I find it very funny that the slow fall mod is called the Icarus Landing System when Icarus, quite famously, did not land safely.

Messed up that they make u watch this whole video as a cut scene before u get to any of the gameplay in Mankind Divided imo

i love that guy who either calls you attila the hun or ghandi based on whether or not you killed people in the mission because he's just mad at you no matter what you do. if you didn't go to the mission because you had the flu, you'd come in and he'd be like WELL WELL, IF IT ISN'T TYPHOID MARY. I GUESS YOUR ROBOT ARMS CAN'T ACCEPT A FLU SHOT, CAN THEY? DON'T ANSWER THAT. I DON'T WANT TO BE EXPOSED TO COVID-38

"We don't know he owns the boat. That's not in the Wiki." Makes me chuckle every time.

Didn't even play this game, but I'm interested in this 3 hour hbomberguy video

Honestly I feel like if augmentations were real, radical groups who hated “all augmentations indiscriminately” while wearing glasses feels all too real.

HR dev here, i did animation work for the weapons and cover mechanics. I was temporary and only worked on the game for a few months before my contract was terminated. I remember at one point one of my co workers was talking to our supervisor about the intro and some potential changes for gameplay purposes, the supervisor turned around and straight up said that would be difficult because most of the main designers of the intro had since been laid off or their contracts terminated and so couldnt be referred to for any assistance. Just another reminder that on AAA projects, most of the staff who do the actual work are laid off as soon as their specific work is "completed" according to producers, so if any of that work needs to be changed they will need to use other people who didn’t personally do any of that work which is why some parts of the game dont seem to fit with others. Well, this and following the design doc to a t.

You know, looking at current events, the main antagonists effectively wanting to ban medicine is probably the most realistic part of this game's plot.

People who want his videos to be shorter are wrong, this is the ideal hbommerguy video length

Gee, it's almost like a game made by a massive corporation isn't going to distinguish between "robot arm tied to a subscription service that will kill you if you stop paying=bad" and "robot arm=bad"

“A building full of human beings… and the cops interrogating them too” is easily one of the best lines in a video ever. Instant top 10 greatest lines ever.

Another point to this whole video's credit is that I used to wonder why this game was so heavily steeped in Yellows for its color scheme while the first game was mostly dark Blues. Now, it hits me: because it's the color of the sun. It's another goddamned "Icarus" metaphor. To verify, I looked up a developer interview where they were asked why the game is tinted yellow so much, and their answer was "Once you realize the reason for it, it's quite profound." Holy shit -- Harris was 100% right about how pretentious this shit is/

What I learned from this video: - Making video games is hard. - Making great video games is incredibly hard.

"12 more videos are gonna start this way" hey, that's at least 12 more years of hbomberguy videos! ♥️

I can't believe I just watched a 4 hour long review about a game I'd never heard of, that I don't care about, that came out more than a decade ago and that I will never play...but I was fully invested, immersed and entertained. I'm not even a real gamer. I just play sims 3 and Last Day On Earth on my phone. You are one hell of a storyteller Mr Bomber.

2:25:02 I feel personally attacked... I just got off from work, listening to this video on my headphones, got home, put my keycard on the coffee table and a minute later I get to this part...

Gonna be completely honest here, Mr. Bomberguy: In my opinion, the worst part of this video was where I had to explain to my family that I couldn't hang out because I was too busy watching a three and a half hour video about how a game I've never played, and that came out a long time ago was FINE. Otherwise, I enjoyed every second!

3 hours and you didn't answer the biggest question. How many awards did Tommy Tallarico win for his work on Deus Ex: Human Revolution?

Fun fact about the Shadowrun comparison: the Humanity stats is actually relatively new, and in the original incarnation of the game it represented the degree of control that corporations could exert over your life through their control of resources you need to live. It was changed to Prosthetics Make You Evil when the original company writing the game was bought out by a much bigger company lol

One of my favourite Mark Rober videos is the self-playing piano, because when he tries to simplify the key mechanism, he finds that every part of it is essential, and nothing can be removed or altered without preventing the whole system from working properly.

2:19:48 The vent that leads *DIRECTLY TO HIS OFFICE* leads you there from the *BATHROOM*. It's like the level designers are making fun of their own design. That vent can ONLY exist to make that guy's office smell like piss. There's no other explanation.

