenging--be it story, or gameplay, or characterization, etc.

End ramble.

 

[Stabby Joe]

First time I stopped a review due to spoilers even if there aren't any and it's all in good humor...

...BUT WE CAN'T TAKE THAT CHANCE!

Annnnywho. I knew he'd like it to a point, because the issues like boss fights are glaring. In the first boss fight, I was told of a non-gunplay tactic as my character was quiet and hacking-orientated however throwing explosive barrels a'la Donkey Kong isn't really an improvement.

 

[DoomBlackDragon]

I have to agree with yahtzee here. DLC have been going crazy. Specially when most of them is just pure junk. This is something we can all blame on Microsoft. Before Microsoft made the xbox we got real expations. Which where better then the over price crap dlc we get today.

Second just like Yahtzee is saying. Game makers are spending way to much money on graphics and not enough time on game play/story.

Yes the game is good but it could have been epic. Sadly days of exclusive gaming has gone down the tolet. We all have to get the morden day orgy of half ass stuff. I still feel ripped off cause I am paying 60 dollars for games that can not even give me 100 hours worth of game play. Unlike the golden age. Where games where less then 50 and they gave you at less 250 hours.

 

[Babitz]

No game will ever be as good as Deus Ex. I had loads of fun with DX: HR, though, and every point Yahtzee made I've been saying ever since I completed the game. I just hope they won't make a ton more of Deus Ex games and ruin the franchise for good.

 

[The_Deviant]

He was very mild to the game. Guess its really -awesome-

 

[0over0]

My point is that many gamers are not satisfied with that--they want it all: the eye candy, the story, the concepts--everything. And they want it to be top of the line. Minecraft is great--and it sold pretty well for an indie, but it's not going to usher in an era of multimillion dollar studios making pixelated games based solely on concept or story for low prices, is it? That would be too risky. And as can be seen, many people if not most people want the big budget release.
Until the technology is further refined, things are not going to change much. It's certainly not in human nature to want less of something, especially when they've seen what more they could be getting.

 

[FreakSheet]

Theres only one complaint I have with the review. How was Deus Ex 1 any different with the post ending? People said a few lines, theres a quote, and done. You never see your world changed because of you. In this one, Jensen talks about why he chose what he did, then it ends.

And I can sort of see his reasoning in the ending, but again, Deus Ex 1 was similar, except it had a space between each. In DE3 3 endings were optional to get, so that was the trek between endings, just done sooner.

Other than that good review.

 

[Tontomanzz]

We all want our eye candy and our "deep" story and our great game concepts, but those things tend to also have luxury pricetags, which means no one's going to make that game and also have the game be any riskier than they have to.

Eye candy is expensive, but good story and interesting concepts certainly don't have to be. Just recently Yahtzee praised Bastion's story and Minecraft has an interesting concept. They're both cheapie indies.

As long as it's not new locations. Soon as it's new locations, areas, characters it's more development time. So you get the loooonnnnggg hallway crawls, or two hours of going through generic labs to pad the game where the plot is basically any found memo's or letter scattered around.

I think that's why some of the indie mods have been so good for all types of games. Use an engine that's a year or two old, spend the time on gameplay and story development. Not that they have much choice on their budget.

 

[The Noble Shade]

I'm willing to bet the next Extra Punctuation will be about the implementation of DLC.

 

[itsausernamewhatofit]

damnit i had to stop watching at the spoiler-put-bucket-on-youur-head-alert.

Same here although i was very close to the end. I paused it finished the game and went back to watching. Yes the end of the game is stock footage but I really liked the whole package, even the end felt complete to me. Although Human Revolution has its faults I really enjoyed it and it's a superb game. The boss fights are much less than they should have been but as a whole I am very glad I played Human Revolution and anyone who decides against playing it is cheating themselves.

And as usual very good review Yahtzee

 

[walrusaurus]

Ya the grade system was a bit of an issue, I had every single aug i was even vaguely interested in about 2/3 of the way through the game. Some of them were just ridiculously pointless. Like the one that lets you take down 2 people at once, I can think of less than half a dozen spots in the entire game where that would even be possible. Or the one that adds cones of vision to the radar blips that are already directional arrows.

I also really hated the energy system. You have 2 power cells (you can upgrade to 5), that deplete at varying rates as you use abilities. A cell regenerates over time, but only if its not fully depleted. Depleted cells can only be recharged by eating the relatively rare powerbars scattered around the world. Except for your last cell which will regenerate even if fully depleted. But since only one cell will ever regenerate without the use of consumables it renders the upgrades that provide additional cells nearly useless. The only benefit that they provide is allowing a single extended use of cloaking. Thats annoying but makes sense, cloaking would be pretty overpowered otherwise. The goal is to only ever to use the cloak in 5-6 second bursts so that you don't drain the cell completely and it recharges, saving your energy for an emergency or a particularly hairy bit where 30 seconds of invisibility is worth it. Fine, decent design. trouble is take downs and wall breaking instantly use an entire bar. So unless your already on only 1 active bar using them is essentially a massive waste of energy. This might not be a problem on lower difficulties but on hard i used literally every single consumable i found in the whole game, and that was despite skipping past nearly every breakable wall, and avoiding take downs at all costs.

 

[Madara XIII]

Whoever decided that cliffhangers make a good technique for advertising DLCs needs to be hung from a cliff...

...and advertise DLC.

With their intestines.

Wearing a silly hat!

 

[42]

I don't think I'll bother with this then. From the review it seems a bit mediocre. All hype, as usual.

It's a good game, just falls short at a few points.