Disappointment with Deus Ex 2 Demo (Computer Game)

[guptasa1]

I know this is way off topic in these forums, but since this is the Lounge and you can discuss anything, I thought I'd just mention my EXTREME disappointment in the demo for the game Deus Ex 2: Invisible War.

 

If anyone here was a fan of Ion Storm's original game, Deus Ex, which is probably my favorite computer game of all time (that says a lot - only other contenders are the System Shock series and MAYBE the Jedi Knight series), take heed. It had atmosphere, depth, a futuristic story of INCREDIBLE intelligence and detail based on existing conspiracy theories, and it took a lot of intelligence to play with a very complex but elegant interface and features that were incredibly innovative and not done in many other computer games at all in the past. It's one of the only successful combinations of an RPG and a first person shooter. (For those that like computer games but haven't tried it, I recommend you try out the demo and if you like it, pick it up - this game can be bought EXTREMELY cheaply now, and it was Game of the Year a few years ago. I think Computer Gaming World is even giving away the game on a DVD along with some other slightly older ones in the current or a near future issue.).

 

Anyways, the "sequel" if you can call it that looks to be a complete disappointment (aside from the main boy character being much cuter - lol). They stripped it of all the innovation and just about everything that made the first game so great in a lot of people's minds. Almost all the complexity is gone, and it's now more or less simply an arcade shooter with a story (possibly because this time around it was designed around the XBox, NOT the PC, and that necessitated eliminating much of the complexity and, in my mind, ruined the game, not that I have anything against consoles in general). Oh...and it runs awful on PC's too. I won't go into the gritty details about all the disappointments (there are too many to list without writing a research paper), but it's not real hard (heavy sarcasm) to find detailed complaints about it just about everywhere on the net discussing the game.

 

It's to the point where the Ion Storm message boards and just about every other forum discussing this "sequel" is a giant flame aimed at the developers - I don't think I've ever seen people this angry before. Not even in the heated debates on these Male4MaleEscorts forums - lol.

 

Hope this isn't a silly post here, but I'm really quite disappointed about this, and I thought I'd vent it here in case any escorts or clients here are fans of the original. (I will note the full game isn't out yet...a few days...but based on the demo and an early review, it looks to be the same disappointment.)

[+ Hoover42]

Have you seen this review:

 

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/deusexinvisiblewar/index.html

 

...Hoover

[guptasa1]

Yup (but thanks for the link). There's a bunch of disagreement going on right about now, especially on the Ion Storm (developer) forums.

 

The problem with that review is, it has a decent score (the original didn't do much better on that site...though in general it got a VERY high score most places), but the review if you read it is largely negative (though he still seemed to enjoy the game quite a bit). However, the game's received several pretty good reviews lately, so I may need to reconsider.

 

I do think at the end of the day it's going to be a fun game, but I guess a lot of the disappointment floating around is people who played the original and noticed all the ways this one seems several steps backwards (worse AI, no differentiated ammo, no leaning, more simplified hacking and interface, and a whole lot more) without adding all that much (the campaign is even more open-ended in this one).

 

I guess for some of us it's merely the fact that this game is so simplified (perhaps partially because it's being offered as a console title right off the bat, whereas the original was PC-only first and later converted to a console version with some changes), and the complexity is what a lot of us loved in the original, which is now largely gone.

 

Anyways, thanks for pointing me to the link regradless.

[+ Hoover42]

I played the original and liked it (although, in general, I'm terrible at sneaking around. I absolutely sucked at Thief for that reason).

 

Therefore, despite the mediocre reviews, I will probably get the new Deus Ex game and try it.

 

There's always eBay if I decide to get rid of the game.

 

By the way, did you notice the reader review score is significantly lower than the editor's score?

 

...Hoover

[guptasa1]

Hehe...well, the game isn't officially out yet, so the reader review score is admittedly based a lot on people reviewing the game based solely on the demo, which I feel is also unfair. (And I'm one who really is really disappointed/upset by the game based on the demo, so I think I'm being generous with that statement - lol.) However, based on my experience with the demo, 1UP's recent review seems to strike more of a chord with me:

 

http://www.1up.com/article2/0,4364,1402141,00.asp

 

It seems fair and with a love of the original as a basis, and frankly the score is higher than the comments would seem to point to (which I find is true of most of the reviews thus far). I think what it boils down to is the game's still fun...maybe even a hard-to-point-your-finger-as-to-why-it-is type of fun, despite it's huge number of faults. LOL.

 

My biggest beef is the original is, as I said, my favorite game of all time, and I LOVED the complexity...which is now quite simply gone. I wasn't really a sneaker either - I liked taking a more Terminator approach. (The beauty was, you could do either...and still can I think.) I'm also very disappointed by the performance of this one, though hopefully a patch will at least HELP with that a bit.

 

But overall, I'm just really let down that they went the "let's simplify it" route instead of adding to the complexity of the first game.

 

I probably will end up picking up DXIW, but I may replay the original first...wait for a patch to fix some issues...maybe even wait until after the next time I upgrade my computer substantially. LOL.