Well, it’s been a couple of months since Deus Ex hit shelves and seeing as how we’re just now getting around to playing it, we thought we’d share our review of the game with you today. Deus Ex was one of my most anticipated titles this year, so I was anxious to see how it held up to my own expectations. As a fan of the legends of the cyber punk genre, I was looking for a game rife with story. And since the game is coming out of Square Enix, I expected to experience gameplay that, while maybe not transcendent, was still a step above everything else and consistent with a AAA title.
What I found was unfortunately, a mixed bag. Allow me to explain, though as I’m getting ahead of myself. By now, you likely know what Deus Ex is all about, or else you probably wouldn’t be reading this article. The short version is that Deus Ex: Human Revolution is actually a prequel to the series. Characters play the role of Adam Jensen. Jensen is a security officer for a global industrial titan, who experience an attack in the form of serious industrial espionage. The attack leaves Jensen being pieced back together with biomechanical augmentations, searching for those responsible for the attack .
Cutscenes look gorgeous. The rest of the game doesn't look this good.
If this story sounds a little weak, it’s because frankly, it is. While the prospect of jumping into a cyber punk game that takes place on the cusp of the bio-augmentation era piques our interest, this particular story never really delves into the breadth of possibilities of such a wondrous time in humanity. Sure there is some back story that is filled in, about pro and anti augmentation groups clashing, rioting in the street over potential legislation, all of that exists. The issue is that none of it is imperititve to actually completing the game. It’s all found in the environment, through journals, newscasts, things like that. If a player were so inclined, they could make their way through the entire game without experiencing any of this, and subsequently this opens players up to missing out on back story.
From a gameplay perspective, again it’s a bit of a mixed bag. While the RPG elements of the game are rock solid, the FPS portion of the game is what you’d expect from a company that doesn’t specialize in FPS games. This type of thing traditionally doesn’t translate well to consoles as control is everyone in a shooter. On a PC, it’s not as noticeable. Graphically the game has some nice touches, but for the most part is just on par with the rest of the industry, nothing exceptional to see here.
You can tell from the angle of the gun the shooting is going to feel off.
The real downfall of Deus Ex: Human Revolution is that for a single player game focused only on a campaign, the story is fairly short and the replay value is nill. Save for those who just want to experience the game a second time, there isn’t really anything to bring players back for more except for DLC. This might be okay with some but for us it just didn’t add up. The combination of having missable backstory elements, the game being short, and only having a single plays worth of value just felt lacking to us.
None of this should be taken too harshly. The fact of the matter is that Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a solid title. Unfortunately we were expecting a AAA game and instead got a B+ game. Given the amount of time between one game versus the next, it’s easy to see why that’s a disappointment. Still, the game itself plays well enough and the story is worth getting into. The shooting elements are fun and the boss fights do have some creativity to them. There is real value here. Just not at the $60 price tag that the game launched at. If gamers are able to pick this one up for say, $40 or less, we say buy it. Otherwise, borrow it from a buddy or rent it.
Overall Rating: 7 out 10