Petition to have Deus Ex: Human Revolution is FINE, And Here's Why: Directors Cut Edition with the 2 hour Stalker rant intact.

i unironically like the bioshock minigame. it's a calming break from getting jumpscared by women on my way to steal a shotgun.

A good man with a War Crime Blaster will always stop a bad man with a War Crime Blaster.

Explaining how a game is "ok" in 3 and a half hours was the funniest thing I've seen on my home page

I don't know why youtubers keep apologizing for making long videos, I'm not going to sit down to draw gay porn only to have to switch to a different video 20 minutes in, essays of this length are honestly ideal for me

in case anyone else is in my shoes and sees this comment, the video game being referenced at 6:24 before hbomb switches to jokes about gex is called legend of kain lol just in case anyone else like me is broadly unaware of video games but is curious enough about this little moment to go looking for answers

DXHR was so easy to master and replay time after time that when I actually did, the game became the only distraction during the worst period of my life. Without going too much into detail, DXHR literally saved my life. So with all its flaws (and my god are there flaws), i will forever be indebted to the Montreal team, Michael McCann and Elias Toufexis. Thanks to them, I am alive.

"Like twelve more videos are gonna star like this" - that's great, let's have one for another decade of Hbomberguy videos!

Key takeaway: Elevators need to have a mini-game

The part of "Let the bodies pile up in the streets" with the Pathologic Classic music playing was trily haunting.

not now kids, i need to watch this year old, 3 and a half hour long video about a decade old videogame ive never played

I like to imagine a world where a game dev accidentally gets Hbomb to play test their games and gets a 6 hour roast in return

Why is nobody talking about the incredible voice actors he got for the recreation of the opening walk around where Adam just annoys his ex about anime

Oh my god i JUST got the euthanasia joke in the medical clinic bit, like nearly the exact same joke from the Ali G movie "Have you considered euthanasia (youth in asia) as a way to relieve suffering?" "I don't want that Chinese crap, i want real medicine." 🤣🤣🤣

This actually completely coincedentally coincided (alliteration unintended) with my re-play of DXHR and my first time playing DXMD. One thing I didn't see mentioned here, that really stuck out to me, was the art design (particularly with archtecture in DXMD) and sound design. Hbomber is 100% right about DXHR's shortcomings, but man, the aesthetic of the world feels incredible. I absolutlely love DXHR's score, its so haunting and beautiful. The synth sounds under the choral singing is just so perfect for a world in the midst of what the wealthiest are trying to sell as a new renaissance. And in Mankind Divided, the architecture is so good, particularly in Prague. The interiors feel so grounded in what a real design trend would look like. The glass walls displaying ads over medieval-era buildings? I loved it and I think those elements, the vibes, of DXHR and DXMD are truely worth noting and what I will always remember about them, even though they are brought down by some unfortunate game design missteps.

It's kinda dystopian to hear someone say "it's great to work with them, because their IP portfolio is very rich"

I can't believe Hbomb failed to praise this game's excellent soundtrack from Tommy Tallarico.

I've watched this video probably a dozen times, it's basically white noise I use for gaming at this point. But honest to god when the sound cuts and he says "what if we had robot arms," it gets me every time lmao

The Icarus metaphor for augmentations IS actually pretty clever if you think about it: Icarus had man-made wings attached to his body that allowed him to reach heights never before thought possible, but the way those wings were crafted also had a key weakness, as the wax holding them together could melt off, trading a great ability for a certain risk Augmentations are man-made objects attached to one's body that allow them to do things never before thought possible, but the way they're crafted means they can be hijacked, trading a great ability for a certain risk They didn't have to hammer in that point a thousand times, but it's a clever metaphor

You have to respect the thoroughness of the man. Most people say “fine” because they don’t want to go into any detail. He needed to take some extra time to explain why it’s not ‘great’ or ‘bad’.

I’m not going to make fun of how long this is, I am going to say how impressive it is that you got it to be perfectly 3:33:33

"Conceal- carry Buster sword" - It's been a nearly two years and that line still slays me.

