[Illuyankas]

The developers designed the game around getting no more than 70% of augs in a single run, so it working as they intended being dumb is a little odd to me. Also the social enhancer gives you more options in some of the non-social battle conversations, letting you get codes you can't otherwise off some people, money off others, info off still more that gets them fired, etc.

[POOPOO MCBUMFACE]

I'd say I had closer to 80%, another... seven points or so would probably have allowed me to max out completely, and I know I missed out on at least two praxis kits. I even had 3 leftover points that I couldn't even be bothered spending. I'll probably use the social enhancer if I replay for the reasons you mention, but the analyze addon? Making the "babby's first stealth game" radar even more omniscient? Pass. Other than that, though, it feels like it renders the character building redundant if you get to max out everything useful; my favourite parts of the game were early on where I had to pick my approaches carefully according to my skillset, and the inevitable jack-of-all-trades-master-of-fucking-everything build cheapens that. Getting praxis points stopped being an exciting event by the time I reached Hengsha, to be honest. That should just never happen.
It was something of a problem in the original as well, but not to this extent; mostly because it was actually hard, had the skills system and there was the need to pick one aug or another in most slots.

This post has been edited by POOPOO MCBUMFACE: 15 September 2011 - 04:45 PM

[Mentalist]

hmm
i'm making my way through the dock right now.

i'm maxed out on dermal, all hacking (except for analyse), CASIE, I've got ILS, maxed out strength aug, energy regen, and level 1 legs.

I have about 14 praxis points to spare. I really don't need any more augs.
the exp system definitely needs some tweaking.

[Illuyankas]

Get the reflex booster. Saves ammo and recharge time for guard pairs (of which there are many) and has some hilarious animations.

[Mentalist]

Finished my first run, at 49 h.

gonna do a mixed play on Give me Deus Ex next.

[POOPOO MCBUMFACE]

Wonder how many hours I clocked. Certainly wasn't anywhere near that long. It felt a lot shorter than expected, but according to my girlfriend I played it for about nine hours on the day I completed it... probably at least 20-25 hours.

Also I just read someone arguing that the final boss

Spoiler

is the manifestation of the patriarchal fear of female empowerment and how a woman with a job/position of influence is seen as unnatural and monstrous in male eyes

[Illuyankas]

I'm surprised they could find the keyboard with their head so far up their ass.

[POOPOO MCBUMFACE]

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=i9YbSkOW7sU

Now we know who to blame. The bosses were actually outsourced. Christ.

[Illuyankas]

Outsourced to people who've not played or get the original, either. Those bastards.

At least this makes me feel better.

[Dolorous Menhir]

Finally finished - 69 hours playtime. Illy, agree with your points on the

Spoiler

final mission.

Managed to finish the game after a thorough min-violence/max-hack run-through with 3 unfilled augmentation slots, which works at 96% augmentations attained. Only killed in the intro (because didn't know about it counting against the "no-kills" achievement), and to

Spoiler

save Malik, because I couldn't bring myself to let her die.

Loved all the sly references to the original and other in-jokes, for example

- untrustworthy vending machines
- skull guns
- unauthorised inspections of the ladies room
- sunglasses
- subtle inclusion of characters such as Manderley, Morgan Everret, the DuClares, Daedalus and Icarus, Bob Page, Governer Mead
- how FEMA is EVIL
- the correspondence between unlucky techs Brent Stuart and Pat Spinner
- code 0451
- it's always night time
- the conversational battles, especially

Spoiler

Taggart

- the moment when I realised I could brutally murder my ex-girlfriend's mother in the street after cruelly rejecting her pleas to investigate her daughter's death (though justice was dispensed swiftly by Detroit's finest and I did not keep the save)
-

Spoiler

Tracer Tong

Dislikes

- the boss battles - not only am I forced to abandon strict non-lethal methods which all my augmentation choices have been based on, but can easily win away by raining grenades on them, of which there are no shortage because never use them elsewhere
-

Spoiler

regression to zombie game-play in final level

-

Spoiler

lack of final resolution - no last chat with Malik after I broke my moral code to save her life? Megan? Megan's mum? What significance did handing over the bracelet have? Did Wayne Haas hold down his new job at Sarif Industries? Will Pritchard's show ever get on TV? Will my mirror ever get replaced? I'd like to know!

