God From Human Revolution

[Hotfoot]

...or Humanity's Revolution from God.

It's your choice.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution was a dangerous, ambitious project undertaken by Eidos Montreal. Deus Ex was simply one of the greatest games of all time, followed up by a very lackluster sequel that was universally panned by fans of the original.

It's hard to hold up to a classic, especially eleven years after the fact. Rose-tinted glasses aside, Deus Ex was a legitimately great game that paved the way for other FPS/RPG hybrids that would come later, such as Mass Effect. But while Mass Effect is all about combat and dialog, Deus Ex had something else to it, something that is difficult to replicate, the decision of how to play.

Do you run and gun, packing heavy firepower? Do you prefer quiet takedowns, leaving people alive to answer questions? Do you ghost your way through a mission, never being seen by the enemy? Do you convince others to help you, perhaps at cost to themselves?

Deus Ex, when it's done well, should feel like a mixture of a Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell, and Mass Effect. The original holds the essences of these parts, the nuggets that would later grow. Invisible War twisted them and lost the beauty of the original's plan.

So how does Human Revolution feel? What with it's cover shooter mechanics and its regenerating health, it's yellow-out palette, and its story, a prequel to the great Deus Ex?

Well, without spoilers, I can tell you I loved it. I fucking loved it. Every god damned minute of it was excellent and yes I include the ending in that.

The stealth was good and fun, exploration was rewarded, specialization was rewarded, there was no one way to do things, the weapons, while I didn't use them much (Stealth/Hacker), were suitably enjoyable. Conversation duels were an excellent addition to the game and quite fun.

The game's story, wisely, does not reveal so much of the conspiracy as to ruin it for Deus Ex. The entire picture is not revealed here, and for the better, I think. Numerous characters from the original game are referenced or seen in passing here, and all in pretty good ways, I think. Ultimately, the story here is not the one of Deus Ex, but you can see where Deus Ex came from it. The story here is similar, and has elements of the original conspiracy, but the focus is different and has a much different feel to it as a result, which makes the game unique.

Now, I'll get into my complaints with the game. Yes, I have some complaints. First off, I made this comment early on to people I chat with on AIM and Skype, but I was amazed at how true to the original they were, they even kept the animations. Okay, that's a bit harsh, but the conversation animations (oddly, not the non-conversation ones as much) were very stiff and jerky, like robots with Parkinson's. It's slightly jarring, but overall, it's a minor quibble. The way cybernetic energy was used and regained was somewhat annoying, if only because the bottom bar would fill up over time, even when it was drained, but none of the others would, you always needed something to restore energy if you wanted to do multiple things. Since takedowns and wall breaching both used up a full bar, this meant you might commonly spend time at only one bar. Other things, however, such as augmented vision, silent movement, and optical cloaking, use energy over time, so using it sparingly would result in your ability to keep bars if you stopped short of using them.

Boss fights. Yeah, I said it. Boss fights. It's Boss fight time again. These are...honestly not that bad, it breaks up the game somewhat, but it would have been nice to work these into the multiple ways to play a bit more. The final boss actually does this pretty nicely.

Cutscenes. I know, it's Squenix, but I don't necessarily need prerendered cutscenes in my RPG. They work, though they by necessity take you out of the action to cause events to happen. They're not bad, really, but there weren't in my list of favorite things.

Takedowns were nice, and a fun reward for getting close enough to knock an enemy out or slit their throats, though it would have been nice if there had been more of a proper melee combat system. Everyone remembers the Dragon's Tooth and would love to see it again.

My only other complaint is that I would have liked to see more of the world. There are a total of four distinct world locations you get to go to, and of those, only two are honest to god cities you can move around in, though you do visit the cities multiple times, under different circumstances each time.

Now, to the ending. No spoilers, you get several choices of how to end the game, but it keeps track of how you played (or it seems to) for Jensen's final narration.

Before that goes any further, I'm going to give my recommendation for this game.

Buy it (but not from Gamestop, they're being assholes).

If you liked the original Deus Ex, buy it. Get it now and play it. You owe it to yourself. If you played Invisible War, it's okay, I understand, it hurt me too, now play Human Revolution. It won't make the hurting stop, but it will make you feel better. Don't like Regenerating Health? Trust me, it's okay. Don't like the color tone? Suck it up. Don't like cover mechanics? I said suck it up, soldier! Seriously, it's pretty awesome and you really should play it.

If you've NOT played Deus Ex, first off, for shame. Secondly, give me your Steam account name, first hit's free. Yes, it's an older game, and yes, it's far from perfect, however much everyone rants and raves about it. For the time, it was excellent, one of the greatest games made up to that point, and for years, very little has been able to come close. Human Revolution, at least, is in the same weight class as the original Deus Ex with several modern elements.


Now some spoilers about how the ending was handled, without going into details.




WARNING: THIS NEXT SECTION DISCUSSES THE ENDINGS OF THE GAME. SPOILERS ARE POSSIBLE



The choices are much better presented than the options in the original or the sequel, and thus making them subsequently harder choices in many respects. The choices are not extrapolated on as much in the end credits as the original or the sequel, which leads to the question of a sequel to Human Revolution, or perhaps DLC. Either way, it was vague, not in what you did, but in how it was received, as though the game's post script was recorded by Adam Jensen moments after the last action you can perform in the game.

After that...who knows? I know I'm hyped to find out. This was a fucking sweet game and I want more. You hear me, Eidos Montreal? GIVE. ME. MORE.

[B4UTRUST]

I'll agree with Hotfoot that the game was fucking awesome. I loved it as well. Hell I preordered the augmentation edition and anyone who knows me the fact I went out of my way to buy it should say how excited I was for this game, even after playing the leaked late beta a few months back that had some kinda glitchy gameplay. However, I will state that I felt some parts of the story seemed to be dropped or laid aside partway through that would have really helped the game some. I'm also told that the prequel novel Icarus Effect answers some of these things in further detail so I will have to give it a read. I'm kind of hoping, like Hotfoot, that some of the unanswered questions and points would be addressed in a sequel. This game is on my list of must fucking have. No ifs, ands or buts.