Let me start out by saying that Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a really good game. A sci-fi actioner set in a fully realised world which tackles current and relevant issues, while remaining totally accessible throughout. I might even class it as one of my favourite titles of the year. I might, only there’s one thing hampering my overall enjoyment of the game - Adam Jensen is a boring pinhead. Quite literally.

Deus Ex definitely looks the part. It’s an intriguing world full of shimmering surfaces, increasingly eerie shadows and constantly scary tech. Then in the middle of it all stands our protagonist, Adam Jensen. It’s like someone hocked a loogie in the middle of a classic Monet, and as the game continues to progress and improve, Jensen is still stuck there dribbling down the canvas, permanently damaging it.

When you break it down, Jensen is just a victim of poor character design. He’s essentially an amalgamation of Solid Snake, Jack Bauer, and Neo, giving birth to a horrible Frankenstein of a character. Add to the fact he’s constantly donning head-mounted sunglasses, and you’ve got a little of Duke Nukem in there too. Sunglasses at Night would fit right into the soundtrack.

At one point during my play through of the game, someone asked if it was Clint Eastwood’s voice they were hearing. I found this to be quite an insult to the legendary actor/director, as it's clearly Solid Snake’s voice that is being ripped off. Jensen has a voice quite similar to Snake’s. It’s gruff and coarse, like he’s forever smoking special cigarettes with cloaking augmentations. The Snake like elements not only come in the form of Jensen’s voice, but the general way in which he carries himself. When he throws out one-liners and quips his affliction never changes, like some sort of horrible alt-comic cyborg. A trait Snake himself has always possessed. Add to this his stealth wardrobe and you’re getting awfully close to an Asylum level of imitation.

At one point during the game an old cop buddy of Jensen’s approaches him with a possible side-mission. Once you complete it and head back to the guy, he thanks Jensen and says that they should hit up a bar some time. Really? This heavily augmented killing machine with the voice of a sex offender is going to grab a beer and watch the game with his Nervous Nelly of a friend? Call me crazy, but I can’t quite envision the likes of Jensen chilling in a futuristic bar, chatting about celebrity poontang as he chugs on a Bud. It’s these quieter moments when they try and inject some personality and depth in to the character that he comes across looking the most stupid. It’s when the Jack Bauer in him hits me. I half expect him to be travelling in the chopper with Malik when he suddenly breaks down, sobbing gently in to the camera, overwhelmed by the sheer intensity of it all. Trying to present Jensen as both inscrutable and vulnerable just doesn’t work; it defeats the very purpose of his intimidating presence.

So where does Neo come in to play? Simple really, in the out-dated costume design. Apparently people still associate long jackets and leather pants with the future. Okay, so I’ll admit it’s a technique that kind of works. It even looks pretty badass in the pre-rendered short they released during the game’s promotional campaign. However, in game it is so very, very distracting. This is due in part to the fact that Jensen’s jacket simply doesn’t fit him. Remember when you attended prom and you had to rent out a tux? Of course you waited until the last minute so all the popular sizes were gone, and you were left with an outfit that didn’t quite hang properly. Well, for whatever reason Jensen kept a hold of his prom tux, and people refuse to tell him that he needs to let go of his high school years. The shoulder pads in this thing are massive, giving Jensen the impression of someone who has had a shrink ray used on their head, in hope that it will make them stealthier, as they couldn’t quite splurge for the cloaking augmentation.

Add to this that he has one of the most lackluster names in sci-fi and you have one very dull hero on your hands. To be honest, I think the moment I entered his apartment and found out his hobby was advanced clock building is when it all came to a head. Are you Adam Jensen of Mister Geppetto?

Let me start out by saying that Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a really good game. A sci-fi actioner set in a fully realised world which tackles current and relevant issues, while remaining totally accessible throughout. I might even class it as one of my favourite titles of the year. I might, only there’s one thing hampering my overall enjoyment of the game - Adam Jensen is a boring pinhead. Quite literally.

Deus Ex definitely looks the part. It’s an intriguing world full of shimmering surfaces, increasingly eerie shadows and constantly scary tech. Then in the middle of it all stands our protagonist, Adam Jensen. It’s like someone hocked a loogie in the middle of a classic Monet, and as the game continues to progress and improve, Jensen is still stuck there dribbling down the canvas, permanently damaging it.

