NEO Plus 10 page DX3 article

[van HellSing]

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Full translation:

DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION

Renaissance, a key word, without which it would be impossible to write about the third Deus Ex game. Human Revolution is an attempt to revive the once famous series, today forgotten by the mass consumer. The developers can be described as representatives of a renaissance of ambitious games, ones you reach for like books, and play them to escape the dull reality. Deus Ex is another game for those who love BioShock, Fallout, Mass Effect and Heavy Rain.

Consoles have long been associated with simple, light entertainment. Some called this "pure fun", and fun was indeed all it was about. The lead of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Jean-Francis Dugas, nicknamed JF, believes that the growing popularity of consoles in the beginning of the XXI century in some sense blinded publishers, and partly also developers, and that's why for the last few years we've seen a dominance of FPS, Gears of War clones, simple shooters and slashers - games where a good story hardly mattered. Few tried to make "games for the mature gamer", which were successful in the 80's and 90's, and which older gamers speak about when they say games were better back then.

It's normal that the market is getting filled up, and publishers, seeking new consumers, turn to all kinds of niches. That was the story with BioShock, Mass Effect, lately Heavy Rain, or Half-Life 2 earlier. This is the sort of title DX:HR is supposed to be, but when the developers were starting work on it, they couldn't know that a the break of 2010 and 2011 gamers will embrace their product with open arms. At first we didn't think about that, we just wrote down our ideas and said "holy crap!" - says producer David Anfossi - it won't be easy marketing a game like that, this could seem too complicated. And then suddenly came BioShock and Mass Effect. The strength of both these games is the story, just like with our game. We've got a huge conspiracy, intriguing design and interesting characters, we can draw in players with those, rather than saying how robust and complex the game is. We want to make it sexy and compelling. But it's not really the story that makes the world of Deus Ex compelling, because we don't know much about it, and it's hard to judge before the launch. What's most intriguing is the world the game takes place in.

BEFORE THE APOCALYPSE

The year 2027. twenty-five years before the events of Deus Ex and only 17 years from now. It's a time of great innovation, humanity has tackled many of the issues haunting it since years. We can cure disease, we have "green" energy sources, we're handling global warming. Sounds idyllic, but there's a reason why the tagline is "It's not the end of the world, but you can see it from here" In a short time, technology has advanced so quickly that the dreams of transhumanists are becoming a reality - people are playing God. They augment their bodies with technology, and it's not just about enhancing strength by replacing their limbs with mechanical ones, but also by augmenting their brains, enhancing intelligence, reflexes, quick problem solving capabilities.All this is readily available, you just need the money. This means the rich become almost superhuman, while the poor are shoved further and further aside. There's no shortage of protesters against messing with the human nature and godplay. Tension is rising between the two groups. Will we witness riots in the game? Story author Mary De Marle leaves this question unanswered, giving us a Gioconda smile.In these circumstances, we meet Adam Jensen, the game's protagonist, working for almost a year now as security personel at Sarif Industries. The owner is David Sarif, who believes augmentations are the best gift to humanity, and that it's our destiny to control our own evolution. Jensen is tasked with escorting scientists, who, at the day of the first serious debate between proponents and opponents of turning people into machines, are to unveil another breakthrough technology to the world. It comes as no surprise that this is the day an armed group of cyborg commandos enters the corporation's building, killing most of the scientists. Adam has no chance against them - he's still fully human.

CONVERSATION IS EVERYTHING

Jensen nearly died in the attack. He survived only because someone found him, and performed an operation of mechanically augmenting him. The choice was not his own, he can't cope with it, and that's why he starts tracking the people responsible for the attack, and find out why they did it. - explains De Marle.

He quickly discovers an international conspiracy, and the deeper he digs, the better he understands the motives of the people behind it, and notices his own deep involvement. Uncovering secrets, Adam, and with him the player, will notice that the characters staying in the shadows and pulling the strings will change their attitude, adapt to new situations and react logically. The ending will directly depend on choices we make during the game. Deus Ex might be an action game, but it's RPG first and foremost. The finale will be influenced by our decisions on who to trust, who to kill, who to save.

We believe there's no black and white, purely good or purely evil - stresses De Marle. Is Adam good? We know only that he transferred to Sarif after 12 years of work at another place, and this is very important. Surely he has some sins of his own - I asked the writer if she could hint why we see Adam alone in his apartment, sipping whisky and smoking a cigarette. What about his family and friends? You will meet some people close to him, you'll meet lots of people who know him, talking to them you might understand why he's in a bad mood. One condition: you have to be willing to talk, to immerse yourself in Deus Ex' incredible world. You can talk to anyone, as is the custom of rpgs. Maybe you'll find out something interesting? It's not mandatory, players can finish the whole game completely ignoring the story. But why would they want to?

