So, I've had the new Deus Ex game for almost a week now, and although I haven't gotten particularly far (I'm still in Detroit! *facepalm*), I have still played enough of it to form my own opinion of the game.
~VISUALS~
This game looks pretty good overall. Of course, what else can you expect from Square Enix, right? For the most part, their games are visually stunning. However, there are a few things that fall short in this particular Square Enix title.
When I saw the commercials for this game, I was bouncing up and down with excitement. This game looked AMAZING. However, what I saw in the commercials wasn't necessarily what I got with the game. To me, the look of Deus Ex in the commercials was reminiscent of games like "The Darkness" or "Batman: Arkham Asylum." In fact, I expected this game to look a lot like "Arkham Asylum," since Square and Eidos were in charge of this title. However, that wasn't exactly what I got.
The graphics of the game are good, don't get me wrong, but the character models bother me a bit. Mostly, it's because most of the characters look like they're made of plastic or rubber, especially in movie clips. There is too much shine and "rubberiness" to every character's skin, and at times I get distracted from the game because of this odd look. Strangely enough, the characters that look the most "normal" are the augmented humans, whose metallic limbs look more realistic than their flesh counterparts. I don't know why all the humans have this too-clean, rubber look, and I think the character models would have looked superb if not for this fact.
Lip movement was also off most of the time during the game. I was stunned to find most speaking animations were simply a mouth moving up and down, open and shut, and most of the time the lip movements didn't even match the dialouge. It doesn't really look like they even made an attempt to make the mouths match the dialouge, which is a shame, because lip movements looked great and matched up well during movie clips.
Another thing that bothered me was the considerable difference is contrast levels between the gameplay look and the look of the movie clips. Brightness levels during gameplay are good, but when a movie clip pops up, everything suddenly gets very, very dark. The colors also seem to deepen considerably between the gameplay look and the movie clip look. This is disorienting, especially when a movie clip suddenly cuts back into gameplay. It looks as if someone is suddenly turning up the brightness, or flashing you in the face with a fluorescent light. This inconsistency in composition only adds to further distract the player from the game, and I really have to wonder why Square thought this would look okay.
Lastly, while the rest of the game looks fantastic, with sweeping cityscapes that perfectly capture that "Blade Runner-esque" vibe, I have to say, the sky looks terrible. You want to watch the chopper take off into the clouds and disappear from view majestically? Yeah, keep dreaming. The sky is just a basic black with some sort of fog effect lazily slapped on, marring what would otherwise be a perfect environment. Maybe it's nit-picky, but when I'm playing a game like this, I want to be able to look up and see a real SKY, not just a black background.
All those things aside, this game looks great. The cities look HUGE and very detailed, the atmosphere is great, and the Augs look awesome. This game perfectly captures that seedy, futuristic metropolis look of "Blade Runner," although it substitutes the green tones for yellow-ish tones. Overall, the look is about an 8 out of 10.
~SOUND~
Not much to say here. The voice acting is spot on and the music works well to set the mood. Nothing seems to be missing, or seems to be wrong, with the sound in this game. The only complaint I would have is that Adam Jensen sounds like he's trying to imitate Christian Bale's version of Batman, and his personality is about as dynamic as a dead fish.
All-in-all, I'd say the sound is about a 9 out of 10.
~STORY~
As far as I've played, I am certainly intrigued by the story. It seems written well enough, and all the little tidbits you pick up during missions, or the dialouge you hear behind closed doors, are wonderful. This game has a depth to it, with everything in the world contributing the overall story and pulling you in.
The problem is, I've heard most people say the pay-off in this game isn't very good. Apparently, the game never reaches that tense, climactic moment. Instead, it plays it safe and doesn't take enough chances to bring the player to an intense, emotional point. I haven't played enough of the game to determine if this is accurate or not, but everyone I've talked to seems to agree, and therefore, I am dreading this lapse in storytelling in what would otherwise be a great story.
But for now, at the point I've gotten to in the game, I would give the story a 6.5 out of 10. It's okay, but I don't feel like I'm being pulled into the story's intrigue as much as I should be. Whether it's a lack of overall tension, or the fact that the main protagonist has the emotional capacity of a wet noodle, I'm not sure.
~GAMEPLAY~
This game is a fairly good mixture of an FPS and an RPG. However, it seems to lean more towards being an FPS game, and so I will treat it as one.
