It’s hard to live up to a legend. Deus Ex is, without a doubt, one of the most treasured and beloved of PC games of all time. Though it’s rarely held up as flawless, it is one of those rare games that has never been equaled on its own ground. Others may have done shooting better than Deus Ex‘s rather poor first-person combat, and stealth was captured far more successfully years earlier in games like Metal Gear Solid and Thief, and, taken strictly as a role-playing game, there are a dozen titles I’d probably recommend above Deus Ex. However, as a complete, unique, and unforgettable package, Deus Ex has come to define the possibilities inherent in PC games – from its genre-bending freeform gameplay, to its deep fiction and memorable characters, to its sharp and surprisingly prescient social commentary, there is little doubt that it is a classic. Indeed, it has come to define an ideal in gaming, one which few games have ever aspired to, much less met.
Deus Ex was, of course, followed up by a sequel that most fans agree didn’t do justice to the legacy. Invisible War‘s console-oriented direction, technological limitations, and attempts to target a wider, more action-oriented audience, were considered failings by most fans, not so much because they resulted in a bad game, but because they strayed from the ideal envisioned by the original Deus Ex… and for years, it seemed as if the series would be laid to rest without a proper swan-song, Invisible War left casually forgotten in the shadow of its predecessor.
When Eidos Montreal and Square-Enix, then, announced that they were planning on reviving Deus Ex, across multiple platforms, with a brand-new team lacking ties to Ion Storm, and working with, of all things, an updated version of the Tomb Raider engine technology, most of Deus Ex‘s fans were as skeptical as they were excited. Now that the wait is finally over, and the resultant Deus Ex: Human Revolution is available for download and on store shelves, two questions remain – first, is it any good, and second, perhaps more importantly, is it a worthy sequel to Deus Ex, and all it symbolised?
The Rabbit Hole
Human Revolution, rather than attempting to build on the conclusion of Invisible War, instead wisely chooses to set its story before the original Deus Ex‘s. The year is 2027, decades before the nano-augmentation featured prominently in the original Deus Ex, and as such, the possibilities inherent in the technology, right down to redefining what it means to be human, have the world on edge. Those possibilities, of course, range from everything from improving the lives of the disabled far beyond existing medicine, to mass exploitation, to weaponizing the human body. Out of the debate around the issue, several groups have emerged, led by strong personalities on all sides, each with their own multi-faceted beliefs, hierarchies, and, most importantly, agendas.
It’s this world of social tension and political machinations that Adam Jensen, chief of security at Sarif Industries, finds himself thrust into, following a devastating attack on his employer, on the cusp of a revolutionary announcement in augmentation technology. Nearly the entire lab is left in ruins, its personnel slaughtered, and Adam, though doing all humanly possible, finds himself helpless at the hands of augmented agents. Nearly killed, Adam is rescued from death only by the extensive augmentations he is given by Sarif, leaving him not just bearing the scars of his injury, but caught in the middle of the political debate. Six months later and back on duty, Adam finds himself quickly drawn into rescuing Sarif hostages from a pro-human terrorist group, and in true Deus Ex fashion, the rabbit hole, made up of shifting allegiances, media manipulation, and convoluted conspiracies, only ever goes deeper. While Jensen is a more defined character than JC Denton or Alex D, with a troubled past that occasionally comes to the fore during certain quests, he takes it all with a certain degree of skepticism that allows one to easily slip into his shoes, leaving the player to define his beliefs and attitude over the course of the game.
Augmentation is at the forefront of Human Revolution, much more so than it ever featured in Deus Ex. While the original game certainly spent time discussing the moral ramifications of tampering with human genetics and playing god, it was only one piece of its narrative tapestry… and, in Human Revolution that theme of augmentation doesn’t just dominate, it defines the entire story and characters. Though I’m hesitant to go into significant details about the plot, it is worth saying that, though at times Human Revolution can seem a little bit single-minded in its focus, unlike most games, it doesn’t just create a political and social background and then drape its action on top of it – it effectively weaves the gameplay into the narrative, and brings those elements of the world and story to their very logical and definite conclusions. It might spend a lot of time discussing augmentation, but it does so in a way that fully capitalizes on its themes, and most importantly, lets the player form his or her own opinion, as those different points of view are put to the test throughout the course of the game. If there was ever an example of the good hiring a dedicated writer can do… this is it.
