Let's Play Deus Ex: A Series of Lectures

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Let's Play Deus Ex: A Series of Lectures

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Pierzak posted:

Oh gently caress you Bobbin. Now I have to reinstall DX for like the hundredth time.

_{(seriously though, I'll be watching)}

I don't know why you'd possibly be angry to be reinstalling Deus Ex. Deus Ex was actually my first FPS! I'll always remember it for me rushing into the first couple situations and getting shot in the head until I discovered sneaking and melee.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2014 21:47

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 13:03

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

It also helps that it kinda fits that this game is made to be broken. You don't seem too insane at first, but once you've got some augs, mods, and skill ups, you become a loving god of death, which is exactly what they designed you to be.

# ¿ Jan 9, 2014 02:04

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

The talk with the surveillance prototype way later in Paris is seriously pretty danged good.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2014 05:42

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Psychotic Weasel posted:

I didn't know the there were so many different "XXXXpunk" genres around. I guess class struggle has been a theme throughout the ages, even in the ones that haven't happened yet.

Steampunk, at least, outside of Arcanum and a few other works, doesn't tend to actually include any element of class struggle and tends to instead be about how awesome being rich upper class dilettantes would be.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2014 20:53

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Diogenes Bub posted:

Incidentally Bobbin, what style will you be playing given there's so much potential variation. I was always cyber-Garrett myself , but a blunt force approach does sound fun.
Dammit, I'm going to install it, aren't I?

Much like in Alpha Protocol, even though overt force was always an option it always felt somehow wrong to me. It's just so much more rewarding to sneak your way through and pull off sneaky spy stuff, saving the heavy combat for when you either decided the guys you were up against needed to die or you messed up and had to shoot your way out.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2014 22:33

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

George posted:

Who is Paul's namesake?

Well, obviously Ron Paul, our lord of freedom.

# ¿ Jan 21, 2014 03:26

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

SWMadness posted:

Just my two cents on your Conspiracy Corner, but I think one of the reasons why so many conspiracies stick to the idea of a shadowy world-ruling government so heavily is because that scenario also carries with it the unspoken assumption that if such a conspiracy were fully brought to light and the people made aware of it, the conspiracy would collapse. It fuels the kind of "me against the world" messianic mindset that drives some of the more serious conspiracy nutters.

It's also a very comforting idea, to a certain mindset. I heard it described once, in context to 9/11 trutherism: Which is scarier, that a low tech group of terrorists were cunning enough to slip through every state security apparatus and kill thousands of people, or that the whole thing was controlled, planned, and all towards a sinister agenda that only you understand? The idea of a shadowy cabal that can explain everything makes the world seem planned, and to some minds that's more comforting and safer, I think.

# ¿ Jan 21, 2014 08:56

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Obligatory mention of 'My vision is augmented.'

The voicework kind of grows on you, despite how bad it is. It was a simpler time.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2014 08:56

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Gygaxian posted:

I honestly hate the idea of having an emotionless, bland character so that "audiences can project themselves on the character". Unless it's an RPG with dialogue choices where you really can project whatever you want onto the character, give the main character a personality! And not a bland one. Make them interesting and fun.

Oh, and just want to chime in to say that Bobbin is doing a fantastic job, I'm really enjoying both the low-key playthrough and the Conspiracy Corner explanations. Great LP.

I agree with you about disliking this, but you can't say it hasn't been successful. Just look at how many people legitimately like Gordon Freeman or Master Chief, for example, despite one of them having no personality mostly by design and the other being a faceless walking blank. It does seem to connect with audiences in the specific context of interactive media.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2014 09:03

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Bobbin Threadbare posted:

(I thought about bringing up the symbolism of walling off Liberty Island even though I know it was for map size restrictions, but I never got around to it).

I wonder if that's something like the fog in the original Silent Hill, though. Sure, it might be for map size restrictions, but it definitely fits the aesthetic and it wouldn't be the first time a game designer rolled with the technical punches to come up with a thematically fitting solution.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2014 15:29

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Pvt.Scott posted:

Caim having dialogue boxes in Drakengard makes sense, as he's only recently been rendered mute and is frequently frustrated by it.

At least he still has murder to express himself. Similarly, I think a reason JC is still kind of appealing is that you have a lot of different options and ways to play things within the game itself. So your character has a lot of ways to express himself through gameplay; for instance, deciding not to murder people or picking between stealth or full on combat.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2014 18:36

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Well, one of the points is that the majority of UNACTO's guys are actually pretty decent people who really do think they're making a difference and fighting terrorists. I think they get that across quite well in the game; I always liked walking around UNATCO HQ and talking to my fellow officers.

# ¿ Jan 27, 2014 21:31

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

The problem is that the law is unclear to the people who are 'standing their ground' and they tend to believe more often that pulling their weapon and killing their opponent will be legally protected, regardless of whether it should be under the law. Which means, even if they were to be later prosecuted for it, someone's still dead. That, and from my understanding, it relies on the shooter's perspective of threat, which is very difficult to prove or disprove in court.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2014 07:47

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

paragon1 posted:

There was also meant to be an option for you to stay loyal to UNATCO.

I always get why they had to cut this stuff; the game is absolutely packed with grade A content as it is. At the same time, I really wish the options to straight up join other factions were in.

