Deus Ex is considered by many to be one of the greatest video games ever made. Developed by Ion Storm and released for home computers, Deus Ex seemed like a basic cyberpunk dystopian concept on the surface but with a closer look turned out to be far ahead of its time. Being one of the few entries in the immersive-sim genre, Deus Ex gave players a plethora of options on how to solve a single problem. Rewarding them for creative thinking and making use of what they had at the moment. It had genius level design, leveling systems, the right amount of challenge, and players could gain a little more just by paying attention to what was happening in the world. However, the gameplay wasn’t the only aspect which made Deus Ex a standout in the industry. The game also had some of the most advanced writing and world building at the time. Addressing real world issues, political conflicts, and struggles. Deus Ex took place in a world where the corporate elite wished to control the world. Where mankind was too weak to think on their own and they had to rely on the higher ups. Where machinery and technology now made up half of the world. A world where half of your life and overall existence was just another asset to a multi-million dollar business. Deus Ex was truly a groundbreaking title. It may not have sold well at launch and its disappointing sequel Deus Ex: Invisible War may have ultimately led to the shut down of Ion Storm, but it changed how the game industry addressed real world topics and was recognized for its outstanding achievements years later. Deus Ex was a product that could stay in the past and be left alone to remain timeless, or that’s what you would at least think.
After the release of Deus Ex: Invisible War and eventually Thief: Deadly Shadows which was also viewed as disappointing, Ion Storm had plans to work on a third Deus Ex and conclude the series as a trilogy. That opportunity was cut short due to them going bankrupt and development on Deus Ex 3 had to be canceled. Deus Ex didn’t really need a third entry when you think about it, because the first game left off on a good note and the second game proved why following up the events of the first was difficult as they had to consider the multiple endings Deus Ex had and which one would be cannon to the story. If following up the story of Deus Ex was tricky then what other options do you have left? Simple! You make a prequel…. oh no. Seeing the modern video game industry and what it is, the Deus Ex franchise would be picked up by Square Enix who saw potential in resurrecting the classic property. They gathered up some old Ion Storm employees while hiring new ones to form Eidos Montreal. A Canadian based studio whose soul purpose was to create a new Deus Ex game. They were also named after Eidos Interactive the original publishers of the Deus Ex and Thief before they too shut down during the early 2000s. The team at Eidos Montreal was determined to introduce Deus Ex to a modern audience, but this would be difficult as they struggled to find out what a modern audience actually wanted. Should they reintroduce design concepts from before and see a modern audience struggle to understand the deep thinking process needed to enjoy Deus Ex, or should they do what any modern game studio does today and streamline the formula in such a way where they make the game more accessible but remove the aspects which original fans loved about the original. The answer was the second option, but this didn’t lead to a terrible product. In fact, despite the development behind the next Deus Ex being extremely rocky Eidos Montreal pulled through and delivered the modernized Deus Ex experience they had wanted since they began working on Deus Ex 3 back in the early 2000s.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution was the modern reintroduction of the Deus Ex franchise and for the most part it delivered. The story wasn’t as brilliant or well thought out as the original, but it was still genuinely well told and addressed the political corruption and conflict which flooded the world. The setting was believable and there were still a handful of options for how a player could solve a single problem. Character progression was made much simpler and the powers you unlocked actually opened up how you interacted with the world. Combat was modernized as well and while it fell victim to modern shooter design tropes it was one was one of the more well thought out shooters in years. Some aspects were sacrificed or stumbled about like moral choices with actual impacts, risk-reward systems, and quite a few of the interactivity and options that the original game had. However, fans were just pleased that Deus Ex made a comeback and there was potential to make Deus Ex a household name again. Eidos Montreal had plans to make a modern trilogy and Square Enix tried to support them in whatever way they could. The sequel, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, improved upon some of the problems Human Revolution had and was generously well received. However, controversy surrounded the game and the politically imagery it addressed. Not only that, but the marketing tactics which Square Enix used painted a bad image for Mankind Divided. Eventually, Square Enix had a majority of Eidos Montreal workers convert over to working on Marvel related products and plans on making a third modern Deus Ex entry were canceled. The modern trilogy would never be finished and Deus Ex was forgotten yet again. A modern video game industry tragedy.
