Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Worth the wait"

In Brief:

An anticipated "true" sequel of a gaming masterpiece, Deus Ex: Human Revolution had all the potential to be a total wreck. Though there are bound to be valid criticisms of the game, notably technical visual limitations and AI issues, no one ought to think for a second that those are good excuses not to play this marvelous game. What it lacks in technics it more than makes up for in spirit - Human Revolution feels like a true successor of the original, and plays with an urgency far too few contemporaries could muster. Ripped from today's headlines, and yet without that usual shallow and innocuous treatment, it's ideas are gripping, it's story well told, and it's gameplay exciting. No, it's not perfect. But it is a legitimately great game, worthy of its accolades.

Not since Mass Effect 2 have players been privy to such a gripping world. Freedom of choice abounds, as well as the philosophical ramifications and justifications for it's use and context. This is a game of ideas, and of exploring them in their fullness.

Of course, in praxis (yes, praxis points do indicate the linguistical link between thought and action) what you spend most of your time doing is shooting, sneaking and exploring, and hacking, with the occasional dialog interlude and boss fight. Though none of these elements are superior to gameplay elsewhere, all of them are exciting and compelling, despite questionable AI. You likely won't mind, however, because the environments themselves are laid out so smartly and complexly that you'll simply enjoy the uncovering of the spaces themselves, and find true interaction with each simple discovery. At heart, Human Revolution FEELS like an exploration game - I mean in the way that Super Metroid did, and yes I realize the weight of that. It's because of that feeling that all of the individual actions are experienced as subsumed into the core experience of pure discovery - of choice and the unfolding ramifications, and the look thereby into the unknown.

Clearly there is room for improvement: DirectX 11 causes it to crash on PCs, the Boss fights are highly questionable (they do not, as one AAA reviewer argued, show that sometimes you have no choice to kill or not kill, rather, they're just bad game design), character animations are stiff and textures limited, AI is too MGS-like "gamey", the praxis tree is not as deep as it seems and praxis point meter is contraining... I could go on. These are valid complaints they hold Human Revolution from achieving true greatness. Yet in spite of all of these, the experence of play remains sublime. The art style overcomes all technical limitations, and the openness of play outshines the shortcomings in gameplay.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is not only a worthy successor - it's a great game in its own right. Though not perfect, it heralds what we can only hope is a new revival of one of the best gaming franchises - and indicator for what is to come. That seems an appropriate phrase, not only for the game itself, but equally for the game's discussion of human evolution itself.