Pro's
- Looks pretty good (disable DX12 or mucho-crashy) for 9 year old game
- Interesting/engaging main plot
- Like that you can choose your approach (e.g. combat, stealth)
- Like the 15min video recap of Deus Ex: HR for those morons who played that game 2+ years ago and can't remember a damn thing
Con's
- Navigating the map is cumbersome
- Side-missions: what triggers them
- objectives not always clear
- Ends on kind-of a cliffhanger or maybe a "To be continued...." (Which is most likely not going to happen.....EVAR)
I put about 50hrs into Deus Ex: MD. I enjoyed my time with it....getting "Pacifist" (didn't kill anyone) on my run-through. I like the stealth in the game (as I did in HR). I didn't really put anything in to the "Deep State" powers that are unlocked, perhaps I should have (Tesla was pretty cool).
At this point in my life, I have a love-hate relationship with (weighty??) in-game choices. Even though many are "illusion of choice", I like how they can take the game in a different direction....but I also want to know what I missed. One example of this is at the end of the game where I chose to beat up the big bad vs saving the 1%'ers. They kept on telling me that would cause the latter groups death. Ok fine, I'll accept that trade-off. After I stealth-chop the big bad, the radio-voice says I should go check on the 1%'ers. I kind of take my own sweet time to get there, stealth chopping augs on the way to where the 1% were celebrating. When I get there they are dead (from poisoned champagne)...no big surprise. However, I later learned by watching some You-tube endings, you can beat the big bad AND save the 1%'ers...ummmm...ok....I guess there is a 10min timer after you defeat big bad to get to the meeting room and knock the champagne out of their greedy hands. Would have been niced to get a heads up from radio voice that "Hey the 1% is almost done giving his speech you still have time to save him/them"....ah well...
There are some cool side quests, which many times wouldn't be there one minute and then later just passing through it's like "STOP ADAM, SIDE QUEST NOW AVAILABLE"...ummm...ok? I don't know...other games feel more natural with side-quests and how they are introduced.
At about th 40hr mark I was pretty much done wanting to play. Which isn't bad in the grand scheme of things, I probably should have wrapped up the main plot earlier....
The game shows its age in quest design and some gamplay aspects (e.g. cut-scene for every stealth knockout where todays games just work that into the "live" gameplay), but it is still really playable for a 9 year old game. It has great voice-acting, sound and music.
I'll miss Adam Jensen and his quest to bring down the Illuminati, truly a shame a sequel is very unlikely.
Walter out.