I don't have all that much experience with the Deus Ex franchise, but what happened to the modern trilogy is sad in my eyes. These were great games and there were tons of fans who supported the passionate developers behind them. It does make sense that Square Enix would convert Eidos Montreal toward working on Marvel products as it’s popular, they made business deals with Disney in the past, it’s easier to market to a general audience, and most importantly of all it makes more money. That last part being the sad truth. There is no more room for creative vision and expression. It’s either you get with the times and sacrifice the intention you have, or create what you willingly want and struggle to stand out in the industry. I don’t want to make this entire review focused around Square Enix and why I have mixed feelings on them. I mean for god’s sake they sold the Deus Ex franchise to bid high in the crypto market only to lose a majority of the cash spent. This review is supposed to be about Human Revolution and how I finally got to playing the oldest title of my backlog, but first some background.
I played Deus Ex: Mankind Divided first back in 2019. A brand new copy was sitting around in a discount bin and it looked interesting to me. Bought it, loaded it up onto my Playstation 4, and managed to beat it before sophomore year of high school started. It left a really good impression on me. I understood the audience offended by the marketing behind this game, but overall it was an extremely well made immersive-sim. The world was stunning and the interconnected level design made it a joy to explore. The upgrade system was unique in that you had to sacrifice some upgrades to unlock more valuable ones. Meaning you have to consider what to specialize in during a playthrough. The story, while I have to admit was forgettable, was well told and I can deeply respect what Mankind Divided addressed. Not just political conflict, but segregation and how throughout history mankind has discriminated against each other. How when we think together the world isn’t in complete shambles.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was good enough to get a recommendation label from me, and I was excited to check out the previous. However, that time would come later than expected as there were other games I wanted to check out at the time. Human Revolution spent months, more than a year even collecting dust on my shelf and it wasn’t until a recent video essay that I was concerned with playing it. Hbomberguy, most commonly referred to as Harrison, released an essay video talking about why Deus Ex: Human Revolution is fine. That it isn’t as good as others say it is. I agreed with all of what Harrison said as a lot of what he said in the past was right to me. However, I did wonder about the praise surrounding Human Revolution. It was time to see if either Harrison or the fans were right….. yep, Harrison was kind of right. Human Revolution was certainly a good game. I had quite a bit of fun playing it these last two weeks. It’s well made, gets its ideas across, and I can understand those who love it. However, there are major problems which hold it back and compared to other immersive-sims I’ve played it ranks below a lot of them. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is the most “pretty good” game I’ve played in awhile. Today we’ll be talking about why this game is “pretty good” and despite some flaws it may deserve your attention. Depends who you are.
A glaring neon glow illuminates this street.
Breathe in the human vapors, sweat and heavy heat.
Story
The year is 2027 and mankind has technologically advanced tremendously. Wow, that’s a big fat lie right there. How about for now on when we’re writing games about mankind’s future let’s plot them fourty or more years from now so they actually age well. Anyways, technology has advanced and we have mostly made the world a better place. Robots for war, faster aerial travel, holograms, advanced weaponry, and most importantly of all advanced medicine. Including better prosthetic limbs which function as properly as the originals. Augmentation, a process that allows a human being to upgrade their own bodies and become more advanced themselves. Faster reflexes, strength, capabilities, and be connected to a worldwide system. Augmentation has done a lot for the human race, but it’s not a perfect process. Subjects are known to experience pain during the Augmentation process and to combat the pain they need to take a drug known as Neuropozyne. Which is equally as expensive as Augmentation itself. A majority of folks who purchase augmented enhancement are often wealthy and this has received some criticism from the public. Not just on Augmentation being worth it, but who is allowed to have them. There is even a political faction against Augmentation as it removes what made us human. Mankind has slowly leaned towards being more machine than man, and public discussions have been called upon to re-establish order. Humanity Front, a group of politicians against Augmentation and want to establish laws that limit how much Augmentation there can be. People have been rallying up in the streets and Augmented individuals are starting to be looked down upon. A war might break out, but that isn't’ the least of your troubles.
You play as Adam Jensen, an ex-SWAT member and now a security guard at Sarif Industries. One of the top Augmentation companies in the world, and are constantly developing new prosthetics and enhancements for the public. They’ve developed enhancements which turn your basic man into a living weapon, and they even send their top security members on dangerous missions that only their technology can handle. The reason Adam got chosen by Sarif Industries was because he was recommended by his ex-girlfriend, Megan Reed, one of the head scientists in the company. Even though they aren’t as close as before Adam always looks out for Megan, because he believes her work is of uttermost importance. On the night before the reveal of Megan’s next big breakthrough the company is attacked by an unknown gang of augmented terrorist. All of whom wield enhancements designed for battle. They kill Megan Reed, and when Adam arrives to help he is fatally injured and left for dead. However, he is pulled out of the rubble by Sarif Industries and is sent to the operating room for the augmentation process. His body was heavily wounded, so Adam ended up becoming the most augmented person whom Sarif Industries patched up. A majority of his body is now just metal skin, his eyes have been replaced, and the smooth voice he once had sounds cold and emotionless. Adam was saved, but did he really want to be saved? He never asked for this. Be more machine than man.
