Titanic21's Detailed Review for Dex

Note this this is no actual guide!

Since it is impossible to type more than a few thousand characters when using Steam review function, I will now use another way to review Dex, one of my favorite games, which left me with such a massive impression that it requires breaking the limits. I don't want my work on these text to be made for nothing and I would really love to share my thoughts with the world. I wish that in the future there are no more boundaries on review length and cincerely hope that this thread will not get deleted.

Thanks for reading and I appreciate a comment regarding this review's content instead of complainments about the fact that I "misused" a Steam function.

This review has been under maintenance and was greatly improved since it was published.

Introduction

Now finally, after having completed Dex, it's finally at the time to do what should have done long before: Reviewing this game. But after 30 hours, to the minute, there's so much I have in mind, it could never fit a single text. So what to do with all my thoughts?

Cathegorize!











I will now order everything so you can look for what matters to you and what doesn't. Let's get right into it, I'll start telling you all I have in mind, spoiler-freely, of course, so that you will take this review more serious and have fun with the game, hopefully.

Please notify me any mistakes or misspelling so that I can apply appropriate changes. Thank you!

Complexity

10/10 possible points

How much playtime you think would a 2.5D sidescroller RPG provide? 6 hours, not more. I used 30. I have to admit that this is quite a high amount, but considering I have partially been acting stupidly enough so I used several relaods on checkpoints, it's fair. The average is, however, told from what I've seen, anything between 14 and 26 hours. Which is fine, although it seems that a player's experience, when making a completion within less than 20 hours probably lacks of specific detail. What to fill all that time with, you may ask? It's mainly the exploration, but there are a lot of interesting sidequests, dialogs and walking passages. Completionists may consider everything as boring which isn't relevant to anything other than achievements. Sure, you can complete Dex within a few hours, but I recommend you to take it all. You'll miss a lot if stuff if you'll try rushing it. Even more, there is so much you could miss.

Replayability

8/10 possible points

First of all: Yes, Dex has multiple endings. Yes, Dex's story progression is based on your choices. Yes, each option provides their own experience and feeling. But how much does it variate? Considerable the changes are sufficient for 3 to 5 playthroughs. Some of the choices that you make will lead to unseen opportunities, but also disable some. I have now tried one way out of many and surely I want to see more. Since Dex is an RPG, there's a lot apart from the story to worry about:
Character development, items, style of combat... With all these things to offer, how could Dex become boring quickly?
But let's face it: There are also aspects against that statement. The missing degree until a full score can be explained the following: This is still story based. There's no entire change taking part when returning to Dex to start over again, which will of course cause that Dex will eventually be left behind. It does not much effort to witness different outcomes, so after the first playthrough it won't take much to see the rest and even more, some details may appear as redundant.

Visuals

8/10 possible points

That one's a hard one to tell... As obvious, Dex is no supreme GPU killer and neither pure "eye candy" but still has it's charme. The world is shown as a simplified 3D environment, which means you can see a variety of layers on different Z-Axis locations without actually being able to access those. What they did well is to make nice looking environments and detailed architecture. Some elements, especially the collectibles, can barely be recognized, but this is rather to ignore, as the
pixelart is highly resoluting. Character designs are nicely made, it's a pitty they are rarely seen in close-up and not just as a part of the scenery. The textures are acceptable due to their pixelation; as I said there are problems on the recognition, but as a general characteristic of the general art style they appear clearly.

The Menu in Interface designs however are flawless and would not need any complaints, similarly it goes for the font, the dialogs and the cinematics.

Story

10/10 possible points

The plot is probably what is oftenly considered as the most important part, even though Dex is not wholly linear. As a spoiler free review and with my score given already above, I am quite unable to say much more, but of course I will.
In fact I am still left behind with a lot of gaps and riddles left to be understood after finishing, which shall again provide an impression of how fascinated I still am and how miraculous the plot development eventually came out as. Especially throughout the ending, the player gets to face many mindblowing moments what makes it hard for the lore to be figured out on a psychological level. Luckily I can ignore the fact I am bad at memorizing names. The most amazing thing about Dex's story is
probably that the game stays in mind, makes you think and even leaves you staying a bit in the dark about what's going on. Is there anything more you want? If the answer is yes, don't freak out yet,
because your wish will be granted. Starting nothing more but mysteriously, Dex's quests take part within deep conspiracy, will lead you straight into a war and furthermore, they require secrets to be uncovered. It's not adviced to don't ignore the sidequests, even though there are some obsolete ones in between. You'll find those which require patience, skill and interest to solve. This game did what many others failed at: Not only keeping me excited, but doing it until the very end, not only keeping up its depth, but displaying a significant increase!