A VISIT TO SHANGHAI

Six hours after the game begins, a flying vehicle resembling the mechanical bird from Ghost in the Shell: Innocence approaches Shanghai. On board are Adam and one Faridah Malik. Our protagonist well be keeping in touch with the girl throughout the 25 minute demonstration. We don't know who Malik works for, and why Adam decided to join them. That's not important right now. In shanghai, Adam is looking for a hacker who weakened Sarif's corporate systems on that fateful day. The hacker's being tracked by several organisations, so he will not be easy to find. Adam goes to a clube called Hive, to gather information from a certain Tom, who apparently knows stuff.

At the door, Jensen is stopped by a black bouncer. He won't let anyone in without a pass. Which he can naturally procure for a small fee. So far, the gameplay was shown in first person, but for the conversation it shifts , showing both characters. The player has to decide whether to pay, fight or look around the building for a back door or ventilation shaft. The player doing the presentation agrees to pay. All in all, a wise decision, as fighting might cause trouble. If you want to, you can kill everyone here - remarks JF provocatively - But know that if you shoot civilians, you'll get the police on your head, and those guys are very hard to take down, though naturally it's doable. Law enforcement won't attempt arrest. "They're not nice", JF says, they'll shoot on sight. Makes sense in a world where anyone can become a cybernetically enhanced killing machine. A moment of doubt can cost dearly. In the club, Jensen converses with a VIP zone bartender. Bastard's tough, he won't be scared or manipulated, the conversation doesn't go well for Adam and he gets told off. He needs to find a way to reach Tom. We have several options - talking to a few people we can find someone who agrees to speak a word to Tom for us for doing a small job for him. On the other hand, you can overhear one of the guards mention he lost his pass card to you-know-who's office, so it might be worth searching the club, and just maybe you can find it. Or you can just hack the security, provided you invested in that ability.

CYBER POWER

The mechanical augmentations are divided into four classes: combat, stealth, socia and hacking. Developers leave it up to players to choose the way they develop the character, but it won't be possible to max out all classes simultaneously. The limited amount of money Adam can get during his adventure forces you to decide how you want to play. Invest in hacking and easily open locked doors, shut down cameras and hack combat bots, forcing them to fire upon their former master? Or maybe master stealth, gaining optic camouflage? Maybe a bit of everything?

There is supposed to be over 40 different augmentations, of which only a few were presented. Seeing through walls looks almost like in Batman: Arkham Asylum, especially if you add a scanner showing info about your opponents and weak walls. Punching through a thin wall and grabbing the guard behind it is nice, but not half as cool as grabbing two guards, smashing their heads together and skewering them with blades coming from Jensen's forearms a'la Wolverine. Bloody, but not overdone.

For the purposes of the presentation, the bar limiting the energy used for augs was turned off, and his stats were boosted, so the game looked very easy, but it won't be like that really. We're now in the docks, Adam climbs onto the glass roof , shoots it and falls down between 4 enemies, stunning them upon impact. This is the Icarus Landing System in combat mode - a safe landing winished with a slam inducing a small blast wave. The other version is ideal for stealthy players - he landing is silent, so we can jump from great heights without causing suspicion.

When the fighting starts, we can't see whether health regenerates, and if so, if it's thanks to an augmentation, meaning not everyone's Adam may enjoy it. The hero fights through the docks, enemies try to hide behind boxes, the hero also hugs one, and the camera once again switches into TPP mode and stays that way even while aiming. We can also see how Adam jumps from one cover to another, sliding in like Marcus Fenix.

It only gets hot when a helicopter arrives, dropping a box into the warehouse. Instead of putting combat bots into crates for transport, clever engineers have devised a sort of transformer - suddenly the box sprouts legs, a minigun and a rocket launching cannon. We can think of only one scene now: Motoko Kusanagi's robot fight near the end of Ghost in the Shell. Cyberpunk maniacs will cry tears of joy.

THE FUTURE IS NOW

Deus Ex looks like a Blade Runner fan's wet dream, but it's even better than that It's set in 2027 - art director Jacques-Belletete reminds us - it's not science-fiction, it's just waiting for the changes the future will bring. Think what it was like 17 years ago - we didn't use cell phones or the internet, LED 3D tv sets, we flew planes that were technologically not much better than cars produced today. We don't want a world totally detached from reality, in twenty years we'll still be driving four-wheeled cars with one steering wheel. This philosophy will be visible in Detroit, one of the many cities appearing in the game, today almost abandoned, but one of the hearts of America in the golden days of the american motor industry. Born in Detroit, David Sarif decided to bring the city back to its former glory by opening his corporation's factories there. He brought a renaissance to Detroit. - Belletete continues.

