This DLC felt slightly longer than the other ones, but not only that, it felt more impactful to the story too.
Adam tells the story of how he infiltrated a prison carrying another name, trying to gain trust and information from inmates, and making errands and decisions. You choose what to do or who to trust, you even choose if you tell the full truth to Delara.
Adam tells the story of how he infiltrated a prison carrying another name, trying to gain trust and information from inmates, and making errands and decisions. You choose what to do or who to trust, you even choose if you tell the full truth to Delara.
Some of the best Deus Ex content ever released. If you liked Mankind Divided, you will like this.
Criminal Past is a byte-sized map with different sections you will go through. You start out the DLC completely stripped of your augs which is a nice change of pace and then you regain them over the course of the story, the pace at which you regain your augs makes each skill point invested so much more valuable than in the base game. Will you put that point into hacking or gamble on finding a multi-tool? Maybe remote hacking to bypass those lasers? Maybe a high jump to reach that balcony? Maybe enhanced vision to find useful vents? Maybe strength to make yourself a makeshift ladder? The cloak would make sneaking though that courtyard easier too!
The level design is above and beyond anything, you will see in MD, with many options to approach each of the cell blocks and buildings. What's more important is the fact that choices and consequences are back from original Deus Ex for the first time!... well, almost. You see, how you navigate the prison affects your relationship with certain characters, I did something a character disliked and risked going into a 1v3 while turning prisoners who were up to this point friendlies into hostiles. But I managed to talk him down with... two dialogue options. I really wish the game DID NOT let me talk him down, and instead made me face the consequences of my choice.
Speaking of choice, the main quest can be resolved in a number of ways, and it's not as straightforward as pretty much everything you find in the base game. You need to investigate clues, make judgments, and complete side objectives to get the full picture.
The level design is above and beyond anything, you will see in MD, with many options to approach each of the cell blocks and buildings. What's more important is the fact that choices and consequences are back from original Deus Ex for the first time!... well, almost. You see, how you navigate the prison affects your relationship with certain characters, I did something a character disliked and risked going into a 1v3 while turning prisoners who were up to this point friendlies into hostiles. But I managed to talk him down with... two dialogue options. I really wish the game DID NOT let me talk him down, and instead made me face the consequences of my choice.
Speaking of choice, the main quest can be resolved in a number of ways, and it's not as straightforward as pretty much everything you find in the base game. You need to investigate clues, make judgments, and complete side objectives to get the full picture.
On the one hand, this was a disappointing story. A Criminal Past has a lot of potential in its setting, but it uses so little of it. Soon enough after waking up in a cell with no augs and no arsenal of items, Adam Jensen is back to fully loaded strength. If one takes the usual Deus Ex approach of hacking everything and scouting every tunnel, there’s no shortage of power ups, augs, and weapons to deal with. On top of that, only the first hour or so actually takes place in the institution as it is “usually” run – after that, there’s a riot that establishes safe zones and unsafe zones, manned by inmates and officers, respectively.
Even if it wastes the potential of its setting, this is a solid Deus Ex short story. The setting is wonderfully coherent in that classic immersive sim way, with all of the janitor’s closets, showers, security rooms, and environmental storytelling that a player could want. And speaking of that environmental storytelling, some of it is pretty grisly as far as apparent group executions go. Jensen is still supercop and doesn’t remark on any of this, but at least there’s detective work for him to do. Right up until the end, there’s the potential for players to miss a few things and to be undecided about the role some characters play in the story. It’s almost an interesting story, too, but falls short on just that account.
Even if it wastes the potential of its setting, this is a solid Deus Ex short story. The setting is wonderfully coherent in that classic immersive sim way, with all of the janitor’s closets, showers, security rooms, and environmental storytelling that a player could want. And speaking of that environmental storytelling, some of it is pretty grisly as far as apparent group executions go. Jensen is still supercop and doesn’t remark on any of this, but at least there’s detective work for him to do. Right up until the end, there’s the potential for players to miss a few things and to be undecided about the role some characters play in the story. It’s almost an interesting story, too, but falls short on just that account.
A bit pricey for 2-4 hours of gameplay, but still pretty good. It's straightforward, open ended and you can beat it without augmentations which makes for a cool challenge.
Plusy: klimat jak w Riddicku, świetny projekt poziomu, ciekawa historia
Minusy: potężny problem z optymalizacją
Minusy: potężny problem z optymalizacją
Flashes of "Escape From Butcher Bay", but a little too action-focused for a Deus Ex title. Sure there are other gameplay options, but I never find stealthing through alerted enemies in open combat very fun in these kinds of games.
Completed with 100% of trophies earned in each. It's been great to get a chance to spend some more time in a Deus Ex game - very few games do this kind of freeform gameplay anything like as well. A Criminal Past's prison is a less common scenario to see in games, but works well and the areas are just as detailed and polished as those in the full game. The one complaint that comes to mind is partly my own fault, with completionist leanings - but the inclusion of a "no augments" trophy/achievement is an incentive away from many of the mechanics that can make the Deus Ex experience particularly compelling, and would have been better not included.
Gostei da trama e também da proposta de gameplay (sem os aprimoramentos e tal), porém achei que cansou com o tempo, a ponto de ser insuportável na reta final. Em suma, corrigiram em partes os problemas que as outras dlc tinham, mas falharam no que tornavam elas divertidas
a fun setting for the Deus Ex franchise that provides some actual narrative reasoning for why it takes away all the powers you earned in the base game. it is a somewhat interesting story, although it doesn't really expand upon the story beats explored in the base game that much. other than that, it's more Deus Ex, so naturally it's pretty good!