Locations

8/10 possible points

Well done. The (playable) world of Dex does mainly consist of one city (Harbor Prime) which is devided into smaller areas, which mark the city's districts. Quests are assigned to all of the parts, and secrets can anywhere be found, meaning that the reach of that area is sufficient. And even in case you'll miss some change, there actually are outer areas to play in, but never more than once. Additionally, while making progress, you are able to unlock new locations you weren't permitted to go before.
The city buildings are matching the atmosphere perfectly well and the separation is well done. There are slums, there's a downtown and the rich quarter, just as in reality. I wish a few areas were bigger or something like border-controls could be placed so that the invisible walls, loading screens and unrealistically high borders could be avoided, though this rather makes a week complaint.

Optical design

9/10 possible points

It seems that there's been a lot of effort put into the graphic animations. The buildings, surroundings, environment are and even all of the little nature is well animated. The general artstyle makes a perfect foundation for a stunning gaming experience. Every area features equally detailed crafting, but nevertheless, every section has their own specific and individual style. It can be recognized that all of the fictional actors are differently moddeled and each their animations are independent from those of the others, which is valid for protagonists as well as opponents and the rarely seen side-characters, who all of them carry their own gear and are equipped with individual properties. The visual effects are good, but nothing more, which is not unexpected. In my opinion this game doesn't need them to be any better, since the visuals are super appealing. A good amount of recognition deserve the cinematic cutscenes, which have a hand-painted look, perhaps they are hand-made. If that should be true, have my respect for that.

AI and Physics

8/10 possible points

This is a short chapter. The NPCs work fine, just as they are supposed to. There are different models, but every type of opponent appears again and again, which is not distracting but even helpful, because this feature greatly helps in recognizing the combat type before an actual fight. "Passive" NPCs, such as pedestrians, also appear periodically, but since they are not an element of gameplay, that doesn't really matter. The Physics, to be exact its issues, do however. The collision models do not perfectly go along with the environment, which can cause oddities such as enemies which keep laying down straight, despites they had been standing on an uneven surface like stairs. Also sometimes you will fall a bit through the ground, or take a few steps in the air. These bugs are fortunately not all too harmful to the player, but may be confusing or distracting upon occurance.

Soundtrack

9/10 possible points

How couldn't I give a high score, again, the soundtrack is an amazing composition, especially the menu/credits theme is what I like a lot. Also most of the themes for all the areas are well chosen, atmosphering and none appears to be out of place. The only thing I can surely complain about is the length of some of the tracks, especially those that play in places of minor inportance or right inside of buildings. They last a few seconds and then loop eternely, which can be at some point quite annoying. If these sections were a little more lovable it would have resulted in a 10/10 score on this part.

Performance

9/10 possible points

All I can say is that I didn't ever have to deal with framedrops neither were there any serious performance issues. Sometimes, when entering Augmented Reality aswell as at the entry to the District known as Tahijo, the game may get stuck for a few seconds, but it usually fixes itself and doesn't knock the game out. I have always been able to play at around a solid cap of 50 FPS on highest settings. Considering my Notebook hasn't got the specifications one would call high-end, that is a good basis to work with. For the loading times it can be said that they are as short as they should be.

Combat System

10/10 possible points

As unsurprising from a 2D sidescroller, fighting marks an important element of the playthroughs. Beating, doging, kicking and hiding from opposing attacks does not require complex key combinations, but being granted some decent amount of good reaction time and tactics will be rewarded. Surprisingly, shooting works smoother than expected, the weapon controls allow high precision. Every weapon is different to handle, so naturally you will have to find the best balance between damage infliction and knockback to suit your style of playing. Ammunition isn't essentially rare, it can be purchases, but reloading takes time so it's recommended to either switch weapons or find the best mixture between melee and shooting. Unfortunately there isn't anything that could have the discretion of a meelee weapon, except for some implants, but instead it is possible to upgrade your melee skill to unlock heavy combo hits or powerful defense techniques.

