14 ms·

Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Graphics Study

346 points by epsylon 11y ago

thearn4 11y ago
This happens to be a very timely article - I've been going through a replay of this game recently. I bought it right after it was released, but only played it once (and very quickly). I'm a huge fan of the original Deus Ex.
- nailer 11y ago
  There's a directors cut on Steam as well that has Valve-style making of markers with developer commentary. If your first play through involved killing people, try completing the game non lethally (except for the boss fights) for an achievement. Also: Ceilings of Deus Ex http://imgur.com/a/FDAbV http://imgur.com/a/FDAbV Also: Michael McCann's soundtrack: https://open.spotify.com/album/4LuVQCHTgUZjuWgUQ7lQbl https://open.spotify.com/album/4LuVQCHTgUZjuWgUQ7lQbl
  - LastZactionHero 11y ago
    Wow, that ceilings link is really cool. I was also recently listening to that soundtrack. Kind of excited to see this thread, sometimes I think I'm the only person that loves this game.
    - Alupis 11y ago
      This game is one of the rare ones that still makes you think. Far too many games, especially in this genre have gone to giving the player exact waypoints of what to do and where to go; totally removing any independent thought from the game and it's story. This genre is overcrowded by the "run here, skip cut scene, now run over here" games. There were several places during my initial run-through where I found myself having to grab a pen and paper in order to keep track of things like small AI conversations in passing which lead to new side objectives.
  - mortenjorck 11y ago
    Those ceilings. I don’t think I’ve seen any work of visual fiction – game, movie, or otherwise – in the past decade whose art direction felt as genuinely futuristic as Human Revolution did. From amplifying current trends (extrapolating Zaha Hadid into wild, web-covered high-rises) to speculating the black-swans of fashion (a sudden rise of neo-Italian Renaissance couture), mixing in streaks of classic cyberpunk (Hengsha’s city-over-a-city), the game’s aesthetic is immersive in a way not even matched by even its (in some ways superior) predecessor. The internet joke about the original Deus Ex is that every time it’s mentioned, someone reinstalls it, but I think this just convinced me it’s time to replay Human Revolution.
    - mitchty 11y ago
      What I love about the entire game is the use of color. The much maligned gold/black color theme was explained by one of the developers as a theme for when you're around augmented humans. It looks like in the sequel they're using that even more to indicate the golden age renaissance of augmentation is fading away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2kd7F3YFz8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2kd7F3YFz8 Also McCann is coming back for the score which makes me happy. I still have this soundtrack and listen to it often. Finally, off the new trailer, anyone see the Megan Reed parallels with the leg augmented guy?
  - Tossrock 11y ago
    I just finished the game I'd started 2+ years ago, getting Pacifist, Foxiest of the Hounds, and Legend at the same time. Brutally unforgiving, but it really felt like an accomplishment once I was done.
    - pyre 11y ago
      Ah, but did you save Malik on that run through?
      - bentcorner 11y ago
        I was able to save Malik without killing anybody and (I think) alerting any guards. I had to run around like a maniac with the tazer though. Not fun.
  - Enzolangellotti 11y ago
    Damn, the OST was so good. I'm glad he's working on the sequel as well.
- swivelmaster 11y ago
  This is the only story-based game I've played through twice in a row. The second time, I discovered plot elements that I completely missed the first time around. I am really looking forward to the next one!
throwawayaway 11y ago
There's a lot of voiceovers in these games, I detest them. Can you play through the game using subtitles? Thanks.
- brotoss 11y ago
  Um, like every single game made in the last 10 years allows you to turn on subtitles
  - throwawayaway 11y ago
    thanks, am showing my age. can you turn off voices and use subtitles in this game specifically? or does it cut out another part of the sound?
    - Crito 11y ago
      I have not played the game, but found the manual on google: http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/238010/manuals/DXHR-DC_PC_MAN_EN.pdf?t=1429780781 http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/238010/manuals/... The section on the audio settings says: "Adjust the game’s music, dialogs and SFX volume levels" Typically those sort of settings gives you a slider for different categories of sound. It seems like that is probably what this game does as well. So I guess my answer is, "I think so".
    - leoc 11y ago
      Yes: from the main menu or the pause menu, Options > Audio > Dialogs and set the slider all the way left.
foxhill 11y ago
i found this game to be very aesthetically pleasing - as well as having an emotive and thought-provoking story. it's good to see a game that pushes the creative boundaries of rendering, rather than focus on what seems to be a slow drudge toward photo-realism. not wishing to suggest that HR was somehow deficient in terms of "realistic" qualities, however!
benihana 11y ago
Computers are so amazing. This incredibly complex and mathematically intensive process we just read about? It happens 30-144 times every second. And this is just the logic to render the scene - there's the additional input logic, game simulation logic, sound logic, and I'm sure dozens of other things that happen once a frame to make a game run smoothly.
- Siyo 11y ago
  It's funny when you contrast it to web applications. It just shows the layers and layers of bad, inefficient abstractions we've built over the years. For example, re-drawing when resizing the Slack chat window can take up to a second. In that time I could have rendered the Deus Ex scene at 1080p at the highest settings 60+ times.
