//So a new Deus Ex demo video aired tonight - and i think its the 1st time i (atleast) got a good look at the game's heads up display.
In short i personally think the hud is clearly lacking still (kudos though to the fact that the decs are bringing back the inventory).
Seriously though, the HUD graphics could've been ALOT tighter, now i was a huge fan of the Assassin's Creed hud which brought together the style of the ANIMUS and kept a firm grasp on the player.
Deus Ex does nothing new here, it seems the devs have gone with a complete lifeless hud that does nothing to pull the player into the world.
Communication between the player and for example the NPC in the top corner is SO sterile and unstylish that it borders on the cringeworthy as far as visual design goes.
The map also has nothing at all going for it - the information icons are forgettable, there's no level map even and a viewing cone would be nice.
Again the hud falls short, because its design (black and yellow with soft corners) have been done a MILLION times, i would've really loved to see a hud mimick the sarif industries stuff, makes us feel like we're really an advanced bio-enhanced super agent - the hud so far looks as if it was design for use on touch screens at the airport.
A HUGE question still remains, before we see the game shipped, will it get proximity and detection feedback, right now when you're discovered by enemy npcs you don't have any feedback like in Crysis or other FPS games that has a sneaking element, nor does it have visual feedback for showing the player if he/she is in shadows/hiding.
Generally its just sloppy 'consoly' design and i hope it gets way better once we're closer to August//
I did a quick mockup of my own then to see if i could spice up the HUD, this took 30 minutes or so, so its rough.
Notice even the small things as instead of spelling out the player 'PICKED UP 1 story piece' element or 'PICKED UP XX amount of ammo' i stayed within an 'hacking' sort of style, where words get shortened or presented in a UNIX looking command line.
I didnt bother setting up a 'real' additive layer with the hud elements but i think it gets the point across.
And here's the heads up displays gathered from the original and sequel.
Deus Ex original
Deus Ex 2
