ISSUE 231
OCTOBER 2011 ›› CLASH OF THE MMO TITANS ›› GUILD WARS 2 ›› WILDSTAR REVEALED ›› STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC ›› DIABLO 3 ›› ARMA X: ANNIVERSARY ›› PROJECT ZOMBOID
UK Edition ›› £5.99 ›› October 2011 ›› Issue 231
GUILD WARS 2
£5.99
OCTOBER 2011
#231 SEPTEMBER 2011 Future Publishing Ltd 30 Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 2BW Tel 01225 442244 Fax 01225 732275 Email pcgamer@futurenet.com Web www.pcgamer.com EDITORIAL Editor Tim Edwards Deputy Editor Graham Smith Production Editor Tony Ellis Section Editor Tom Francis News Editor Craig Pearson Web Editor Owen Hill Art Editor Alvin Weetman Deputy Art Editor Cliff Newman Staff Writer Rich McCormick Interns Tom Senior, Tom Hatfield CONTRIBUTORS Tim Stone, Adam Oxford, Richard Cobbett, Kim Richards, Duncan Geere, Steve Hogarty, Dan Stapleton, Jon Blyth, Andy Ounsted, John McAllister Photography Future Photography Studio, www.istockphoto.com Group Art Editor Graham Dalzell Creative Director Robin Abbott Editorial Director Jim Douglas ADVERTISING Advertisement Manager Emma Cull London Sales Director Malcolm Stoodley Gaming Sales Director Sean Igoe Digital Advertising Manager Andrew Church Account Manager Alistair Williams Account Manager Rachel Sinclair Account Manager Chris Brown Senior Sales Executive Oliver Chislett MARKETING Brand Marketing Manager James Kick CIRCULATION/TRADE MARKETING Trade Marketing Manager Stuart Agnew PRINT & PRODUCTION Production Coordinator Craig Broadbridge LICENSING Head of International Licensing Tim Hudson FUTURE PUBLISHING LIMITED Head of Edge International and PC Gaming James Binns SUBSCRIPTIONS Phone our UK hotline on 0844 848 2852 Phone our International hotline on +44 (0) 1604 251045 Subscribe online at www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk To view your account details/status and to change your address, please go to www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/youraccount NEXT ISSUE ON SALE… SEPTEMBER 28 Printed in the UK by William Gibbons on behalf of Future. Distributed in the UK by Seymour Distribution Ltd, 2 East Poultry Avenue, London EC1A 9PT. Tel: 0207 429 4000
Aiming high
I love MMO games. I love the worlds we play in and I love the people I play with. I love the glacial lifespan of these games. This issue we talk about the prospects for the newcomers – amazing games such as Guild Wars 2, The Old Republic or newcomer Wildstar. All of them feel like places I want to lose myself in. We know how excited you are about Diablo III. We feel the same way. After playing the beta we feel it even more strongly. But the game isn’t perfect. If you want to play Diablo III in singleplayer, you’ll need an internet connection. If you go offline, you’ll be disconnected from the game. This isn’t right. Whatever the justification, I believe singleplayer games that require a permanent online connection punish casual users. While we’ve been working on this issue, the PC Gamer team have been hatching plans for the next. We always pay lip service to the download revolution, but we’ve been lumbered with including a disc with the mag since day one. Next issue, we’ll be doing a few new things. We’re going to increase the number of pages in the magazine massively, and we should have a great digital edition available via a popular tablet. We’re going to commit to giving away amazing codes for games, trials, in-game items and DLC. But we’re killing the disc. Don’t worry. We held a funeral. Enjoy the issue. Talk to PC Gamer Have your say! Join our forum at www.pcgamer. com/forum
AmemberoftheAudit BureauofCirculations
25,019
January-December2009 FuturePublishingLtdispartofFutureplc.Future producescarefullytargetedspecial-interest magazines,websitesandeventsforpeoplewho shareapassion. Wepublishmorethan170magazinesandwebsites and100internationaleditionsofourtitlesare publishedacrosstheworld.Futureplcisapublic companyquotedontheLondonStockExchange [symbol:FUTR]. www.futureplc.com Non-executiveChairmanRogerParry ChiefExecutiveStevieSpring GroupFinanceDirectorJohnBowman Tel+44(0)1225442244 PC GAMER is Future Publishing Limited’s registered trademark. All rights reserved. © Future Publishing Ltd. 2011. No part of this magazine may be used or reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. Future Publishing Limited (company number 2008885) is registered in England and Wales. The registered office of Future Publishing Limited is at Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 2BW. All information contained in this magazine is for informational purposes only and is, to the best of our knowledge, correct at the time of going to press. Future Publishing Limited cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies that occur. Readers are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers direct with regard to pricing. All submissions to PC Gamer are made on the basis of a licence to publish the submission in PC Gamer magazine, its associated websites and all world-wide licensed editions of the same. Any material submitted is sent at the owner’s risk and, although every care is taken, neither Future Publishing Limited nor its agents shall be liable for loss or damage. We encourage you to recycle this magazine, either through your usual household recyclable waste collection service or at a recycling site.