Sarif bought old, abandoned factories that once produced cars, and started building his cyber-empire there. Walking through the city, the player will notice old brick tenements right beside modern scyscrapers illuminated by strong lights which give them a sterile, cybernetic look. You can already see that in Scandinavia or Japan. We bought thousands of dollars worth of architecture books, and the skyscraper projects we found there... Maaan, they're planning to build stuff so weird within the next 5-10 years that if you saw them in our game, you'd say "you went a bit too far with the sci-fi". And that's the thing, we didn't, do some research, and you'll see the sort of crazy projects starting right now.

Still, the developers allowed themselves some creative madness ("after all, it's just a game") in designing the double-layered city on an island, Shanghai. It's a sort of Silicon Valley of biocybernetics, within a short time dozens of companies have moved there and they ran out of space, and the chinese government did'n allow them to expand to neighbouring islands, fearing monopoly. The solution? Construction of a "second floor" was started, creating a double-decker city. Jensen strolled around the lower part, where sunlight is blocked out. Crowds of chinese-speaking people, narrow, neon-lit alleys, restaurants without walls or windows, outdoors yet indoors, chinese logos - Blade Runner inspirations are felt at every step. The only thing missing is rain.

CYBER-RENAISSANCE

Belletete confesses the game just had to feature locales straight out of Blade Runner. We wouldn't dare doing a cyberpunk game without them. There is one more reason. The initial idea of styling the whole world in renaissance style didn't work out.

If you look at Gears, Killzone, Turok, Huxley, UT3, GRAW, Dark Sector etc, it's like you're looking at one game. They're all great and wonderful, but they're too similar to each other, and we wanted to stick out from the crowd. The solution was cyberpunk mixed with renaissance. I put Leonardo da Vinci's sketches next to Ghost in the Shell or Appleseed and I was struck by their similarity. As if renaissance was the first step towards building a transhuman worls. We started experimenting.

It turned out that combining renaissance or baroque with cyberpunk only partly works, and this led to the idea that only the key characters, their apartments and select locales should be designed in this unique way, to keep balance. The effect is stunning. A cathedral schematic on the floor of a lab is bewildering, and the combination of antique furniture and stained glass-like windows with a huge flatscreen and halogen lights causes an involuntary jaw drop. Some character's clothing seems to be inspired by geometric figures, alluding to the mathematical discoveries of the renaissance.

It was hard finding inspiration, because no one's really done anything like that before in games. So we looked at real-world fashion and found projects we could expand on. You'll see a lot of normally dressed people, wearing T-shirts. Not everything has the renaissance flavour. - convinces Belletete. I a reminded of the first meeting between Morpheus and Neo, and the leather chair contrasting with the surroundighs. Images like this will be standard for Deus Ex.

THE JAPANESE ARE WATCHING

Square Enix recently acquired Eidos, and immediately turned attention to the Montreal studio, opened merely 3 years ago, the new Deus Ex game being the first of their three planned projects (the second one is Thief 4, the third one is a secret). Deus Ex is not a widely known franchise today, so it's almost like creating a new IP, so logically the studio would be first for a possible shutdown. We were first visited by Yoichi Wada, the boss of Square Enix, he wanted to assess our work culture. - reveals producer Anfossi. That was a stressful experience. Later, we were visited weekly by Square Enix people, even Kitase-san, the Final Fantasy producer, we met the entire FF team. We're great fans, and they liked our game, especially the futuristic technology projects.

Being complimented by Kitase only further convinced Anfossi that everything's heading in a good direction. Making an big-budget game costs 30 million dollars, and that's not counting the marketing budget, so you have to try to reach new audiences. So that's probably why games are getting easier, but I'm not one who believes in hand-holding. Just immerse yourself in our world and learn everything on your own. Anyway, I've got a very experienced crew, on average each of them's been making games for 10 years now. We know what we want to achieve, we stay true to the series and we innovate. And I hope it works. And if it does, we can count on another sequel. Fingers crossed.[]

***

Infoboxes:

HACKERS

During the presentation, the player took control of the cameras, but no one explained how the BioShock-style minigame worked. I tried asking JF about it. Without going into details, you're trying to take over access nodes through which you can send your signal, and at the same time the system defends itself by doing the same in your direction, but taking a different path. It tries to locate where the signal is coming from, block you and sound the alarm. Sounds reasonable, but it looked complicated and it was hard to tell what was going on. Important: Adam is susceptible to attacks while hacking


LOWER YOUR WEAPON, LET'S TALK

When I write about a game being directed at a mature audience, not necessarily of gamers, and it's an FPS, I always wonder if it doesn't come off as babble. The casual might swallow Heavy Rain, where he doesn't have to master the controls, but a shooter won't convince him even with the best story. But, Human Revolution is not really a shooter. It can be, if you want to, but it doesn't have to. Investing in the "social" class allows you to bypass many obstacles in a peaceful way, through dialogue. You don't have to shoot. Actually - nod to the previous games here - you can finish the whole game without killing anyone except a few bosses. And those fights don't have to be difficult for two reasons. First is the adjustable dificulty level, which lets even sunday players finish the game without breaking a sweat. Second, one of the augmentations presented was a target lock-on - Equipped with a bazooka, Jensen locked onto the target, faced the other way and shot, and the rocket found its way itself. Let's just hope this doesn't spoil the fun for the hardcore. There has to be some challenge.