This is a very fun video to revisit after spending over 400 hours in Baldur's Gate 3, and see how well Larian did on parts that are talked about here

"Fat-fingered my way into twelve consecutive life sentences" is quite possibly the best phrase ever written in English.

the fact that hbmomber can jus drop a video thats longer than a full length feature film about a decade + old video game once a year and get 2.7 million people to watch it is fucking mindblowing sorcerer shit. thisnis my 3rd time through and ive never played the game

On a side node: i cant believe that people dont see the stupid irony of the Icarus Falling System and similar things. I never want to use something that is named after something that is only known for to needlessly crash and burn.

I'm studying design for games and I'M THAT BITCH WHOSE WHOLE LIFE WAS INSPIRED BY DXHR. Thank you so much for this very fascinating and useful revisit. I never knew MD2 was going to be made and finding out it was cancelled just filled me with a profound sense of grief ;(

This video is so interesting to drop right after that story about people who got prosthetic, electronic eyes implanted by a company that no longer supports the technology. Basically, the robot eyes allowed people with certain types of blindness to see varying levels of shapes and shades of black and white, which for many people allowed them much greater freedom in navigating the world. But the technology wasn't sufficiently profitable so the company just... stopped supporting the technology. People's eyes began breaking down and there's essentially no way to have them repaired. If they break, they're just broken: you don't get to see anymore. So I think there's a possibly rich story here about what happens when you choose to be augmented but have very little control over what happens to that technology once it's actually implanted in your body and the sort of inherent terror that your body might just stop functioning and there's nothing you can do about that. Feels like something people might have a lot of rich and complex feeling about that could be explored very effectively by a protagonist who is heavily augmented but not by choice, since he has to live with that or die, idk tho...

“He’s a sigma male! Jensen get out of there!” I watch this at least once a week and that is always my favorite part lol

1:43:00 - Don't think about it *_too hard_* but also notice that when you pick up a spare weapon you get the ammo in the weapon *_and the weapon itself disappears_* you _don't get a duplicate in your inventory_ If you were like me and wanted to horde credits that meant functionally you had to *_walk back to a merchant with every individual spare gun_* to sell them without them *Disappearing into the ether* 2:49:30 - Honestly I think that, for a game seemingly designed around being played on the original Xbox, Invisible war wasn't *_that_* bad, for the most part it still managed to keep a lot of ideas from behind Deus Ex but unfortunately got rid of a lot of key things that should have stayed. Still played it and enjoyed it thoroughly.

"Is it good? I don't know, but it's definitely THE MOST" is a line that always makes me laugh. I don't care what I do for a living, if this isn't how my work is described I haven't done a good job

The "are you guys talking about ghost in the shell?!" part felt like a direct attack on me. I've been that guy. I *am* that guy.

“Please don’t make fun of how long this is” as if long, comprehensive deep dives aren’t why we love this channel.

The irony is that limiting stuff via bullets alone does NOT affect the stealth player and he will be better armed than the Predator Arni squad at some points. Which also kina breaks immersion because you suddenly know you can just speed right through with violence because you have so far not fired a single shot, but picked up all the ammo.

It’s starting to get worrying how many times I’ve watched this absurdly long video. UKposts just auto plays it when I’m at work and 2 hours later I’m like “well might as well finish it” same thing to the pathologic and fallout videos

My favorite and most memorable experience in HR was non-lethally taking out every single cop in the police station as stealthily as possible (so that nobody outside of maybe one or two near me that were swiftly dispatched) were alerted in any way, then packing them all into a single small vent, only to discover that the physics engine doesn't like that and having the bodies explode everywhere, getting stuck in walls, and killing many of them. Later did the same thing at the hive, seeing how many could be packed into a bathroom stall before critical mass was achieved. Still got the pacifist achievement that run im pretty sure. A hell of a good time to be sure, but says something about the game's depth.

Finding out the patient’s response to being told to off himself at 1:51:00 wasn't fake dialogue recorded by Hbomb for the video and is in fact a real scene in the game is breaking my brain

I'm terrible at playing stealth-encouraged shooters with inventory systems. It took me years to finish the first Metal Gear Solid games without dropping the difficulty down where they give you more item capacity and easier enemies. When I was younger I'd just completely freeze up in "panic" about whether I'd come out of the next encounter with enough bullets/supplies to not be stuck. A little older, and, well...I run out of supplies and get stuck. All three times I've played the original Deus Ex, I've _completely_ run out of weapon ammunition in Hong Kong. So I've experinced the first three DE games pretty much exclusively through longplays and text-commentary-only walkthroughs (I started watching one of Mankind Divided and just...stopped). Needless to say, those don't linger long on the game's news articles and text dumps if at all and breeze through non-plot-critical branches, and...today I learned Sanders and Sandoval are related.