TIM EDWARDS EDITOR tim.edwards@futurenet.com @hanknova
BRINGING YOU THE SCOOPS THIS MONTH...
Tom Francis @pentadact Punched many, many zombies in the face. “WHY DO I NEED TO BE ONLINE TO KILL YOU?!” he cried.
Graham Smith @gonnas Yawned. Smiled. “Can we...” No, we can’t. Don’t even ask silly questions. “Awww.”
Craig Pearson @bucksexington Disappeared to Hollywood. Says it was to see a game. Explain the new IMDB entries, eh?
Rich McCormick @richmcc October hipster update: we can conclusively reveal that he may well be one. Further research required.
OCTOBER 2011
5
CONTENTS #231 OCTOBER 2011
08 » TopStoryDiabloIII. 12 » TheSpyWarcraft’s pandaexpansion?
14 » FaceOffBetabattle. 16 » Incoming! 18» SpecialReportProject Zomboidresurrects
22 » Rage 26 » MightandMagic:
HeroesVI 28 » Payday:TheHeist 2 30 » Torchlight Torchlight2
FEATURES 36 »
GuildWars2 We’veplayedthepotentialWorld ofWarcraftkiller. 40 » WildStar NCsoftrevealtheirnewestMMO. 44 » StarWars: TheOldRepublic Wegohands-onwiththeDark Side. 48 » TheSecretWorld Pullingbacktheveilofthemost mysteriousMMO. 54 » DiabloIII Ourimpressionsofthebeta,and Blizzard’sstrangenewlevelling.
60» PLAYPlaywithyour fellowPCgamers.
64 » SENDWe’relistening. 62 » WIN!AcelebratoryArma PCworth£1,000.
6
OCTOBER 2011
36
GUILD WARS 2
“The MMO of the future”
18
SPECIALREPORT
DevelopersTheIndieStone talkusthroughthebattletomakeProject Zomboid,theirpost-apocalypticRPG. Nearbankruptcy,lostsales,andatone pointtheyevenhadtocontendwiththe policeandacarbomb.
54
DEVIL’S ADVOCATE
Blizzardhaveannouncedsomedivisive featuresforDiabloIII,includingitem tradingforrealmoney.Butisthegame itselfanygood?TomFrancisplays througheveryclasstofindout.
w
REVIEWS
74 » ArmaX
AnniversaryEdition
78 » Limbo 80 » PanzerCorps 81» GarbageTruck
Simulator2011 82 » FromDust 84» Tropico4 86 » Fallout:NewVegas– OldWorldBlues 88 » GodsandHeroes 90 » SpacePiratesand Zombies THEY’REBACK
92 » Assassin’sCreedII 93 » FreedomForce
vsTheThirdReich
93 » TheSettlers:
HeritageofKings
93 » RollercoasterTycoon DeluxeEdition
93 » Atlantis:TheLostTales
110 » NOWPLAYING
SUBSCRIBE TO And get a Mionix Naos 3200 mouse! See p125.