Psychological character design

10/10 possible points

Given topic is another thing that I kept in mind as enjoyable. All of the protagonists and antagonists differ not only in their appearance. Some are talking slang, some are talking like a professional, some just like an average person. And of course, they react in ways matching their assumable life situation, their origin and their stand in society. To assure that these personalities are believed to be non-fictional, every person in the game has a unique voice-over aswell as a recognizable vocal expression, but there will be another section where I'll take a closer look onto the Voicings.

That is it how far the separation goes, but more important are the similarities. Despites each individual has their own story, regardless how much of it we get to know from their attitude to things and emotions, it is important to mention that their kinds do heavily influence the way you need to play, especially when trying to convince them using the "Charisma" skill. In my eyes all of the individual dialog matches to each personality. (There is one exception to this, but that circumstance is rather forgettable.)

Finally, I get to talk about Dex herself, for whom the same applies. She is rather a rough type of a woman but can also be sympathetic and the writers managed to nicely transpose it. Her way of life is finely represented and her dialog-options seem to come up with that.

Logic

8/10 possible points

Surely, video games are not made to depict reality, in fact, they shall break it up and create something unreal, so nobody would dare to use media like that in the expectation that what they see will be physically correct and applicable to the general understanding of natural laws, but a game with a story and human actors should still be sufficiently realistic to give the player that feeling of satisfaction as a result that one makes up a part of the game's world. The problem with artificial reality, especially within a foundation of the Science-Fiction genre, consists of the fact that you are mostly unable to objectify that something is unlogical just because it doesn't exist in the world we know. The same can be said for the necessities of video gaming, such as health restoration, the absence of exhaustion from physical activity, bystanders who completely look and act the same and of course the fact that there is valuable collectible stuff unnoticed by anyone except for the character you play as. So what I really want to say is just that everything still has to be inside a reasonable frame of possibilities and, reasonably, that no things seem oppositional or even paradox. Luckily, in Dex I didn't have to find any of those paradoxes, neither have I seen anything not physically possible, at least in theory. (Bugs excepted.)

So why does my rating lack of 2 points then? The two things that got my attention are for first that for the age this game takes part in, as the high-end technologies are kind of opposing to what we get to see at the places of action, which remind us of our present days. The second point is the so called AR upgrade, allowing you to hack human opponents. I have been trying but failed to understand how that should be possible under any means. Killing the machinery of a Cyborg's inherits is one thing, but having the ability to take mechanical control of organic body parts is hardly plausible.

You might wonder why I am not talking about the game's ending and the final locations. Your confusion is legitimate. Let me at first remind you of what you are able to read in the introduction, this is a spoiler-free review, so before reading further it is required that you look it up somewhere else if interested. I am wanting to say that the unknown location makes sense, just have in mind what could possibly be going on at secret restricted areas all over the world right now. The difference to the findings the players makes in Dex may not be that far off from the truth that is yet to unveil itself. But such an approach would still not make a good explaination for the very ending of the game. Call it unreal and phantasmic, but consider that in fact the solution may be as simple as following: I am sure that in near future, Virtual Reality gear will probably be advanced to a level where it will be possible to sufficiently generate an artificial place around us, an alternate scenery, just like the one the ending of Dex takes part in.

I hope you get my point and are ready to jump to the next chapter!

