Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Hey guys, another week down and another game to review. This week, it's Deus Ex: Human Revolution, brought to us by Square Enix and Eidos Montreal. This is the prequel to the original Deus Ex, released around eleven years ago.

STORY
Dues Ex: Human Revolution is set 25 years before Deus Ex, and nanotechnological augmentation's are not yet been developed. With biomechanical augmentation being state of the art technology at this point, the social views on what it means to be human being the main talking point concerning Human Revolution's setting.

The story, however, follows Adam Jensen as he tries to unravel the mystery of an attack on his employer, Sarif Industries that results in his near death and the apparent death of his former partner, Megan Reed. As Adam learns to use and accept his new Augmentations, he dives deeper into the murky world of corporate conspiracies.

PRESENTATION
Human Revolution is one of the most interesting visual styles I've seen in a game recently. Yes, it's dark and gritty for the most part, but it's a cyberpunk, dystopian future, so what do you expect? The game's gold tinge add a certain something that makes the world seem so much more visually appealing than the usual greys and blacks of dystopic media.

The soundtrack isn't particularly memorable aside from the main theme; but for the most part, it gets the job done. It's more of an atmospheric thing than a standout, emotion tugging effort.
The voice acting is fairly good, however Jensen himself sounds like Christian Bales Batman. It's honestly a bit annoying at first, but it grows on you.

The CG Cutscenes look pretty fantastic, however in-game human models leave a little bit to be desired. Though there are worse games, Human Revolution comes away looking technically average. Stylistically, however, it's quite interesting.

GAMEPLAY
Deus Ex: Human Revolution has an interesting gameplay style, using the four pillars of Social, Stealth, Combat and Exploration to move forward through the game, with fairly deep RPG elements allowing players to play any way they want.

The game is played mainly in first person, while switching to 3rd when in cover. This works surprisingly well with combat and stealth gameplay. The combat works just like any FPS, with RPG elements like upgradeable skills and weapons allowing you to tailor your weapons and skillset to your play style.
Don't shoot much? Use your experience points to buy hacking, cloaking or social augments. Shoot alot? Completely upgrade your weapons with mods and augment your arms to dampen the recoil of your weapons.

There's a multitude of different paths and skillsets to choose from in the game, and they're all equally viable. During my first playthrough I decided that Adam Jensen should be a sneaky, stealthy pacifist, and so far I've only killed the boss characters. It's an interesting way to play, and I intend on doing a full on homocidal maniac playthrough too.

REPLAYABILITY
As I said earlier, Deus Ex features many different paths and skillests, so no two playthroughs will be the same if you so choose. In addition to an interesting main questline, there are a multitude of side quests that help flesh out the world and pad the game time with a couple of extra hours. There are lot's of interesting flavour text's to find as well, but more often than not, they aren't anything special. So yea, Human Revolution has a high replay value in my eyes.

OVERVIEW
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a well written, visually interesting game that allows a large amount of freedom when it comes to tackling most of the games challenges. There are a lot of quests to undertake in DE:HR too, so I doubt boredom will set in quickly.
Right now, there are a lot worse games you could get your hands on, and Human Revolution pulls off a few different play styles surprisingly well. If you like choice in your games, this might just be one for you.

Next week, I have no idea what I'm going to do. We shall see, yes? See you next time!

Splinter Cell: Conviction

Been playing lots of older games on my new 360 this week, one of the more recent of which, however, was Splinter Cell: Conviction. And It's a 360 exclusive, something that I didn't used to have access to. But now that i do, I think it's high time I did a review of this stealth action game.

STORY
Splinter Cell: Conviction takes place after the events of Splinter Cell: Double Agent, and the events of the game are framed by the interrogation of Sam Fisher's former squadmate Victor Coste. Victor informs his interrogators of Fisher's search for the truth about his deceased daughter and his attempts to unravel a nation threatening conspiracy.

The story of Conviction isn't the most stellar piece of writing you'll see in a video game. A lot of it is actually pretty cliched. And even more of it was just plain stupid. Tell me how this sounds: You've constructed a brilliant plan to take control of the US government, and the only person who can stop you isn't even in the country and doesn't care. So clearly, you should try to kill him. How retarded does that sound? No wonder Sam Fisher is considered so fantastic if this is the sheer retardation that he comes up against.

PRESENTATION
As a whle, the game looks really good. The graphics are slick, the animations are fluid and the environments are varied and interesting. At one point I was sneaking through a villa in Malta, then later I was killing trackers at a carnival in Washington, and it still felt like it fit.

The voice acting is rather bland, on the other hand, with Fisher sounding somewhat like a bear when he speaks. I exaggerate, but it was seriously difficult to tell what he was saying without subtitles. In the other sound design departments, gunshots and explosions all sound suitably powerful.

A quick mention for the cutscenes too; they use a feature that looks almost like a projector, to flash information clips and directions on the walls. It's certainly an interesting way to keep track of objectives.


GAMEPLAY
Splinter Cell: Conviction continues to be a rollercoaster of good and bad design choices. The "hold button to take cover" system works and is quite comfortable, and the shooting is solid. But like I said, it isn't all good.

Conviction uses a context sensitive button, which would be fine in most games, but this time requires you to stare directly at the 3 square inches of wall where the context command is placed. I found myself going to turn off a light, and instead barged into a room full of guards, where I proceeded to get raped by bullets.