When you break it down, Jensen is just a victim of poor character design. He’s essentially an amalgamation of Solid Snake, Jack Bauer, and Neo, giving birth to a horrible Frankenstein of a character. Add to the fact he’s constantly donning head-mounted sunglasses, and you’ve got a little of Duke Nukem in there too. Sunglasses at Night would fit right into the soundtrack.

At one point during my play through of the game, someone asked if it was Clint Eastwood’s voice they were hearing. I found this to be quite an insult to the legendary actor/director, as it's clearly Solid Snake’s voice that is being ripped off. Jensen has a voice quite similar to Snake’s. It’s gruff and coarse, like he’s forever smoking special cigarettes with cloaking augmentations. The Snake like elements not only come in the form of Jensen’s voice, but the general way in which he carries himself. When he throws out one-liners and quips his affliction never changes, like some sort of horrible alt-comic cyborg. A trait Snake himself has always possessed. Add to this his stealth wardrobe and you’re getting awfully close to an Asylum level of imitation.

At one point during the game an old cop buddy of Jensen’s approaches him with a possible side-mission. Once you complete it and head back to the guy, he thanks Jensen and says that they should hit up a bar some time. Really? This heavily augmented killing machine with the voice of a sex offender is going to grab a beer and watch the game with his Nervous Nelly of a friend? Call me crazy, but I can’t quite envision the likes of Jensen chilling in a futuristic bar, chatting about celebrity poontang as he chugs on a Bud. It’s these quieter moments when they try and inject some personality and depth in to the character that he comes across looking the most stupid. It’s when the Jack Bauer in him hits me. I half expect him to be travelling in the chopper with Malik when he suddenly breaks down, sobbing gently in to the camera, overwhelmed by the sheer intensity of it all. Trying to present Jensen as both inscrutable and vulnerable just doesn’t work; it defeats the very purpose of his intimidating presence.

So where does Neo come in to play? Simple really, in the out-dated costume design. Apparently people still associate long jackets and leather pants with the future. Okay, so I’ll admit it’s a technique that kind of works. It even looks pretty badass in the pre-rendered short they released during the game’s promotional campaign. However, in game it is so very, very distracting. This is due in part to the fact that Jensen’s jacket simply doesn’t fit him. Remember when you attended prom and you had to rent out a tux? Of course you waited until the last minute so all the popular sizes were gone, and you were left with an outfit that didn’t quite hang properly. Well, for whatever reason Jensen kept a hold of his prom tux, and people refuse to tell him that he needs to let go of his high school years. The shoulder pads in this thing are massive, giving Jensen the impression of someone who has had a shrink ray used on their head, in hope that it will make them stealthier, as they couldn’t quite splurge for the cloaking augmentation.

Add to this that he has one of the most lackluster names in sci-fi and you have one very dull hero on your hands. To be honest, I think the moment I entered his apartment and found out his hobby was advanced clock building is when it all came to a head. Are you Adam Jensen of Mister Geppetto?

His sunglasses are not sunglasses. They are his HUD. Making them opaque conceals the information being displayed.

His experiences after his time as a cop are what have turned him in to this stone-cold killer. The dialogue with the old cop buddy give us an insight into what he was like before he was put through the wringer.

Long trenchcoats are a key facet of the cyberpunk aesthetic, which is what Deus Ex is specifically going for.

I actually agree with most. His being very inscrutable is a key part of that character (any cyberpunk protagonist really), and so showing his human side is kind of off-putting. They do a good job of it before his augments, but after I want him being cerebral and emotionally closed.

The jacket is weird, it doesn't look like it fits. I'll play continuity advocate and say maybe it has something to do with his shoulder augments. Maybe the coat lets his metal plates shift comfortably without tearing or stretching the fabric.

"It's like someone hocked a loogie on a classic Monet." I chuckled, even though calling Human Revolution a Monet is a bit of a stretch. Yeah, Jensen is definitely a boilerplate tough guy action hero but I'm pretty sure this was by design. When designing an RPG, writers have to make a choice: you can have a character with no personality that the player fills with their own or you can have a character with a pre-determined set of traits. With the way Deus Ex is designed, it makes more sense for the character to be a costume for the player to role-play in. The problem is, the writers also wanted to go for a complex story about transhumanism and put the player at the heart of it; trying to make you sympathize with Mr. Scarecrow.