CYBER MUSIC

Moody, slow rhythm, a few bass notes, various strings, but mostly asian. The music will be very atmospheric, unless it's there to stress violent fighting. The composer is Michael McCann, known for his Splinter Cell: Double Agent soundtrack and various TV series scores. Why him? Simple, he's not just a great musician, he also lives in Montreal, so he's available to the three person (in a development team team of 130!) sound team almost 24 hours a day. Apparently, he got so involved that it's hard for him to stop working.

I had the chance of listening to a sample of McCann's work and I'm impressed. Aside from the aforementioned, moody piece with the violin, I was enchanted by the pulsating music in club Hive, where Adam was looking for Tom. I imagined it in a scene like this: people dancing, the hero walks past them through the smoke, the camera alternating between his face and his legs, add shots of the dancers, and all that in slow-mo. It doesn't look as good in-game, barely anyone's dancing, the few clubgoers rather talk than dance. But the music rules, and I haven't even mentioned the best: some chinese girl wailing on the vocals.



BIG GUN MADE BY...

Similarily to Ghost Recon, the weapons designs are based on real ones. The designers tried to imagine how weapons will look 20 years from now. The effect, as you can see, is breathtaking.

For the purposes of the game, a hundred fictious companies were created, with their own logos and typography, and this includes weapons manufacturers. Looking at a rifle, the player will see who made it, and may later find containers with the same logo and think "hey, I had a piece made by them". This pertains to everything: cars, phones, TV sets, clothes. Creating all this was required titanic amounts of work, so was it worth it? A different company probably wouldn't allow something like this. - says Belletete - But we wanted to create a believable world. Many players won't even notice this, but subconsciously, your brain will catch that, because logotypes are all around us, they're a natural element of reality. Besides, thanks to them you won't complain about the world's sterility, just like the renaissance elements add awe to the settings.

DIFFICULT QUESTIONS

Writer Mary De Marle knows that thinking for the players is not the way to go. You should give them the chance to answer questions arising from the story by themselves. It's not our job to tell you, if modifying the human body through technology is bad - claims De Merle strongly and explains: Our themes reference the Icarus myth. Can man become something more than he could ever be and what are the consequences?

The author also tries to explore why people do certain things, to understand their behaviour. Her theory is that it's all because of the need to control something: the market, precious technology, human evolution, even truth and lies. In time, the player will learn to recognize the motivations of all characters, because they will fall into one category or another.

Human Revolution seems like a good book indeed, good thing that the author does not want to stroke her grey beard and moralize.

DIFFERENT, THUS INTRIGUING

Deus Ex is being made on the last Tomb Raider's engine and looks great. Maye it's not the most powerful engine around, but where the tech doesn't manage, unique world design helps. Cyber-renaissance is something new, something you haven't seen anywhere else, and that's what makes it compelling and to people, picques their curiosity. - explains Belletete. It was the same with BioShock, I was shocked to see that guy in an early XX century diving suit and a sick looking girl with a giant syringe, and I wanted to know more about that straight away. BioShock's success only strenghtened the Montreal team's conviction that they made the right choice with cyber-renaissance. And where did the insane attention to detail come from? Even if players don't notice the detail, they subconsciously register it, which makes the world seem more believable. Even the smallest details were taken into account, the look of bus stops or washing machines, or even the way parts of different appliances are connected.

I noteced another thing, while Jensen was strolling through the streets of Shanghai, and that's the ubiquitous fog (or was it smog). It's one of the cyberpunk archetypes, we had to have awesome fog, that you can even cast shadows on. Remember Blade Runner, the smokey interiors. And one more thing, the hero will have two sets of work clothes. Commando Adam looks like a futuristic Sam Fisher or Solid Snake, and Urban Adam, dressed in an elegant, navy blue coat, reminds of James Bond. You can walk into a superexpensive hotel in that coat, book a room, and you'll fit right in.[/i] boasts Belletete. The playability is in the details?

ALMOST BALE

Jensen's is voiced by Elias Toufexis. I checked him out on youtube, he sounds completely different in the game. He's got such raspy, mumbling voice I mistook him for Christian Bale. He was supposed to be that sort of tough guy, Bale or Eastwood style. - explains Steve Sczepkowski (his father is a Pole, but Steve doesn't speak polish), responsible for music and sound. The idea was that every character should speak in interesting ways, maybe with accents. I watched X-Files, and by the end of the last season I didn't know who was who, all in black, all work for the government. How do I distinguish between them? I didn't want to make that mistake in Deus Ex, so even if you don't remember the name of a girl you met, when you see her six hours later, you'll say "it's the one with the russian accent". I like this argumentation.

