Stealth was really improved though, which I appreciate, and no boss fights. Only one, which can be completely avoided/dispensed with if you do it right.
Unlike Human Revolution, when you start a new plus game in Mankind Divided you do not get all the Praxis and active Augmentations you previously had, but you do get back something in Mankind Divided you did not in Human Revolution and that is the weapons you previously had which is great as they are already fully upgraded.
The game is fixed on a plus replay to give you back certain things but you still have to go through the Koller fixing your augmentations as they are malfunctioning in Adams apartment when you actually begin the game.
The first start out sequence at Dubai IMO is useless you get nothing from going through it but the tutorials which are useless fodder, the entire section should be able to be skipped on a plus play through, because you already know regarding the tutorials, but since it cannot be skipped, it is best to go through it as fast as possible and get it over with as the game really doesn't start until you wake up in Adams apartment.
The Triangles, E books, Newspapers, are useless time consumers, The little Emails however have usable information, such as key codes and passwords, hacking sucks in Mankind Divided as did Human Revolution because it is time consuming, and the Multi Tool is a must have in my opinion, but I like to dispense with the unnecessary that has no actual bearing on completing the game so it is an option if you decide to spend hours of your game time hacking when you don't have to.
IMO there is enough that you absolutely cannot side step in Mankind Divided to voluntarily add time to it, there is a lot to explore in the game and I still have not found everything.
Yeah, I did find, that's why I said if you do things right (which means be curious) you'll not have to actually have a boss fight. The team learned their lesson from all the blowback about boss battles in HR.
The first time I passed the sign I ignored it, and the second I said "this is out of place. Stopped and listened and realized it was for Adam. I did that on my first playthrough.
You're right, there is an awful lot to discover. I found things the 2nd time I didn't find the first. I'm an explorer in games, so the amount of time that takes is fine for me. I also discovered that playing some of the missions differently definitely gets you different results. I killed the Georgian mafia boss the first time, and kept him alive the second time. The whole narrative, which he is a part of plays out differently.
I think the main benefit from DX12 vs previous DX APIs is that it can divide the load from the single thread to the next ones. And that's a big benefit mostly for the less powerful CPUs, especially the multicore ones (FX8XX0 and FX6XX0 for example). From the artistic aspect of graphics and visuals it allows devs to make more beautiful games with more particles and effects without asking the gamers to have the latest and greatest in HW. Not sure if this iteration of Deus Ex made that possible but with Warhammer TW it is much easier to achieve that due to the nature of the game and the 10s of 1000s of units acting in the same time. Only very heavy graphically scenes are to gain much from DX12 imho. That's why they might have chosen one of those in their in-game bechmark. To test the HW better on heavy work. My 5 cents.
I'm still not past the scene where those ninjas drop on the chopper in Dubai. Either something is wrong with me or the game just isn't as engaging as Human Revolution was. It's worrying in either case.
I'm still not past the scene where those ninjas drop on the chopper in Dubai. Either something is wrong with me or the game just isn't as engaging as Human Revolution was. It's worrying in either case.
I thought it might be considering I have a lot of augments from the start. Can't seem to figure out a method not to get that guy killed. Either I get killed really fast or he does.
I thought it might be considering I have a lot of augments from the start. Can't seem to figure out a method not to get that guy killed. Either I get killed really fast or he does.
I think I may have finally found a fix for the texture flickering I was getting. I tried setting Shader Cache to On in the AMD GPU panel, and using the Windowed Bordeless Gaming tool, neither of which fixed it.
I figured since the game has an odd tendency to shrink to a launcher screen sized window when you Alt+Enter or disable Fullscreen (which temporarily fixes the flicker), there might be a problem with the launcher itself.
So in searching for launch options I found two. One was -nolauncher, the other -benchmark. The -benchmark command bypasses intros and the launcher. After two fairly long sessions with this launch option, I haven't had any flicker.
The only slight caveat is the game will launch with taskbar showing, but if you just click the game icon on it, it disappears. However this might be the launch option only doing that when launching the game from the AMD GPU panel, which I do to use Shader Cache On and a 60 FPS target rate.
I think I may have finally found a fix for the texture flickering I was getting. I tried setting Shader Cache to On in the AMD GPU panel, and using the Windowed Bordeless Gaming tool, neither of which fixed it.
I figured since the game has an odd tendency to shrink to a launcher screen sized window when you Alt+Enter or disable Fullscreen (which temporarily fixes the flicker), there might be a problem with the launcher itself.
So in searching for launch options I found two. One was -nolauncher, the other -benchmark. The -benchmark command bypasses intros and the launcher. After two fairly long sessions with this launch option, I haven't had any flicker.
The only slight caveat is the game will launch with taskbar showing, but if you just click the game icon on it, it disappears. However this might be the launch option only doing that when launching the game from the AMD GPU panel, which I do to use Shader Cache On and a 60 FPS target rate.
Your graphics card listed in your system specs only has 3G of memory and that right there could be part of your problem depending on the graphics settings you are running.