PCGamerbravelytakeson LeagueofLegends. 118 » UPDATE Dress-me-upavatarsbring chaostoEVEOnline. 120 » HOWTO OurguidetousingDeusEx’s augmentations 122 » REINSTALL Graham’sgo-toZengame:Sid Meier’sSimGolf.
The
Hard Stuff
101 » Forget
74
ARMAX ANNIVERSARY
Ifyou’reseriousaboutyourmilitarysims, If you’re serious about your military sims, youcouldgrabadecadeoftheArma series all in one box. We review Bohemia’s seriesallinonebox.WereviewBohemia’s legacyofmassiveworlds,accurate weaponryandplayer-drivencombat.
96
LEVELLINGUP LAPTOPS
Chipmanufacturersareonceagaingoing head-to-head,withbothAMDand Nvidialookingtoboostlaptopgraphics todesktopquality.Whichisthebest chipsettodeclareyourloyaltyto?
graphicscards andbigger, betterRAM.The bestupgradeyoucan investinforyourPCisaSolid StateDrive.
ONTHEDISC
It’sthefinalPCGamercoverdisc ever.We’vepickedtheninebest demosofalltimeforit.Kickorcs inDarkMessiah,skulkthrough ruinsoftheStatueofLibertyin DeusEx,andpickupandput downpassengersinBusDriver. OCTOBER 2011
7
Even when photographing Cyclopes redeye is a problem.
RAGE
PLAYED IT Starting a new life in id Software’s wonderful wasteland.
G
“
22
et in the buggy, it’s not safe here.” Hold on a moment, pal. I’ve just emerged from a cryotube, blinking against the ultra-bright sunlight, into a cracked world a 106 years after I was plucked from it. Let me have a look around first. Rage starts with a strangely poignant cinematic. A voiceover assures us Earth is about to be rendered uninhabitable by a giant cocking asteroid. But it’s all right for you: as one of humanity’s best and most muscled, you’re to be put in an ‘Ark’ to hang about all frozen until the planet’s sorted itself out. A century later, then, Rage begins. Raised from the chiller cabinet by a robotic voice, I was allowed out into the wasteland. Stepping into the glare, I was treated to id Tech 5’s version of Oblivion’s READ ME sewer exit. The PUBLISHER wasteland is combined Bethesda brown, grey and beige, DEVELOPER but it stretches forever – id Software the developers’ new id LINK rage.com Tech 5 technology using
OCTOBER 2011
some magic to keep impressive visual fidelity over vast distances. A gaming diet of Fallouts and Oblivions made me set my target at some far off point, and I started down the bluff I was stood on. Not five seconds into the walk, I was pinned to the ground by a screaming goon. I let him say his piece – mainly “waaaaah!” – before his head was removed
“Earth is about to be rendered uninhabitable by a giant cocking asteroid” at the neck by a well-placed bullet. As the game raised me back to my feet, I spotted my saviour in a buggy. He wanted to head up the road to his makeshift house, but I’d been tempted by the lure of the horizon. He could wait. I pottered off past his vehicle, and was about to descend into a ravine when I heard the snap of a rifle. A millisecond later I was sprawled out on the floor, dead for not following orders.
Rage isn’t a true open world game. Creative director Tim Willits instead prefers the term “directed freedom”. I load my last checkpoint. This time when I’m told to get in the buggy, I do so right away. I’m taken up a dusty road to a settlement by the driver, who reveals himself as one Dan Hagar. Other Hagars and their hangers-on mill about his house’s dusty courtyard. They’re only there to add some ambience at first, but later they open up, offering jobs and items. For now, Dan’s the only man in town who needs my services. Ark survivors come pre-loaded with a set of lethal skills, so he hands me a revolver and asks me to go and clear out a nest of bandits. The bandit nest is a quad-bike ride away from Dan’s homestead. Rage’s roads are short, but easy to navigate – perfect for using the bike’s generous boost. The trip should’ve taken me thirty seconds. Then I discovered that powering my bike fullpelt into a rock launched my screaming character 20 feet over the handlebars. Five minutes later, I’m done giggling and I’m finally ready to invade the bandit
Didn’t I see you on a London CCTV camera recently?
