Deus Ex: Human Revolution Reviews and Interviews

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Written by WorstUsernameEver on August 22nd, 2011

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The systems that underpin everything are all great. Dialogue and interrogation are like boxing, full of ducks and weaves and - if you buy the right augment - vital signs and physiological tells upon which you win or lose exchanges. Stealth is based on line of sight and the cover system is perfect, allowing you to hide and move with confidence in every situation. Direct combat is brutal and difficult, but once you think beyond the assault rifle and start mixing it up with various kinds of explosives and projectiles, you can really master your environment.

Hacking is my favourite, though. There are computers, door panels and security systems all over the world to break into using a mini-game where you have to take over nodes one by one without being noticed. If you are, then it's a race against time, or you can pull out and try again using viruses and augmentations to try to remain undetected. Most hacks yield bonus cash and tools if you probe the right regions, too. It's always about risk versus reward rather than just puzzle-solving.

And that's just on the hacking screen. Outside the system, in the real world, you are exposed to any patrolling guard, robot or panning camera while you hack, so the sense of pressure can be doubly acute, and once you're in you can often disable systems or turn them against their owners. One of my favourite things to do in really dense facilities is to find the security control booth and use it as a panic room - if I'm detected then I race back there, mine the doorway, build a wall of boxes and turn the robots against their masters. Once everyone's dead and the alarms die down, the game rewards me for rescuing the situation rather than giving up and reloading.

Bennett: What augmentations did you use?

Dan: Well, to make things interesting I decided to avoid the standard "cloak/silent running" stealth build and go for something a little more exploration oriented. With the exception of hacking which seems to be a necessity irrespective of your approach all my character's augmentations were selected with the aim of navigating and manipulating the environment to avoid confrontation. Although I've not tried to play as a gunner or anything else (yet!), I feel pretty confident in saying this is the best way to play Human Revolution. As we just established, the game's real strength is in its level design, and in playing an exploration build you're given the opportunity to appreciate it to the fullest extent possible.

"...the scope for exploration in Human Revolution is not quite so great as it was in Deus Ex." That said, it seems to me that the scope for exploration in Human Revolution is not quite so great as it was in Deus Ex. This is partly because the relevant augmentations have been toned down in this iteration and partly because the player now has fewer tools at their disposal. Lockpicks and multitools are gone, and the number of interactive objects in the environment has been drastically reduced. This was undoubtedly done in the name of tighter focus, and I can respect that, but I suspect old-school fans will feel constrained all the same.

Like Deus Ex, Human Revolution is still a linear series of levels. But also like Deus Ex, the levels themselves feel like places. When there's a facility to infiltrate, it feels like a real building, with multiple floors and wings to explore in whatever order you like.

There are two differences, one positive and one negative. The positive one is the city hubs: both games have large, open urban areas you return to after several missions. Human Revolution's are bigger, more complex and far, far richer with things to do and secrets to find.

The negative one is more subtle. Quite a few missions in Deus Ex, including the famous first level on Liberty Island, let you explore the grounds of the mission location before entering the main building. Only a couple allow this in Human Revolution, so it doesn't always have that same dizzying level of freedom the original did.

There are two other areas where Human Revolution doesn't entirely pull off what the original achieved. Firstly, the direct approach is a little too effective. While there are bots and turrets to hack, gas barrels to blow open, and photocopiers to throw at people, subversion and improvisation are rarely the best way out of a situation. Shooting someone in the head with a silenced pistol is more consistently viable here, and that can undermine the pleasure of coming up with a brilliantly convoluted solution.

The last problem only comes up four times in the whole game, but it's an odd one. There are boss fights. They are terrible. And they cannot be avoided. The game is so conflicted about this that there's even a Steam achievement for completing it without killing anyone, which apologetically adds that boss fights don't count.

Compared to Deus Ex 1 (and most games, really), the writing is better, the voice acting is superior (though Jensen sounds like he just drank a coral reef smoothie), the notably multi-ethnic cast is far more interesting, and the future is a lot more realistic. Judging by the intro, conspirators are especially reliant on holographic Google Hangouts.

