It's been quite some time since I've struggled to put a game down, shut it down, and lay my head down on my pillow in order to get some decent sleep so I can function at work the next day. Deus Ex, like the stealth style I am failing miserably at playing the game through with, came out of nowhere and shattered the summer slump for me. I can't remember the last game that sucked me in like this. This is a game that I wasn't planning on purchasing and sort of pre-ordered on a whim, a little reward to myself for the crazy audit that we had at work that just ended this month.
The original definitely brought some great ideas to video games in general, allowing you to shoot your way through levels, sneak around undetected, hack through different areas, and so on. Back at the time, this was a novel idea and it might sound a little old now. Human Revolution expands on this idea and though the levels are still linear, it gives you a variety of methods to travel through the levels, similar to Crysis 2 if no one is familiar with the other Deus Ex games.
The music is great and makes me want to go watch Blade Runner. The gold and black art style is ambient, artistic, and original. What the game lacks in the latest and greatest facial and body animations it more than makes up for in voice acting, art style, atmosphere, and world detail. The story quickly draws you in with questions and plot lines. You will find it very hard not to want every augmentation as they all sound incredible to have on Adam Jensen (who sounds like he smokes 5 packs a day, which doesn't come off as cheesy in this game, but really BA actually). I now can see enemies fields of vision, have an extra energy cell for takedowns, and can cloak myself. I want to upgrade my hacking and social interactions but don't think I'll have enough upgrade points...
I passed up Batman: Arkham Asylum only to play it later and realize what an awesome game I had missed. This game is along those lines but an even greater game that you don't want to miss. If you play shooters at all, you must play this game.
Before I carry on too long and turn this into a full review, I strongly suggest everyone play this game. Please do not comment below since I am not talking about a AAA title... thank you.
QUICK UPDATE: Made it to the first boss fight last night. A little brutal, since I focused on stealth upgrades. Made it through, because after a couple tries, the boss stopped chasing me and stood in the middle of the room and just shot at me. Not sure if this was a glitch or built into the game to compensate for failing to kill him several times. Either way, I took him down pretty easily from cover when he just stood there. It didn't ruin the game and allowed me to carry on with the story... but it would have been nice to see all the choices you're givencarry over into the boss fight as well. Not a dealbreaker but wanted to mention this since this was a big negative I saw in other reviews.
My brother is in town so hopefully I'll beat the game next week. :D
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I guarantee it isn't as good as Modern Warfare 3. CoD is way more betterer!!
ReplyDeleteI knew next to nothing about this, but your impressions made me go check out a video review of it. It does look pretty cool in the flexibility it allows you. And it looks like it's got the "Rainbow Six" style cover, where you've got a FP view, but can still get into cover and have a third person perspective, which always seems to be a plus.
ReplyDeleteThe problem for me is just that don't like jumping into a sequel without having played the original first, simply because I hate missing out on jokes/notes/references to previous games. More importantly, storylines are usually connected. Maybe it's not even related to the first game, but doing things "out of order" is always a tough hurdle for me to jump over.
It's a prequal to the first game. This was purposefully chosen so that gamers, like you, wouldn't feel needlessly lost or out of the loop so you would be fine.
ReplyDeleteThis game is on my Christmas list and so far, from what you've written and the reviews, it seems to be right up my alley!
Come on December 25th!
Pwned!
ReplyDeleteGreat point about it being, technically, the 3rd Deus Ex! Dangit, I forgot to touch on that... yeah, it's a prequel and so far, it's really it's own game and is dealing with the whole augmentation thing. There is this big culture war between people who think we should remain pure humans and those who are all for augmentation, pretty much the whole gay marriage thing going on in the U.S. right now. It might be helpful to have played the first game but it isn't a requirement at all.
ReplyDeleteAnd the cover system is awesome, it's simple, one button, and not clumsy at all... I apologize if I'm suddenly a Deus Ex fanboy but I haven't been this excited for a game in quite some time. I've heard some negative feedback about boss fights forcing you to run and gun (and I'm attempting to go stealth - and failing miserably I might add) so we'll see. I'm 7 hours in and haven't faced a boss yet because I feel I've barely scratched the surface. Another positive... I haven't completed the game in 5 hours. :D
I'm not interested in playing a game that's going to require me to put some time into it.
ReplyDeleteHow the hell am I gonna turn around and trade it on goozex if it's over 10 hours long?
I like short, 5 hour games, otherwise I never finish them.
ReplyDeleteThen definitely get MW3... did you ever play Homefront? That was short too, under 5 hours... but don't play any Zelda games... and especially not any of the Uncharted's or Assassin's Creed... those go beyond 5 hours. And NEVER play HL2. As amazing as that is, the SP is much longer than 5 hours, especially on the harder difficulty setting.
ReplyDeleteThat boss fight does sound weird. I'm also not a fan of games that give you a choice to play how you want and reward you for doing that and then crush you later. True it's a boss fight, but boss fights are a thing of the past anymore....right?
ReplyDeleteOr at least a dated game mechanic of Japanese design. Let me know if you see that same boss later with a different colored skin.
ReplyDeleteRecycled bosses are always fun!