... and you lot. In fact, I think I follow you on Twitter!
If things go well you get the keys to your own buggy. Woot!
When ordered to get in the buggy it’s best to do so. While posing for this picture sadly this soldier was killed by a stag.
pit – a smashed hotel. The first few rooms are eerily quiet, but soon I meet my first wave of enemies. They are – like the man gurning over my face earlier – freakish, with sticky-out ears and squashed-up heads. But their limited cranial capacity hasn’t reduced their combat skill. Those armed with melee weapons move cleverly: they duck and juke when you bring your gun to bear, moving diagonally to avoid easy headshots. Gun-toting bandits use cover well and seem conscious of their surroundings. They’ll vacate a room if you’ve murdered their buddies, falling back to fortify another section of the map. But I power through and head back to Dan with the news. He sends me out again, this time with a bigger gun. Solutions in Rage are rarely conversational: the wasteland’s settlers, for their peaceful intentions, are a ruthless lot when it comes to bandits. In this bandit hive – a different group, covered in Union Jacks and speaking in mockney accents – I find myself freewheeling between weapon types. The shotgun and pistol are pure id Software: both kick and snap with every
shot. But I have more fun with my newly acquired wingstick. A horrible, triplepointed razor boomerang, the wingstick will take a man’s head off at the neck, and when properly aimed, will return to your hand. In other shooters, I develop a favourite combat tactic and repeat it ad infinitum. In Rage’s semi-dungeons, I constantly flip between all my killy toys. My adventures in Dan’s land culminated with me receiving the keys to my own buggy. From there, I was able to jet across wider sandy wastes to a township called Wellspring. It quickly became obvious that Rage’s opening two hours are little more than an elongated, enjoyable tutorial. Wellspring was larger, busier and dirtier than the Hagar camp, and its streets were lined with people who wanted me to do something for them, to buy something from them, to hear something from them. As I pushed further into the game, I saw less of the direction in that ‘directed freedom’. I saw something more exciting, more promising: I saw the freedom. Rich McCormick
Release OCTOBER 7 OCTOBER 2011
23
THE SCI FI HERO
44
OCTOBER 2011
STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC The Death Star of the MMO world is almost finished, and it plays superbly. Here’s why. By Tim Edwards
T
he thing you sometimes forget about The Old Republic is that it’s a Star Wars game; that it’s the sum product of tens of millions of massively multiplayer dreams. Play Star Wars. Be a hero. Do it with your friends. The other thing you forget? That BioWare are good at making Star Wars games. Knights of the Old Republic is one of the great RPGs. TOR is more of that, except rather than play as a fledgling Jedi knight, you also get to play as a fledgling smuggler, fledgling Imperial agent, fledgling bounty hunter... I’ve played The Old Republic at trade shows and at press events multiple times, and always come away impressed. But I’d never had the chance to disappear into the game properly. Here, with no distractions, I simply vanished into it. In six hours, I burned through from level one to level ten, barely looking up. It was a brilliant, brilliant experience – polished, flowing, with quests that smartly escalate and a story well told. I’ve been levelling a smuggler character through TOR’s opening area of Ord Mantell and beyond. The smuggler class is meant to be Han Solo incarnate – a character archetype who relies on chucking grenades, blaster fire and barbed wit at the enemy. The smuggler is at his best when firing from behind cover. You tap a hotkey to roll into safety, and then pop up from behind to pelt an attacker with fire. It doesn’t feel particularly heroic, but that’s kind of the point – smugglers don’t like getting into fist fights. Slightly later you’re given a couple of comic finishing moves – you can kick an enemy in the balls, and then smack them over the head with the butt of your blaster. I didn’t check if this works with droids. I was surprised at the flexibility available in TOR’s character selection – there are far more examples of body
types, haircuts, beards and random facial accruements than I’m used to in WoW, say. I was so surprised by just how fat your character can be, I’ve hereby vowed that every character in my menagerie will be artfully modelled on a lardier version of the Pillsbury Doughboy. Even the ladies.