Think about how well JC Denton worked in the original Deus Ex. He was robotic, stiff, and generally devoid of any kind of character but it worked. The story wasn't about JC, it was about You. Human Revolution just made the mistake of writing the story around "Jensen" without really writing a Jensen.

I couldn't disagree more. Maybe Adam's voice wasn't the best choice for the character, but the rest of his personality is pretty well developed. From your post, I believe that you didn't really get what the game was about. For example, his jacket is more than a fashion statement: it's used to further conceal his augmentations. Or his sunglasses, as @StarvingGamer said.

@Lukster said:

[...] as it's clearly Solid Snake’s voice that is being ripped off. [...] Add to this his stealth wardrobe and you’re getting awfully close to an Asylum level of imitation.

Did you just want to make a funny reference or are you seriously saying that Deus Ex: Human Revolution is the video game equivalent of Transmorphers? Because if you're serious, then I was wrong: I can disagree more. Besides, I guess Christian Bale is ripping off Solid Snake too, right?

@Lukster said:

Call me crazy, but I can’t quite envision the likes of Jensen chilling in a futuristic bar, chatting about celebrity poontang as he chugs on a Bud. [...] Trying to present Jensen as both inscrutable and vulnerable just doesn’t work; it defeats the very purpose of his intimidating presence.

The constant struggle between human and machine is one of the central elements of the game. Whether you make Adam an unstoppable killing machine, a pacifist that never kills a fly or just a dude with cool limbs but no perks at all is up to you. Trust me on this one, I've done it. I got both Foxiest of Hounds and Pacifist on my first run through the game and played The Missing Link DLC using no agumentation points at all. And the games were awesome, I never felt I was missing anything. In fact, if you ask me, going aroung gunning down everyone in your path is boring.

Personally I enjoyed playing as him, and could somewhat relate to him.

I liked it, though his way of delivering his lines was weird but still, it was alright and he was a good guy, punching people in the face all the time. no matter who they were. 
Cops, Gang Members or just a random girl or guy on the street. A nice Q to the Face and all was good. They were at least asking for it

Never got into this game yet but wasn't Adam designed after Eidos Montreal's lead art director. I remember seeing him in an interview and he looked almost identical to Adam Jensen.

My biggest problem with this game right from the start, is the surname. Jensen.

Jensen is the most common, boring Scandinavian surname, in existence. Jensen implies complete normalcy and boredom.

I realize that it may sound all kinds of cool and exotic to... North Americans, or whatever. But it's painfully boring and ever so slightly ridiculous around these parts. Imagine the main character being called "Billy-Joe Saggory" or "John Johnson" every time someone says Jensen. Also, the J is actually soft, not hard, adding further to the complete misunderstanding.

In similar crimes against Scandinavian name heritage, Lars Taraldsen from L.A. Noire, supposed to be of Nordic origin, completely misses the whole "Nordic" thing by virtue of the name being invented, much in the way comical Russian names are invented. Had they changed the T with an H, it would have been perfectly fine, but... no. Taraldsen, the son of... Tarald?

Oh, you want more? More poorly researched names? Take Skyrim, and their entire viking influence. Impressively enough, they manage to catch a lot of real, genuine names, often Danish, and butchering them completely in the voice acting.

Alas, all of these misrepresentations will be caught by few other than the absolute least percentage of players - but now you know, and you can help stop the fascination with abuse of Nordic names.

might we say Keanu-esque

@Getz said:

Calling Human Revolution a Monet is a bit of a stretch.

Oh definitely. It was just a throwaway line for the sake of a laugh. Although Deus Ex is damn pretty at times.

@Getz said:

Yeah, Jensen is definitely a boilerplate tough guy action hero but I'm pretty sure this was by design. When designing an RPG, writers have to make a choice: you can have a character with no personality that the player fills with their own or you can have a character with a pre-determined set of traits. With the way Deus Ex is designed, it makes more sense for the character to be a costume for the player to role-play in. The problem is, the writers also wanted to go for a complex story about transhumanism and put the player at the heart of it; trying to make you sympathize with Mr. Scarecrow.

Think about how well JC Denton worked in the original Deus Ex. He was robotic, stiff, and generally devoid of any kind of character but it worked. The story wasn't about JC, it was about You. Human Revolution just made the mistake of writing the story around "Jensen" without really writing a Jensen.

