Here's a vid from the president of the company that did the boss battles. Heavy spoilers (at least of the first battle) so probably wait until that hurdle is passed before watching.
While I'm not a franchise purist, nor am I hung up about approaching the game from an exclusive tactical or moral viewpoint, I still find this hard to watch. Given their background and philosophy, why did this GRIP Entertainment get chosen for this job? "I'm a shooter guy, coming into this not knowing a lot about the Deus Ex world… " would be a perfect time to have the offstage help ring the gong. Every phrase about the details of their work bubbles in the langourous lukewarm bathtub of irony.
My Dark Souls single player sensibilities are protected by a +10 GfWL Firewall of Ineptitude
Hengsha, baby!
I have to say that if I hadn't known about the upcoming disconnect between how I'd been playing - non-lethal sneaker - and how I had to play the boss battle - lethal or die - I'd have been really, really pissed. I am not an FPS player; therefore, I cannot run and gun. Knowing about it ahead of time reduced the frustration level to merely annoying instead of controller-throwing rage. Still took me at least 10 tries before taking Barrett down. I kept getting stuck on boxes because I never saw how the room was laid out due to the frenetic nature of the encounter. Trying to swap out weapons was too slow in my initial method of stun gun, then switch to combat rifle. My winning tactic turned out to be sticking with the stun gun and lobbing a couple of grenades to win the day.
I keep waiting for Jensen to say "Make my day." He even looks like Eastwood.
Did anyone else get the email about the Sarif office break-ins when you returned to the office? That made me giggle.
My original suspicions regarding Megan's research has been further fueled by forwarded emails from Sarif.
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I'm still in Hengsha:
Tracking down the hacker and running errands for Bobby the bartender.
Sometimes, I think Jensen's a little stupid. I certainly wasn't surprised by Tong. On the other hand, hunting up the 2nd wi-fi tower, I'm looking up in the sky like some drunken turkey in the rain and never bothered to look at waist level. [Image Can Not Be Found]
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Made it to Tai Yong Medical last night (Why yes, I am playing slowly. What's your point? [Image Can Not Be Found]) I currently have 5 praxis points to distribute. (I'm a saver) My hacking is at level 3 or 4 and cloaking at level 2. I've upgraded my carrying capacity once and can lift heavy objects.
Do I really need bust or see through walls? Should I invest in the Typhoon?
Any suggestions?
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I picked the bust through walls ability because I needed it to get to the last steady aim skill, I think it was. When you get it, you'll see outlines on the wall that you can't see when you don't have the ability. In that sense, it's not obvious how useful it will be prior to when you get it. From what I've seen, it can be used as an alternative path to the hacking path, since really important locked doors can be circumvented by going through the walls somewhere else, and therefore it's a bit redundant to focus on hacking and smashing. Seems almost piltdownish to bash walls with the undoubtedly expensive metal h/w in your fist though.
Typhoon is a useful multiple opponent suppression device, although ammo is only mostly available later, which is ok because multiple opponent encounters also spike (where is Spike btw?) later so I would skip this at this point.
If you haven't encountered the second boss, and don't want to read a spoiler on how to most easily prepare, keep four praxis points for the encounter as the details are spelled out (as Steerpike pointed out: somewhat garbled-y) during the encounter.
My Dark Souls single player sensibilities are protected by a +10 GfWL Firewall of Ineptitude
I got Bust Through Walls and did find it useful on occasion. It's probably not doom if you don't have it, but it can be a good way to circumvent obstacles.
Typhoon, meanwhile, I bought because I figured since it was such a big deal at the beginning of the game, I'd actually need it for something. You do not. I found it to be effective against robots (provided you can get close enough to catch them in the blast) and, as Helmut says, large groups… but like so many other powers, it eats up your energy. I had more difficulty keeping a steady supply of candy bars in my inventory than I did defeating foes without Typhoon. So once again, I'd say grab it if you like, but you won't absolutely positively need it.
You would do well to invest in augs that protect you from environmental effects. Jensen is mostly machine and, you know, a garage door opener on the wrong frequency... just sayin'.
Life is the misery we endure between disappointments.
Staff
I would say Tyhpoon is absolutely essential for the boss battles. I thought the boss fights were terrible. Awful. Not just hard, but just bad. Bad game design, badly implemented.. I thought they were generally pretty gimped and at times one or two of them spoiled my enjoyment of the game. For me, the Typhoon was worth it just for them.. just to get past the boss battles as quickly as possible so I could move on with enjoying the game and forget they existed.