- once about 75% complete, had all the augmentations I ever wanted or would use
- money system was poorly thought through. The game threw money at you at every turn, and there was almost nothing to spend it on. Finished the game with 80,000 credits unspent, and that was after buying all available Praxis kits at 5,000 credits a go.

One question I wasn't sure of - which of the endings can be regarded as (most) canonical? Which fits best with the original game's history? The prevalence of augmentations among the public in this game is certainly much, much higher than seems consistent with the first (where the only "old-style" augs were Navarre and Gunther).

Gothos, on 13 September 2011 - 09:15 PM, said:

Today, I'd like to tell you something about Adam Jensen.

Well said Gothos. Also found the effects on Jensen affecting. Developed a visceral dislike for the augmentation technology. The sight of all those fake limbs was horrible. Can't imagine people subjecting themselves to such a thing.

[Aptorian]

I've been playing this game all week and I really love it, it's like it was specifically tailored to scratch my "explore everything" itch I get when playing RPGs.

I'm currently in the PICUS (faux fox news) place, right before what I suspect is the second boss battle. I love the conspiracy stuff they are building on here with references to the gulf wars, the moon landings, presidential elections, etc. It makes it fun to actually read every single e-mail.

Not the most challenging game difficulty wise, the combat is a peace of cake, especially with all the augs I have now. The only reason why I struggle with every group of guards is because I farm them for xp and have to do solo take downs on each guy and then scamper off like Doctor Zoidberg when his buddies see me.

[Illuyankas]

Solo takedowns? Pfft, dual takedowns are where the money's at.

[Aptorian]

Is it? I read that double take downs only earn you the xp of one solo take down. So if I was eliminating a squad of say 8 guards. Double take downs would only net me 200 xp where as the solo take downs grant me 400 xp.

For that very reason I haven't bothered investing in the double take down augmentation.

I really hope that FAQ wasn't lying to me because I've spent fucking hours now meticulously stalking and prowling around and quick loading to get the best of those bastards.

[Illuyankas]

You get 50 for a solo non-lethal takedown, 50 for both guys plus 45 for doing a double non-lethal takedown. There's easily enough pairs of guards to make it worthwhile. Whoever wrote that guide is an imbecile.

[Aptorian]

 mymzh.jpg (129.63K)
Number of downloads: 0

[Illuyankas]

Yeah, realising you could be getting 145 exp for one energy bar is a bitch, ain't it?

[Dolorous Menhir]

Double takedowns all the way. Wish I'd gotten them earlier. You'll never look back.

[tiam]

Got this for xmas played one of them on a console a while back (on the PS2) and thought it was ok. really want to start this one but then Skyrim happened.

[Messremb]

Picked it up cheap in the day after the end of sale sale on Steam, just waiting on the last 500MB to get here before I jump in.

Total newcomer to the series, what's all this about stealth and no kills etc? You mean I can't just blow stuff up and shoot everyone?

[Aptorian]

Messremb, on 02 January 2012 - 07:29 PM, said:

Total newcomer to the series, what's all this about stealth and no kills etc? You mean I can't just blow stuff up and shoot everyone?

You can. In fact if you chose to just shoot your way through the game, it's going to be a pretty easy experience a lot of the time. You are pretty over powered in most combat situations, even though you're a bit fragile starting out.

How ever, if you want to maximize your experience gain, you will want to do non lethal takedowns on every single guard you face. This makes the game a lot harder.

This game is not meant to be played as a First Person Shooter. You are too fragile for run and gun gameplay. They want you to feel vulnerable and use stealth and sneaky tactics where ever possible.

How ever the enemies are pretty stupid so its easy to cheese most confrontations.