Six months pass and Adam Jensen is still one of the top security members at Sarif Industries. He works with Faridah Malik, one of the chief pilots at Sarif, and Frank Pritchard, a systems engineer who helps guide Adam on dangerous missions he is sent out on. Now that Adam has been transformed into a killing machine it means Sarif can send him out on tasks that a lot of their other employees can’t fulfill. Secret government assigned missions to prevent what could possibly be the next Civil War II or World War III. Anyways, Adam has been cooperating with Sarif Industries until one day they get a head on the terrorist group who attacked six months ago. The same group who killed Megan and left Adam wounded. They decide to chase the lead and Adam is the one most determined to hunt these bastards down and make them pay for what they have done. Adam also discovers political tension has been rising and this rabbit hole might go deeper than it looks. A plot to bring more controversy around augmentation and divide the public amongst each other. It’s up to Adam Jensen to uncover all these underground conspiracies, defeat the terrorists who attacked him, and claim vengeance for the loved one they took from him. It’s a lot to unpack, I know.
Broken body built anew. Spirit lingers, torn in two.
Gameplay
Deus Ex: Human Revolution has a questionable story which we’ll judge more later, but for now let’s talk about the gameplay which I believe is the game’s biggest strength. Human Revolution is an immersive-sim and tries to follow in the same vein as the original. It all takes place from a first person perspective, you are placed in an open ended sandbox, and each mission follows you pursuing some sort of task. Whether it's to get from point A to point B, locate an item or info, take out a specific target, or some specialized task. Quest design plays out extremely linearly, but what makes the immersive-sim unique is that you have a handful of options to choose from to achieve your goal or get past a problem. Can’t find the keycard to open a door? Why not just hack the door or better yet destroy it. Sneak through an air vent which leads to the same location the door leads to or help out an NPC who might open up another route to enter the same route. The choices immersive-sims offers is what makes the genre “immersive”, because the way you interact with the world can make a difficult scenario much easier. Taking the time and absorbing each bit of info and itty bit of detail you pass upon. I like these types of games, because while they are for a specific kind of audience they reward you for creative thinking and coming up with your own playstyle.
Human Revolution gives you numerous paths to get from one place to another. Sometimes the shortest path will be more heavily guarded or a hazard will block the way which you don’t have the skills to deal with, so you might want to take a longer way which can be more of a burden but in the long run will be much safer. The progression system in Human Revolution may not be as authentic as leveling up stats in the original, but it’s one of the more well thought out perk systems we see in a lot of modern video games. Each category is designated to a specific skill or augmentation, and the more you invest in a specific augmentation category the more you can do with its specific skills. For example, your arms can be leveled up to lift heavier objects which may block off vents or pathways to avoid conflict. Your legs can be leveled up for a higher jump height or being able to run a longer distance within a short period of time. These upgrades change how you play the game, and the more you acquire the stronger you become. There’s the basic character stuff like damage resistance, being able to carry more in your inventory, hacking high leveled terminals, reducing the amount your weapons sway while aiming, more stamina to run, reducing how fast an enemy will detect you while sneaking, and much more. Then there are your augmented superpowers which give you new ways to traverse each level. A cloaking device which turns you invisible for a short period of time. The ability to float slowly towards the ground when jumping from a high place. Smash a brittle wall to open up a hole. Then there’s the ability to launch a multitude of explosive pellets around the room which destroy everything. You could brute force your way through encounters, but it’s more fun to take your time. Grow stronger and tackle situations when you are finally ready.
I’ve been rambling on about the leveling system and perks for quite a bit, so we might as well talk about the combat and how basic gunfights play out. In the original Deus Ex you’d want to avoid fights as much as possible as it’s easy to get overwhelmed, each of your limbs could take individual damage, and you don’t want to crawl back to a clinic with both your legs broken and your squirming around like a worm. You had to manage your body and how much damage you could take before going into a fight. Here in Human Revolution they went for every modern shooter design trope. You now have a basic health system which replenishes when you hide from gunfire for a few seconds. You can also use painkillers to make your health come back faster. Enemies will take cover and try to reposition themselves toward your location, so when they are popping out of cover try to fire at them with your guns. Handguns and rifles with a limited amount of bullets, need to be reloaded, and have specific firing times and range. It’s all standard shooter stuff and I should have been sick of it, but Human Revolution managed to take these modern design tropes and make them actually pretty fun for me. You could go guns blazing, but enemies come in hoards and your health gets eaten up really quickly. The bullets which can be looted off of enemy corpses aren’t much and sometimes you’ll end up with less resources than when you started the encounter. You either have to be really precise with your shots and aim for the head, or sneak around the environment and pick off foes one by one.