Upgrade system

9/10 possible points

The upgrade system is pretty common, collecting EXP or use certain items to level up and be rewarded with upgrade credits you can invest into various skills. Regardless which one you will choose; you can equally benefit from all the abilities. While all upgrades are helpfull, some will have extraordinarily strong effect, especially the last column improves that certain skill by a lot. One might argue that this condition would be unfair. In fact however, these upgrades require lots of gravely gained skillpoints, so that you have to specialize for a skill or instead use some increase on many. As I said, the usefulness of the skills is comparable, but in some situtations the player wishes to have upgraded the other one. While the four main sections, close combat, distant battle, hacking and HUD are at some times neccessary, the four minor skills, namely charisma, lock picking, trade and Augmented Reality provide advantages. That's the part where I must remove a bit from the score. You can't do most of the sidequests and not even finish the game if you haven't invested three skill points into lock picking and one into hacking, which is not in the favour of me as a player. If they are neccessary for completion they should not cost valuable skill points and instead be unlocked at a certain point in game. But that's not the case. I'd also like to see a reset option allowing you to try out different stuff, but I understand that such thing would be hard to implement because it'd result in sudden decrease of fighting or hacking skill, which would furthermore be bad for the players. Alternatively, you can play the game once more to see the changes.

However, the balancing is done quite well and should be considered a good example for other developers.

Acoustic design

8/10 possible points

The sound effects of Dex are well made and realistic, but in no way they are astonishing or overwhelmingly inpressive. They came up to my expectations and positively contributed to the tone. The unoptional jump moans are over time a bit annoying, but that's a minor issue regarding the overall quality of the genuinely crafted noises one gets to hear in Dex.

Overall gameplay

10/10 possible points

With keyboard and mouse Dex is able to be played in a precise and yet comfortable manner. Shortcuts allow that switching between weapons is eas and the default control bindings are well chosen and don't require rememorization of known patterns. Your items, your quest log, your inventory and the map can quickly be accessed and work fine. The fast-travel option functions correctly and isn't complicated at all to be used. Scrolling through your items may be a bit problematic when you use the mouse wheel, but selection is still no problem by clicking through. The inventory is very clearly designed and so are the quest log and abbility screen.

I would really like to go into detail on the gamepad performance, but as I don't ave any to configurate, I am unable to review that point.

Augmented Reality (AR)

9/10 possible points

The so called "Augmented Reality" is the first of Dex's special gameplay modes. You can access it anytime using "Alt" (which is a key rarely used by the casual player, but due to the vicinity to the spacebar, "shift" and "ctrl" keys this is nice to handle). While in Augmented Reality, you are able to access electronical devices, and if you have the upgrade even human enemies in the area you are in, to "hack" them, which then lets you apply deactivation, functionality invention (turrets will begin to aim for your enemies) or manipulation. During your stay within the AR, the game world around freezes, so that it's also a nice way to check the environment for opponents and obstacles. If you bother losing a share of your focus upon entering the AR, have in mind: It is only sparsely truly necessary to fulfill the action, as the other way to get rid of devices is to simply shoot them.

As nice as the AR is, I won't give the full points, bacause gameplay-wise, the task is repetive. Also, it can be helpful to manipulate your surroundings, but it is hard to avoid colliding with viruses, which in later and difficult scenarios is pretty unrewarding.

Cyberspace

10/10 possible points

Cyberspace is the most vital element of Dex next to leading dialog, fighting and exploration. It mostly happens when interacting with terminals. To be precise, "hacking" is the wrong word to describe the process, it should be "to enter" instead. To elaborate on that: What you do in Dex does not represent the common understanding of the term, so you won't find yourself typing some commants into the console or searching files, as in popular hacking simulations. Get lost of that imagery, in Dex you will get to see something entirely different. The concept basically functions as a mixture of maze-puzzles and twin-stick-shooter, but it is difficult to draw a clear line in between. As you guide some kind of vehicle through 2-dimensional corridors of firewalls and obstacles with some ambient electronic beats in the background, you will eventually be facing all the enemy types which all show different weaknesses and strengths. To name a few there are Virus-nests which eject hordes of tiny red fighters trying to hunt you down, there are those spinning blades which move at a slow speed but inflict a lot of damage on contact and there are of course guns, which are unable to move but shoot at you from distance. To defend yourself against the many hazzards you can use software such as the spammer which will temporarily freeze a single enemy or the arrow which deals a lot of damage, each individually upgradable. Other than that you can fire your primary weapon, which fires a regular projectile. Switching between them is fairly not hard, but always a bit confusing because their order is at first not very intuitive. What caused problems in my runs were the items, namely Shockwave and Shield, because they are activated using shift and space, which in the regular game cause the player to block/jump, so that I was more than once mislead by the idea these keys would grant movement abilities also in Cyberspace. But once you got into the controls, Cyberspace is not only a great mechanism but also the most challenging part of the game. You need to aim quickly and act precisely to survive and most importantly get all the beautiful, sensitive, valuable data.

