Think edgy Six Million Dollar Man and you’ll get Adam
Jensen, the protagonist in Deus Ex:
Human Revolution. He’s fashionable,
dark, gravelly voiced, a little dangerous, very capable, part man part machine
and he’s got a cool beard. Deus Ex:
Human Revolution is sexy cyberpunk which is kind of a tautology because to be
cyberpunk it must be sexy. Cyberpunk is
the film noir set in the future- there is tragedy and intrigue, there are huge
forces one never quite sees, and only our dark and flawed hero can uncover
it. In cyberpunk the cities are light
and glass, flashing images, futuristic, and there is a dark underbelly where
the have-nots dwell. There are femme
fatales and double crosses, and nothing and no one is as they seem. Deus Ex: Human Revolution captures this type
of world perfectly in both story and design.
Corporations have created ways to augment human abilities with
mechanical prosthesis; these can make you stronger, smarter, heighten senses,
and make you more (or less) than you are.
This is the beginning of this process; the changes are cosmetic, and in
some cases, more insectoid than human.
The moral question in the game is, “Is this change benefiting humanity
or removing ourselves from it? Do these
changes further segregate us into haves and have-nots?”
The strengths of the game are the
story and the design. The world is
gritty and alive, and the costumes are completely fabulous, seriously. The style is a strange Victorian/ modern mix,
intricate, textured, and beautiful. As
someone who prefers less clothing, no one was more surprised than I that I
found myself goggling the clothes (Thank you Tim Gunn). Everything but characters’ faces are lovingly
and dangerously rendered, but the faces of most of the characters, barring the
main ones, look straight out of 1995, blocky and crushed all around bizarre.
I tried not to kill anyone (yes,
you can really play this way); it worked pretty well. The RPG elements of upgrading you
augmentations was varied and cool, and allowed you to approach the world the
way you wanted to, guns blazing or stealthy, or an expert at using the
environment. This is good because the
shooting aspect of the game is weak, clunky, and hard to maneuver, blind firing
is a joke, and your inventory is limited (but can be upgraded), so carrying a
variety of weapons and large amounts of ammo isn’t going to happen. Also, there are boss battles, the bane of my
existence, that you must use weapons to complete and you must kill those
tragically sexy fuckers. This has been a
complaint in many reviews, and mine, but it excites me because it says gamers
don’t want to be mass murderers in every game and that they can enjoy games not
centered on killing. D
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a world worth exploring. The story is engrossing, the settings compelling, and the design fantastic. The gameplay is passable and made better in that there is no one way to face a situation. It is a step towards the majesty that games could be complex and beautiful, something you want to talk about, and an experience that stays with you even after you put the controller down.
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