I like Deus Ex. And I liked Invisible War okay as well, as a game it wasn’t at all bad, it just looked bad next to Deus Ex. Because it’s one of the best games ever made.
So when there was news of another DX game on the way I was predictably skeptical. Might be an okay game, but it’s really not going to match the original. And I was pretty wrong about that. But the reason HR works is not because it has good, solid controls, not because it has developed characters and a good story, nor even because it offers several ways to pursue objectives. The reason it comes close to matching the original is something intangible, often overlooked, and always of great importance: Atmosphere.
The setting is amazing, now that I’ve been further than Detroit. In fact it took me about two minutes of walking around Heng Sha before I declared it one of my favorite game settings ever. Heng Sha is by far the magnum opus of HR in fact; a cyberpunk dystopia that hits all the right buttons. As RPS said, it’s not just night, it feels like it hasn’t been day in years (And in the Lower City that’s pretty much exactly true). It’s dirty and cramped, and hugely wealthy buildings sit beside apartments barely above corrugated-iron shanties. Above, monorails buzz around on the underside of the Pangu (The plate upon which the Upper City sits). You get a vista of the Lower City at one point and it is a scene straight from Blade Runner; clearly so full of hardship and suffering and matchlessly beautiful despite it.
Then you see the Upper City, and it is not just a nicer place, it is a completely different sci-fi aesthetic. It is clean, green, sleek, and searingly bright. It is definitively Utopian in style. Juxtapositions are generally nice and a pretty commonly used too but I’ve rarely seen one so well handled, even though your contact with the Upper City is limited. The buildings are pale and quintessentially futuristic, compared to the cyberpunk skyscrapers of the Lower City. There are parks and plazas everywhere; the biggest open space in the Lower City is a dirty rooftop.
This is what the original DX did so very well, and where IW was weak. This is where HR succeeds as well. It has been a long, long time since I’ve felt that palpable knot of excitement in my stomach that comes from just exploring somewhere awesome, but I felt it in Heng Sha. HR is a game that succeeds, and it’s because of the amount of attention paid to the details and the setting that elevates it from “good” to “memorable”.
Are you enjoying HR? Do you agree? Which game settings have really stuck with you thanks to being well executed?
Yes it was quite an enjoyable game. Although my gameplay was slightly ruined by attempting the stealth route only to end up killing everyone when i blew my cover every time, still it was amusing setting off alarms while i walked through a hallway full of corpses.
There was a moment when I actually questioned myself on something when reading emails at the Police HQ on the issue of augmented human beings participating in their sports competitions. I thought “well they’re obviously above normal human beings so they should be separated” “but wait isn’t that prejudiced?”.
My first year philosophy aside this game was great :D
Interesting point. There’s actually real life cases of this, where Oscar Pistorus, a man who had both legs amputated, used prosthetic legs which were optimized for running. Scientists found that he used 25% less energy to use the special prosthetic than a normal runner, and for this he was barred from the Olympics, since using the legs was seen as an unfair advantage.
There are also certain composite baseball bats that are banned from professional play, because they make home runs too easy to hit.
Pistorus went on to compete in the Paralympics, which seemed to me to be a good solution to the problem of whether or not he should have been allowed to compete. Athletes who use technological nhancements because of a disability compete in a separate arena, and that seems like sense sensible solution to the question.
Where are the pony pictures?!
Good review, and a good reminder that I need to play it.
the “floof” hahaha I couldn’t believe it when I first heard it, I had to check on the internets. Heng Sha was pretty aweomse, im guessing its alot of people’s fav location. though its not the most immersive and fantastic environment ive even been in, journey (PSN) and fallout 3 locals take that award, but I definitely spent a lot of time just runing around HengSha exploring and looking at everything. and punching out civilians.
i would have given this game a high rating, however, if it weren’t for truly weak pathos. you know how everyone keeps saying “we are changing human evolution” and “this is the most important scientific discovery so far in human history” and stuff like this. good narration or dialogue would not come out explicitly with these things, its like telling the audience how to feel. and you cant tell somehow how to feel, you gotta invoke those feelings you wannna convey. if I came to the conclusion that the nature of human evolution is going to be drastically changed (whatever that means) by this science stuff all by my own, that would be way more powerful. but no instead Jenson’s boss just says “dude, listen. human evolution. changed. you shall now be in profound awe, bitch” i dunno, i was just very disappointed by this facile pathos. i just wasnt convinced. but yeah, in conclusion, good environments, bad narrative pathos.