Much of your time spent with the game is running around its two “hub” worlds, the streets of Detroit and Lower Heng Sha. The game’s art director, Jonathan Jacques-Belletête, told Edge that there were plans to add at least two more hubs.
One of these was to be Montreal, the city the game’s developers are based, and a location you visit briefly during one of DE:HR’s “missions”.
“There were outdoor locations set in one of the most famous neighbourhoods of Montreal, called Plateau”, Jacques-Belletête said. “It’s got very specific architecture, called tri-plexes, with twirling exterior staircases made of this old metal.”
The other location was to be Upper Heng Sha, again an area you visit briefly, but which was originally planned to be much more extensive. Turns out this part of the game was actually built for inclusion in the game, but “never finished”.
Why? As with rough plans for a fifthhub, this time in India, it was found that “as we constructed the city hubs, and understood the amount of work it took, we had to pare it down”.
Good idea. I’d rather have two hubs of a decent size than visit five “cities” that consist of a couple of blocks!
Snail
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 7:29 AMI think a new city in the second DLC would be fantastic. Not just a new mission or some points reset, something huge and impressive with a bigger price tag. I loved Heng Sha but felt that the upper section wasn’t used nearly enough.
Brett
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 7:53 AMI’d rather five hubs of decent size.
Weresmurf
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 8:09 AMThis is what expansion packs are for!
SirMoo
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 8:10 AMI did think that the later half of the game seemed a little… rushed? It felt like they put so much work into the first two hubs, that then mission after mission swapping between random missions and the same two hubs. The game would have been nicer with the three extra hubs. I wish they would add it as an expansion, but I know they wont
Reoh
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 4:01 PMAgree the latter half of the game felt rushed.
Even the video clips were bigtime glitchy towards the end. Half the time they wouldn’t show video and often sound as well. XD
Cerzel
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 9:15 AM“I’d rather have two hubs of a decent size than visit five “cities” that consist of a couple of blocks!”
You mean like the two hubs we did get?
Demonjohn
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 9:33 AMThey had plenty of time to develop the game. They should have made it larger, more cities etc. Already it’s been proven that they removed content from the main game. Just to sell it one month from release. Not a good look.
Chazz
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 9:55 AMWho cares how many hubs there are. Next time actually make them feel like people live there, make the NPC’s act like humans instead of emotionless robots.
Bait
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 11:52 AMThat would make it easier to build a sequel… right..? :D
Machienzo
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 12:31 PMI’m not pro-ps3, but why do I get the feeling that the 360s disc capacity played a part in this downsizing?
GregH
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 12:50 PMI got the feeling that it’s development for both consoles limited the scope of what could be done with it had it been developed on the PC first, and then ported to consoles later. Especially the mouse smoothing problem that forced a lot of us to disable V-Sync. Or the lack of a variety of active augments because of the lack of buttons on controllers. I actually think the game was perfect the way it was released though, especially Hengsha’s multi-floored layout.
Braaains
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 12:52 PMMore is not necessarily better. Would there really be enough to sustain interest for double the running time (as opposed to replaying the game as it is for a second time but going down a different path in terms of your approach)?
I often find that I’m sick of these 30-40 hour games before the end and I have to kind of force myself through the last 10 hours or so. And that includes the good ones like Red Dead Redemption, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, etc.
allanon10101
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 1:17 PMKinda disappointing they cut it short. I remember some games used to have time-spans that went into the 60+ hour range. Used to really be able to get into those, unlike most the games these days that are ending before I’ve even started enjoying them.
ORLY?!
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 5:18 PMHere’s hoping Skyrim changes that! :)
Cerzel
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 9:38 PMYou should check out Xenoblade. I’m about 60 hours into it and apparently I’m only about 2/3 through it.
Aaron
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 3:56 PMA game like Deus Ex, or maybe a sequel to Human Revolution, that was Elder Scrolls sized? Oh god yes please. That would make me ecstatically happy.
Jim Smith
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 7:19 PMI really need to get into this game. I hated the controls and stopped playing after the first mission. Is this one a slow burner?