That said, there are a few story elements that don’t quite hit their marks. The conspiracies in Deus Ex were grandiose, orchestrated by some of the most intelligent and powerful people in the world – while often you do feel caught up in them, like a fly in a web, that web never feels as extensive as in the other Deus Ex titles, and many of the promises and plot details tempted early on, from familiar names to entire missions, end up going, for the most part, ignored as the game moves towards its conclusion. On top of that, the philosophical side of Human Revolution has been toned down, with the game opting for more of a “man on the street” view of world events rather than one taken from those holding the reigns; while not in itself a bad thing, it can seem a bit heavy-handed and overly simplistic at times, not quite as effortless in weaving its conspiracies or the motives of its villains and heroes. Combined with a certain post-credits teaser, frankly, it feels like we’re only getting half the story, even if Jensen’s arc and the core themes in Human Revolution still reach a very definite and well-realized conclusion. It’s a strong story with a strong finish, but it’s hard not to want more.
So You Want to be a Super-Soldier?
Gameplay in Human Revolution, from a bird’s-eye-view, follows the framework set down by the other titles in the series, and will likely appeal to most Deus Ex fans. Generally, the proceedings are split up into two main components – exploration, and missions. The former tend to take place in open hub environments, Detroit and Hengsha, and are where most of the game’s side-quests are found, while the latter tend to be significantly more linear, and are focused much more on combat, though this line isn’t perfectly defined. Story is as much communicated through the explicit conversations between characters as it is in reading text in eBooks and computer terminals all over the game world, though the main storyline, more so than the original game’s, is contained on the critical path, with the extra reading existing more to tie Human Revolution into the fiction of the overall game series. Structurally, it’s very similar to the original, with the beginning and middle section largely dedicated to the exploration side, and the later stages more focused on bringing the narrative forward to its conclusion.
Once again following in its elder’s footsteps, Human Revolution is defined by player choice, both in building Jensen’s abilities and skills, as well as in overcoming the various challenges found throughout the world and during missions. In any given situation, it’s common to be given, at the very least, three or so different approaches, usually split between frontal assault, stealth and subterfuge, and acrobatics/traversal, with social options often provided as well, usually involving some persuasion via dialogue. Occasionally, additional possibilities are available, and can drastically change play. For instance, getting into a secure complex can be a daunting task without the proper authorization, but, take the time to find a passkey, and you won’t have to fire a single shot or sneak past a single guard to make progress.
On the character development side, Human Revolution actually resembles Invisible War more so than it does Deus Ex, though in truth the intent seems to have been an amalgamation between the two games’ systems. Skills have been stripped away and fully replaced by augmentations, attached to an experience system – accumulate enough experience, whether by exploring the world, completing quests, or dealing with enemies, and you earn a Praxis Point to spend on a new upgrade for Jensen (justified by the fact that his mechanical augmentations require no physical upgrades; their improvements are a reflection of his body’s improved handling of the augmentations). Although not as varied in effect as Deus Ex‘s augmentations and skill trees, in general the number of options are enough to make the choice in upgrades difficult, and important in defining play-style, especially early in the game.
There are a few stumbling blocks in Human Revolution‘s overall design that can’t avoid leaving a few blemishes. The first problem, and one that I noticed almost immediately upon playing, is that the environments, especially during the more linear missions, are more restrictive than those seen in the first Deus Ex, and in fact more closely resemble Invisible War‘s cut-down levels. While still fairly large in terms of sheer floor space, the design has shifted from “open space with multiple routes” to “branching corridors with optional side-rooms”; though I’d be willing to forgive this in the first or second mission, given that they’re early in the game, this design sense presists until well into the game, and it’s only in the final few missions that the level design really begins to feel freeform and open-ended, and these are by far the best parts of the game. Sadly, this means that there’s nothing quite to the same scale of, say, Deus Ex‘s Liberty Island in Human Revolution, and as that open-ended design of environments was one of my favorite aspects of Deus Ex, it’s unfortunate to see mostly gone this time around. Most importantly, it means that all those choices you’re given in accomplishing objectives aren’t as interesting as they could have been – choosing between the front gate and a hole in the fence isn’t quite so defining if they’re literally about ten feet away from each other, and I was never left with the feeling that I had missed anything at the end, whereas in the original game I’m still finding new things ten years later. On the upside, though, the hubs of Detroit and Hengsha are well-designed and quite large, featuring not just ground levels, but a large number of buildings to enter, rooftops to scamper across, and sewers to crawl through, and these parts of the game, to me, are what feel most like the Deus Ex I remember.
