Deus Ex is one of those games that changed the face of videogames, or at the very least, the genre. It struck the perfect balance between FPS and RPG, the graphics were great at the time, the soundtrack was badass and the story was fantastic.
It's no surprise that Human Revolution is one of the most anticipated sequels ever.
Storyline and presentation
The story is nothing to be amazed at. It seems very linear and unoriginal with an overall feeling of been-there-done-that when thinking of similar titles. That being said, it does bring a lot of background and history to the Deus Ex universe.
While the story is more or less consistent, it just lets you pick the ending when you beat the game. Essentially, you can act in any way and make any choice you want throughout the game, but it doesn't really matter, because what ending you'll get will be determined (literally) by the push of a button.
Level design is lacking. In trying to keep several routes to accomplish a goal, the game starts to repeat itself. Crawling through a vent to reach a location unnoticed is great and all, but after 20 times, you don't want to see another vent or path-revealing movable vending machine.
City-hubs, of which there are only two, Detroit and Shanghai, feel awkward to navigate and not like a city at all. And guess what? There are vents to crawl through in the cities too.
The game starts out great and exciting, but loses a lot of its spark later on. It just gets slow-paced, bouncing back and forth between mission givers, revisiting locations, running around in circles trying to find your next waypoint due to the awkward mapping and leaving the player with nothing new or amazing happening.
In one of the first missions in the game, a guy walks in on you while searching an apartment. Instinctively, a lot of people will hide. It might not seem like much but that gimmick works. It's fun, it's unexpected, it's interactive, it feels realistic and it's one of those details that, when combined, make for a great game. Sadly, there's not a lot of those moments.
Visuals
The game looks great. If you have the rig to max the settings out, you can be very pleased with how fluid and sharp everything looks. The textures are extremely detailed and consistent and the lightning is beautiful.
That being said, DE:HR does recycle 'extras' NPCs. You'll see the same faces over and over. It's also heartbreaking to see how little went into developing landscapes or eye-candy, considering how great the game engine runs.
Voice acting and soundtrack
Voice actors can make or break a game. In this case, the acting is spot-on for the most part. Elias Toufexis definitely takes the cake here. Doing a fantastic job at playing the protagonist with a low-key, raspy voice, he really sells the character. The supporting cast doesn't fall too far behind, either.
The music is pretty good and definitely reminiscent of the first game, but unfortunately it's not very noticeable save for some cutscenes.
Gameplay
Here's where it gets complicated. The game encourages you to clear objectives by using combat, stealth or hacking. In theory, this is all fine and dandy, but, like in most games, one path ends up being much more efficient than the others. Think the Fallout series.
The high point would be combat. Introducing a duck-and-cover system to the franchise, the combat system makes a great job at being fun and functional at the same time. No awkward collision or line of sight problems makes shooting baddies a real knee-clapper.
Stealth is what's encouraged by the game to be used most of the time. The experience rewards you get by being sneaky and knocking your opponents out instead of just waltzing into a room with guns blazing, are superior enough that you'll want to rely on stealth for most of the game. However, a bad minimap/map system, somewhat limited AI and just poor mechanics all around will eventually make it more trouble than it's worth. By the end of the game, you'll just be shooting everything that moves to be done with it.
Hacking, unsurprisingly, comes in the shape of a minigame which gets boring and unchallenging pretty fast. In any case, you'll be using hacking as a secondary way of clearing paths for yourself or just as an extra experience source.
The game also tries to be big in exploration. Granted. It's a resource that works when the levels are vast and interesting, like in the Elder Scrolls series. However, in DE:HR, going through every nook and cranny for some minor Easter eggs, some ordinary loot or some bits of experience just feels like too much trouble for no reward at all. After a while, you'll just want to be done with the missions as fast as possible, forsaking everything else along the way.
Every now and then, in an attempt to keep it interesting, you'll have persuasion battles and boss encounters.
The persuasion sequences are simple but they work. It's basically dialogue with 3 choices on how to respond. Sometimes it feels a bit unrealistic getting a bad guy to give up just by saying something harsh or sympathetic, but they're enjoyable and provide insight on some major characters throughout the game.
The boss battles are ridiculous and unnecessary. It feels like you go from playing Splinter Cell to Zelda in a heartbeat. They're very arcade-ish, very weak plot-wise and just silly for a game that tries to push immersion and realism.