1:26:50 ironically dishonored was the first game that taught me that not every problem is a nail even if i have a hammer... enemies surrounding me and not dying in like 2 hits taught me to be careful and cautious. Which I think made me mentally aware enough to fall in love with, and be decent at, soulslikes. I think dishonored did a lot of things really terribly, but I think it did an amazing job of making me feel like an assassin not a soldier... 1:33:03 oh... uhhhh I jumped the gun

HBomberguy is probably the only video essayist i know of who would create, and then upload a video twice the run-time of a feature length film, discussing in excruciating detail why a game released over a decade ago, that no one else really cares about anymore, was just pretty ok.

Not making fun of the video length but at the fact that there are subtitles ON A 3 HOUR VIDEO. Massive props!

The loss in control in deux ex over time represents the loss in control we have all collectively experienced since the original deus ex was made till today

1:51:03 oh the euthanasia line KILLED me. Thank you for including it 😭🙏✨

My favourite part of Human Revolution was committing to the non lethal run achievement and finishing the game then remembering I killed the guys in the tutorial because I didn't have non lethal weapons and didn't sneak past them.

Okay the assumption that I don't want Gex to show up in Kingdom Hearts and kiss Goofy is utterly inaccurate! If society needs to crumble to see that happen, it was weak to begin with.

I know nobody will read this ever, but there is one hacking minigame that works and its in warhammer darktides. The minigame itself demands skill and is done fast and sweet but they key here is that time doesnt stop and zombies can knock you out of the hacking entirely. So your teammates need to protect you while you try to go as fast as you can. It fits in the coop aspect of the game. I do enjoy the dread of trying a hack while there is a hord coming and hoping to finish in time

3:10:19 "fat fingered my way into 12 consecutive life sentences" be killing me

I used to work in a lockshop and the majority of the door hardware and locks we sold/installed were from brands that were all owned by assa abloy (yale, schlage, mul-t-lock, etc). All of these brands almost directly competed with each other too. So technically all the door locks in the game being made by the same company isn't actually that unrealistic

If you thought hacking was bad you should see Gwent. Gwent has this very generic 3rd person action rpg called witcher 3 that you have to play between all the meaningful gwent gameplay. It even has cut scenes. Image if dues ex hacking had cut scenes that last several minutes? Gwent has like 10% gameplay and 90% witcher 3 minigame.

This video is great, but the one thing I remember most is the amazing delivery of: Jack: Oh my god! JC, a bomb! JC: A bomb! The delivery isn't bad for the time, but something about it and the dialogue itself is just immensely funny to me.

Playing this in the background and hearing Shaun's voice out of nowhere was so jarring. I thought I'd passed out and missed an auto-play skip where Shaun was coincidently also talking about Deus Ex.

As a developer, I appreciate that in the first 20 minutes you really tackle the "Couldn't they just" argument head on. A lot of the time people think studios can still wave magic wands and solve problems the way they used to. Games have reached a level of fidelity and complication that that's slowly become more and more impossible.

Update: Square-Enix is now selling Eidos Montreal and the Deus Ex intellectual property to Embracer Group AB, which was previously known as THQ Nordic AB (not to be confused with its subsidary THQ Nordic GmbH or the original owner of the THQ trademark THQ Inc.) THQ Inc. went bankrupt in 2012 and sold their trademark to Nordic Games Licensing AB in 2014, which is when Nordic Games Licensing AB changed its name to THQ Nordic AB and changed the name of its subsidary Nordic Games GmbH to THQ Nordic GmbH. Does that make sense to everyone else?

Welcome back! I know this is not your first time here. Tell me, how many hours do you have to finish the project you're tackling right now?