Human Revolution is a pretty fine stealth game. It’s no Dishonored or Metal Gear Solid V, but opportunities are set up in such a way where the game wants the player to take them. One factor I must bring up is how to perform a stealth takedown you must have an energy cell ready. You can have multiple energy cells available by eating these candy bars which give you more, and by doing so you can stealth takedown more than two enemies at once. Plus some of your augmented superpower like the invisibility cloak require energy cells to be used. However, if one energy cell isn’t ready then you can’t stealth takedown an enemy. This gets the player to play slowly and consider when they should stealth takedown an enemy and how to avoid the sight of the next foe until the energy cell is ready. The energy cell system is annoying at first, but is a pretty neat design choice as it allows an unlimited resource to have limitations.
You can carry a wide variety of guns, but you won’t be able to carry every gun the game has available. You have a limited inventory space, and not only do you have to carry the guns but also the ammunition needed to actually use them. Heavier guns and ammon take up more space, and might as well factor in grenades and healing items because they too take up inventory space. You have to decide what to keep and what to leave behind when you find a weapon that is better. There’s also weapon mods you can pick up and attach to your weapons to change how they function during combat. A suppressor to silence your shots or an upgrade to ammo capacity. It’s not a terrific customization system and you can beat the game with starting weapons, but one that gets you to consider what to do with your arsenal going forward.
Finally we’ll address quest design and some of the moral choices Human Revolution throws at the player. There’s the main quest, you know the overall story, and there are side missions which offer bonus rewards when completed. You gain experience points for each objective pursued and every time you level up you gain a Praxis Point. These being used to unlock new perks and skills. A majority of quests are simple to follow, but sometimes you’ll be thrown into a dire situation. There are ones where you must react quickly. Others where you must negotiate with a character and either gain the info you need or be forced to do extra work to obtain it. Then there are those moments where you decide who gets what they want or who should die. I do want to talk about how these moral choices are presented, but what I can complement on is how these choices offer differ ways to approach the game on future playthroughs. Besides that there really isn’t much else to say about Deus Ex: Human Revolution. This section has mostly been about what I liked about the game, but trust me the conclusion section will dive deep into the ocean of problems the game struggles with. What didn’t make Human Revolution as timeless as everyone else thinks it is.
Pushing the flex. Pressure the defects. Breaking down is inevitable.
Spraining the rivets. Straining the limits. Breaking down is inevitable.
Thoughts
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a pretty good experience in my opinion. It doesn’t do anything innovative or outstanding in my eyes, but what it does right is done moderately well. The gameplay for the most part is enjoyable and I had quite a bit of fun progression through the main story. Leveling up felt satisfying and each power unlocked made my character feel stronger. Combat while being simplistic is challenging and made me play more carefully than a majority of the shooters I’ve played in recent memory. The environments while dark lit compared to the visual improvements which Mankind Divided would make are stunning to look at, and I like the art design behind this game. How the developers would use a blend of black and gold to highlight the world. The side content outside the main story is decent enough and while the second half of the game lacks it, what is there helps build upon the world. While Deus Ex: Human Revolution ranks below the immersive-sims I’ve personally played, it's still a damn good game. It’s well made, the design choices add up, and more functional than half the Triple A releases of today. The pros are strong, but there’s also a lot of cons.
The story is the biggest problem. Earlier I stated that Mankind Divided had a forgettable story, but I like the themes and approach it went for. Same for Human Revolution. It has interesting ideas and the writers obviously put a lot of heart towards it, but… it just didn’t click for me. All the themes and politics it threw at me fell flat and half the time it felt tone death. Whenever an antagonist was thrown on screen they were written in such a way where they felt comically evil. Like there weren’t any justifications to what they were doing, and they were just doing a bad act just for the sake of doing it. The political factions of Human Revolution aren’t really well thought out and never got me to consider who was more in the right. Humanity Front is just a dumb faction in general because they think that Augmentation taints the human soul. Basically they are against prosthetics and modern medicine. Which is stupid because half of them wear glasses which can be considered a from of modern medicine! Then you have Sarif Industries who believe Augmentations are great and that technological advancements will bring peace, but are also the same guys who developed an enhancement which makes your body shoot out explosive pellets which can kill everyone in a small room.
