I'm not sure how they'd do it, but if they were going to make a sequel (maybe prequel?), and it was based off the way Human Revolution played, what would you need/like to see improved? For me personally, I think the animation system needs to be improved, 'cause some of the stuff just seemed stiff. The facial animations and overall look need to be updated, 'cause it looks somewhat archaic most of the time. I think the cover system needs slight improving as well. While I disagree with people about Jensen's voice, some of the other voices could have been a lot better. I'd also like to see some more color to the environments that you hang around in for most of the game, 'cause a lot of it is orange.

If there are bosses, it's not that the battles need to be more interesting for me, though that wouldn't hurt; it's that the character needs to be fleshed out more. And finally, while I do like the overall sound, from fine voice acting, mostly great soundtrack, and nice sci-fi sound effects, I think the sound design needs a little more to it to sound life-like. It all sounded mono, or stereo without surround, and I think many games suffer from it, it'd be nice if it sounded kind of like Battlefield 3 (yeah, that's a lot to ask). I hate when games sound comes more out of the bass and not the actual speakers, and I just felt like the way it went about the sound was a little intrusive. I didn't hate anything about this game, I love it, so don't regard what I'm saying as completely negative toward Human Revolution.

I think if everything was one step better than Human Revolution, the sequel/prequel would be amazing. What about you?

I thought that by the end of the game I had too many augs - they should either create more, or expand how many upgrades each skill/ability had.

That and make the boss fights cater to your play style. Regardless of these issues I still loved Human Revolution and was definitely the surprise hit of last year.

I would probably appreciate better shooter controls so you can play it as shooter if you want. It'd make multiple playthroughs more fun. My first playthrough was pure stealth and it was fun but now I'm specking for pure combat and its made realize how janky the controls are.

@benspyda said:

I would probably appreciate better shooter controls so you can play it as shooter if you want. It'd make multiple playthroughs more fun. My first playthrough was pure stealth and it was fun but now I'm specking for pure combat and its made realize how janky the controls are.

I didn't mind it, are you having a problem since it's not controlling like Call of Duty? I'm mostly referring to the left trigger hold to aim in rather than the toggle right click.

a good game

More city hubs, specifically daytime city hubs. I was bummed when I found out that Upper Heng Sha was not an explorable city.

Better character models and animation.

A battery recharge upgrade augmentation that lets you recharge more than one cell.

Make the the combat and AI more challenging. This is so that when you do find alternate solutions and pathways that makes combat easier or allows you to subvert combat, it makes you feel like you accomplished something, that you've managed to avoid something really difficult. Getting rid of recharging health might accomplish this.

Make those autohack items actual rare items in the game instead of stupid preorder bonuses. The only items that I really ever get excited about collecting and hoarding are candy bars and praxis points. Having more useful and rare items to find in the world would make exploration more satisfying.

What I would really want is a re-make of the first one, or something directly after the first game. None of this Invisible War shit.

That being said, I still haven't played HR yet..

@NTM said:

@benspyda said:

I would probably appreciate better shooter controls so you can play it as shooter if you want. It'd make multiple playthroughs more fun. My first playthrough was pure stealth and it was fun but now I'm specking for pure combat and its made realize how janky the controls are.

I didn't mind it, are you having a problem since it's not controlling like Call of Duty? I'm mostly referring to the left trigger hold to aim in rather than the toggle right click.

I didn't really mean controls actually. More how it feels, it just doesn't feel right. Kinda feels like Mass Effect 1 style combat, more skewed towards RPG than combat. Its not terrible and I'm still enjoying it but I find myself just popping headshot's, 1 by 1 by 1 until there's just a pile of dead bodies.

Edit: Also I'm playing my second playthrough on pc and was using a controller to play it but switching to mouse and keyboard feels a lot better.

No bosses.

bigger and more open environments

Beyond just fleshing out the world itself more, I'd like to see boss battles that compliment a stealth-based play style and a decent ending (ie not some "choose your own 10 second ending" crap).

@benspyda: Aw, well OK. I agree with some of that. Of course it can be improved, but for what it is, I still really enjoyed it. I like the look of the guns, and I think they felt OK to shoot too.

No boss fights and energy regeneration that regenerates ALL the batteries, instead of just one.

Also, the ability to have ALL the upgrades by the end of the game too.

@MiniPato: So you wish that they were Replica Soldier smart? Or smarter?

