1 Part RPG, 3 Parts stealth/action game
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a RPG that takes all the fun out of role-playing games. Still, it's a fun game and if you're a fan of action games with a bit more realism, you'll have fun with DX:HR.
What do I mean by "taking all the fun out of RPGs"? While this game does have an interesting dialogue manipulation system that pops up rather infrequently, side quests and (moderately) large maps that you can roam around in, that's about as far as it goes in the RPG genre. There's very little you can do to change the game storyline. Your options in playing a certain personality type are limited to A: Raspy-voiced tough guy or B: Raspy-voiced tough guy who's a real asshole. The side quests are interesting and the story behind some of them are interesting, but most feel thrown in to try to get you to explore the whole map rather than make you feel immersed in the world. And the maps themselves, while visually stunning, feel VERY limited and their maze-like layout will leave you frustrated since you have to run back and forth across them over and over and over again, assuming you like to do side-quests. By the second location, I'd given up on most of the side quests and decided to play DX:HR as just an action/stealth game, which is where it really excels.
Even that feels weirdly limited. Your "augmentation" talent tree (another RPG element that gets dumbed down for the action crowd) will allow you to do cool things like punch through walls, jump higher, take more damage, run farther/quieter/longer. But you have a limited amount of times you can do these things. It seems a little silly to me that if I wanted to run through a warehouse stealthily killing off guys, I'd have to eat a bunch of energy bars. But if I wanted to just run and gun, all I'd need is a lot of ammunition. Maybe I'm getting a little nitpicky here, but it felt like the elements of RPGs that they left into DX:HR were completely unnecessary (very limited inventory space).
But when it comes time time to get dirty and rip apart some hooligans, the game gets really fun. I preferred a stealth character, which meant it probably took me about twice as long to get through some maps, but it was well worth it. Breaking into the police HQ and stealing information without being seen was especially enjoyable.
The most important element of an RPG, story, is well done in this Deus Ex prequel. Art design is fantastic, so augmented characters, civilians and the environment all look as though they belong in this gritty future world. But immersion is severely lacking. The streets are empty of vehicles (except the occasional parked one), people basically stay in one place and while you can hear conversations when you walk by them, they're so obviously scripted and repeated that I found myself not even caring and trying to run through areas to get to the next quest point most of the time.
So is DX:HR worth a buy? It depends. If you're looking for a fun, immersive RPG, then no. But if you're looking to play a realistic action or stealth game (with a few RPG elements thrown in), then it's worth a buy.
