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Deus Ex: Human Revolution (PC)

Screenshots | Videos August 25, 2011 By: Simon Edge

GAME DETAILS

Genre: Action Adventure
Published by: Square Enix
Developed by: Eidos Montreal
Release Date: August 26, 2011
Official Site: Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Multiplayer: No
List Price: R399.00
Also On: Xbox 360
PlayStation 3
PEGI 18
(Suitable for ages 18 and older)
WHERE TO BUY  (South Africa)
R270.00 (FREE Delivery)
R276.95 (FREE Delivery)
R288.00 (FREE Delivery)
Not Available
metacritic
90
Note: All prices include door-to-door delivery

DESCRIPTION

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is the long-awaited return of one of the most critically-acclaimed video game franchises of all time, and blends the best of Action and RPG for the perfect mix of combat, stealth, hacking, and social gameplay. You play as Adam Jensen, an ex-SWAT specialist who's been cybernetically augmented and finds himself in the middle of a global conspiracy to which he holds the key.

In Deus Ex: Human Revolution you can customize and upgrade your character with more than 50 unique augmentations that support your style of play. There are also more than 20 available weapons in the game, each of which can be customized to fight different types of enemies. In Deus Ex: Human Revolution players can play the game in multiple and vastly different ways, which provides an immersive experience where every choice has a lasting consequence.

FEATURES:
  • Fusion of Action and Role-Play - A unique combination of action-packed close-quarter takedowns and intense shooting, offering a vast array of augmentations and upgrades for the many weapons at your disposal.
  • Multi-Solution Structure - Choose how to accomplish each mission using combat, hacking, stealth or social mode to create a customized experience to suit any gaming style.
  • Diverse Customization - Engage in combat and challenges utilizing over 50 specialized character augmentations and over 20 available weapons, which can be customized with weapon upgrades.
  • Unique Visual Design - Become immersed in a Cyber Renaissance setting that masterfully blends near future and Renaissance era styles.
  • Explore the World - Traverse numerous locales across the globe, each with its own distinct art direction, in Adam's search to uncover a worldwide conspiracy.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Review (GameSpot)
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is an engrossing and atmospheric adventure that keeps you guessing.

The Good
  • Varied mechanics allow you to accomplish missions the way you want
  • Evocative futuristic atmosphere
  • Engrossing story with themes that resonate
  • A long adventure that invites replay
The Bad
  • Poor boss fights remove the element of choice
  • Long load times, dated facial animations, and other technical drawbacks
  • Weak AI detracts from both the shooting and the stealth
This is an extensive (20-plus hours) game that by the very nature of its complexity invites replay. It is true that many of its individual elements don't withstand close inspection. But those elements add up to an impressive and absorbing adventure that invites you to improvise. You glide from rooftops like a cyberpunk angel in a world on the brink of technological breakthroughs and socioeconomic disaster, and uncover conspiracies in the unlikeliest of places. The longer you play, the more the story grabs you and the more you appreciate the customizability of the game.
While Deus Ex: Human Revolution can't be the revelation that Deus Ex was in 2000, it's an achievement nonetheless. It's a visionary, considered piece of work, and while my thoughts drift to the things that could have been and the compromises made due to the possibilities of video games in 2011, they're just as quick to consider playing through it again.

Presentation: 8.5
Human Revolution's interface is well-integrated and unobtrusive, but the waypoint system leaves something to be desired. The story holds together well though, and moves along without stumbling.
Graphics: 8.5
From a technological standpoint, Human Revolution isn't doing anything special graphically. But it has some of the best production design and art of any game this year. Or last year.
Sound: 9.0
Some awkward voice acting notwithstanding, Deus Ex's sound design is excellent, and the soundtrack is phenomenal.
Gameplay: 9.0
Human Revolution establishes a gameplay vocabulary and rewards you for learning it. It's insanely flexible - save for a few points where it isn't.
Lasting Appeal: 10
Practically demanding multiple playthroughs, Human Revolution will take you anywhere from 25 to 40 hours on your initial run.
You’ll find it hard not to get completely immersed into the world. Walking around a future Detroit - one of the game’s city hubs - will no doubt stir up some memories of watching Robocop (it even has a reference to Alex Murphy). If there is one thing that I was mostly disappointed in, aesthetic wise, was the game’s prevalent use of orange and yellow hues. Here we have a game that looks downright breathtaking at times, except the detail gets lost in a yellowy-orange overlay. In addition, all the main characters have stunning facial details, and it’s almost night and day when compared to the rest of the NPC’s who never seem to be lip-synched correctly. I understand that some sort of sacrifices must be made, but when it’s such a big difference, it should be mentioned.