With Deus EX: Mankind Divided the amount of graphics memory is more important than graphics core speed, that's why they have claimed to run High settings you need 4G of graphic memory because it actually uses over 3G of memory.
To run Very High you need 6G and to run Ultra you need 8G of graphic memory.
Some of the features also depend on the CPU like cloth texturing and you need 16G of system memory.
So if you only have 3G of graphic memory you'll probably need to run settings lower than High, until it runs smooth.
Your graphics card listed in your system specs only has 3G of memory and that right there could be part of your problem depending on the graphics settings you are running.
Nope, not the problem. I'm well aware of the VRAM requirements. It would be hard in fact to miss them, because as soon as you try to go above High, a warning comes on screen saying you don't have enough VRAM. Thus I'm running it on High, and it plays smoothly. I get a slight hitch toward the end of the train ride cutscene when the next district traveled to is nearly loaded in, and same when crossing from one area of the map to another in game, but 99% of the time it's smooth sailing averaging about 40 FPS on the benchmark.
I'm also liking that I don't need to even apply Vsync, because I get no tearing without it. Honestly, about the only slight graphical nuisance is some squirming edges when stationary at times, but for the most part, even having AA at Off isn't that noticeable as far as jaggies go. I originally had Sharpen set to On, but it made hair tips and certain items shimmer too much. It's much better with it at Off.
Since using the -benchmark launch option, I really don't even have a problem with textures flickering in game anymore. They do a little bit in the Aug or Hack screens sometimes, but not enough to make me want to Alt+Enter to remove it.
Gameplay wise I was a bit frustrated last night after spending an hour trying to sneak into the Rave, but I finally found out the first way I had tried was the way, and managed to get in. I'm not sure if there's a way to...
disable the arcing electricity in the small room I broke into to get there, but on Normal difficulty I didn't even have to use a stim, because I ran through it quickly. On higher difficulties I may need to find a way to disable it or use a stim though.
That said, I'm not at all impressed with Icarus Dash thus far, and opted to do the Cybernetic Leg Prosthesis upgrade instead. I tried using Icarus Dash 3 times to get a short distance to a rooftop in Rich Man, Poor Aug, but each time even though I ran forward and jumped before activating it, I fell to my death. With the Cybernetic Leg Prosthesis I was easily able to just jump to it each time. I'm also liking the Icarus Landing aug, and the Implanted Rebreather. I have not opted for the combat ones, since I'm playing non lethal this play through.
Once you learn how to use the Icarus Dash you'll love it, it is marvelous for reaching ledges too high to jump to, you need to hold the activation key and let it build power and then jump, to a ledge indicated by a hand, or safe landing point just make sure the safe landing point is on solid area, or jump to cover.
It can be used as you have described but it is not as effective that way.
There are areas of the game you cannot even reach without the Icarus Dash like entering Ruzika Station without being detected to get the scan data, or the area in the GARM facility above the room the grenade launcher is in, you cannot reach those areas without the Icarus Dash.
For Non-Lethal you absolutely need the Dermal Shield fully activated especially the Electrical Protection Shield and the Glass Shield fully activated, using the Glass Shield in the crouched position uses less energy and does not alert bystanders.
And for emergencies use the Polymorphic Shield to escape without damage if you are discovered, because just because you are playing Non-Lethal doesn't mean the game is.
Once you learn how to use the Icarus Dash you'll love it, it is marvelous for reaching ledges too high to jump to, you need to hold the activation key and let it build power and then jump, to a ledge indicated by a hand, or safe landing point just make sure the safe landing point is on solid area, or jump to cover.
It can be used as you have described but it is not as effective that way.
It would be easy to know how to use it if they gave better instructions. In fact they lead you to believe it's just as effective in air as on ground. Thanks for the tips though, I wasn't even aware you had to charge it. That pretty much means MMB is the only viable key if I have to hold it while maneuvering. Honestly though, it was not the distance dashed that made me fall. Adam just didn't grasp the ledge like he normally would.
I already have Glass Shield Cloaking, it was the first aug I unlocked. I mostly use it while crouched, but a few times I've used it standing to hack through a door. As long as you crouch while moving though, you still don't burn through it too fast. One thing I maxed out right away was the Energy Converter though, so I've yet to even use a Biocell on myself. I also have hacking augs mostly maxed, and I also got the Social Enhancer. I have entry level Tesla, but have yet to use it.
Gameplay wise I was a bit frustrated last night after spending an hour trying to sneak into the Rave, but I finally found out the first way I had tried was the way, and managed to get in. I'm not sure if there's a way to...
disable the arcing electricity in the small room I broke into to get there, but on Normal difficulty I didn't even have to use a stim, because I ran through it quickly. On higher difficulties I may need to find a way to disable it or use a stim though.
If you follow the clues you can get in with a keycard.. If you ever decide to play the hardest difficulty (I never asked for this), don't ever go into electricity whatnot since this is what will kill you and invalidate your savegame (without getting a aug that makes you immune to this first, gas/electricity kills you almost instantly most places)!