[Koki]

Punching through a thin wall and grabbing the guard behind it is nice, but not half as cool as grabbing two guards, smashing their heads together and skewering them with blades coming from Jensen's forearms a'la Wolverine.

The hero fights through the docks, enemies try to hide behind boxes, the hero also hugs one, and the camera once again switches into TPP mode and stays that way even while aiming. We can also see how Adam jumps from one cover to another, sliding in like Marcus Fenix.

Deus Ex is not a widely known franchise today, so it's almost like creating a new IP (...) Later, we were visited weekly by Square Enix people, even Kitase-san, the Final Fantasy producer, we met the entire FF team. We're great fans, and they liked our game, especially the futuristic technology projects.

"Hrm."

[Ostriig]

Cheers, vH, great stuff there, must've taken you a bit to do the full translation. Some very promising material, most of it anyway, we can only hope they'll manage to deliver on it all.

By the way, any chance of getting a look at a higher rez scan of that weapons image?

[van HellSing]

Sure, when I find someone with a scanner :P

I'll try to get some better pics tomorrow, but my photo-fu is rather weak.

[ZylonBane]

...the camera once again switches into TPP mode and stays that way even while aiming

Fuck. That. Shit.

[DDL]

What's so frustrating is that if this were new IP, all that stuff about believable worlds, unnecessary details, etc would be "Deus Ex-like" attention to detail and we'd all be OMG OMG OMG...whereas personally I keep getting distracted by how retardedly jarring this actually sounds as a prequel.

Also

Mary De Marle knows that think for the players is not the way to go

with

even if you don't remember the name of a girl you met, when you see her six hours later, you'll say "it's the one with the russian accent"

is hilarious.


I CANNOT REMEMBER PEOPLE UNLESS THEY ALL HAVE GLARINGLY DISTINCTIVE TRAITS

[van HellSing]

"Hrm."

You don't have to kill anyone in the game if you don't wish to? Meh, whatever. You can do silly "cool" moves if you do decide to fight? INEXCUSABLE!

[chris the cynic]

it's almost like creating a new IP

This, to me, is the biggest problem. Not because of what it meant in the context from which I took it, but because I agree with it in a larger context. It is almost like they're creating a new IP. And that "almost" is a problem.

They're certainly acting like they're creating something entirely new. They're very clearly not trying to make it plausible that this game happened twenty five years before Deus Ex. So in that sense it's a lot like they're making a new IP.

But given that they aren't making a new IP, given that they're calling it a Deus Ex game and assuring us it does take place in the same world 25 years prior, stuff that wouldn't be any problem at all in a new IP is painfully jarring in this.

It seems to me that the best course of action would have been to simply ditch the "almost" and make a new IP. I would have vastly preferred them doing that to doing what they are doing.

[chris the cynic]

You don't have to kill anyone in the game if you don't wish to? Meh, whatever.

Do we know what that means yet? Last I knew we still didn't know what that meant on the spectrum from "You can put tranq bullets in your gun and it's just like killing people except your conscience is clear," to "You can pass though the game like a ghost, unnoticed by all," to, "You can bribe, blackmail or otherwise manipulate everyone into not fighting."

Also note that, according to the quoted text, the idea you don't need to kill anyone to complete the game is explicitly false. You do need to kill "a few bosses."

[Ostriig]

Sure, when I find someone with a scanner :P

I'll try to get some better pics tomorrow, but my photo-fu is rather weak.

Cheers dude! It's actually those little text bits that I'm most curious about, are they in English or Polish?

What's so frustrating is that if this were new IP, all that stuff about believable worlds, unnecessary details, etc would be "Deus Ex-like" attention to detail and we'd all be OMG OMG OMG...whereas personally I keep getting distracted by how retardedly jarring this actually sounds as a prequel.

They're very clearly not trying to make it plausible that this game happened twenty five years before Deus Ex. [...] stuff that wouldn't be any problem at all in a new IP is painfully jarring in this.

Okay, I totally agree that they're stretching the fiction, but which of the pieces we've been shown so far are so implausible for a DX prequel that you can't let them slide? Seriously, it's not the original DX setting, but this is a different timeframe and I just don't see what aspects of it couldn't be reconciled with the original over a buffer period of 25 years.

Augs? Between spy drones forming out of nowhere and trenchcoat-ignoring optic camo it was all very much through the power of SCIENCE! in the first game, too, so I can live with them pulling it again in this title. As long as they provide some sort of tech description to cover what's supposed to be going on, as was the case with the original.

Still on about Shanghai's second floor? As I've explained before here, it can make sense in the setting without having to retcon the environments of the original DX. And how would the Chinese build such a place? SCIENCE! You know, just like punching through walls also in DX3 or flashlight eyeballs in DX1.

