Ambitious and Mostly Successful
How I played the game: This is my first Deus Ex game, so I can't speak to how it fits into the series or how it compares. I played the PS3 version well after the first patch. Load times were O.K. for me, not particularly short, but not bad. I played it on the hardest difficulty my first time through. I played a mixed build with max armor, some hacking, all grenade effect resists, and a mix of the movement stuff. Maxed assault rifle but I used the pistol quite a lot.
The short version: This is a GREAT game! But it's a terrible story.
I loved the gameplay. I loved that I had this huge array of tools and tricks to pick from, and that the gameplay designers made them all fairly effective in each encounter. I got to choose how I moved through a level and how I approached each encounter. This almost seems like silly thing to praise but unfortunately it is not the norm in the era of scripted corridor shooters.
The atmosphere was nearly perfection. The black and gold palette looked cool. Walking into the main character's apartment was a treat. The lighting was perfect, and the animation of the blinds raising and the warm light streaming into the room was about as good as a Bladerunner scene as you can render on consoles.
Unfortunately the story and most characters were complete bullshit. The ILLUMINATI? Are you kidding? Is this game some kind of terrible and elaborate Canadian attempt to troll the globe? It's so frustrating because it was so close to being something amazing and epic.
Talking with NPCs and reading in-game e-mails you start to get the story about how people without augments are being displaced by those with augments. There is a break developing between humans and augmented humans socially and economically. But the characters that they use to drive this theme in the main storyline are just terrible. The Purity First leader is a laughable 2D comic character spouting some of the worst lines I've ever heard in a video game. The Illuminati... you know what I'm not going to even bother talking about it. It's a terrible joke and unfortunate that publishers and editors at Edios Montreal let this middle school fan fiction nonsense into the game.
The gameplay is great though. Just skip the cutscenes and shoot every main antagonist in the head at the first possible opportunity.
