@ MrPete:

Yep, it is a good game. The ending is disappointing, and the boss fights are sucky but most levels are fun, and allow multiple paths and approaches.

@ SapientIdiot:

I was thinking about doing the same thing, only building a killing machine this time around (I was going for stealth on my first play through) so I never invested in things like armor or thyphon launcher. But once I finished the game, I realized that I wouldn’t see anything new.

@ Dileep:

I’m guessing some people might have been confused by the sequence. On my first try I waited too long and Malik died, and I thought that perhaps this was scripted. I reloaded anyway, to see if I can actually kill the attackers and save her. I imagine some people would just grumble and continue thinking the game just pulled a Joss Whedon on them.

@ Jakob:

Ah, that’s awesome! I went and got it replaced because it was a quest, and I did not want to leave the area with incomplete quests. Also, I was expecting maybe some bonus abilities to become unlocked. I was disappointed when that did not happen.

@ Luke Maciak:
Actually, it is not always the case your argumentation will be jammed :D.

Before you fight the last mecenary boss, the Tai Young CEO will attempt to disable you. During the game, you experience random glitches and get the chance to have your biochip upgraded. This is what you did. If you say “nah, I don’t want it”, and get to the second last boss fight, something cool happens. She tries to jam your augmentations, but, since you don’t have their upgraded chip, it does not work. This leads Jensen to utter something along the lines of “You thought I was dumb?” with a smug appearance. It felt great to have outwitted her :D.

@ Dileep:
Depends on what you mean. If it is not getting the glitches fixed, then I did and just read the above.

My Malik sequence was a bit rough. I first stayed back a bit, wanting to save her, but I feared my Pacifist play trough would leave me unable to deal with head on. I was wrong. After a few tries, I simplied rushed in with my Dart Gun and Reflex Boost (able to knock out two guards at once). Stunned the machine gunners, knoced out the others, running around. When the robots dropped, I chugged an EMP at them, taking them out. Man, I felt like superman after that.

Did anyone make the other choice when prompted to go to place to get thing fixed after the Malik sequence?

It is quite a fantastic game. I have to say though, the option to choose any ending kind of killed the replay value for me. I really wanted to go through the game first in a normal, non-stealth fashion and take a second stealth run after i knew what to expect, and maybe make some different choices as to augs and dialogs, but it seems somewhat pointless knowing that no matter what i get to choose my ending. Hopefully a new DLC gets released that will finish the story a little better.

Did you notice some of the emails during the part where you rescue Megan duplicated the intro to the original Half-Life? “Work safe, work smart, your future depends on it”, etc.

Hmm, seems as if I should finally catch up on a friends offer to give it a try…
Level design -though much less fantastic than the stuff you show here- was one of the nice points in the first DE.
That is if my memory isn’t totally overshadowed by nostalgia :)

@ xWittaker:

You mean the last boss before Hyron Project? The one when your augmentations get jammed? I didn’t have any rockets so this one actually took some running around.

The easiest normal-boss for me was the the merc lady in the computer room. She just de-cloaks and runs at you from a distance. By that time I had by rifle all upgraded with the auto-targeting mod so I just locked on, and held the mouse button down until she died, while attempting to circle strafe. She died astonishingly fast.

I was stockpiling Laser Rifle ammo for the final boss. When that came along, I just hid behind some cover and started shooting at Zhao ignoring the turrets. Laser goes through glass walls, so she died after about a magazine and a half worth of laser to the face. I didn’t even realize you were supposed to run around hacking terminals until I went to hack them after the fight. :P

The last boss fight was positively hilarious for me. I started saving up missle launcher ammo and when I fought him, I dropped all 3 rockets on him. Unfortunately he was still moving so I dispatched with 2 final pistol shots :P.

My rescue of Malik was pretty similar to you. I was all like “Oh shit, they’re trying to pull a Jock on me” (if you played the first DE, you’ll get the reference) and then charged. I dropped my upgraded typhoon on the big security bot and then promptly panicked when I realized it was still alive and I had now had everyone shooting at me while I was standing out in the open. Luckily one pistol shot finished it off (god I love the pistol) and I proceeded to gut the rest of the attackers.

@ Jakob:

I think Yahtzee said it best in his review – boss fights should be like a final exam from all that you have learned up to this point and not just big dudes with a lot of HP. You ought to be able to use your the skills you have been practicing on them.

In a game such as DH:HR there should be at least 3 ways to defeat a boss:

– full frontal attack
– stealth take-down, with an option to make it non-lethal
– diplomacy option

Full frontal would work just like current fights. Stealth option would be made difficult by giving the boss a complex patrol route, with some random patterns, a huge detection cone, and perhaps an ability to jam your cloak every once in a while. Some bosses could have armor that nullifies the dart gun forcing you to go for close range stun gun or manual take down. Others would be very hard to sneak up on, forcing you to snipe from hiding. Etc.. I thing staling a super-guard like that would be just as fun as having an all out shoot-out with a grenade chucking boss.

Diplomacy could be used to do a lot of character developments, and giving players extra options. For example engage the enemy in dialog, and then zap them with the stun gun when they get distracted.

@ jambarama:

I hated borderlands. Too MMO-ish for me. Though watching Rutskarn (from Spoiler Warning) and his crew (they named their team “Borderbutts) play the game was kinda entertaining.

The last FPRPG I played was borderlands. Which I really like, though it is much more like a traditional RGP with XP and levels and skill trees. And it isn’t serious, it is jokey, and the plot is very very thin, and the attention to detail isn’t there so much, and everything looks pretty blah (junkyards & deserts are easy environments to make, but not good to look at), and on and on. Ok, it isn’t much like DE:HR at all.

Actually, I don’t know why I like it so much, the interface is cumbersome, the driving is awful, the enemies are all the same, the missions are all the same (shoot some guy), you level far too quickly, the DLC doesn’t have the fast transport system (presumably to stretch out the story). I guess I’m a sucker for numbers.

Also, what happened that made DE so great, Invisible War so crummy, and Human Revolution almost as good as the first? Edios has a consistency problem, even within the same series.

It was indeed a great game.

The best part for me though was the conversations you had, The one were you tried to convince the person you talked to give some information or stop something they were doing. It was intesense and felt pretty real.

The boss battles sucked though. It could really gimp a person who didn’t know it was coming. And, there was no connection to them. You see a short glimpse of them in the start of game, only to see them again when the boss battle began. I would have loved it if we got a greater insight to these characters, a reason why we would hatethem beyound “they attacked us”.