Deus Ex: H.E. could have been better

[Cognisant]

I've been watching some videos about the number of FPS games out there, and it made me realise how a very thematic game like "Deus Ex: Human Revolution" could have been even better.

I think everyone got a laugh when Adam Jensen said "I didn't ask for this"', now I liked the character, indeed there's aspects of who he is that are shown subtlety by his apartment, his office, the way other characters interacted with him, which really sold me on his character, on the surface he seems to have his shit together but just beneath there is a lonely and emotionally damaged man which has nothing to do with the events going on in game.

In fact upon recollection and comparison the entire game wasn't that great, sure the controls were slick, the scenery was pretty, but I did get tired of hacking terminals and for the most part combat was too simple, even on the higher difficulties, but the story carried the experience so well that it wasn't until recently that I realised that.

Anyway to the point, as great a character as Jensen is I think the game could have been better if augmentation wasn't something that was thrust upon him (which I just realised would barely change the character at all) rather it would be interesting if... Well y'know the prevalence of FPS games is largely due to the idea of a gun equalling empowerment, perhaps not to all players but to a large proportion of the audience FPS games specifically target the idea that having and knowing how to use a gun (which is something anyone can learn) is, at least thematically, the only thing separating the player from the protagonist, basically it's an empowerment fantasy, one that's all the more engaging because it's more realistic than say superpowers or being some battle honed badass.

I think the recent Deus Ex could have both embraced and deconstructed this theme if Jensen wasn't given his augmentations but rather offered the choice, a special discount given to him by his boss enabling him to afford the augmentations most people could only dream of, but no obligation to buy. But there's a hidden price, the more augmentations the player chooses to get the less Adam is human, which some people express concern about but it's not really an issue until he catches up with whatshername and depending upon how much of him is left she either accepts or rejects his feelings for her.

This in turn affects the ending, the one that involves ridding the world of augmentations is effectively suicide for a heavily augmented Adam, just imagine his final bitter speech, or for the Adam that got the girl his motivation to rid the world of augmentation is essentially one of spiteful conservatism. Alternately deciding not to rid the world of augmentation is for the augmented Adam a matter of hope and resolve, his human life is effectively forfeit but change is to be expected and there's not telling what the future holds, on the other hand for the unaugmented Adam it's about the moral high ground, he has no right to kill people, whether they are human or not.

So the empowerment fantasy is played both ways, whether augmented Adam is a naive Icarus or a bold Prometheus is for the player to decide, likewise refusing the call is a valid choice, if anything getting through the game using stealth, conventional weaponry and worn body armour would prove that in a transhumanist world people don't have to undergo body modification to keep up, that it's the quality of the person, not their parts that's really important.

In fact given bits of out-of-place dialogue and how frankly ridiculous the phrase "I didn't ask for this" is I think it's quite possible this is what the game's designers intended it to be and that for whatever reason the game was cut down, likely to be rushed out.

I've got half a mind to send an abusive email to Edios to be forwarded to whoever made that decision.

 

[Cognisant]

"Men like us, we never get back the things we love" - Namir

Also, objectification much?

 

[Duxwing]

"Men like us, we never get back the things we love" - Namir

Also, objectification much?

In English, lists of people and things are considered to be lists of things, just like 'ils,' the masculine 'they' in French is used for groups of males and females, while 'elles,' the feminine 'they' can only be used for exclusively female groups.

-Duxwing

 

[Cognisant]

I have been watching vids about objectification of women in games.

Even in my example "whatshername" is completely passive.

 

[Duxwing]

I have been watching vids about objectification of women in games.

Could you send me the links? That sounds interesting.

Even in my example "whatshername" is completely passive.

Eh?

-Duxwing

 

[Howitzer]

I can see where you're coming from but when offered a choice, it doesn't make sense when the abilities are so central to the gameplay. I can't think of a way to make slogging through without any of the cool abilities an interesting and not overly hard experience. And if it is playable then chances are the levels are a cakewalk with augments. Maybe augments could have some trade-offs to balance somehow but it wouldn't seem Deus Exy to me anymore without.

You're also suggesting an ending that assumes the players motivations, which is something they had in DXHR which left a bad taste in my mouth. I can't remember the details, but the reason I picked the given ending was like the opposite of what he was talking about.
This might work if you can glean sufficient information from the players actions and dialogue choices throughout the game though but still there could be a dissonance.

I don't think showing ideas through player choice and consequence works in general because it requires a high level of attention and willful suspension of disbelief in the world (especially for people that play a lot of games, or would be familiar with the genre) before you are really considering things in the game world perspective instead of from a simple "action X gets me A, action Y gets me B", or "I want to use the inflictsincrediblepaingun because it looks cool and makes whizzing noises". I mean when you can get a robot arm in a game context you'd think awesome, not I'm fond of my normal arm and have problems with it getting amputated etc. Even you could communicate that kind of idea in the character to the player they probably wouldn't care because it's a sweet robot arm, it's new and lets you lift big boxes to access secret areas and do crazy takedowns etc
I think if they can really nail a living and believable environments and characters to inhabit it, and then presenting perspectives or whatever they want the player to churn through their minds then that is what I would want to be playing. As I remember the hubs (and inhabitants) were pretty stale and level-y, though the video of flying in to Hengsha is permanently engraved in my mind which is not really relevant.

 

[Cognisant]

I think on the first play through you can assume the player is going to get augmented every chance they get and the unaugmented plot is for the player that having defeated the game now wants to be challenged by it and discover something more, which kind of underlines the potential humanity loss of cybernetics, the price of convenience, it's not that body modification is itself somehow wrong, rather that "better" isn't always better.

Our psychological development into maturity has a lot to do with struggle, fortitude in the face of adversity is something we each must learn by personal, painful experience, but transhumanism in general enables one to circumvent that struggle. It's not uncommon for gifted children to do exceptionally well in their early school years then fail later and have an hard time catching up because they didn't struggle in their early years, when the curriculum is forgivingly slow, they didn't learn the importance of homework & study, so when they fail later and the pace of the curriculum has sped up intervention may be required or they simply won't catch up.

A similar thing happens with star students, particularly those from private schools, they become accoustomed to success in an environment where they're constantly supported & monitored, then when they get out into the real world they ca't cope with failure and they don't know how to succeed without being told what to do because they've never really had to think for themselves.

There's a book by Neal Asher called "Gridlinked" that explores such themes, the protagonist is a secret agent kind of guy in the service of a human interstellar empire, he has neural augmentations and at the start of the story his dependence on them is almost absolute, it doesn't make him any less human in a literal sense, nor ineffective, but his commander guy makes him switch them off so he can relearn to both socialise normally and to use his intuition, which later turns out to be the essential skills that enable him to deal with the threat against mankind.

The book itself isn't so heavy handed as my description, but still the point is that even a loudly pro-transhumanism person like myself can have reservations, indeed I realise how "wired" I currently am and that at this point being cut off from the global data/communications network is, frightening, but what's also frightening is the weaknesses I may have that my conveniences may be hiding.

I know I'm guilty of looking up guides rather than figuring out things myself or using calculators that get the results of a theorem for me rather than learning the math myself, y'know technology should enable us to greater deeds, not facilitate laziness.

Though of course it does