I’m extremely mixed on how this game turned out and probably going to critique a lot of aspects of it but I will say this from the get go, it is a competently made game, a good immersive sim and it has a lot to enjoy within it, so I would say it absolutely merits a playthrough if you’re into the genre. That being said as a sequel to Deus Ex, for me it left a bit to be desired on a couple of fronts.
First and absolute foremost, and something that I can’t qualify as anything other than a huge downgrade, the soundtrack in this game painfully lacks good tracks, hell there’s good chunks of the game where you’re exploring the city hubs where there is NO soundtrack at all. On its own I wouldn’t mind it that much, not every game has to have an amazing OST to be great (though it certainly does help), but as a sequel to Deus Ex? Yes, yes it does. The original game has an absolute banger of a sound track, easily one of the best synth heavy albums of all time and it enriches the atmosphere of every single part of the game, from wandering from place to place, to talking to npcs, to combat, everything was severely enhanced by great tracks and the dry silence this game offers instead is extremely dull in comparison.
Similarly to my complaint above, there’s another aspect that seems to have been modernized to its detriment and that’s the distracting amount of “cinematic” gameplay interruptions. Namely, the takedown and falling animations. The takedown animations are quite cool in and of themselves and present diverse and flashy moves, but the way the in-game world pauses while Jensen does his thing with the enemy he actives becomes jarring and specially annoying when you do a lethal takedown as even though you are slaying them with a blade or twisting their necks, which should make a lot less noise them giving them haymakers with a metal fist in the face, the clap of Jensen’s asscheeks alerts every enemy is a 5 km radius. Also, whose idea was it to tie takedowns to the battery system of the game, I’m a stealthy super soldier but I can’t punch a guy in the face if I didn’t have a snickers bar beforehand? And I also get no hand-to-hand tools besides stealthy takedowns? Truly a pain in the ass.
And the falling animation is quite unforgiving with its trigger, you could be attempting to do a long jump from one rooftop to another with enough momentum to allow you to clear the jump but the game sometimes randomly decides to strip you of it mid air and begin you slow descend down that always culminates in the same exact super hero landing animation that gets old after the 100th time you’ve seen it. In the OG DE, the leg enhancement allowed you to do Olympic jumps at breakneck speed and quite fall from great heights with a simple grunt, which while admittedly a bit goofy, made the gameplay feel as smooth as silk, as opposed to griding it to a halt constantly.
My final major complaint is this game in this game is how much non-lethality seems to be overrewarded as opposed to just getting the job done, I get giving bonuses for stealth, 100% this genre is built around it, but I feel like non-lethality was never as over emphasized as it is here. Sure, in the OG Paul was on your ass about it from the very first dialogue exchange, but it was always an option you could disregard at any time, and the enemies were diverse enough that if you got into the lore, you could find legitimate reasons to want to avoid killing them. The vast majority of enemies here are the Illuminati’s private army who have all killed a lot of people at their behest and have actively done Jensen personal harm, it makes little sense for me to want to avoid killing them so much.
Gameplay-wise it’s also a problem, every outright kill rewards a poultry amount of xp, regardless of whether or not it let you to get detected, compared to how much you get rewarded for just knocking them out. That’s without mentioning the problem with lethal takedowns before with how much louder they are when it makes no sense. I just don’t like how it seems to be a pilar of the game when none of the story’s themes seem to be build around it, as opposed to it being just a fun challenge for repeat playthroughs, franchises like Dishonored I believe made it much more apparent at every turn that you should be avoiding to kill people there, even if it limits your choices in gameplay. I will give some props to this game on this point though; you do get an arsenal diverse enough that allows you to do a full nonlethal run while still having plenty of gameplay options at your disposal.
The story while also not being as hard-hitting as the original, due to its lack of full schizoid charm and over reliance of having old characters who we know are fine 30 years later so it tends to make Adam’s adventure feel inconsequential in the grand scheme of the franchise, did won me over by the end, specially if you look at the augmentation themes as an allegory for AI. I know that probably was not the intent at the time it was written but damn if we don’t see several parallels with how unchecked AI development is in our world to how unchecked Augmentation research is in the game’s world.
The inclusions I DID like a lot with this game were the number of scenarios where you can get away with social stealth specially early on, and the new conversation system for pivotal moments. I loved that since I managed to sweet talk the receptionist at the precinct that I could pretty much skip any challenges in the level and just go room to room looting everything in sight full view of every npc and camera and still not be forced into having to sneak because the game respected what I have achieved there. Also, the conversation system makes it appropriately rewarding to pay attention to character motivations and dialogue when making decisions on what to say, I feel really proud of nailing every single conversation on first try in my playthrough without ever activating the social enhancer.
Another extra point I’ll give it is the quality-of-life improvements of highlighting a password or code when typing it if you have already come across it without having to quit out of the login menu to find it, and the fact that certain augmentations like dermal armor become passive buffs as opposed to being a constant drain on your resources like in the original.
Overall, while I do feel it’s a good game in its own merit, barring a few key issues I mentioned before, it does fall short for me as a follow up to one of the most memorable experiences gaming has to offer.
