Zing!
In 2000, Deus Ex was released for the PC. It revolutionized the ability to make choices in video games, allowing you to do what you want, and how you want it. A sequel, Deus Ex: Invisible War, was released in 2003, but was criticized for being dumbed down, and, in the end, was disliked by the original’s fans. Fast-forward to 2007. After years of a “Deus Ex drought,” news of another Deus Ex game was revealed. Four years later, it was finally released. With hype that big, could Deus Ex: Human Revolution live up to the high standards set by the Deus Ex fanboys and the big shots in the industry? In short, yes.
Taking place in 2027, 25 years before the first game in the series, Deus Ex: HR is an action-adventure, stealthy, semi-open world, first person, yet third person cover based, role-playing game developed by Eidos Interactive. Wow, that’s a doozy. In the game you control Adam Jensen, a security officer for Sarif Industries, a company receiving a lot of heat for its sciences in Biomechanical augmentations, which are, basically, futuristic superpowers. While augmentations seem like harmless solutions to your drawbacks or improvements, more gets revealed and you understand the hatred for augments. After a potentially fatal accident occurs, Adam is brought back using such augmentations. However, not all of the augments were activated at one time, and Adam needs to gain praxis points to unlock the rest of the augments. Praxis points are obtained in two ways: either through gaining enough experience, or through purchasing or finding praxis kits. A feasible solution for the prominent and, quite frankly, overused leveling system found in many role-playing games today. Experience is gained by doing anything from getting rid of enemies to hacking a terminal that opens a garage in an alley in Detroit. Another thing I wish to note is that you aren’t following the story of Adam Jensen, you’re changing it. You create Adam into who you want Adam to be.
The power of choice plays an eminent role in Deus Ex: HR. You select whether you wish to use lethal or non-lethal weaponry. Lethal is, for the most part, a run-and-gun style of play, while non-lethal usually consists of stealthiness, occasional shooting, and melee takedowns when possible. Also, there are usually three to four different ways to get from point A to point B. Some are easier than others, but require certain augments, while others are more straightforward, but usually need some sly movement or dispatching of enemies. Non-lethal weapons include stun guns and tranquilizer rifles, while lethal weapons include 10mm pistols and assault rifles. Therefore, if you’re detected and try to play non-lethal, your best bet is to hide until you cannot be found, as the non-lethal weapons go hand in hand with a more stealthy approach. If you’re playing lethal, you can easily get rid of a few enemies and move on to the next area. This, in a way, limits your power over selection, although, you can mix and match playstyles to your liking.
The game world is divided into several central hubs, some of which are pretty big, and not linear in the slightest. After you finish one hub, you unlock the next one. Near the end of a hub, there is a more linear place, ending with a boss fight. This brings me to my biggest gripe with this game: the boss fights. For a game that emphasizes its nonlinearity and the ability to choose, boss fights have to be the most absurd thing ever. Considering the entire game outside of the boss battles can be completed without killing anyone, why should you need to take down a boss? You might argue that the Metal Gear Solid games are mostly stealth based, yet have boss battles, but in Metal Gear Solid, you don’t control Snake in his choices, you follow his story. In Deus Ex: HR, you create Adam Jensen into who he is. Even though there are choices in the way to defeat a boss, the end result is always the same: a dead man.
The graphics in the game are nothing spectacular. The in-engine graphics vary quite a lot from the cutscenes, which look quite good. The facial animations, to be blunt, are terrible, and the lip syncing between the voices and the faces are subpar.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution, while lengthy doing only the main storyline, provides several more hours of entertainment through side quests (which have pretty interesting stories by themselves), reading ebooks, newspapers, and other written things scattered throughout the world to know more about the world and the views of the different sides of the conflicts. There is also some degree of replay value, in that you can try different playstyles. However, the ending of the game is not reliant on the choices you make throughout the game and you can easily load an earlier save to experience the different endings.
87/100
Molding Adam Jensen into a sympathetic, mostly non-lethal, use lethal when necessary kind of guy was a remarkably memorable experience.
