I've just been playing Deus Ex Human Revolution and, considering how hyped the title has been, I thought those of us that have played it may want to share our opinions. It may also help some of you decide whether to buy the game or not. Firstly forgive me if this sounds like something you've read on IGN; I wrote for them once, among other sites, and it has had a profound effect on how I discuss games:
For those of you who have never heard of Deus Ex and have no idea what the fuss is all about I would like to enlighten you: In 2001 a small and insignificant game studio - their greatest contribution at that point being the widely panned and ridiculed Anachronox - released a game that would be anything but small and insignificant. Deus Ex was a FPSRPGACTIONADVENTUREPUZZLE game that turned to the gaming world and said, "Yo. THIS is how you make a game." The gaming world simply stared back in awe. Deus Ex is widely credited as the single best and most complete PC game ever created. Any gamer worth anything has Deus Ex somewhere in their top 10 as a non-mover (along with Fallout 2). Not to labour the point or anything. If you're not sold at this point there is very little hope for you; you may leave.
This of course creates a problem: It is hard for me - as someone who has played the original extensively - to view Human Revolution in spite of its predecessor. So as I discuss the game, you may find me journeying back and telling you about how the old game did it. It may even turn into a "Deus Ex did this, Human Revolution doesn't" affair. I apologise in advance but Deus Ex is the type of game that you can't help doing this with, in the same way World of Warcraft fanboys vehemently claim that vanilla WoW was better than Cataclysm. Perhaps this potent inability to enjoy Deus Ex Human Revolution for what it is - a game of nearly unrivalled ambition and scope - is responsible for my inability to enjoy it to any great degree.
(OH NO HE SAID SOMETHING CRITICAL).
Deus Ex is a pretty but fractured game, both practically and metaphorically. The graphics are interesting in places but that is a credit more to the art team than the engine designers. Facial animations are horrendous, anti-aliasing doesn't seem to actually manage to anti any of the aliasing, and the engine is like an epileptic riding a bus... as it drives over shale. There will be moments where extreme precision will be required, where every ounce of your experience as a gamer must be leveraged in a glorious display of how utterly awesome you really are (despite the fact that you're supposed to write a 2000 word essay and will probably fail the semester if you don't get it in tomorrow)... and then the game will stutter. And you'll miss the shot. And then you'll be piled on by 600 mercenaries. And you'll die. And then you'll have to deal with the 10 minute loading times. Add that to the fact that, in a handful of places, the game is genuinely hard and you have a cocktail that induces pure, vein-popping frustration...
(As a brief aside: has anyone else noticed how - of late - we've started to actually get games that need players to think? Prior to The Witcher 2 it was all "aim assist" rubbish and "detailed quest trackers" bollocks. Now it's... DEATH. DEATH AND FRUSTRATION. I regret ever saying games were too easy. I'm sorry. I really am. Anyway... I'm calm.)
Despite these momentary flutters of genuine difficulty, the game mainly resides in the "formulaic and tedious" realm of combat; it really is just another same old, same old FPS-based combat affair. The augmentation system is supposed to allow you to avoid this sensation but sadly augmentations are founded on a principle of limited, feigned choice and not real choice. Deus Ex gave you the ability to mix and match a vast amount of alterations and buffs that allow you to play the game how you want to play it. Human Revolution merely gives you three brackets: guns, not guns, everything else. When you make a choice in a basic skill you are making a choice to take one set of skills over another. There is no expansiveness to it; just pick a group and follow the line. Of course you can "come back and pick it up later" with skills and there are a fair amount of basic traits for you to get as you play along. The fundamental problem is however that the skill system seems to follow an "it doesn't matter how you get there but by the end of the game these boxes will be ticked" mentality. When I get to the end of an RPG I want to be powerful but I also want to be limited. I want to feel like my character was crafted by me for good or for ill. If my build leads me to an ending where I can't win, so what? It's my build. Human Revolution doesn't deliver that sensation; Deus Ex did. And this, in all honesty, is really where Human Revolution needed to shine if it were to cone near to toppling its progenitor.
That isn't to say there aren't good things about this new-fangled Deus Ex reboot. The story is amazingly well scripted and - outside of games like Oblivion and Fallout 3 - I can think of no other single player game that has such a massively open world for you to explore and involve yourself in. Just like the best movies don't include the glorious action scenes exclusively, the best games are made great by the little things, not the massive explosions; Human Revolution has an amazing array of little things. From side quests to Easter eggs to mini-chains, Square Enix have spared no expense in really bringing the universe in which Deus Ex exists to life. Many FPS fans quip about games involving little videos of every NPC you shoot, giving you some background into their lives; Human Revolution has that. On some NPCs you may find PDAs with emails from their kids or wives. You may kill a scientist and then discover via her computer that she was expecting a child. It's all there and, more importantly, it's all done well. There is also a vibrant depth to the writing in the game which is surprising when you consider that Square Enix is behind the title (all Final Fantasy games are rubbish (there, I said it)). Sometimes there will be laugh out loud mockery of our society, at others times there will be comical references to real conspiracy theories. There are also some cutting observations about people thrown in there for good measure. The original took great risks in presenting some of the ideas it covered so openly. Human Revolution took that risk as well. In both cases it has paid off.
At the core of that bravery is your role as the player. You aren't just the proverbial faceless Master Chief or a bit part in the narrative. You don't just follow the linear plot to its ultimate and obvious conclusion. You aren't just given an array of basic choices based on a black-n-white idea of good and evil. Human Revolution takes you, puts you in your chair and says, "We go where you go." You can play the game without killing a single bad guy (aside from one or two bosses). You can play the game and kill everyone. You can side with an array of people and factions, or consider only your best interests. You can bully or you can empathise with your friends, or turn on them if you really want to. Every decision you make, big or small, has a profound and meaningful impact on the world around you. Whether it's as simple as which NPCs are there for you to talk to, who shoots at you, who doesn't, or as meaningful as altering the direction the story will take entirely, these decisions aren't just rudimentary options. They are choices based on moral standards firmly rooted in reality: Do I kill the hostage? Do I let her go? Do I let the terrorist go as well? Do I kill the terrorist and the hostage? Do I save the hostage and kill the terrorist? When the game presents you with a decision it doesn't just ask you to pick yes or pick no. It asks you what you genuinely think about the situation. This dedication to choice leaves you not being laboured by the story but being dedicated to and invested in it to the point where the momentary lapse into combat isn't too frustrating. And if you get bored of the combat, you can always go round flushing toilets and stealing cans from vending machines, clogging up your (Tetris) inventory.
(Another aside: has anyone notices how inventory systems these days are just lists? That's it. Everything is the same size, and it is all stored as items on a list. If life were like that I'd spend much more time shopping. If I could buy a 50 inch TV and have it take up the same space in my bag as a box of eggs I'd totally buy a 50 inch TV. Tetris inventory is so much fun though. I play it in real life sometimes. And then you get a packet of something squishy. And it messes up the communism. Bastard squishy packets. Anyhow. Chill pill acquired.)
I think at this point in time I've written a guide to, and not an insight into, the game and so I shall promptly (yeah... right...) conclude. Someone at Square Enix decided that Deus Ex would be better in a wheelchair and thus Human Revolution was born. It's not the original by any stretch. That said however Human Revolution largely triumphs where it has to triumph outside of a few hiccups here and there. It is a good game. Sadly it has been released in the same year as The Witcher 2, Skyrim and Battlefield 3 so it isn't going win any awards. Do I think everyone should play it? Yes. Yes I do.
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