Starting out
■ Publisher Electronic Arts ■ Developer EA BioWare ■ Release Winter 2011
The smuggler’s storyline begins on Ord Mantell. His ship and cargo are stolen; he’s stranded planetside, with the local crime lord chasing him for payment. Meanwhile, Separatists and the Republic are at war: even if he had a ship, he’s not going to get past the blockade. The quests start with small tasks for the local civilians and downand-outs. Retrieve a family heirloom from a village. Find the missing son of two local refugees. Get a doctor to come back and administer aid to the local Republic forces. Capture a pirate. Infiltrate a Separatist base. The opening area is essentially an island. Quests send you to the north first, then the east, and finally the west. Quest goals are marked clearly on the map, any area transitions that you have to progress through shown with a bright green arrow. Along the way, you come across small subquests that can be completed in the local area. You’re never directly offered pure grind quests – no ‘kill ten Womp Rats’. As you move through an area, you’ll be given a running counter that will offer a further reward as you progress. When fighting in a Separatist base, I was offered an XP reward for killing 15 soldiers. It didn’t matter what creed or colour, or what weapon they were carrying, as long as they died as part of completing my other objectives. This is very, very smart thinking – turning the expectation of grind into what’s essentially a really achievable… uh, achievement. There are other clever interpretations of MMO mechanics. The opening settlement includes vendors of level-appropriate gear – OCTOBER 2011
45
in this case a blue chest-piece. This gear can be bought for commendations – currency earned for completing quests. By the time I reached level nine, I had enough. Extra commendations for a new blue waistcoat. Nice. There was a similarly pleasant mechanical moment as I transitioned from one quest area to the next. My new companion (more on these guys later) warned me of the dangers that lay ahead. “Here,” he said, “take this”, offering his prized, heavily modified pistol.
Come out fighting
Combat surprised me. When you’re levelling in WoW, you’re usually peeling off single baddies from groups, dealing with them one by one. You’re careful to watch for patrols, and if you get ambushed by more than one, you’ll probably have to quaff a health potion or blow a cooldown. Most monsters have one or two abilities that they spam. You’ll die if you take on more than two mobs. In The Old Republic, the default combat scenario is to face three or more linked enemies. Aggro one, and they’ll all activate. That means planning where your crowd control is going to hit, and in what order you’re going to attack. At first, this sounds like combat is going to be harder, but it’s not. Their health pools are pretty small, and they go down very quickly. Each combat area, be it an underground base or overworld setting, is also much larger than those found in “insert generic MMO here” – and the pulls are all widely separated. The theoretical downside: much more wandering. That didn’t bother me. The upside is massive: you just don’t die from monsters respawning and then wandering into your back. I have no
smuggler includes a recuperation ability that lets him recover health and action points in a very short space of time. And, finally, companion characters can be sent back to town to sell any junk items – like Torchlight’s pet cats and dogs. The Old Republic might not be the first to introduce these ideas, but I’m convinced everything listed above will be adopted by all MMOs going forward. They just make sense, ensuring your time in-game is spent playing, not fiddling. It makes sense, because your time in The Old Republic feels meaningful. In practice, there’s very little separating what you do in the Old Republic MMO and what you do in the Knights of the Old Republic singleplayer game: find a guy, have a bit of dialogue, and then go out into the world to kill stuff. You just do it with your friends, and see other players running around. I wondered how dialogue and conversation would work in practice: BioWare’s solution is pretty smart. If you’re about to have a story moment, you’ll pass through a glowing green forcefield – creating a separate instance of the game for you and your party. In there, you might fight a baddie, or talk to an NPC, but you’ll do it isolated from other players. All quests are introduced by dialogue and a cutscene, and when you’re talking to a quest-giver, the rest of the world will see a little speech bubble over your head. Most quests begin and end with a small or major decision. When one doctor wouldn’t tell me where to find vital supplies, I threatened her kid. That helped, at the cost of 50 dark side points. When asked, in the course of invading a Separatist stronghold, to release a pirate prisoner, and an obviously bad man,