Indeed, Eidos Montréal has gotten a suspicious number of things right in its first game. The art exhibits cleanliness without feeling sterile, the warmly lit, awe-inspiring architecture neatly precludes the obligatory Blade Runner comparisons (for the most part), and the synthesized soundtrack is understated but absolutely essential. In the category of amateurish blunders, however: mediocre, grenade-spamming boss fights that don't do much to reward ingenuity on your part, some sparse checkpointing (save often if you're playing stealthily!) and some serious loading times.

Those issues sting less in a game that doesn't coddle you. Eidos Montréal allows you to play freely within its intelligently layered systems, rather than dragging you by the nose through cinematic event after cinematic event. This is the difference between a game that is well made and one that is well designed.

Deus Ex is a long and largely nonlinear game, but it somehow wraps a neat little bow around the story no matter how you choose to play. It isn't here to judge your completely arbitrary/borderline psychotic take on morality and justice; it just wants you to do your own thing.

There are big choices - moments when conversation leads you towards an obvious branching path. In those moments you'll weigh up the options as if they really do count because those decisions will go on to define your next 30 hours of Alone Time.

There are smaller choices to face, too - every room you enter makes you select between craftily hiding and sneaking or just good old running and gunning.

Stealth is encouraged by enemies who'll shoot through Jensen's wafer-thin armour in seconds and the game is better if you like to hide, but Jensen has the tools to fight his way out of any situation so long as you've Augmented him for it.

In a firefight it's as good a shooter as any recent Rainbow Six (from where Eidos Montreal robbed Director JF Dugas and its third-person cover system), with punchy weapons and aggressive AI. The moment you're spotted the AI goes to work with a vengeance, a handful of soldiers suppressing Jensen and one or two flanking around to flush him out. It's the same response over and over but it feels smart and always feels life-threatening.

Playing through Human Revolution, it was hard to find anything truly wrong with it. In terms of technical polish, it was one of the most polished release-builds I'd seen in a while, with few-to-none glaring technical hiccups. The only time where I felt genuine disappointment was in the last area of the game. I won't go into specifics, but unless you've been one of those people who've been trying to blast their way through the game, this last section can be very jarring. Almost uncomfortable. Still, the actual 'ending' ending, apart from a rather strange boss fight, does really hit home what the game is all about. Personally, I felt the ending could have been a bit better and more conclusive in some respects, but the game does set things up so that the choice you have to make at the end really makes you stop and think.

Coming from a background of having not played the original Deus Ex (so sue me), I can't comment from a fans perspective. Being a prequel, there are hints and subtle nods as to what's to come in the first game although if I was a long-term fan, I'd probably want more but this seems a fairly self-contained experience. Make no mistake though, franchise fan or not, this is a good game challenging, addictive, immersive... provided you like stealth-based action there hasn't been an action/RPG this good in a long while.

Complementing the solid combat, intuitive stealth mechanics, and engaging character-leveling is Human Revolution'˜s fully-realized universe. Beautifully bathed in perpetual moonlight and neon outside, and fluorescents lights inside, the title's Blade Runner-meets-cyber-renaissance world is rich with detail and atmosphere. But ogling it is only half the fun. While not technically an open-world game, its city hubs are expansive, encouraging exploration both indoors and out. When you walk into New Detroit's police station, for example, it actually feels like a bustling work environment, filled with people to converse with, offices to break into, and air ducts to creep through. Some of my most satisfying moments actually saw me sneaking around such environments, entering offices through creative problem-solving, then hacking into computers to read emails of folks who could be chatting with coworkers right outside their office's breached doors.

It doesn't hurt that Human Revolution'˜s hacking mechanic, one I admittedly didn't get the first few times I tried it, is probably the smartest I've ever played. Rather than matching lame symbols or crossing colored wires, you're racing against time--not only can you be traced and kicked out of the system, but a passerby could catch you in the act at any moment--all while balancing risks and rewards. Conversational combat, NPC encounters you can (win) or (lose) depending on the questions you ask, are similarly absorbing. Completing them successfully can net you integral intel you'd otherwise not find at all or would have to acquire by more time-consuming means. I actually would have preferred more of these encounters over the game's traditional boss battles. Sure, taking the life of a big bad is satisfying, especially behind Jensen's lethal limbs, but it also feels too videogame-y in a title that so often breaks conventions. In Human Revolution'˜s world, winning a war of words is actually more rewarding than siphoning some level-capping thug of all his hit points.