The unique, lofty art direction, then? The original title takes place in a time of great economic depression, whereas this prequel is set in a period of prosperity, surely there's nothing wrong with representing some of the game as other than 1997 barfing on New York. If anything, I'd expect the newly thought up fashion and interior design fads to be refreshing, even more so since they're not to be universally embraced, but rather mixed with what we're used to seeing today: "You'll see a lot of normally dressed people, wearing T-shirts. Not everything has the renaissance flavour" (opening post, under Cyber-Renaissance).

[van HellSing]

Cheers dude! It's actually those little text bits that I'm most curious about, are they in English or Polish?

English. They're so small though I doubt they would be readable even with a good quality scan. I'll be transcribing what I can get from them tomorrow.

[DDL]

flying vehicle resembling the mechanical bird from Ghost in the Shell: Innocence

Whereas by 2052 they'll be back to helicopters. Maybe mechanical birds don't stealth well?

instead of putting combat bots into crates for transport, clever engineers have devised a sort of transformer - suddenly the box sprouts legs, a minigun and a rocket launching cannon.

But by 2052 they'll decide that "ED209 only shite" and "dalek-esque with machineguns and almost zero ground clearance" is better?

a hundred fictious companies were created, with their own logos and typography, and this includes weapons manufacturers. Looking at a rifle, the player will see who made it, and may later find containers with the same logo and think "hey, I had a piece made by them". This pertains to everything: cars, phones, TV sets, clothes.

All of which will be unknown within 27 years?


I know you can explain away some things with "economic collapse", but

A) it's not really a collapse, it's a combination of disease, revolution and MJ12 manipulation (the BIG collapse is post-DX)

B) you can't explain away everything, and some of the above is equivalent to people going "oh noes the economy!" and suddenly ditching all their blu-rays, tivos and ipads and going back to watching VHS videos while playing on their neo-geos. And NEVER MENTIONING ANYTHING MORE ADVANCED EVER AGAIN.

Which would be odd.


EDIT: also, bear in mind that MJ12 started work on nanoaugs at pretty much the same time as all this is happening, so they really will have to play up the disadvantages of mech tech extensively, or why would a massive secret organisation bother? If everyone mech-ed is pimp and uber, why try to make vastly more expensive but subtler aug tech?

[van HellSing]

Whereas by 2052 they'll be back to helicopters

And now we're using planes though we already invented helicopters. What's up with that?

Seriously though, they exaggerated a lot with the comparison. The craft is most certainly the same small VTOL you can see in some of the pics.

About the logos - seriously? Just because DX had shitty textures that wouldn't allow putting logos on guns, the new game shouldn't do that either?

[Weasel]

Oh snap, one of those images is set in a city I haven't heard mentioned yet: Philadelphia!

This one: http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/3751/obraz011sm.jpg

[DDL]

They could've put them in the descriptions...reading the descrips, in fact, it looks like the DX peeps went to a reasonable extent to NOT make anything identifiably affiliated with a company of any kind (though admittedly in IW they had MAKO, which made basically everything). Hell, even cans of Nuke have "The can is blank except for the phrase 'PRODUCT PLACEMENT HERE.' It is unclear whether this is a name or an invitation." as the description.

Note that I am not saying creating all these companies and logos and shit is a BAD thing. Hell no, I think it's a great idea. Making a believable world is awesome. This particular believable world simply doesn't fit into the established DX timeline very well though (if at all).

If viewed as "unique IP", this game is doing all kinds of things right.

If viewed as "A Deus Ex prequel", this game is doing all kinds of things right, but in entirely the wrong way.

[van HellSing]

Oh snap, one of those images is set in a city I haven't heard mentioned yet: Philadelphia!

This one: http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/3751/obraz011sm.jpg

Hey, you're right! Awesome find!

[Briareos H]

quite frankly the continuity with the silly Deus Ex storyline is the least of my concerns. The complete lack of subtlety in gameplay and design (not talking about plot) is much more worrying and this article does nothing to help the feeling.

[Ostriig]

English. They're so small though I doubt they would be readable even with a good quality scan. I'll be transcribing what I can get from them tomorrow.

Thanks! Yeah, it's not a lot of text, so it's probably easier to just type it if you don't have a scanner handy.

Whereas by 2052 they'll be back to helicopters. Maybe mechanical birds don't stealth well?

[...]

Or a more comfy excuse would be that maybe that's all UNATCO thought JC would need at the time. Kinda what vH also replied to this point. To give you another parallel, I don't remember seeing any buses in the original DX - is that to say that there are no buses in 2052 in the DX universe, or is it simply that there just didn't happen to be any in the areas we visited?

And to be honest, that "mechanical bird" looks like simple cross between a Harrier jetfighter and a V-22 Osprey helicopter-plane hybrid. Not all that sci-fi if you ask me.

