Few games do so much, so well, and for so long as Deus Ex Human Revolution. It's a proper gamey game for proper gamey gamers - 30 hours of shooting and sneaking, levelling up, conversation trees and moral dilemmas - and when it's over you can go straight back to the beginning and play it like the pant-soiling psycho Adam Jensen was never born to be.
And Deus Ex won't care. Adam Jensen is whoever you want him to be and the game never pats you on the head for being a hippy humanitarian or slaps you on the wrist for being a bodychopping nutcase who got lost on the way to Modern Warfare 3.
It waits, it watches, and it tucks away dialogue and situations recorded and designed for only the most extraordinary playthroughs. It makes you think that, yes, you were supposed to execute the hostages and stab your girlfriend's Mum in the street, smashed off your robo-tits on bad hooch. Eidos Montreal planned for that kind of maniac. They planned for everything.
BoddicKered
It begins with a tutorial. Before Jensen gets Boddickered by unidentified mercenaries working for unidentified shadow men working for the Illuminati, he's a soft and squishy human man in a world busy sawing fleshy bits off and welding new metal bits on.
The world of 2027 is in the midst of a conflict about the nature of humanity itself; on one side are those who say everyone should have the right to modify their own bodies, on the other are purists who believe humanity should stay human. Before the assault on Sarif's HQ, Megan Reed and her team were only hours away from announcing a breakthrough which would allow access to Augmentation technology for everyone, without the lifelong Neuropozine prescription to prevent rejection.
Defending Sarif's HQ, Jensen learns a few things about Human Revolution's Metal Gear stealth and Rainbow Six combat before getting driven through a window and shot through the head as everyone dies around him.
With the tutorial done, there's still more to teach. Jensen is rebuilt with all the tools at Sarif's disposal and returns to work six months later to shut down a purist terrorist takeover on the company's Detroit manufacturing plant. He's given a crash course in his new Augmentations - hacking, localised radar, upgrades, even talking - before being thrown out onto the streets of 2027 Detroit where he meets Megan's mother and finds out his old neighbour had his dog put down while he was on the slab. Shit.
The first of several major city-hubs, Human Revolution's Detroit is dense in a way RPG's never are; it's rammed with stuff like Bioshock's Rapture, but you're free to go anywhere you like, take on any mission you fancy, and throw things at anyone you want. The hubs are big spaces, full of opportunity and secrets. No sci-fi can hide from Blade Runner forever but this is the first game to treat that cyberpunk template as a template, not an endpoint.
DETRITUS
There's that same conspicuous Blade Runner rich/poor divide, the optimism up high and misery down low, that eternal night, and the clash of high technology bolted onto aged architecture but it all feels new. Everywhere there are fictional future-brands, discarded papers, loitering strangers, and the kinds of detritus that makes the world feel like someone lived in it before you showed up and started punching people.
Snoop around and a suicide in a dead-end alley will lead you to an illegal Augmentation chop shop and an upgrade kit. In the sewers there's a dumping ground for files the police would rather went away. The internal combustion engine is a dead scene so an old petrol station is home to an arms dealer.
Comments
59 comments so far...
Stryker89 on 22 Aug '11 said:
I must have this game!
jimbob25 on 22 Aug '11 said:
Yay!!
bazz2k on 22 Aug '11 said:
Awesome!
ricflair on 22 Aug '11 said:
CVG, any word on which console version to go for?
Ta!
El Mag on 22 Aug '11 said:
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Fecking love ya Mary Poppins, you old minx.
TheLastDodo on 22 Aug '11 said:
Sounds amazing.
Roll on thursday *crosses fingers*.
k-mysta on 22 Aug '11 said:
'Forever Alone' post it note?i.must.find.it.i.must.buy.it.forever alone
robot100 on 22 Aug '11 said:
Boobs and I'm in.
gmcb007 on 22 Aug '11 said:
Thursday can't come quick enough.
Legrasse on 22 Aug '11 said:
EXCELLENT! Nice review!
I have it preloaded on Steam.
ilovenewtech on 22 Aug '11 said:
Looks and sounds as awesome as awesome can be, day one purchase and I can not wait!!!!!
Sorry my super awesome fellow forum posters, I seem to have awesomed all over myself!!!!!
Time for awesome cake, a glass of ice cold fizzy pop and maybe a cigarette!!!!!
HOLLSTARFTW on 22 Aug '11 said:
Ah ilovenewtech, How are you on this fine Summer's day?
humanhand on 22 Aug '11 said:
Awesomed all over myself... that's frick'n hilarious!!
ilovenewtech on 22 Aug '11 said:
Good awesome evening HOLLSTARFTW, I am awesome and somewhat relieved, how are you, are you looking forward to Deus Ex as much as I!!!!!
