His Review with Ian

Ladies and Gentleman, I am a hacker, a sneaky little sci-fi hacker and Deus Ex: Human Revolution (DEHR) has made me this way.
DEHR is a beautiful action RPG game with a timeless black and gold colour palette; it’s chock full of conspiracy theories, which revolve around the choices you make, who you speak to, how you speak to them and the consequences that happen as a result of your actions. It’s this power to carve your own way through the game which makes it so magnificent and unique and it is also demonstrates the finest example of narrative design I’ve ever come across.

Set in 2027, the world is alive with neuroprosthetics and body augmentations but is riddled with social chaos. You play as Adam Jensen, part man part machine, who has been reconstructed after an attack on the company he was meant to protect. With confidential company data being stolen it is your quest to pursue leads, contacts and questionable ethical decisions around the world and expose those responsible for the attack whilst trying to work out who to trust because there are shady people who want to lead mankind down a very particular path.

The immersive near future world that is created and that you get completely sucked into, through the constituent parts of soundtrack, artwork, game mechanics etc. is woven together with a skilfully created narrative which can be navigated in multiple ways (combat, stealth or hacking or a mixture of all three), depending on the type of player you are.

Depending on your route through the game should determine which augmentations (upgrades) you purchase and enhance. Augs are divided into two categories: passive and active. Passive ones, like the noise detector are always-on, whilst active ones drain power reserves. Again the choices on which Aug trees you choose to focus on is crucial because you will never completely upgrade as there’s not enough praxis kits to do so.

Tracey and I, independently, chose wildly different approaches to the game. Tracey was a complete and utter murderess with an arsenal and kit bag beyond compare whilst I was a thief in the night who slipped between the cracks in the walls and office vents with just a stun gun and a couple of jars of battery replenisher in my tiny inventory. One moment in particular where the game flexed its narrative muscles and demonstrated how genuinely reactive the world of DEHR saw Tracey storm into a building killing anything that moved, including a character that in my game I blackmailed. We both gained access to the building in our own inimitable style; however, 15 hours later, I’m coming out of my flat and who’s waiting at the bottom of the lift toting a gun at me, that same character, spitting feathers about how I treated them. As Tracey killed them stone dead, she never experience this in her own game, yet they came after me, so I did the decent thing and knocked them out (you can progress through the entire game without killing anyone except a couple of the big bosses), but you ought to have seen her face when the character appeared again in my game.

The voice acting from the characters is the best I’ve come across in a game, outshining LA Noire; it has buckets of authenticity, inflective lilts and emotive quivers and adds a rich texture to the game. The soundtrack also fits like a crisp electro static glove, but it’s not foregrounded and doesn’t dominate proceedings, it feels right and sci-fi proper whilst intertwining and reacting with the photography, artwork and environments so well. Because Tracey, with her multiple killing rampages, was setting off alarms wherever she wandered, I experienced some decidedly atmospheric audio cues and sound design by the very talented pair of Michael McCann (composer) and Steve Szczepkowski (audio director).

The artwork is wonderful; cut scenes are cinematic in their ambition which adds value and depth to the story arc and Jensen’s shatterproof stained glass black and gold face is iconic and captures his attitude, character and approach to the world he inhabits perfectly. However, the load screens are very slow and frustrated me as they broke up the tension and dynamic flow which has been so successfully created throughout the rest of the game. My only other irky bit was the movement of some NPCs who were a bit wobbly wooden on their feet, like thunderbirds, but as far faults go, that’s it.

Enemies are intelligent and this adds a certain amount of nervousness and tension when in combat or trying to avoid combat. They will come after you if they become alarmed, hear footsteps, if you drop something or jump too loudly. They will hunt in packs and call for back up until you or they are no longer active. So it’s great news that the cover system is accurate, works and will not fail you. Vents become a very good friend as either local body stores or a place to sit out alarm calls.

Even the hacking mini games are beautifully designed multi-directional diagrams where you have to capture nodes to access computers, emails and gain control of robots and turrets.
Being a hacker allows you access to every building, sewer and iota of the story which has been crammed into this wonderful, wonderful game by Eidos Montreal.

It made me play more and want to play it more, it is a completely infectious and immersive game which romps home with an epic 40hrs+ on a single play through and there are at least 4 endings to see alongside all side quests and secondary objectives to complete as well.

It is a formidable game and one that does justice to the Deus Ex brand, it sits comfortably as a prequel alongside the original game from 11 years ago which was PC game of the year and also named best PC game of all time.

