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One area where it fell apart from me was in the area of "choices that have consequences". You have lots of branching dialogue, but it rarely feels like any of y

One area where it fell apart from me was in the area of "choices that have consequences". You have lots of branching dialogue, but it rarely feels like any of your deviations have a meaningful impact on the story. To that end, it pales in comparison to the earlier Alpha Protocol, which was ALOT clumsier in many ways, but absolutely nailed the consequences angle. Example: Both games begin with an encounter with an armed adversary (whether it's a terrorist in both, I don't remember). Both games allow you to kill this gentleman, or spare him. Both games suggest that there will be consequences to doing this, i.e. that there might be more to this person than merely an armed thug. In Alpha Protocol, if spared, the person can become a recurring contact, and aid you on later missions. In Deus Ex, if spared, you bump into this person in an alley several hours later, and he gives you a couple thousand dollars. You never speak to him again.

rndmize 7y ago
Changes that affect the story deeply are difficult to do, and often only appreciable with multiple play-throughs. Alpha Protocol wasn't good enough on the gameplay side for that to feel worth doing, and this often also comes at the cost of story quality. That said, you undersell the consequence aspect in DXHR. Things I remember that had consequences - after your CEO tells you to get to his chopper for the hostage mission, the hostages would be killed if you delayed more than ten minutes, which had a range of impacts on characters' approval of you. Getting to the dialog at the end of the mission could result in death of captor and hostage, death of captor and live hostage, both surviving, death of hostage and live captor - all of which had some effects beyond what you describe, as I'm pretty sure there was a side quest line that depended on the hostage being alive. Malik (the pilot) can be saved after the crash in Hengsha, which changes some scenes slightly later. The endings available change a fair bit depending on who you talk to and what you convince them on in the last chapters. Going to the LIMB clinic for the upgrade could change the difficulty of one of the boss fights and some scenes significantly. I'm pretty sure most of the police station mission can be skipped if you can convince one of your old co-workers to help you. And these are just the things I remember, almost ten years later.
renewiltord 7y ago
That's actually why I prefer the Deus Ex series. I'm partly going in to see a story told to me. I'm going to play the game once and I want that one time to feel very interesting and not get that feeling of missing out on things because of choices.
Xelbair 7y ago
If only Alpha Protocol was a bit more polished, it is such underrated gem of a game. But its dialogue system is absolutely great, and it really feels that your every action has consequences(both positive and negative).

rndmize 7y ago

Changes that affect the story deeply are difficult to do, and often only appreciable with multiple play-throughs. Alpha Protocol wasn't good enough on the gameplay side for that to feel worth doing, and this often also comes at the cost of story quality. That said, you undersell the consequence aspect in DXHR. Things I remember that had consequences - after your CEO tells you to get to his chopper for the hostage mission, the hostages would be killed if you delayed more than ten minutes, which had a range of impacts on characters' approval of you. Getting to the dialog at the end of the mission could result in death of captor and hostage, death of captor and live hostage, both surviving, death of hostage and live captor - all of which had some effects beyond what you describe, as I'm pretty sure there was a side quest line that depended on the hostage being alive. Malik (the pilot) can be saved after the crash in Hengsha, which changes some scenes slightly later. The endings available change a fair bit depending on who you talk to and what you convince them on in the last chapters. Going to the LIMB clinic for the upgrade could change the difficulty of one of the boss fights and some scenes significantly. I'm pretty sure most of the police station mission can be skipped if you can convince one of your old co-workers to help you. And these are just the things I remember, almost ten years later.

renewiltord 7y ago

That's actually why I prefer the Deus Ex series. I'm partly going in to see a story told to me. I'm going to play the game once and I want that one time to feel very interesting and not get that feeling of missing out on things because of choices.

Xelbair 7y ago

If only Alpha Protocol was a bit more polished, it is such underrated gem of a game. But its dialogue system is absolutely great, and it really feels that your every action has consequences(both positive and negative).