Annotated version of an original Deus Ex design doc surfaces • Hacker News Board

Re: Annotated version of an original Deus Ex design doc surfaces

#31

Post by AimHere » Tue, Nov 15, 2016, 2:23 PM UTC

SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #22

ehnto wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh I wasn't comparing the game itself, but the franchises art style and story telling has really flourished with 3 and 4 I feel. I have played all 4 and loved each one, the charm and freedom of the first may not have been reached with it's successors but I feel like 3 and 4 at least really were fantastic games in their own right.

Totally agreed. It doesn't seem to be a popular opinion among hardcore fans of the first game but I think Eidos are really doing a fantastic job with the franchise. Sure, the games are flawed ("press a button to pick an ending", immersion breaking boss battles, game breaking launch day bugs, silly DLC and pre-order bonuses) but the world and story they've built are absolutely spot-on. People seem to be quick to forge…

Haven't played the sequels yet (I'll probably grab Mankind Divided now it's on Linux), but I recall that something very like "press a button to pick an ending" was a prominent feature of the first Deus Ex.

Then again, the original had a bunch of other little flaws, but none of them were really dealbreakers.

Re: Annotated version of an original Deus Ex design doc surfaces

#32

Post by SticksAndBreaks » Tue, Nov 15, 2016, 2:46 PM UTC

Ah, the good old times, when the cost of creativity wasnt so astronomically high. If you wanted to risk something, you would just take some time of the working-charts and do it, letting the team then vote on results. No- push your idea in front of the high council, no guiding whats left of it along the pipeline, you just wrote the dialogue, scripted the mission, reused some existing assets, and polished it till it was accepted.

Those where the days.

Re: Annotated version of an original Deus Ex design doc surfaces

#33

Post by jscheel » Tue, Nov 15, 2016, 3:20 PM UTC

popeshoe wrote: post #29

Deus Ex got me at the perfect time in my life (15 y/o pseudo-intellectual nerd) so I really loved the game, so reading this was great. Such was my nerd infatuation with this game, that as I was reading about the various locations, the corresponding music would pop into my brain almost immediately, a testament to the great soundtrack (eg. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FZ-12a3dTI ) Especially interesting is seeing h…

Definitely agree about the soundtrack. I find myself listening to it while working quite a bit.

Re: Annotated version of an original Deus Ex design doc surfaces

#34

Post by pluma » Wed, Nov 16, 2016, 11:15 AM UTC

Narishma wrote: post #19

pluma wrote: post #3

Fascinating how the design doc simultaneously seems to describe an entirely different game yet already shares so many similarities with what would finally become Deus Ex. EDIT: The postmortem linked at the end of the post also includes an even older pitch for the game from 1994 which has even less in common with the final release. It's amazing how the game mutated from "rugged ex-cop action movie shooter" to "cyberpu…

> where it's actually possible to beat the game without killing anyone. It's been a long time since I last played the game but I don't believe that's true without cheating.

http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/19502/is-it-really...

There's only one situation that requires tricking the AI to open a door for you (what some might legitimately consider an exploit).

Other than that (which I consider a design flaw) it's entirely possible to get by without killing anyone (though using non-lethal weapons to render people unconscious is of course still necessary at various times).

Re: Annotated version of an original Deus Ex design doc surfaces

#35

Post by frik » Thu, Nov 17, 2016, 5:59 AM UTC

sesqu wrote: post #30

frik wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You simple cannot compare Deus Ex 3 and 4 with Deus Ex 1. Deus Ex 1 is a much different and better game, a lot of thought went into it, the player can do so much more it's not even funny. No other game with Deus Ex in the name comes even close. Play Deus Ex 1 first and come back later, though some may never get into DX1 because the graphics hasn't aged that well.

DX1 is surprisingly empty and small when you play it today. There was a lot there that isn't in the newer games, but a lot is also missing.

Small? The map of DX1 are bigger than DX2 and DX3. A lot is missing? Yes, in DX3/4 a lot of the features of DX2 and especially DX1 are missing, like all the interaction with physical world objects, persistent world - the newer games feel like rushed and no love was invested on little details, every map feels so static. And the maps have just a few NPCs in DX 2 and 3, compare it to GTA V and Watch Dogs 1 - that's how a up-to-date Deus Ex could look like, modern graphics, open world gameplay with hacking and free movement in missions and better story - yet DX3/4 have a boring small story arc, compared this to DX1 with its world spanning story.