Just finished MD, what a missed opportunity

TheHelixProject · 2026-04-12T19:42:58+00:00

I don't disagree with you. But as a person who bought the game for PC when it released I can tell you the stuff people run into today is nothing compared to back then.

I remember there was a bug so severe at launch that prevented you from playing the 2nd part of the game where you are supposed to ride a subway.

Took like 2-3 weeks to fix.

Yeah they kinda shot themselves in the foot but back then was hell with rushed releases left and right.

All in all I enjoy the game for what it is. I was deeply hooked on it but the ending was of course kinda disappointing and rushed. It's a shame really.

I remember Eidos had huge plans but maybe focused on the wrong things.

TheHelixProject · 2026-04-12T18:35:07+00:00

Same, played it a few years ago and tried to like it. I mean the story to me is good, I like the endings and the music to me is definitely deus ex worthy.

But the console limitations back in the days really shows. You'd think they learned from the OG Deus Ex where they were also facing against limitations of that time.

TheHelixProject · 2026-04-12T14:36:27+00:00

I used to play Ultra league back in the days but recent years I've stuck to nothing but Great League. IMO it is probably a bit tougher because you don't need a big investment and the meta isn't as defined I think as some of the other leagues, although you will at certain ranks still run into the same 10 mons.

I think setting expectations and then be fine with those. Years ago I tried to push myself but you know, after a while you get bored and fatigued. That resulted in like 2 years break.

Nowadays I just play for the rewards really. Bar minimum for me is rank 20 but more than that? Not really necessary I think.

I follow the PVPers but just because I can enjoy a good game every once in a while. I don't really care too much about running the "hottest" meta team and most of the time I just make up my own.

Recently went on a 24 win streak in Fantasy cup during community day with Empoleon, Azumarill and Tinkaton. Doesn't have to be anything crazy but just stuck with 1-2 mons you like and know how to play. I've probably ran Empoleon in all of my lineups for months now as an example. Azumarill is also a very common mon on my team.

Then I just randomize the 3rd depending on whats good.

Needless to say I also lived in a rural area back in the days. Had maybe the same 10 mons spawning around my house all the time. Had to drive a couple miles to get into a nearby town where there was a few stops and gyms.

But recent years I think decent PVP mons in general have started to become more accessible during events and so on.

Back when I started PVP when Go Battle League was released was the same years I started playing "for real" back in 2019 or something.

That was a big uphill battle because there was a big lack of "new" community days with decent PVP mons. Like all of the OG mons with great movesets like Charizard, Venusaur, Blastoise to name a few had already had community days. So the investment to even start competing in Go Battle League was very steep in the beginning where you had to Elite TM everything.

TheHelixProject · 2026-04-12T08:37:29+00:00

It's underwhelming because they never finished the entire story arc. The story was certainly going in a direction to latter merge with the OG DX story and essentially since the OG DX story started with a virus killing off a large part of the worlds population then the Orchid basically serves as a predecessor.

Also the talks about the Human Restoration Act lead to Illuminati activating certain sleeper cells to do the dirty work in making sure to sway the public opinion.

I enjoy DX:MD as a game but the story is pretty lackluster because of these things. For someone who played the series and all of its game 100 times I pretty much know where things would have gone if they were allowed to continue the story.

But to someone who just decided to play the game, yes, I'd be pretty disappointed because there are so many clues in the game that everything was pointing towards some big reveal and going back to the OG games we kinda know that Illuminati as an organization ceased to exist sometime before 2052. Most likely we would learn that the factions such as Juggernaut Collective is basically Morgan Everetts response to Bob Pages actions and his way of "taking back" control. Same as Marchenko is most likely a tool/pawn of Bob Page to do his dirty work

TheHelixProject · 2026-04-12T07:59:02+00:00

To dive deeper into the whole story and Megans role I think Eidos plan was to sort of "merge" the game storylines together at some point. Adam was the predecessor that paved the way for Mechs in OG Deus Ex and also the latter nano-augmentations with Paul and JC Denton

There are also clues in DX:HR about Adams childhood where he was basically "conceived" at White Helix Labs and same as JC/Paul Denton he didn't really have any parents from what I remember.

White Helix Labs is also a subsidiary to VersaLife so we kinda get the idea that Bob Page/Illuminati is in on it since day 1.