Unique mechanics

9/10 possible points

So what is Dex truly unique for?

For once there would be the extra outfits, but as they are a part of the DLC, I will discuss them later in their section. For now I want to point out that there is one suit for every of the three main gameplay contents that provides a huge advantage to your preference: There's one supportive for hacking missions, one protective for fighting missions and annother for general exploration. Each of them grants a unique skill, but unlike weapons or abilities you can always just equip one of them so choose wisely which one to take.

There's so called "Focus" which essentially is your lifespan while in AR or Cyberspace. It's a great solution to have such extra value alongside your "normal" HP so that you will not depend on your current ingame health-situation. Well, partially. If the bar runs down to 0, you will not only be thrown out of Cyberspace or AR, additionally all current "hacking" progress is disrupted and also you'll get a physical damage of 50.
Focus decreases very fast and there's no way to restore more than 25% of your max capacity (unless you are accordingly dressed up) so you are sometimes forced to use stimulatia, which are not cheap. Otherwise, you must continuesly return to the places where you can fill it up for free again, which will become a common opportunity during later missions.

The third mechanic worth of notice is the Cyborg Implants, which allow reaching places inaccessible before. Some of them are required for your progress, others are extremely powerful. Implants are expensive and you do only have very limited space for them, so you must think carefully which to take. Considering that, it's a pity that you cannot exchange them. It is worth of notice however that a change on that would cause the same trouble as we have with the ability upgrades: Sudden loss of opportunities, which equals punishment for the player.

Difficulty

9/10 possible points

All that I have to say about the difficulty is: It's acceptable. Challenging at some parts, but overall fair to handle. As mentioned at the Cyberspace-Section, those parts are sometimes tricky, unless you have all of the related upgrades or some items, because then you'll grind through the chambers with the ease a knife goes through butter. A fairly similar behaviour can be made out for the combat. Some opponents really take a lot of damage before they finally get down, but with the EuroForce Battlerig, which I will get to again later, you can nearly avoid all the damage, what pretty much spoils the fun.

The difficulty is generally adjustable between two options, which even can be done within a single savepoint so you must never face the issue that the game will eventually be too hard to beat or too easy to complete once you started. But I am certainly unsure what the effects of that switch are exactly.

The final battle (without taking anything ahead) is thrilling, but it's real difficulty shows off in frustration rather than as a challenge. Once begun, the sequence seems to take forever, especially as the only thing you can really do is to dodge an fire back constantly.

Takedowns are a nice option to avoid close combat, but you have to be just on time to perform them. They work as an instant kill, but you can rarely use them, logically. I like the variations becoming possible through that option.

Freedom from bugs

10/10 possible points

I didn't encounter any problems. Some of the dialog has not been translated, but that does not affect the game, as long as you are fluent in English (which does generally truly help with gaming). The NPCs act reasonably and the mechanics work fine. Throughout, Dex seems to have been polished more than once before release. The inventory is sometimes a bit glitchy when the player is trying to select items by mousewheel, but I think that a result of gameplay optimization. To be honest, all aforementioned observations are purely minor glitches, mostly physical irregularities, so they are better to ignore as they won't decrease the gaming experience in any way when not being attended.

Voice acting

10/10 possible points

One of the things I like best. Like previously said on "Psychological chracter design", the dialog is well scripted and the voice actors did a fantastic roll and did their best in reaching a succesfull execution. And the result is more than acceptable: Emotions are recognizable, the tones match, volume is under control, everything has been adjusted to neither be overpronounced nor the opposite. Each person leaves their own characteristic at pronounciation, choice of words, accentuation. Nearly all the voices are clear to separate, so in fact, everything's perfect. Even Dex has her own voice, although it's usually not heard.