The robots indeed seem more advanced than you'd expect from a prequel, but not to the point where it goes blatantly against the fiction. Even if they didn't work the economic depression angle to fit it in, I still don't see it wrecking the fiction for me because these ones can turn into a cube and the ones from 20 years later can't.

As for the companies and labels, I'm really confused that you'd object to that. They're trying to make a richer, more compelling environment for the setting, what's wrong with that? It's not following the scope of the original, it's actively improving upon it. Works for me.

I don't know, I'm sorry, but I think it's just nitpicking at this point. As long as the tech is reasonably in sync with the timeline, I really don't think they should shy from taking some minor liberties and deliver a more compelling and comprehensive experience just for the sake of keeping with the original design right down to the colour of the labels on Forty bottles. It's not like they put teleportation and star cruisers in there, it's all still fairly in keeping with the setting's tech development. I think there's plenty of deviation to discuss with the gameplay, but the setting strikes me as easy enough to roll with in the context of the timeline, and straight out exciting on its own.


P.S. Almost forgot, mech augs vs. nanites - making stuff more subtle is a significant advantage. Incredibly so. Not only does it make it easier to blend in, since public disapproval of mechs is something DX3 makes a point of, supposedly, but also on a simple marketing level: if you're military, or a security guard, what sort of technical augmentation do you think you'd more readily subject yourself to?

[chris the cynic]

Okay, I totally agree that they're stretching the fiction, but which of the pieces we've been shown so far are so implausible for a DX prequel that you can't let them slide? Seriously, it's not the original DX setting, but this is a different timeframe and I just don't see what aspects of it couldn't be reconciled with the original over a buffer period of 25 years.

How about this one?

In Deus Ex there are three kinds of augmented humans mech augs, nano augs, and physiopharmaceutical augs. That last kind, which the MiBs and WiBs were examples of, was created by MJ12 for specific reasons described in writing in Deus Ex.

The reasons were simple, nano augmentation was unpredictable, mechanical augmentation resulted in a nonstandard appearance that couldn't be covered up with clothing, and they wanted a way to augment agents that didn't have either of those problems.

To repeat that, the reason that Agent Sherman, who was given the job of running UNATCO from when Manderley was removed until Simons took over, agent Hela, who led the raid against Silhouette, and Adept 34501, who watched over the Templar cathedral, and every other Man or Woman in Black you encounter in Deus Ex existed was because, 25 years after Human Revolution, MJ12 did not have the technology to create mech arms you could throw a coat over and look normal.

If MJ12 had had twenty five years to build on mech augs that could be hidden under clothing those characters wouldn't exist, or at the very least wouldn't exist in the way they are portrayed in Deus Ex.

That's about as straightforward as you can get. Deus Ex said mechs of a certain type didn't exist and some fairly major things were done as a result of their non-existance, Human Revolution stars a mech of that type.

-

As it turns out this is also one of the decisions we know most about. The art director addressed the topic directly. He said they wanted Adam look like he could "go out for dinner at the Rit-Carlton" and that "the sleeveless look made Adam look like a douche."

Now, I know this is heretical in the entire entertainment industry, but my feeling is that maybe if your main character is supposed to be a member of a group that makes people afraid and repulsed at a glance he shouldn't look like Casanova.

Maybe the price of having your main character being part of a not-quite-human group that people lothe is that he looks like a douche. And if the existing setting says he can't hide it, maybe you could run with that and deal with the idea that your main character is always stuck looking a way that isn't perfect and is never able to avoid showing the fact that he is one of them.

[chris the cynic]

P.S. Almost forgot, mech augs vs. nanites - making stuff more subtle is a significant advantage. Incredibly so. Not only does it make it easier to blend in, since public disapproval of mechs is something DX3 makes a point of, supposedly, but also on a simple marketing level: if you're military, or a security guard, what sort of technical augmentation do you think you'd more readily subject yourself to?

It looks like we crossed posts. Anyway, I thought this might be worth addressing somewhat. What I'm saying here isn't about HR so much as your specific post.

Nano augmentation is described as a viral process, Gray Death is the result if you aren't lucky enough to have same gaps in your the immune system as the Dentons.

One of the books you can find in Deus Ex is an MJ12 document about nano augmentation, it opens with the words, "... recent human trials and subsequent mortality studies have demonstrated that nano-augmenting of baseline human physiology is not without hazards".

If someone said to you, "We can put something in you that reproduces viraly which will change the cells of every major tissue in your body, which we only know what we know about because of the mortality studies we have done on those we did this to before," would you be jumping up and down saying, "Do it to me, do it to me!"

I'm not saying nano augmentation as described in Deus Ex isn't an incredible technology, because it is. I'm just not sure that, in light of AJ, there's quite as much of a gap in utility as you describe.

