Deus Ex: Human Revolution is the story of a man who has been unwittingly flung into the highest echelons of corporate conspiracy in a world on the cusp of the next evolutionary leap. Adam Jensen survives attempted murder by unwittingly undergoing “augmentation” on the eve of paradigm shifting announcement by the company he is hired to protect. Sarif Industries has broken the barrier to augmentation by eliminating the need for the anti-rejection drugs. Jensen wakes to a new body fitted with the highest experimental mechanical upgrades. He is fueled by revenge and intrigue to find out who sent and why were a highly advanced team of augmented operatives sent to dispatch the Sarif scientists and consequently Jensen himself. Jumping down the rabbit brings new locations and new abilities to keep the experience fresh and forward moving.
By Griff Hoffmann The future past is colored with black and gold. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a reverent prequel to the seminal conspiracy riddled series of the early 2000’s. Eidos Montreal hits the sweet spot missed in most prequels by both improving gameplay without making the previous tech seem obsolete. Not to say Human Revolution is without flaw but the world crafted and the player agency in it make for not just a fun game but and unexpected masterpiece. Adam Jensen is a man's man Deus Ex: Human Revolution is the story of a man who has been unwittingly flung into the highest echelons of corporate conspiracy in a world on the cusp of the next evolutionary leap. Adam Jensen survives attempted murder by unwittingly undergoing “augmentation” on the eve of paradigm shifting announcement by the company he is hired to protect. Sarif Industries has broken the barrier to augmentation by eliminating the need for the anti-rejection drugs. Jensen wakes to a new body fitted with the highest experimental mechanical upgrades. He is fueled by revenge and intrigue to find out who sent and why were a highly advanced team of augmented operatives sent to dispatch the Sarif scientists and consequently Jensen himself. Jumping down the rabbit brings new locations and new abilities to keep the experience fresh and forward moving. A very common aftermath of getting things done In classic RPG fashion, each location will be full of side quests, hidden paths, and new characters for the player to encounter. The main path is never artificially lengthened by forcing side quest quotas on the player but hits segments of rapid linearity by stripping away the open world. This is done in good taste as it creates a pleasant change in structure and is always full of major plot points. Despite the overwhelming amount of new environments to explore and side quests to take on, the prospect of learning more about the rich world and earning new abilities makes each new location hub as delightful as the linear story segments. Without giving away some plot points, it’s safe to say that Jensen does some serious globetrotting. The locations are memorable but the driving force is the mysterious conspiracy that has every inch of the world of Deus Ex wrapped up in it. I think he might be doping In an unintentional stroke of symmetry, the mechanics of Deus Ex: Human Revolution are the most clunky. In the fiction, as Adam Jensen become more familiar with his new robot body he is able to unlock new abilities. This corresponds to experience gained by completing quests and performing skill based actions eventually earning enough to be awarded a point to unlock a new skill or upgrade. Pure upgrade points maybe found or received as quest rewards and in the fiction are described as forcing the body to unlock new potential without the traditionally required experience. The problem comes with some of the quest design and combat. Quests are mostly a combination of fetch and or kill. Though these quests do have many different avenues to achieve the end, in the end they are very similar. The combat doesn’t offer much choice and can be very easily cheesed or failed. Conspiracy! Deus Ex: Human Revolution is first and foremost a first person stealth shooter. The option to play stealthy or to play guns blazing is in the player’s hands but the bias seems to be in the area of stealth. Enemies patrol simple routs and revert to them after being alarmed. Picking off unwitting soldiers offers less risk than running and gunning if a mistake were to happen. Part of the problem comes from the constrained inventory that forces the player to play “inventory Tetris” to keep a well-stocked armory. Elbow blades do have a practical purpose The other problem is with the augmentation power system. Most augmentations require battery cells to utilize. These batteries are finite and require finite resources to replenish. The last battery will always replenish itself and this does remove the damning effect of forcing the player to revert to a previous save, it does create a sense of powerless claustrophobia and very meticulous play not allowing for any error. While meticulousness is acceptable in a stealth setting, it is not always welcomed in a Rambo shoot ‘em up setting. The most bizarre quirk is the direction the boss fights shift toward. Suddenly funneling the playing into a one versus one slugfest forcing the player to use tactics and abilities not necessarily required before is in bad taste. For a game to suddenly remove player choice when it touts it as a major component is strange to say the least. These flaws can easily be put to the side when the vast and engrossing story takes over. Like any good mystery, the incremental clues fed to the player keep the forward momentum. The exploration and potential to upgrade and become more powerful adds to that desire to keep moving forward. A stealth first person shooter hasn’t existed like this before and though Deus Ex: Human Revolution isn’t perfect it has a lot going for it. In short, Deus Ex: Human Revoluion is about discovery and it nails it completely in an underrepresented genre.
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