In effect, what this means is going to various parts of the world and sneaking past/stunning/killing lots of people in large buildings, between chatting with locals in the streets. The towns are amazing. Huge locations, without feeling like unwieldy (open city) zombie towns, packed with shops, alleys, sewers and clubs, peopled by individuals with unique attitudes and voices. Although it can sometimes feel like there's not much to do. You're generally looking for someone who's mentioned in a current quest, whether the main, or something on the side. Talk elsewhere and you can hit upon glass walls. And once off the street, the chances are you're going to be in an elaborate office complex with an atrium centre, huge laboratories, and private offices upstairs. Which is a great place to be the first. three times? It's certainly a fair argument that some locations get repetitive.

Let's stress the .reat places to be' part. They really are. This is a game that gets stealth so very, very right that you start to get angry about games you previously thought were fine. Cover drops you seamlessly into third-person, somehow without this ever feeling weird, and neatly hugs the world's features. Features that don't, by nature of the environments, feel like they were put there purely in case some invading combatants were in need of cover. Office equipment, doorways, street furniture and supply deliveries all feel like they should be there, which in turn means you get to feel like you're manipulating the world to your advantage, rather than the other way around.

And locations genuinely do have multiple routes through them. It's often hard to appreciate quite how much choice you had until you accidentally stumble on something later. For instance, if you find your way into a building by avoiding bribing the person at the entrance, and instead climbing carefully stacked crates and bins to reach an open duct, then crawl your way in through the tunnels to a cleaning supplies closet, you might later on take a wrong turning and find yourself on the roof. A roof you'll realise has a ladder leading to a gap where you could jump to a nearby residential building, which you could have hacked your way into and climbed within.

"Cyberpunk or transhumanism is where we upgrade that system, so in order to upgrade that system, first you need to understand how it works," he said. "So, it's almost as if the Renaissance was like the first stepping stone towards, you know, a cyberpunk or transhumanist era."

Now Jacques-Bellêtete turns his eye on the industry and explains to Gamasutra how things are and, in his opinion, how they should be. "I think true art direction is misunderstood in our industry still. I think we still see it as... 'Just make it look very, very shiny; shinier than the next game.' But that's not art direction," says Jacques-Bellêtete.

He's happy with what he's accomplished but can still see that there is further to go. "It's not up to me to say if we succeeded at that, but, as a theory, I see this being stronger. If you have the same tech -- all the bells and whistles -- but you really have a real art direction, then you have a winner," he says.

Between the gold and the black -- a pretty bold statement-- and the Cyber-Renaissance aesthetic, there are two things there that really stand out.

Jonathan Jacques-Bellêtete: Yeah. That was the goal: to get our own thing going.

A trademark look?

JJ: A trademark look and, you know, get the analogies going, get the metaphors going. That kind of stuff. Art in games should not just be about being pretty; it should be about communicating, as well. I don't think we do enough of that.

Eurogamer: It must feel odd to know you worked on a game many consider to be the greatest of all time.

Sheldon J. Pacotti: It's nice to see that sometimes, and also a little surprising in a way. Most normal people have forgotten then game. I actually teach an interactive writing class at the University of Texas. A lot of the students, they were 12 years old when the game came out. The ones who've played it are like, oh year, I think I played that. My dad shouldn't have let me play it. It was kind of a weird game. I get these comments, they're just very oblique in terms of what they actually know about the game.

But you could feel the energy there. People were bringing different things to the game. One guy was a weapon specialist. The weapons were very well researched and thought out. Other people had other integrations. Pieces just came together really well, with some luck and some vision from Warren and Harvey [Smith] and some of the guys who were there early on.

(...)

Eurogamer: Will you be playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution?

Sheldon J. Pacotti: I plan to have this project done very soon so I can do that. I think they've done a pretty good job. I've been in the loop a little bit. I helped frame some of it at the beginning and worked on the script. They've approached the franchise with a lot of care, a lot of respect. A lot more care and respect than we did on the second one!

We were ready to invent something new. They came to the franchise looking at what was good and really carefully looked at what worked and what didn't work. From what I saw early on at least they were thinking through the combat really well and the art style and the story. They've been very diligent in trying to craft something that's coherent and hangs together.

Eurogamer: So you give it your blessing?

Sheldon J. Pacotti: Yeah. I hope it does well.

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