The energy cell regeneration thing combined with the rewards for using takedowns on enemies was a combination that i think could be retuned. I found myself not using any of my other augs because i always new it would end up in the same place, with once cell left constantly being used for recharges and subsequently more takedowns. Maybe if they made it so it was impossible to recharge cells without item usage while in an area with active enemies and designing the encounters with that constraint in mind, i would be more willing to try out new combination of augs in an effort to find the best solution with minimal power cell usage.

A path through the game in which you needn't kill anyone in order to effect a reasonable ending

A path through the game in which no enemy forces ever detect your presence, and chatter you overhear reflects that fact.

More in-depth social interaction than date-rape pheromones.

@NTM said:

I disagree with people about Jensen's voice, some of the other voices could have been a lot better.

Maybe it is because I am a Canadian but I didn't notice anything wrong with the voices, or more specifically, the Canadian accents that people like Giantbomb complained about (didn't see that in Dead Rising 2 either).

@MiniPato said:

More city hubs, specifically daytime city hubs. I was bummed when I found out that Upper Heng Sha was not an explorable city.

Better character models and animation.

A battery recharge upgrade augmentation that lets you recharge more than one cell.

Make the the combat and AI more challenging. This is so that when you do find alternate solutions and pathways that makes combat easier or allows you to subvert combat, it makes you feel like you accomplished something, that you've managed to avoid something really difficult. Getting rid of recharging health might accomplish this.

Make those autohack items actual rare items in the game instead of stupid preorder bonuses. The only items that I really ever get excited about collecting and hoarding are candy bars and praxis points. Having more useful and rare items to find in the world would make exploration more satisfying.

Everything this guy says. I really want to see the more city hubs, more side quests and things to do in those hubs would be awesome as well.

I would love to see more augmentations to purchase or level up.

A Witcher series level of ambiguous choices throughout the game. Actually, I want more games to ape the Witcher's morality / choice and consequence systems.

Edit: One more thing I would like to see is a balance between shooting and stealth. If you played stealthy, and still knocked out every single opponent in a building, you received a significantly larger portion of XP at the end of the level. The downside to that is as soon as someone noticed me I jammed on the f9 key to quick-load. I think if the xp system was balanced a little better than the original I would be more likely to just go with the flow instead of reloading.

Also, what I meant about sound was just that I feel like the sound coming out of the five speakers on my home theater system didn't compensate for the bass I was hearing. My home theater system is set up perfectly, so I always leave it up to the game to do the rest. I think Battlefield 3 is a perfect example of the way to do audio design.

@TheMustacheHero said:

Also, the ability to have ALL the upgrades by the end of the game too.

u must have been playing it wrong. I had ALL the upgrades a good few hours before the end of the game. Were you shooting people? Like anybody?

@PixelPrinny said:

Beyond just fleshing out the world itself more, I'd like to see boss battles that compliment a stealth-based play style and a decent ending (ie not some "choose your own 10 second ending" crap).

That sounds awfully familiar...

@NTM said:

@MiniPato: So you wish that they were Replica Soldier smart? Or smarter?

lol I don't know shit about AI in videogames let alone pay attention to AI when I'm playing unless they are really atrocious. So negate that comment I guess. I just want combat to be something challenging, something that is kind of scary but not impossible if your character is not focused into combat skills and therefore making alternate paths much more satisfying to discover. I think getting rid of regenerating health would do that. It would put you in a situation where you ask yourself, "is it worth risking a health kit and ammo to get through this area or should I find another way?" The game addresses this by giving you EXP for finding alternate paths and staying stealth, but you're chasing a reward by doing that. I think having players make decisions based off of survival and conservation of ammo and items leads to a more satisfying experience than just rewarding them with additional experience.

Deus Ex HR is very much a stealth based game in that respect I find. They reward you for stealth and not necessarily for going guns blazing. I think maybe having a reward for each kind of play style would be cool. Like if you're the type of person who prefers to shoot your way through a scenario you get a heavy machine gun or an explosive round upgrade for your magnum. If you're a person who prefers silence and stealth you might get rewarded with a silencer for your SMG or sniper rifle. Just something to adjust the curve so it isn't completely skewed in the stealth direction.

1. Fewer vents would be nice.
2. More augs for combat.
3. Get rid of the stupid battery system.
4. Less emphasis on hacking.
5. Better inventory system, or get rid of the current one entirely
6. The decisions made along the way didn't contribute anything to the ending. I would have preferred if the ending was chosen based on the decisions made throughout the game.
7. Better characters.
8. A longer game.

Get into the nanotechnology stuff. The cybernetics were cool, but I liked the subtlety of augmentations in Deus Ex.