This is a great breakdown of what they were probably going for. Mind you I never thought of Human Revolution as a proper RPG, although I very much appreciated those elements of the gameplay.

@JoeyRavn said:

I couldn't disagree more. Maybe Adam's voice wasn't the best choice for the character, but the rest of his personality is pretty well developed. From your post, I believe that you didn't really get what the game was about. For example, his jacket is more than a fashion statement: it's used to further conceal his augmentations. Or his sunglasses, as @StarvingGamer said.

I understood what the game was about. The story and overall themes of the game are what I most enjoyed. The idea that his jacket was used to conceal augmentations works pretty well, but it still doesn't explain the size of the thing. During many parts of the game you see him without his jacket, and his augmented arms simply aren't that big. As for the "sunglasses" as I referred to them, it was already clear to me that they probably brought about his HUD. However, it simply seemed like a clever workaround to give him what look like shades, without them actually being cheesy shades, because when you break it down he could have simply had augmented eyes.

@JoeyRavn said:

Did you just want to make a funny reference or are you seriously saying that Deus Ex: Human Revolution is the video game equivalent of Transmorphers? Because if you're serious, then I was wrong: I can disagree more. Besides, I guess Christian Bale is ripping off Solid Snake too, right?

This was another bit of fun hyperbole on my part. Obviously Human Revolution bears more originality than an Asylum movie, but you have to admit that when it comes to the lead character the game wears its inspiration on its sleeves. Also, I think it's fair to say that Solid Snake was mentioned at least a few times during development.

@plainplease said:

might we say Keanu-esque

We might. Right down to the dodgy haircut.

Apart from the voice, which was a little too low and monotone at times I didn't really see anything horribly wrong with the character. I might argue his voice is the result of all the augmentation and the strain it put on his body but unfortunately it's the same before he gets the augs.

They certainly hits all the right notes of being a cyber punk oriented title. The shades are obviously superfluous as they advertise eye augs plenty of times in the game. They look cool though. Even if you hate the fact that he's wearing shades at night, the first time you see them go on and off it looks pretty neat.

I'm not sure what the problem with the trench coat is though. I actually had to go look up some pics online to remind myself because it never bothered me once in the whole game. It was a little surprising that I totally forgot this game was pretty much all First Person. In almost all action parts of the game when taking cover is a viable option you're wearing the combat vest/gear. If you look at concept art though, and clothes that other people wear, accented shoulders are kind of a thing in that future I suppose.

I was completely able to imagine Jensen having a beer with that guy. Mostly because he's nervous and kind of a rookie and you're this hardened veteran that helps him get his feet wet out in the "real world" of Police work. This is also because I played a good guy throughout the game - I tranq'd everyone and almost never killed and when given dialog choices I never decided on the dick thing to say.

Now I don't want to put words in your mouth or anything but I think you just didn't click well with the cyberpunk sensibilities. Adam Jensen is almost as cyberpunk as you can get if you ask me. Thats what I WANT out of this particular character though. For Deus Ex I'd choose this outlook than something more charismatic like Nolan Norths "Nathan Drake" persona any day. This is supposed to be a dark gritty world - your girlfriend just got killed, you got fucked up, they put all these experimental augs on you. Yah, Solid Snake in a tench coat with shades on at night sounds just about right.

Now if he carried a japanese sword on his back or his side I'd probably start drawing a line..

Do we need to point out how many cyberpunk properties have dudes in trenchcoats? Trenchcoats are never meant to fit you, they're meant to cover all of you and look intimidating.

And how the creator of cyberpunk literature, William Gibson, wears a trenchcoat?!

Adam Jensen took several shots of shattered glass. He didn't ask to speak that way.

I appreciate that you can turn a critical eye to a game that you enjoyed -- you did enjoy the game, right?

@AssInAss said:

Do we need to point out how many cyberpunk properties have dudes in trenchcoats? Trenchcoats are never meant to fit you, they're meant to cover all of you and look intimidating.

And how the creator of cyberpunk literature, William Gibson, wears a trenchcoat?!