Another more general issue involves the distribution of augmentations, and their overall usefulness. Simply put, augmentations in Human Revolution could have been balanced better, mostly because many options are under-utilized. Hacking and cloaking see just as much use as ever, certainly, and general upgrades to armor, carrying capacity, and so on are all nice to have, but others, including the rebreather (immunity to toxic gas) and an arm upgrade that allows Jensen to punch through weak walls, see such limited use that it’s almost jaw-dropping – I think I saw toxic gas all of three times throughout the entire game, and I played through as close to 100% as I could. This is offset somewhat by the number of augmentations that are genuinely useful (especially one which allows you to pick up heavier objects in the environment, allowing for convenient shortcuts via stacking objects), but there are too many augmentations that feel like afterthoughts, or as if the designers just couldn’t think of interesting ways to include them. Additional upgrade potentials are also limited by gameplay cuts – there’s no swimming anymore, for instance, even though including some optional swimming could have made that rebreather upgrade tree a lot more appealing. However, it is worth saying that the majority of augmentations are a lot of fun to use, and feel like they have a greater impact on gameplay than the more subtle additions to one’s arsenal in Deus Ex.
The New Generation
While Deus Ex was founded on the notions of freeform gameplay, strong character development, and a genuine attempt to create a game out of the best parts of many divergent genres, Human Revolution finds itself in an interesting grey area, not just between the console and PC audiences as Invisible War did, but also between the old and new generation of gaming. Simply put, it’s both a nostalgia trip and a product of its time, and, if there is any strong critique against the game, it’s going to be leveled from one of those two sides. Where Human Revolution most deviates from the tradition of the series is in a number of additions which have, no doubt, been made as a result not so much of any real gameplay need, but because of the time at which it’s been released. These changes are, overall, a mixed bag, and while not inherently bad, definitely warrant some discussion.
The most obvious changes are those that have been made to the combat. In a thoughtful move, Human Revolution has been transformed into a pseudo-tactical shooter, at least as far as gunplay is concerned – and everyone knows that combat was one of the weakest aspects of Deus Ex, so the attempts to overhaul gunplay are welcome. The main way this has been accomplished is in the addition of a cover system – Jensen can duck behind cover, blind-fire over it, aim more precisely, roll from piece to piece, and so forth. Though my thoughts on cover-based shooters are generally less-than-amicable, in Human Revolution, it’s handled with a degree of thoughtfulness that isn’t always seen with this type of mechanic – using cover isn’t an automatic “I win” button, and blind-firing in particular borders on useless. Next to other cover shooters it definitely feels a little bit on the clunky side (Gears of War this is not), but it certainly gets the job done. Thankfully, though, the cover system is never forced on you, and the game can be played as a straightforward first-person experience as well, so if you have a terminal hatred of such mechanics, you can simply ignore the feature and not miss out on anything – I rebound the cover key to some far-off region of my keyboard and never felt combat suffered for it.
On top of the cover system, and what significantly changes combat over the original Deus Ex, is the addition of a regenerating health system. A lot has been made of this, but in practice, I actually didn’t find this to be too much of a problem. Once again, it’s another design trend borrowed from more modern games, and surely it exists to appeal to fans of that trend, but, even on the normal difficulty, combat is challenging enough that a couple of stray bullets are enough to end Jensen’s life, and the health regeneration itself takes quite a while to kick in, meaning that health-boosting items like painkillers still have a use when the going gets tough. Much of the resource management inherent in more traditional health systems has instead been shunted off to the energy that powers special abilities; limited numbers of energy-restoring items and a natural recharge of only a single energy unit ensure that even the most powerful of abilities don’t become a crutch. While I suspect many fans will lament the loss of medkits and the need to heal individual body parts, nothing about the game’s design led me to feel such an old-school option would have significantly improved the game, despite that I’m generally a proponent of medkits over regenerating health. In other words, yes, there’s regenerating health, but it doesn’t turn the game into Call of Duty, or even Mass Effect 2.
