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Today, after a long period of hush-hush in this blog, I'd like to take the chance to review what has steadily become one of my all-time favourite games:

Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Before you read on, bare in mind that I have never played the original two Deus Ex games, so I came into this game completely fresh to the series.

I first heard about Deus Ex a while ago, well before the release of the game, while seeing an article on the game. The article was your run of the mill get-some-pictures-out-get-the-fans-excited type of deal. It wasn't a real article, just there to show the game. Given that I knew nothing about the Deus Ex series prior to this, I initially assumed it was a new game. Looking at the pictures briefly, it looked like a run of the mill FPS set in a sci-fi environment that I wouldn't bother buying. Oh, boy, was I wrong!

Fast forward to when the Deus Ex pre-orders kick in, and there's a flood of information about the game pouring out into the internet. I watched a video on youtube where the developers described the gameplay, namely the pillars of the game (Social, Hacking, Stealth, Combat), and that was when the hook went in. I had to know more.

So, I recently got the game. Yeah, it's been out for some time now, but other things had taken hold of my attention, but I saw a copy of the game sitting in a store for just £10, I had to grab it! I'm damn glad I did...


Deus Ex: Human Revolution is an FPS Cyberpunk romp through the world. You play as Adam Jensen, a newly recruited Head Of Security for the mega-corporation Sarif Industries who mass-produce augmentations; the mechanical upgrades and prosthetics you may have already heard of. Early on in the game, while Jensen is doing his own thing (standing around looking tough), Sarif Industries is attacked! Lots of people are killed, Jensen's love interest is slain, and Jensen gets the ever loving shit kicked out of him by a mostly-augmented terrorist. This puts Jensen's life on the line, and rather than let him die, David Sarif (owner of Sarif Ind.), decides to give Jensen a free set of augmentations to save him.

Now, we awake in the game, a semi-robotic Jensen with some really cool shades returns to work 6 months later. This is when the game really begins.

Following his upgrading, Jensen has to deal with one of the biggest themes in the game: the moral issues associated with augmenting human beings. The game doesn't give Jensen the chance to ever explicitly say "I don't like it" or "I do" because you get to pick everything he says. His opinions are your opinions.

Reminiscent of Mass Effect, when you're in participating in speech with other characters, you get a set of various responses to pick from. These choices can ultimately lead you into new areas of the game, or close them off from you, forcing you to find another way in. This brings me back to the topic of the four 'pillars' of gameplay. Stealth, Social, Hacking and Combat. Social is very handy. It's how you talk your way in and out of bad situations, and there's even augmentations to help you examine emotional changes in the person you're talking to to give you better information on how best to actually influence them. Perhaps you're not the James Bond type and don't like talking, well, the game's got you covered. In Deus Ex there are always multiple ways around every obstacle, and if Social interactions aren't your thing, try the other pillars.

Hacking and Stealth were my personal favourite pillars. In contrast to the Combat option, where you blast your way through every enemy and use brute force to smash your way through the game (a very viable solution), Hacking and Stealth is the Metal-Gear-Solution to getting around. If you can't be bothered butchering 30 guards just to rifle in their pockets and get a keycard when they're dead, then it's hacking time. Using augmentations to improve your hacking abilities, you'll be able to hack into keypads to unlock doors, switch off cameras, and, most importantly, turn enemy Robots and Sentries to your side. There is nothing more satisfying than spending half an hour sneaking around guards, sliding into rooms and finally cracking a difficult keypad to finally take control of sentry, why? XP. When you switch that sentry to your cause, you'll suddenly see a stream of kills at the side of your screen. ENEMY KILLED 10 XP! ENEMY KILLED 10
XP! ENEMY KILLED 10 XP! ENEMY KILLED 10 XP! It's very, very cushty.

Of course, there is another far more fun method to getting kills and XP using your Hacking and Stealth skills.
One of my preferred methods was to sneak around, find a sentry, hack it, and then using my augmented strength, physically carry the sentry to any guards I'd previously been unable to kill. Simply plank it onto the floor and watch it go nuts. Best of all, if no one sees you putting the sentry down, you'll still get your end-of-mission XP bonuses.

As I said, the game works on an XP system. You gain XP in numerous ways. From killing enemys, hacking, finding hidden rooms, taking hidden paths to your objectives, and so on. Another interesting way of getting XP is the bonuses you get at the end of your missions. For example, the Smooth Operator bonus will award you extra XP for not setting off any alarms during your mission. Another is Ghost, awarded for not being seen by enemies.

What's XP actually for, you ask? Praxis points, of course! Every time you level up, you gain a Praxis Point. These are used to purchase various augmentations, such as a strength upgrade or an invisibility cloak. As well as unlocking points, you can find and purchase Praxis Kits in various places. Finding them is a hard task, but definitely worth the scrounging around. Of course, if you don't mind forking out $1,000 you can always buy them from your local clinic.

Money does factor into this game as well. Though, don't worry, if you're short on cash, you're not going to feel like you're missing parts of the game. Money is used purely to buy information (there is a woman you can give money to who will allude to various means of progressing in side-quests, such as telling you about the sewers that lead into the Police Station), ammunition, guns and gun upgrades. Every enemy you kill drops a gun most of the time, so there's always something to sell, and if you use rifles or pistols (that is to say, if you prefer going the Combat method), you will simply take the ammo instead of the gun, provided it's the same type of gun as one you already have.

Above I mentioned Gun Upgrades, a very cool feature of the game. I personally only used a Tranq Rifle, Stun Gun and sometimes a Sniper Rifle, but thankfully I had heavily upgraded both rifles. You can buy or find weapon upgrades all over the game. This ranges from simple things such as a laser sight and silencers, to targeting systems, damage and rate of fire, as well as much more. By the end of the game, my Sniper Rifle was kitted out with a silencer, damage upgrades, ammo capacity upgrades, laser targeting, practically everything I could stuff into it. Sadly, though, my Sniper Rifle did get little use. But when I did use it, it was fantastic. Which brings me to my next point...

Boss Battles. This is something I've been dying to talk (or rather, complain) about. The game has a few Bosses littered around the game. Now, the battles themselves are very challenging, engaging and fun. They remind me of Metal Gear boss battles, and not just in terms of the running-and-gunning method of beating them, but because of one small, itty, bitty, detail that really pissed me off: the game forces you to fight them.
Up until now, the game has been fine with saying "hey, take whatever way you want, it's up to you how you beat this." I was used to spending hours sneaking around, hacking, and most importantly, not collecting weapons! Now, the locations for Boss battles always have weapons and ammo littered around, so that isn't a huge concern. It's the fact that essentially, because I had been playing stealth, I was an expert at stealth, and I was virtually useless in Combat. Now, I did eventually manage to beat the bosses using my cunning (which mostly consisted of running like a scared child, throwing mines and using my sniper rifle to deal massive amounts of damage quickly), and at the end of the day, it doesn't change my perspective of this game. I absolutely love this game. And despite the boss battles, it will remain an all time for favourite for years to come.

A quick note: I am aware that the developers tried to address the issue of being forced into boss battles by introducing one you didn't need to kill in the Missing Link DLC. I don't have the DLC so I can't comment on it.

All in all, Deus Ex is a fresh game in the frankly stagnant FPS genre. It's refreshing, it's innovating, it's engaging, challenging, and most of all, FUN.

If you don't already have it, go to the shops, get it, and spend the next few days playing it. You will not be sorry. In terms of re-playability? I'd put Deus Ex on par with Red Dead Redemption. Endless fun that will never get old!

Buy it!