I'd like a game where you play as JC's brother (whose name is escaping me at the moment...fuck, that's annoying!) in the lead up to the first game, working for both UNATCO while also starting to work with the NSF and whatnot, could make for a good grey morality, conspiracy theory tale that touched on points in the original game, while doing different stuff.

I also, wanted a sort of codex, or encyclopedia so I could read up about people and corporations.

@Tim_the_Corsair said:

Get into the nanotechnology stuff. The cybernetics were cool, but I liked the subtlety of augmentations in Deus Ex. I'd like a game where you play as JC's brother (whose name is escaping me at the moment...fuck, that's annoying!) in the lead up to the first game, working for both UNATCO while also starting to work with the NSF and whatnot, could make for a good grey morality, conspiracy theory tale that touched on points in the original game, while doing different stuff.

Are you thinking of Paul Denton?

@Tim_the_Corsair said:

Get into the nanotechnology stuff. The cybernetics were cool, but I liked the subtlety of augmentations in Deus Ex. I'd like a game where you play as JC's brother (whose name is escaping me at the moment...fuck, that's annoying!) in the lead up to the first game, working for both UNATCO while also starting to work with the NSF and whatnot, could make for a good grey morality, conspiracy theory tale that touched on points in the original game, while doing different stuff.

Are you thinking of Paul Denton?

I'd like a setting and story that didn't suck. Put less bluntly, I'd like a setting that felt less like a plasticky vision of the future and design document and more of the grime and traditional cyberpunk aesthetic of the first game. No more orange and yellow colour palette. And level design that didn't feel like anointed playstyle paths of XP but more open and much larger environments. More thematic continuity with the first game. More choice and consequence in the narrative.

Although I think DXHR is a pretty decent game, I really feel it was a missed opportunity to develop an interesting setting and narrative, and the mechanics fall short in that it's not a particularly effective action-RPG hybrid. Nor does it set well with the series as a whole.

Naked Jensen More RPG elements and naked Jensen the option to switch to third person view at will. And Naked Jensen.

I want to find out what happened between Megan and Adam (Though the way things revolved in the end, I stopped caring for her). So, more Adam.

Also, better boss battles. And no random outside studios handling delicate aspects of the game.

I actually thought the whole game was pretty decent, and was disappointed with the cgi sequences. I wish a lot of games that had such good in game graphics would just stop being lazy and animate their cut scenes with the damn in game engine like mgs has. The cut scenes in mass effect 3 look ridiculous, there is like 0 cut scenes in syndicate but the game is just crappy, I'm a huge proponent of game engine cut scenes. They just look more natural.

No bosses.

Carrying some of the story depending on the ending you picked (I'm sure that the sequel will have you either pick or load one of your endings randomly) to then go with it as well as having endings dictated a bit more on overall actions in the game than a simple button (though I enjoyed the different options, none felt like the rest of the game mattered much on the choices). Apart from that a couple less weapons (ie. hardly used the shotgun or revolver but multiple types of the shotgun/handgun was a bit silly), more places to explore (ie. one city in Asia, one in Europe & one in North America) not repeating going back to them.

A lot of stuff I would say has already been said. I don't mind the battery system that much but I thought it was really stupid that I had to use a battery to punch a guy.

The main thing I think is that I really hate the way it switches between first and third person. It's really disorientating and just stupid. I understand that they want to have badass kill animations and stuff, but then just do it all third person, like Alpha Protocol (the game this feels most like to play, imo) with better shooting mechanics. I feel like the only reason any of it was in first person was because they wanted to say "look guys, it's still deus ex, it's first person and everything!" But for me, it's not the first person thing that makes it Deus Ex, it's the aesthetic (which they did ok with), the universe (which they did well on), the moral complexity (which they dropped the ball on if you ask me) and the shitty voice acting (spot on).

Bigger more immersive Environments but easier navigation in them. More nightclubs, bars, hotels. 
More Assassination missions; i.e. figuring out how to get into an area, what's the quietest way to do it, Hitman style. 
GTA style open world structure with driving, flying, taxis, trains, transport...   
Day/Night/Weather cycles and stealth gameplay that gets affected by that cycle. 
Smarter AI and NPCs. 
No more candy, or substitute for another more logical item.  
More types of hacking, hacking into AI, hacking AI to get access to different areas. 
Do something else with the inventory system.  
Armor or suit customization.  
Multiplayer Guards vs Agents à la Splinter Cell. 
More substance to the story of cybernetics vs pure. It's becoming the new been-there seen-that plot. 