  - angersock 11y ago
    I really, really hate it when people point at a web browser and a modern game engine and then say "Look how sloppy and horrible and inefficient the web is!" Seriously, just stop for a second and use your head. First, that game? Probably using precompiled logic--especially as games in the last decade have gotten objectively harder to mod. The browser must deal with any arbitrary code shoved at it, and handle modifications to its scene graph (the DOM) at any time. These modifications may include creating more script code, pulling in networked resources, or any other damn fool thing. Second, that game is only going to run on a narrow selection of hardware. It's not going to run on a machine from ten years ago, probably. It's not going to run on a machine ten years from now, probably. Third, that game is built to use files and formats specifically made for itself. It's not dealing with old goofy image formats. It's not dealing with potentially malformed XML documents. It's not dealing with any number of things, because those have been trimmed away and pre-verified. Fourth, that game is never going to have to scale from a multiple-socket workstation all the way down to a handheld phone or shell script. It's really silly to point at a hyperoptimized purpose-built tool and claim it is somehow massively better than a platform for distributing massively-varied media and documents. EDIT: Downvote away--but first, write a purpose-built pipeline for deferred rendering, and then a real-time app in Angular, for example. If you haven't done both of these things, you probably don't know what you're raging about.
MrBra 11y ago
I had a nice time playing the original Deus Ex, explicitely because of its A.I. But then IIRC I think I read somewhere that the A.I. was just scripted, and I probably lost some interest in it. But does anyone know a bit more on that? Is it really just a scripted I.A. ?
- speeder 11y ago
  What do you mean "scripted" ? Almost no combat game has true IA.
  - drzaiusapelord 11y ago
    Typically he means following a pretty simple deterministic path. Hero enters room doorway > Trigger 4 guards who walk down a path towards him > If hero appears within x amount of pixels then attack. (take no cover, do nothing dynamic, and just wait to be killed) Hero enters middle of room > Trigger 4 guards who walk down...etc I believe F.E.A.R. has regarded as having excellent AI that dynamically worked against the hero. If he had a shotgun they'd stay back. If he made noise they'd rush him. If he was quiet, they'd wait. Decent writeup here: http://aigamedev.com/open/review/fear-ai/ http://aigamedev.com/open/review/fear-ai/ A lot of players really want that level of AI in their games. I can't say I blame them. Its a completely different experience. Of course, cheap/free multiplayer and co-op kinda solves that problem or at least makes a big investment in AI a disincentive.
- frik 11y ago
  Sure the AI was scripted, but there were a lot of scripts - more than in many other games (DX1). One can enable the developer menu in DX1 and try out different AI script states, very interesting as it shows how many possibility to walk through the game are really implemented - a lot! The debug/developer menu of DX1: https://tcrf.net/images/2/2b/Deusex-legendmenu.png https://tcrf.net/images/2/2b/Deusex-legendmenu.png More info: https://tcrf.net/Deus_Ex https://tcrf.net/Deus_Ex Far Cry 1 had a great and very extensive game AI, all done in Lua script. On the other hand the AI in Call of Duty is basic and a lot of scripts make it look like a Hollywood movie (almost rail shooter).
frik 11y ago
> Aesthetically pleasing The wardrobes were great in Deus Ex 3. But overall Deus Ex 3 was a huge let down for many who played Deus Ex 1 back in 2000. Deus Ex 1: Many things that made Deus Ex 1 so special and made it an all time classic, a game that is one of the best five games ever made. The awesome story plot, the many different walk-trough paths (thousands), the inventor, the health system, the hacking, the interactive environment (breaking things, moving things ...all saved to the save file), the music, the huge levels (for 2000), ... the game is just superb (just the Unreal 1 graphics hasn't aged that well). Random gameplay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41GmwHq6sGY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41GmwHq6sGY http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_Ex http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_Ex 90 of 100 on metacritic: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/deus-ex http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/deus-ex Deus Ex 2 was already a let down as it was geared towards the XBox1 which meant incredible small levels (there was a loading screen between every other room) and the whole roleplaying system was extremely simplified - e.g. there was only one ammunition for all weapons. Beside that it was a good game with great physics system for 2004. http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/deus-ex-invisible-war http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/deus-ex-invisible-war (80 of 100) Deus Ex Clan Wars (renamed to "Project Snowblind" at release) was an off-spin with a different story but similar game play (a bit more action oriented but still with augmentations and stealth). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Snowblind http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Snowblind Deus Ex 3 had tiny levels (Detroid was like two blocks with multiple loading screens), there were only two hub-cities and a lot of fake background to make the tiny levels look like it played in a city (Part 1 had larger levels 11 years before), the graphics was already dated on release date, the graphics were very orange in the original edition later the turned down the shader effect in the directors cut edition, the story was boring and simple in comparison to Part 1, boss fights that were implemented by an outsourcing company and felt very weird, sudden camera changes to third-person-view with one button stealth-kills and other weird design decisions that some console gamers may have liked. http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/deus-ex-human-revolution http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/deus-ex-human-revolution (90 of 100, but apparently many never heard or played the first two games to have a real comparison, the game with another name attached isn't bad for itself at all) Deus Ex 4 that was first released only for Wii and later also for PC was just bad (metacritic score 45 of 100): http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/deus-ex-the-fall http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/deus-ex-the-fall For the upcoming Deus Ex 5 I hope that Warren Spector from Deus Ex 1 comes back and shares his game design vision with the team. He is literally a game design god and fame and he is currently a professor at a game design university: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Spector http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Spector Warren Spector recently did an AMA on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/34fdjb/hi_i_am_warren_spector_a_game_developer_from/ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/34fdjb/hi_i_am_warren... Warren Spector discusses a post mortem of Deus Ex 1 and 2 in video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTWvsGA77T4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTWvsGA77T4 (Part of Warren Spector's Master Class at the University of Texas) Deus Ex 1 used the Unreal 1 (Unreal Tournament) engine, Deus Ex 2 used Unreal 2 engine, Deus Ex Clan Wars used the Crystal engine (based on Tomb Raider Legends), Deus Ex 3 used the Crystal engine (based on Tomb Raider Underworld), Deus Ex 4 used Unity and Deus Ex 5 will use an improved Glacier engine (based on Hitman Absolution): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_Ex:_Mankind_Divided http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_Ex:_Mankind_Divided
alkonaut 11y ago
Very interesting read. Would be really cool read a similar article about what is going on in a bleeding edge AAA engine these days.
- corysama 11y ago
  The folks over at DICE have some nice presentations http://www.frostbite.com/topics/publications/ http://www.frostbite.com/topics/publications/
dismal2 11y ago
HR was one of the few games I replayed multiple times and the level of design and atmosphere was one of the main reasons for going back, just to spend some more time in it's moody world. Can't wait for the next one either! Looks very impressive from the small peaks they have given: https://community.eidosmontreal.com/blog/dawn-engine https://community.eidosmontreal.com/blog/dawn-engine I'm hoping that they address one of the main letdowns of Human Revolution, that the hub environments were a bit sparse and lacking more NPCs to make them feel like real locations. I listened to the game commentary and apparently that was simple a limitation of the engine they used.
- angersock 11y ago
  The hubs weren't too bad. I think that both Detroit and Hengsha were pretty fleshed in, and felt pretty lively. My biggest complaint was that the central high-brow concept they pushed--"is augmented man not man", "are we playing god", et al.--was just woefully underexecuted. I felt more empathy for poor Gunther in the first Deus Ex worried about being phased out than I did for anyone with or without augs in DX:HR. As presented, for example, augs were strictly the better option if you could afford them. There wasn't any downside to piling them on, nobody in the game gave two shits whether or not you were man or machine. No quests really changed if you were really chopped up. It just felt phoned in and handwaved. Even the gameplay and combat itself didn't support this--there was no real "Oh no, they've got augs, ruh roh" to speak of, except maybe the boss fights. In the first game, for example, you go up against a fellow with augs as blinged out as yours, and it really really shows. The somewhat augmented humans are a bit harder to fight. However, in this one, augmented humans or not can all be effectively one-shotted during stealth. There's no real feeling of "Oh, watch out, some of these troops are notably better"--contrast with, say, how in Dishonored or Bioshock you could run into enemies with similar abilities to yours. And the ending...oy vey.
  - Liru 11y ago
    > There wasn't any downside to piling them on, nobody in the game gave two shits whether or not you were man or machine. No quests really changed if you were really chopped up. It just felt phoned in and handwaved. I agree with the rest of your post, but this was pretty much explained by saying that ALL the augs Jensen has are already installed in him at the beginning of the game. Them being unlocked as the game goes on had more to do with Jensen getting used to controlling them (as opposed to having them installed and being able to use them then and there).
hypertexthero 11y ago
1. Evolution seen in ‘synthetic DNA’ (2012) - http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-17769529 http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-17769529 2. Deus Ex: Human Revolution titles - http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/deus-ex-human-revolution/ http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/deus-ex-human-revolution/
- Jayschwa 11y ago
  Links are broken from characters at the end. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-17769529 http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-17769529 http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/deus-ex-human-revolution/ http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/deus-ex-human-revolution/
  - hypertexthero 11y ago
    Thanks — fixed!
fsloth 11y ago
Great technical outlook on a fantastic game (whose ending totally, unforgivingly sucked in so many ways. First you give me levels of perfect urban cyberpunk adventure and then in the end just * and *.)

