Review: We love Deus Ex: Human Revolution; we also hate it. It's very close to being one of the great PC games of all time. Almost...
Every now and then, while we’ve been playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution for this review, we’ve been thinking “Man, can a game get any better than this?” At those moments, phrases like ‘game of the year’ and ‘best RPG shooter ever’ keep running through our minds. At it’s best, there is simply nothing quite like Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
However, there’s also an ‘at its worst’ side to this equation. For every highpoint of our tens of hours with the game, there has been at least one terrible low. There are bugs, there are AI glitches, there is some truly terrible voice acting.
So how does this long-awaited and much looked-forward to game add up? Good question...
Well, do ya, (cyber)punk? At its heart, DXHR is a simple tale of one man’s search for truth and revenge, following the death of his lover. But there’s so much more layered on top of that – high end corporate espionage, government conspiracies and even BIG QUESTIONS over what it means to human, the power of the media and the ethics of experimenting with the progress of human evolution.
That a ‘mere’ computer game is not only posing these questions, but doing so in such a bravura and mature manner, is marvellous. Also, for the most part, the game always strives to match its heart with clever gameplay, involved mechanics and choices that not only matter, but that change the game entirely.
So let’s talk about where it all works.
Probably the main mechanic of the game is tied into the fact that during the prologue, you – as Adam Jensen, security chief for the forward looking Sarif Industries – get the ever-living crap beaten out of you. In fact, were it not for top of the line augmentations and cyberlimbs provided by your employer, you’d be dead. Jensen pretty much goes from baseline human to full ‘borg during the credits – a sequence, no less, that’s very reminiscent of the anime cyberpunk classic, Ghost in the Shell.
But all those new toys can’t be turned on at once. It’s reinforced throughout the game that augmentation comes with a price – tissue rejection, infection and so on – so as you play, you get to choose which systems to activate. Basically, it’s a classic XP-buy system, but one that’s very cleverly tied directly into the player’s experience of the world. The powers are all universally useful, too, and allow you to pretty much tailor Jensen to match how you want to play the game. That said, there are some real no-brainer choices, and we can’t escape the feeling that anyone who chooses not to employ hacking will be severely stretched.
And speaking of experiencing the world – wow, what a world. Eidos has managed to create a range of environments that each feel more real and at the same time more impressive than the last. Hengsha, for instance, is great two level Chinese city, with the poor living below an artificial sky that supports an upper level of planned parks and corporate enclaves. There are signs, posters and advertising everywhere, making each location feel almost alive. Sure, the inhabitants of these places are mostly static, and Human Revolution certainly lacks some of the scripted events of the former titles. That said, huge points to Eidos’s art team.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012