1) I think that if you’re making a mainline game in a series that’s established about a certain concept, you might want to keep doing that. One of the big complaints about Hitman Absolution was that it wasn’t about the things that Hitman is traditionally about—being a silent assassin. It was a lot more violent and…

Wait, are you saying Blade Runner is compelling despite its flaws? Are you saying Blade Runner has flaws?! It’s one of the few media works I personally believe are perfect! :D

Yeah, that’s where you get the hacking tool. Fun fact, I completely broke the AI in that sequence by leaving the room and walking back in. One character stood there shooting a vent and repeating three lines of dialog. The others were stuck in place and couldn’t move at all. Isolation is a game I freaking love, but…

I was playing the DC for this article and noted some fairly severe AI problems in it.

Really good point. Personally, once I started playing like Adam—killing people who he felt deserved it and sparing people he felt didn’t—I really started to get into the game more. Rejecting the game’s mechanical emphases made the game super enjoyable to me.

I personally enjoyed Detroit and some of the quests, ‘cause they’re a great way to introduce you to All The Different Ways To Play, but the game proper doesn’t begin until that first main mission, which definitely messes with the pacing.

I’m okay with RPG mechanics doing everything, but I don’t like that it means doing everything in a single playthrough, and I don’t like that one particular play style is rewarded more than any other play style.

I tried to approach it respectful of the fact that it’s a well-loved game. The last thing I want to do when writing something negative about a game is to make someone feel bad about something they love.

You get way, way, way more XP for nonlethal stealth than not. I think it’s 10-20 lethal XP vs 30-50 nonlethal XP, not counting the addition of hacking, vent exploration, stuff like that. When you’re playing lethally, nearly all of the XP you get is from killing. You can end up with a ridiculous disparity depending on…

I’m with you on that. It didn’t feel like a natural environment where you could come up with ways to deal with a situation; it felt like a bunch of prescribed paths based on the items you picked.

I agree. Bad, poorly implemented mechanics are never excusable because of a genre decisions. Bad mechanics are bad mechanics.

On the PC, it’s the middle mouse button, which is just as bad.

This is a fantastic comment and I wish I could upvote it five or six times.

The director’s cut removes some of the gold filter, as best I can tell. I think the game’s visuals suffer as a result, even if they were originally derided as a “piss filter.”

Not sure I agree. I love the crap out of both games.

I did too, mostly because I was worrying how I’d be able to get the most XP out of any given encounter. I’m not normally a min-max player either, but something about Human Revolution kept pushing me to think of situations like ‘okay but if I can pick up heavy objects, I can go into that vent and get 200XP, but if I’m…

One quick example: 50 XP per stealth headshot knockout. 100-200 XP for hacking and vent crawling.

Good game AI isn’t always smart game AI. It’s AI that makes the game fun to play.

I try my best to avoid shooting fish in a barrel.

A much easier way to do this is to maxmimize the FOV, use a large monitor, and keep it about two feet from your face. It’s a replication of the IMAX effect. Third person presents a ton of problems, including a massive separation from your character-as-you in games.