Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a frigging achievement, no two ways about it. This is probably one of the best games of 2011. I am still busy cataloging all the ways I hate it, but what I keep noticing is how the hate comes from odd parts in the game where my utter immersion was challenged by the limitations of the technology or, less frequently, shoddy aesthetics. That last festering nit is particularly troublesome since my highest praise for the game is an aesthetic evaluation: I was completely taken in by the world. Some of the older readers** may remember that even when Deus Ex was originally released, the character models were blocky and the textures washed out. It was a revolutionary game for a lot of reasons. It looks like trash now, like perhaps the next release of Minecraft, only not on purpose, and it looked only slightly better on its release. We loved it anyway. This game is definitely no Crysis 2 in the pure graphics department, but the art design and technology collide beautifully and successfully hooked me within the first fifteen minutes of play time. 
 
Here's a list of the game's problems as I see them, in no particular order: 
* forced boss fights with no options to reward gamers who have chosen paths outside combat. This is obviously a big one; Penny Arcade big. Alternatives should have been present. I didn't have trouble with the bosses, and the last two cyborg battles took place in, hands down, the coolest environments in the game, but it's shitty game design to corner the player like that.  
 
* Jensen is boring. Either make me Link or make me interesting. Although he seems intellectually competent (abnormally so for a SWAT guy), he is emotionally inert. 
 
* Verisimilitude of the population, character. The other characters are way more conflicted and interesting. While this is great-- how often do you talk someone out of suicide in a game?-- the instances where the dialog is wooden or cliched stand out that much more in relief against the moments of excellence. This might as well be called the Bioware Problem, because you see it in any game that attempts to introduce conflicted characters and grey morality. When people act like video game/ comic book characters (as opposed to people), all the complexity stops being interesting and seems like a writer trying to tell you how smart he is.   
 
* Verisimilitude of the population, volume. The technology just isn't there in this game. I know this. But I hate walking around "cities" with the population of towns in rural Tennessee. Assassin's Creed proved it doesn't have to be this way. In a game about the encroachment of technology on humanity, on what it means to be human, this is a legitimate issue, albeit a subtle aesthetic one. In a game that goes out of its way to showcase its environments as natural consequences of the technology run amok, this is a legitimate issue. 
 
* Graphics not up to the task. Hopefully they'll just license the Crytek engine next time. It's obviously doing the EXACT same stuff (invisibility, physics, deformable terrain), and would not generate involuntary laughter.  
 
* The "twist." You know the one. Jensen would never have lowered his gun long enough for that character to pull that panic room bullshit. Disgusting instance of plot overwhelming sensible character behavior.  
 
* The endings. Such let downs.    
 
Some complaints people have don't bother me. For instance, stealth game AI is always weird. Why would the guards drop from alert after exchanging fire with an intruder? Still, for whatever reason that kind of gameism doesn't bother me like the stuff above. If games used real military tactics all protagonists would be dead. ("Simmons, get me a blueprint of the building.... Okay. We got man-sized vents here, here, and here. I need you to get to work welding them shut. Take Dawson.") Some of the stuff above is just me hedging what I know to be flawed, like the boss fights. How can I complain about the last two cyborg boss fights when I loved the environments so much? Also, sure, they didn't fit. That's fine, I just switched into gaming mode as opposed to Deus Ex mode. I would prefer not to have to do that, but it's not the end of the world. The absence of a counter-hacker or social cyborg boss is far more annoying. Also Yelena's outfit is fucking absurd. 
 
I loved this game. The dozen places where it failed are only frustrating because it has so much to recommend it. The developers tried to tackle hard issues in smart ways and to render those issues through characters who seemed human most of the time.  
 
When most games fail, they fail for pedestrian reasons, trying to achieve pedestrian goals. When Deus Ex: Human Revolution fails, it fails like Icarus. As such, even in its flaws, I respect and love this game. 
 
 **-- I'm 30, so I'm asserting that that makes me an "old" gamer. If the rest of you challenge that notion by being 31+, fine. I'm just assuming-- baselessly, perhaps-- that most Giant Bomb readers are young enough not to have been cognizant of the original game's release.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a frigging achievement, no two ways about it. This is probably one of the best games of 2011. I am still busy cataloging all the ways I hate it, but what I keep noticing is how the hate comes from odd parts in the game where my utter immersion was challenged by the limitations of the technology or, less frequently, shoddy aesthetics. That last festering nit is particularly troublesome since my highest praise for the game is an aesthetic evaluation: I was completely taken in by the world. Some of the older readers** may remember that even when Deus Ex was originally released, the character models were blocky and the textures washed out. It was a revolutionary game for a lot of reasons. It looks like trash now, like perhaps the next release of Minecraft, only not on purpose, and it looked only slightly better on its release. We loved it anyway. This game is definitely no Crysis 2 in the pure graphics department, but the art design and technology collide beautifully and successfully hooked me within the first fifteen minutes of play time. 
 
Here's a list of the game's problems as I see them, in no particular order: 
* forced boss fights with no options to reward gamers who have chosen paths outside combat. This is obviously a big one; Penny Arcade big. Alternatives should have been present. I didn't have trouble with the bosses, and the last two cyborg battles took place in, hands down, the coolest environments in the game, but it's shitty game design to corner the player like that.  
 
