Deus Ex: Human Revolution - A Review
Posted: 9/17/2011 12:00:00 AM
By: WebPimp
It’s 2027 and you’ve just had your ass handed to you by someone with really awesome looking augmented arms. You awake to find that even though you’re the head of security for Sarif Industries, your once “pure” body has been modified with a lot of augmentations. A lot of augmentations. It’s now time to find out who pushed your face through a glass wall and killed off all of those you were protecting, including your ex girlfriend. If you haven’t heard of the Deus Ex series of games, then it’s probably because you are new to gaming or you’ve been living under a rock. Eidos Montreal has brought back to life a great franchise and with this being the third in the game series, it should make Ion Storm proud of what they first brought to market.
You will be playing as Adam Jensen who is the Security lead at Sarif Industries. Sarif Industries is based out of Detroit and they are making their money producing human augmentation products for both civilian and military use. As recently explained, things got nasty and you’ll be running around the world trying to figure out what the hell happened. Once you get outside you realize that everything is as beautifully detailed as it was inside of the building. The level designers did a fantastic job with the games styling giving you a feel that you’re running around a Blade Runner like world. A palette of black and gold, you have the feeling you are running around a large industrial area every place you go due to the color hues.
After being awed by the visuals of the game, you will no doubt notice the effective use of sound and music in the game. It sets the mood appropriately as you encounter various areas in the game. It will easily let you know that the situation you are in doesn’t require all of your augmented strength to handle it or if you need to go augmented balls out and take care of business. In order to get into these conversations, you will be presented with various tasks or quests as you move along through the game. Whether it be your main objective in finding out who royally kicked your securities ass, or trying to help someone out because they ended up doing something they shouldn’t have. It’s all entirely up to you and there is no time limit to finish it. Besides walking around in public making your super augmented self stick out like a sore thumb, you can also move around more stealthily.
You can creep around various objects or move through vent ducts to get into and out of buildings without being seen. If you come up onto someone that appears to be in your way, you can either knock them out, which makes less noise, or you can be a mean bastard and poke a bunch of wholes of him. The latter is a bit noisier and if anyone is in the area that hears it, they will come looking to see what the deal is. If you were smart, you would have hacked one of the MANY terminals within the game. These terminals are a sub game within the game and allow you to open up areas that you may not have a password for. Some notable areas are office locks, computer terminals, or security hubs. Security hubs are nice because as you move further along in the game, they will control not only cameras but robots and turrets. Thus, if you are going to be in a pretty nasty situation, you can ease the pain by turning the robot and turrets onto the enemy letting them do the dirty work for you.
If do you find yourself in a firefight, then you’ll be happy to know that there are a lot of weapons that are available for use and upgrades. Ranging from a pistol to combat rifle to rocket launcher, they all have their needs and you will find out as you move through the game, you will acquire them as needed. Some weapons, like the chain gun, can be upgraded with a laser sight, faster reload, and quicker cooling. It’s super effective, and even more so when you upgrade your augmentations.
Your ability to add to your base level of augmentation is what the game is all about. To do so, you will earn “Praxis Points” and it is with these that you will be able to upgrade your augmentations. You will earn these as you move through the game earning experience, or by buying them for 5000 credits from LIMB clinics. Operated by LIMB (Liberty In Mind and Body) International, you can by various items for sale, like Typhoon Ammo, Cyberboost Energy, and more. When it comes to the Cyberboost Energy, you will come to find that having a good supply of these are nice because certain augmentations require extra battery life, of which you can easily see below your health bar on screen. So if you are looking to use your Typhoon weapon or want to disable an enemy hands on, your battery cells will be drained. Depending on the type of augmentation upgrades you have upgraded such as being able to punch through walls, leg strength, invisibility, skin hardening, or the ability to fall from heights without being damaged when you land, having a good battery recharge and boost is key.
In the end, make sure you perform as many side quests and exploratory functions as you move through the story. That means looking through lockers and searching those you have killed or knocked out. Having extra credits, found passwords on pocket secretaries, and energy bars can be a lifesaver. Literally. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a fantastic game and can really get you into the feeling that you hope the future doesn’t turn out to be a fight between “augs” and “pures”. The learning curve isn’t too steep and the fact that you are totally enveloped by the visual and aural’s being thrown at you, you won’t mind that you just blew through 8 hours of your life in one sitting looking for that one extra pocket secretary, credit chip, or “Praxis Kit” to make your next augmentation upgrade a full experience. Well done Eidos and Square Enix!
