Deus Ex Human Revolution takes place in 2027 where human augmentation has changed the world. Some believe augmentation is the next step in human evolution, others believe they're a threat to humanity's existence and as security chief Adam Jensen, you're caught in a conspiracy involving a major development in mind augmentations when Sarif Industries is attacked by three mysterious figures. Scientists are killed, research is destroyed and Jensen is mortally wounded, forced to undergo advanced augmentation to live. From there it's a conspiracy tale, fraught with twists and revelations. Great characters and an immersive work together to create an immersive world with a certain level of authenticity that sucks the player in. Audio diaries and newspapers fill in the world's back story to a large extent and NPCs wander the streets or huddle around fires mostly realistically. Key choices are populated at many moments in the story which also gives the story an extra boost due to players choices leading to four different endings.
After a a brief training session as normal human Jensen, he straps on the augmentations and it's off on a journey to unravel the attack on the augmentation company. The game is divided into straight up missions and exploration through Detroit and Hengsha. The two cities aren't particularly enormous as far as sandboxes go but filled with nooks and cranies with hidden credit and weapon stashes. Street vendors and limb clinics are placed in cities to sell weapons and important praxis kits to enhance Jensen's abilities. You'll also spend a fair amount of time in menus, organising inventory space and checking the map but it never fully distracts from the main missions, which typically involve getting to a location in whatever method you choose for the next cut scene to appear and advance the story. Along the way you'll be showered with experience points for just about everything, taking out enemies, sneaking through areas or hacking terminals which earns you another praxis kit every five thousand XP points. It provides a good incentive to explore and complete side missions. The game clocks in at a good 20 hours but the different ways to play give incentive for replay and there's bound to be DLC to fill in gaps in the story.
Delivering on it's promise Deus Ex Human Revolution's gameplay is extremely versatile, allowing players to choose the way they want to play. This also applies to the large amount of upgradable augmentations at Jensen's disposal. Want to go in guns blazing? Buy the recoil reduction and armour upgrades and take cover behind objects to shoot. Is playing sneaky your style? Unlock the cloaking ability and silent footsteps. The alarm system is based on enemy lines of sight who will summon robots and other reinforcements to stop you. Or upgrade your hacking skills to open secret entrances or turn robots and turrets against your foes. Human Revolution clearly offers almost endless possibilities to reach your goals The game mainly plays from a first person perspective but switches very neatly to third person when Jensen enters cover. All is not perfect unfortunately. Combat can be quite limp at first as many shots are wasted due to punishing recoil and enemies will drop you fast without the proper armour upgrades. Hacking is more complex in that you must race to capture points to reach the key information point. Some side missions force you to hack and you'll be forced to upgrade your hacking level in order to clear certain missions. Thankfully this redeemed by the constant upgrades applied to Jensen who will always stand as one of the most badass protagonists to grace this console generation. Artificial intelligence may have deadly aim, but lack the intelligence to seek you out if you're playing stealth. The enemies in your way will include standard grunts, heavily armed soldiers, and robotic turrets and robots. Boss fights are particularly lacklustre as the only way to beat them is to pump them full of lead until they fall down. The final gameplay pillar is conversations where you must persuade a character to give away key information. This stands out from the other sections as talking to the NPCs in the game feels incredibly life like and is constantly changing based on what you choose to say. The rest of the game is composed of light platforming including climbing ladders, hiding in vents, picking up objects and sneaking behind enemies to deliver an awesome looking lethal or no lethal take down. The game's greatest strength is that it rewards you for playing anyway you want. You could pick up a crate using the lift heavy objects augmentation and use it as cover or take the enemy out from a distance. It's completely up to you.
It may not be the prettiest game on current generation hardware but Deus Ex Human Revolution succeeds to a large degree at creating an immersive and engaging world that you'll want to remain lost in until the end. The color pallet of black and gold, combined with an excellent soundtrack truly give the world a feeling of energy. Story cut scenes look great but on the other hand NPC's can be jarring at times, with stiff and repetitive animations that can diminish the sense of realism. Voice acting hits the stereotypes particularly Jensen's gruff voice emphasising his gruff nature. The game runs mostly silky smooth at all times with few glitches to be found.
Deus Ex Human Revolution is a great and unique RPG that gives the player more choice than any other. Any follower of innovation, atmosphere or choice should pick this up immediately after launch. The Deus Ex series has received a truly faithful prequel and one of the best RPGs of 2011.
Rating: 9/10
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