Deus Ex: Human Revolution Review and Gameplay

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a brilliant game that satisfies all but the most obstinate of Deus Ex fans. Featuring a full, convincing, dynamic story line, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is definitely a strong contender for Game of the Year.

You play as Adam Jensen, an ex-SWAT Team member who currently works at Sarif Industries as the Security Manager.  Sarif Industries is a bio-tech corporation primarily focused on the research and development of human body augmentations.   There has been some concern by the general population over the morality of developing augmentations, especially since the largest patron of human augmentation corporations is the military.  As a group of top researchers at Sarif Industries prepare to unveil a game-changing discovery at a press conference in Washington DC, an elite covert ops team breaks into the facility and kidnaps the scientists while simultaneously destroying all remnants of their research.

 

Gameplay is similar to the original Deus Ex in that you are able to complete a given task or mission in numerous different ways.  For example, if you need to get through a door with a security system, you could accomplish this goal by hacking the system, by looking for a pocket secretary with the password, or by looking for some other way into the room (an air vent is the most typical alternative route).  How you go about solving various problems has an effect on the plot–your actions actually do have consequences.  Also, the developers have put a ton of emphasis on the dialogue in the game.  Key events can only be unlocked if you successfully complete a dialogue tree and convince the NPC to give away whatever it is you want.

In those somewhat rare events where you actually do engage the enemy in combat, your ammo is limited–much more so than in the original game.  The variety of weapons is pretty good–you have standard combat rifles and snipers, and then you also have crossbows and plasma rifles.  You can even turn yourself into a weapon by getting the Typhoon Explosion System and indiscriminately firing ball bearings out of your back and arms.

The augmentation system is a bit different in this game.  In the original, experience points went towards upgrades in skills such as rifle or pistol or lockpick, and then you had to find augmentation canisters to upgrade your augmentations.  In Human Revolution, experience points get lumped together into Praxis Kits, which you then use to directly activate or upgrade an augmentation.  Some of the skills from the first game got converted into augmentations–hacking, for example.  This system is a bit of a departure from the more classic RPG style of the original’s experience system; some may like it, but I found myself wanting the upgrade system implemented in the original game.

Graphics: The game is optimized for ATI graphics cards, featuring full AMD 3D support, Eyefinity and multi-monitor setups. Deus Ex: Human Revolution supports DirectX 11 and features some pretty nice graphics, as well as tessellation.  This is not to say the game will work poorly on Nvidia Graphics Cards. While the graphics aren’t cutting-edge, the level design and fluidity of the game definitely make up for it.  The detail that goes into creating the atmosphere of each city is just mind-blowing.  The cut-scenes for conversation can be a bit unnatural since the NPC’s often make a very limited number of gestures that feel extremely robotic and inorganic.  However, while you’re actually playing, the NPC’s seem to move in a very natural way (guards even change the pace at which they walk, take a break to smoke, etc), and overall the world is so well designed that the game ends up being very immersive.

 

Story: The storyline of Deus Ex: Human Revolution takes Adam to some extremely unique and well-designed cities, such as Hong Kong, Detroit, Montreal, and Singapore.  While you’re in these different cities, you’re free to explore and embark on side quests. The game gives you so much freedom of choice, and the choices you make will affect how NPC’s react to and talk to you, which can in turn affect the outcome of conversations–and the outcome of key events.  There are a few moments where the game script feels like it’s pushing you one way or another, where it feels a little too easy to guess the outcome of a certain action you take.  However, for the most part the game doesn’t feel too predictable, and it’s so easy to get caught up in your moment to moment goals that you can occasionally lose sight of the bigger picture, which makes certain events all the more surprising.

I do have to talk (briefly) about the boss fights.  They are an unavoidable part of the story, and, unlike in the original game, you are obligated to actually kill each and every boss.  This feels like a concession to the console community, since this game otherwise feels PC-oriented.  These boss battles really make things tough if you’ve played the entire game as a stealthy, no-kill character.  Also, the actions of the bosses are unfortunately easy to predict; they have a very limited range of potential moves, and they aren’t creative fighters.  This means that it’s all too easy to just beat them by either (spoiler) letting them blow themselves up (/spoiler) or by methodically repeating the same action over and over again as you gradually chisel away at their health.

Other than the boss battles, though, the gameplay and the story sync up quite well so that you can essentially customize your path through the events in the story line.

Over all, Deus Ex: Human Revolution was an amazing prequel to the first game, and a really fun way to spend the last week or so of summer vacation.  I have high hopes for any future additions to the Deus Ex game series.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution © Square Enix LTD, 2010, Deus Ex, The Deus Ex Logo, Eidos, The Eidos Logo, and the Eidos Montreal Logo are Trademarks of Square Enix LTD, Square Enix and the Square Enix Logo are Registered Trademarks or Square Enix Holdings Co. LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

This Review was written by Nate, featuring content by Revan and LittleViking.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution Review and Gameplay, 9.5 out of 10 based on 2 ratings

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