Would you like a slice of awesome cake and a glass of ice cold fizzy pop!!!!!
El Mag on 22 Aug '11 said:
Wash your hands before handing any cake out.
Nobody wants your sticky awesome as an extra topping.
HOLLSTARFTW on 22 Aug '11 said:
Boy, would I!
ilovenewtech on 22 Aug '11 said:
Here you go HOLLSTARFTW a slice of awesome cake and a glass of ice cold fizzy pop!!!!!
rbt2 on 22 Aug '11 said:
That cake you're handing out there...Is it fruitcake?
bazz2k on 22 Aug '11 said:
fags
ilovenewtech on 22 Aug '11 said:
Not fruitcake, awesome cake. It is very special cake, full of awesomeness.Would you like a slice of awesome cake and a glass of ice cold fizzy pop to celebrate the near arrival of Deus Ex rbt2, go on you know you want to!!!!!
El Mag on 22 Aug '11 said:
Got to be a Jaffa Cake....you were just telling me the other day he strikes ya as seedless.
ilovenewtech on 22 Aug '11 said:
Somebody sounds like they need a treble thick slice of awesome cake, a pitcher of ice cold fizzy pop and a big awesome cuddle!!!!!
Treble thick slice of awesome cake, a pitcher of ice cold fizzy pop and a big awesome cuddle for everybody!!!!!
nathar on 22 Aug '11 said:
You're a bit too soon.. Offer those around after everyone has finished eating their cake, put on their smoking jackets and retired to the study
kimoak on 22 Aug '11 said:
Hang on... Are they saying it's better than the original?!?! I can definitely believe when it comes to the games mechanics. The first wasn't perfect but the sheer class that oozed from the game shone right through.
Roll on my Augmented edition copy!! Bank Holiday too!
kimoak on 22 Aug '11 said:
Touché!
ilovenewtech on 22 Aug '11 said:
ilovenewtech passes nathar a extra slice of awesome cake and a large glass of ice cold fizzy pop just for being awesome!!!!!
ilovenewtech on 22 Aug '11 said:
Well,you never know my super awesome fellow forum poster,you never know. But do not fear my hands are clean of anything bad for you!!!!!
pRM8 on 22 Aug '11 said:
**pops head in** Wowzerz, way too much awesome going on here for me, and I like all kinds of awesome.
Oh and the game is good ja.
IndySandbagT on 22 Aug '11 said:
I am literally crying with joy at the review scores.. Augmented New Zealand version (so includes all the pre-order bonus' that are out there) : check!
Picking it up Thursday... yeeeeeeyah!
Obican on 22 Aug '11 said:
Happy days!
alan666 on 22 Aug '11 said:
my Augmented Edition was posted the other day
spam23 on 22 Aug '11 said:
I am so excited about this game I keep going to steam and trying to load it up JUST IN CASE IT FORGETS IT'S NOT OUT YET.
Read every review I can get my hands on, especially liked the eight page one by Tom Francis in PC Gamer (it's on their website now) as he's a mahoosive fan of the origional.
Oh, and as everyone in here is having awesome cake and fizzy pop and fagerettes I've got some fantastic party poppers and many super-duper paper hats, they're over there in the corner behind the lamp. Help yourselves!
Sleepaphobic on 22 Aug '11 said:
For f**ks sake time hurry your bitch ass up.
IndySandbagT on 22 Aug '11 said:
Party. In. My. Pants.
MattyR95 on 23 Aug '11 said:
Awesome!!!
Like_A_Weasel on 23 Aug '11 said:
Deus Ex looks good and everything, but I think you should all know smoking is so not awesome!
eye.of.despair on 23 Aug '11 said:
Im gettin it today..
Ais4Audi on 23 Aug '11 said:
The big question is will it out sell the ever popular must have Zumba fitness!
budge on 23 Aug '11 said:
Gets Boddickered. I like it.
'Tis a shame i'm a tad broke at the minute. Hey, Ilovenewtech, you wouldn't by any chance have any super awesome pound notes would you?
Sammy_bham on 23 Aug '11 said:
Awesomesaurus!
i was hoping for at least an 8.0 review. but 9.4 along with 10/10, 93 %, 94%.... i know you shouldnt go by reviews alone. But seeing as i was getting it anyway, im now 100% "stoked" as some surfer dude might say!
tis lookin' goode.
Legrasse on 23 Aug '11 said:
It's nice to hear that even reviewers of the original game are digging it. I'm hoping we get to see some familiar faces as well, like Anna Nevarre and Gunther.
That cake looks good...
wishface on 23 Aug '11 said:
At last (hopefully) a decent game this year!