“You’re meant to be fighting for the Republic, but the game goes out of its way to portray it as corrupt, narcissistic and morally bankrupt” idea how this will play out at launch, when millions of players will be caning quests, burning through the opening areas in a few hours – but in my normal play session, levelling was a real pleasure. There are serious quality of life improvements for MMO players. First: death is painless. If you die, you can respawn in situ by calling in a medical bot. You’ll then have a few seconds of immunity to find a safe location. All players seem to be able to resurrect other players out of combat freely, from level one. The 46
OCTOBER 2011
I could choose to leave him in there, kill him, or release him – with consequences to my moral standing, and, I hope, the chance to meet the Greedo lookalike down the line. By level six, I was cruising through the open world quests and met my first real challenge: a heroic zone. Heroics are areas designed for grouping, with harder monsters and better rewards. Even on the limited test server I was playing on, it was extremely easy to find a companion to play with. It took around 20 minutes to complete the quests – and
the loot was a cut above what I was expecting. The only weirdness: seeing my fellow smuggler wander around with the same companion. Traditionally, MMO questing is a singleplayer experience, but it gets better, and faster, if you do it in pairs. Playing in a pair means you can take on more mobs, and cruise through more quests, faster. Two organised players seem to complete quests at triple the clip of a solo player. TOR’s solution: give every player a pet AI to quest alongside. The smuggler’s first companion is a long-range sniper – but he can equip the same weapons and armour that you wear or use. In cutscenes, he’ll offer comments, and the conversations you’ll have bounce between the target, your companion, and your player character.
Making friends
In questing, I soon discovered that the companion was a useful friend. By level seven I’d perfected a rotation of abilities that could tear through mobs. First, throw an explosive pack at an enemy that will detonate if the target receives damage. Then throw a frag grenade for area of effect damage. Then a flash grenade for AOE stuff. Fire one shot at the first target to take him out. My companion would then grapple hook a weak mob over to us, where I could kick them in the balls, and smack them with the upside of my pistol. To end, focus fire on the final target. The heroic area was a warm-up for an impressive climax – a separatist base dug into the side of a hollowed-out volcano. This was, essentially, a public dungeon – with multiple quest objectives coinciding. It’s where my smuggler discovered the fate of his ship and the lost cargo of blasters. This is where BioWare’s experience with Star Wars pays off. TOR offers the same moral duality that we saw in Knights. You’re meant to be fighting for the Republic as a smuggler, but the game goes out of its way to portray the Republic as corrupt, narcissistic and morally bankrupt. It makes a point of appalling you. This is why, I believe, The Old Republic will succeed. I’m never going to claim that it will offer Witcher 2 levels of choice and moral flexibility. But it’s doing as much as the old Knights games, in a world in which you can play with your friends. Its design includes elements that drive all MMO developers to do better work. And it does it all within the world’s most popular universe. The Old Republic is a monster. I can’t wait to play more.
The Mirialan are one of the game’s playable species.
“Dude, I didn’t change your entry on Wookieepedia.”
Jedi Shadows get to have double the fun.
A different approach to pest control.
These guys are always ready for combat.
OCTOBER 2011
47
HOW TO... GET STARTED DIFFICULTY Easy TIME One hour
Become the perfect man-machine hybrid
TOM FRANCIS’S GUIDE TO AUGS IN DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION
VITALLINKS The Deus Ex Wiki ca help fill in any story blanks. deusex.wikia.com Official site (for any DLC/ updates) www.deusex.com All our Human Revolution posts on PCGgamer.com bit.ly/PCGDXHR
I
HAVE MORE FUN WITH YOUR FAVOURITE GAMES
U
sually the modern sequel to a classic PC game ends up simplifying it. Human Revolution, however, doubles the number of different augmentations you could give yourself in Deus Ex. It also puts more of the burden of choice on you: you can install any augmentations you have the points for, rather than just the ones you’ve found the right canister for. So until you know how they all
Read minds
Ifyou’reinterestedinthetalkysideofDeus Deus Ex,gettheSocialEnhanceraugasearlyas get the Social Enhancer aug as early as possible.It’llanalyseaperson’sbrainwavestogive youahintabouttheirpersonality.Ifyoustartlosinga you a hint about their personality. If you start losing a heatedargument,youcanreleasepheromonesand heated argument, you can release pheromones and exploityourknowledgeoftheircharactertosmoothexploit your knowledge of their character to smoothtalkyourwayoutofit.Eveninnormalconversations, talk your way out of it. Even in normal conversations, you’llgetnewdialogueoptionsthatleadto informationorhelpit’simpossibletogetotherwise. information or help it’s impossible to get otherwise.
