Deus Ex: Human Revolution

The third game in the Deus Ex franchise and the first to be released in nearly a decade promised to be a return to form for series fans.  But does Human Revolution live up to the legacy of the legendary first game, or is it another one to be dropped and promptly forgotten like Invisible War? 

Released almost a decade after Invisible War, Human Revolution thankfully doesn't hit the reset button again, instead opting for a prequel to the first Deus Ex focusing on humanity's newfound fascination with mechanical augmentation.  The main character, Adam Jensen, finds himself an unwitting recipient of mechanical implants after the company he works for falls under siege and he is critically wounded (including a rather graphic headshot as a reference to Robocop).  Per series norms, how he copes with his new life is left up to the player, either enjoying the benefits of augmentation or buying into the counternarrative that he's now less than human and wouldn't wish his fate on anyone.

To its credit, Human Revolution does at least feel more like the first Deus Ex than the second - you're not overly limited by a lack of options or cramped by tiny, narrow level design, and the augs you're given access to are rather extensive and have quite a few new flashy effects.  From softening falls to punching through weak walls to hacking hostile robots to reducing weapon recoil to emitting a powerful explosive attack in a short radius around your character to literal x-ray vision, you get some quite useful and powerful effects.  They're not too abusable, though, as the majority of them run off an limited energy meter that only regenerates partway (one bar in the original release, two bars in Director's Cut).  You'll need a fair number of candy bars and batteries to keep your energy topped up if you want to use your augs extensively.  Like many modern shooters Human Revolution features regenerating health, though it occurs slowly enough that you can't abuse it too much - if you go in running and gunning against large groups of enemies you'll still probably die pretty fast.

There's a lot more focus on stealth-based gameplay too, with the player able to flatten themselves against walls or press a button near an unaware enemy for an instant takedown, either lethal or nonlethal depending on how long you hold down the Q key.  Another new mechanic I quite liked is the "battle of words" - at several points in the game you basically get into an argument with another character, and by picking the right choices you can get them to stand down, often ending a confrontation nonlethally or gaining some other benefit afterward; in fact, one of your augmentations plays into this, giving you hints on what to say based on that character's personality traits.  One can also purchase and modify weapons, which once again run on separate ammunition types (hooray!) and for the first time in the series can even sell weapons back for extra cash, which is something I ended up doing quite a lot.  There is an annoying catch, though, in that you can only carry one of any given weapon type at a time - any others you pick up are emptied of their ammo and immediately vanish into the either, so if you want to sell a lot of weapons back you have to drop your current copy and carry them back to the seller one at a time.

A major detriment, at least in the original release of HR, are the boss battles - overlong and generally awful slogs against bullet-sponge bosses that can sustain multiple headshots from high-capacity weapons without flinching, but take you out in only a few hits.  Not to mention this rigid style of design completely disregards the choice-based gameplay everywhere else in the series and even in this game. Apparently the boss fights were actually farmed out to another development studio, and I believe it considering how out-of-step they are with everything else in the game.  Thankfully the Director's Cut does alleviate this to a degree, giving them wider arenas with things like vents to sneak-attack from and automatic turrets to set traps with.  

I don't much like HR trying to rope you into one particular gameplay style, either - getting experience bonuses for nonlethal takedowns (which add up very fast) and a gimmicky hacking minigame that awards more XP and lets you constantly unlock more virtual "viruses" that make future attempts easier means you're basically going to play a stealthy superhacker no matter what, because the alternative is missing out on a huge chunk of valuable points and supplies with no recourse.

Some prominent plot holes and inconsistencies creep in fast as well.  2025 seemingly has much more advanced technology than the 2052 setting of Deus Ex, withs full-body augs and AIs that can easily pass the Turing Test to the naked eye and holograms that don't require bulky projectors.  The ending is somehow even lamer than Invisible War's big dumb faction punch-up, with Adam being taken to an island of essentially mindless aggressors and  literally being led to a room with three buttons and told to pick one to choose an ending.  Pretty weak stuff, especially given how vast, complex and rewarding choosing one of the original game's conclusions was - you were picking a plan of action and carrying it out while outwitting gene-spliced monsters and armed super soldiers, and no matter which path you chose it was pretty epic.  I also felt there was a big missed opportunity by not having any of your prior choices play a role in the final area at all - it just seems that nothing you do before that stage makes any difference going in or affects the outcome whatsoever; also true of the original games, sure, but this was the first Deus Ex of a new generation of consoles and a perfect opportunity to do something new with the format..  Of course, the prequel problem also kicks in, in that you know how things are going to unfold in later games so two of the choices you're given are a purely hypothetical what ifs with no basis in canon, which just kind of makes me wonder why they give you an option at all other than to say "yep, it's Deus Ex and it's all about CHOICE, even if none of it actually matters in the end!".

