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!