346 points by epsylon 11y ago

This happens to be a very timely article - I've been going through a replay of this game recently. I bought it right after it was released, but only played it once (and very quickly). I'm a huge fan of the original Deus Ex.

nailer 11y ago
There's a directors cut on Steam as well that has Valve-style making of markers with developer commentary. If your first play through involved killing people, try completing the game non lethally (except for the boss fights) for an achievement. Also: Ceilings of Deus Ex http://imgur.com/a/FDAbV http://imgur.com/a/FDAbV Also: Michael McCann's soundtrack: https://open.spotify.com/album/4LuVQCHTgUZjuWgUQ7lQbl https://open.spotify.com/album/4LuVQCHTgUZjuWgUQ7lQbl
- LastZactionHero 11y ago
  Wow, that ceilings link is really cool. I was also recently listening to that soundtrack. Kind of excited to see this thread, sometimes I think I'm the only person that loves this game.
  - Alupis 11y ago
    This game is one of the rare ones that still makes you think. Far too many games, especially in this genre have gone to giving the player exact waypoints of what to do and where to go; totally removing any independent thought from the game and it's story. This genre is overcrowded by the "run here, skip cut scene, now run over here" games. There were several places during my initial run-through where I found myself having to grab a pen and paper in order to keep track of things like small AI conversations in passing which lead to new side objectives.
- mortenjorck 11y ago
  Those ceilings. I don’t think I’ve seen any work of visual fiction – game, movie, or otherwise – in the past decade whose art direction felt as genuinely futuristic as Human Revolution did. From amplifying current trends (extrapolating Zaha Hadid into wild, web-covered high-rises) to speculating the black-swans of fashion (a sudden rise of neo-Italian Renaissance couture), mixing in streaks of classic cyberpunk (Hengsha’s city-over-a-city), the game’s aesthetic is immersive in a way not even matched by even its (in some ways superior) predecessor. The internet joke about the original Deus Ex is that every time it’s mentioned, someone reinstalls it, but I think this just convinced me it’s time to replay Human Revolution.
  - mitchty 11y ago
    What I love about the entire game is the use of color. The much maligned gold/black color theme was explained by one of the developers as a theme for when you're around augmented humans. It looks like in the sequel they're using that even more to indicate the golden age renaissance of augmentation is fading away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2kd7F3YFz8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2kd7F3YFz8 Also McCann is coming back for the score which makes me happy. I still have this soundtrack and listen to it often. Finally, off the new trailer, anyone see the Megan Reed parallels with the leg augmented guy?
- Tossrock 11y ago
  I just finished the game I'd started 2+ years ago, getting Pacifist, Foxiest of the Hounds, and Legend at the same time. Brutally unforgiving, but it really felt like an accomplishment once I was done.
  - pyre 11y ago
    Ah, but did you save Malik on that run through?
    - bentcorner 11y ago
      I was able to save Malik without killing anybody and (I think) alerting any guards. I had to run around like a maniac with the tazer though. Not fun.
- Enzolangellotti 11y ago
  Damn, the OST was so good. I'm glad he's working on the sequel as well.
swivelmaster 11y ago
This is the only story-based game I've played through twice in a row. The second time, I discovered plot elements that I completely missed the first time around. I am really looking forward to the next one!