What a piece of s**t 2011 has been for games: hackneyed half baked shooter clones (Homefront), stillborn reboots of fighters (MVC3 and MK) and a right bunch of tired old rubbish. That plus Capcom's usual ripoff shenanigans (UMvC3).
The list is almost endless.
Hopefully DE will be the sign of a serious turnaround and I'm looking forward to playing it.
In fact the game can't be long enough.
About time also we had a decent cyberpunk game. Not some SF but with magic nonsense, or fantasy with guns. It was nice to see pure SF with Mass Effect but that game suffers from awful combat mechanics and a hopeless teammate AI (take cover does NOT equal run in front of enemy).
Vampyre on 24 Aug '11 said:
Gotta agree. 2011 has been rather crap but at least there are some stellar releases due towards the end of the year. It's not really a stretch to say that videogames in 2011 are gonna start with Deus Ex HR! In fact if I discount Portal 2 (what a masterpiece that is!) and Ocarina on 3DS I'm struggling to name many games that came out in 2011.
Nitramuse on 24 Aug '11 said:
ilovenewtech, did you know there is an imposter active? His name is iloveoldtech!
The_KFD_Case on 24 Aug '11 said:
Reads as though it is everything I dared hope it would be. This is a "must buy" for me and will be one of the few new games I'll pick up in the coming year's time....As the article's author so well exclaimed: "It's about bloody time!"
gmcb007 on 24 Aug '11 said:
http://nukezilla.com/2011/08/22/on-putting-things-into-your-game-just-because-you-think-they-have-to-be-there/
It seems to be that the boss battles are a major flaw in the game. Can't see why they did include them. Sorta contradicted their point about choice of play.
The_KFD_Case on 24 Aug '11 said:
Add to that, how do the Xbox 360 controls, user interface, conversation trees, etc. handle compared to their counterparts on the PC?
ilovenewtech on 24 Aug '11 said:
Hi super awesome fellow forum posters, how are you all on this most awesome of days. Vampyre and wishface while I totally respect your awesomeness and opinion, I must say how much I have enjoyed gaming in 2011 from Bulletstorm to Crysis to LA Noire. I think we should all be celebrating 2011s super awesome games that have been, are and will be awesome and have much less negativity!!!!!
2011s awesome games for everybody!!!!!
Weezer on 26 Aug '11 said:
Well, I got it yesterday on 360 and played through the first mission - not blown away to be honest. Really nice environments, but a weird halo of shadowing with objets next to a wall, like a poor man's ambient occlusion, and the character faces and animation in-game are dreadful.
I hope the next few missions get more interesting...
Mobius01 on 26 Aug '11 said:
I don't know why devs think that ambient occlusion means surrounding a character with halo shadow. It's popping up in a lot of games recently (The Witcher 2, Mafia 2, etc).
But, that won't spoil the game for me as I can't wait to finally play it.
TheCrimsonFenix on 26 Aug '11 said:
After seeing the leaked beta I knew this was going to be special and finally a game that lives up to my own personal excitement and hype. Now if only other developers would properly build on their series roots and actually make an entry that fits into the series rather than come up with some ridiculous new direction.
Joe90_Remy700 on 27 Aug '11 said:
i dont think AWESOME has been used enough in this thread, this game is fekkin... err... AWESOME!
haven'tkilled a soul, just snuck up to them and clobbered them. everything i wished MGS was. this might even be the only game to get a 2nd playthrough from me
kimoak on 28 Aug '11 said:
Warren Spector will be pround. Nothing else to say.
bodger7 on 29 Aug '11 said:
does any1 else think this game is a cross between metal gear and fallout but in a good way
TheCrimsonFenix on 29 Aug '11 said:
Definitely feeling a Metal Gear Solid 4 vibe from the graphics alone. I'd compare it more to the first Deus Ex too.
Mmmmgrolsch on 29 Aug '11 said:
Yeah really stong MGS vibe from it, and a bit of ME3 and I think Jensen reminds me of Neo.
jim2wheels on 29 Aug '11 said:
I dare say that was the intention mate. Bladerunner, The Matrix and Robocop are massive influences in this game. Really enjoying the references dotted around, there's an ED-209 retro mechs magazine in one of the offices at the factory.
Bloody loving it.
Joe90_Remy700 on 30 Aug '11 said:
yup, MGS, Cysis 2 and Fallout all wrapped up in a dark sexy robocop/bladerunner-esqe package. double take-down aug is the nutts!
cant wait for guns blazing/being an arsehole playthrough
jim2wheels on 31 Aug '11 said:
Should be quite amusing seeing how the bodies littering the place are permanent. Been wondering if I can get a kill by dropping a body from high up onto someones head...