So far there's only an English voiceover, unless you download the free addon which will enable Czech speaking. I am fine with that selection and in no need for more, but it would still be great to see some more in the future.

DLC

10/10 possible points

For those I have a lot to point out. I will go over every single additional content seperately.

Soundtrack 10/10 possible points:
Since this one has already its own chapter I will only once more recommend you to purchase it. If you like some synthetic orchestra you will enjoy, but if your taste is different the themes might be of interest whenever you should desire calming down or creating some atmoshere. It's price tag of 4,99€ is usually not reduced by much even during special offers, but if you have the money left go for it, best in bundle with the game if you happen to not possess a cop yet. There will some themes be missing in your library, but those are forgettable and surely none of the extraordinary ones. The mixing and tracklist constellation is, in my opinion, better than as heard in the game.

Extra Outfts DLC 9/10 possible points:

This DLC is free. So what are you waiting for? Seriously, it:s a must! How could you play Dex without?

The contents we get here is probably more exiting than some expensive DLCs we've seen in other areas. To explain to you why that is, I will first list the content and then discuss some popular arguments on the subject.

This DLC will reward you with:

• A brand new location right at the industrial quarter, where you can find an underground machine which will craft your suits like an overdimensioned 3D-printer
  
• Three new sidequests involving the schemes for the suits which must first be obtained from various hideouts. You need to solve the hints given by certain new collectibles to unlock your gift.
  
• Obviously, the suits, the Extra Outfits. Each grants the player a unique skill which cannot be obtained in any other way. These skills can be found on the store page or in-game, but in case you missed them out, I will briefly explain underneath. This would be:
  
  The "Euroforce Battlerig" which is the "combat gear". You will gain the power to reflect incoming bullets so that they won't hit you. All you need to do for to trigger the shield is to block as you do in common melee. The protection will expire when you attack by yourself but as long you hold you can only be hit by unlockable punches.
  
  The "Samio Cyberwear", the companion to choose for hacking missions. You are given the exclusive ability to restore your entire focus over time, without having to use any stimuatia or going to a terminal. It takes a while to charge up completely but whenever you'll have to enter the AR or Cyberspace somewhere, this suit will definitely pay off.
  
  The "Armagear InvisiSuit", where the name should bring it all to the point. This suit will make you invisible, so that enemies cannot detect you, which is helpful for exploration of unvisited areas. You won't have to use the implant which can make you invisible temporarily, just stand still for a few seconds and you'll disappear. Of course, Dex won't be off screen, as one can notice the silouette, but unless you talk to them or start fighting you stay hidden from enemies. Not even leaving the area will make your camouflage expire.

Unlike upgrades and implants you can only use one outfit at once and it is impossible to carry any more with you to balance the whole thing. As already noted by other users, not only the abilities are great, the suits' look in game is already cool enough to try them out.

Why do I now give nine instead of ten points for this, you might ask. As impressive the additional content is, they can be considered overpowered. For example, take the invisibility implant. Once you have the suits that implant becomes obsolete. In comparison, it's not only expensive but also less effective as the implant will consume an item that can be used one time and hides you for 8 seconds per use, in contrast to the free suit which effect lasts as long as you wear it. Now it's time to quote from a review that I've seen, "wearing the suits feels like cheating" and I can relate to that. I mean, it is usefull but still kind of too strong to reduce damage by guns to zero. So it feels for avoidance of having to purchase Neurostimulatia but instead to automatically regaining your focus when wearing a suit. Arguably, if you are disturbed by the massive advantage, you must not even make use of the extras.

But still, it is amazing expansion-pack, especially if you think about that it's completely free of charge.

The Full Czech Voice Acting 10/10 points:

At this part I'd like to link my individual review, but instead I'll prefer to re-write what I said about the english voice acting: Great made. Plus, giving fewer than all the points for a free pack full with entirely translated dialog, the massiveness of which should not be underestimated, would be unfair against the team from Dreadlocks who took the effort unpayed. I mean, once again, it's free.

For us English-speakers this DLC might be useless or at least not neccessary, but for native Czech-speakers that's more than player-friendly.

How awesome of the developers!

Achievements

8/10 possible points
As an achievement collector, it will be hard to keep this chapter short.

