[Cause]

Finished it on the weekend. The good news is the more I played the less my complaints were an issue. I started finding ammo and the more augments I got the more the gameplay came together. Still the story was actually a little on the bland side and the ending a bit week but def a great game overall.

[Gothos]

I got through the factory level without killing anyone... me likey.

Spoiler

however I did not find the hostages. bad press ensues saved the latino veteran and he manager lady at the end though

[Silencer]

Got it last weekend, haven't played as much as I want, but getting there.

Gothos, on 05 September 2011 - 11:51 AM, said:

I got through the factory level without killing anyone... me likey.

Spoiler

however I did not find the hostages. bad press ensues saved the latino veteran and he manager lady at the end though

Yeah, I did too with my first run-through. It was actually quite easy to do, tbh. And the fastest way to

Spoiler

Find the hostages, was to go through the ventilation system, in the wide open room with the stairway. Saves you sneaking across the room or having to take people out, and you practically have to go past the vent to get to the main door onwards. I only found the vent by coincidence, though.

Still, nice that you can. Apparently you can go through the entire game bar boss fights without killing, according to one achievement on the 360. I'm not going to do that on this run, though, I need to try out the weapons and stuff. XD

I'm enjoying it. It's nice to have at least two ways to approach most things. And that's two physical options, not just "go stealth or go loud". The story does come off a bit bland at the start, which is disappointing, but I'll reserve judgment on that for now, I guess.

Also: Weapon mods! Yay. I like those.

[Illuyankas]

I found a modded patch0.000 file from... some... where... that enables the debug menu. Basically I can dick about with infinite energy and spawn whatever guns I want to, which is making this replay after the sensible first runthrough a lot of fun. Like PEPS gun blast to the face for hostage saving fun. Like infinite cloak I AM THE PREDATOR fun. Like ALL TAKEDOWNS ALL THE TIME DEATHBLENDER

[Gothos]

I just met

Spoiler

Tong

and I'm wondering if he's related to the guy of the same name in Deus Ex 1! In any case, enjoying the immensely. In particular I love the opportunity for all that instinct built on Thief games to go into use and sneak around a lot. Also loving the opportunity to talk people into things - all the more thrilling without the augmentations.
So far as far as augs go I've invested heavily into hacking, some stealth and arms. I'm kinda missing the old system with skills and augs separate, though.

[Illuyankas]

The CASIE aug is better for getting random info/rewards from conversations that aren't social battles, though it can help if you're stuck or you want to see the extra dialogue. It's more satisfying to win the social battles without it, though. Also when you get the reflex booster you'll wonder how you ever played without it. Oh, and when I said the wall punch mechanic is great I meant both in a 'open up several dozen caches of goodies for you including a number of praxis kits' and a 'punch through a wall with a guy on the other side and SNAP HIS NECK LIKE A TWIG' sense.

[Kanubis]

I love the hacking. I hack everything, even if I've got the password or code anyway.

Hacking the security consoles is awesome, especially when you get to calmly walk through a load of bodies afterwards with an innocent looking combat droid sitting in the middle beeping away.

[Gothos]

I don't set turrets and droids against enemies, that tends to set off alarms... and that gets in the way of my ghosting

[Mentalist]

I caved a day or so ago. Steam has me logged in for 19 hours so far, and i'm still in Detroit.

I need moar paraxis kits though.
I have CASIE, and a level 2 hack, but I need moar to make any serious progress. Also, just discovered the sewers.

oh, and I ghosted the factory on Deus Ex difficulty... though it took a while.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 07 September 2011 - 10:08 PM

[Illuyankas]

You want the wallpunching aug. Also the reflex booster aug. Also cloak for pulsing it while rolling in front of guards and cameras. Also ALL THE AUGS ALL OF THEM

[Mentalist]

that's a very eloquent summary of my conundrum. I need praxis points.

EDIT: i'm tempted to start punching out every single civilian I can find for bonus XP.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 07 September 2011 - 10:36 PM

[Illuyankas]

Civilians don't give you exp for takedowns, sadly. This shouldn't dissuade you from doing so anyway, but just so you know.

If you DO want max exp, hack everything regardless of passwords or keycodes, explore everywhere in every vent down every alley over every fence everywhere, nonlethal takedown two enemies at once, if not then a normal nonlethal takedown, if not then a nonlethal weapon like a stungun. That will be maximum exp. Don't bother getting extra battery segments, you'll spend most of the game on one and can chug chocolate bars whenever you need it. Also the lifting heavy objects aug is one of the best ways to go around obstacles and find explorable exp giving locations. Not to mention gain use of the Fridge, hallowed engine of destruction.