Then theres the fact that while Sam Fisher does some awesome things in this game, it doesn't feel as if the player is that involved. Take a guard down with CQC and you gain the ability to mark and execute. It looks pretty awesome, but the lack of player input is worrying. It's almost the same as having a quick time event, but without it needing decent reaction times.

While it was enjoyable enough systematically taking down guard after guard, it didn't feel like my skill was actually being put to the test, besides perhaps my problem solving skills. As far as stealth games go, picking which target to take down first at close range isn't the toughest thing ever.

REPLAYABILITY
SC: Conviction allows enough freedom for you to play through the campaign multiple times, trying different strategies each time. However, if you're the type who plays a campaign once only, then good news for you, theres also multiplayer modes and challenge maps. The challenge maps are reminiscent of Arkham Asylums "Silent Predator" maps, and the multiplayer... well, I havent tried it. However, theres also a co-op storyline, and if you can find a friend to play with, then it's a great way to spend an hour or two.

OVERVIEW
Splinter Cell: Conviction seems good on paper, and it works well enough in practice. It just lacks the challenge that I would find with other stealth games like Metal Gear Solid. Allowing the game to "Mark and Execute" for me is all well and good, but then wheres my challenge? Aside from that, it's certainly one of the better stealth games out at the moment; despite annoying context sensitive buttons and the lack of challenge on a normal setting.

Next week, Deus Ex Human Revolution, perhaps? or maybe Catherine, if I can find a copy! See you next time!

Halo: Reach

Well well well, look who decided to post a review! Just to update you guys (whoever reads this) on where I've been, I recently got a proper job. Like, full time proper job. The good news there is I'll be able to keep up to date with the latest releases. The bad news is, I may not have enough time to finish a game a week. We'll see. I'd love to keep doing this weekly, but I may not be able to. luckily, this came at one of the few slower points of releases during this year. In a week or so, this should pick up again with Deus Ex Human Revolution, but hey, whatever happens happens.

As it turns out, I recently acquired an X-Box 360, so I thought it was about time I reviewed the consoles current flagship game, Halo: Reach. And awaaaay we gooooo.

STORY
Halo: Reach puts players in the customizable power armour of Noble Six, the newest member of Noble Team, a Spec Ops unit composed of elite soldiers known as Spartans. The game is a prologue, and therefore allows players to play through the events leading up to the beginning of the Halo Franchise.

Reach can be taken as a seperate story to the main Halo games, and is ultimately better for it. The characters are more interesting than the Master Chief, and the "Fall of Reach" is certainly an interesting storyline to set a game to. You always get the sense that the situation is hopeless, and that you are doomed. That said, the little scene at the beginning showing a flash forward to the end of the game kind of ruins the experience a little.

Without wanting to spoil anything, the ending (the REAL ending) is one of the best instances of gameplay and story merging seamlessly that I've seen in any game.

PRESENTATION
Halo Reach is by far the best looking game in the series, and it's certainly visually interesting, what with all the bright colours and interesting character/vehicle models. The various landscapes that Reach has to offer are all nice to look at, and varied enough as to not get boring.

The voice acting is fairly mediocre, however, with certain characters being acted suitably and others just being forgettable. The soundtrack, on the other hand is fantastic. The signature theme of the song is just fantastic at getting me in the mood to pwn some noobz.

The biggest problem I've ever had with Halo was the weapons, and how they always sounded like plastic mattel toys. And for the most part, they still do. They just fail to sound powerful, and as such, they feal like they have no real weight behind them.

GAMEPLAY
If you've played a Halo game before, chances are that Reach isn't going to surprise you. The running, jumping, shooting fun of the series remains intact, and it's about as solid as it's going to get. The vehicles continue to handle retardedly, but that doesn't make them any less fun to use.

Reach has made various improvements over the previous games, the biggest of which would have to be the AI improvements. For the most part, your AI teammates aren't completely useless, and actually help you complete your goals. Clearly this doesn't happen all the time, as I've seen numerous examples of teammates inadvertantly causing the players death.

New features to the Halo formula are the addition of armour powers and assassinations. For the most part, assassinations aren't a huge game changer, though they are a nice little addition rewarding players for their sneakiness. The armour abilities, however, add depth to the fairly simple gameplay by giving players the choice of 5 or so different, interchangeable perks. These perks can be as simple as Jet Packs or Sprint, or as complex as a cloaking device.

My biggest problem with the gameplay would have to be how Bungie teased us with a space flight/combat level, and never let us play it again. And it was a fantastic level too, probably my favourite of the whole campaign. To have something that different and fun dangled in front of you, only to be snatched away is terrible!

Space combat gripes aside, Reach delivers on the solid gameplay that the series is known for.

REPLAYABILITY
Chances are that if you're buying or have bought Halo Reach, then part of the reason for that would probably have been due to the games multiplayer feature. With a huge variety of game types, there are worse ways to occupy your time than Reach's multiplayer modes. My personal favourite is Grifball, but the traditional game modes are great too.

Aside from that, there are achievements to get, as well as a theater mode to mess around with. Also the games level creator, Forge mode. Haven't played much with that, but what I did use was surprisingly simple to interact with.

OVERVIEW
Ok, so I'm no huge Halo fan, but Reach would have had to have been one of the best games of last year. It has a solid single player campaign, with interesting characters and settings, as well as one of the best multiplayer experiences that the current generation of gaming has ever seen. If you have an X-Box 360 and don't have this title, theres almost no question that you should get it soon, if not now.

Next week (hopefully) a retrospective of Splinter Cell Conviction. Hope everyone has been well, I'll see you next time!