Deus Ex: Human Revolution Review (360)

Great game kicks off the autumn rush

Hmmm. As a veteran of the first two Deus Ex titles, and a massive fan to boot, Deus Ex presents a quandary for me. Is it a good game? Yes. Does it have a depth and level of intrigue which is less-than-common in todays games? Yes. Is it worthy of the Deus Ex name? Yes, and yet partially, no.

So, for the newcomers – Deus Ex is a series of FPS titles, with handfuls of stealth and plot grafted onto it like the series’ augmentations, designed to enhance and improve the game beyond the mere levels of a straight-up shooter. The player is invited to deal with all kinds of scenarios using the powers at their disposal – cloaking and stealth, or guns and shielding, or hacking and convincing conversations. Or perhaps a blend of them all – the player gets to choose how to upgrade (or “augment”) their character depending on their playstyle.

The original did this in such a way as to be completely unique in its day, offering a huge plot, with a variety of openness and plot branching that had never been seen outside of a trad RPG. Invisible Wars (the sequel) tried to emulate the success in a watered down version of the original, and despite missing the mark somewhat, still offered a great game that drowned in the cries of upset fanboys.

So now, we have Human Revolution, a prequel to the original title, with both massive expectations and serious concerns leading up to its release. How does it fare? Well, for the main, pretty well, although a few good ideas have fallen by the wayside.

Deus Ex puts you in the shoes of Adam Jensen, security operative for Sarif Industries, one of the worlds leading augmentation companies and lead by visionary, David Sarif. Jensen is quickly drawn into a series of powerful events that literally change his life, ending up with a set of major questions (Who/Why/What for?) that you, the gamer, will spend the next 15 to 20 hours answering. As always, that’s all the plot you’ll get from me, as you’ll need to play it yourself to enjoy the nuances of the characters and settings.

What I can say is, Eidos have done a great job of giving all the characters motive and intention – everyone has secrets they are keeping quiet, and reasons for doing so. To what extent you believe them, or even trust them, is down to the way you play and think. For example, you can unlock an ability that allows you to influence what a character tells you, by paying attention to their behaviour and responding accordingly. You might, for example, persuade a shady businesswoman to offer up some insight into the motives behind a major plot point, or get a guard to let you into an area without triggering an alarm.

One big issue, though, is Adam himself – a more wooden and emotionless lead character is difficult to imagine, Every situation and question is met with flat, bored-sounding responses, and often it’s difficult to believe that Jensen really gives a crap about anything.

A quick couple of lines on the graphics – level design is good, if a touch linear, and the overall character design is great. Shame, then, that a little more time wasn’t invested into the dire lipsynch – NPCs often look like terribly dubbed foreign film extras. And most of the textures are pretty rough too – get up close to anything and it will look a bit crap. 3 years ago, Eidos could have gotten away with it, but today’s titles demand more, and this just doesn’t quite cut the mustard.

Then we get onto the gameplay. Well, it is good, intending to offer a variety of ways to resolve a situation and letting most gamers play in a way that suits their tastes. However, the truth is this: Eidos want you to play sneaky and stealthy. Enemies are very powerful, weapons and ammo are scarce, and upgrades to armour and health really add little to the fact that Jensen ain’t no supersoldier. On several occasions, I found triggering an alarm basically made continuing impossible, so I quickly decide to play the game the way the designers wanted. Sneak about, hack computers, turn turrets on the enemy, it’s all good stuff, but again, restricted. My Jensen got the speech upgrade, but still often couldn’t talk his way through a barrier, and instead had to go the long way round. And often, there was only one other way round.

The stealth works well, the hacking is fun, and the options do add some spice. It just doesn’t go far enough…

And this is where the upgrades are so hit and miss as well: many of them are useless. There is little need for an upgrade to punch through a wall if the sound of it draws every enemy within 100 yards. Stealth combat relies on energy that slowly refills, so don’t expect to be able to waltz through an area, knocking out dudes on the way. You’ll be waiting for the energy bar to refill. And then there is the Typhoon – an augment weapon so powerful, it can kill most bosses in one hit.

Ah, yes the bosses. Much maligned on the interweb community, they really are pretty sucky. A straight up fight with a square jawed mercenary kinda jarrs in a title which pushes you towards stealth. And often, if you are playing stealthy, the limited inventory doesn’t allow you to carry weapons to deal with the bosses. Unless you upgraded that Typhoon. In fact, on only one occasion can I say that Eidos got it right. Entering a large hangar, two giant battle robots were deployed to stop me. I had the choice of fighting them, or sneaking around them to hack the computers controlling them (which were pretty well concealed). The sneaking option proved to be tense, as the robots scanned the area well. Shame it was the only intuitive boss fight in the game.

And then we get onto my biggest gripe for a game with Deus Ex in the title – I was expecting more choice. Both previous titles had branching storylines, where you could join up with other factions and potentially work against your previous bosses. HR does a great job of hinting at this development, then drops the lot by only giving you a real “impact decision” right at the end of the game. The usual choice you get is a straight-up moral one – kill or arrest, grass up or cover up. One sidequest uncovered the distribution of augmentation drugs from within Sarif, to the poor and in need. I decided to cover it up, and left the contact with the promise I’d find a way to help him secure the drugs in a safer way. Nothing more after that – why give me the option to help if I can’t do it? I’d ascertained that I didn’t agree with my companies policies, so why did I still work for them for the rest of the game?

Furthermore, much is made of the impact of choices you make, and how they help you later in the game. It’s tosh. There is an impact – it’s often getting given a free upgrade or challenged by someone who feels wronged further down the line. No big plot impacts, no shifts in gameplay, nothing. Just a token slap on the cheek or pat on the back, and on you go, Mr J.

One more thing: Deus Ex comes from the phrase “Deus Ex Machi
na”, which is often used to describe a story plot point that appears almost from nowhere to answer a major question. HR really lives up to the title with the ending – the final boss and circumstance do really come from almost nowhere, and offer up a final set of choices which are argued for or against in the most flaccid way seen for some time. Ending with a bang? Not really.

Thing is, DE:HR is a good game, despite all this. It plays well, it’s tense and involving, and the plot is interesting, if a little emotionally detached. The stealth works well, the hacking is fun, and the options do add some spice. It just doesn’t go far enough – why not make the conversation augment multi levelled, so we can really talk our way into a secure facility, or out of a tough situation? Why not let us become high powered terminators if we want? And why, oh why, not give us the choice to work for or against different factions as we went along, as we did in previous titles?

If you have never played a Deus Ex title before, please add a point to my score. It’s still a lot of fun, offering some good Splinter Cell-style gameplay in a deep world, and will keep you entertained right up to the end. Fans of the series, however, will notice that it lacks the depth and diversity of the original, and, although it’s still a good title, may feel a bit disappointed by the end product. But (and this is a big one), it’s still most definitely a title worth buying.