The year is 2027, Detroit has the front seat to the world of human augmentation. The revolution of humans and machine forged together to become a cybernetic enhanced human beings, I mean after all where else would machines be made in America, besides silicon valley? We can rebuild him… Make him better… Faster… Stronger… But as they say you just cant fix stupid… or can you? No, this isn’t the million dollar man, but from the looks of it, the augments and/or bionic limbs of Adam Jensen, seems like they’d cost a pretty damn penny (inflation my ass). In Deus Ex Human Revolution you play as head of security of Sarif Industries, Adam Jensen. Sarif Industries is one of the leading companies who’s cashed in on augmenting technology After a being almost completely blown up in the line of duty, Jensen undergoes augmentation (against his will) to save his life. The game picks back up six months after the explosion, with employees of research and development from the company either dead or still missing.
The game plays on the heart strings of being good or bad. You can either go in guns blazing and kill every one (including pedestrians), or play the stealth game and sneak past people, or just knock everyone out with tranquilizers and stun guns. Just try not to scream out “Don’t taze me bro!” every time you tag some one with the stun gun. Combat in the game is pretty straight forward, but the great great thing about Deus Ex is the choices you can make to get your objectives done. Head shotting all the bad guys in the game is great and all but the game doesn’t really show off it’s true colors until you sneak up on someone and cripple them with your augmented arms through an amazing cut scene. So playing stealthy or getting in close to your enemies has it’s benefits as the game does reward you with something cool. Gun play in the Deus Ex feels exactly how it should feel in any shooter, tight and precise, except for some clipping issues when you try to shoot over a ledge to people under you and distance of where a gun is effective.
Augmenting Jensen to fit your style of game play is balanced between combat, hacking, armor, and awareness. Unfortunately hacking will most likely be one of the first things players will want to max out since there’s so many security panels, computers, and doors in the game to hack. Although upgrading your hacking doesn’t exactly mean you’re guaranteed that you’ll be able to hack the terminals without any problems. Just know that hacking will most likely take up at least 25 to 30 percent of the game, and it’s always a challenge to get all the data locked up everywhere. Other than augmenting your hacking, people will get to choose a lot of different and fun augments like one for taking two people out at the same time. Which equals even more eye candy than before, at least two times more!
The game’s story line is pretty solid. Although it’s a little slow in the beginning, later on in the game the story really gets you to start wondering what the heck is actually going on, and make you question almost everyone you know. The entire game is either voiced or has subtitles, and the voice acting in the game is very well done no matter if it’s in Chinese or English. Deus Ex’s game play reminded me a lot of Metal Gear Solid, but just in first person. The stealth, the acrobatic flips, the choice or lethal or non-lethal combat, some weapons, mid game bosses, and even some of the levels. Don’t get me wrong, Deus Ex in itself is a great game even if it may have some similarities to the MGS series. After all the game does have some Easter eggs that spoofs on Final Fantasy, and makes some references to Blade Runner.
Although the game is great there were a few problems that I ran into, and one of the biggest was inventory. At the start you only get a limited amount of space to carry things, after upgrading the augment, space is still limited. The option to place things inside some type of storage unit was left out for some reason, so every time you have maxed out your carrying capacity, you either have to leave it behind or just drop it on the floor where it’ll just stay there for the entire game. Another qualm I had with the game is that you’re not able to travel between cities or areas after you’ve cleared them. So if you drop things off like a pistol you upgraded in the first part of the game to make space and travel to another city, then you wont be able to go back to the city to pick it up.
Sure the game has it’s problems but every game does. To be honest if you weigh out what the game has to offer compared to the minute problems, Deus Ex is still a fun game to play. The freedom to search entire levels, and complete missions however you like, and play in whichever style you like, makes the game fun. The depth of the story, and the mix of characters in the game keeps your attention, if that doesn’t then your concentration of staying stealthy or surviving gun fights will. The game has a good amount of challenge to it, and there’s tons of hard achievements to earn. If you’re hesitant of buying the game then let me just tell you that this is one game you don’t want to miss out on!
