Deus Ex: Human Revolution

It took quite a while for the Deus Ex series to get back on track with releases since the second game, arguably weaker than the first one which is now considered a classic, this might have contributed to its hiatus. Fortunately the series is now revived in this new iteration and tries to live up to expectations, which are not exactly low to tell the truth.

There's quite a lot here that is taken right back from the original, especially from the first one, for the better or the worse. The core gameplay stays pretty much the same in a mixture of first person adventure/action with RPG elements for character building. There's also augmentations, episodic presentation, the abundance of pathways you can follow to reach an objective, the famous China segment, the four-digit numbered codes for machines, alarms, etc. Anyone who has played at least the original will instantly recognize these concepts.

The China segment is an odd one, is it some kind of staple on Deus Ex or something? Or is this a lot more fan service than it is a sequel? There are other locations but the China one plays such a major role in the original and this one follows the same pattern. The story is as grand and eloquent as you might expect from Deus Ex, it flows in a pretty nice pace so you wont be drowned in new characters and names you might soon forget but also won't have them dragging you on and on for the sake of the narrative.

It's debatable whether the story is better or worse than the original one, I find it a bit less dense, more straight forward, but with several other side-quests that do spice things up a bit. It certainly is a product of its time, the original Deus Ex was obviously longer and took its time with the player, more than a decade later people are eager for a briefer, straighter to the point experience, and I can't blame them.

You play the role of Adam Jensen, an ex-cop that grabs a job as head of security for a technology company via his girlfriend after exiting the SWAT because of some circumstances that unfolded with him while in the force. Now, working for Sarif Industries alongside his girlfriend, he faces a severe attack on the company's main facility by what appears to be a group of terrorists that stand against technologies in human enhancing -- the central theme in Human Revolution.

In fact, during the game you'll feel enthralled with the writers' capability in introducing philosophical debates about human enhancing, some people will be outspokenly open to it, while others will greatly oppose. Depending on the social class you're speaking to the views might differ as well, homeless people in some back alley will often speak ill of the improvements in cybernetics since they haven't really seen any of it themselves.

During the attack on Sarif Industries Adam is mortally wounded and could only be saved by the augmentations developed by the company. He is now part human part machine. The enhancements improve several aspects of his body and by using certain chips he can improve even further. This is an important gameplay mechanic since you can build your character improving whichever perk you feel like in a myriad of possibilities.

There's improvement for hacking devices, for taking more bullet damage, running faster, taking less damage from falling. Some are clearly more useful than others, the infamous swimming perk is present in this game too and probably even less useful than it was in the original. These choices will force you to play the game in differing ways, people who choose to have high hacking skills will be less prone to needing to rely on exploration looking for codes to advance, while those who choose to fortify their defenses won't have to rely heavily on stealth, for example.

The new cover system is a nice little add that shows Deus Ex was in touch with the spirit of time. It's simple to use, it doesn't break the stealth mechanics and add a good chunk of depth to an already engrossing gameplay. It's nice to see that exiting the cloak is instantaneous and no animation is involved in case you need to be fast. Not the same can be said about takedowns, in the original you performed non-lethal takedowns in real time and they worked perfectly, this time an animation is played just for show. I wasn't too excited by this at the beginning but I did get used to it, though is can break the flow sometimes, especially when you can't really calculate how much noise will be set out because of the random animation.

There's a main location in Boston that serves as interlude between missions and home to many secondary locations important for the player, like Adam Jensen's working company, his apartment, augmentation clinic and police station. Since the game is structured in episodic fashion you don't always have access to these locations, including weapon dealers and story tidbits. You need to make the best of it when yo have the chance.

If you really want to you can spend dozens upon dozens of hours exploring, getting items around and learning about minor details of the story. Everything gets nicely cataloged for later checking. Unlike in the original where you probably had to carry a small paper or notebook with you to scribble down any access code you might come across, this time any code you discover, even if you just accesses an e-mail that contains it without closer inspection, for instance, it will instantly appear to you when you reach the right terminal to use it on.

To store items you use an inventory system similar to Resident Evil 4's. Each item has a specific size and it needs to have the available slots at its disposal so you can store them. You can upgrade the size using augmentations but it's still fairly limited, a sniper rifle occupies a considerable amount of space by itself, for example. Since you can't always have access to a weapon dealer you'll have to discard quite a few items along the way.

There's a good arsenal at your disposal as well. Some weapons are meant for all-out combat while some are stealth focused, like the dart gun and the taser. The trigger happy madmen out there can be happy to know that shotguns, machine guns and heavy weaponry can also be acquired for all your homicidal needs. It's interesting that you can pretty much go through the whole game without killing anyone except the bosses, but if that's not really your style, you're served.

The graphics are well designed technically, lots of detail and high quality all around, but the game has much more to offer than its technical prowess. When you think about the original Deus Ex you think hardcore, it wasn't the most finely tuned game out there but its dense core kept people mesmerized. This time around you still get a core that's as solid as it can get, but the details make it so much more involving.

The cyberpunk atmosphere is incredible. It's hard not to get sucked into the whole thing. The streets are mean and nasty, technology is basically a way of life, augmentations are constantly on the tongue of the residents. Tablet-like newspapers, futuristic memorabilia, differing ways of living depending on which part of town you at. There's a lot going on as you go about your investigation, it would be a shame to just blaze through the game without taking especial notice at these aspects.

I have to admit that the voice acting caught me off guard at first, it sounded a bit "off". Not the best job I've seen in video-games but after a while you realize it's not bad at all. There's just a sheer amount of dialogue to be witnessed so it might have been just a bad first impression. The sound itself is not something that shines as much as the art direction, it gets the job done but not in spectacular fashion. The ambient basically morphs within the scenery as much as it can. You won't find many memorable tunes here but that's maybe for the best if you're willing to just get immersed.

Another must have for any Deus Ex fan is the possibility of developing your own story-line depending on what you decide or decide not to do within the game itself. As much as having lots of different paths for you to reach your objective you'll also have lots of ways to unfold the plot, often deciding whether you're a lawful good guy that always tries to help using the best of your psychology skills or the mercenary that only gets things done in the most degenerate of methods.

The best aspect of the game is the stealth. Of course you can play the game going guns blazing if you so choose it, and you'll probably switch between lots of bullets flying and absolute obliviousness between missions, but the best moments will probably be spent losing guards or trying to outsmart them in the shadows. Several gameplay elements revolve around that, like the map showcasing the direction the foes are facing or how deep undercover you are at the moment.

Deus Ex is a series that brings different stuff to the table and that should never be forgotten in favor of the same old shooter or the millionth remake of a game we've all played a few years earlier. It's clear that Eidos once again put a lot of effort in this release and people should take notice of how awesome Deus Ex is and how necessary it is to have games that offer newer, fresher perspectives to players. Let's just hope they don't put the series back to an undefined hiatus because that would be a crying shame.