All in all, Human Revolution feels like an over-budgeted game that doesn't completely honor its predecessor but still has enough highlights to be worthy of a playthrough or two.
7/10.
It's no surprise that Human Revolution is one of the most anticipated sequels ever.
Storyline and presentation
The story is nothing to be amazed at. It seems very linear and unoriginal with an overall feeling of been-there-done-that when thinking of similar titles. That being said, it does bring a lot of background and history to the Deus Ex universe.
While the story is more or less consistent, it just lets you pick the ending when you beat the game. Essentially, you can act in any way and make any choice you want throughout the game, but it doesn't really matter, because what ending you'll get will be determined (literally) by the push of a button.
Level design is lacking. In trying to keep several routes to accomplish a goal, the game starts to repeat itself. Crawling through a vent to reach a location unnoticed is great and all, but after 20 times, you don't want to see another vent or path-revealing movable vending machine.
City-hubs, of which there are only two, Detroit and Shanghai, feel awkward to navigate and not like a city at all. And guess what? There are vents to crawl through in the cities too.
The game starts out great and exciting, but loses a lot of its spark later on. It just gets slow-paced, bouncing back and forth between mission givers, revisiting locations, running around in circles trying to find your next waypoint due to the awkward mapping and leaving the player with nothing new or amazing happening.
In one of the first missions in the game, a guy walks in on you while searching an apartment. Instinctively, a lot of people will hide. It might not seem like much but that gimmick works. It's fun, it's unexpected, it's interactive, it feels realistic and it's one of those details that, when combined, make for a great game. Sadly, there's not a lot of those moments.
Visuals
The game looks great. If you have the rig to max the settings out, you can be very pleased with how fluid and sharp everything looks. The textures are extremely detailed and consistent and the lightning is beautiful.
That being said, DE:HR does recycle 'extras' NPCs. You'll see the same faces over and over. It's also heartbreaking to see how little went into developing landscapes or eye-candy, considering how great the game engine runs.
Voice acting and soundtrack
Voice actors can make or break a game. In this case, the acting is spot-on for the most part. Elias Toufexis definitely takes the cake here. Doing a fantastic job at playing the protagonist with a low-key, raspy voice, he really sells the character. The supporting cast doesn't fall too far behind, either.
The music is pretty good and definitely reminiscent of the first game, but unfortunately it's not very noticeable save for some cutscenes.
Gameplay
Here's where it gets complicated. The game encourages you to clear objectives by using combat, stealth or hacking. In theory, this is all fine and dandy, but, like in most games, one path ends up being much more efficient than the others. Think the Fallout series.
The high point would be combat. Introducing a duck-and-cover system to the franchise, the combat system makes a great job at being fun and functional at the same time. No awkward collision or line of sight problems makes shooting baddies a real knee-clapper.
Stealth is what's encouraged by the game to be used most of the time. The experience rewards you get by being sneaky and knocking your opponents out instead of just waltzing into a room with guns blazing, are superior enough that you'll want to rely on stealth for most of the game. However, a bad minimap/map system, somewhat limited AI and just poor mechanics all around will eventually make it more trouble than it's worth. By the end of the game, you'll just be shooting everything that moves to be done with it.
Hacking, unsurprisingly, comes in the shape of a minigame which gets boring and unchallenging pretty fast. In any case, you'll be using hacking as a secondary way of clearing paths for yourself or just as an extra experience source.
The game also tries to be big in exploration. Granted. It's a resource that works when the levels are vast and interesting, like in the Elder Scrolls series. However, in DE:HR, going through every nook and cranny for some minor Easter eggs, some ordinary loot or some bits of experience just feels like too much trouble for no reward at all. After a while, you'll just want to be done with the missions as fast as possible, forsaking everything else along the way.
Every now and then, in an attempt to keep it interesting, you'll have persuasion battles and boss encounters.
The persuasion sequences are simple but they work. It's basically dialogue with 3 choices on how to respond. Sometimes it feels a bit unrealistic getting a bad guy to give up just by saying something harsh or sympathetic, but they're enjoyable and provide insight on some major characters throughout the game.
The boss battles are ridiculous and unnecessary. It feels like you go from playing Splinter Cell to Zelda in a heartbeat. They're very arcade-ish, very weak plot-wise and just silly for a game that tries to push immersion and realism.
All in all, Human Revolution feels like an over-budgeted game that doesn't completely honor its predecessor but still has enough highlights to be worthy of a playthrough or two.
7/10.