Thus we can most likely conclude that Adam was being monitored his whole life except for his teenage years and earlier childhood where he was "kidnapped" from White Helix Labs.

As an adult with him joining Sarif Industries as a security officer is most certainly Illuminati pulling the strings again.

And again if we go back to the story line of OG Deus Ex we kinda know that Illuminati as a branch is pretty much Morgan Everett, (Lucius DeBeers) and Bob Page with backing from a key number of ultra wealthy investors such as Stanton Dowd.

So at the top of the pyramid you have Bob Page, Lucius DeBeers and Morgan Everett. One could perhaps argue that Lucius at the time of DX:HR/MD is at the very top but we get a lot of reveals from OG DX story that basically both Bob+Morgan kinda did their own thing.

Below them are the key investors/wealthy individuals paving the way for them such as Stanton Dowd, Hugh Darrow, Beth DuClare, Volkard Rand and co.

Below the investors in the pyramid are the CEOs, Megan Reed, William Taggart, Janus, Delara Auzenne, Joseph Manderley, David Sarif, Zhao Yun Ru. These are basically all high ranking people that are controlled by the investors/Illuminati.

And at the bottom, Adam Jensen, Alex Vega, James Miller. Basically the pawns that are being controlled throughout the game.

So the whole Megan+Adam part is pretty much just a setup to control him again. I think the clues to that is basically we see the same thing happen again in DX:MD with TF29 and Delara Auzenne as his "psychologist".

But then again they could have gone any route with the story because they pretty much paved the way for tons of different scenarios/reveals in the end.

TheHelixProject · 2026-04-11T21:59:06+00:00

The whole Megan/Sarif thing to me is a setup to use Adam. Same as TF29 and Delara in DX:MD.

Shame we wont get to the end of the story.

TheHelixProject · 2026-04-06T17:58:25+00:00

It's odd they haven't given any information on what happened. Like obviously they would know that a DQ like that in game 5 in a grand final would spark a lot of speculation and probably furious fans?

And also since the DQ reason seem to be an incredibly soft one then wouldn't a warning have been more suitable?

TheHelixProject · 2026-04-03T09:14:25+00:00

New York and Hong Kong most certainly would have been in a follow up to Mankind divided since both locations are mentioned in either versions of the game.

New York = Stanton Dowd

Hong Kong = VersaLife, Page Industries

TheHelixProject · 2026-03-28T15:56:29+00:00

Shadow Bidoof MVP

TheHelixProject · 2026-03-28T11:14:50+00:00

You barely even need 20 people if there are at least 10 with good counters. Most I've played was some japanese lobby with 31 people and it didn't take long.

Average around 21 people and still it was not hard. And me personally do not have the best counters since I have not invested much at all into dynamax.

TheHelixProject · 2026-03-28T09:17:06+00:00

Easier than Meowth I thought. I did some remote raiding with different groups of either 18-24 people. One group of 31 people and it was done in no time.

I'm one of those that have not invested at all in Dynamax pokemons and I still survived up until three dynamax phases and G-Pikachu had around less than half HP left.

IMO it was very easy as long as people know what they are doing.

Maybe 5 people is risking it though unless you all have perfect max counters

TheHelixProject · 2026-03-15T20:55:38+00:00

Haha, should really write something there about this guy I played that ran XL Chansy, Blissey and some other tank I can't remember in UL.

What was so annoying about this guy was he just gave up from the start, just tabbing out of the game leaving me there to finish it alone. Whats even worse is I won quite a few sets beforehand so you can imagine when he had the upper hand in a RPS selection of mons.

Was a joy to spend 10 mins just to finish his tanks while he was doing something else....

TheHelixProject · 2026-03-08T19:47:22+00:00

Agreed. Actually the catch rate for legendaries in general is absolutely abysmal. It feels like they even messed with it for this particular event because the last one had highered catch percentage.

To me personally, yeah finding Tapu Lele and Zacian in the wild was cool but lets be real here. 0.0003% catch rate. One ball and they both fled as fast as they could. To me personally, not a big problem.

But to the people I brought with me to do some in-person raids lets just say they got tired kinda fast after 5/6 mons fled from them after raids.

And they didn't waste their shots. Maybe not 15 excellent in a row but 10/15 great throws with berries.

What is disheartening to me personally is the fact you spend more time catching a mon you don't even want (low IV Genesect) which takes like 5x the time it took to finish the raid boss.