All of the constituent parts of DEHR are brilliant, but bind them together and you’ve got an absolute stellar game, which rewards exploration, daredevilry, shooting and precision.

Her Review with Tracey

I agree wholeheartedly with everything Ian has said. This game promises a fully immersive and genuine mix of action, stealth and agonising choice-making all presented in a beautiful, technology fuelled near future and it delivers on every count.

Gruff, pointy chinned and augmented, Adam Jensen is likeable considering he was cybernetically altered against his choice and is battling to uncover the truth about the attack that almost took his life. Never knowing who to trust, instinct and convictions come into play whilst the constant moral questioning of whether biotechnology should have legal guidelines and regulations or whether humans should be free to choose and develop neuroprosthetics opens up multiple options when in conversation with key characters, the consequences of which totally affect the dynamics and story of the game. This has been claimed before and fans of Mass Effect or the original Deus Ex titles will be used to the notion of cause and effect but here, the entire atmosphere of the game can change depending on your approach.

You quickly feel how reactive the world is meaning each action and reaction holds weight. My game felt lively, the music was heavier and the pace quicker than in Ian’s game, enemies actively hunted me down as alarms were pounding, people on the streets reacted to my presence depending on my actions and thanks to my impressive kit bag, big bosses took no more than a couple of attempts. Not that the pace was relentless as there was a great balance of stealthy infiltration side quests, hacking of antennas and general exploring of the world once I’d killed everybody. This combination of action packed, intense shooting or quiet, expertly timed one-on-one takedowns both from far away if you’ve got a rifle or close-up melee allows players to progress exactly how they want through the game, choosing their own style which makes it feel very personal and accessible. So I didn’t choose to have the hacking augmentation upgraded? No problem as I did choose to beef up my arms to hit my way through solid concrete!

Elsewhere, I was having totally different conversations with characters and carrying out missions in a totally different way (Ian would knock someone out and plant drugs where I would drop them off a roof sort of a thing) that led to incredibly different outcomes in comparison to Ian’s game which means players will be fully rewarded from multiple playthroughs. This all led to us not only playing the game but discussing approaches, theories, outcomes for hours on end too. Deus Ex: HR is one for your brain, not just your thumbs.

Curiously, I played this like a traditional FPS, despite rarely being interested in gunplay and cover based games as time and again I would be surprised and delighted by how thrilling the experience was. Bodies fall realistically, groaning and gurgling as they sag to their knees or fly through the air depending on the weapon of execution. Tension builds as machine gun turrets stand in your path and you’re low on bullets or EMP grenades whilst finding vital codes to armouries hidden in draws is pure joy. There are so many ways you can go through each mission, you never get a sense of being stuck – you can always find another way which I found to be a blessing and a curse as there’s always the feeling that you might be missing something…

Adams world is just round the bend from us. It’s neither a fantastical vision of the future with flying cars and interstellar alien relationships, nor is it a harsh, post apocalyptic wasteland with species struggling to survive but is rather the next logical step. Technology allows humans to be more than they ever were but governments are still corrupt, trillion pound corporations really rule the roost and the media informs us what to think. Adams world is smaller than ever before though it’s still made up of brick, mortar and familiar sights and sounds like hobos scavenging in bins, televisions bringing up to the minute news and people on mobile devices. There’s even a poster for Final Fantasy 17 hidden in a bedroom. From the grimy garbage can barricades of gangland Detroit to the claustrophobic, neon lit market stalls in smoggy Hengsha, the future Deus Ex: HR portrays feels very, very real.

Traversing the garden rooftops, clambering through air vents or ducking through sewers, Adam literally hunts high and low on his missions and exploration gains you all vital XP which you can trade in for praxis points and here praxis makes perfect. Again, choice is the order of the day so it’s up to you which augmentations you upgrade but some will compliment your style of play better than others; stealth, hacking, combat or social, depending on your choices will inform where you can and cannot explore. Complete customisation control over your game is satisfying, engrossing and addictive.

It’s no wild stretch of the imagination but with a brilliantly exciting and intricate narrative that contains more conspiracy theories than a Dean Haglund film, Deus Ex: HR deliberately attempts to make you feel this is where we are all heading. Riots, ethical questions about technology, the media and wealth is the world waiting for us just round the corner and it’s this level of immersion that makes Deus Ex: HR just so personal and an absolutely must play for every sci-fi gamer on the planet and has become my favourite game of the year so far.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is available from 26th August on Playstation3, Xbox360 and PC.