I understand that the cyberpunk aesthetics were a deliberate choice, as I'm quite a fan of the genre, but I think some of them were not warranted here. Just because a genre has certain attributes attached to it doesn't mean that they have to make their way in to every title. That's usually how formulaic and predictable works comes to exist, although I don't think Human Revolution is either of those things.

@plainplease said:

I appreciate that you can turn a critical eye to a game that you enjoyed -- you did enjoy the game, right?

Thanks. I think the game's great, and I definitely enjoyed it. I simply wanted to highlight what I believe is one of its weaker points.

Jensen is a cool dude, and who says "pinhead" besides Bill O'Reilly?

Adam Jensen is a cool bro. He is "of the streets."

@Incapability said:

My biggest problem with this game right from the start, is the surname. Jensen.

Jensen is the most common, boring Scandinavian surname, in existence. Jensen implies complete normalcy and boredom.

I realize that it may sound all kinds of cool and exotic to... North Americans, or whatever. But it's painfully boring and ever so slightly ridiculous around these parts. Imagine the main character being called "Billy-Joe Saggory" or "John Johnson" every time someone says Jensen. Also, the J is actually soft, not hard, adding further to the complete misunderstanding.

In similar crimes against Scandinavian name heritage, Lars Taraldsen from L.A. Noire, supposed to be of Nordic origin, completely misses the whole "Nordic" thing by virtue of the name being invented, much in the way comical Russian names are invented. Had they changed the T with an H, it would have been perfectly fine, but... no. Taraldsen, the son of... Tarald?

Oh, you want more? More poorly researched names? Take Skyrim, and their entire viking influence. Impressively enough, they manage to catch a lot of real, genuine names, often Danish, and butchering them completely in the voice acting.

Alas, all of these misrepresentations will be caught by few other than the absolute least percentage of players - but now you know, and you can help stop the fascination with abuse of Nordic names.

I'm Norwegian and I know a guy named Tarald.

In all seriousness I think part of Jensen's charm is that he is such a boilerplate protagonist for a cyberpunk game. It's another way of paying homage to the original Deus Ex, which had just as dull a protagonist. Same with the voice and the coat. JC Denton's coat didn't fit him great either, and the whole purpose is apparently "to make [you] look bigger than [you] really are" according to Deus Ex 1.

And hell, I really enjoyed his quieter moments. The whole CGI opening with his girlfriend before he gets all torn up, and especially his apartment. It's one of my favorite environments in the game, because of all the little details - the fancy kitchen with nothing but cereal and booze in it, the cluttered desk, the guns laying around like simple tools, the book on clockmaking that was either his hobby before he lost his arms and he can't do it anymore, or became something he took up to practice manual dexterity in his prosthetics, the busted mirror (though that bit is a little on-the-nose, isn't it)

Honestly, I think he worked great as a protagonist, even though his whole motivation was a bit trite.

I never saw that promo vid, pretty awesome.

Jensen's just another surname in North America.

Adam Jensen never asked for this.

@Incapability said:

My biggest problem with this game right from the start, is the surname. Jensen.

Jensen is the most common, boring Scandinavian surname, in existence. Jensen implies complete normalcy and boredom.

I realize that it may sound all kinds of cool and exotic to... North Americans, or whatever. But it's painfully boring and ever so slightly ridiculous around these parts. Imagine the main character being called "Billy-Joe Saggory" or "John Johnson" every time someone says Jensen. Also, the J is actually soft, not hard, adding further to the complete misunderstanding.

In similar crimes against Scandinavian name heritage, Lars Taraldsen from L.A. Noire, supposed to be of Nordic origin, completely misses the whole "Nordic" thing by virtue of the name being invented, much in the way comical Russian names are invented. Had they changed the T with an H, it would have been perfectly fine, but... no. Taraldsen, the son of... Tarald?

Oh, you want more? More poorly researched names? Take Skyrim, and their entire viking influence. Impressively enough, they manage to catch a lot of real, genuine names, often Danish, and butchering them completely in the voice acting.

Alas, all of these misrepresentations will be caught by few other than the absolute least percentage of players - but now you know, and you can help stop the fascination with abuse of Nordic names.

Umm...where are you from? I'm from Sweden and I'm calling this bullshit.

Good thing fashion doesn't change in 15 years. Oh wait.

They went for a look, based on Renaissance fashion. You might not like that look, I'm kinda meh on it myself, but don't knock it because it's not your thing.