As for superpowers, regen to cure my arthritis forever and obviously microfiberal muscle. After two years of having hands that hurt every time I pick up something heavy, being able to lift a car and heal myself of almost all medical problems would be loving sweet.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2014 22:38

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Magnetic North posted:

Also, it is nice to hear more people talk about being teetotal/straight edge/whatever you want to call it. Every time I tell people I don't drink, they think I'm kidding, like it's completely impossible that someone wouldn't want to drink alcohol.

Hell, even if I wanted to, I can't drink. My arthritis meds don't get along well with alcohol.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2014 01:43

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

No Gravitas posted:

And people often think I'm anti-psychiatry for that too. Sheesh. I'm not. Some take their pills, I choose to take my courage.

I'm glad that works for you. I'll be over here with my antianxiety meds so that my life is marginally less terrifying and I'm less likely to immediately jump to 'I can't get in touch with someone, he might be dead'.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2014 00:30

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Hope you KO, not kill, UNATCO guys. The game did a good job selling them as people with good intentions and bad bosses (and a kinda hosed up organizational culture, with the focus on rewards and lethal force) and it never sat right with me to gun them down.

# ¿ Apr 7, 2014 19:21

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Yeah, when a buddy of mine and I first got to the bit in Hell's Kitchen, we were both absolutely sure Paul was a dead man no matter what we did, and that staying with him was probably going to be a hopeless boss fight or something. It increased investment a lot to realize that we'd actually saved Paul; even if it doesn't change the story a ton, when you combine it with being able to explore and poke into corners very widely, Deus Ex comes off as really, really big beyond what you expected.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2014 17:59

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Eugenics were super popular for an unfortunately long time. I remember my alma mater, University of Michigan, used to have an entire Eugenics department and was noted for its work in the area. If I remember right from my classes, what really put the nail in the coffin of Eugenics was WWII. Seeing those arguments taken to their logical conclusion and ideas about blood purity and superiority used to justify the murder of millions suddenly made some people realize exactly what they were advocating for, or at least made it unpalatable to do so in a public university. Or did official eugenics programs continue after WWII?

# ¿ May 20, 2014 18:37

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Friar John posted:

They definitely continued.

Well, there goes one comforting illusion about the ability of people to learn from past mistakes.

# ¿ May 20, 2014 19:17

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

FactsAreUseless posted:

The game does not ever acknowledge in-story whether you do things lethally or non-lethally. The one mission where the game cares whether you attack people says you're an evil Are Troop-killing America-hater either way if you attack them.

The best part is the Orphans Created stat even tracks average family sizes among the various regions of the world you might be capping guys in.

That stat made me feel guilty enough to never kill anyone.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2014 18:30

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

I have a hard time matching names to faces, but that's because I have a terrible visual memory in general. Give me a narrative and I'll remember it forever, show me a molecule, map, or picture, and God help me if I can remember it.

# ¿ Jun 19, 2014 09:16

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Bremen posted:

Yeah, the dark age ending doesn't destroy technology, it destroys the networks that have turned the world into one community. The intended result is that it fractures the world into many small governments, so that no single person or group can control all of it. An era of city states, but those city states still have advanced technology.

Of course, as was pointed out, nothing stops the world from doing it again. Even at its best, it's a second chance, not a cure-all.

This also does absolutely nothing to stop balkanization, warfare, or people recovering nuclear weapons stockpiles. If anything, it would exacerbate the hell out of them. The New Dark Age is the worst of the possible endings; but then, all of them are bad options and you just kind of have to pick the least terrible.

To me, that is the Illuminati. The Helios ending is tempting; the idea that a God-Man will come and make it all better with superior superhuman logic is pretty much a map to what you usually do as a protagonist in games. But there's absolutely no accountability. It's why Page wanted to go that route in the first place. As others have pointed out, if something goes wrong with Helios, everything is hosed, assuming he really has the level of global penetration he's said to have.

The Illuminati are another bad option; their hubris directly led to the situation you're in now and their desire to lead the world from the shadows, their paternalistic drivel about humanity 'not being ready', is ridiculous. At the same time, it's not like JC hasn't taken down one major globe spanning conspiracy already, should they turn on him, and it's always possible they'll learn from their mistakes, or that the globe will simply move past their supposed control, much like watching Jefferson bemoan how 'democratic' the US had become despite his 'enlightened' vision of the US as being governed solely by a 'natural aristocracy' of wealthy, disinterested plantation owners. The Illuminati are the best of the bad options because they can still be brought to account should it go wrong, at least, more than the others can. I freely admit I might hold this opinion partly because I'm a white, upper class male in a first world country; that will obviously bias my opinions about governance and government.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2014 05:29

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Choosing an unknown path from what you, with insufficient information, see to be the best of several options that all have terrible drawbacks and reasons they should never work, is pretty much human history.txt when I think about it.

# ¿ Nov 3, 2014 19:29

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 13:03

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Why would their voice have power in the government? The power vacuum is easily filled in by groups with access to large amounts of guns and violence that can easily monopolize force in the chaos. Why would you even assume these 'city states' would be democratic?

# ¿ Nov 4, 2014 05:32

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