With its immense replay value, fleshed out storyline, interesting characters, multiple endings, and tons of choices, Deus Ex: Human Revolution more than lives up to the hype. Fans of the original game and the mediocre sequel will find an intriguing adventure that they’ll want to play through multiple times.
It's a hugely ambitious game, and naturally the odd element does fall short - your first mission is littered with cause-and-effect variables, but as the game progresses there seem to be fewer moments where your actions have major consequences. Still, the rest of the experience is so slick - so thought-provoking, dynamic, and endlessly enjoyable - that you'll be far too preoccupied to notice.

Perhaps the strongest compliment I can pay Eidos Montreal is this: with its grand design, dynamic play and sheer wealth of ideas - not to mention its old-fashioned pre-occupation with air vents - Deus Ex: Human Revolution is reminiscent of the best efforts from the golden era of PC gaming at the end of the 90s. It's a modern release imbued with the finer qualities of an age gone by.

Intelligent and thought-provoking
Lives up to the hefty Deus Ex legacy
Offers multiple ways to play
x Occasionally falls short of its own ambition
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is probably not as perfect as I'm making it sound. Some of the rules about what's interactive and not seem quite arbitrary, which is a pretty blatant failing in a game which tries so hard to make you feel like you're not being restricted, and while the level design is clever and varied, the interior design definitely is not, and there's also a lot of repetition in the incidental details. Sure, it's important to hear some of those looping news broadcasts, but maybe make them longer than half a minute or record variations or something.

But the important point is that Deus Ex: Human Revolution is one of those rare games that knows you can't be perfect all the time, and that you have the right to change your mind about your actions later. It just wants to be played with and enjoyed - and when you finish, you just want to play with it again.
At its core, this is a game that is reliant on the player. Without your influence, the game doesn't have a direction. However, it also doesn't give the illusion that it needs you to help it finish the story. Much like great sci-fi fantasy, Deus Ex: Human Revolution never allows you to feel like you have total control or that you know everything going on in the overarching story. In this case though, it also doesn't allow you to feel as if you are an outsider looking in. This is as much your own human revolution as it is Adam Jensen's.

Graphics: 4.8
Sharp, slick, and beyond expectations.
Control: 4.3
There's a learning curve to get used to the jerk in and out of first-person perspective, but the controls deliver a solid experience.
Music/Sound FX/Voice Acting: 4.2
Another excellent sample of how the voice acting and musicality of a video game should be.
Play Value: 4.5
Vast and enjoyable; this world is a pleasure to be in.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is still one of the best games of the year. It sports refined, detailed gameplay that’s tailored to the way you want to play, backed up by some of the best level design in the last decade. The glitches blemish the experience just enough that they should have warranted a little more development time, but at the end of the day, this is still a great game that no one should miss out on.

Revolution Report Card
+Perfectly executed choose-your-own gameplay
+Amazing level design
+Excellent, well-paced story
+Great atmospheric and moody soundtrack
+/-Generally solid voice acting with some spotty parts
-A touch too many glitches
-Endings are unaffected by the rest of the game
Three 1UP editors discuss this ambitious choice-filled shooter-stealth-RPG.

Jeremy Parish: It's rare that I play a game that doesn't just let me play the way I like, but actually showers me with prizes for doing so, and I love it. At the same time, mine isn't the only way to play, and you could just as easily go marching in, guns blazing, as you make a beeline for the goal. Lots of developers trumpet player choice, but few manage to pull it off this well.

. . .

Jeremy Parish: All I really wanted was a game that lived up to the cool demos and brash talk the developers have doled out over the past couple of years, and in that regard it's more than exceeded my hopes. Not only does DEHR contain all the open-ended, player-determined mechanics they've promised us, it all comes wrapped in an immersive game world and solid combat and cover mechanics. It has its quirks, but I'm believer in this team, and I hope that in a few years we're playing another Deus Ex that further refines all the great stuff that's happening here.
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