I've played it more recently, and while I haven't played any of the main three games I'm playing in a few days, Human Revolution is one of them. I think the only thing that's needed, and I may have stated above, is while I think the graphics deserve an 8.5 on a number scale, I think those are the things that need some help. The dated facials and animations being fixed into a more realistic and expressive way would be nice, and while there are different colors other than orange, yellow, and black, most of those colors are sparse, so it'd be nice to see a lot more colors (like blue). Another thing is the cover system, the cover system is a little better, or at least has a little more to it than Rainbow Six: Vegas, but it's worse than Splinter Cell: Conviction.

The third thing is the energy cells, I think they're OK, but I think they should be used only for special abilities rather than melee kills as well. The fourth thing is the bosses, I don't actually think they're bad to fight, they're not the greatest, but they're not the worst; even on hard if you don't have the right stuff, you can take them out pretty easily. My biggest problem is that I don't think the actual characters were fleshed out enough. And the last thing is the voice acting, I think for the majority of the main characters, it's just fine, I wouldn't want Sarif's, Malik's, Megan's, or Adam's voice to be any different, but it's the people you walk by on the streets that have bad voice acting. That is all, I just read that I said something about the overall sound, I think while it can be improved, like everything else as always, it's fine.

I have quite a few ideas, so I'll list them.

1. The first Deus Ex game did feel like a role-playing game in that you could choose which skills you want to master, and which Augmentations you wanted to install, upgrade, or learn. I would love to see that combination again in the sequel.

2. More city hubs, and missions that are set during the day. Human Revolution was too similar to Deus Ex in that it was set during the night at all times.

3. If there is to be shooting in the game, then I would like the controls to be tighter, so it can give the game a first-person shooter feel. But at the same time, Square Enix must not forget the strong role-playing elements.

4. Better facial animations, and graphics that don't focus on the color gold.

5. Boss Battles that are not so difficult in that you have to fight them multiple times. I don't want them to be too easy, but at the same time, not very difficult. A better balance in difficulty would be great.

6. Finally, keep the multiple paths and keep the ability to go lethal, or non-lethal.

I want a game that just like DX1 and DXHR, challenges me and allows me to come, see, and conquer. Create my own unique scenarios when approaching enemies and objectives, and getting things done. Not limiting my gameplay in any form or way. 
 
That's my only condition, anything else I'm fine with.

@TheMustacheHero said:

No boss fights and energy regeneration that regenerates ALL the batteries, instead of just one.

Now that I've actually played it, I would really like better voice acting as a whole, and I would like a return to the JC Denton era. More about MJ12 and the Illuminati.

@MiniPato said:

More city hubs, specifically daytime city hubs. I was bummed when I found out that Upper Heng Sha was not an explorable city.

Deus Ex didn't have a single level set in the daytime, Human Revolution kept most of its levels at night or below a floof, it's a noir trope that would be best not broken if a consistent tone is to be kept.

Less racism, less eating chocolate bars to power up your cybernetics, and less boss fights.

More city hubs. So disappointed in how few places were given that were expansive considering how well they were done

A sequel would need some augmentations (hey-ooo!) as opposed to huge revamp, seeing as how HR was super boss. Speaking of which.... NO BOSS FIGHTS. Pretty please. That, some improved animations, and maybe some new combat options (human shield?) would be a good start. I like how the social interactions worked, so maybe stepping that up a notch would be a good idea, too.

No boss fights, a truly open world (fuck city hubs) and no munching on Snickers to power up your cybernetics!

Make it so that choosing augs make for a much more personalized character. Either cut access to certain types based on which you have previously chosen, or even just less access to to praxis kits. Felt like I was able to dip too far into just about everything by the end of the game.

Hated the battery system. Seemed like it served only to work against stealth. Find a better, more sensible way to go about balancing stealth for the sequel.

The boss battles were definitely a misstep, but I didn't feel they were all that bad. It's just that for a game that is all about choice, having boss battles that offered very little choice just made things feel off. Especially when it made the game that much harder for those playing stealthily, taking few if any combat boosting augs.

The next game needs more hub areas. I know that there were two areas cut due to time restrictions and that the game wasn't really meant to feel as small as it was, but that is what we were left with when everything was said and done. The game is by no means short, but it definitely felt limited in it's locations, even if the locations were quite large themselves.

Those are my only real gripes with the game. Was definitely one of my better plays of the last few years. Definitely a solid return for the series.

I also was a fan of Adam's voice so that was never a problem for me. Things just seemed a bit too stiff and that was my only problem with it. My only other improvement would be to make it more like Syndicate.