Meroveus on 19/7/2001 at 19:35
I think what was most interesting in Deus Ex was the fairly deep character development. That kind of psychological profile for each major (and not so major) character adds a lot to the immersive aspect of a game.
What I want for Deus Ex 2 is practically all the levels to have a significant "role playing" or character interaction situation that doesn't involve shooting or sneaking. In Deus Ex the only places where you could do that freely was UNATCO HQ, Hong Kong, Versalife (for a bit at least) and a few bars. There needs to be places like that in the majority of the missions. It was a really cool feeling for example, to finish a mission and return to UNATCO HQ to report for debriefing and interact with the people working there. After Hong Kong I found that the feel of the game just wasn't the same. It lacked the immersion of the previous levels and turned rapidly into a shooter game with sneaking elements (or vice versa).
Another thing is story branching. They didn't do this at all and it disappointed me, when I replayed the game with important different choices to find out that it lead me to the same places. The way DX tried to add variety by offering 3 endings (3 rather short, boring ones) was not satisfying at all. I understand that the game is story driven and it might be difficult to implement, so I think they should do it perhaps at only one point in the game (where an important decision has to be taken). For example at one point you decide to go along with a certain group's agenda, and in the following missions you have different objectives because of it (as well as optional sub-objectives). They don't have to be different maps, perhaps the same maps with different environmental settings, character interaction, player starting position etc. This would be very feasible I would think.
They should also include a multiplayer option (not as a patch). The one DX has now is quite fun. If they could refine it a little and add a few things like a "conquer the enemy base" playing style, it would be even more enjoyable. Not anymore than that, they should obviously concentrate on the single player.
Anyway, DX was already extremely good, it will be hard to do even better. If they could add a few more things like I've mentioned, keep the good elements and expand the already very good storyline, I will probably nominate it for the best game of all time. :D
Gingerbread Man on 20/7/2001 at 14:18
One thing that DX did that was slightly better than other RPGs was to give you choices, yeah. But on the whole, it still fell into the nonsense that every other "RPG" falls into, that being "It's an RPG because you can assign skill points yourself."
That's not quite cutting it, I think.
RPGs need to be able to anticipate a player's decisions, and not just as far as what skills or augs they prefer. Hell, that's not fundamentally different from what weapons they use most often.
I bring this up because I just tried the "Government Stooge" approach to DX and was stymied by Paul. Couldn't go any farther until I did what he wanted, which is not how I wanted Denton to play it out.
Now, I realise that there's only so much a game can bear in terms of multiple plotlines, but I think that what made DX such a good ride was the choices the player was given. Admittedly, the big choices at the end were basically just "How Difficult Do You Want This To Be?" but hey. It felt good, it felt right, it felt like I was making a moral decision. And that's what counts.
So I'm adding my voice to the crowd of "More options" as far as the advancement of the story goes. I don't know if being able to play as a female character is all that cool to me, I mean it's interesting and all, but if that's the limit of it I don't think it's worth the bother. I'd rather be able to play the game straight, as a government stooge, as a rogue nutcase who decides that everyone is against him / her, as a bumbling accidental hero, all of that.
<small>GBM notices that he's starting to ramble again.</small>
Hmm.
Anyway.
Choices = Good. Multiplots = Immersion = Replay = Good.
Simply getting to choose your skills and augs != RPG.
imho.
;)
BackDoorBandit on 20/7/2001 at 19:15
GBM,
I agree with you, but we're just not at that level in gaming yet. Hopefully it'll catch on in the next 5 years and you'll be able to play a game as such. To make it easier to anticipate what the player is going to do, they'd need to build AI better, or more specifically, a game engine that can learn and adopt as a whole.
