Deus Ex: Human Revolution review - great, but a little buggy

Deus Ex: Human Revolution review - great, but a little buggy

By pathfinder
14:47 Sep 10, 2011

Takedowns
The Cover Mechanic
David Sarif

Too Short
Random Freeze Issue

I am a massive Deus Ex fan, having installed my game of the year edition CD copy of Deus Ex on four different computers since I first bought it in 2001 at university and racking up at least a dozen play-throughs. Although I never did finish the atrocity that was Deus Ex 2: The Invisible War (the story never hooked me and I found it to be a similar sort of failure to KOTOR2). Deus Ex: Human Revolution was a hugely anticipated game for me (perhaps coming second only to Battlefield 3 on my wish list) and is also the first new release game I have played on my shiny new gaming PC.
I’ve now played through the game twice (once on the normal or “Give Me A Challenge” difficulty and once on hard or “Give Me Deus Ex” difficulty) and am onto my third playthrough (in which I am trying obtain the last three achievements “Pacifist” and “Foxiest of the Hounds” and the elusive “Scholar”) and think I’m in a good position to write a user review.
Obviously this is for the PC version of the game.

Intro (one sentence since I assume you know it):
The future (2027), you are Adam Jensen the security chief of biotech company Sarif Industries (CEO David Sarif) that specialises in Human Augmentation technology (i.e. making yourself into a cyborg) where your ex-girlfriend (Megan Reed) is the head researcher.

Technical Issues:
The game itself has a couple of deficiencies in the AI (I encountered NPCs that ignored my presence with a gun, or forgot that I’d just shot up the room and failed to run away screaming like normal people), and in a couple of places I encountered strange graphical glitches (a gang-banger stuck in the display but completely non responsive and sadly not useable for cover, and the HUD shifting sideways to be half-off the screen). Normally that’s to be expected, but in a game where stealth plays a huge factor, AI issues especially are highlighted.
What I did encounter that frustrated me a lot is a random freeze issue. It appears to be a conflict between DirectX 11 and the latest nVidia driver (280.26) where the driver periodically stops responding (and then restarts) thereby locking up the game. I have probably experienced an average of one lock-up per hour or two of gameplay (sometimes 3 times in half an hour, especially in the streets of Hengsha, and other times I play for hours with no issues). A force-close of Deus Ex from the Windows 7 Task Manager and then relaunching the game (after it syncs with Steam) is all that is required to continue (about a minute of lost time) but it is very annoying especially if you haven’t saved your game in the last little while. Disabling DX11 in setup will stop the lockup but significantly reduces graphical performance introducing tearing and stuttering as well as increasing load times so I found it better just to save my game a lot. Hopefully it is solved with a DX11 patch or new drivers soon.
I have read complaints of long loading times, I think my average load times were 5-10s which is not that big a deal (and certainly much faster than a game like Starcraft II).

That annoying random freeze issue aside, I loved the game.

Plot:
The story was intellectually engaging with a solid morality debate in the subtext; while the main plot had a nice familiar feel to the conspiracy, and there were plenty of inside-joke hints of the future to come in the world of the original Deus Ex game. In terms of character realisation Adam Jensen seems to try overly hard to be a tough guy (his voice sounds forced in the context of some conversations to be honest), but David Sarif is beautifully rendered as a supporting character, and your sidekicks Pritchard and Malik are amusingly diverting (Pritchard obviously has a very high opinion of himself and a not so high one of you, whereas Malik’s flightsuit seems to be all that restrains her from jumping your bones).
My only complaint is that the game is far too short. The end suddenly arrived when I was expecting a deeper conspiracy to uncover, and more locations to explore. It definitely felt like there were at least 5 to 10 more storyboards (the numbered highlights from the loading screens of which there are 15) required to flesh out the play experience. There were revelations and showdowns looming that never eventuated, and the story lacked the twists and reveals of the original. It was almost as though a story editor had come in and said “it’s too long, draw a line here and end it”. A 24-30 hour first-time play through is simply too short for a PC title that is primarily single player. I hear that there is new Downloadable Content (DLC) coming soon but I still feel somewhat cheated by the short game.

The quality of the cut scenes was another feature I felt cheated by, they are clearly console based ports and don’t do justice to the graphical power available on a PC.

Gameplay:
The gameplay is simply beautiful. I adore the cover and takedown mechanics and think they are the best implemented features of the game. I also like the upgraded guard AI - they’re still not rocket scientists, but they “six-check” when walking patrol, flank you in a firefight, and it takes much more than hiding behind a box to throw guards off your tail if you trigger a “Hostile” condition as opposed to just an “Alarmed” one - all of which I enjoy because it adds a little more realism especially compared to the original. There is perhaps a little too much emphasis on hacking in the exploration of the game, but since exploring is technically a choice (you can just blaze through the levels without side-tracking) I guess it’s okay.

Regarding the Augmentations, Hacking and Inventory were the most important followed by the dual-takedown and Icarus (jump from any height) upgrades. The CASIE (social enhancer) augment is very fun to use (and certainly increases your game immersion experience) but is not strictly needed. After that you could choose the route of combat (typhoon, recoil suppression, improved aim and damage reduction) or stealth (cloaking, run silent, improved radar and increased energy) augmentations depending on how you wanted to play the game. One tip - buy every Praxis Kit on offer.

I have read complaints that you were unable to avoid several fights in the game and that it interrupted a non-lethal playthrough experience. I have to disagree, the same issue arose in the first Deus Ex - there was no way to out-manoeuvre Anna Navarre or Gunther Herman or Walton Simmons (sorry folks but kill-phrases don’t really count as avoiding lethal combat). Having to kill the mercenaries fits well within the story (and your character), even if you’ve avoided killing the troopers all the way through. Putting bullets in the Hyron Project slaves is probably the only point where I agree that the killing felt forced and that an alternative should have been available.

I pre-ordered the Augmented Edition and the biggest advantage you get is 10k credits (which instantly buys you the two Praxis Kits from the LIMB clinic in Detroit and puts you ahead of the curve). The AUD (Automatic Unlocking Device) is a very handy item to have available as well. When it comes to the weaponry, the Sniper Rifle (a perennial favourite of mine in all games) was disappointing, as was the Assault Rifle (the Shotgun is a better firefight weapon early in the game). There's not much to choose between the Heavy and Laser Rifles (I didn't really like either) while the Plasma Rifle and the Grenade Launcher are both excellent, but the gun of choice is still (as it was in the first game) the fully upgraded 10mm pistol (a single silenced armour-piercing round to the head makes short work of all enemies). The most disappointing piece of weaponry however was the rocket launcher – it is simply not worth the inventory space it occupies, EMP grenades are far better for handling mechanical threats.
The Tranquilizer Rifle and Gas Grenades are your friends on a non-lethal approach (concussion grenades are useful but never keep them at the expense of gas or EMP grenades). Still on the non-lethal side of things, I found both the stun gun and the PEPS to be something of a let-down.

Overall DE:HR is a game that just falls short of living up to the original thanks to its (presumably console-dictated) short length and the fact that technical glitches detract from what is otherwise a very satisfying gameplay experience.

Rating: 85% or 4 Stars

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