4
Stab in stereo
Bestauginthegame?ReflexBooster.It makesJensengoodenoughinclose combatthathecanKOorkilltwofoesatonce.It happensautomatically,sohe’llsometimeskilla civilianaswellastheguardyou’reattacking, amusinglyenough.Itstillonlyconsumesonepipof energy,andthetakedownanimationsarehilarious. It’salsoahugestrategicasset:youcanheadshotone It’s also a huge strategic asset: you can headshot one guardandmeleeanothertwointhesameinstant.
120
OCTOBER 2011
work, it’s not easy to plan your character. You earn Praxis points, the level-up currency, quite slowly at first, and there are no refunds for choices you regret. So I’ll talk you through the best augs, what they do, and what kind of playing styles they suit. Bear in mind that you earn Praxis points for accumulating a lot of experience, and you get more experience for some playstyles than others. Just shooting everyone until
2
X-ray vision
5
Charge up
Whetheryou’replanningtogostealthy, violentorboth,theSmartVisionaugis amazinglyuseful.Itletsyoulineupashotonan enemy’sheadbeforehecomesroundthecorner,or hidebeforehehasachancetospotyou.Italso highlightscameras,lockeddoorsandcomputers– perfectforfindingthenearestsecurityconsole withoutblunderingintoeveryroom.Thenyoucan turnoffcameras,botsandturrets,ortakethemover.
Therearetwowaystoupgradetheenergy baraugsconsume:morecells,orfaster recharge.Fasterrechargeismuch,muchmoreuseful. Thedefaultrechargetimeisagonisinglylong,and havingmorecellsdoesn’thelpmuch:theextraones neverregenerateautomatically,soit’sonlyan advantagewhenyouconsumeagiantjarofcyberboost.Thosearerareandbulky.Justeatcyber-boost barswheneveryouneedmorethanonecell.
they die, for example, is the worst way to go. Yes, you get 10 points for each kill, but that’s in contrast to 100 for every alternate route and secret area you find. When you do take people down, doing it non-lethally and in one hit gets you the most experience. There’s an extra 250 in it for you if you complete your objective without setting off alarms, and a whopping 500 XP for doing your job without being seen at all.
3
Stay mobile
6
Skip boss fights
Twoaugsarespeciallydesignedtogetyou intosecretareas:JumpEnhancementand MoveHeavyObjects.Jumpontopofbigthings,or movethemoutofyourway.Thedifferenceisthat HeavyLiftingonlycostsonePraxispoint,anditalso letsyouthrowstufftoknockpeopledown.That makesitthebetterearlychoice.GettheJumpaug laterifyoulikeexploring:afewjumpscan’tbemade withoutit,andit’sgoodforgettingoutofdanger.
Afewfightssuck.Don’tsufferthrough them.Spendthethreepointsittakestoget theTyphoonExplosiveSystemaugandmaxoutits damage.Don’tbotherbuyingammoataLIMBclinic– yougetonechargefree,andyou’llfindmorelying around.Nowyoucanrunuptoanybossinthegame andreleaseaswirlofexplosivesthatwillobliterateit. Somebossestaketwohits,butthosegiantBox Guarddroidsonlytakeone.Anditlooksbadass.