throwawayaway 11y ago

There's a lot of voiceovers in these games, I detest them. Can you play through the game using subtitles? Thanks.

brotoss 11y ago
Um, like every single game made in the last 10 years allows you to turn on subtitles
- throwawayaway 11y ago
  thanks, am showing my age. can you turn off voices and use subtitles in this game specifically? or does it cut out another part of the sound?
  - Crito 11y ago
    I have not played the game, but found the manual on google: http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/238010/manuals/DXHR-DC_PC_MAN_EN.pdf?t=1429780781 http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/238010/manuals/... The section on the audio settings says: "Adjust the game’s music, dialogs and SFX volume levels" Typically those sort of settings gives you a slider for different categories of sound. It seems like that is probably what this game does as well. So I guess my answer is, "I think so".
  - leoc 11y ago
    Yes: from the main menu or the pause menu, Options > Audio > Dialogs and set the slider all the way left.

foxhill 11y ago

i found this game to be very aesthetically pleasing - as well as having an emotive and thought-provoking story. it's good to see a game that pushes the creative boundaries of rendering, rather than focus on what seems to be a slow drudge toward photo-realism. not wishing to suggest that HR was somehow deficient in terms of "realistic" qualities, however!

benihana 11y ago

Computers are so amazing. This incredibly complex and mathematically intensive process we just read about? It happens 30-144 times every second. And this is just the logic to render the scene - there's the additional input logic, game simulation logic, sound logic, and I'm sure dozens of other things that happen once a frame to make a game run smoothly.

Siyo 11y ago
It's funny when you contrast it to web applications. It just shows the layers and layers of bad, inefficient abstractions we've built over the years. For example, re-drawing when resizing the Slack chat window can take up to a second. In that time I could have rendered the Deus Ex scene at 1080p at the highest settings 60+ times.
- angersock 11y ago
  I really, really hate it when people point at a web browser and a modern game engine and then say "Look how sloppy and horrible and inefficient the web is!" Seriously, just stop for a second and use your head. First, that game? Probably using precompiled logic--especially as games in the last decade have gotten objectively harder to mod. The browser must deal with any arbitrary code shoved at it, and handle modifications to its scene graph (the DOM) at any time. These modifications may include creating more script code, pulling in networked resources, or any other damn fool thing. Second, that game is only going to run on a narrow selection of hardware. It's not going to run on a machine from ten years ago, probably. It's not going to run on a machine ten years from now, probably. Third, that game is built to use files and formats specifically made for itself. It's not dealing with old goofy image formats. It's not dealing with potentially malformed XML documents. It's not dealing with any number of things, because those have been trimmed away and pre-verified. Fourth, that game is never going to have to scale from a multiple-socket workstation all the way down to a handheld phone or shell script. It's really silly to point at a hyperoptimized purpose-built tool and claim it is somehow massively better than a platform for distributing massively-varied media and documents. EDIT: Downvote away--but first, write a purpose-built pipeline for deferred rendering, and then a real-time app in Angular, for example. If you haven't done both of these things, you probably don't know what you're raging about.

