Deus Ex: Human Revolution Preview

WorthPlaying entertains us this evening with a hands-on preview of Deus Ex: Human Revolution based on an early Xbox 360 build of Eidos Montreal’s cyberpunk prequel. My guess is that we’ll be seeing a lot of previews based on early code in the coming days:

Leaving Sarif for the Detroit City hub, we take in the sights and visit multiple locations. There is the police department, where we persuade an ex-colleague to let us in before stealing evidence from the autopsy lab. There’s the LIMB clinic, which offers up a tutorial on Praxis points. We duck into Jensen’s apartment and find the secret weapons stash. We even go into the slums and take out some gangbangers who are working with the terrorists. Finally, it’s on to a multilevel complex that is being used by the mercenaries who attacked Jensen at the start of the game.

Making our way through the complex is another set of choices. Multiple paths abound, some appearing easier than others, depending on the augmentations we had enabled.

For example, in our first run through the game, we specialized in a hacking augmentation, which meant that almost every computer system could be compromised, and locked doors could usually be opened. This in turn led to extra passwords for more systems, so it essentially built on itself. At the same time, specializing in advanced hacking meant that we didn’t have the Praixs points to enable Jensen’s stealth augmentations or his strength. This meant that certain paths were simply not possible for us to take.

Going back to an old save and choosing different augmentations leads to us playing through the level in an entirely different way. After all, who needs stealth when you can just punch your way through a wall?