I’m glad Deus Ex lives on but it’s a shame they’ve never been able to recapture the magic of the original game.

I had basically the same reaction to MD’s energy system during the first hour since it isn’t explained all that well, and most of what you use in the tutorial are the chunky abilities with large upfront energy costs. Dishonored’s system certainly isn’t perfect, but it’s the best I’ve encountered so far at striking the correct balance between restricting the player and enabling them. In fact if anything MD’s implementation probably errs too far towards the enabling side, since you can trivialise much of the game by investing in cloaking and all the energy bar upgrades and ghosting through levels from cover to cover. An energy bar that fully regenerates is a very dangerous thing.

And MD is possibly the quintessential “Buy On Sale” game. Also, based on what happened with HR I wouldn’t bet against there being a Director’s Cut you can pick in up a year or two that will hopefully take the time to fill in some of the holes.

My boyfriend is playing the game, and it does give players the option to start with a *12 minute* summary of the first game. That’s probably not actually enough for even some returning players, but it’s an attempt.

It’s interesting that you cite the energy mechanic as being identical to Dishonored’s. My first thought was that the system seemed better than Human Revolution’s but still bad, and I didn’t recognize it as Dishonored’s system at all. In fact, I’m not a huge fan of Dishonored’s system; since most games will wisely be pretty cavalier with dispensing potions, I prefer an auto-regen system that can be improved at the cost of precious skill points.