Games have long been experimenting with the choice/consequence paradigm that is largely ignored by triple-A titles like Call of Duty. Instead of focusing on heavily scripted sequences that play out like big, slightly interactive movies, games have tried to give us free will in how we shape the stories of our heroes. It’s certainly far riskier than the alternative, but it also has the potential to pay off far better.
While this has primarily been a recent movement, one of the best of these games launched in 1999, called Deus Ex. Critically acclaimed and still much loved to this day, Deus Ex is still a paragon of how to do choices right: by offering tangible consequences to your choices, something most developers still seem squeamish about doing. Square Enix is hoping that this new prologue entry into the series will revitalize a franchise that has been dormant since the not-as-well-received Deus Ex: Invisible War launched in 2003. The question is, does Deus Ex: Human Revolution live up to the incredibly high-bar of the original?
Story: This may not be the end of the world, but you can see it from here.
Like its precursors, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is chock full of complicated morals and difficult questions. Everything you do matters, and at some point your choices will come back to haunt you. The irony is that even the things that you can’t change are treated as part of the theme, about both the inevitability of human nature and the choices that we make.
You play as Adam Jensen, the head of security for Sariff Industries. After a terrorist attack that leaves him for dead (and his girlfriend actually dead), doctors heavily mechanically Augment him so he can stay alive. What follows is a web of conspiracy and betrayal that doesn’t disappoint throughout. Throw in some surprisingly thoughtful twists, and a deeply meaningful ending and you’ve got one amazing story that manages to mean something while being quite entertaining.
Gameplay: Choose.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is an RPG, FPS, stealth, and puzzle game. In other words, it’s whatever you want it to be. Will you just kill everyone with assault rifles and heavy weapons? Will you sneak around them? Will you hack everything and use gadgets to your advantage? It’s your choice. The most effective route is to figure out what you want to play, then quickly Augment yourself for that. If you don’t do this, your character will be rather weak at everything, which may be annoying for players who want to be a sort of Jack of All Trades character.
The Augments themselves are numerous and complex, with tons of options to choose and more than one solution to any given problem. Cloaking, explosives, seeing through walls, running faster, hitting harder, no damage from falling, and shooting straighter are just a few of the Augments that you can choose from.
Combat itself can be a little clunky, with gunplay that is fun but also not quite as good as, say, Gears of War or Call of Duty. Melee kills can take a little too long to initiate which can cause you to get killed by an enemy reacting faster than the controls. Ironsights work fine most of the time, but they can also just feel a little off on certain weapons. The cover system works great for the majority of the game, but certain objects can be difficult to properly stick to. Despite the issues, combat is still quite fun and often settles into a pleasant mix of guns and gadgets.
Stealth, on the other hand, is perfect. Almost every area has side routes and creative solutions to problems. You can knock out enemies or just avoid them. You can sneak traditionally, you can sneak with the aid of hacking, you can use cloaking tech or just ignore enemies entirely while using vents and distractions to move around. It’s a ton of fun.
Hacking itself is quite fun as well. It’s a small mini-game that actually requires skill, reflexes and strategy. You have to capture nodes on a grid while trying to beat enemy security and defending your own nodes. It may sound simple, but it’s surprisingly well done for a mini-game, and despite the amount of time spent in it, it remained fun throughout.
Conversations can be quite tense, forcing the player to read the facial expressions and responses of the person they are trying to manipulate. Or, you can just get an augmentation that allows you to read them easier. I found it was more fun without that option, but it’s a nice option for people who don’t want to deal with it quite as much.
Any path you choose to take is quite polished. The boss battles are intense and difficult, and while basic combat isn’t the best ever made it’s still quite fun and well-done. Throw in an insane wealth of options that will allow anyone to find a preferred niche, and you’ve got a game that is both fun and complex even if it stumbles occasionally. The best part is, that with a running time of around 20 hours and many different ways to play through the game, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is incredibly replayable.
Presentation: A Renaissance for the Eyes
With an odd visual style evocative of the Renaissance and intricately detailed environments, Deus Ex is one of the most visually striking games out there. The game uses black and gold almost exclusively as the primary colors in almost every area, and the look is incredible. The lighting is fantastic as well, giving even normal city streets an uncommon visual flair. On the other hand, faces don’t always look quite right. They never get too bad, but sometimes they just don’t look human either.
The sound effects are great, the music is some of the best I’ve heard this generation, and the voice acting is… just OK? Most characters sound great, but certain ones just sound kind of like somebody standing in a room talking to a microphone. It’s not the worst voice acting ever, but it isn’t up to the quality one would expect from a game with such an emphasis on story.
On a technical level, the PC version of Deus Ex is both good and bad. It doesn’t load as fast as you’d like, but doesn’t run as well as you’d like. It does have a number of PC specific options that are sure to please the computer crowd, but it also has a number of PC specific bugs. Nothing completely game breaking pops up, but it can get pretty annoying when you need to reload a save because something completely freaked out.
Gamers Leak Recommendation: Buy It
The easiest way I can think of putting this is comparing Deus Ex: Human Revolution to Blade Runner. From a technical perspective, it’s not always the best but the incredibly deep story, complex choices and diverse gameplay create something completely unique and special that cannot be experience anywhere else. Like Blade Runner, it won’t appeal to everyone. It has rough edges and is not exactly what most people expect. But if you’re willing to deal with it’s problems, you’ll find a gem unlike any other.
Play This Game if You Like: The Original Deus Ex, Choices, Consequences, Complex Stories, Tons of Options in How You Approach Things
Expect: The Occasional Glitch, Some Weird Faces, Occasionally Weird Voice Acting
Played on PC, at the normal difficulty level. A second review of Deus Ex: Human Revolution will follow from Nick Jones, and will focus on the Xbox 360 version. It is also available on the PS3.
