Human Revolution is the third game in the Deus Ex series and is set 25 years before the incidents in the first game. Largely taking place in futuristic and crime ridden cities, the game is set in a heated political landscape where mechanical augmentations for the human body have created divide amongst the public, some believing that augmentations will allow mankind to evolve and reach new heights while human purists see it as desecrating the sanctity of the human body.
While installing the game I did encounter a problem. Upon selecting 'Install' from the set up menu, the CD simply began downloading the game from Steam, taking over a day to install it.. However others who have also played the game have told me that they didn't have this experience so I may have been one of the few to who this happened.
The Story
The game's protagonist is Adam Jensen, head of security for Sarif Industries – a company that produces mechanical augmentations. The game begins with an attack on the company by a group of mercenaries led by three augmented commandos, one of whom nearly kills Jensen in the attack.
Six months later Jensen returns to work, his body rebuilt through bio-modication, allowing him to unlock and use many mechanical augmentations including retractable sword blades from his arms; a cloaking field; x-ray vision; super strength to lift and throw heavy items; an ability to read an individual's personality type and use pheromones to persuade them into giving information; and a neat landing system that allows Jensen to fall out of a ten story building without taking damage.
When a computer hacker is found in a Sarif Industry warehouse during a second violent attack by human purists, Jensen is sent to uncover the hacker's objectives and employers. The story becomes incredibly compelling as Jensen's globe-hopping adventure takes him to the metro hubs of Detroit and Hengsha, China to facilities in Montreal, Singapore and the Arctic, following his leads, tracking down those individuals who can shed light on the situation and uncovering a global conspiracy as he goes.
The game world is incredibly detailed as guards and civilians engage in conversations, some dealing with philosophy, politics and current affairs while others mention interesting locations in the level or even quote passwords and access codes. Ebooks, PDAs and emails are scattered through every location providing more detail about the game's world and characters, though sometimes reading all this information can drop one too many hints, making upcoming twists fairly obvious. Giant news screens in metro hubs provide updates on current affairs and interviews with some of the game's high-profile secondary characters, which emphasises that there is a lot going in this game world outside of Jensen's investigation.
The secondary characters are a varied bunch of individuals but often seem a little bit shallow and underdeveloped. This is particularly true for the bosses who we never know anything about. Rather than being an exciting showdown between the protagonist and his nemesis, boss fights tend to feel more like mere fire fights against brainless, no-name NPCs due to their total lack of depth, personality, history and battle tactics that are hardly as complex as rushing into gun fire.
While the game incorporates an intriguing story with interesting politics and philosophy, it does all come apart in the last level, where none of your previous decisions matter and the fate of the world depends on Jensen selecting one of 4 endings, all of which put stock images to good use but none allow you to see how your decision has impacted the game's world. This also makes it fairly difficult to feel invested in any of the endings as the characters requesting you to pursue their agendas are poorly developed and their intentions are never properly explored throughout the game. Instead in the final brief encounters with these characters they basically reveal to you what they really stand for and urge you to support their cause.
Gameplay
Jensen can only sustain a few shots at the most before he is killed, so often a fire fight with a dozen enemies is something to avoid. The game is best when played as a stealth shooter, sneaking through rooms of enemy guards, picking them of one-by-one with lethal and non-lethal attacks and then hiding their bodies to make sure that their colleagues don't find them and raise an alarm. However it is also possible to play through the game without killing anyone other than the games bosses.
In metro hubs Jensen can purchase new upgrades for his weapons and augmentations and also undertake a number of detailed side missions, allowing the player to learn more about the world as well as rewarding him with money and skill points to unlock further abilities. While side missions are always rewarding it would have been nice if they added more to the main story or even effected it somehow instead of just being a temporary distraction from the main objectives.
Civilians artificial intelligence is fairly idiotic as police officers won't care that you've just looted their desk for weapons and ammo; shop keepers won't put up resistance when you take money and food supplies from their storeroom; and residents won't be distracted from their activities as you break into their apartments and steal their possessions.
The enemy AI is a bit more decent in that they will react and investigate any sound or sightings of unauthorised personnel. In combat they will often take cover, though sometimes they will stand out in the open or even charge the player's position. They'll react to a fallen comrade, but sometimes this can make it easy to rack up quite a body count, as one-by-one the guards will approach their friend's body allowing the player to pop out from behind cover, fire another round to take them down and duck behind cover again before the other guards know what has happened.
Conversations are also a common game play element, opening up challenging little mini-games where the player needs to think carefully and logically as to what they say to characters in order to convince them in giving information. Some missions rely on you convincing a character to provide details, but even after failing to persuade them you can still obtain the required information by breaking into their office or apartment and hacking into their personal computer.
Hacking is something the player will be doing frequently and is a surprisingly fun and addictive mini-game. When fully upgraded, the hacking ability will allow the player to get through any locked door. The player can avoid hacking altogether, though there's little incentive to ignore this useful skill as it can be incredibly frustrating and difficult to locate access codes.
Jensen can also perform take downs that allow him to execute a lethal or non-lethal attack against one to two enemies at the price of draining his energy bar. Performing these attacks is as simple as tapping a single button on the keyboard or controller and though the player has no control over which attack Jensen will use it can be incredibly satisfying to watch him perform these stylish and elaborate moves to incapacitate the enemy.
Still the game's biggest strength is that it allows the player to get around any objective with multiple methods whether it be choosing to hack through doors and security systems or instead search for the required security passwords or even find an alternative route. When confronted with opposing forces the player has the option of taking out enemies lethally or non-lethally. They can also choose to evade the guard patrols by running and ducking behind cover as they make their way through the area or cloak themselves and silence their footsteps so that the enemies are none the wiser that Jensen is walking right past them. It's often possible to bypass a guarded room altogether by crawling through the ventilation or punching a hole in a weak wall to create an alternative route. Then there's also the option of clearing a room of enemies by filling it with sleeping gas or hacking into the security system and turning the bases turret and robot defenses against them.
The game play does have some problems however. Some of the high-tech weapons, such as laser and plasma rifles are introduced too late in the game when they're few opportunities to use them. Load times can be lengthy and frequent and the game doesn't have a tonne of replay value as they're few hidden secrets to discover and the game's story will always progress the same way regardless of the choices the player has made. The final level in general, rather than being the most challenging, is actually the easiest and requires no skill whatsoever.
Overall
Despite the game's flaws these are not enough to break the game or ruin the enjoyment of experiencing Human Revolution, which successfully presents an interesting story with fun stealth-shooter game play. The multiple options to get around every objective encourage the player to explore and try new tactics, ensuring that the game play doesn't get dull or boring. The game's environment's also have a fairly unique appearance with their beautiful gold and black aesthetic.
However I found it really difficult to play through Human Revolution a second time from the beginning due to the truly terrible conclusion that I knew awaited me at the end of the game. It's still a great game and is definitely worth playing, just don't expect the high quality of the story or game play to remain in tact during the last level.
Paul Campobasso - I live in Melbourne, Australia and recently graduated from university completing a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Politics and a ...
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