The Typhoon takes just a couple of Praxis to fully upgrade and 2 or 3 shots each will be enough to dispose of every boss in the game. I upgraded the Typoon early doors and bought enough ammo to last me the entire game.
That said, I never used the Typhoon other than the boss battles. If there's a specific reason why you want to fight the boss' properly, then I wouldn't say there was any reason to need the Typhoon at all.
Steerpike said:
You would do well to invest in augs that protect you from environmental effects. Jensen is mostly machine and, you know, a garage door opener on the wrong frequency… just sayin'.
I'd completely forgotten about the environmental augs! Good point. And I do need to upgrade the dermal plating as I think I'm still using the default.
The way I'm playing, I don't need Typhoon, but I've heard about people using it in the same way Mat did – for the boss fights (which I hate) I've not yet gotten to the second boss, but I'm sure we'll meet up soon. And I'm trying to heed Helmut's warning about having 4 praxi available.
Hacking turrets - must have or just handy? I've managed to skirt around the few I've come across so far.
Thanks, everyone!
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Not necessary, but I thought it was fun to pack around the turrets. These are the things that can make your life easier, but none of them are essential. It's sometimes very tricky to have the time and augs necessary to hack them in the first place, so it all works out in the end if you don't go that route. You can't seem to pack turrets or bots into the one applicable boss battle (I tried) so they don't have overwhelming powers. Sometimes you could hack a bot when flipping some important switch (that has the side effect of releasing a bunch of enemies) and the bot would take care of them for you, or you could pack a minigun, and all the ammo and just do it yourself. Having done both, I'd say I died less when I hacked everything because I wasn't surprised so often.
My Dark Souls single player sensibilities are protected by a +10 GfWL Firewall of Ineptitude
Staff
I think this conversation shows just how nice the flexibility in Deus Ex is. I don't think there's a particularly right or wrong way to do anything in the game. I actually put very little of my praxis points into the hacking side of the Augs right until the very end, but have heard others say they thought it was essential to do that early.
If there is any one augmentation which I would consider a "must have", other than Typhoon if you want to skip your way past the bosses, is the icarus landing system. For me, the ability to fall from any height without the threat of death was absolutely invaluable.
What's funny, Mat, and to your point - I never used Typhoon against the bosses. Didn't occur to me, I guess. You're right, there's great flexibility in the game. You can play as you like, with just a few instances (Helmut's bring-four-Praxis recommendation for the second boss battle, fr'example) where the game deviates from that. It's pretty cool. Lots of games say you can play how you like, only a handful actually deliver on the promise.
Life is the misery we endure between disappointments.
"Top o' the world, Ma!"
ahem.
Made it through Pengu depot, which was actually great sneaky fun. Once in the upper tower, chatted up a few people (some of whom were quite snooty), deactivated the hall alarm. Walked by a couple of guards who didn't even look in my direction. Turned a corner and opened the door to a room and suddenly everyone's all up in my grill. WTH?! Oh wait, there was a sign that said authorized personnel only. Maybe I should heed that... for the nonce. [Image Can Not Be Found]
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Realized how I got tagged the last time - once I pass the guards, one starts a roving patrol. I wasn't paying attention. [Image Can Not Be Found]
Laid low all the guards in the Lee Geng lab. One I had to grab and hide while a camera was still functional. What's really hilarious, is I accidentally knocked out a scientist after talking to him by pressing the wrong button.
Now I'm standing outside the data center watching the patrols through the lasered door. hmmm....
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Found the keypad for the lasers. Took out all the guards and waltzed into the data center. (Am I the only one that noticed the data center floor is a giant PC board? What you hide behind are the transistors.) That was fun little romp! The guards should have learned by now not to sit with their back to a vent.
In the penthouse trying to decide which guard to take out first...
And yes, I'm still non-lethal.
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Here I applied my post-fact reasoning to lay a few explosive grenades at the doors where the plebelings materialize (not too close together lest one take out the other), and a few gas grenades at the choke point on the stairs. That should whittle them down to a manageable amount for sniping. On failing to have enough grenades for this, there's some fresh air coming in from somewhere. [Image Can Not Be Found]
My Dark Souls single player sensibilities are protected by a +10 GfWL Firewall of Ineptitude
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