Deus Ex: Human Revolution Preview

The editors at PC Gamer have treated us to another preview of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which looks to be based on the exact same three hours of game that I was able to experience during my time in Irvine.

Whatever you specialise in, you can usually hit people with your robot arms. A melee takedown, whether you choose to make it lethal or just a knockout, consumes one cell of power. Other augs drain those cells more gradually, and if you’ve got less than one full cell, you can’t use melee attacks at all. The good news is that your last cell always regenerates over time, so if you’ve run out of absolutely everything else and I frequently did you can still stalk a room full of enemies with a slow rhythm of sneaking and punching. Later levels have more energy bars actual food that restore one cell of power each, letting you store up a few cells for quick series of takedowns.

Once I got the hang of it, I tended to overuse the vicious third-person beat downs. I finally found the hostages, still alive in a room with a toxic gas canister ready to release. Its trigger was tied to the door I just came in through, so I had seconds to save them. I couldn’t see a prompt to defuse the bomb, so I approached the hostages hoping to carry them out. All I got was the usual melee prompt: tap the button to knock them out, hold it to kill them. Well, I didn’t want to kill them. Tap it is!

You’re, er, not meant to punch the hostages. You certainly can, and you can even drag their limp bodies away. In fact, since I had Strength, I could have easily tossed this unconscious middle-aged lady out of the room with some force. The trouble was, the bomb trigger had also locked the door. By the time the gas started to leak out, all I could do was sneak out through the vent I should have come in through, while the surviving hostages screamed at me to stay away from them before choking to death.

It’s worth mentioning that this preview is based on the Xbox 360 build, just as my Deus Ex: Human Revolution preview was. With just a little over four months to go, I really hope the PC controls turn out as good as they’re going to need to be.