Deus Ex: Human Revolution First Impressions

Well since I picked it up yesterday, I've played quite a few solid hours of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the prequel to 2000's landmark FPS Deus Ex. In that time, what have I surmised? That if this game continues being as excellent as it has been for the first few hours, this has a very good chance of being the best game so far this year and will be a major Game of the Year contender come December.

STORY

While I obviously haven't experienced all the plot twists or nuances of the story yet, I've really liked what I've seen so far. You play as Adam Jensen, head of security for Sarif Industries which is the leading company in transhuman augmentations, which is basically the use of mechanical parts to bring evolution to humans themselves rather than naturally. As they call it, "controlled evolution." This has caused a massive amount of protests and controversy from those who see it as ethically and morally wrong to manipulate the body and force evolution like that.

This has also led to terrorist attacks and right before Adam's company is going to present research before Washington DC, the company is attacked and Adam is mortally wounded. However, augmentations are used to save his life and therefore, Sarif now essentially has a super-soldier on their hands.

Mary DeMarle should really be commended for writing an excellent set-up so far for the main story while also keeping it well within the Deus Ex universe. She's also really done her research into how mechanical augmentations would work to give more credence to the protesters and has made excellent allegories and parallels to current issues. The abortion issue is a perfect example, with extremist attacks on facilities providing the services and of course the morally questionable action of forced evolution.

With luck, the story will continue to be as intriguing as it has been and add more to the conspiracy of the Deus Ex universe. One final note, given that this is the prequel to freaking Deus Ex, one of the most crapsack worlds imaginable (seriously, it's just a few steps down from 1984), I'm not really expecting a happy ending here. If I even get a bittersweet ending, I'll be very surprised.

GAMEPLAY AND DESIGN

So far the gameplay has been excellent. I haven't even gotten into the augmentations yet but that itself is also a plus as they're being very stingy with XP rewards, giving the game a balance so that you won't just become a superman.

The level design offers an incredible amount of latitude that was lacking from Invisible War. The gameplay videos have been telling the truth. There are pretty much four ways to get through situations: combat, stealth, hacking, and social. I'm primarily working with stealth and hacking, mixed with non-lethal melee takedowns.

Even the melee takedowns are pretty balanced. These could really be gamebreakers but they are reliant on energy, like the augmentations, which you have a limited amount of. At the beginning you have two energy cells, and once you use a melee takedown, one cell will be depleted. Only the first cell will regenerate whereas the others take consumables to replenish.

If there's one problem I have with the melee takedowns, it's that there's a pause as it cuts to Jensen beating the crap out of the target. In other words, you activate the takedown, the screen goes black for a second, and then the takedown is performed. It's a minor complaint but it really takes me out of the setting.

Anyway, back to the styles of play, combat has been something that I've been very careful to avoid and even if you get into it, you'll go down in about two seconds flat if you're not tactful and cautious in combat. There's a cover-system in place but the AI, while it has problems, will not just let you sit in the same piece of cover over and over.

Stealth and hacking are excellent styles to combine if you're careful. Getting through an area, either by taking down everyone silently and non-lethally or without any takedowns at all, is very satisfying. Hacking takes place in the form of a minigame which is actually really fun and intense. Surprising I know but it works as you have to capture files to get to an I/O port without being detected. If you are detected you have to move quickly before the detection traces your point of entry into the system which will sound the alarm and boot you out.

Hacking allows you to open doors without keycodes, turn off cameras, get restricted e-mails, take control of turrets (which I'm not doing because I'm going non-lethal), and just makes the game easier. It also gives XP. If you're going to use stealth, you also need to look for hidden areas or you're going to have a very hard time. I'm talking vents, hidden paths and entrances, etc.

Finally, there's social which I've only gotten into a little bit but it has an LA Noire type feel only without the revolutionary facial capture but it still works well. You need to figure out the right speech path to go with in order to convince a character to see things your way and help you out.

I still have a lot to go and a lot of augmentations to experiment with and I can't wait to delve further in.

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

Graphically, the game is not really cutting edge. Textures often don't look right and character models are nowhere near the excellent quality of say LA Noire. However, the art style is generally pretty good in terms of environments. People have complained about the overuse of yellow but it does make the world feel more alive and vibrant but also gives off a slight dystopian feeling. So far, it's worked well.

If there's one area where Human Revolution definitely improves on the original, it's the voice acting. Though it's still not incredibly consistent. Some actors are noticeably better than others and while Elias Toufexis does a good job so far as Adam Jensen, as of now, I wouldn't place it as one of the year's best performances.

In the end, while competent and not detracting from the story, the voice acting doesn't quite hit the quality that we hear in Mass Effect or Uncharted.

The music is excellent however and, as Machinima said, often gives a very Blade Runner vibe which is very appropriate considering the type of world it's in as well as the subject matter of the story. It really fits the situation and allows you to further immerse yourself in the world of Deus Ex.

CONCLUSION

I've played a few hours of Deus Ex, and so far it's been brilliant. I'll be coming back with my full review soon but, for now, know that if this game continues this excellent quality, it could topple Portal 2 as my favorite game so far this year.