The achievements are quite regular. You have to get behind some, but once you figured out how to, they are quite easy to gain. For some I would say that they are a bit too easy to achieve, the others are good. I scored a few completely unexpectedly, but I don't want to call it random as I got rewarded for my choices or the time I spent on eploration.

The hidden achievements are surprisingly easy, some can be guessed by reading the name, the rest is, as just mentioned, usually a reward for actual playing the game, finding secrets, visiting all the locations, using the mechanics correctly or simply making progress.

There's no achievement I would consider to be actually hard, some are tricky but nothing apart from that. The number of achievements is okay, although I would like to see some more actions or events rewarded. The easier achievements could require more effort and some are weird (elevator pitch), but those are obligatory to trick the player a little.

Anyways, what I really miss are achievements for the DLC, that would be awesome to see, I wonder why there aren't any.

Innovation?

8/10 possible points

The point of this chapter is to determine if at all and in how far Dex is a unique game and has creative content never seen like this before.

To answer the question: Sure, Dex is a mixture of multiple things already seen before. Whether it is for the world, for the design, for the mechanics, for the story... All nothing new. But the mix does it. And it does really well. Furthermore, the abilities are individual for this game but overall remind us of other RPG. The thing is: What could have been different? I don't know the answer.

Now when saying that a game doesn't have to deliver all new stuff then I am half lying because of course a game which seems a lot familiar isn't any fun to be played. Fortunately Dex is not one of those.

The idea with the AR is for example really creative and so is the hacking, also if neither resample nothing but a top-down-shooter minigame. The general idea of hacking is also not a new one but is well integrated into Dex and by that still quite unique.

In fact, Dex is indeed an innovative game, but with common features. That doesn't really matter since possibilities are of course limited to what is technically possible and practically entertaining. I would sum up that Dex feels familiar but still unknown the same time, as the implementation of popular game mechanics into a newly created context does essentially make up innovation.

Others

All the remaining thoughts I have will be found here, but they will not undergo a rating.

For the first time I have to take ahead a little bit of the storyline, but I will cover it so that you don't have to see it accidentely.
The final fight did not only feel uncreative and was lasting too long, I also didn't like the fact that it is a hacking task. As one obligatory "boss fight", I'd wish to see one against a human or cyborg opponent outside of the Alternative Reality, so that you once have to combine your best melee skills and tactics to defeat him. But for that one you then shouldn't be able to use the BattleRig from the DLC. It just provides too much advantage.

I've already spoken about DLC-related achievements before. Since it's free for everyone it would be in no way unfair to add one or two for it. How about the "DIY-Hardware" achievement for comleting the quest with the same name? Or a hidden one, which requires you to actually use all the suits?

Now I'd like to talk about defense. I simply want to make clear that I don't see it as unfair to have the ability of reducing all damage to zero. I say this because of two things: For first, your opponents can do the same so that you can't hurt them, secondly, both you and your opponents can use attacks you/they must dodge to avoid the damage. Blocking does not work there. The only negative point to mention here would be, again, the DLC, which contains the BattleRig your enemies can't use, so that you are clearly in advantage.

The very last thing I have in mind is the pricing. Is Dex worth the money?
Let's face it, my answer should already be obvious... Yes. Dex is even worth more than the money they want. But let's keep it at the current rate, not to upset the customers. For the same reason I will not claim that the DLC could add up a little sum. It is also not worth to mention that the soundtrack is at a perfect pricing. I cannot wait for more content or even a sequel/prequel I can purchase. I mean it.

Conclusion/Final score

Do I even have to say anything more? As you've probably seen I have never been giving less then 80% all the time, so my final score would also not be lower. I will still add one. At this point once again, one last time, let me say that

Dex is one of the best games I ever played. You have not only recommend you but more than that ask you to give the game a try.

If you don't want to pay the full price for it, then you don't have to. There's even a free demo available, go try it and then think as I do. You will, hopefully.

Here's the final score which will be exactly the one you have expected all the time. For now, that would be enough, understandably. Thanks for your time and support!