MrBra 11y ago

I had a nice time playing the original Deus Ex, explicitely because of its A.I. But then IIRC I think I read somewhere that the A.I. was just scripted, and I probably lost some interest in it. But does anyone know a bit more on that? Is it really just a scripted I.A. ?

speeder 11y ago
What do you mean "scripted" ? Almost no combat game has true IA.
- drzaiusapelord 11y ago
  Typically he means following a pretty simple deterministic path. Hero enters room doorway > Trigger 4 guards who walk down a path towards him > If hero appears within x amount of pixels then attack. (take no cover, do nothing dynamic, and just wait to be killed) Hero enters middle of room > Trigger 4 guards who walk down...etc I believe F.E.A.R. has regarded as having excellent AI that dynamically worked against the hero. If he had a shotgun they'd stay back. If he made noise they'd rush him. If he was quiet, they'd wait. Decent writeup here: http://aigamedev.com/open/review/fear-ai/ http://aigamedev.com/open/review/fear-ai/ A lot of players really want that level of AI in their games. I can't say I blame them. Its a completely different experience. Of course, cheap/free multiplayer and co-op kinda solves that problem or at least makes a big investment in AI a disincentive.
frik 11y ago
Sure the AI was scripted, but there were a lot of scripts - more than in many other games (DX1). One can enable the developer menu in DX1 and try out different AI script states, very interesting as it shows how many possibility to walk through the game are really implemented - a lot! The debug/developer menu of DX1: https://tcrf.net/images/2/2b/Deusex-legendmenu.png https://tcrf.net/images/2/2b/Deusex-legendmenu.png More info: https://tcrf.net/Deus_Ex https://tcrf.net/Deus_Ex Far Cry 1 had a great and very extensive game AI, all done in Lua script. On the other hand the AI in Call of Duty is basic and a lot of scripts make it look like a Hollywood movie (almost rail shooter).

frik 11y ago

> Aesthetically pleasing The wardrobes were great in Deus Ex 3. But overall Deus Ex 3 was a huge let down for many who played Deus Ex 1 back in 2000. Deus Ex 1: Many things that made Deus Ex 1 so special and made it an all time classic, a game that is one of the best five games ever made. The awesome story plot, the many different walk-trough paths (thousands), the inventor, the health system, the hacking, the interactive environment (breaking things, moving things ...all saved to the save file), the music, the huge levels (for 2000), ... the game is just superb (just the Unreal 1 graphics hasn't aged that well). Random gameplay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41GmwHq6sGY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41GmwHq6sGY http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_Ex http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_Ex 90 of 100 on metacritic: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/deus-ex http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/deus-ex Deus Ex 2 was already a let down as it was geared towards the XBox1 which meant incredible small levels (there was a loading screen between every other room) and the whole roleplaying system was extremely simplified - e.g. there was only one ammunition for all weapons. Beside that it was a good game with great physics system for 2004. http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/deus-ex-invisible-war http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/deus-ex-invisible-war (80 of 100) Deus Ex Clan Wars (renamed to "Project Snowblind" at release) was an off-spin with a different story but similar game play (a bit more action oriented but still with augmentations and stealth). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Snowblind http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Snowblind Deus Ex 3 had tiny levels (Detroid was like two blocks with multiple loading screens), there were only two hub-cities and a lot of fake background to make the tiny levels look like it played in a city (Part 1 had larger levels 11 years before), the graphics was already dated on release date, the graphics were very orange in the original edition later the turned down the shader effect in the directors cut edition, the story was boring and simple in comparison to Part 1, boss fights that were implemented by an outsourcing company and felt very weird, sudden camera changes to third-person-view with one button stealth-kills and other weird design decisions that some console gamers may have liked. http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/deus-ex-human-revolution http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/deus-ex-human-revolution (90 of 100, but apparently many never heard or played the first two games to have a real comparison, the game with another name attached isn't bad for itself at all) Deus Ex 4 that was first released only for Wii and later also for PC was just bad (metacritic score 45 of 100): http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/deus-ex-the-fall http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/deus-ex-the-fall For the upcoming Deus Ex 5 I hope that Warren Spector from Deus Ex 1 comes back and shares his game design vision with the team. He is literally a game design god and fame and he is currently a professor at a game design university: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Spector http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Spector Warren Spector recently did an AMA on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/34fdjb/hi_i_am_warren_spector_a_game_developer_from/ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/34fdjb/hi_i_am_warren... Warren Spector discusses a post mortem of Deus Ex 1 and 2 in video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTWvsGA77T4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTWvsGA77T4 (Part of Warren Spector's Master Class at the University of Texas) Deus Ex 1 used the Unreal 1 (Unreal Tournament) engine, Deus Ex 2 used Unreal 2 engine, Deus Ex Clan Wars used the Crystal engine (based on Tomb Raider Legends), Deus Ex 3 used the Crystal engine (based on Tomb Raider Underworld), Deus Ex 4 used Unity and Deus Ex 5 will use an improved Glacier engine (based on Hitman Absolution): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_Ex:_Mankind_Divided http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_Ex:_Mankind_Divided

