So, I've commented on how good I think this game is. What I haven't mentioned is how I nearly tossed it back in the box and returned it after the first couple hours. I've mentioned this stuff in the Halo thread (for some reason), but I wanted to consolodate it here.
There are some gameplay features that look for in games, and if they include them, I know not to buy the game because those features bug me so much. I'll freely admit this probobly sounds like I'm super picky, and well, I am. But I'll just pounce on this once, because other than this stuff (and the bosses) I think Deus Ex: HR is a fantastic game.
With Deus Ex, we start as a component stealth character, and the perks (Praxis) we can earn make us an awesome one. But we start as a horrible combat character, and the perks make us merely competent. Weapons feature lots of recoil, and most jarring to me is that we can't even aim straight with a scoped weapon.
The difficulty in using a weapon should come from their situational usage, ammo scarcity, and the capabilities and characteristics of the enemies. Not through artificial mechanics such as a roaming reticule and a swinging screen every time we shoot. This is why I love Halo and don't play most other shooters (and hate bloom in Reach).
Let me explain what I mean with an illustration.
Let's say we have a side scrolling platformer, but the jumping mechanics are really sloppy and hard to control, such that precision jumps are very hard to nail. And then we create a perk tree that lets us upgrade those sloppy controls away.
Alternately, you could have a platformer where the jumping mechanic is nice and precise, and the game is made difficult through level design.
That is what Deus Ex does: gunplay is sloppy and imprecise, but we can make it play in a way that is much less punishing by spending Praxis to fix the gunplay.
My objection is to adding difficulty by removing our ability to have precise game controls. I think that's a cheap way to balance games. To me, it is the opposite of fun. It's cheap because it's a lot easier to make a game difficult by screwing with our ability to aim straight than it is to make smart AI, well balanced weapons and interesting encounters. I'm exasperated by what Deus Ex does because the way they introduce recoil and sway are not needed - they have a solid game to build on. But they muddy the game mechanics anyways.
I'd rather we start out with competant combat mechanics, and then use Praxis to make them great. One random example:
Let's say we start out such that all weapons have iron sights, which are stable. The first Praxis in the Precision tree updates our skills from iron sights to the full-screen smartlinked scope, similar to what we see with the sniper (or Halo) weapons.
Second Praxis doubles the magnification of the scope for those weapons. That would let us start with solid aiming mechanics, but then let us gain skills to use them better.
Instead, we start with gimped aiming mechanics and the Praxis make them normal. I was really frustrated with the gun mechanics in Deus Ex until I had used the Praxis to remove the recoil and roaming reticule when scoped. Now, I get that DX is not a combat-focused game. I'm not wanting to be able to turn it into Halo. I just want to be able to aim and shoot straight.
This concept is one of my biggest pet peves in games. Sorry for the rant.
tl;dr version: The gunplay itself should not be difficult. The difficulty should emerge from the context it is deployed in, rather than the mechanics.
The actual game itself - the encounter and world design - are incredible.