Human Revolution feels like a "designed by committee" return for Deus Ex - made by people looking to create something that will appeal to fans and turn a profit for their shareholders without quite understanding what made the original work so well.  It hits a lot of the beats and has a few good ideas of its own, but for everything it does right there's something else that feels undercooked or just not implemented very well.  The gameplay gives the illusion of choice but ropes you into a particular playstyle for longterm success, and  everything you do in the plot just feels ancillary, like you're playing out a bit of lore mentioned in passing in some random computer terminal in the original game that ultimately has little bearing on its events.  There are also substantial performance issues even on modern machines, with a lot of stuttering and frame drops at very inconvenient moments.  The end result is a moderately fun experience that doesn't live up to its potential on any front, but does at least recapture some of the immersive design, heavy atmosphere and creative problem solving the original game provided.

Developer: Eidos-Montreal
Publisher: Square Enix Europe
Released: 2011, 2012, 2013 (Director's Cut)
Platforms: PlayStation 3, XBox 360, Mac OS X, Wii U

Recommended Version: All versions play pretty much the same, though the 2013 Director's Cut does feature some substantial improvements to enemy AI, overall gameplay (including much better boss fights) and some core mechanics, as well as improved visuals and including the Missing Link DLC.  The Wii U version also has a few exclusive additions like using the touchpad to display a minimap, input keycodes, interact with computers and activate some augmentation features

Deus Ex: Invisible War

Deus Ex is one of the most highly acclaimed games of all time and was an enormous success for Ion Storm, so I understand why a sequel was made.  What I don't understand is why it was made this way.  Invisible War makes the leap to a new engine (Unreal 2) and jumps ahead to the future, where somehow all three endings of the original game have occurred simultaneously and somehow have all canceled each other out, resulting in the world being in the same violent, dystopian state it was at the beginning of the first Deus Ex.  A fact I'm sure Ubisoft took note of, as they've since engineered every sequel they ever make to nullify everything that occurred in the previous game.  The engine does IW no favors right away - the awkward, buggy physics and severely shrunken-down levels (clearly from being built as a console game first and the PC port being an afterthought) greatly subtract from the grandiose, interconnected feel of the original.  It hits the gameplay beats of Deus Ex, having the player find upgrades via augmentation cansisters and tweak weapons to make them more useful, but virtually nothing new is added and everything is scaled down.  Weapons all inexplicably run off the same ammunition pool, so the "strongest weapons" will drain your reserves in only a few shots and once you run out you have no backup save possibly a melee weapon (which I ended up using the majority of the game as a result).  The story is just a retread of the first game with none of the subtlety, ominous mood or grounded real-world conspiracies to lend it credibility, and as a result it all just rings of going through the motions to make more money.  Go here, go there, learn about the generic "new" bad guys, see a few familiar faces from the first game, rinse and repeat until the final showdown where all three factions convene at Liberty Island (from the first game!  again!) and you choose to spare one of them to guide humanity's future or destroy them all and plunge the world into chaos.  Just like the first game.  It looks pretty enough for a 2003 game and it does feature substantially better voiceover, but with an overabundance of rote repetition and an absence of any decent ideas of its own, Invisible War just falls flat on its face. What a lame, unnecessary sequel.

Developer: Ion Storm
Publisher: Eidos Interactive
Released: 2003
Platforms: XBox, PC

Deus Ex

An ambitious action-RPG by Warren Spector and arguably the only game from the short-lived studio Ion Storm with any real longevity, Deus Ex is held in high regard among PC gamers as one of the greats.  But is this glimpse into a dark future still worth seeing today, or is Deus Ex another science fiction work that doesn't hold up to scrutiny?

Warren Spector is a name well-known to long time gamers, with nearly everything he's worked on pushing genre boundaries and attempting to create an experience never before seen in the world of gaming.  From Ultima to Wing Commander to Thief to System Shock, all of his games succeed in that to various degress, creating an immersive experience with staggering depth and immersion that even relatively few games today can match.

But even by that already high standard, it takes a lot to get named one of the best games of all time.  Deus Ex certainly made the effort, though.  Built on the groundbreaking Unreal Engine to allow for some truly enormous and realistic environments, Deus Ex also works in numerous RPG elements and multiple ways to complete each objective to create a truly free-form roleplaying experience.  This is evident even in the game's first mission - retaking the Statue of Liberty from a terrorist group that has occupied it.  One can take a stealthy approach to eliminating enemies with silenced weapons, simply march in the front door guns blazing, or traverse almost all combat by finding a hidden back entrance.  Each choice is equally valid, and more surprisingly, one's choices in previous encounters are often referenced in later dialog, letting the player feel like their choices actually have some bearing on events unfolding.

Befitting this, one also has a large variety of skills to interact with the game world.  Boosting weapon proficiency is fairly obvious - giving better accuracy and damage bonuses the more they are raised - but others are a bit more involved.  Hacking skill allows one to bypass password requirements on many consoles and ATMS, giving one extra money and saving some password-hunting.  While one can lockpick/multitool their way through locks and keypads without the skill involved, having levels put into the skill will make doing so much more efficient.  Even the Swimming skill, while very situational, can prove handy at times, letting one take alternate routes into some areas or simply reach secrets hidden deep under the water.  These, plus the fact that one gets bonuses for exploring areas or solving puzzles in unconventional ways, all encourage the player to play Deus Ex as anything but a traditional shooter.