You can:

Use it as a weapon by throwing it
Jump on it to reach high places
Put it down and cover behind it wherever you go
Stick it in doorways to obstruct enemies attempting to flank/rush you

The perfect weapon.

[Mentalist]

Illuyankas, on 07 September 2011 - 11:06 PM, said:

Civilians don't give you exp for takedowns, sadly. This shouldn't dissuade you from doing so anyway, but just so you know.

If you DO want max exp, hack everything regardless of passwords or keycodes, explore everywhere in every vent down every alley over every fence everywhere, nonlethal takedown two enemies at once, if not then a normal nonlethal takedown, if not then a nonlethal weapon like a stungun. That will be maximum exp. Don't bother getting extra battery segments, you'll spend most of the game on one and can chug chocolate bars whenever you need it. Also the lifting heavy objects aug is one of the best ways to go around obstacles and find explorable exp giving locations. Not to mention gain use of the Fridge, hallowed engine of destruction.

You can:

Use it as a weapon by throwing it
Jump on it to reach high places
Put it down and cover behind it wherever you go
Stick it in doorways to obstruct enemies attempting to flank/rush you

The perfect weapon.

the lifting aug is next on my shopping list, after I get another praxis point.

so far, I've upgraded the turret hack (which was a waste). spent 2 points on CASIE (which wasn't). and have one left over. once I get some more cash, I'll buy the second LIMB clinic praxis point, b/c right now i'm getting stranded wrt to where I can and can't go.

also, I want to up my hacking, b/c i'm being slaughtered by some lvl 2 locks. but not before getting the jumping aug.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 08 September 2011 - 03:46 AM

[Illuyankas]

Yeah, you say useless, but you haven't reached a certain part where you're defending a position and there are two turrets nearby. Made that scene in my Give Me Deus Ex run a breeze. I'll be saving the no kills no alarms run for much later, obviously.

[Gothos]

The part of the game where I could just sneak by without touching anyone is past me, methinks.

Spoiler

At the Belltower place in Upper Hengsha I just proceeded to stealthkill all the goddamn motherfuckers. Also in Montreal. But now I kinda know what augs I'll need to not kill anyone next time.
Also - there doesn't seem to be a way to deal with Zhao in Hengsha and get Ghost - she sets off the alarm during the cutscene, right? Awful.

Punching through walls, heavy lifting and cloak seem to be the most useful augs so far. Oh and of course hacking. You can say goodbye to a lot of content if you ignore hacking.
I do wonder if I can bring myself to making the brutish playthrough and just straight up murder everything with a Heavy Rifle with no sneaking around...

[Kanubis]

I think hacking it worth too much xp to pass up - if you hack everything you can I'd imagine it more or less pays for itself, as long as you make sure to hack all the 'bonus' nodes and not just go to the exit point directly.

Gothos, one of the weaknesses of the game imo is that the heavy weapons don't seem necessary. I've killed pretty much everything using a fully modded 10mm pistol and revolver. For the big robots, throw in an emp grenade. I've killed the third boss with just the revolver, which is apparently the hardest straight-up fight. The good thing about these weapons is that you don't really need to invest in the recoil-suppression augs.

I did use the rocket launcher against the woman boss, but that was mainly because I'd been lugging the stupid thing around and wanted to actually use it for once.

[Gothos]

Heh, I got the woman boss with the bigger electro gun and sniper rounds in the face. But yeah, a fully modded 10mm pistol is death incarnate.

Spoiler

When Zhao goes into her panic room and all those troops file out, I just went into the air duct on the side and headshotted them all in succession. One shot - one kill. Though Ogres don't seem to die from a direct headshot anymore now.

I seriously cry about not being able to fit a silencer on the sniper rifle. Should've kept the crossbow methinks.

[Mentalist]

over 21 hours in, still skulking the streets of Detroit.

invested more in hacking. feel godly now.

just about ready to hit up DRB turf before I go toe toe with the cops--did some raiding of the HQ but didn't tackle the main floors yet.

[Obdigore]

Gothos, on 08 September 2011 - 08:23 AM, said:

Heh, I got the woman boss with the bigger electro gun and sniper rounds in the face. But yeah, a fully modded 10mm pistol is death incarnate.

Spoiler

When Zhao goes into her panic room and all those troops file out, I just went into the air duct on the side and headshotted them all in succession. One shot - one kill. Though Ogres don't seem to die from a direct headshot anymore now.

I seriously cry about not being able to fit a silencer on the sniper rifle. Should've kept the crossbow methinks.

In regards to your spoiler, I used a gas grenade. I then only had 2 large guys with the heavy assault rifles to deal with, which wasn't an issue.

[Gothos]

I don't even pick up grenades, inventory space is all too important for all those useless secondary guns!