Lethal or nonlethal?

[JuggernautOfWar]

Is there any reason to use nonlethal means of neutralizing hostiles? Playing nonlethal seems to eliminate the vast majority of weapons in the game, and the nonlethal weapons are definitely less efficient at taking out baddies. Similiarly, are there any advantages to playing stealthy instead of just taking everybody out?

[CursedPanther]

It adds challenge to the game? I mean we have absolutely no lack of run and gun FPS games on the market, why would we need to turn another one into the same thing when given the option?

[Vassago Rain]

Non-lethal awards more experience points, but if enemies find the body, they'll go maximum alert and also revive the knocked out guy.

Lethal does what it says on the tin, but doesn't come with the bonus experience points. It typically displaces dead enemies into more favorable positions. For instance, the 'grab guy across the table and stab him in the face' takedown is quiet, fast, and puts the corpse at Adam's feet, hiding it from view instantly.

All actual combat lethal takedowns are very loud. This can be used to force whole squads to attack at once, which saves time compared to luring people in through doorways with thrown crates one guy at a time.

Maintaining perfect stealth through a mission typically awards a bonus experience points 'ghost' reward. It's not always available.
Not triggering alarms has its own bonus reward.

Typically, the more effort you have to put into something, the more you're rewarded. Shooting a guy with a gun gives a very small reward. Delivering the finishing blow with a headshot results in more experience, and lots of specialist weapons have unique bonuses associated with them. A headshot with the nanoblade aug is worth 30 points, a double non-lethal takedown gives 125, blowing up a robot with a single grenade launcher frag grenade can generate up to 280...so on.

Deus ex is a super spy game. Adam is somewhat fragile, and enemies can blow you away just as easily as you do them, so discretion and avoidance is always an option.

[Antony Marinos]

Reason ? Yes, its called "role-playing" :-) You certainly can go about killing everybody, but that's your average run-of-the-mill FPS approach, like CursedPanther said. Even then, you must adjust your tactics accordingly (augs, loadout, ammo, movement, approach etc), since Adam, even with maxed-out combat augs, is no juggernaut, especially in DeusEx and INAFT modes.

But there are two other discrete ways you can play the game: hacker and stealth. And you have to adjust all aspects in these modes as well. And these yield more xp, since its even more difficulty to either use hacking or going stealth throughout the entire game.

Ofcourse, as soon as you finish the game a couple of times, a NG+ renders the above issues a moot point, since you can max out every aug and play almost all types simultaneously.

[Aeratus]

Non-lethal weapons are just as strong as most lethal weapons, and they also maintain your stealth.

The stun gun and the tranq are both one-hit KO, regardless of where you hit then. On the other hand, lethal weapons require headshots to take them out and reveal your position right away.

[Sirlion]

non-lethal is extremely satisfying. You strangle people, you gas people, you electrify people, you punch them in the face, hell you can even uppercut a cloaked opponent while being cloaked yourself and hide the body afterwards. And all this cool stuff while you go stealth and nobody notices OR you use the Batman approach and you enjoy the enemy freaking out in panic, shooting dark corners. I would ask myself what is the reason to go lethal rather than the other way around

[svenoss]

It's a good way of playing differently from other FPS. At some point you can play deus ex kind of like Sam Fisher in Splinter Cell series, or Agent 47 in Hitman games. It's always been the interesting point of this game since 2000's first episode. You can play it like a special agent would. There is definitly more ways of playing this game that just "lethal" and "non lethal" depending what augmentations you will pick.

[BUckENbooz]

Originally posted by Vassago Rain:

Non-lethal awards more experience points, but if enemies find the body, they'll go maximum alert and also revive the knocked out guy.

Lethal does what it says on the tin, but doesn't come with the bonus experience points. It typically displaces dead enemies into more favorable positions. For instance, the 'grab guy across the table and stab him in the face' takedown is quiet, fast, and puts the corpse at Adam's feet, hiding it from view instantly.

All actual combat lethal takedowns are very loud. This can be used to force whole squads to attack at once, which saves time compared to luring people in through doorways with thrown crates one guy at a time.

Maintaining perfect stealth through a mission typically awards a bonus experience points 'ghost' reward. It's not always available.
Not triggering alarms has its own bonus reward.

Typically, the more effort you have to put into something, the more you're rewarded. Shooting a guy with a gun gives a very small reward. Delivering the finishing blow with a headshot results in more experience, and lots of specialist weapons have unique bonuses associated with them. A headshot with the nanoblade aug is worth 30 points, a double non-lethal takedown gives 125, blowing up a robot with a single grenade launcher frag grenade can generate up to 280...so on.

Deus ex is a super spy game. Adam is somewhat fragile, and enemies can blow you away just as easily as you do them, so discretion and avoidance is always an option.

Dang. I really liked this response, thanks

I've played way to much Dishonored that I became to anal for Deus Ex. Bodies detected, alarms, detections, ect. All very important in Dishonred, and it was very important for me in Deus Ex. But I found a even more fun solution. A bad ass who is hard to get. I'll headshot a guy and watch two guards watch in fear as I sneak up behind them and take them both down. Leave the bodies and watch reinformencts roll in with a mine ready at there feat. While they all blow up and Die I'm already to my objective. Brilliant. And I get rewarded for it? Long live Deus Ex.

[Misterdarko1987]

Non-lethal... it was more favorable in HR, tbh, because the gunplay there could get BRUTAL at max diff. Even me, who loves shooting through stuff in games not meant for that, like DX, had to resort to stealthy non-lethal methods in certain areas. In MD, they balanced it out better, and Jensen isn't quite as squishy as he was in HR. Plus the weapons are better balanced. Lethal is the safer way, especially if you play Ironman mode and quit /restart the game if you get killed.

I prefer lethal, in both games. In HR, because going non-lethal would net you max Praxis points well before the end of the game, from sheer amount of XP you earn. Loses the challenge. In MD, it is just the safer way, since I rarely play non Ironman, in any game. If I die, I restart. And going non-lethal in MD, you could be dying a lot. Cops are immune to gas, for example (from those helmets, obviously they got air-filters), something I learned the hard way when I used a non-lethal Typhoon mod on them... didn't end well.

[sling_shot]

I found no real practical differences between lethal and non lethal takedowns. I mean yeah, they weak up if a companion finds them, but does it happen? and if you have a silencer , which are pretty easy to find, the difference between lethal and non-lethal weapons disappears.
the real difference however is that non-lethal takedowns give you more exp, which is stupid since they are also easier because if you have the right weapon it takes 1 stun gun shot to a random part of their body to put them to sleep.
no exp for combat should have been a much wiser design choice.

[Misterdarko1987]

Oh it does happen. You'd be surprised how often another bad guy comes across the unconscious one, when you least expect it, even if you think you hidden the body.

[sling_shot]

Originally posted by Misterdarko1987:

Oh it does happen. You'd be surprised how often another bad guy comes across the unconscious one, when you least expect it, even if you think you hidden the body.

or maybe I KOed that one too earlier

[ImSexyAndiNOED]

In my opinion,the stealth way is so fun ,i don't see why go lethal in the first place.

[sling_shot]

lethal is the last resort for when you get busted and have nothing else

[Misterdarko1987]

In HR I had more incentive to go non-lethal. In MD, so many ppl are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, I just don't feel they deserve any mercy. About the only 2 factions I went easy on, are ARC members and palisade bank guards.