SKILLS
MAKE MORE MONEY
PROFITEERING IN DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION
7
Knock down walls
Aone-pointupgradetoyourarmaugwilllet A one-point upgrade to your arm aug will let yousmashdownanyweakpointsyoufindin you smash down any weak points you find in wallsaroundthelevels.Thereareactuallylotsofthese, walls around the levels. There are actually lots of these, ifyoulookforthem,andthey’reincrediblysatisfyingto if you look for them, and they’re incredibly satisfying to punchdown.Butbeawarethatthearmaugisn’tthe onlywaytodoit.Anyfragexplosivewillknockthem downtoo.Sincewall-punchingmakesalotofnoise andleavesyoustandinginthehole,it’ssometimes safertoblowthemupfromadistance. safer to blow them up from a distance.
8
Gain intelligence
Therearemany,manywaystoupgradethe amountofinformationyougetaboutwhere yourenemiesareandwhattheycansee.Onepointwill upgradeyourmapaug,doublingtheradiusyour minimapdetectsenemies,andshoweventhoseyou haven’tseeninreallifeyet.TheStealthHelperauglets youseetheradiusofsuspicioussoundsyoumake.But moreusefully,aonepointupgradeshowsenemyvision fieldsonyourminimap.Ahugehelpwhensneaking.
1
Money is more important than you might think: every LIMB clinic in the game has two Praxis points for sale for 5,000 credits each. If you don’t scrounge, you won’t be able to afford them all, and they’re an extremely valuable commodity.
2
9
Grant immunity
Acheapupgrademostpeoplewilloverlook A cheap upgrade most people will overlook isforyoureyes:immunitytoconcussion grenades.Enemiesdon’tthrowthatmanyatyou,but youfindloadsthroughoutthegame,andtheycansend find loads throughout the game, and they can send wholegroupsofenemiesflying.Normally,yourown concussiongrenadeswillblindyouevenifyou’reround concussion grenades will blind you even if you’re round acorner.Withthisupgrade,youcanknockdowna wholecrowdofenemiesrightinfrontofyou,and skewerorheadshotthemallbeforetheycangetup. skewer or headshot them all before they can get up.
I0 Hack more
Therearefourhackingaugs,butforget aboutHackingAnalyse:youdon’tneedto knowwhat’sinthenodesyoucapture.It’sworth upgradingHackingCapturetolevelthreeassoonas youcan:that’llgetyouintomostcomputersandlocked doorsinthefirst15hoursofthegame.Youmayfind hackinggetshardonlevelthreeterminals–ifyouhave twopointstospare,HackingStealthwillsolvethat.If youcanonlyspareone,upgradeHackingFortify.
Luckily, there’s an abundant source of money lying around: weapons. Shotguns and assault rifles sell at any arms dealer for around 700 credits. You can only carry one, so leave dupes on the ground and come back for them.
3
Occasionally, NPCs will demand bribes or payoffs. Calm your temper. Pay up, as much as you can afford, then when you have what you want, hit the melee key to get the five-finger refund. The money will be on their body.
BONUS TIP
DEFUSING MINES
II
Hack smarter
Hackingisallaboutbeingreadyforthe momentyou’redetected.Whenyouclickon moment you’re detected. When you click on anode,hoverovertheCaptureoptiontoseethechance a node, hover over the Capture option to see the chance you’llbedetected.Ifit’smorethan40%,assumeit’ll happen.Thetraceprogramcaptureseverythingitcan happen. The trace program captures everything it can onitswaytoyou,andaddspointsontothosenodes, makingthemslowerforyoutotake.Sowhencapturing making them slower for you to take. So when capturing riskynodes,captureeverythingelseyoucanatthe sametimetogetitbeforetheenemy.
I2 Hack harder
YoucanFortifythenodesyou’vealready taken,increasingthetimelimityou’llhave onceyou’redetected.ThedrawbackisthatFortifying risksdetectionsodon’tdoitwhileyou’resafe.Thetime toFortifyiswhenyou’recapturingariskynode–again, anythingover40%.Whilethatnodecaptures,Fortify yourstartingnode,andeveryotheronebetweenyou andtheenemy.Youcandothemallatonce,andsince you’regoingtogetcaughtanyway,whynot?
Crouch-walk, and you don’t trigger them. Hit ‘use’ on them twice to defuse then take them, and you can use them yourself elsewhere.
OCTOBER 2011
121