I had heard about the boss battles(and especially about the first one) before I played Human Revolution, but I was still in a state of rage-filled confusion on my first play-through, when I reached "Barrett"(on the hardest difficulty). It was not only because the fight was hard as hell, but the way it was set up made me face-palm for the first(but not the last) time during the game.

It was the first time Jensen went full retard.: "Hey, dem bad guys go train. What you do, baddies? What behind me? Oh, sneaky walking tank, now me unconscious."
Was this really the same stealthy, cautious and subtle protagonist I had played this far?

The game itself was pretty solid and fun to play, but the boss battles (and the cut-scenes) were garbage.

It seems that boss fights were outsources to another developer (sic!). So DX:HR was created by two game studios
- one created main game
- one created boss fights

... why?!

Another info. There is "Director's Cut" version available now, they supposedly:
- fixed boss fights,
- integrated The Missing Link DLC into main story,
- all weapons available in smaller DLCs are not given directly to player, but available in-game hidden somwhere or just in shops,
- there is no Polish or Russian translation available in game.

So yeah, basically it is game as it always should be (sans translations). Boss fights are more streamlined with whole game so you can stealth, talk or hack through it... however I am not interested in playing Director's Cut now, maybe someday, when I'll have more time...

I have Deus Ex: HR:DC, it's supposed to run okay on my laptop but it has bad stuttering issues (optimization issues I'm told) and I've never played the original but I've seen pictures of it and I can say that I prefer the HR over the original in terms ascetic, I like the neon glow of the city and the renaissance like future...

That said I'd love to try the original some time but that time is not now lol :P

Director's Cut is actually a huge improvement IMO. Boss fights were redone really really well. Dialogue was changed around too, a lot better now. And the Missing Link DLC is integrated into the main game which felt a lot better than when I played it separately. I would recommend it to anyone, like me, that played through the game before DC was released.

Of course it's not as good as the original, but it's not fair to compare. How many games do you know with the depth, detail, and playtime of Deus Ex?

HR is a great game, good sequel. Wait till it's on sale and go play it.

And those guys are right about the nostalgia creeping back in some areas. You can definitely see the developers making an effort to draw some subtle parallels between the two, and it works fantastically well.

Hopefully I'm not derailing the topic here but after playing and finishing both Deus Ex and the sequel Invisible War, I'm also interest in playing HR but a little put off, cos I have this feeling that the quality will leans further toward the Invisible War side of things. Deus Ex is a great gamem I was blown away when I first played it last year. Invisible War on the other hand is an okay game but a bad sequel and was severely watered down. Does HR also suffer this problem?

How would the community compare HR to IW?

Well, it's easy to say that Human Revolution is watered down but that doesn't really capture the difference. There's a change in core mechanics from first person in Deus Ex and Invisible War to a hybrid 1st and 3rd person cover based gaming. I doubt that Human Revolution will blow you away but if you like the genre then I'm sure you'll enjoy Human Revolution. It's stealth is better than Invisible War, though different from Deus Ex' and the maps are much larger, though often more linear than in Deus Ex. They also brought back the old fashioned "tetris" style inventory.

I think that augmentations were better handled in Invisible War, though, in that they made your character more distinctive and interesting where the augmentations in Human Revolution feel more generic. This is compounded by the fact that character development (augs) are really your primary means of changing the game experience. IW offered you a lot more choices in terms of the story, even if those choices didn't amount to anything. HR has a more linear narrative. The world is also less reactive compared to Deus Ex, even if it's more detailed. There isn't as much out of the box problem solving like chill Jock's beer with a fire extinguisher or move crates to block guards from passing.

So I am skeptical about classifying Human Revolution as a sequel to Deus Ex, but comparing the two strictly as games in their own right, I'd say Human Revolution comes out leaps and bounds ahead of Invisible War. If nothing else you have larger maps and shorter load times.

I would consider HR more of a sequel than IW. I really did not like IW. HR actually has amazing, immersive environments, and it recreates a world very similar to the original. The fact that it is a sandbox helps the atmosphere a lot. Gameplay is still somewhat similar, but it's probably the element of the game that is most changed from Deus Ex. They preserved the mix of stealth and FPS, but there are some modern elements like cover

The augmentations could have been done better. On normal difficulty, you are able to take any approach to any situation without many obstacles. The augmentations just kind of serve to make one path a little easier. However, if you play on the Deus Ex difficulty level (and I recommend you do if you played and enjoyed the original), then the augmentations will help mold your preferred play style. For example, you won't be able to run into a room with a modified gun and blast everyone away, but you will be able to sneak by them with your invis cloak. Or, if you prefer, get dermal armor, buy some weapon mods, and go terminator on a room full of people. A third option would be to hack a nearby security station and switch the turrets and robot targeting to your enemies.

The thing is, every situation in the game has several paths, usually involving either a mix of tech and stealth or a mix of assault and stealth. IMO they do a really good job with this, allowing you to approach every situation dynamically.

They also managed to preserve the dialogue and freedom of choice from the original. Honestly, I think the dialogue in HR was actually significantly better (with Director's Cut). There are many different paths you can take from both dialogue and in-game choices. Remember in Deus Ex when your brother told you to leave while he distracted your pursuers? Remember when you said FUCK THAT SHIT and turned around and killed the pursuers? Then later, your brother was in the game. Remember when you learned the kill word for those two boss battles and blew them up during dialogue? Ok so HR doesn't exactly capture the depth of original as far as choices go, but it certainly has the same feel. There are still consequences to your actions, and you may come to regret certain decisions you made earlier in the game.

On a technical note, the game is also very well optimized, and feels like it was made for PC. With the Director's Cut, there aren't many bugs left. The game has good flow, short loading times, looks nice, and the controls are very well done. Also, a minor thing, the quicksave/quickload is very fast and very useful for some frustrating bits of the game.

So, in conclusion, this game is very worthy of the original, don't let that piece of shit IW throw you off.

HR is great. Well...except the end. Let's not talk about that.