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Comment by dereg | Hacker News Reader

I’m so glad to see such appreciation for the game. While it’s not the original and may have been on rails, there are few games in which I was so immersed in the art and design.

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The original was fairly railroaded as well, outside of a few hubs. Which is exactly like DXHR, come to think of it.

The direction of the story was railroaded in the original, but the player's flexibility in how they approached each mission was definitely not.

HBomberguy did a whole video about how DXHR failed to achieve the same level of freedom of problem-solving that the original did. It's quite good, but also very long. Worth it, IMO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgJazjz9ZsA

He's absolutely correct on comparing it to the first game, but he may even be a little too warm towards some aspects of it. I also enjoy this video by Ross of "Freeman's Mind" [0]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYLEuQrvND0

love all Ross videos, Ross gaming dungeon is the first video game reviewer I had patience for

3.5 hours – what a treat!

there's a GDC talk on Youtube where Warren Spector makes that point explicitly. The original was narratively linear but had freedom within the mission gameplay. He considered that vital for the tension of the story. This is also why HR succeeded for me in contrast to Mankind Divided. The 'open world' like approach of the latter sidelined the main story which seemed almost tangential. Which is a problem in many games these days.

https://youtu.be/tffX3VljTtI

I agree. I'm a fan of the gameplay and honestly quite bizarre design, it's distinctive in a way a lot of games aren't.

But the plot...oh man, I wish they had spent some time on the plot.

are you talking about HR or MD?

I didn't play the latter, but I do recall HR had rather good plot and writing. not mind-blowing, but definitely above average

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