Deus Ex: Human Revolution Review

Deus Ex. For many, this title brings up one of two thoughts. Either Deus Ex Machina, or “god in the machine” An 11 year old pc game, that similar to Half Life, Legend of Zelda, and man others; people worship with the title “Best game ever”.

Was it? Well, this isn’t the time, nor the place to discuss the original. Might we have that time in a future review? Of course, everyone loves retro reviews. It’s a way of experiencing old games without actually going out to get a copy yourself.  Instead, it’s time to review Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the first game by game studio Eidos Montreal. The company known to own so many varying studios, that every game holds a unique level of quality that fluctuates so frequently you’d almost forget they even know each other’s names.

 

 

Now. Human Revolution. I’ll be honest, it’s going to be hard to review this game without spoiling the game at all. I’ll avoid spoilers at my best for the main storyline, however I may mention a sidequest or two for specific examples. Don’t worry however, I won’t include anything that will ruin the entire sidequest.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution opens up with you playing as Adam Jenson, security chief of Sarif Industries and ex-SWAT team member. It opens with a rather calm air, and for the first seven minutes or so, I thought it would actually be a while before I got my implants.  You go through a Sarif Industries test lab, seeing various augments being tested. A pair of legs running on a treadmill, the Typhoon, and various other references to the future of prosthetics.

 

 

At the end of your shift however? Things go down, and you quickly find yourself bleeding to death on the ground. Between the very start and this point, a small intro occurs, giving you the option to view video tutorials or skip them and move on in case you already know what to do. As a plus, all of these tutorial do not lock up your game, and just ask you to stand in a spot then hold the back or select button till a video plays.  That’s right, no obstructive tutorials for Deus Ex.

 

 

Gameplay

Following your augmentation, you get to the real, augmented gameplay, and everything starts to shine. Although not customizable visually like the hero of many other games, Adam can be customized internally. Do you see a ledge you want to reach, but can’t get up there? Improve his legs and jump three times as high. A hole in a chain link fence behind a garbage bin? Upgrade your strength and give the bin a nice shove across the alleyway.

 

 

Do you like breaking levels? Do you think these augments will give you a chance to do that? No, they won’t. After my fourth play through, I have yet to figure out how to actually beat the level in a way the developers didn’t intend. A booby trapped doorway that will lock and set up a bomb? Sneak through the vent and get to the bomb, or find the code on a terrorist to rush in and disable it. Every possible solution, is intended. Did you get on the roof of a seven story building and sneak into gang territory? That wasn’t you getting above to an area you shouldn’t be, the outside air vents got placed there for a reason.

 

 

Even if it isn’t enough to warrant a sale on its own, this alone should show you the replay ability its offering.  Stealth, Climbing, Going Rambo with a chaingun, all of these are possible. Complete with achievements for finishing the game without setting off a single alarm, ala Metal Gear Solid, they want to reward the extreme.

Complete a level without a single kill, and maybe a snarky comment about letting terrorists live will come to your ear. Or perhaps you carelessly walked through, and let a hostage get killed, prepare to be reprimanded even a week later in the games storyline.

 

 

In fact, the only complaint I can find about this entire idea of doing whatever you want? It makes the game TOO easy. My first play through was on “Give me Deus Ex”, the hardest difficulty currently available in the game. Even with that, I found the game a relative breeze as long as I kept two praxis points (the game’s upgrade currency) on me at all times. With them, I could easily fix a situation I was stuck on. On top of that? The AI relaxes a bit too easily.  I just shot your friend in the head, his freshly dead corpse is two feet from you and you saw me run inside a vent, perhaps you might still be in danger.

 

 

If you can ignore the small AI issues however, you’ll find it isn’t that dumb. A squad leader will take control and inform everyone. They’ll split up in teams of two, and start to stick together if they get picked off one by one. It does feel like playing against human opponents when it works correctly.

 

 

Story

I’ll be straight with you from the get go. If your coming here expecting a story you’ll fully understand if you skip the occasional dialogue, stop playing right now. This isn’t Call of Duty or Borderlands, there is NO clear objective from start to finish. In fact, your original mission to find a hacker ends before the first third of the game, and leads to something much, much bigger. This? I won’t spoil, but if you’re a veteran of the series you have at least some idea of what is going to happen.

