PC Deus Ex: Invisible War - horrible, horrible, HOR-rible!

[SkyBum]

I thought this was going to be the game of the year for me. I really couldn’t wait for the damn thing to hit the shelves. Then I played the demo. Ugggghh. Horrible. I had uninstalled within 20 minutes and thank god I didn’t waste any cash on that crap.

Did they sell enough copies to convince them that even a completely trash game can be profitable?

[Cerri]

@Ogre

Anyway, what’s all this BS about developers cramming something onto the market that’s just barely beta-tested, with the raw intention of patching the living christ out of it as they go along? Now, I can understand fixing bugs and addressing user issues in a patch - to be fair, I think that’s mostly what they did for the 1.1 patch - but a texture pack? C’mon. The programmers weren’t happy with the game environment? Then why did they release the sumbitch? So far, even with the new texture pack, only Seattle seems to be complete. Presumably more make-up work is on the way.

I can’t believe that this kind of shoddy work is not impacting sales.

Bah, I sez. Bah.

Heh…haven’t you heard? It’s the latest trend in PC gaming today.

1. Release the buggiest, least thought-out piece of shit you can out on a disk for the cheapest amount of money.

2. Get some really cute/cool/totally hot mascot to promote the hell out of it.

3. ???

4. Profit!!

This is all I have seen of late, and I do ALOT of beta testing. (granted, mostly of MMO games, but it’s the same shit, different genre…except in an MMO, you’re not only paying 50 bucks for a buggy piece of shit, you’re also expected to pay around 15 bucks a month for the privilege of continuing to be able to play it)

The only way software companies will stop pulling this shit, is if people stopped buying the damn games the day they come out, and NOT buying it if it in fact, turns out to be a buggy piece of shit.

However, most (online gamers at least), seem to enjoy bitching about what shit the games they play are, as actually playing the games themselves. At least, that’s what it looks like after a few trips to some gamer message boards.

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@pulykamell

Left Hand - I found Prince of Persia to be an immensely entertaining and beautiful game, but only worth a rental. The problem with it is it’s too freaking easy, and there’s not enough gameplay time. I finished it in 12 hours, and the last time I finished a video game was probably six or seven years ago. Every puzzle is just a variation on the same theme. Granted, fun as hell to play, but rent it for a few days and you should finish it.

Deus Ex had too many menus for me and not enough ammo.

Actually, I spent $3 to buy raffle tickets at a gaming con, and put all the tickets in the Prince of Persia slot; getting the game cost me less than a rental :). (That’s not counting the $119 I had to spend to get a video card that could actually play the game).

I’m finding it reasonably challenging, but that’s probably because I’m not at all used to puzzle-based jumping games, and keep forgetting about my different moves.

So what other games are out now that folks would recommend?

Daniel

[ElwoodCuse]

How many of these complaints apply to the Xbox version? I’m figuring I should at least rent that just to see how the story goes.

Actually, I heard a lot of people blame the Xbox port for many of the problems with the PC version. And yes, “universal ammo” is beyond dumb.

[Apos]

I played through to the end and have gotten two of the four endings. It wasn’t an awful game, once it got patched, but it was devoid of most of the things that made DX stand out. The plot was interesting conceptually, but nowhere as deep as Deus Ex. And the gameplay just didn’t hold up. Pretty disappointing, but if you are interested in where the story goes, it isn’t TOO awful bad that you can’t play your way through it. It just feels sort of like the kiddie version of Deus Ex.

[smiling_bandit]

First, the game refuses to keep my graphical adjustments. Every time I boot the game up, it defaults to its shitty 640x480 resolution. I reset it higher, play for a while, then save, but when I come back, 640x480. Arse.

I’ve got a pretty good PC, and I couldn’t even run it at 800x600 - it was to choppy. Sloppy coding.

The game on the more powerful system can’t have any features or run better levels than the weaker system. In this case, the X Box is by far the weaker system, with only a 64 MB cache (can that be right?) This necessitates much smaller, cramped levels and frequent reloads. I swear I saw areas in DE 2 where you’d reload a level, walk 10 feet, then encounter a door where you’d have to reload AGAIN.

I’m not sure about this. I’ve seen X-box games with better graphics and larger environments. Again, I vote for sloppy coding.

How many of these complaints apply to the Xbox version? I’m figuring I should at least rent that just to see how the story goes.

All of them.

[Ludovic]

I just popped in to mention, that if you say the phrases in an ordinary, conversational tone, “Deus Ex” sounds indistinguisable from “Day of Sex”.

[Fish]

@smiling bandit

I’m not sure about this. I’ve seen X-box games with better graphics and larger environments. Again, I vote for sloppy coding.

Yeah, the Xbox version of Morrowind had the same outdoor environments as the PC version. Only the maximum draw distance was cut down. I haven’t played either version of Deus Ex II, so this is just based on what I’ve read here.

I have a PC and an Xbox, and I’m really a big fan of the Xbox, but I’m really not sure why it would be necessary to make those changes to gameplay from the original in order to make it fit. Graphical reduction, yeah. Framerates, yeah. UI… well, it’s hard to juggle windows without a mouse, so I can see the Xbox would need its own, but why scrimp on the PC UI? And why would it be necessary to remove multi-pathing? Do they think console gamers are incapable of playing an RPG?

I’ve heard nothing good about this game, except that the audio was supposed to be ground-breaking. How does it sound?

[smiling_bandit]

I’ve heard nothing good about this game, except that the audio was supposed to be ground-breaking. How does it sound?

Maybe its different if you have 100+$ speakers, but it didn’t really awe me or anything. The voice acting universally accurate but incompetant. That is, they used the right words but-spoke-in-this-dull-grey-monotone-with-no-inflection.

My biggest problem, though, was that your character basically immediately set out to do whatever crap the latest person to contact you asked for.

“Hey JC, go here and kill this guy!” OK!

“Hey JC we’re completely opposed to your current employer and don’t like you, but we want you to go to this place and steal this!” OK!

I got the feeling that JC Denton really would walk off of a cliff if someone put it in her objectives list.

I also didn’t like how the Omar were omniscient. Shoot an Omar with a sniper rifle from a block away from cover? Oops, they know! Quietly slip a mine in a place that it kills the Omar that walks over it? Oops, they know! What the hell is that about.

[Darkhold]

PC Gamer March 2004

Best Graphics Engine
Deus EX: Invisible War

Worst Use of a Great Graphics Engine:
Deus Ex: invisible War.

Heh.