When I first heard that there would be a new Deus Ex game, I was uncertain. It was going to be a prequel. It was going to be made with no input from Warren Spector. It was going to have cover-based shooter mechanics. It sounded like a recipe for worse disaster than Deus Ex: Invisible War.
I was wrong. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Adam Jensen is the ex-cop security bigwig of Sarif Industries, a biotech and cybernetic augmentation company working on military contracts. Cyborg mercenaries attack, Jensen’s ex-girlfriend is killed, and he’s scarred horribly. Soon he gets a complete cybernetic upgrade, with shiny new arms and eyes and lots of other metal bits that give him new abilities. Did I mention this happens in Detroit? Because I really need to point out that this game is about an ex-cop who’s almost killed and becomes a cyborg who works for a huge corporation in futuristic Detroit.
This isn’t a huge joke-filled Verhoeven parody, though. Deus Ex: Human Revolution might seem like Robocop on paper, but it’s really a tense drama held together with excellent stealth and shooting mechanics. Adam’s search for answers takes him all over the world, from the grimy streets of Detroit to the twin city of Heng-shua, to Montreal, to parts even stranger. All through the story, it asks what it means to be an augmented human, and how the technology to replace our arms, legs, and eventually entire bodies and let ourselves be controlled by others. You’re more than human, but you’re also less than human, and no one in the game will let you forget that.
The upgrades are the core of the game, focusing on improving your skills and giving you new techniques through Praxis points which unlock new features in your augmentations. There are no skill points like in Deus Ex; you’re competent with all weapons, and can only upgrade your augmentations to better stabilize guns and give you slight advantages. This works very well, taking away the awkward RPG elements of the first game without removing any of the options you had before. If you want to be a better hacker, you upgrade your augmentations. If you want to be a better fighter, you upgrade your augmentations. How you upgrade your implants controls how you play the game.
Most of the gameplay outside of the hubs areas where you can find side missions and explore consists of combat and stealth. Fortunately, both systems feel tight and fun, with a perfect balance of glass jaw shooting and tense sneaking. You can kill scores of enemies, but only if you fight them strategically. Even augmented you can’t survive more than a few bullets, and using cover to protect yourself is necessary even if you want to kill everyone. The cover system shines, with a single button to glue yourself to a piece of cover and movement controls to lean over any open edge of the cover to aim. It’s simple and effective, and I hope to see it in other games. It’s genuinely the best cover system I’ve played in any game. Cover is needed for stealth as well, and quick buttons for creeping around corners and jumping between walls makes sneaking past guards fluid and intuitive.
Besides combat and stealth, you can hack computers with a simple but fun strategy game that involves getting to target nodes before security nodes can track you down. Finally, social interaction is another useful tool in Adam’s arsenal, letting you get past obstacles and even avoid some conflicts just by facing possible enemies and dealing with them like people. The facial expressions aren’t as advanced as the ones found in L.A. Noire, but the interaction and ability to peg peoples’ weaknesses and use what you’ve learned to convince them to help you is just as necessary.
Human Revolution offers the same wealth of choices the original Deus Ex gave players. You can creep through levels, shooting and killing every guard to get to your destination. You can sneak past them, using the shadows to your advantage. You can seek out computers to disable and kill enemies in your way. You can even talk to people and have them simply open the way, if you’re diplomatic and smart. Whatever your skills and upgrades, and however you want to play the game, Human Revolution gives you the options you need to get through to the next part of the game.
At least, it mostly gives you those options. There are four boss fights that completely break the flow of the game by forcing you into one-on-one arena battles with augmented enemies. If you’re equipped with only nonlethal weapons and stealth abilities, you’re going to lose. You need to kill those bosses, and you need to do it with guns and explosives. The boss fights in the first Deus Ex gave you opportunities to strategize, prepare ahead of time, and even kill or walk past bosses with some clever investigation and fancy wordplay. Suddenly being forced to shoot these bosses to trigger a cut scene where they die, without any options to do anything else, feels very out of place.
This out of place feeling extends to the entire last act of the game, where the story collapses and the flow completely breaks up. Without spoiling anything, the last part of the game has a twist thrown entirely out of left field and a final mission that seems to have nothing to do with the rest of the game. The questions and mysteries raised by the game are thrown aside in favor of a James Bond plot that ultimately feels unsatisfying and a set of multiple endings that you access literally by pressing different buttons in the last room. It seems like the developers just shrugged and went out for drinks after doing the last big area before the final area and left the end of the game to a backup crew.
Despite the last part of the game and the awkward boss fights, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a must-play for any gamer. There are tons of things to see and do, and the gameplay is spot-on. The story isn’t quite as tight as the original Deus Ex, but it’s still a great ride that explores a cyberpunk future full of intrigue and action. Adam Jensen is a worthy precursor to JC Denton, and his story is just as enjoyable, deep, and fun.
