Written by Citizen Alpha Tuesday, 04 October 2011 18:52
I glazed over my experiences with this game's pre-release leak a while back and I reserved a complete article on the game until the full game has been released and I'm very glad I did. Not because the leaked beta had elements that were unrefined but so I had a complete scope of the game. Even with many hours and sleepless nights poured into Deus Ex I would need a virtual hubble telescope to fully appreciate the aforementioned "scope" of this game. If you read this article no further and only take one thing from this introduction let it be this: go out, get this game, and shutter your windows and doors until you've played it.
It's no secret I've been a Deus Ex fan boy since its debut game back in 2000 in which the first iteration of the series was released and lauded by PC gamers winning multiple game of the year awards. Deus Ex Human Revolution starts off prior to the events of the original game. In the original game you are the second of two prototypes for nano-augmentation technology however in this game you are a late generation mechanical augmentation. All the games are set in a cyberpunk noir-dystopian future where humanity has begun to augment themselves with technology allowing people to do everything from run faster, see farther, and interface with other elements of society easier.
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In DX:HR you work for one of a handful of corporations that develops mechanical augmentations and is on the cusp of a great discovery in the field with a crack research team working towards the next advancement. From playing the first game I would imagine the research team is paving the way towards nano augmentations seen in the first game. After you beat the single player game I would highly recommend watching the entirety of the credits so you can see the epilogue at the end that segways the plot into the original game. Of course not all is smooth sailing as your corporation is attacked by some heavily mechanically augmented military types that wipe out the entire research team and toss you through some rather unfriendly glass windows until finally putting a slug in your head.
Obviously you end up surviving and the game picks up from there with a whole host of customizable augmentations. The setting is considerably dire with a lot of social turmoil and moral debate. Some claim that the augmentations people are receiving are robbing society of their humanity and forcing people to rely on corporate drugs to ensure their body doesn't reject the augmentations. Others say that augmentation is the future evolution of mankind and it is the next logical step for our species.
This underlying debate is ever present in the story's progress and occasionally will force your hand to alter your playstyle based on your own personal beliefs. This game is constantly wrought with moral choice and every single quest or encounter will have you staring down multiple avenues to complete your goals. This is not only a key element of progressing the plot but gameplay. There seems to be a 100 different ways to do things and angles of approach.
For example, I had to infiltrate an enemy compound late in the game. I used my augmented strength to lift a large dumpster to clear a way through a hole in the fence, snuck my way into the security shack using cloak, put a bullet into the back of the security admin's head with a pistol I had outfitted with a silencer and laser sight, and hacked the terminal he was at to turn off the perimeter cameras and reprogram the security bots to attack their human counterparts.
While the whole place was going bat shit insane trying to deal with the bots while I systematically skirted around the shipping crates on the outside and picked off guards that were busy dealing with the problem I had created. By the time the bots were down the only person left was a sniper which I climbed up to and disemboweled. I had wiped out the entire perimeter defense without anyone really knowing what was happening. My approach to this was completely unique to my game however. I'd be willing to bet there were other ways I could of accessed that facility, snuck in, hacked in, talked my way in, or just barreled through. If I was a more moral man I could of pursued a course that would not have killed anyone via nonlethal means making use of tranquilizers or stun guns. You can actually go through the entire game without killing anyone but the bosses.
My only real complaint about this game is that the AI is pretty dumb. Now, with all video games you need a balance of reality and fun. Sometimes overly smart AI is game crippling, there are some things I don't really expect the AI to do, but some of the things the enemy would do are laughable. I could shoot at a guy, clip him in the shoulder aiming for his head, and then hide for 2 min and he'd forget all about it. One guy I snuck up on and knocked out. Flat out decked in him right in the face and crept away. I didn't have time to kill him.
On my way back I noticed the guy woke up and resumed patrolling like nothing had happened. We're in a top secret facility that not even the government knows about and some random guy just jumped out of a garbage can and knocked your block off...don't' you think you should maybe tell someone? Report that? At least vary your route a little bit not to pass same place where a dude jumped out and made you eat your teeth? In the end this is such a minor complaint because the game is fantastic.
My experience with it was mind blowing from a compelling story to engaging gameplay that I felt was unquie to my style and choices. I would recommend if you are one of those completionist / explorer types of gamers you should probably play through in a hacker / stealth capacity as there are a lot of plot points, restricted areas, and conversations that you really only encounter if your presence isn't known. I can't recommend this game enough whatever your play style is. Get this game.