Sometime or another I owe this blog a "now playing" piece, but this isn't one of those times since Deus Ex has been taken back after a fun rent. However I do want to discuss my time playing it, or more importantly, the weird realization that left me scratching my head wondering if this was or wasn't my kind of game. Usually that's a real easy thing to figure out, especially in stealth action gaming. Does it have freedom, tools, and goofy guard AI that doesn't insta-fail you? If the answer is yes, we're good. But here? The RPG stuff made that really weird, especially with my usual playstyle. Basically if you told me this was MGS with more cyberpunk themes (as I was told), that sounds good to me. If you told me I'd be striking up weird conversations, and puzzling my way around the right vents, and fooling with chance-based hack puzzles most of the game, I'd tell you that sounds like some dumb new indie adventure craze I'm not into. But here we are at the newest Deus Ex, which sort of pulled that stunt on me. ...and it was kind of fun, but not exactly in the same way that being introduced to a MGSV, or FarCry 4 was.
Once again, the thing I think that did it for me was a combination of my typical playstyles meshing with the weird world of Deus Ex and its RPG traditions. Its a really nice and smart combination, but I'm also grateful its here rather than polluting the games I truly go crazy over. The level design isn't as immediately open, or fluid, as something like Dishonored or MGSV leaving you more bottled in. Your tools are matched by mostly what you've upgraded, so you wont have much to work with in the early game (AKA: my entire experience). So that leaves you in a limited range for stealth. Each risky area is more like trying to take an outpost in FarCry if you only had two directions. You know there's a bigger world out there, but in the moment its very simplified. If you wind up taking a non-lethal approach to games like this, it quickly becomes more like a very fluid and immersive, more natural, adventure game. The stealth options are limited enough that unless you have the invisible aug, you're going to be working it like a puzzle. You find the best route, the best times, and hack the right doors, and it all comes together to form a victory when put together right. Meanwhile combat is kept usually to a cut-scene, where you walk up and let the knock-out animation play out. Occasionally you can go for a phone-a-friend feeling of pulling out a tranquilizer rifle (another weird thing in my playstyle here) and darting people with your rare ammo. Now put in the hours of excellent dialogue wheel scenes where you discuss stuff with others, and you've got a good idea of how deep this story goes.
I spent hours just wandering the city areas, chatting with people, pleasing side-quests, or trying to figure out the "right" way to go from A to B. My playstyle mixed with what the game gave me in a very strange way to prioritize puzzling notions, and story, above that of action. ...and I know what you're thinking, action isn't supposed to happen if you're non-lethal, but in every great stealth game I've loved it sure as hell does happen because I'm not perfect. Here you're very easily dead if you weren't embracing it. Its just not a great idea, especially in side missions where I was in a heavily guarded news corporation. If I went in there guns blazing, they'd have 7 guys and two+ mini-tank type robots on me... and that's just a damn office building! I'm not ready for that when the stock health is so small, and I was upgrading stuff like hacking, sight, and conversation stuff for my non-lethal ways. I mean on one hand it almost feels like that's trashtalking the balance, but in reality it just makes for a really different kind of experience. Considering nobody is here to rob me of my more preferred methods, I'm perfectly fine with that. Its just weird to realize you came for a MGS + Cyberpunk experience, and got something more akin to the most fluid and immersive adventure game ever. Again its not like I'm stuck to point and click or a binary function, I'm actually doing stuff, watching the multiple consequences unfold, and choosing my own path. Its just that what I accomplish is within the same realms, mostly story and adventurous interactions.
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| My playstyle was way more relaxed and story-driven than I thought it would be |
However, just because my playstyle looked more like the above than this, doesn't mean you can't do that, which might also be part of what makes this game awesome. The fact that I felt so odd and out of place, means that someone playing the other way probably felt even way more different. Having seen side-plots like a fake checkpoint, make me wonder what it would be like to go in at a totally more hostile style. All the upgrades you get to start with, and the way it plays out, it could totally transform the game format. Probably a testimate to how awesome it is to have yet another good stealth action game out there in the world. Considering some of the weird talk about its story going around, I may wait for a Director's cut or GOTY edition, but I'll definitely be back around for Deus Ex in the future.
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