 

 

However for the side quests? The same treatment. You may be introduced to sidequests before they even come to fruition. My first time in Sarif Industries with my augments, I was hacking computers and seeing talk of drugs being stolen from the lab. Later in the game? Someone came to my office asking for help about the same issue.

It wasn’t even the standard “Kill this guy” side quest either. I was instructed to break into an apartment building and steal footage to protect someone. Of course, this did end with me punching a guy.

 

 

Over all, this is the first time in a current gen game I found myself doing one thing. Doing, all, the, sidequests. Never before has a game kept me so engaged that I want to finish every single sidequest. It has nothing to do with praxis points (one of your many rewards), or with achievements. No, the story itself, for every sidequest is so well done you’d think it was suppose to be a tie in to the main story.

This story? It excels.

 

 

Fun

Fun has to be its best factor, don’t get me wrong, it’s not flawless. However, it does know what the player wants. In RPGs like Oblivion, if a quest giver made you angry, you couldn’t do a thing about it. However, here? In Deus Ex? If that guy asking for your help with the drug charges pisses you off? A quick press of the B button results in his face meeting the concrete.

Although it does suffer a hit for no Newgame+, if played right, you shouldn’t need one. By the end of the game I had almost every augment upgraded, as well as three guns pretty well of. However even with all of this, I never found myself taking the title of “God of Death”. I could slaughter any enemy, if I thought things out. Guy with a helmet, use my sub machine gun? Or my pistol with armor piercing rounds, it added a strategy that I found fun, instead of pointless gameplay features.

 

 

Graphics

Finally, we get to the unfortunate focus so many gamers have on graphics.

The original Deus Ex was not a pretty game. Not by a long shot. Featuring low detail models and blocky level design, it was ugly, but it made up for that in gameplay and storyline.

How does DE:HR fare, may you ask? I’m happy to report that although you won’t find Crysis 2 level graphics under this game’s hood, it easily bests games such as Call of Duty in the graphics department. The only part they fail? Happens to be the faces. Mouths seem a little unanimated, and some characters reactions seem to be painted on instead of their current emotion.

 

 

One example is the Desk Sergeant inside the police station. Although I won’t spoil anything, put it this way. This man hates you. However, even when if you happen to turn his opinion around, he still looks like he sat in something. It’s the game’s one flaw, and is most likely a required shortcut to fit the game on consoles.

Other than that? Everything that should shine, does shine. Everything that should stay dark, stays dark. No inappropriately glowing rocks, no jeans that reflect light like leather, this world looks beautifully crafted. Infact, with the announcement of the new Deus Ex clothing line, I think I may have a nice trench coat to buy, if it looks anything like Jenson’s.

 

 

Bugs

This, entirely depends on which version your playing. For the PC gamer? I can’t speak from experience but I’ve heard some nasty rumors, and would advise you hold off for a week or two until they can patch the apparent crashes that are all too common.

 

For Xbox or Playstation however? Feel free to get it. I experienced ONE glitch my entire gameplay. I was tasked to find the truth about a murder report and why someone felt it was ‘handled badly’. I also that same run, ended up having to shoot up the police station due to bad choices I made. This resulted in me killing a man I had to talk to about the case, and when I went to complete the quest, after telling them about the other 3 things I found, my game locked up. I was sent into an endless loop of the two of them repeating random lines from other parts of the quest, with a reload just yielding the same results.

 

 

By the time you read this review? I expect this to be patched, and if not, it may even be a unique experience to my own game.

Verdict

Everything in me wants to say 5 / 5. It does. No, not from fanboyism about the first game, but because it feels the developers hit it out of the park. For their first release on this studio? I am amazed. However, with the AI problems? and that rather harsh glitche in questlines (Hey, it was an achievement, how dare they prevent me from obtaining it!)?

 

 

This game, a solid, and definitely worth your money. I already know I’m hammering for the DLC which has been hinted at over the last few days, and will continue playing the game daily for a while. Still more to find for me.

You won’t find a Deus Ex Machina in this game, however you will find a true Human Revolution. (Plus you win my favor if you didn’t have to Wikipedia this)

 

Gamer 2 Gamer’s Final Score 4.5 / 5

 

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