Video Game Review: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

"Deus Ex" is one of many games that I always see referenced with a strong level of reverence, but I've sadly never played it.  So, when Square Enix released its prequel last year, I was naturally intrigued.  How could I not pass up the chance to play a futuristic cyborg in a massive urban sprawl?

Basically, the game bears something in common with films like "Blade Runner" or "Ghost in the Shell," but it never comes off as a rip-off or a rehash.  It's a truly original piece of cyberpunk sci-fi, which introduced a plethora of interesting new ideas and environments and allows you, the player, to explore it all in great depth and detail.

Gameplay is fairly similar to "Metal Gear Solid 4," insomuch as you have the choice between stealth or combat.  The game (and many of its trophies) may push for the stealth approach, and it is certainly smooth, viable, and rewarding to sneak around your enemies, find secret passages, and hack your way into locked areas.  It's also pretty fun and rewarding to pick up a gun and start blasting away at things.  The levels are designed in a fashion that warrants both approaches.  As you progress, you gain experience points and are able to choose your cybernetic augmentations, which grant you some cool abilities (such as cloaking, smashing through walls, running silently, and more).  I found it thoroughly addicting to scour every level, searching through every room and hackable device to harvest experience points, as well as finding money, information, and ammo.  Cover-based stealth and combat is pretty smooth, with only a few quibbles:  there were times where I accidentally poked my head up when I didn't mean to.  Still, whether I was going in with all guns blazing or working to give the bad guys the slip, I had a blast with this game.

If there's any point of contention, it will be in the boss fights.  Even if you spend the whole game in stealth, the boss fights demand open confrontation, and it can be a royal pain if you're ill-equipped.  Personally, I found myself most agitated with the first boss, who you really can't fight up close or far away.  I can handle all the other ones, especially since the environments for those other bosses are designed with plenty of cover and obstacles; it's just that first one I hated.

What really makes it work will be its storytelling, which is phenomenal.  Its settings are very vivid; the highly-detailed cityscapes are immense, bleak, condensed, scuzzy, and all-around the perfect depiction of a future affected by excess industrialization.  Within this setting, the main character comes across as a really cool, smooth, introspective professional; you can guide his dialogue to make him either really cold, really sardonic, or really confrontational.  No matter what the guy says or does, I grew to admire his tough-guy stature and his soft but harsh voice.  As the character is sent around the world to track down kidnapped scientists, he unravels conspiracies and secrets that hint at much larger themes concerning technological advancement and its toll on the human race (if not the human body itself).  The story bears all the qualities, aspects, and themes that makes other cyberpunk stories so phenomenal.

The game is well-rendered:  the graphics are decent and great to look at, even if they're never totally photo-realistic.  All the levels (sans the boss fights) are well-designed and chock full of detail.  Art design overall is phenomenal:  every setting, object, costume, weapon, character, and thing in the game looks great, and it all finds a good balance between looking futuristic and looking utilitarian.  The game makes decent use of sound, and the voice-acting is good (although voices rarely match up with the lip movements).  The game has good writing, good-looking character animations, and some really great-looking cutscenes.  Lastly, the music is decent.

If you're like me and you enjoy playing games to play through a good story and experience something vividly unique, then "Deux Ex:  Human Revolution" should satisfy you.  I'm sure that existing "Deus Ex" fans and fans of stealth-based games will find it worthy of their time.  The only people I would not recommend it to would be those who just want straightforward, reckless action and don't give a darn about quality storytelling.  You know who you are.

5/5 (Entertainment:  Perfect | Story:  Very Good | Game:  Very Good)