First of all, there is no melee in the game. And no, stealth killing doesn't count as melee. Why can't Adam use his blade augment as a weapon? Why can't he at least smack enemies with the butt of his rifle? Certain situations, like cramped corridors, seem like perfect opportunities to use a melee weapon, but apparently Adam is only capable of shooting a gun. If Adam has this sword he can whip out of his arm the way Wolverine unleashes his adamantium claws, why can't he use it in combat? It definitely would've made taking down the first boss a lot easier, and would've made up-close combat much better.
Secondly, the AI is retarded. The only reason I beat the first boss was because he seemed to think he could throw a frag grenade at me through a wall, and, of course the grenade merely bounced back at him and blew him up. Idiot... AI will charge at you without seeking cover, making them prime for picking off with a pistol. And most of the time, if you're hiding very poorly behind a box or similar cover, enemies will walk past as if you're not even there, even if you're in plain sight. Not to mention, enemies don't seem to have any unique strategies. All they do it move forward and fire wildly. Sometimes, if you're confronted with a large group of enemies, this means you will probably be killed quickly. However, when only faced with a few enemies like this, they are easily dispatched.
Thirdly, Adam Jensen is very, VERY weak. I spent most of my time augmenting his skills to focus on stealth, hacking, and persuasion. When it came time for me to fight the first boss, I very quickly realized that I was in trouble. Against a tank with an endless supply of frag grenades and a machine gun for an arm, who could pick me up and throttle me into the ground if he got close enough, I was about as strong as a toothpick. After about an hour of screaming at the TV, I finally figured out how to turn the idiotic AI against itself, and finally succeeded in making the boss kill himself with his own stupidity. It wasn't a satisfying victory, though. I should have been able to take on this boss in a fair fight, using strategy to defeat him. But no, I was such a weakling I had to hide behind a wall and wait for him to kill himself. How pathetic.
Lastly... punching someone drains my battery? WHAT!? Nuff said.
Despite the games shortcomings, however, the payoff for exploration more than makes up for these low points, and the cover system is designed very well. Playing through the world is a blast, finding hidden troves of ammo and items is satisfying, and it really is fun to hunker down behind a wall and take out a far-off target with a tranquilizer rifle. In the end, the gameplay is very good, and is a lot of fun. So, my verdict on gameplay.... how about an 8 out of 10?
~FINAL VERDICT~
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a fun game. It has its ups and downs, but it definitely is a good addition to the series. If the problems in this game can be fixed in future Deus Ex games, I think this might be the perfect re-boot to a beloved franchise.
The final score: 7.9 out of 10
~ Oliv ~
~VISUALS~
This game looks pretty good overall. Of course, what else can you expect from Square Enix, right? For the most part, their games are visually stunning. However, there are a few things that fall short in this particular Square Enix title.
When I saw the commercials for this game, I was bouncing up and down with excitement. This game looked AMAZING. However, what I saw in the commercials wasn't necessarily what I got with the game. To me, the look of Deus Ex in the commercials was reminiscent of games like "The Darkness" or "Batman: Arkham Asylum." In fact, I expected this game to look a lot like "Arkham Asylum," since Square and Eidos were in charge of this title. However, that wasn't exactly what I got.
The graphics of the game are good, don't get me wrong, but the character models bother me a bit. Mostly, it's because most of the characters look like they're made of plastic or rubber, especially in movie clips. There is too much shine and "rubberiness" to every character's skin, and at times I get distracted from the game because of this odd look. Strangely enough, the characters that look the most "normal" are the augmented humans, whose metallic limbs look more realistic than their flesh counterparts. I don't know why all the humans have this too-clean, rubber look, and I think the character models would have looked superb if not for this fact.
Lip movement was also off most of the time during the game. I was stunned to find most speaking animations were simply a mouth moving up and down, open and shut, and most of the time the lip movements didn't even match the dialouge. It doesn't really look like they even made an attempt to make the mouths match the dialouge, which is a shame, because lip movements looked great and matched up well during movie clips.
Another thing that bothered me was the considerable difference is contrast levels between the gameplay look and the look of the movie clips. Brightness levels during gameplay are good, but when a movie clip pops up, everything suddenly gets very, very dark. The colors also seem to deepen considerably between the gameplay look and the movie clip look. This is disorienting, especially when a movie clip suddenly cuts back into gameplay. It looks as if someone is suddenly turning up the brightness, or flashing you in the face with a fluorescent light. This inconsistency in composition only adds to further distract the player from the game, and I really have to wonder why Square thought this would look okay.
Lastly, while the rest of the game looks fantastic, with sweeping cityscapes that perfectly capture that "Blade Runner-esque" vibe, I have to say, the sky looks terrible. You want to watch the chopper take off into the clouds and disappear from view majestically? Yeah, keep dreaming. The sky is just a basic black with some sort of fog effect lazily slapped on, marring what would otherwise be a perfect environment. Maybe it's nit-picky, but when I'm playing a game like this, I want to be able to look up and see a real SKY, not just a black background.