Related to combat, but also perhaps more so to stealth, is the fact that melee fighting has been, for the most part, removed, in favor of one-button takedowns. Takedowns are, of course, accompanied by the requisite third-person animation sequence, and while these are satisfying to perform, eventually end up being just a little bit overpowered, considering that it’s rare for you to be thrown into a situation with more than a handful of enemies at any one time, and even the most powerful of human enemies can be felled with a single punch. Likewise, the Stun Gun, the game’s replacement for the Stun Prod, finds itself in the limelight as one of the most effective weapons, despite being non-lethal. I’m not sure if takedowns and the Stun Gun were created as ways to make pacifist gameplay a bit more satisfying, but they end up feeling overpowered in the end, even if they are ultimately limited by energy requirements – a one-hit knockout is still one hit.
Another new-school design trend that has appeared in Human Revolution is, I think, one that should have been severely reconsidered, and that is the presence of boss fights. Throughout the game, your control will be apprehended, and you’ll find yourself inevitably forced into single combat with a foe, usually an augmented enemy of some plot importance. While these boss fights are not, at least fundamentally, poorly designed, they allow for absolutely no options, save for “run around and shoot the bad guy in the face for 10 minutes until he/she falls down.” When you’ve been spending your time ghosting your way through the entire game, only to be forced to plink away at a suddenly super-human foe with nothing but a pistol, all while being taunted by said foe in the most aggravating way, I really started to question if I was playing Deus Ex. Adding insult to injury is that, no matter how smart, suave and skillful your version of Adam Jensen might be, in cutscenes, Jensen is reduced to an aggressive, thick-headed clout who stumbles into traps and allows himself to be manipulated by the most obvious ploys. For a game that prides itself in giving the player freedom, it makes absolutely no sense why players are then forced into these tedious, save-scummy boss fights, with no way to make circumvent them; it makes even less sense to reduce Cutscene Jensen to a bumbling incompetent. Had these boss battles been the result of gameplay decisions rather than cutscene kidnapping, and the enemy health bars cut down by 70%, I could live with the fact that they’re mandatory, but as it stands, they have the sole distinction of being a rare example of poor design in what is otherwise an extremely well-made, well-thought-out game.
A couple of final additions to the game involve some generally well-executed mini-games, related to hacking and to persuasion. The hacking mini-game, revolving around the capture of nodes and control points, is well-considered and enjoyable, but, like most mini-games, tends to grow tiresome halfway through the game, especially once you’ve maxed out your hacking skill and can effectively deal with any system you come across. Persuasion takes on a more interesting approach – while it resembles the regular conversations, instead it revolves around analyzing a character’s physical and emotional reactions to your words, and can be further augmented with an upgrade, that allows for greater control and influence over the outcome over the conversation. These are well-written, well-acted and well-animated, and in addition to making dialogue feel interactive and natural, they actually lead to Jensen being given different abilities and information, and can change the course of the story in some interesting, albeit subtle ways. Simply put, they’re some of the best human interactions I’ve seen in a videogame – it’s just unfortunate that not all conversations are quite so good.
Dystopia Has Never Been So Beautiful
Where Human Revolution is a resounding success is in its visuals, artwork, and audio. Eidos Montreal has gone to great, painstaking lengths to craft a world that feels authentic. There is a very real and definite sense of time and place to everything, from the fashion of clothing characters wear, to the design of the technology, and to the architecture of the newer world versus the old. The game sports an interesting neo-Renaissance theme to its artwork that ties in nicely with the narrative themes, but it never becomes overwhelming or forced. Some scenes, like the divided cities of Upper and Lower Hengsha, are at times breathtaking, and don’t just look pretty, they also help build on the fiction of the game world in very substantial ways. The small details, like the graffiti on alley walls, or a disheveled apartment, do just as good a job in telling the story through the environment, and all of these add up to create a game that isn’t just good looking, but driven by a very legitimate artistic vision, one that transcends mere eye candy and serves to make the game world and narrative feel all the more vibrant. It’s a commendable accomplishment, especially in today’s world of gaming where fidelity tends to take priority over the actual function of graphics. While some people might find the predominantly monotonous color scheme a turn-off (especially in the early game, where there’s a good deal less variety), character animation in dialogue can be stiff, and some of the skyboxes and matte paintings can look a little low-res at times, I don’t think Human Revolution suffers for any of its minor visual shortcomings.
