{"id":2100,"date":"2009-02-02T08:28:01","date_gmt":"2009-02-02T13:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=2100"},"modified":"2009-02-02T09:48:08","modified_gmt":"2009-02-02T14:48:08","slug":"deus-ex-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=2100","title":{"rendered":"Deus Ex 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is gossip going around<\/a>, talking about the details of the allegedly upcoming Deus Ex 3. I try not to invest too much into this sort of thing, since this stuff could be misleading or untrue. It’s also entirely possible that the project will change direction or be canceled before we see the end product.<\/p>\n

But one thing I do suspect is true is that they are repeating the Invisible War mistake of trying to pick up where previous plots left off. Each of the previous two games brought things to a final close without leaving much room for more story. This series keeps painting itself into a corner.<\/p>\n

This series should absolutely dispense with the idea of an ongoing plot. This is a game about conspiracy theories, after all. There are only so many times you can pull the “behind that conspiracy is another, even larger<\/em> one!” And the first game hit that point pretty early on. The fun of the game is in revealing these hidden truths, but those truths become simple baggage requiring lengthy exposition in subsequent titles. <\/p>\n

A much better idea is for each game to start fresh, in the near future. This is where cyberpunk belongs. Once technology gets too far ahead the story stops being about dystopian futures and starts being about magic.<\/em> <\/p>\n

In my review of Invisible War<\/a>, I said:<\/p>\n

It would have been far better to keep the premise and throw out the story. Start over with a new mix of conspiracies. You could even keep the character of JC Denton, but drop him into a different reality this time around. Instead of working for UNATCO, maybe he starts off as a cop or a bodyguard or a secret service agent. Instead of a plague, society is dealing with some new designer drug. Or weapon. Cyborgs. You know, whatever. The foes would be different and their goals would be different, but the process of unraveling a series of escalating conspiracies would remain the same. The first time you uncover the Illuminati is fun. The second time through, you begin to wonder how these guys ever kept their organization a secret in the first place.<\/div>\n

One of the features they list is “squad-based enemy AI”, which seems to be the FPS feature du jour. See also: “Havok Physics”. It’s not bad that they’re including it, it’s bad that they think this is what players are worried about. I had many<\/a> gripes<\/a> with Deus Ex: Invisible War, and none of them had anything to do with the behavior of enemy AI. It’s nice if the bad guys will be fun to fight, but there’s no sense in putting a fresh coat of paint on a leaky ship. <\/p>\n

I do appreciate them lowering my expectations beforehand, although I doubt that was their intention. Because I am a fool, I still hold hope for this series. I’m sure to buy it. It’s not likely, but the chance to strike Deus Ex gold a second time is too tempting to pass up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is gossip going around, talking about the details of the allegedly upcoming Deus Ex 3. I try not to invest too much into this sort of thing, since this stuff could be misleading or untrue. It’s also entirely possible that the project will change direction or be canceled before we see the end product. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120],"tags":[76],"class_list":["post-2100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-videogames","tag-deus-ex"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}