Deus Ex Human Revolution

So I finished up Deus Ex Human Revolution over the weekend and figured that I'd write a little bit about it because I haven't touched the blog for a little while. The housing issues and waiting for my son to pop out have kind of made life a little stressful for us so I haven't really had time to write or work on anything fun (which, as usual, leads to massive amounts of political talk making its way onto Facebook and me trolling comment sections on my favorite news sites. All work and no play makes Epi a dull boy and what not).

I picked up the entire collection of Deus Ex on Steam during the Summer sale because I'm poor and don't get to buy new games at release anymore (the last new game I bought was Skyrim, and before that was Duke Nukem Forever. Screw you, don't judge me. I can talk about that tragedy later.) I technically already owned everything but DEHR but the deal was too good to pass up and Steam is easier to deal with than trying to fight the old compatibility war with those older games. I'm sick of wasting my time on those types of things, which was why I got out of PC gaming in the first place. That's a different story for another day though.

The point is I'm a big fan of the original game which makes me hate the second game and made me intrigued to play the third.

(Note: I got distracted from writing this entry from this point on due to my son being born, so suck it if you find this to be a little disjointed, well, more disjointed than usual.)

DEHR takes place in the past and is basically a prequel to the orginal game. The main character, Adam Jensen, is the head of security for one of the major manufacturers of augmentations. Though you provide your best efforts, you're unable to stop a group of augmented mercs from wrecking havoc at your company's HQ.

Along the way you are mortally wounded and following the incident you spend the next 6 months in various facilities being fitted with the very best tech the company can outfit you with. Following that recovery you're on a mission to find those responsible for the attack. At this point the game becomes a stealthy 3rd person cover/FPS action game with  RPG elements. As far as gameplay is concerned it is immensely enjoyable.
The action sequences are enjoyable and almost all of them can be.avoided. When you get into gun fights it can be really fun and enjoyable.

It does use the rechargeable health bar, but it isn't quite a COD super soldier serum. The FPS gameplay is accessible and effective and you also have a cover system that switches you to a 3rd person perspective that also let's you have extended fire fights. The amount of health you and your opponents have is pretty low (with the exception of boss fights which I'll get to) and lends a more realistic feel to the combat. Without upgrading Jensen's dermal armor plating a single shotgun blast in "normal" difficulty can wreck your day.
It makes for some intense fight scenes and encourages the use of stealth, ambushes, and cover to accomplish your goals.

The original game focused very heavily on the multiple ways you could complete objectives. It was perfect at the time it was released. The design team for DEHR tried their hardest it seems but they didn't quite make it to the high mark set by the original. That being said, they still made it more open-ended for completing objectives than most games these days do, even ones that supposedly give you choices. I found ways to get into every area in this game from most every conceivable direction and most of them there are multiple approaches.

The storyline is kind of predictable, but is enjoyable. The elements of what it means to be human and other themes of the first one are toned done in this and a vague exposition about at what cost is it for humanity to advance itself with technology. The answer to that question though is easily seen within the confines of the story, it is AWESOME to be augmented, why would you choose anything else?

The acting/scripting is enjoyable and doesn't distract from the gameplay. Jensen's voice seems kind of forced into a Bat-Bale style of brooding anti-hero stereotype, but it works for it. Like I said, the voice acting isn't distracting. Like all game voice acting though it can be somewhat cheesy and predictable.

The major flaw with the game though is in the boss fights. This has been mentioned in countless other articles about the game but is worth mention every time. It is a good example of why the industry should be moving away from these old tropes unless important for the gameplay/narrative. The boss fights can be very hard. The first one, where you have to fight a super soldier with a built in mini-gun in a small room takes an ass ton of tries and is frustrating as hell. It can stop your enjoyment of the game entirely right then and there. I didn't do what others had done and exploited the mechanics to my advantage, but I was sorely tempted to.

This was the only major beef I had with the game. Two of those fights were brutal slugfests that just broke up the feeling of the game. There was only one real way to defeat any of them and that was brute force. It ignored anything you had built your version of Jensen for and just stuck you in the middle of a fight you didn't want for no real reason. It was jarring to say the least.

Overall, I would say I highly enjoyed the game. It is a good hardcore experience. It is enjoyable, easily worth the investment of time and money. I want to see what this team does with the property in the future, they have shown some great potential in their design philosophy.