The audio and music in Human Revolution is equally evocative. The music, though never quite reaching the same memorable status as the original game’s, still manages to be powerful and emotionally engaging. Rather than catchy melodies and a distinctly synthetic feel, the soundscape in Human Revolution is one of subtle, harmonic drones, background ambiance and a mix of old-world instrumentation and new-world electronics. Things pick up in combat, with percussion and drama added to the score, but unfortunately the music here isn’t quite as strong – many of the tracks feel like Metal Gear Solid B-sides, and lack a lot of the inventiveness and subtlety found in the background tracks, though they still serve their purpose. The sound work is similarly excellent, with environmental audio that does an incredible job of building a sense of time and place, powerful and distinct sounds for all the weapons that make them a ton of fun to use, and high-quality voice acting that wisely eschews big celebrity cast members in favor of just-as-capable, lesser-known actors. Consistency is something that Eidos Montreal have striven for in crafting Human Revolution, and it shows.
Seeing as how Deus Ex originated on the PC, it’s fitting that much of the attention pre-release has been centered on how the game would handle on its native platform. I’m pleased to report that, while Human Revolution doesn’t entirely shake its console roots, it’s still a much more competent porting job than most others. Right off the bat, there’s an impressive feature sheet – DirectX 11 support, stereoscopic 3D support, anisotropic filtering, field-of-view adjustment, both X and Y mouse sensitivity options, support for thumb buttons on gaming mice, and more anti-aliasing options than I’ve seen in a long time – everything from traditional MSAA to newer FXAA and MLAA modes are accounted for. On the PC, the user interface has been given some improvements, namely, the addition of a quickbar that functions identically to the one in the original Deus Ex, and the level of customization it provides is very much appreciated. Of course, there’s also full Xbox 360 controller support, if you want to sit back and play with a gamepad as well. Handled by Nixxes, the PC version of the game is thought out with a degree of care, and their fast reaction to fan feedback leading up to the game’s release is clearly visible in many of the options they’ve provided, not to mention very much appreciated.
That said, there are some technical hiccups I ran into during my time reviewing the game. The most unfortunate, and damaging, were crashes that occurred on a fairly regular basis. Once I figured out the quicksave and quickload keys, this was less of a problem, but it’s worth noting that, at least on my NVIDIA-powered system (the game seems to be sponsored by AMD), the crashes were frequent enough to be annoying. Additionally, the game’s sensitivity options are clearly set up for gamepads, as is the default field-of-view, so most players will want to do some tweaking to get the game controlling the way they want it. My hope is that a patch will help to rectify some of the problems, or, if the crashes and other issues are related to NVIDIA cards, that NVIDIA will have some new drivers out soon to improve the play experience. For what it’s worth, the game also requires a Steam account, and all the associated perks and limitations – there’s achievements, online cloud saving, and other features, but of course, if you don’t like Steam, you’re going to have to either bite the bullet, or pick up an Xbox or PlayStation copy. I encountered no problems related to Steam while playing, but as it’s a mature platform at this point, that’s no surprise.
Living Up to the Legacy
As I mentioned in this review’s opening, Deus Ex: Human Revolution can be examined in two ways: as a modern-day sci-fi shooter/role-playing game, and as a follow-up to the original Deus Ex. In both senses, I feel that Human Revolution is a success – it captures the spirit and feel of Deus Ex in both its narrative and in its gameplay, and it does so with a degree of consistency and effortlessness that’s rare to see in games these days. There are definitely things that warrant scrutiny – I feel that some of the more modern additions to the game are unnecessary, and there are a number of smaller narrative, balance and design issues that do detract from it – but as we all know, Deus Ex was never perfect itself, and the flaws in Human Revolution aren’t enough to dull what is a very positive experience. At the end of my 30ish-hour play-through, on the hardest difficulty, all I can think is “I want to go back a second time, and do everything completely different”, and more than anything I feel that is a sure sign that Eidos Montreal have done their jobs, and done them well.
While I very much doubt Human Revolution will find itself remembered as fondly as the original, in many ways, that’s an unrealistic expectation, given just how much weight the name Deus Ex carries with it – I find myself still pining for that ideal that Deus Ex defined a decade ago, but like all ideals, it’s something that exists more in one’s head than in reality. The fact is this: there’s a new Deus Ex game, a real Deus Ex game, and it’s every bit worth playing and enjoying, whether you hold the original close to heart or are new to the series. So what are you waiting for, agent?