97/100
10/10
5/5

Questions and Answers

If I receive good questions about the review or the game by someone of you in the comments, I might use them to continue this page, if the respective poster isn't against it. I will then also show his/her username near the question, like this: "[username]'s question: [question]" If you don't want me to do so feel free to privately message me. I usually accept friend request but I'd prefer you notifying me that your message is concerning this review. Thanks for your cooperation!

Question: Why did you do this?

Answer: I had the feeling that for Dex I should take the effort. (My aim is to get this game and it's upsides closer to the playerbase, which most of them have never heard of Dex. I want Dex to become more popular. That's it, basically.)

Question: You are conscious of the fact that each of this review's categories is as extensive as an average single review, aren't you?

Answer: Yes, I am. That's why I had to form a guide.

Question: Why Dex?

Answer: Next to "Life is Strange" Dex is the Steam game which EVER amazed me the most, with the difference that Dex carried more things into my mind than any other game did before, as you should have got by now.

Question: Is it okay if I don't read all of this?

Answer: Of course it is! That's why I did the categories, so you can only read what is important to you. In case you're interested, I must admit that I also wouldn't read it all if I wasn't the author. So don't worry. Everyone, me included, can assume that all seen here is way to much to read at once.

Question: How long did this take you?

Answer: Approximately 5-6 hours plus an additional 8 hours for the major language update. The typing itself about took 90% of that time, the rest is understanding on how to make a steam guide and (re-)formating.

Question: Why did you waste that much time if you could just have given a thumb up?

Answer: Because I am insane. And bored. Insanely bored. For real now; this is a nice excercise to improve my writing, spelling and language skills.

Question: Will you do such a review annother time?

Answer: Chances are low, but I might. I haven't planned on doing so again, but this will depend on my future mood and of course on which games I'll play. In case I'll get into one among them which gives me the feeling I that I'd have to make such lengthy review once more than I will.

Question: Do I have to rate your fake guide or your review linking here?

Answer: Best you do both. But of course that's up to you!

Question: WHAT?

Answer: See, if you think I am crazy, that is perfectly fine. I made this because it was fun to do and if you don't like it that's okay to me.

Question: Wait, why did I now read all this?

Answer: Because you enjoyed it.

Author's annotations

Coming in the future:

Screenshots

Major language update completed on 21st Feb. 2020

[Aelfwine]

Yes, I meant replay, sorry! In the meanwhile I enjoyed it a lot (again) and finally got all the achievements. Thank you again for this epic review and for keeping alive this gem!

[Titanic21]

Happy to hear that! I guess you meant "replay" instead of "reply" as you said? Else, I am happy to be responded by you. Sorry for not seeing this until just now.

[Aelfwine]

I agree with your enthusiastic guide. I am about to reply this cyberpunk masterpiece after reading your in-deep review! Thank you for the effort.

[Titanic21]

@

I am delighted to be the recipient of the inglorious comment of yours. I am honest when claiming it to be the nicest, most creative and funniest comment that I ever received.

I wish you beautiful days to come and once again, be aware of my sincerest gratitude.

[Titanic21]

Major language update is life.

Sorry for the wait.

I have truly no idea why this has been so bad before.

[Titanic21]

I am very pleased to hear that from you! In case you are interested, I am currently reworkig this review, especially in terms of language.

I donated a few PS4 copies to my friends, of whom only 1 actually played it and then complained about the gameplay.

So it really makes me happy to make the acquaintance of yours, who is also convinced that Dex is a highly underappreciated title.

[Victoria The Bluehaired]

Always good to see a person that was fascinated by the game so much that they desperately want to discuss it and share with others. I liked Dex very much too, though I don't think I will make it to writing the long review ^_^. The game is not outstanding for me, it's on the same level as Deus Ex, though for an indie game from a small team being next to Deus Ex in my heart is a real achievement :D

[Titanic21]

You will like it! And don't forget to buy the soundtrack ;)

Thanks for your support!
You're welcome!!!

[iCameHereForTheMusic]

Nice guide review. Very informative and helped me decide whether to buy it or not. I'm a sucker for games with good music and/or atmosphere. Also it runs on my garbage laptop. So far so good.

[Titanic21]

Thanks for the recommendation.