alkonaut 11y ago

Very interesting read. Would be really cool read a similar article about what is going on in a bleeding edge AAA engine these days.

corysama 11y ago
The folks over at DICE have some nice presentations http://www.frostbite.com/topics/publications/ http://www.frostbite.com/topics/publications/

dismal2 11y ago

HR was one of the few games I replayed multiple times and the level of design and atmosphere was one of the main reasons for going back, just to spend some more time in it's moody world. Can't wait for the next one either! Looks very impressive from the small peaks they have given: https://community.eidosmontreal.com/blog/dawn-engine https://community.eidosmontreal.com/blog/dawn-engine I'm hoping that they address one of the main letdowns of Human Revolution, that the hub environments were a bit sparse and lacking more NPCs to make them feel like real locations. I listened to the game commentary and apparently that was simple a limitation of the engine they used.

angersock 11y ago
The hubs weren't too bad. I think that both Detroit and Hengsha were pretty fleshed in, and felt pretty lively. My biggest complaint was that the central high-brow concept they pushed--"is augmented man not man", "are we playing god", et al.--was just woefully underexecuted. I felt more empathy for poor Gunther in the first Deus Ex worried about being phased out than I did for anyone with or without augs in DX:HR. As presented, for example, augs were strictly the better option if you could afford them. There wasn't any downside to piling them on, nobody in the game gave two shits whether or not you were man or machine. No quests really changed if you were really chopped up. It just felt phoned in and handwaved. Even the gameplay and combat itself didn't support this--there was no real "Oh no, they've got augs, ruh roh" to speak of, except maybe the boss fights. In the first game, for example, you go up against a fellow with augs as blinged out as yours, and it really really shows. The somewhat augmented humans are a bit harder to fight. However, in this one, augmented humans or not can all be effectively one-shotted during stealth. There's no real feeling of "Oh, watch out, some of these troops are notably better"--contrast with, say, how in Dishonored or Bioshock you could run into enemies with similar abilities to yours. And the ending...oy vey.
- Liru 11y ago
  > There wasn't any downside to piling them on, nobody in the game gave two shits whether or not you were man or machine. No quests really changed if you were really chopped up. It just felt phoned in and handwaved. I agree with the rest of your post, but this was pretty much explained by saying that ALL the augs Jensen has are already installed in him at the beginning of the game. Them being unlocked as the game goes on had more to do with Jensen getting used to controlling them (as opposed to having them installed and being able to use them then and there).

hypertexthero 11y ago

1. Evolution seen in ‘synthetic DNA’ (2012) - http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-17769529 http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-17769529 2. Deus Ex: Human Revolution titles - http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/deus-ex-human-revolution/ http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/deus-ex-human-revolution/

Jayschwa 11y ago
Links are broken from characters at the end. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-17769529 http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-17769529 http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/deus-ex-human-revolution/ http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/deus-ex-human-revolution/
- hypertexthero 11y ago
  Thanks — fixed!

fsloth 11y ago

Great technical outlook on a fantastic game (whose ending totally, unforgivingly sucked in so many ways. First you give me levels of perfect urban cyberpunk adventure and then in the end just * and *.)