MJ12 had to turn to a breeding program to create someone they could do it to without a lot of trouble (Simons, for example, isn't exactly subtle) then they cloned him. The big gain they got out of that was that JC and Paul could blend in where mech augs couldn't.

If they can make most people into someone like Adam who can throw on a coat and look pretty damned normal (and "go out for dinner at the Rit-Carlton") I'm not sure that the difference is what it was before HR was added to the setting. Adam's ability to blend doesn't seem half bad.

[Illuminatus]

The big gain they got out of that was that JC and Paul could blend in where mech augs couldn't.

If I recall correctly, Page was especially keen on successfully developing nano-augmentation because it would allow him to interface directly with the Aquinas Router and Universal Constructors (part of his God from the Machine plan, something mechs obviously couldn't do).

Anyway, what this all comes down to is that it is very difficult to create a consistent prequel to a game world as complex and well established as Deus Ex. Almost every major organization, character, or piece of technology has a detailed back-story in the original game; Human Revolution is obviously going to clash with a lot of that established canon (especially since so much of the original story is connected to events in the previous decades).

The ideal Deus Ex prequel would have to include significant past events mentioned in the first game (such as Page's rebellion against Everett, Daedalus's creation, Paul Denton's origins), but it's very unlikely Human Revolution is going to adhere that closely to a 10 year old game's plot. Rather than nitpicking at every inconsistency (and there will no doubt be many), this "prequel" should probably be treated as a separate gameworld somewhat influenced by the DX universe.

[DDL]

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.

Or "Ghost in the shell: Human Revolution".

[Ostriig]

To repeat that, the reason [...] every other Man or Woman in Black you encounter in Deus Ex existed was because, 25 years after Human Revolution, MJ12 did not have the technology to create mech arms you could throw a coat over and look normal.

If MJ12 had had twenty five years to build on mech augs that could be hidden under clothing those characters wouldn't exist, or at the very least wouldn't exist in the way they are portrayed in Deus Ex.

That's about as straightforward as you can get. Deus Ex said mechs of a certain type didn't exist and some fairly major things were done as a result of their non-existance, Human Revolution stars a mech of that type.

Fair enough, I agree that they cut back from the initial design and personal impact of mech augs, I was also disappointed when they didn't take the gritty route to it (back when we expected to start out fully human) even though the sleeker one they're going for makes a lot more real-world sense. I do think it would've given a lot more weight to your choices regarding self modification if the trade-off was ending up looking like Gunther after all was said and done. However, the in-game representation of mechs does little to support the "no coat" idea, since you've got both Anna and the bartender in HK, for instance, whom you can totally throw coats over; in fact, there's also the one exchange when Anna reminds JC that they're supposed to do more than "just scare the NFS with their baggy coats", even though she's never portrayed with one. As for Gunther, bigger coat I suppose, though the point is more likely that they couldn't keep their augs concealed for long and under closer scrutiny.

Another point here is interpreting what Jacques-Belletete said when he said Jensen should be able "to go out for dinner" - did he mean that the tech should look reasonably... elegant, as in not like a gray golem to repulse or frighten others, or that the tech should be entirely unnoticeable. This distinction may be a lot more apparent in-game when we get our hands on it, as we can see if people easily take note of Jensen's augs or not. Also, others on this forum did suggest that a possible explanation for the aesthetic difference between Gunther's and Adam's augs could be attributed, once again, to economic conditions, though I'm in two minds about that.

But okay, I'm good to tentatively roll with that individual counterpoint in that they did cut back from the initial design of augs to a sleeker version, even if I don't feel that it necessarily does away with the use of MiBs. Give me a few more, though, any other notable breaks?

If someone said to you, "We can put something in you that reproduces viraly which will change the cells of every major tissue in your body, which we only know what we know about because of the mortality studies we have done on those we did this to before," would you be jumping up and down saying, "Do it to me, do it to me!"

I had not connected those dots, thanks! However, in this case, I was answering to why MJ12 would want to develop such tech in the first place, even if it were not to offer any other advantages than easier concealment and installation. Obviously, they're end-goal would be to develop nanotech to the point it would be safe to install, in which case it would be a no-brainer to pick over mechanical prosthetics.

[DDL]

Well, nanoaug tech worked A-OK for paul (which was why they cloned him), and was getting to the point of being workable in non-IgG-epsilon deficient peeps (hence simons) though not without...loss of subtlety.

But really, MJ12 was primarily working on nanotech to allow page his apotheosis (you can't become a godcloud with mech tech), so long-term goals were kinda irrelevant. Not that THEY necessarily knew this..so presumably page fed them whatever bullshit necessary to make research on nanotech continue.

[Ostriig]

Well, even with Simons' "bioelectrics-marred face" (btw, is that directly due to nanotech?) it would still be decidedly more marketable and preferable to having your limbs completely replaced if it weren't for the nanites' possible drop-dead side-effect.

But you're kind of answering your own question there with the second part.