All those things aside, this game looks great. The cities look HUGE and very detailed, the atmosphere is great, and the Augs look awesome. This game perfectly captures that seedy, futuristic metropolis look of "Blade Runner," although it substitutes the green tones for yellow-ish tones. Overall, the look is about an 8 out of 10.
~SOUND~
Not much to say here. The voice acting is spot on and the music works well to set the mood. Nothing seems to be missing, or seems to be wrong, with the sound in this game. The only complaint I would have is that Adam Jensen sounds like he's trying to imitate Christian Bale's version of Batman, and his personality is about as dynamic as a dead fish.
All-in-all, I'd say the sound is about a 9 out of 10.
~STORY~
As far as I've played, I am certainly intrigued by the story. It seems written well enough, and all the little tidbits you pick up during missions, or the dialouge you hear behind closed doors, are wonderful. This game has a depth to it, with everything in the world contributing the overall story and pulling you in.
The problem is, I've heard most people say the pay-off in this game isn't very good. Apparently, the game never reaches that tense, climactic moment. Instead, it plays it safe and doesn't take enough chances to bring the player to an intense, emotional point. I haven't played enough of the game to determine if this is accurate or not, but everyone I've talked to seems to agree, and therefore, I am dreading this lapse in storytelling in what would otherwise be a great story.
But for now, at the point I've gotten to in the game, I would give the story a 6.5 out of 10. It's okay, but I don't feel like I'm being pulled into the story's intrigue as much as I should be. Whether it's a lack of overall tension, or the fact that the main protagonist has the emotional capacity of a wet noodle, I'm not sure.
~GAMEPLAY~
This game is a fairly good mixture of an FPS and an RPG. However, it seems to lean more towards being an FPS game, and so I will treat it as one.
First of all, there is no melee in the game. And no, stealth killing doesn't count as melee. Why can't Adam use his blade augment as a weapon? Why can't he at least smack enemies with the butt of his rifle? Certain situations, like cramped corridors, seem like perfect opportunities to use a melee weapon, but apparently Adam is only capable of shooting a gun. If Adam has this sword he can whip out of his arm the way Wolverine unleashes his adamantium claws, why can't he use it in combat? It definitely would've made taking down the first boss a lot easier, and would've made up-close combat much better.
Secondly, the AI is retarded. The only reason I beat the first boss was because he seemed to think he could throw a frag grenade at me through a wall, and, of course the grenade merely bounced back at him and blew him up. Idiot... AI will charge at you without seeking cover, making them prime for picking off with a pistol. And most of the time, if you're hiding very poorly behind a box or similar cover, enemies will walk past as if you're not even there, even if you're in plain sight. Not to mention, enemies don't seem to have any unique strategies. All they do it move forward and fire wildly. Sometimes, if you're confronted with a large group of enemies, this means you will probably be killed quickly. However, when only faced with a few enemies like this, they are easily dispatched.
Thirdly, Adam Jensen is very, VERY weak. I spent most of my time augmenting his skills to focus on stealth, hacking, and persuasion. When it came time for me to fight the first boss, I very quickly realized that I was in trouble. Against a tank with an endless supply of frag grenades and a machine gun for an arm, who could pick me up and throttle me into the ground if he got close enough, I was about as strong as a toothpick. After about an hour of screaming at the TV, I finally figured out how to turn the idiotic AI against itself, and finally succeeded in making the boss kill himself with his own stupidity. It wasn't a satisfying victory, though. I should have been able to take on this boss in a fair fight, using strategy to defeat him. But no, I was such a weakling I had to hide behind a wall and wait for him to kill himself. How pathetic.
Lastly... punching someone drains my battery? WHAT!? Nuff said.
Despite the games shortcomings, however, the payoff for exploration more than makes up for these low points, and the cover system is designed very well. Playing through the world is a blast, finding hidden troves of ammo and items is satisfying, and it really is fun to hunker down behind a wall and take out a far-off target with a tranquilizer rifle. In the end, the gameplay is very good, and is a lot of fun. So, my verdict on gameplay.... how about an 8 out of 10?
~FINAL VERDICT~
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a fun game. It has its ups and downs, but it definitely is a good addition to the series. If the problems in this game can be fixed in future Deus Ex games, I think this might be the perfect re-boot to a beloved franchise.
The final score: 7.9 out of 10
~ Oliv ~
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