Deus Ex: Human Revolution Released in 2011 with the Director's Cut following two years later. The game serves as a prequel to the original Deus Ex. Players assume the identity of Adam Jensen, a former SWAT commander now heading the security at Sarif Industries; a leading force in augmentation technology.
The game kicks off with an attack on Sarif Industries by a faction known as the Tyrants, who seemed to target scientists, and in particular Adam’s love interest Megan. Adam is critically injured in the attack, then you are treated to a stylish cinematic of Adam being reconstructed as an android. This augmentation was against Adam’s will but necessary for his survival so seems to quickly accept it and uses it to his advantage on his quest to uncover the objective for the attack.
The game does explore other ethics to do with cybernetics either directly in the story, side-quests or dialogue. Its cyberpunk world feels dystopian. Certain scenarios give you options on how to deal with them and it can pose some ethical conundrums whether to intervene in morally ambiguous scenarios.
The voice acting in the game is good, although Adam’s stoic manner makes him seem very bland. He reminds me of a Keanu Reeves character. Maybe he is that way to make all dialogue options believable because he can be agreeable, sarcastic or threatening with little emotion. The game’s graphical style has a low textured look; a very arcade feel. The original version had a golden tint, but the Director’s Cut has removed it, but still has a general golden sheen to the colours of walls, and lights. The character models can look a bit strange, maybe a bit stilted and their shoulders look weird but I couldn’t put my finger on what the actual issue was.
There’s the occasional framerate drop which usually seems to appear at the start of an area so isn’t too annoying. You can manually save or quick save, which is useful given how easy it is to make a mistake. Loading a save takes longer than I would like though.
It’s primarily designed as a stealth game, and there seems to be more experience given for a stealthy approach, but in typical stealth game fashion, you can just gun down enemies. You won’t last long without making use of cover though, although there are some combat perks and an attack which can make you a larger threat.
The gameplay generally features the usual stealth mechanics: line of sight and sound. Enemies have: suspicious, alert, and hostile states once detected. You often rely on radar, or your own line of sight. You need to take into account transparent areas like panes of glass in the walls or doors. Loud actions like running and sprinting draw attention, whereas crouching renders you nearly invisible and silent, allowing for swift, undetected movement.
The game is played in 1st person until you snap-lock to an obstacle for stealth. You can peek around cover, can roll between cover, or shuffle around corners whilst remaining snapped to cover. There’s usually a lot of walls, railings, stacks of crates etc in order to navigate past enemies. There can be alternate routes like crawling through ventilation shafts. Some paths can be hidden by crates or other large, movable objects.
Sometimes there are cameras that pan left to right. Some can be fairly easy to sneak past, whereas others aren’t so easy. Often it is the combination of cameras and an enemy patrol that causes the difficulty. You can sometimes remotely turn off the camera, shoot it, stun it, or just attempt to sneak past.
The enemies are mainly human, but occasionally you get robots which can be remotely deactivated with high level hacking abilities, or destroyed with explosives or EMP grenades/mines.
A very aggressive approach could make use of the more powerful weapons like shotguns, grenade launchers, laser rifles, and rocket launchers. Ammunition for large parts of the game seems quite limited, so not sure how easy it is to go pure combat. Fallen enemies will drop their weapon with some ammo, and you can find more in lockers/cupboards or on tables etc. You could keep rotating weapons as you find them. The lethal weapons will always be noisy so will instantly alert nearby guards.
A stealthy approach will rely on the stun gun or tranquilliser, or physical takedown move. Guards that discover downed enemies will trigger the alarm, and they can also revive them if you only stunned them (rather than killing). You can drag bodies away to attempt to hide them but you don’t have much control over their body which just ragdolls about.
The takedown can be performed in melee range regardless if the enemy is alert or not. There’s an ability to takedown 2 enemies at once but they must be close together. Takedowns trigger a cutscene which doesn’t always match the state, so approaching a seated enemy often shows them standing up, or an enemy that faces you will be shown facing away, and Adam will cheekily tap them on the shoulder before socking them. Zapping them with the stun gun only works at short range. The takedown can be even used against NPCs which is hilarious. Stealth takedowns drain energy as shown by the battery icons. Limiting stealth takedowns seems a bizarre choice if you want to encourage stealth, but I found that the energy would either regenerate or I would find one of the cyberboost energy bars to be able to regenerate it. You can permanently upgrade the recharge or capacity with Praxis Kits.
Adam acquires new abilities by using Praxis Kits which can be bought, found, or earned with each level-up. This gives some customisation of how you want to play, especially early on when some abilities open up new options. Whether it's hacking terminals, seeing through walls, increased running speed, or leaping great heights, the augmentations provide a sense of empowerment and customisation. Many objectives involve getting into a room, and it can be the case of hacking the door’s security, but there’s often a sneaky way in via a vent, or a hole in the roof. A gate may pose a similar challenge but might have the option of jumping from a building or stacking crates then jumping over. Most abilities are passive. However, the silent movement, invisibility is manually activated and drains your power quickly.
The hacking ability seems an important perk to get given the sheer amount of doors and terminals which often give you an obstacle to overcome. There are plenty of optional computers to hack which provide nothing more than some emails to read. Hacking can be a good source of experience though. The hacking minigame is a bit confusing when you are first shown it.
There’s a lot of loot in the game but Adam’s carrying capacity is fairly limited. You can upgrade his capacity by a few levels. Loot is found all over the environment, tables, lockers, enemies.
Boss fights are much criticised in the game. The reason is that you have to take them down with force but if you have been trained to play stealthy - this is testing a skill you haven’t developed. There’s usually enough ammunition in the area if you need to scavenge more resources. They also feel a bit out of place, especially when they can have a large amount of health which is far more excessive than all the other enemies.
Additionally, the Director's Cut integrates "The Missing Link" DLC into the main storyline which is positioned towards the climax. After the protagonist is discovered as a stowaway he is stripped of augmentations and armaments, and must navigate the environment in almost pure stealth and no hacking. When you get your equipment back, you are only given some Praxis Points, your weapons and limited ammunition. This chapter lasted a while and I was worried I had lost my excessive stockpile of ammo and the Praxis Points I bought. However, you get the rest back in a crate before you exit. I could see some people missing this though.
I think the city designs are incredibly easy to get lost in due to the confusing layouts with so many turns and different elevation. The initial city hub seemed a bit restrictive and confusing where to go. I ended up going through some dark alleys to get to the other side. Later, I realised you could enter the subway but you don't need to ride a train, just pass through. Even though the cities can look big, the main plot and sidequests often just use the same few buildings so you return to the same places multiple times. There's supposed to be shops to buy and sell weapons and ammo, but I managed to find one fairly late in the game and stumbled into it by accident.
The game was really fun, especially when you are aware of the different ways you can navigate to your objective. It rewards players that explore and pay attention to their surroundings. The city design and game length (around 25 hours) make it a bit tedious in places though.