"The end result is like playing a fairly simple cover shooter while being lightly choked from behind by a game designer. Even when it's straightforward, it's still a little tense. And that's what makes it fun." - Harris "Sonic Lore Analysis" Bomberguy

Cool vid, i look forward to finishing it over the next 4 weeks

It seems they forgot that the Icarus myth wasn't about the danger of making wings, it was about the dual danger of complacency and hubris and considering for a moment that your dad, Daedalus, one of the most intelligent people alive, and the inventor of those wings, might know what he's talking about when he tells you not to be stupid with them. After all, Daedalus made it out fine on identical wings. Applying the actual Icarus myth to the solitary malnourished theme of Human Revolution ironically gets us a completely different message: "When presented with the invention of augmentation, don't be so complacent about the concept that you reject it entirely, like the puritans, dooming countless lives to suffer fates that could easily be averted. Equally do not be so ambitious and thoughtless in your implementation that you end up with people augmented on a whim, like the cheating couple that irreparably scarred their bodies due to a passing fancy. Instead, use the technology responsibly to help people and allow humanity to soar to new heights. After all, the wings of Daedalus lift you into freedom, they are not shackles binding you to the earth.

I played DE:HR a couple of years ago, first on PS4 and then again on PC, and I had never played a DE game before that. Seeing the comparison between older DE games to now is astounding, especially because I ended up having so much fun in the modern titles. I think the title of this video is perfect, because now all I want to do it try the older games and get the full freedom of choice experience.

Sanders ripping out his prosthetic eye also could've played into hbomber's idea for that faction really well. Rather than him ripping out the eye because of some puritanical ideologies, it could've something he gave up so that someone else could have the ability to see again. A moment of compassion that could draw more people to his side and allow him to take extreme measures for his goals while still maintaining an image that would realistically draw people to stand alongside him, whether that's a calculated move on his part of just sincere care for another.

2:47:31 my favourite part about the vending machine consipracy is that it also turns out to be somewhat true. In the sequel invisible war you can listen to some homeless people in the ruins of the unatco building talking about the contents of this vending machine, and it turns out the machine was stocked with ONLY lemon-lime

The theme of augmentation gets even more muddled in Mankind Divided, both for better and for worse. They really lean into the augmentation argument = racism thing and it makes less sense. It's harder to take the conflict seriously when the reason for your oppression lets you turn invisible and make your hand into a knife. But it managed to do one thing completely by accident. According to a friend of mine, it managed to capture the experience of being Arabic in a post 9/11 North America eerily well. The racism isn't based in hatred or a superiority complex, it's based in fear. They see you not as vermin but as an enemy whose existence is a threat. The "augs only" train cars were probably a hack job attempt at referencing "back of the bus" racism, but it accidentally managed to recreate the experience of seeing others breezing through airport security while you are forced to take extra tests and have all eyes on you. He even said it managed to give him the same feelings of feeling like you should be ashamed for something you haven't done. Adam wasn't the one who pressed the button that turned construction workers' hands into zombies, but he feels the need to somehow make up for the actions of the guy who did. Of course I have no reason to believe this was on purpose, so it just becomes funny that the most emotional resonance I have seen the game have was by accident.

1:02:28 "Looking at numbers, thinking, making fun decisions" Considering how much you hear that games have to be 'simplified' or 'dumbed down' for mainstream appeal and how that seems to be creeping into other media (movies, tv shows, even the news), yeah that might be unironically true. It blows my mind how often I run into people who seem to dislike the very act of thinking when they aren't working. Mind, whether that's a result of workplace "ethics" crushing them so much they can't think after work, cultural "norms" warping any sense of personhood away, or actual personality is a whole debate of its own... On the note of hacking mini-games, I can point to the exact perfect example of how more interaction is quantifiably WORSE: Quick Time Events. The cutscene is still a cutscene, but now if you don't push a button at the right time, the cutscene restarts (or worse, brings you to an earlier checkpoint or even denies you something and just continues on without a chance to try again). But it's still just a cutscene.