Of course, there are times one will have to fight enemies, even if playing a more peaceable character, and ot that end the game does offer some other options.  One can KO enemies non-lethally (or at least stun them) with things like pepper spray (both canisters and mines), tasers and non-lethal "tranquilizer" crossbow darts, or simply take them out from afar with a sniper rifle.  Robotic enemies are a bit tougher to crack, being all but immune to traditional weaponry, but one also collects weapons like single-use LAW launchers, LAM mines and a GEP gun that fires small explosions, which can also be handy for dealing with stubborn doors.  Almost every weapon one finds can also be upgraded by finding or buying alternate ammo types or "weapon mods" that grant bonuses like added accuracy, bonus damage or a laser sight/scope for more precise aim, which can offset some of the penalties for having a lower skill rating or just let you carry a specific weapon of your choice throughout the whole game.

Adding further to this, one has a wide variety of Augmentations ("Augs") to use to further power up their character and adapt them to whatever playstyle they choose.  Each canister one finds can be applied to a specific part of the body (head, arms, legs, eyes, et cetera) but only one of two choices can be installed on any given location, so the player will often have to make a difficult choice.  The Head upgrade, for instance, can grant "Aggressive Defense" that causes enemy rockets to detonate in mid-air, making encounters with explosive-touting enemies rather hilariously one-sided, or a Spy Drone, which can allow the player to peer around corners and disable electronic devices without exposing themself to harm.  A stealth-oriented player will obviously want to go for the latter, but one versed in combat may wish to go for Aggressive Defense instead.  But regardless of your choices, these prove to be a lot of fun, making you from a relatively average joe at the start into a nearly unstoppable badass cyborg by the end, and are a large factor in the game's overall enjoyment (particularly the Leg upgrades, which let you run at incredible speed and leap over almost any obstacle you may encounter in the game).

Deus Ex's storyline is clearly its greatest respect, though, fully immersing the player in a dystopian future where grand, global conspiracies are very real.  Characters, plot points and scenarios one encounters are surprisingly plausible, and have only grown more relevant and striking as time has gone on.  Even the voice acting in the game is surprisingly good for the time; though there are not a lot of big-name actors in the game, the ones that are there, for the most part, do a surprisingly good job, taking their parts seriously and rarely coming across as hammy.  It also captures something few RPGs even today rarely do well; namely, giving you choices you actually need to put thought into for future events, without any clear-cut answer for which is 'right' or 'wrong.' For example, do you ask someone to act as a spy for you, putting himself at risk but potentially giving you an advantage in future scenarios, or do you have him flee with you, which arguably gives you less personal benefit but assures his safety?  Granted, I wished several of these choices had a bit more consequence, whether good or bad, but it doesn't change the fact that it was pretty awesome to see at the time. I'd also hoped future games would make choices like this feel more substantial rather than less; maybe even lead to totally new story branches or close off future opportunities in a big way.  But alas, very few have.

Being a fan favorite PC game, it is also little surprise that numerous fan patches, updates and conversions have been released over the years; some of which have even surfaced on digital storefronts like Steam.  From mods that allow third-party multiplayer servers to be used to ones that overhaul and rebalance some aspects of the default game (like underpowered weapons and underused skills) to graphical reskins to a bizarre total modification called "The Nameless Mod" that presents two entirely original stories using the engine, Deus Ex, like many well-regarded PC games, is as well known for its fan-generated content as for the core experience.

In short, it's not difficult to see why Deus Ex is so well-regarded among PC gamers and RPG players alike.  It was among the earliest games where one's choices actually had a tangible outcome on the narrative, with character reactions and dialog changing accordingly, and though there is ultimately really one story path to follow, the fact that one's choices are a constant factor in how events unfold never makes it feel like they're being railroaded.  The story is surprisingly credible at its core, with its religious parallels and conspiracy theories expertly woven together to create a vision of a grim but plausible dystopia, and even the protagonists have their morally ambiguous elements about them.  Pair that with a choice of three endings and a significant amount of replayability thanks to mods and multiple-choice design, and you have a defining classic.  There is a good reason that the game is still the focus of a well-known gamer meme: "Every time someone mentions Deus Ex, someone installs Deus Ex."  I know I will be again after penning this review.

Developer: Ion Storm
Publisher: Eidos Interactive
Platform: Windows, Mac OS, Playstation 2
Released: 2000, 2002
Recommended Version: The computer ports are easily the ones to pick for their moddability (Deus Ex: Revision in particular is fantastic) and a much-improved interface over the PS2 version.  However, the PS2 version is worth look for a few interesting exclusive elements - the characters are much more smoothly animated (utilizing motion capture to provide more expressiveness) and it contains exclusive FMVs for the intro and ending scenes.