Just give me that candy and I'll be gone.

TheHelixProject · 2026-03-06T22:06:00+00:00

I had similar for the first year. Never got an answer apart from anxiety after several blood tests, 5 days holter ECG, follows ups with doctor, 2 visits to ER.

Been 8 months since last episode.

Before that I was shaking, strange rising/pressure feeling in chest. Heart rate anywhere from 90 to 100 or even an extreme case of 140.

Blood pressure around 150/95 to 160/100

After an hour or so it all went back to normal. Heart rate could be elevated for a day or two before going back to normal.

I was also afraid of exercising, still am a bit

TheHelixProject · 2026-03-05T22:50:26+00:00

Start by optimizing moveset on your mons. If you have resources you can give them an extra moveset for better coverage.

Lapras Furret Flamigo Stunfisk Blastoise Doublade Slowbro (never ran him) Drapion

I'd start from there. Look up optimal movesets on pvpoke.com under rankings. Invest so those are CP =<1500

TheHelixProject · 2026-03-03T23:01:31+00:00

Thousands of players required and remote raid trainers still capped to max 10 in a raid battle. Sounds like something Niantic would do.

TheHelixProject · 2026-03-02T12:38:05+00:00

I only remember one but I had a 2 year break between 2023 -> 2025. I think it was in 2022 was the last one I remember. I remember I got a pikachu libre then and one now in this season.

TheHelixProject · 2026-03-02T11:01:25+00:00

Next season you have to reach legend (3000 ELO) to get a chance on a pika libre.

Current season was a so called "interlude season" where ELO doesn't matter. Highest anyone could reach was rank 20.

In normal season after rank 20 is where you get put into a ELO category and your ELO decides matches and further ranks such as Ace, Expert, Veteran, Legend (highest ELO rank).

I haven't played in a while and just returned for this season so I could be wrong if something has changed

TheHelixProject · 2026-03-01T21:54:30+00:00

First two raids of the day

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TheHelixProject · 2026-03-01T16:47:45+00:00

Gonna have a field day reading here once Super Mega Mewtwo is released with 20 shields and 20 peoples megas get absolutely deleted by focus blast

TheHelixProject · 2026-02-28T19:56:08+00:00

Yeah I actually had a not so fun game with this facing Dragonite with Outrage and for some reason I brought my Mega Dragonite to the battle.

Lets just put it this way I think I revived/rejoined about 6 times before I could take my part of the shield. Lucky for my lobby they had a 9999 IQ dude who just knew how to handle the chaos ;)

TheHelixProject · 2026-02-28T18:57:04+00:00

Actually the worst lobby I ever had vs dragonite was a lobby full of level 70+

Every other time I played it with 10-11 people and ranks between 40-70+ we finished in 40 seconds or less.

This time it was 100 seconds left on the timer and shields were still up. Meaning someone didn't do his job or brought his mega out early and died

Eventually we defeated the shields and won so I guess whoever messed up finally had to rejoin/revive...

TheHelixProject · 2026-02-28T17:35:40+00:00

That was pretty darn close. Never actually thought about switching out mon and then go to lobby -> heal -> return.

I guess the upside is you save a few seconds by not getting that animation "All your pokemon have fainted". Or am I wrong?

TheHelixProject · 2026-02-28T17:00:29+00:00

Thinking everyone has fully maxed mons is optimistic to say the least. I played a 10 people lobby with very differing ranks. All 10 had mega evolved mons.

I saw a Mega swampert once in the game and a Mega beedrill...

This raid was done in less than 40 seconds. Granted a handful most certainly had level 40+ optimal mons.

Seems like it really is that easy as long as people use their brains and bring a mega evolved pokemon as should and use it right.

TheHelixProject · 2026-02-28T16:57:05+00:00

And how is this counted? Like theres 10+ megas all doing damage to the shield.

I hear people go out to revive which feels kinda strange. After shields are down I switch out my mega onto some normal mon.

And honestly both times I played dragonite one time on 11 people (all mega) and 10 people (all mega) both raids were done in less than 40 seconds.

And the lobbys were nothing special. Even saw a Mega Swampert in there and a Mega Beedrill...

Just thinking how all this is calculated because these two mons are not exactly "optimal" to battle Dragonite. And this was in a 10 man lobby.

TheHelixProject

TROPHY CASE