The game also likes to remind the player a lot of how divided the world has become. When I say “often” I mean the game does it really f*cking often. Every NPC you interact with outside the main cast always has something to say about Augmentation. It’s not even a smart address; they literally just give you the most minimalist detail possible. Like they hate it for the sake of hating it. Like those people against LGBT expression or speech, but then shout in the streets how proud they are for being straight. The main character is extremely boring and emotionless, which is the approach the writers were going for, but there could have been a little bit more to work. What I can say though is that I like his background and whenever he states he didn’t want to be transformed into a mechanized machine I felt something until the game constantly reminded me of that. The moral choices which Human Revolution throws at you are unique, but none of them have any impact. The impact they do have isn’t much and at that point why even bother? Finally there’s the endings. The endings suck. I don’t want to spoil it, but what I am going to tell you is that it limits down to pressing one of four buttons. No, I’m not joking to you reader. You literally have to press one of four terminal buttons which decide the fate of the world and they exherate it beyond belief.
That’s enough about raving on how much I didn’t like the story of Human Revolution. How about we touch upon the gameplay quirks, because the gameplay section mostly addressed what you liked rather than disliked. Alright reader if you insist. I liked the progression system and out of all the perk systems I’ve seen from modern video games this is one of my top five, but I do still prefer a stat system more. A table of numbers and investing into the ones you want. Seeing your weapon scale up or gaining access to better gear once you reach a specific requirement. It feels more like a traditional RPG which the original Deus Ex tried to act like. One problem which Hbomberguy’s video addressed was how scarce ammo was throughout the game. I think that’s a lie, because during my playthrough I was stocked with tons of ammo. Mainly because I was good with stealth killing enemies, avoiding them, or making headshots. However, this meant I was overstocked near the end and could just blast my way through combat. Making a lot of fights trivial. Robots and turrets are very annoying to deal with, because it’s either you have an EMP grenade or you are screwed. The hacking mini-game is terrible, because while it’s not poorly designed it is a chore to do and waiting to reattempt is time consuming. Thirty seconds! Thirty bleeding seconds just to redo a hacking mini-game whose difficulty feels completely random at times! The missions at the start of the game leave a strong impression, but near the end the mission quality starts to dip down. Final gameplay complaints are the boss fights. They are bad. They are like the worst part of this game. They aren’t difficult and you are provided a lot of ammunition to fight them with, but it’s more like them being bullet sponges and barely enjoyable. Nothing mechanically interesting and half the time you just have to run around a room and fire crazily. Kind of glad that Mankind Divided removed boss fights entirely besides the final boss who can be incapacitated with a single electric shot letting you avoid a boss fight entirely.
A lot of people like Human Revolution more than Mankind Divided because “the story was better” and “¼ of the runtime wasn’t cut out and repackaged as expansions when they could have been there originally”, but to be honest I like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided more from what I remember. The story didn’t feel as stupid because it wasn’t trying to go for so much at once, I liked the level design more as it felt more natural and there wasn’t always a ventilation shaft always leading towards where you needed to go, the progression system was much better as you determined what to and not to invest in, the augmented powers were also cooler and more useful like the invincibility cloak or the zip ability that feels exactly like blink from Dishonored, and there were segments of Human Revolution that I felt weren’t needed or dragged out longer than they should have. I barely remember Mankind Divided, but Human Revolution made me appreciate it more and might have convinced me to one day replay it just to see if what I remember is correct. Mankind Divided is underrated when you think about it.
Don’t take this the wrong way in that Deus Ex: Human Revolution isn’t worth your time. It has a cool setting, good gameplay, and is another great entry in the immersive-sim genre. For the time it helped Deus Ex make its way back into the video game market and I can understand the people who loved it. They grew up with this type of action, style, and writing and it obviously played a huge part in their teenage years or childhood. It came out the year Skyrim and Dark Souls came out, and a lot of people I know grew up with these games. You don’t have to agree with everything I say. Just take it with a grain of salt and formulate your own opinion. If you are someone who loves Deus Ex: Human Revolution then good for you. If you don’t then don’t ruin the fun for those who love it by shouting a bunch of verses you heard from a guy on the internet. You can agree with me, but you don’t have to go entirely off of my opinion. In the end I liked this game, because while it’s heavily flawed to see what it achieved is worth witnessing. I give Deus Ex: Human Revolution an 8/10 for being pretty good.
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