Deus Ex: Human Revolution review [360/PS3/PC]

Posted August 26, 2011 by Kevin Pabst.

Deus Ex is a game many remember with fondness. Is the prequel, DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION, the next evolution in videogames, or is it just grasping at nostalgia for the original? Read on to find out.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a game about the future. You’re Adam Jensen, and not long after pressing start your body gets all sorts of mangled. Sarif Industries, your employer and a primary producer of human augmentation devices, decides to set you right with a mostly new body – one that’s better (read: ‘better at killing’) than your old, soft one.

When Adam was mangled, his significant other was killed, and now he’s on a warpath for revenge. He’ll upgrade his new cybernetic body with augmentations, like arms that punch through walls or lungs that can breath gas. Leveling up, you’ll gain points spent on customising your Adam – points earned through the game as he unravels the conspiracy surrounding the incident that maimed him.

Eidos Montreal has created a future that feels right. Maybe it’s the level of grit shown in futuristic Detroit, I don’t know, but the future of Deus Ex: Human Revolution feels plausible – at least, the locations do. Some buildings feel like they could be made today with tremendous budget, while rotting apartments are grungy enough to be believable, even if all the doors have electronic locks. Corporations today assault their employees with all sorts of ads for the company, and Sarif Industries is no different, except it’s all high-res monitors instead of posters.

Feel the future

The original Deus Ex might have been one of the best games ever, but the combat was never its strongest asset. In Human Revolution, though, it feels good. The controls are strong and the weapons pack a punch. Adam is significantly more vulnerable than most videogame protagonists, only able to take a couple of shotgun blasts before dying. But apart from boss fights, the enemies, too, are vulnerable – shooting them once in the head will kill them if they aren’t wearing a helmet. On the medium difficulty setting, enemies felt sometimes tough to defeat, but rarely unfairly difficult. Even though I played a generally stealthy character, the firefights I did engage in were always enjoyable.

Unlike most first-person shooters, Deus Ex: Human Revolution snaps into third-person when the left trigger is held and you’re near cover. This transition is so smooth I stopped noticing it after a few hours, and just associated left trigger with being hidden. It’s from third-person that you’ll perform military rolls, flip between objects, blindly fire, and generally move around undetected. The whole system feels more natural than any other third-person shooter I can think of. While Deus Ex is clearly a first-person game at heart, and the immersion is ramped up by its inclusion, there’d almost be a case for saying the whole game should have been in third-person – when it’s not, it sometimes feels just a little bit restrictive.

Augmented systems

While this is very much a Deus Ex game, Human Revolution has certainly been inspired by modern titles. The presentation of augmentations feels like more of a contemporary RPG, with each different body part giving way to a branching tree – almost MMO-style, yet simplified. Each point has a great deal of weight and value, but by the end of the game, I had most of my abilities filled out, meaning I could do most anything besides breathing poison gas. The balance is spot-on, though. Putting your points into combat feels like it’s having a very direct effect, and the same goes for hacking, social, and stealth; the “four pillars of gameplay” Eidos Montreal has been talking about throughout the game’s development.

On the topic of the social pillar: this is what sets itself apart from the typical RPG that lets you can ask whatever you want as many times as you want. Granted, in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, a majority of dialogue fits the more basic design. Several conversations, though, “boss conversations”, are more in-depth and require you to convince a character one way or another on a topic. Instead of being based on points, the result is based on how well you read the character and how closely you’ve paid attention. The nearest parallel I’ve seen is in Alpha Protocol, and it was a great deal more primitive. This feels advanced, forward-thinking, fresh and invigorating.

However, one system that feels just awful is the energy system. You’ve got multiple batteries, and when you deplete most of one, it will refill slowly. If you deplete it completely, though, you need to use items to replenish it. Many abilities use energy, and all but the very first battery requires items to restore, so you can either be extremely conservative with your energy usage, or carry a crate of energy-restoring protein bars everywhere. It’s a shame, too, since some of the coolest abilities drain energy. Energy-restoring items, like most items, are pretty scarce, and this restricts power usage further. I suppose these abilities are powerful, but then the abilities should be made weaker, or more balanced. If the game becomes too easy if you’re allowed to do the best bits all the time, there’s a problem with the design, not with your batteries.

Intelligent design, except by people

People often complain about how first-person shooters today are little more than “corridor, fight, cutscene, repeat.” Deus Ex: Human Revolution, harking back to its roots, throws a wrench in that equation. Every level is huge, filled with unknowing enemies, and has dozens of hidden nooks for you to explore. Unfortunately, also harking back to its roots, within these great levels are some not-so-great bits. Like the vents. The game encourages alternate paths, but as was the way with its predecessors, almost all of them have you stacking boxes or moving vending machines to access a ventilation system. Deus Ex loves vents. It wants to cheat on hallways and run off with vents into the sunset.

Besides the game’s obsession with air ducts, the level layouts feel like real places, with the exception of some questionable blocking of doors with trash in place of invisible walls. Many buildings in the two city hubs aren’t hidden behind doors made of loading screens, and instead always exist within the level. Little things, like not being bigger on the inside, help give areas a sense of scale and make them feel consistent and contiguous.

But then there are the boss fights. A good boss should either demonstrate how to beat it through visual, audio, and instinctual cues, or kill you no more than a few times until you learn the pattern. One fight in Human Revolution tried to give me audio and visual cues, but still killed me enough times to fill an hour and a half. More to the point, none of these boss fights play to the game’s greatest strength, its ability to let you play in the manner you want.

None of them can be played as a hacker, socially, or through stealth; every fight needs to be solved through brute force alone. It’s the one major problem with Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and the thing that prevents it from getting an even bigger score. For a game so focused on letting your play your way, it’s hugely disappointing that it occasionally whips that choice from underneath you.

In today’s shooter market, Deus Ex: Human Revolution offers a welcome change of pace from corridors. If you put the customisation of BioShock, the exploration of Fallout 3, and universe of Blade Runner in a blender you’d get a delicious Human Revolution-flavored smoothie. It’s a Deus Ex game, basically – but one for 2011.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution, from Square Enix and Eidos Montreal, is out now for Xbox 360 (reviewed), PlayStation 3, and PC.