2027(25 years before the original Deus Ex). Adam Jensen is just on the job as Security Chief at Sarif Industries, when they are attacked. He is thrown through a window, leaving his body destroyed, and passes out. He is later told that the soldier-types went on to kill his ex-wife and other scientists working there. The only way to save his life is to give him augmentations - mechanical and electronic replacements of limbs that can enable you to do things that your original ones would not(the goons mentioned had these, hence why they couldn't be stopped). Thus, we get into the ethics of this integral aspect of the franchise, and this presents good arguments for both sides, not picking one(that's up to you - and this offers more than one ending for you to choose from, as expected by now), getting into themes of xenophobia(like I said, this is not the Nanite-based ones of the other games, this is the beginning of this technology - the Half-Life-reminiscent opening(just showing up at work, nothing happening yet) has you see several people who have all black or white, plastic-y hands, or scars at their temples where their skull was opened for the surgery - and it's just seen as normal, because to them, it is, they've had it for a while... and to you, it's new and a little unsettling, because you, and our lead(one and the same), are not used to it yet), discrimination, class warfare and power struggles... in addition to giving you really cool special abilities(that, by the way, are all explained scientifically(this is highly realistic in all respects), to where it feels like these could exist in the not-too-distant future, which this really does come off as... the "alphabet agencies" are mentioned early on, and people still get "Nigerian Prince" scam spam emails, and you can find ignorant, loud-mouthed talk radio, nosy gossip magazines and nightclubs). And thankfully, they've now come up with a lot of new ones, instead of just using the same ones. You can punch through a wall and do in the guy on the other side(if there is one), completing the RoboCop analogy, slow your fall with electromagnetism(and use that to knock back and daze anyone within the blast radius, if you'd like), see through walls, turn invisible(and note that you may not be the only one who can do so...), etc. Unfortunately, they continue to combine that category with what used to be the Skills one, so some of them are upgrades to doing something that isn't inherently beyond what humans can do(like using rifles well). Also, there are "too few" of the Praxis Points that allow you to unlock them(you can do this at any time, not only at specific healing places, taking away a lot of the specialness of it), not meaning that you can't get enough of the different ones(in fact, the opposite, over the course of this, I found having way more than I had the need for(cost is the only limiting factor)... that should not happen!), but that choices are too simple(in System Shock 2, you may get 12 of the PP equivalent for a task, and for that, you can get a level 1 thing... but if you save up until you have 50 of them, you can get a #5 one, and that one may help you more, forcing you to make decisions that have consequences... as it ought to be! You're meant to do several playthroughs if you want to try the various ways to solve problems, and hey, if people today are too lazy for that - don't reward that! Let the rest of us get the full experience, and work for it). There is a ton of freedom in this, however. The several dialog options let you craft the personality of our protagonist, whose voice acting, as the rest in this, is fantastic. He talks in the "determined, unemotional action hero" manner that we expect today, still, there is just enough room for him to express emotion at times, and he does it quite convincingly, it makes it feel very "spy"-like, compartmentalizing, though there's not much that will bring him to express concern or the like, he's still human. The plot is taut, political and provocative, with so many twists that it's always moving, without being impossible to follow(think Christopher Nolan). This revamps the series, something much-needed after the second one. It provides a sleak new look and approach to this whilst maintaining the core elements, such as the paranoid mood of conspiracy(helped by the evocative score), and the game-play is smoothed out, not completely different(there is some unfortunate streamlining - then again, there are positives to that, such as the minimal controls setup being easier to keep track of). You have to get into an area and accomplish an objective, getting past guards(some of them patrolling!), cameras, robots and turrets(the last three can be hacked, or dealt with by EMP(one of the types of grenades... the others being Concussion(flashbang), Frag and Gas(highly effective at quietly and non-lethally dealing with a full room!))... sadly, the latter two thus become too weak, and are also so rare, that they don't hold anywhere near the same threat as they used to). Are you going to go in guns blazing(facing the very smart AI squad tactics), sneak past(using the excellent, intuitive cover-system, second only to that of Splinter Cell: Conviction, and one of the couple of places where it, thankfully(much more helpful that way), goes into a third person perspective, for the cinematic feel, out of the immersive FPS view... thus getting the best of both worlds) or some combination thereof? The graphics are true to life, as are the environments. Playing it as a perfectionist, this took me 69 hours(!). Hacking is addictive, tense. There is a lot of bloody violence and disturbing content, some moderate to strong language and a little sexuality in this. I recommend this to any fan of these games. 8/10
Review of Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
(2011 Video Game)
That's more like it! Living up to most of the potential
5 November 2012