Immersing, scary and thought provoking.

*I HAVE ATTEMPTED TO KEEP THIS AS SPOILER FREE AS POSSIBLE THOUGH SOME SMALL SPOILERS WILL BE EVIDENT*

Version reviewed PC (with Phenom X4 840 3.2 GHZ, 10GB ram, Windows 7 64 bit and a Radeon 6850 card)

Imagine this; a world where things are set up for people since birth, corporations are against each other and governments are constantly conspiring against each other in order to gain the upper hand against one another, but with somebody controlling it all, saying the right things to keep people dumb and being the ants who live out their daily lives in ignorance of the world around them, though some believe in these conspiracies, they are laughed at for being nut jobs.

All that and you have Deus Ex: Human Revolution

The premise of this game (which is a prequel to the PC classic Deus Ex) is set in a world which is not unlike our own. In 2027 (Which is 25 years before the original) humanity is on the verge of a major scientific breakthrough. The breakthrough is Augmentation which is essentially replacing body parts with cybernetic enhancements for what ever reason (people being bored of having a human body, War Veterans with injuries, Birth Defects etc) and the moral implications of it. Whether Augmentation is good or bad, who are they aimed for and why does humanity need these Augmentations anyway?


You play as Adam Jensen who very much a cold and one dimensional protagonist through-out the very game. He's ex SWAT for an incident involving the killing of a fifteen year old child and is then hired by Sarif Industries at the recommendation of Megan Read, who is a major player in the game and the game very much plays on the interpersonal relationships between the characters with interesting ways of dialog. It's sort of like Mass Effect's dialog mechanic in which it gives you options about what to say and which tone of voice they are (Different personality types react to different things in different ways)

But unlike Mass Effect it does not let you interact with the conversation as a player until very specific choices are made in game. Such as one case where one of Adam's ex colleges are still feeling guilt and remorse for the incident that provoked Adam's leaving of SWAT in which by convincing him it wasn't his fault, he then later appears later on in the game.

Various links to the first game are in here, the UNATCO theme making appearances in the prologue of the game and also via various radio's in the game world, characters whilstling the Deus Ex theme and characters making re-appearances (won't say who... Spoilers :3)

The game is very much Sci-Fi influenced. With nods to Stanley Kubrick, Rick Deckard, Phillip.K.Dick and William Gibson all appearing in places and it has a very striking and unique visual look (even if it's Orange and Grey) even the weapons as they go on are very unique looking. Even if they start off looking like the generic pistol, shotgun, assault rifle that any gamer has seen plenty of times, with various modifications for the guns (like Ammo increase, rate of fire increase, cool down decrease... That sort of thing)

For people who have played the original Deus Ex it used to separate skills and augmentations as two different entities. However in HR they are combined into one, multi-tools are no longer used for locking doors and has made way for a very entertaining (if short) hacking mini-game.

The game brings combat into a fresh new light by encouraging sneak tactics by providing various points of entry to various locations (just like the original) and it is possible to do a no kill run of the entire game (there's an achievement for it)

However as much as I am praising the games story, unique look and feel and the nice little nods to various influential pieces of Science Fiction, it's time to look over on the other side of the coin.

Various AI bugs, including pathfinding issues, stupidity and (minor) scripted events happening too early and having issues when alt and tabbing the game becomes really slow at times, even with nothing else open.

My major gripe with the game is the boss battles. They feel completely out of place for a Deus Ex game and the flow of the game is interrupted by them.

Seeing as you spend can spend hours upon hours leveling a Stealth based character, then a boss battle comes and totally undermines what you've leveled up. Forcing you to upgrade your guns, put skill-points into combat based Augmentations and so on.

It's not a perfect game, but far more interesting and socially relevant that Invisible War was. (I also like some of the nods to the real world. E-Books mentioning the Swine Flu pandemic and characters referring Steve Jobs and Bill Gates)

It's good. Buy it.

4/5 stars.