* Jensen is boring. Either make me Link or make me interesting. Although he seems intellectually competent (abnormally so for a SWAT guy), he is emotionally inert. 
 
* Verisimilitude of the population, character. The other characters are way more conflicted and interesting. While this is great-- how often do you talk someone out of suicide in a game?-- the instances where the dialog is wooden or cliched stand out that much more in relief against the moments of excellence. This might as well be called the Bioware Problem, because you see it in any game that attempts to introduce conflicted characters and grey morality. When people act like video game/ comic book characters (as opposed to people), all the complexity stops being interesting and seems like a writer trying to tell you how smart he is.   
 
* Verisimilitude of the population, volume. The technology just isn't there in this game. I know this. But I hate walking around "cities" with the population of towns in rural Tennessee. Assassin's Creed proved it doesn't have to be this way. In a game about the encroachment of technology on humanity, on what it means to be human, this is a legitimate issue, albeit a subtle aesthetic one. In a game that goes out of its way to showcase its environments as natural consequences of the technology run amok, this is a legitimate issue. 
 
* Graphics not up to the task. Hopefully they'll just license the Crytek engine next time. It's obviously doing the EXACT same stuff (invisibility, physics, deformable terrain), and would not generate involuntary laughter.  
 
* The "twist." You know the one. Jensen would never have lowered his gun long enough for that character to pull that panic room bullshit. Disgusting instance of plot overwhelming sensible character behavior.  
 
* The endings. Such let downs.    
 
Some complaints people have don't bother me. For instance, stealth game AI is always weird. Why would the guards drop from alert after exchanging fire with an intruder? Still, for whatever reason that kind of gameism doesn't bother me like the stuff above. If games used real military tactics all protagonists would be dead. ("Simmons, get me a blueprint of the building.... Okay. We got man-sized vents here, here, and here. I need you to get to work welding them shut. Take Dawson.") Some of the stuff above is just me hedging what I know to be flawed, like the boss fights. How can I complain about the last two cyborg boss fights when I loved the environments so much? Also, sure, they didn't fit. That's fine, I just switched into gaming mode as opposed to Deus Ex mode. I would prefer not to have to do that, but it's not the end of the world. The absence of a counter-hacker or social cyborg boss is far more annoying. Also Yelena's outfit is fucking absurd. 
 
I loved this game. The dozen places where it failed are only frustrating because it has so much to recommend it. The developers tried to tackle hard issues in smart ways and to render those issues through characters who seemed human most of the time.  
 
When most games fail, they fail for pedestrian reasons, trying to achieve pedestrian goals. When Deus Ex: Human Revolution fails, it fails like Icarus. As such, even in its flaws, I respect and love this game. 
 
 **-- I'm 30, so I'm asserting that that makes me an "old" gamer. If the rest of you challenge that notion by being 31+, fine. I'm just assuming-- baselessly, perhaps-- that most Giant Bomb readers are young enough not to have been cognizant of the original game's release.

It definitely has its ups and downs. Hopefully the next one will have fewer downs.

I'm kinda right with ya, the world pulled me in almost instantly, and I was hooked. In fact I started a second playthrough last night, which is something I just don't do. I wonder if this is a game that speaks more to the "older" gaming crowd, I'm going to be 35 in a few months, and I literally find myself thinking about the world of Deus ex alot since I started playing. I don't know if it has the same draw to the younger gamers or not, I hope so because I really want more of this world to explore.

Nice write-up. All the points you brought up are things I thought about as I was playing the game. Also, thanks for teaching me the meaning of "verisimilitude" and "cognizant". j/k :D

Compared with other games of the time Deus Ex kinda looked like ass at it's release as well. 
 
As for Human Revolution. The boss fights are weird but easy enough I thought, except the third boss he was a bastard. I didn't mind the forced boss fights all that much but it was certainly disappointing to have them there. I like Jensen and thought of all the characters he was probably the best, no one else is really all that interesting. The population of the game world is low because it's set in a decaying urban environments at night. I wouldn't expect huge crowds selling fruit given the setting. The graphics didn't matter to me because my PC is kinda crappy. I thought that twist was perfectly fine and the ending endings to be pretty good.  
 
It is a really good game and in my opinion one were the good parts greatly out shine the bad.

* Verisimilitude of the population, volume. The technology just isn't there in this game. I know this. But I hate walking around "cities" with the population of towns in rural Tennessee. Assassin's Creed proved it doesn't have to be this way. In a game about the encroachment of technology on humanity, on what it means to be human, this is a legitimate issue, albeit a subtle aesthetic one. In a game that goes out of its way to showcase its environments as natural consequences of the technology run amok, this is a legitimate issue. 

Having not completed the game (only a couple of hours after the first boss) I can't give a general over view but so far, it reminds me of the original in almost every way.

It has the same highs:

Story, world, freedom

and lows

Empty world, dodgy voice acting, dumb AI (although not quite to the running into wals level of the original).

and that is probably part of why I am enjoying it. If Deus Ex didn't exist and Ion Storm still did, they'd make a game that plays a lot like this.

It has the same highs:

Story, world, freedom

and lows

Empty world, dodgy voice acting, dumb AI

Beat this game last night and didn't care too much for it. For me none of the highs were all that great.