Deus Ex: Human Revolution PC Review

Set in 2027, 25 years before Deus Ex – The world is currently undergoing massive changes in technological enhancements. Nanotechnological augmentations have yet to be developed and Biochemical augmentations are state of the art.

Throughout the campaign you assume control on Adam Jensen, an ex SWAT commander in the Detroit Police, who’s career was ended early when he refused to follow a ‘questionable’ order.  When you assume control of Jensen, you’re working for Sarif Industries as a private security specialist charged with looking after scientists on the verge of cutting edge breakthroughs.

As we follow Jensen through the first section of the game, you’re nothing more than a typical human being doing his daily job, it’s not long however until the facility you’re working in is attacked by an unknown source and has near fatal consequences. Barely alive Jensen is taken to a ‘limb Clinic’ (Liberty in mind and body international) for vital work to ensure he survives.

The work involved in the process of keeping Jensen alive is pretty substantial, including cybernetic arms, head-mounted sunglasses to aid some of his new augmentations, infolink and retinal prosthesis. The main augmentations revolve around his heart and pericardium.

6 Months down the line after the near fatal attack, Jensen is called back to work early from his prescribed sick leave by David Sarif (CEO and Founder of Sarif Industries) to follow up a mission at the Milwaukee manufacturing plant, where the prototype of the Typhoon Explosive System augmentation is currently being held. This is where the game really picks up and the story starts to unfold.

Typhoon Explosive System

There is one thing that I strongly recommend everybody playing through does, and that’s ALL possible side quests (Marked as Blue quests on your map).  Not only do you net a good amount of experience and goodies for doing them, they lead to valuable information if you’re playing for the storyline as well as the action.

The side quests are mostly picked up automatically, though some you have to search for and some are affected by your previous actions, this is a good thing as it always leaves the game open for replayability.

With Jensen now being augmented you’re able to spend Praxis points to increase your current, or unlock new augmentations. Praxis points can be gained a few different ways throughout the game, you’re awarded experience points for various things, like killing/knocking out opponents, hacking computers and exploration to name a few. Eventually these experience points will be reset to 0 and you’ll have a new Praxis point available to you to use as you wish.

Augmentation Screen

Some Praxis points are received as rewards for missions and some can just be found laying on the floor, typically in hidden areas or places you wouldn’t otherwise usually wander to. The final place to pick them up is in the limb clinics. Each time you visit a new area, always check the limb clinics for new stock as they should have 2 available. They come at a price, mind. At 5000Credits a pop they’re not the cheapest item on the market.

While out and about doing missions in Human Revolution, you’ll encounter many different types of weapons – lethal and none. Most of the weapons encountered in the game have the ability to be customised by upgrades you find or buy from merchants. Upgrades include silencers, increased ammo capacity and increased damage output. Not all enhancements can be attached to all weapons,  so if buying from a merchant, ensure to read the info before spending those precious credits.

Something to note is that because Human Revolution has an RPG element to it, you have an inventory (Just like the original). From the get-go it’s not that amazing, you need to spend Praxis points to increase it’s size if you wish to carry any significant weaponry later in the game. The inventory is split in to two sections, ‘Inventory’ and ‘quest’. All the items within the quest tab are items you just carry along for missions, to save clogging up your usual inventory space.

Inventory Screen

Moving to the non-lethal weapons, stun guns and tranquilizer rifles for example,  can play a major part of the game too. There’s no need to run in all guns blazing as the game can be completed without the need of lethal force – until you come across a Boss fight at least.

YES! A Boss fight…. not often do you come across a boss fight in a FPS games these days. Again I assume this is partly due to the RPG element of the game as you run in to a few different bosses as you progress throughout the story line. Though I’d prefer it if they weren’t there.. it’s just not suited to the game!

Now, the fact that you’re not running around the same location constantly is also a strong factor of the game, you’re shipped out to different countries to carry out different tasks. While the levels of these different locations are technically linear and not Sandbox, there’s plenty of ways to get to where you want to go. You may fancy waltzing straight in the front door wielding an assault rifle or squeeze through man-sized air vents. Air vents are surprisingly large in the world of Deus Ex… so large in fact that they’re very handy for hiding corpses and knocked out enemies if you don’t wish for them to be spotted or revived. Then there are world objects…. Fancy getting on that roof? Stack a few boxes, a vending  machine.. add those to your augmentation for jumping insanely high and you’re up up and away! ….. Just don’t fall until you have the Icarus landing system. You seem to have the legs of a rotting corpse, so falling suddenly from the smallest height possible can see you to a near death experience or worse. Also a handy way to progress is smashing through walls, though this doesn’t become available to you until you spend Praxis points to gain the ability.

Breakable Wall With Augment Upgrade

Throughout your ventures, most NPC’s will actually be friendly… however!  In this game enemies  are who you want them to be. Feeling a bit on the dark side? Sure… go ahead and punch a police officer in the face, see what happens…  could be funny. Be aware though, that hacking terminals or computers in plain sight of police officers, and shutting doors in rooms that should otherwise be left open will see people getting suspicious. This isn’t always a great thing as often it will turn to them becoming hostile leaving you in a bit of a sticky situation.

Augmented Enemy NPC.

Many of the enemies in the game will be augmented, just like you. Able to use a few similar abilities as yourself – honestly the most annoying one has to be Stealth. Up close it’s not so bad as you’re able to see them… from a distance, awkward! however muzzle flashes certainly help the situation. Not all fights can be won with guns…. there’s a few times throughout the game that will leave you in an argument with the NPC, allowing you a choice of which route to take… thankfully there’s an augmentation that will help you out with these type of ‘battles’.

By this stage I should probably mention the cover system. If you fail to use it, you’ll probably die. A lot.

The way the cover system has been incorporated in to this game is sheer brilliance. Giving you a 3^rd person view over the obstacles you’re covering behind, it gives perfect opportunities to pop up suddenly and leave a shotgun round in some guys face. Or not! With Human Revolution having so many different ways of playing through, the cover system can be used in a variety of ways, sneaking past guards and hostiles without the need of your stealth ability is a massive help in many parts of the game.

Covering behind a wall.

The map system of the game is rather handy too, as it’s split over multiple levels you’re able to plan routes just by looking at it. You’re able to zoom in/out and swap levels in a 3D style action, aswell as an easy reset to your current posistion.

Map Screen

The menus throughout the game are all pretty self explanatory and shouldn’t need much to figure out, one very handy menu is the tutorials tab. With it showing all the tutorials needed to help you progress through the game… or if you’ve got a short memory like me and forget how to do things.