I played this game as a stealth non lethal and had a blast! It becomes a big puzzle game at that point and I love those! Especially since you can still go ham for the boss fights

"Who takes out their company keycard and lays it on the coffee table like this?" Stares next to me at my company keycard sitting on my side table

"If we're not careful, Gex will be in the next kingdom hearts" Somewhere out there videogamedunkey just had a heart attack

I held off on watching this for a looooong time, because i bought human revolution a while back before the video came out and meant to play through it first before watching. however, i kept putting it off, and when i finally forced myself to, i got bored and stopped and decided to just watch the video. after hearing about (and recognizing a decent amount of) the reasons why it's so much less engaging that the original, i'm glad i didn't end up putting too much time into playing the game. 3 and a half hours of hbomb is much more enjoyable than the 7 or so hours of the game i pushed myself through, which by my math means this video is probably about twice as fun as the game itself.

Watching this made me realise how Cyberpunk 2077 is just a more refined version of human revolution but ultimately falls into a lot of the same pitfalls HR did.

"The Rocket Launcher is nature's lockpick" is going on a shirt and no-one can stop me.

The best part about an Hbomberguy video is thinking "Oh man it sounds like he's reaching a conclusion, guess it'll be another 6 months until a new video" then realizing you still have 2 hours left in this one

This video is exquisite for one main reason: I have only willingly watched it once, when it first came out. The other dozen times that I have watched it to completion are from when I fall asleep watching other videos and then inevitably wake up at 2am to him having a meltdown over this mid game and without fail, I end up just committing and watching it to the end. This is my personal fever dream. I didn't even know what Deus Ex was before this video

rewatching this again and im just thinking like. the themes of augmentation and disability are just so interesting- zeke sanders is shown to totally rip out his augmented eye because he hates it, and for the reason he does it is ridiculous, but it totally could be reasonable to do that in some situations. like, zeke couldve ripped it out because he didnt believe losing an eye was a detriment or made him less worthy as a person, and the eye augmentation wasnt an option he chose but something forced on him to make him more 'useful'. its a conversation ive seen especially deaf people have- coclear implants for instance can create a sensation similar to sound and be useful to some deaf people, but they also destroy any leftover hearing they have in that ear and can be a real challenge to adjust to. basically, these aids can be overhyped and come with their own drawbacks, but are *marketed* as complete 'cures' to disability. it also encourages disability to be seen as a problem to be fixed, which for a lot of disabled people it just isn't, even if its the overwhelming view that it is in modern societies. (some disabled people would obviously love cyborg legs and all that, including me tbf, but i dont think these are really *cures* to disability- theyre augmentations (wow!) or mobility aids. like, you'd have to do maintainance on a cyborg leg you just wouldnt have to on a fleshy human leg, and any metal parts would have the huge disadvantage of not healing on their own obviously.) sorry for any poor sod that comes across my rambling lol, i just have a lot of thoughts

Wait, you don't understand, as a Ukrainian, I need that 2-hour STALKER essay

Augmentation cannisters are way cooler IMO, I like the idea of having an in world reason to upgrade rather than just normal XP. Wish you could buy them with money though, the idea of having money replace XP in a world like this makes sense.

Deus Ex video that runs the length of Seven Samurai is maybe the strongest pitch for a UKposts video ever. hell yeah

the part about the og Deus Ex being 'suprisingly linear' reminds me of a quote from a dev I once heard "the best type of linear, is when the player doesn't realise how linear it was until later" as a devloper, that stuck with me as it's entirely true. If the storytelling can let players think that it's them making the decisions, linear storytelling has been done well

After recently playing Deus Ex for the first time, the main thing that stood out is complete lack of objective markers. Having to use actual maps, compass, and the directons you were given was such a difference from ANYTHING in modern games. That also adds to the exploration and freedom, since when you don't have an objective marker, it means that there doesn't have to be an "intended way" of doing something or getting somewhere. Having objective markers is likely my biggest issue with HR and MD.

I am a simple man, I hear a home alone soundbyte in a video, I like and subscribe. I hear someone shit on a game I really enjoyed growing up, I like and subscribe harder. Then I realize I mixed up my viagra with my anti-psychotics and have an awkward visit to the hospital.

I imagine that someday I'll be explaining to someone's grandchildren, "You don't understand. HBomb was so good at the craft that I sat through and actually enjoyed a three and a half hour takedown of a game I've never heard of and would never play."

I will say: the redeeming feature of the melee cinematics is that I remember it being very easy to hit the button by accident. So my thumb would slip and suddenly Jensen would, apropos of nothing, cinematically manhandle or punch a random NPC on the street