Deus Ex: Human Revolution Reviews

After a brief – and frankly a little disappointing – piece from The Observer, we have two more reviews for Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which is slated to come out tomorrow in North America.

Destructoid awards it an impressive 9.5/10 arguing that “what truly impresses isn’t so much the scale of the game, but its staggering consistency of quality”:

Human Revolution is mindful of the huge weight that the Deus Ex name carries, and I am thrilled to report that it lives up to the daunting demands that such a pedigree entails. As with the original classic, this is a game designed to let you play it your way, with a variety of upgradable augmentations to create an Adam Jensen that suits your personal idiom. Whether you want to be stealthy or aggressive, lethal or merciful, you have the tools to do the job. The game breaks itself into four very distinct play styles, all designed to bleed into each other and provide players with a variety of options and backup plans. The styles are combat, hacking, stealth, and social, with each one deserving of its own review.

Combat is a unique blend of first-person and third-person gameplay, where forward-thinking and pragmatic actions are rewarded. While there is a run-and-gun option in the first-person perspective, such activity would be suicide. Even when one fully upgrades their ability to absorb damage, Jensen is far from immortal and will drop in seconds when exposed to gunfire. With a right-click (or shoulder button press), however, Jensen will stick to a wall and the camera will shift to a third-person perspective. This is not only crucial for stealthy play, it also gives a great vantage point in what can become a very intense cover-based shooter. Success in combat isn’t just determined by picking a bit of cover and opening fire, however — the enemy A.I. is some of the most aggressive and adaptive I’ve seen, with opponents more than happy to flank, initiate pincer attackers, and even retreat to their own cover when needed.

Success in combat is determined by careful planning. Securing an exit should things go wrong, choosing (and changing) advantageous positions, and identifying which target to fire upon first, as well as which weapons to use, are crucial. This is not a game that just lets you open fire and trust in your reflexes; this is a game in which strategy is just as important as skill. Adam Jensen may be an augmented human, but he is still a human, and the game never lets you forget it.

Stealth is simply superb, and players who wish to remain subtle will find that the game is perfectly tailored to their secret-agent fantasies. The third-person viewpoint in cover gives players an excellent view of the surrounding area and allows them to memorize enemy movement patterns without becoming exposed. Even with this benefit, however, stealth is no cakewalk. Enemies don’t just march along patrol routes, oblivious to their surroundings. They love to intermittently walk backwards, or stop at crossroads in corridors to check all available directions. Sometimes players only get a brief window of opportunity in which they can act, and failure can mean a swift death unless there’s a good place to hide.

This said, the enemy A.I. isn’t at a genius level, and can be broken. While opposing soldiers are formidable foes in battle, they can be exploited in ways that sometimes take the sting out of the immersion. For instance, they can very happily stand in front of air vents while you’re crouched inside and allow themselves to be shot to death. Sometimes they’ll stand back and fire into the vent, or toss grenades in there, but other times they’ll be sitting ducks. For the most part, stealth and combat can be tense, but there are those moments where the game can be twisted in unscrupulous ways.

Gamerfuzion awards it an equally respectable but decidedly less impressive 8/10 in a far less in-depth piece:

The Graphics in Deus ex human revolution are not that impressive, the game lacks details on the in the movements of characters and are too stiff and lack more realism which is nothing close to LA Noire. The sound of the game is better than the graphics as you are able to listen to small details like your footsteps when you are doing the stealth mode. Firing your gun, fighting and sound that surround the game could have been better.

The plot of the game is to be admire in a world where everyone is finding a way to get augmentations you see humans that have augmentations and those that don’t. The game will not bored you as it keeps you involved throughout the whole game by hacking, making decisions, using stealth mode and collecting XP points to increase your augmentations and more. The games lacks in graphics, sound and during the gameplay the AI could have been smarter.

Update: The Destructoid review has been momentarily hidden since it was posted before the embargo’s end.

Update 2: The review is now online again.