Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Immersive"

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a prequel to the original Deus Ex. Like Deus Ex, Human Revolution is nonlinear since it gives you so many choices to deal with many situations that missions present. It is a first-person shooter but certainly not in the traditional sense due to all the RPG elements. There are basically three ways to infiltrate a restricted area: stealth, stealth combat, and combat. Stealth would enable you to move past security without being detected and without knocking anyone out. Stealth combat enables you to knock guys out quietly without being detected. Combat is a choice in which you shoot it out with enemies without using any stealth. You build your character with augmentation technology according to how you want to approach the main missions and side missions.
The game is first set in Detroit, a city with large corporations with different views on augmentation technology for human evolution and stricken with poverty. The augmentation technology makes humans faster, stronger, and more resistant to obstacles. The year is 2027 and you will deal with individuals with different interests in augmentation technology. Some believe that human augmentations are the next step in human evolution; some believe that human augmentations will take away our humanity. The protagonist is Adam Jensen, a security expert for Sarif Industries. The game begins with soldiers breaking into Sarif's HQ, stealing important info and leaving Jensen for dead. David Sarif, head of Sarif Industries, rehabilitates Jensen by providing him augmentations. Therefore, Jensen becomes a combination of man and machine. You go on an expedition to find out who was behind the attack on Sarif Industries and what their motives were.
The game will take you to other countries such as Shanghai, China and Montreal, Canada. You will learn about the relationships between the media, the government, and corporations in relation to augmentation technology through eBooks, newspapers, emails, and PDAs. Aesthetically, the environments look dark and may remind you of the film Blade Runner. The locales generally show a color of black and gold, reflecting the grim look of the world. The visual design does a great job of immersing you into the game. You will participate in many conversations with NPCs and some conversations will require you to choose one of a few possible responses that can affect the narrative.
You will find people hanging around flaming barrels as you try to complete main missions and side quests. Your style of play is important in determining how you will complete missions and side quests. If you want to open locked doors and hack into computers, you will want to invest heavily in hacking augmentations. If you want to shoot your way through heavily guarded facilities you will have to upgrade your weapons frequently and improve your dermal armor. If you want to move stealthily all the time you will have to invest in skills like silent movement. Completing missions will significantly increase your experience and experience points will lead to praxis points. Praxis points are skill points needed to invest in augmentation skills.
The cover system is very effective as the game changes from first person to third person view. You will be able to fire your weapon from cover. The AI of the enemies is quite believable since they will sound the alarm if you leave an unhidden body. Security cameras will also sound the alarm if it sees either a dead or neutralized body on the ground. There are many ventilation ducts in the game that allow you to move around facilities undetected. You can also traverse sewers to escape detection. The game feels more fun using stealth than using the combat approach. There is also a greater reward for using stealth as stealth will increase your much needed XP substantially. You can actually use takedowns on enemies to move forward and reach your goals. It's cool to see how the game changes to an animation allowing you to watch Jensen knock out an enemy. There is a contextual command to be used for enemy takedowns. There are robotic guards that would best be taken down by using EMP grenades because robotic guards are so vulnerable to those grenades. It is a lot of fun hacking computers to turn off cameras, robots, and to turn robots against their masters. However, this would require spending skill points to improve hacking abilities.
There are several boss battles throughout the game. However, there is no choice but to fight the bosses. These battles are a little uninspiring and are not exciting especially if you have spent so much time using stealth to complete missions. You have to deal with these bosses using the lethal approach. The game could have been better without these bosses or there should have been a choice on how to deal with them. The boss battles are definitely not a strength of the game. However, the boss battles do not take away from the greatness of the game. One minor problem was that the frame rate would drop from time to time causing the game to slow down even when there is no intense action. But this problem is only occasional.
This game makes you feel like a genuine cyberpunk and Eidos Montreal should be commended for making such an enthralling and gripping global conspiracy thriller. It is hard to find a game that is so nonlinear and allows you to choose how you want to approach challenges and how to respond to dialogue. I highly recommend this game to anyone as it is undoubtedly one of the best games of 2011.